coming of the Messiah But (g) Grot. de Verit. lib. v. S. 14. inter Sarrav Epist Rabbi Nehumias who lived fifty years before Christ declared that the coming of the Messiah according to Daniels Prophecy could not be deferred beyond the space of fifty years longer as Grotius has observed from the Talmud Divers (c) Bishop Pearson on the Creed Art iv of the Jews place the Passion of Christ sixty nine years before our common Account of the Year in which he truly suffered others pretend another different Account without the least Reason for either pretence but this shews how desperate a Cause they are engaged in which forceth them upon such Artifices for we have the express Testimony of Tacitus that he suffered under Pontius Pilate They Interpret Isai vii 14. where it is Prophesied that the Messiah was to be Born of a Virgin contrary to the Sense of their Fore-Fathers and therefore reject the Antient Translation of that Verse by the Septuagint as (d) Just Mart. Dialog Justin Martyr urged against the Jews of his time In Origen's time they expounded Isai liii of the Nation of the Jews not of any particular Person though as (e) Origen contr Cels lib. 1. Origen Argued in a Disputation with them the Tenor of the whole Chapter is a plain confutation of this way of expounding it and especially these words of the 8th Verse for the Transgression of my People was he stricken By the Person stricken cannot be understood the People for whose Transgression he is said to have been stricken (h) Grot. ib. lib. v. S. 19. Bishop Pearson ib. But they have found out another Evasion by pretending that there are to be two Messiahs one the Son of Joseph who is to be a suffering Messiah and the other the Son of David who is to enjoy all manner of Temporal Prosperity and Power So plain is it that the Prophecies which the Jews themselves of old understood of Christ are fulfilled in our Saviour and so unavoidably do they contradict all their own Antient Interpretations of Scripture when they will not allow them to be fulfilled in him For that they are fulfilled it is evident and they can assign no other Person in whom they have been fulfilled II. It was fore-told by the Prophets that the Law should cease upon the coming of the Messiah It is evident from the Prophets that in some years after Christ Jerusalem was to be no longer the seat of the Jewish Power and Government nor the place of Worship And their Prophecies suppose the Cessation of the Jewish Law upon a Two-fold Account 1. From the Destruction of the Temple 2. From the Dispersion of the People of the Jews and the Destruction of their City 1. From the Destruction of the Temple The Prophet Daniel fore-told that after the Messiah was cut off the Sanctuary should be destroyed and the Sacrifice and the Oblation should Cease and that there should be Desolation even until the Consummation Dan. ix 26 27. Since the Sanctuary is laid waste and desolate and by this Prophecy is never to be Rebuilt the Temple being the Place of all their Worship and Solemnities that failing their whole Worship must fail with it And whenever the Jews have attempted to Rebuild their Temple they have been hindred from doing it and particularly as I have several times already observed in the time of Julian the Apostate by Miraculous and dreadful Judgments related by Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen Historian who lived at that time and by a (x) Wagenseil Annot. ad excerpta Gemarae â—ap 1. p. 236. Jewish Writer And when they have been permitted to Build them Synagogues and Places of Worship in all other Parts of the World that Place alone has been denied them in which by their Law they were indispensably bound to Worship All the Males were obliged to resort to Jerusalem to Worship thrice every year and the Place of their Worship was more strictly enjoyned than the time For if any Man were upon a Journey or Unclean a second Passover was appointed for him but it could be observed at no other Place but Jerusalem upon any occasion whatsoever Num. ix 10. Deutr. xvi 5. And therefore during the Captivity at Babylon they did not Celebrate these Feasts of the Passover of Pentecost and of Tabernacles how could they Sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land Psal Cxxxvii 4. And the Destruction of the City and Temple by the Romans at the time of the Passover was a sign that they were no longer God's Peculiar People nor under the Protection of those Promises which by the Law were made to them and had ever been fulfilled till the time of the Promise was expired St. (i) Chrys adv Judeos lib. 1. Tom. 6. Sav. Edit Chrysostom blames the Jews of his time for observing the Law in the Countries whither they were disperst which he proves to be contrary to God's Commandment and to the Practice of their Ancestors And the Modern Jews confess that their Worship is impracticable in their present Condition they acknowledge that they ought to offer Sacrifice no where else but at the Temple of Jerusalem the Observation of the Passover among them now is without Sacrificing the Paschal Lamb and they observe tâ—e day of Attonement without the Sacrifice of Expiation 2. The Destruction of the City of Jerusalem and the final Dispersion of the People of the whole Nation of the Jews proves that their Law is at an end Jacob plainly foretold both the coming of the Messiah and the end of the Power and Authority of the Nation of the Jews upon His coming The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a Law giver from between His feet until Shiloh come and unto Him shall the gathering of the People be Gen. xlix 10. This Prophecy was by the antient Jews always understood of the Messiah as is evident by the Targums and it appears to be fulfill'd in our Saviour both because the Jewish Government in His time was drawing towards its final Period and because the People of all Nations have been gathered to Him and have been made Proselytes to his Religion The Sceptre and the Law-giver that is the Power of their Arms and the Authority of their Laws was not so to depart as to become extinct till the Messiah came which implies that soon after his coming they were both to cease as we see they have long since actually done The Accomplishment of Jacob's Prophecy was gradual Herod was of another Nation but a Proselyte and upon that account he might be stil'd a Jew as (x) Exerâ—â—itat 1. â—um 5. Is Casaubon has prov'd against Baronius And when he was made King of the Jews this was as a Warning to awaken them to expect the full Accomplishment of this Prophecy which was brought to pass in the final Destruction of their Government The Jewish Government all along under all Changes was still denominated from Judah tho'
those who enquire why the World was created in six days rather than in one day or in an instant or in a long compass of Years as the Laws of Matter and Motion they say require It might be sufficient to ask why if it was God's Will the World might not be created in six Days as well as in any other number of Days or space of Time If the Creation had been in an Instant or in a longer or shorter space of Time the Question might with as much Reason have been put why it was not created in six days Shall Men presume to prescribe to God the Time and Manner of his Actions Is not his own Pleasure a sufficient Reason of them The Manner of the Creation and of the Flood which have of late been the Subject of so many Disputes depends solely upon the Will and Pleasure of God and therefore we can know only by Revelation how they were effected and it is in vain to pretend that they must have come to pass in this or that Manner unless it could be prov'd that God could not bring them to pass any other way than that which the Inventor of some Hypothesis thinks fit to propose Most Actions may be performed very different ways and if for instance we had only a general account of the Passage of the Israelites out of Aegypt into the Land of Canaan that Pharaoh pursuing them was drowned with his whole Army that they travell'd in the Wilderness forty Years and had a sufficient Provision of Food and Cloathing and Water for so great a Multitude in so barren a place and for so long a time tho' never so many Conjectures should be made how all this might be and never so many Schemes were drawn of their Journeyings and Encampments if it could be supposed possible that one of all these might prove true yet it would be utterly impossible to know which were it But when we are only told that God created the World in six days and that such and such things were created on each of these Days that he brought a Deluge of VVaters upon the whole Earth for the Sins of Mankind which continued for such a time upon the face of the Earth some Men will needs assign the particular Means and Manner by which both the Creation and the Flood must necessarily have been brought to pass as if the wisdom and power of God and the nature of things could admit of no other way but what they can explain VVe may esteem the Learning and admire the Sagacity and allow the good Intentions of these Authors but when any one advanceth an Hypothesis in contradiction to all others and proposes it not as probable but as the only true Explication of Scripture and positively maintains not only that things might be so if God pleased but that they were so and could not be otherwise this to me seems more unaccountable than any thing I ever met with besides in the very worst Hypothesis We can know nothing of the way and manner how God has been pleased to do any thing but by his own Revelation If each Frypothesis were possible yet no man could be certain which were the right or that any of them were so because God might make use of some other Means than what Men can imagine But when the several Hypotheses destroy one another and every one pretends to set up his own in contradiction to all the rest and none can maintain its Ground any longer than till another has been brought to confute it it were strange if Men should satisfy themselves with such Uncertainties rather than with the plain word of God According to any Mechanical Hypothesis tho' there were no Vacuum so many Accidents must continually intervene in a Chaos of Matter confusedly rolling and knocking one part of it against another that it seems next to an Impossibility that it should ever settle into any Order at least if Matter had been left to its own workings and jumblings according to any Mechanical Laws of Motion the world for ought any Man can prove might not have been made to this Moment So far is it from being possible to understand how upon Mechanical Principles the world should have been made in six Years rather than in six Days consisting of four and twenty Hours It is therefore the boldest Attempt that can be conceived for Men to pretend to assign the several steps and degrees in the process of this wonderful Operation with as much ease and certainty as if they had all the Materials by them in their Laboratory and could perform it as readily as an ordinary course of Chymistry Next to attempt the making of a world what undertaking can be more daring than to pretend to discover how it was made To mâ—ke a World must undoubtedly be the work of God and he alone can declare how he made it But Reasons may be given for the Creation of the world in six Days 1. With Respect to Angels 2. With Respect to Men. 1. With Respect to the Angels It is (a) Aug. super Gen aâ— Literan lib. 4. c. 22. c. De â—ivit Dei lib. 11. c. 7. St. Austin's Opinion that the six Days of the Creation of the World in the Book of Genesis are distinguished according to the Perception which the Angels had of the Creation from whence was framed that Distinction of the (b) Tho. Aquin. Sum. Part 1. Qu. 58 Art 6. Schoolmen between Cognitio Matutina and Cognitio Vespertina And tho' what I am about to say is not exactly agreeable to St. Austin's Notion yet I hope his Authority will warrant my arguing from this Topick to such as may think it new and singular The Angels were the beginning of the Creation and were created probably in the Morning of the first Day For in the Book of Job God says that when the Foundations of the Earth were laid the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job xxxviii 7. from whence we learn that the Angels were created before this visible World and glorified God for his creating it Now the Angels tho' blessed and glorious Spirits yet are finite and are unable to comprehend and fathom the wonderful works of God there are things which the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 and the more they know of God and his Works the more they adore and praise Him The whole Scene of the Creation seems to have been laid open in Order before them according to the several Degrees and the various Natures of things whereby they must have had a fuller View and a clearer Understanding of the Divine Power and Wisdom than they could have had if the World had started forth in an Instant and jump'd as it were into this beautiful Frame and Order As he who sees the whole Method and Contrivance of any Curious piece of Art values and admires the Artist more than one does that beholds it in
THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BY ROBERT JENKIN Chaplain to the Right Honourable the EARL of EXETER and late Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge The Second Edition Enlarged LONDON Printed for P. B. and R. Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown the West-end of St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. TO The Right Honourable JOHN EARL of EXETER May it please Your Lordship THE general Decay and Contempt of the Christian Religion amongst us has made me think that I could not better employ the Leisure which by Your Lordship's Favour I enjoy than in using my best Endeavours to shew the Excellency and the Certainty of it And what I have done is here humbly presented to your Lordship as of Right and upon many Accounts it ought to be The Honour and the Satisfaction which I have often had to hear Your Lordship speak in the behalf of Religion and Virtue encourage me to hope that a Performance though but such as this upon that Subject may obtain your Acceptance And the Name only of a Person of your Lordship's Honour and Learning and Knowledge of the World may perhaps be of more advantage to the Cause I undertake than any thing I have been able to write Religion may seem by Descent and as it were by Inheritance to belong to Your Lordship's Care The Wisdom and Piety of Your Great Ancestor appear to distant Ages in the Reformation which through the Blessing of God was in so great a measure by His means establish'd in this Kingdom And I have with Joy often thought that I could observe the Spirit and Genius of my Lord Treasurer BVRGHLEY now exerting it self more than ever in your Noble Family From whence methinks we may presage Happiness to the Nation and may yet expect to see a true sense of Religion revive and may hope that even in our days Christianity amongst English-men shall be more than a Name which is every where spoken against An eminent Vertue is a Publick Good There is a powerful and commanding Force in Great Examples to countenance Vertue and discourage Vice and Profaneness to make Irreligion appear as it is base and contemptible in the World to degrade it and thrust it down among the lower and untaught part of Mankind Much is not to be expected from the Schools and from the Gown under such Contempt and Discouragement But the Great and the Honourable have it in their Power to do great things things worthy of Themselves and for the Advancement of God's Glory Persons of High Birth and both by Nature and Education fitted for the Highest Undertakings whose Vertues shall flourish with their Years and add New Lustre to their Hereditary Honours may yet regain a due Esteem to Religion and adorn the Gospel of Christ This is a proper Object for the Ambition of generous aspiring Minds to express their Gratitude to Him who has placed them so much above the rest of the World and when they find themselves happy now to disdain to aim at any thing less than Everlasting Happiness hereafter To be Miserable after Happiness is an Aggravation of Misery But to receive Eternal Blessings as the Fruits and Improvement of such as are Temporal is the Privilege of those whom God has been pleased to distinguish from others by his Mercies and who distinguish themselves by a regard to his Honour and Service All that know Burghley and who is there almost that doth not know it are surprised with Wonder and Delight to observe what Art can do and to behold the Splendor and the Magnificence of Foreign Countries in our own But the Glories and Rewards of Vertue shall continue when Burghley it self and the World shall be no more and will make Death but a Passage and an Advancement from one Palace from one Honour to another and a Removal only from the uncertain Riches and imperfect Felicities of this Life to the Mansions of Eternal Bliss in Heaven That these my Endeavours may prove but in any measure serviceable to the Ends of Religion and Virtue and thereby to the Glory and Happiness of your Honourable Family in this and a better World is My Lord the unfeigned Desire and Prayer of Your Lordship 's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant and Chaplain R. Jenkin THE PREFACE I Am sensible that the Publication of a Treatise of this nature will be liable to Exceptions from those for whose Vse and Benefit it is chiefly design'd who will be ready to lay hold of all Pretences to avoid the being convinc'd of what they have so little mind to believe They will be apt to say That if the Truth of Religion be so certain and so evident as it is maintain'd to be there could be little need of so many Discourses upon this Argument for it is no sign of Certainty when tho' such a number of Books are Publish'd of this kind that so many Men of Learning and Parts have written upon the Subject yet others it seems are not satisfy'd in their Performances but are continually offering something new upon it They will likewise object That many of the Professors and Ministers of Religion do not live as if they believ'd themselves at least not as if they were so very certain of what they teach and that if there were so great Certainty there never could be so many Vnbelievers but all who had heard of it must needs be convinc'd by such Evidence I shall therefore shew here That the Number of Books written on this Subject doth not prove the Vncertainty of Religion but rather the contrary and that the ill Lives of Men is no Argument against the Religion they profess And then I shall enquire how it comes to pass That a Religion which carries so plain and convincing Evidence along with it should yet by too many be disbeliev'd or disregarded 1. To the First Thing it might be sufficient to say That the Number of Writers is a great Confirmation of the Truth of our Religion since as many as have undertaken the Proof of it have always agreed in the main Evidence and differ only in Method or in the Management of particular Arguments And though all have not written with equal Strength and Clearness yet there is not I believe one Author but has brought sufficient Arguments to confute the Adversaries of Religion They are pleas'd indeed to think otherwise But they may at least take notice how obvious it is that if this Objection prove any thing it must prove That there is no such thing as Certainty in the World because there is no Art nor Science concerning which divers Treatises are not daily Publish'd But are therefore the Natures of Vertue and Vice uncertain Is it the less certain whether Justice Temperance and common Honesty be Vertues or whether Murther Adultery and Theft be Crimes because Laws are made and Sermons daily preach'd concerning these Things Or can any Man doubt That these Crimes often meet with severe Punishments even in this
Argument Whereas if Chistians were but throughly acquainted with the Grounds of their Religion and sincerely disposed to believe and practise according to them they would be no more moved with these Cavils than they would be persuaded to think the worse of the Sun if some Men should take a fansie to make that the Subject of their Railery To have the more doubtful and wavering thoughts of Religion because it is exposed to the scorn and contempt of ill Men is as if we should despise the Sun for being under a Cloud or suffering an Eclipse not knowing that he retains his Light and Religion its Excellency still though we be in darkness the Light may be hid from us but can lose nothing of its own Brightness though we suffer for want of it and lie under the shadow of Death The Consideration of the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion is useful to all sorts of Men for if ever we will be seriously and truly Religious we must lay the foundation of it in our Vnderstandings that by the rational conviction of our Minds we may through the Grace of God assisting us bring our Wills to a submission and our Affections to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ and the more we think of and consider these things the more we shall be convinced of them and they will have the greater power and influence in the course of our Lives For tho' the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot without great sin and ignorance be doubted of by Christians yet it is a confirmation to our Faith and adds a new Life and Vigour to our Devotions when we recollect upon what good Reasons we are Christians and are not such by Custom and Education only but upon Principles which we have throughly considered and must abide by unless we will renounce our Reason with our Religion And what Subject can be more useful or more worthy of a rational and considering Man's Thoughts These things which are now made matter of Cavil and Dispute will be the Subject of our Contemplation and of our Joy and Happiness to all Eternity in the other World We shall then have clear and distinct apprehension of the Means and Methods of our Salvation and shall for ever admire and adore the Divine Wisdom in the Conduct and Disposal of those very Things about which we now are most perplex'd THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation THE Being of a God evident to Natural Reason p. 3. That there are wicked Spirits Enemies to Mankind p. 6. The miserable Condition of Man without the Divine Direction and Assistance and that God would not leave him without all Remedy in this Condition p. 8. The Judgment of St. Athanasius in the Case p. 15. CHAP. II. The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World The Manifestations of God's ordinary Providence insufficient and therefore some extraordinary Way of Revelation necessary p. 19. The ways of extraordinary Revelation either immediate Revelation to every particular Person or to some only with a Power of Miracles and Prophecies to enable them to communicate the Divine Will to others p. 20. I. It could not be requisite that God should communicate himself by immediate Revelation to every one in particular ibid. II. Prophecies and Miracles are the most fitting and proper Means for God to discover and reveal himself to the World by p. 29. 1. Concerning Prophecies ibid. 2. Concerning Miracles p. 33. III. Divine Revelations must be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World by Writings p. 43. IV. They must be of great Antiquity p. 44. V. They must be fully publish'd and promulg'd p. 45. PART II. CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures THE Antiquity of the Scriptures a Circumstance very considerable to prove them to be of Divine Revelation p. 48. They give an Account of Divine Revelations made from the beginning of the World ibid. What Moses relates of things before his own time is certainly true and must have been discover'd to be false if it had been so p. 50. CHAP. II. The Promulgation of the Scriptures 1. In the first Ages of the World the Revealed Will of God was known to all Mankind p. 58. II. In succeeding Ages there has still been sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the knowledge of it p. 76. 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the instruction of other Nations in the Reveal'd Religion p. 77. 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews that other Nations had frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the True Religion p. 90. Testimonies of the Heathen concerning the Jews and their Religion p. 115. There have ever been divers Memorials and Remembrances of the true Religion among the Heathen p. 117. Of the Sibylline Oracles p. 121. The Gospel had been preach'd in China and America before the late Discoveries p. 129. The Confessions both of Protestants and Papists as to this Matter p. 132. Christians in all Parts of the World p. 135. A Sect call'd the Good Followers of the Messiah at Constantinople p. 136. Though great Part of the World are still Vnbelievers yet there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted p. 141. The Case of particular Persons consider'd p. 142. CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron The Sincerity of Moses in his Writings p. 146. He was void of Ambition p. 149. Aaron and he had no Contrivance between themselves to impose upon the People p. 151. CHAP. IV. Of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch written by Moses p. 152. The great Impartiality visible in these Books p. 153. The Book of Genesis an Introduction to all the rest p. 154. The principal Points of the History of the Jews confess'd by the Heathen p. 155. CHAP. V. Of the Predictions or Prophecies contain'd in the Books of Moses The Promise of the Messias p. 158. The Predictions of Noah ibid. The Promises made to Abraham p. 159. The Prophecies of Isaac c. p. 160. of Jacob p. 161. of Balaam p. 162. of Moses p. 163. CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses I. The Miracles and Matters of Fact contain'd in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested p. 170. II. The Relations there set down are a true Account of the Miracles wrought by Moses and such as we may depend upon p. 188. For 1. These things could not be feign'd by Moses and Aaron and others concern'd with them in carrying on such a Design p. 189. 2. The Miracles could not be feign'd nor the Books of Moses invented or falsify'd by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the Death of Moses p. 191. 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsify'd by the joynt Consent of the whole Nation either in
upon them when they least think of him with a mighty and terrible Judgment and with a sudden and unexpected Fury But to stand by and look on unconcern'd and then to take Men upon such a Surprize without giving them any notice of it before-hand is a thing impossible to be accounted for and can never be reconcil'd with the Divine Attributes St. Athanasius (b) S. Athan de Incarnatione Verbi Dei insists at large upon this Argument and carries it so far as to prove the Necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God from it He urges That it would have been unworthy of the Goodness of God to suffer all Mankind to be destroy'd by the Fraud and Malice of the Devil or by their own Fault and Negligence and that it had been more consistent with his Wisdom and Goodness never to have created Men than to have suffer'd them thus to perish An Earthly King says he when he has planted a Colony will not carelessly suffer his Subjects to become Slaves to a Stranger or to revolt from him but he will by his Proclamations admonish them of their Duty and oftentimes will send Messages to them by his Friends and if there be a Necessity for it will go to them himself to awe them by his Presence and recall them to their Obedience And as he there adds shall not God much rather be so mindful of his Creatures as to use some Means to reclaim them from their evil Ways and regain them to his Service Especially when they must be utterly undone for ever unless he take care of them It is plain then that though we had never heard of such a thing as a Miracle or a Prophecy or of reveal'd Relgion yet from the Consideration of the State of the World and the great Ignorance and Corruption of Humane Nature it would be reasonable to expect that God should some way make known his Will to Mankind and we cannot reconcile it to his Attributes nor conceive how it should be consistent with them for him to be an unconcerned Spectator of so much Folly and Wickedness without taking any care to remedy it God cannot be oblig'd to force Men to obey his Commandments and comply with his Will but rather to leave it at their own Choice whether they will be Happy or Miserable but it was necessary to propose the Terms of Salvation to them to offer them their free Choice to set before them Life and Death Blessings and Cursings and so to leave the Obstinate without all Excuse And this is all which I am here concern'd to prove That it is reasonable to suppose that God would reveal himself to Mankind and that it is not conceivable how it should be consistent with the Divine Attributes for him not to do it To own the Being of a God and yet to deny a Providence is so great an Absurdity that none of the Philosophers but Epicurus were guilty of it and this was look'd upon in him as amounting to the Denial of the Divine Existence And to grant both the Being and the Providence of God and yet to confine the Divine Care and Providence to the Bodies only and Outward Condition of Men and to imagine that the Spiritual and Immortal Part of Man is disregarded or neglected by him is no less an Absurdity than wholly to deny his Providence or his Existence because this is to deny the most considerable and inestimable Part of Providence which concerns our Souls and our Eternal State and therefore it is by Consequence to deny the Attributes of God and to represent him not as he is in himself but Unwise Unmerciful and Unholy To say that there is no such thing as a Divine Revelation is no better in Effect than Atheism For whoever can be of this Opinion must believe only the Being of such Gods as Epicurus own'd that never concern'd themselves with Humane Affairs which was only in other Words to say that they were no Gods at all It has therefore been the constant Belief and Opinion of all Nations that their Gods did in some way or other Reveal themselves to Men and though so great a Part of the World have worshipp'd False Gods and have been mistaken as to the particular Revelations which they receiv'd for Divine yet it must proceed either from Ancient Tradition or from the Reasonableness of the thing it self or from both that the World should expect that the Divine Being should by some Means communicate himself to Men and declare his Will to them CHAP. II. The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be supposed to be Delivered and Preserved in the World MAnkind had so corrupted themselves that the Will and Laws of God could not be effectually made known to them but by some extraordinary way of Revelation God had manifested himself in the Creation of the World and by the Preservation of all things from the Beginning according to their several Natures For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20. But Men had corrupted themselves even in the plainest and most fundamental Points of all Religion and acted against all the Dictates of Natural Reason in worshipping the vilest Parts of the Creation rather than God himself and in Contempt and Defiance of Him had set up even four-footed Beasts and creeping Things instead of Gods How then could the Power and Authority of God be asserted but by some extraordinary way of Revelation since the ordinary and constant Methods of God's revealing and manifesting himself by his Providence in the Preservation and Government of the World had been so far perverted and abus'd as that Men were seduc'd to the Worship of any thing or of every thing rather than of God Mankind had neither the Will nor Ability to reform themselves and had by their own Fault brought themselves under an utter Incapacity of being reform'd but by some extraordinary Revelation Natural Reason might have taught them to be less Wicked but nothing could make them Righteous but a Revelation and the gross Errors and Crimes which the wisest Men had fall'n into shews the Necessity of an extraordinary Revelation from God to instruct and inform the World And the Ways of extraordinary Revelation are but these two either God's immediate Revelation of himself to particular Persons or a Power of working Miracles and of Prophesying and Foretelling future Events bestow'd upon some to convince others that they are Inspir'd and come with a Commission from God to instruct them in what he has reveal'd But it cannot seem requisite that God should immediately Inspire or make an immediate Revelation to every particular Person in the World For either he must so powerfully influence their Minds and Affections as to take away their Choice and Freedom of Acting which would be to offer Violence to Humane Nature or else Men would
of the World had the true Religion brought home to them by the Patriarchs who were sent from place to place to sojourn to be a Pattern and Example to the rest of Mankind And Men who travell'd so far and conversed with so many Nations and were so zealous for God's Honour and had such frequent Revelations and the immediate Direction of God himself in most of the Actions of their Lives and who were so Great and Powerful and so Numerous must needs mightily propagate Religion where-ever they came and leave the Idolaters without excuse and it cannot be doubted but that they had great success in all places for even out of Aegypt where they endured the greatest hardship and were in such contempt and hatred yet a mix'd multitude went up also with them besides the Native Israelites Exod. xii 38. And as Chaldaea and Aegypt were famous for Learning and Commerce and proper Places by their situation from whence the Notions of Religion might be propagated both towards the East and West to other Parts of the World so I must again observe that God's Mercy was particularly manifested towards the Canaanites before their Destruction The Example of Melchizedeck who reigned among them and the sojourning of Abraham and Lot and Isaac and Jacob not to mention Ishmael and Esau with their numerous Famllies afforded them continual Invitations and Admonitions for their Instruction and Amendment especially the Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the miraculous Deliverance of Lot was enough to strike an Awe and Terrour into the most Obdurate But when they would not make any due use of these Mercies when they persisted still in their Impieties and proceeded in them till they had filled up the measure of their Iniquities God made them an Example to others after they would take no Warning themselves yet still executing his judgments upon them by little and little he gave them place of repentance not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation and that their malice was bred in them and that their cogitation would never be changed Wisd xii 10. How much the true Religion prevailed by these Dispensations of Providence among other Nations besides the Hebrews we have an illustrious Instance in Job and his Friends who were Princes in their several Dominions they had knowledge of the Fall of the Angels Job iv 18. and of the Original Corruption of Man which is expressed with this emphasis that he cannot be clean or righteous who is born of a woman because by Eve's Transgression Sin came into the World Job xiv 1. xv 14. and xxv 4. Adam is mention'd chap. xxxi 33. the Resurrection is described chap. xiv 12. and it appears that Revelations were vouchsafed to these Nations chap. xxxiii 15. It appears that the Fundamentals of Religion were known Doctrines amongst them and are therefore mention'd both by Job himself and by his Friends in as plain terms as may be and as fully as can be expected in a Book which is Poetical the nature whereof requires that known things should be alluded to but not so particularly related as in History And there is no doubt but the Propagation of Religion in other parts of the World would be as evident if the Scriptures had not occasionally only and in the Course of other things but of set purpose treated of this matter as me may gather from the footsteps to be found in Heathen Authors of what the Scriptures deliver to us and from the several Allusions and Representations in the Rites and Ceremonies of their Religions expressing though obscurely and confusedly the chief Points of the Scripture-story as has been shewn by divers learned Men. 2. In succeeding Ages after the giving the Law when the Jews by their Laws concerning Religion and Government may seem to have been wholly separated from the rest of the World and the Divine Revelations confined to one Nation there still were sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And here I shall shew 1. That the Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and that the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragment concerning it 2. That the Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews in their Affairs as to offer other Nations frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the true Religion and that multitudes of Proselytes were made of all Nations 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragement concerning it The Strangers or Proselytes amongst the Jews were of two sorts for either they were such as became Circumcised and obliged themselves to the Observation of the whole Law of Moses who were styled Proselytes of Righteousness or of the Covenant or they were such as believed in the True God and professed only to observe the Precepts given to Noah which comprised the Substance of the Ten Commandments and these were called Proselytes of the Gates because they were permitted to live amongst them within their Gates these are the Strangers in their Gates mention'd Deut. xiv 21. who might eat of such thing 's as the Israelites themselves were forbidden to eat of If any would be Circumcised and undertake the Observation of the whole Law they had full liberty and the greatest encouragement to do it At the first Institution of Circumcision not only Abraham and his Seed but his whole Family and all that were bought with money of any Stranger were to be circumcised Gen. xvii 12 27. and at the Institution of the Passover the Stranger is commanded to observe it as well as the Natural Israelite Exod. xii 19. God made no distinction in the Institution of both these Sacraments between the Jews and those other Nations that dwelt amongst them and were willing to conform themselves to the Observation of the Law but first to Abraham when he appointed Circumcision and then to Moses when the Passover was instituted particular Order is given concerning Strangers or Proselytes who would betake themselves to them one law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Exod. xii 49. Deut. xxix 11. And as the receiving the Seal of Circumcision was an admission into Covenant with God and implied an Obligation to observe the whole Law and a Right to the Privileges of it which was confirmed and renewed by their partaking of the Passover so it is to be observed not only that God did in general admit Strangers and Aliens to the same Worship with the Jews but that throughout their whole Law frequent mention is made of them and care taken for their Reception and Behaviour for though what is but once said in Scripture is a sufficient Proof of the Will and Pleasure of God in any matter yet when a thing is often mention'd and every where inculcated it is an
Evidence to us that God would have the more notice taken of it and has laid the strictest Obligation upon all to observe it But we find express mention made of the Stranger at the appointment of the Yearly Feast of Atonement Lev. xvi 29. The Stranger was obliged to bring his Sacrifice to the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and in the Prohibitions of eating Blood he is particularly forbidden it ch xvii 8 9 12 15. All the Laws relating to Marriage and concerning unlawful Lust are equally enjoin'd the Stranger and the Israelite ch xviii 26. he was to be stoned if he gave any of his Seed unto Moloch chap. xx 2. and he was obliged to all the same Laws concerning Sacrifices chap. xxii 18. and was to be stoned for Blasphemy chap. xxiv 16. The Sabbath was appointed to the Stranger within their Gates Exod. xx 10. xxiii 12. Lev. xxv 6. Deut. v. 14. The Stranger was to hear the Law read in the Solemnity of the Year of Release chap. xxxi 12. And the Covenant is expressly made with the Stranger chap. xxix 12. Josh viii 33 35. And as the Strangers or Proselytes were thus join'd in the very Design and Institution of the Law with the Native Israelites themselves as to all the Acts and Privileges of Religious Worship so God had a particular regard to them in their Civil Statutes and Ordinances to free them from Oppression and every thing that might give Strangers any discouragement from living amongst the Israelites and becoming Partakers of their Religion with them Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt Exod. xxii 21. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger for ye know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt chap. xxiii 9. It seems one reason of their being so long detained in Aegypt was to teach them Humanity and Compassion to Strangers Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates Deut. xxiv 14. And care is taken of the Stranger that he be not brought into want or suffered to perish in his Distress for the Gleanings of the Harvest and of the Vintage were his Portion Thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger I am the Lord Lev. xix 10. xxiii 22. All manner of Kindness and Affection is in most express and ample terms commanded towards all Strangers And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land ye shall not vex him But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born amongst you and thou shalt love him as thy self for ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt I am the Lord your God Lev. xix 33 34. And Moses repeating the peculiar Favours which God had bestowed upon the Children of Israel put them in mind that God loveth the stranger in giving him food and rayment Love ye therefore the stranger for ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt Deut. x. 18 19. The Widow the Stranger and the Fatherless are usually mention'd together in Scripture as being jointly the care of God's more peculiar Providence and he recommends them to the charity of his People and to oppress the Stranger is reckoned the highest aggravation of wickedness They slay the widow and the stranger and murther the fatherless yet they say The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Ps xciv 6 7. The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully Ezek. xxii 29. And to the same purpose Psal cxlvi 9. Jer. vii 6. and xxii 3. Zech. vii 10. Mal. iii. 5. Though their Bond-men and Bond-women were not to be of the native Israelites but of the Heathen that were round about them and of the Strangers that dwelt amongst them Lev. xxv 44. yet an Israelite might sell himself to a Stranger and become his Servant but he might be redeemed again either by himself or by his near Kinsman and was to be released at the Year of Jubilee ver 47. The Cities of Refuge were provided for the Stranger and the Sojourner Num. xxxv 15. Josh xx 9. The Judges were particularly commanded to execute righteous and impartial Judgment to the Stranger Deut. i. 16. A caution is given that neither the Edomites nor the Aegyptians were to be abhored by them but their Children were to be received into the Congregation of the Lord in the Third Generation that is after any Edomite or Aegyptian had lived amongst them as a Proselyte of the Gates their Children of the Third Generation might be capable of Circumcision and be admitted to the Observation of the whole Law ch xxiii 7. And though the Ammonite and Moabite were excluded even to the Tenth Generation from the Congregation of the Lord by reason of their inhumanity to the Israelites at their coming out of Aegypt ver 3. yet neither were they of the preceding Generations debarr'd from becoming Proselytes of the Gates and undertaking the Observation of the Precepts of Noah A Promise is made that the Stranger shall rejoice in the good things of the Land chap. xxvi 11. and the Israelites are threatned that upon their Disobedience the Stranger should be more prosperous than they ch xxviii 43 44. King Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple makes such particular mention of the Stranger in his Prayer as shews both the design of building it and of all the Jewish Worship to be such as that other Nations might share in it and withal he foretells what the event should be Moreover concerning â— stranger that is not of thy people Israel but cometh out of a far countrey for thy names sake for they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched out arm when he shall come and pray towards this house Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for that all people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee as do thy people Israel and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name 1 King viii 41 42 43. 2 Chron. vi 33. This was the House of Prayer for all people Isa lvi 7. Mar. xi 17. And the Prophets in their Prophecies concerning the return of the Jews out of their Captivity in Babylon and in their Predictions of the Messias did not omit to insert peculiar Expressions of God's Love and Favour to Strangers and Proselytes to shew that the Promises did extend to them as well as to the Native Jews themselves Isa lvi 3. Ezech. xlvii 22 33. From all which it is evident that Strangers were equally capable of the Priveledges and Advantages in the Jewish Worship as the Jews themselves were and that they
us but in all probability it had a good effect upon very many as we find it had in one remarkable Instance of a little Maid who being taken Captive was the occasion of the Cure of Naaman's Leprosie and of his Conversion to the Worship of the True God who before was known to him by his Name Jehovah 2 King v. 11. The Prophet Elisha was well known by the Syrians to be a Prophet and Ben-hadad sent to enquire of the Lord by him chap. viii 8. Rabshakeh speaks in the Jews Language and pretends a Commission from the Lord that is from Jehovah the God of the Jews when he came against Jerusalem Isa xxxvi 10 11. God himself appeals to the knowledge of Sennacherib King of Assyria Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it Isa xxxvii 26. And Rabbi Shemaiah and Rabbi Abtalion are (r) Lightfoot Harm Luke iv 15. p. 612. said to have been Proselytes of Righteousness of the Posterity of Sennacherib Pharaoh Necho King of Aegypt alledges God's Command when he came to fight against Carchemish 2 Chron. xxxv 21 22. But our present Enquiry is not so much what the Effect was as what Means were afforded of Salvation For though it be requisite that the True Revealed Religion should be published to the World yet it is not necessary to prove the Truth of a Religion to shew that obstinate Men have taken notice of it so far as to consider and believe it because it is not necessary that God should force his Laws upon Men but only that he should discover them and afford Men sufficient Means to know them and become the better for them To proceed then The Philistines were in a wonderful Consternation when they understood that the Ark was brought into the Camp 1 Sam. iv 7 8. And when it was taken by them it was more terrible to them than the Enemy if he had conquer'd them could have been they were tormented with Diseases and Plagues wheresoever the Ark was carried and their God was so little able to help them that he fell down before it and was broken in pieces whereof they retained a Memorial in the Worship of him ever after in not treading upon the Threshold of Dagon in Ashdod because he had lost the Palms of his Hands by falling upon it 1 Sam. v. 4 5. The Philistines at last received a miraculous Overthrow by Thunder 1 Sam. vii 10. And these were so remarkable Judgments that they must be left without all excuse who did not forsake their Idolatries and turn to the Living God who had thus manifested himself amongst them The Vrim and Thummim (s) Judg i. 1. xx 18 23 26. 1 Sam. xviii 6. xxiii 9. xxx 7 8. was consulted upon any great Undertaking whereby God returned his Answer and often-times before the Battel gave assurance of Victory which was so well known among the Heathen that they called it the Oracle (t) Joseph Antiq. l. 3. c. 10. Josephus says the Answer was returned by the shining of the Stones in the High-Priest's Breast-plate in such a manner as that it was visible to all the People standing by The miraculous Victories of Saul and Jonathan and David and David's stay with Achish King of the Philistines at Gath and the Favour and Confidence which he gained with that King gave the Canaanites still repeated Opportunities and Motives to Conversion and Repentance and we may observe Achish in discourse with David mentioning the Name of the Lord or Jehovah and swearing by his Name 1 Sam. xxix 6. Which shews the infinite Mercy and Compassion of God towards this People devoted to Destruction in that he would not take them away suddenly but by little and little giving them space for repentance and turning that which might seem to rash Judges a hard fate into a Means of Salvation both to themselves and others David extended his Conquest far and near and was renowned throughout all those Countreys And the fame of David went out into all lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations 1 Chron. xiv 17. and when God had delivered him out of the hand of all his Enemies he makes this Resolution Therefore I will give thanks to thee O Lord among the heathen and will sing praises unto thy name 2 Sam. xxii 50. Psal xviii 49. Declare his glory among the heathen his wonders among all people Say among the heathen that the Lord is King Psal xcvi 3 10. He knew this to be the Design of God in the Dispensations of his Providence and accordingly he made this Use of it with so good effect that in the beginning of Solomon's Reign the Strangers or Proselytes in the Land were found to be an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred 2 Chron. ii 17. In Solomon's Reign the Kingdom of Israel became yet more famous and flourishing Hiram King of Tyre held great Correspondence with Him and Kimchi after him Dr. Lightfoot (u) Lightfoot Chorograph Decâ—d on St. Mark c. 6. § 2. p. 311. understands by 2 Chron. viii 2. that Hiram gave Cities to Solomon in his own Land who placed Israclites in them and He in like manner gave Cities to Hiram in Galilee 1 King ix 11. in Confirmation of the League between them The Letters which passed between Solomon and Hiram (x) Theoph. ad Autâ—lyc l. 3. p. 254. were extant in the time of Josephus and from his time down to Theophilus Antiochenus Hiram blesseth the Lord God of Israel that made heaven and â—arth 2 Chron. ii 12. 1 King v. 7. which shews that he had a true Notion and Sense of Religion And Tyre was a place of great Trade and Commerce Ezek. xxvii from whence the Jews were afterwards sold to the Graecians Joel iii. 6. there was no place of greater Traffick nor that sent out more Colonies or greater or into more distant Parts of the World and therefore none could be more proper to establish a Correspondence with from whence Religion might be better propagated The Queen of Sheba came to see the Glory of Solomon's Kingdom 1 King ix 10. and blesseth the Lord his God chap. x. 9. who according to (y) Joseph Antiq. l. â— c. 6. Josephus was Queen both of Aegypt and Aethiopia His Wisdom was every where magnified Ard there câ—me of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom chap. iv 34. All the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart chap. x. 24. His Dominions were exceeding great He reigned over all the kings from the river Euphrates even unto the land of the Philistines and to the border of Aegypt 2 Chron. ix 26. The Trade and Correspondence of the Israelites with foreign Nations was mightily advanc'd in his time their Trade extended as far as Tarshish and Ophir Tarshish
is translated Carthage by the Septuagint Isa xxiii 6. but is supposed to be Tartessus in Spain though St. Jerom (z) 〈◊〉 in â—â— c. 1. 〈◊〉 thought it to be in the Indies And Ophir was as many learned Men think in the Indies beyond the River Ganges in Pegu or at least Solomon's Merchants did traffick with the Indian that came from those Parts others have imagined Ophir to be Zephala or Cephala in Africa towards the Cape of Good-Hope some think it to be Ceylon or Sumatra some are of opinion that it was in America all are agreed that it must be in some very distant part of the World and where-ever it were the Traffick and Dealings which the Israelites had there was a great opportunity to the Heathen to become instructed in the True Religion The Traffick and Voyages by Sea and Expeditions by Land in Solomon's Reign rendred the People of Israel highly renowned and caused their Laws and Customs and Religion to be much observed and enquired into and even the Marriages of Solomon with Pharaoh's Daughter and other Strangers questionless through the Mercy of God might prove an happy occasion of divulging the True Religion and regaining many from Idolatry in Aegypt and other Parts of the World For all his Wives were made Proselytes (a) Maimâ—â—â—d de 〈◊〉 §. 1â— 1â— before he married them as Samson's likewise had been though afterwards they not only fell away to their former Idolatries but seduced Solomon himself into them The Gentiles were so forward to become Proselytes (b) Meimâ—â—d 〈◊〉 in the Reigns of David and Solomon that their Sincerity became suspected and the Jews tell us that the Sanhedrim would admit no Proselytes in the days of David lest they should be induced to it by Fear nor in the days of Solomon lest the Glory of his Kingdom should have been the motive to them to profess the Religion of the Israelites Nevertheless great numbers were received privately by Baptism the Sanhedrim neither rejecting nor admitting them It is the Observation of Theodoret and of St. Jerom upon Exek v. 5. that God placed Jerusalem the Seat of the Jewish Government in the midst of the Nations that it might be a Direction to the Heathen in matters of Religion from whence as from the Centre Light might be communicated to the farther Parts of the Earth But the Divisions and Calamities of the People of Israel the Destruction of their City and Dispersion of their whole Nation contributed as much to the propagation of Religion as their greatest Prosperity could do The Division of the Ten Tribes after the death of Solomon and the erection of the Kingdom of Israel distinct from that of Judah with the many Leagues and Wars which these two mighty Kingdoms had with the Kings of Aegypt and Syria and Babylon and with other Nations could not but exceedingly conduce to the divulging the True Religion in the World and give opportunity to the Prophets to declare their Prophecies and work their Miracles among the Heathen as we find they did in many Instances One of the greatest Cities of the World was converted by Jonah's Preaching Hezekiah being distressed by Sennacherib prayed to God for deliverence out of his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God even thou only and his Prayer was answer'd not only in the Deliverance but in the manner of it which was so wonderful that all must know and be astonished at it for that very night the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand 2 King xix 19. which was the fulfilling of the Prophecy of Isaiah delivered to Hezekiah in a Message to him from God in Answer to his Prayer and afterwards Embassadors came from the King of Babylon to enquire of the Wonder or Miracle that was wrought in his Recovery from his Sickness 2 Chron. xxxii 31. and at last the Captivity of the Jews for Seventy Years in Babylon made their Religion almost as well known there as in Jerusalem it self Jeremiah had foretold the Captivity of the Jews and the Conquest of all the adjacent Countries so long and so plainly before-hand that all the neighbour Nations must be sensible of it as Nebuchadnezzar himself also was for which reason he gave a strict charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard who declares the reason of their Captivity to be their sins against the Lord or Jehovah Jer. xl 3. and as the Jews say he became a Proselyte God professes that he had a regard to the Honour of his Name among the Heathen in his Mercies vouchsafed to the Children of Israel or else he had utterly consumed them Ezek. xx 9. and xxxvi 22 23 36. and the Judgments upon the several Nations prophesied against were to this end that they might know him to be the Lord Ezek. xxv 7 17. xxvi 6. xxviii 22 23 24. xxix 6. xxxv 9. xxxvi 23. xxxvii 28. I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen Mal. i. 14. The Jews in their Captivity are commanded to make an open Declaration against the Heathen Gods and because they understood not the Chaldee Tongue the Prophet Jeremiah supplies them with so much of the Language as might serve them for that purpose Thus shall ye say unto them Jer. x. 11. that is Ye shall speak to them in their own Language and in the words which I now set down to you to bid Defiance to their False Gods Thus did he fulfil his Commission and Character who was sanctified and ordained a Prophet unto the nations Jer. i. 5. And Jeremiah was put to death in Aegypt and Ezekiel in Babylon for appearing against the Idolatry of those Places During the Captivity Jehoiachin was reconciled to the King of Babylon and in great favour with him His throne was set above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon 2 King xxv 28. The Jews were in great Esteem and in Places of great Honour and Trust and their Religion was extolled and recommended by Publick Edicts to all under that vast Empire The Almighty Power of God was manifested with Miracles and by the Interpretation of Dreams and Prophecies and his Majesty and Honour was acknowledged and proclaimed in the most publick and solemn manner throughout all the Babylonian Empire at the Command of Princes who were Idolaters and were forced to it by the meer convictions of their own Consciences wrought in them by the irresistable Power of God Dan. ii iii iv v vi Daniel had acquainted Cyrus as Josephus says with the Prophecy of Isaiah in which he was so long before mention'd by Name However the Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus by this or some other means to accomplish the Prophecy which he had made both by Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning the Restoration of the Jews
the Oracles themselvs were sometimes forced to confess Him to be the Supreme God though obscurely and under some disguise to amuse those to whom their Answers were returned as here Apollo would have him beleived to be Bacchus The Tetragrammaton or Jehovah is likewise supposed to be meant by the Tetractis of Pythagoras and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used in Songs and Acclamations has a plain allusion to Alleluia especially with the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From a learned and large Account of Mr. Selden's (p) Seld. de Jur. Nat. Gent. l. 3. c. 15. upon this Subject it appears that there was a general Observation amongst the Heathen of one Day in Seven though length of Time and corruption of Manners had greatly obscured or quite blotted out the remembrance of the Original Institution or Superstition had by degrees assigned other Reasons for it and this is sufficient to reconcile Josephus and other Authors with what he brings which seems to imply the contrary It has been proved by several and is generally agreed by learned Men that many of the Rites among the Aegyptians and other Nations were the same with those appointed by the Law of Moses or very like them But some would have it that Moses took these Rites from those Nations without any Proof or possibility of Proof that I can perceive For how should it be proved when we have no Writings or Memorials of these Nations so ancient as those of Moses by many Ages And we read in the Scriptures that several Laws were enjoyn'd the Jews because they were contrary to the Idolatrous Practices of the Heathen but never find the least intimation that any were given them in imitation of the Gentile Worship and it is unreasonable to imagine that they should have Laws appointed in contradiction to the Idolatrous Worshippers and others at the same time in compliance with them when they were by a miraculous Providence separated and distinguished from the Idolatrous Nations and kept forty Years in the Wilderness to hinder them from all communication with them and to cure them of the proneness which they had to imitate them If it be supposed that the Jews who were hated and despised by other Nations would be very unlikely to be imitated by them it may be observed that they were not always thus despised nor among all Nations but they were better esteemed till the latter Ages of their Government and then the reason of their being ill thought of was because they were singular in the principal Points of Worship and resolute and zealous in the observation of it and would make no compliances with the Heathen World for they preserved themselves free from all Idolatry after their Captivity in Babylon But however hated and contemned they might be yet the same Authors who acquaint us with it express their own sence rather than the sence of the rest of Mankind for at the same time they tell us that they gained every where Proselytes The Greeks were likewise ever despised by the Romans but ever imitated and we have now an Example of a neighbour Nation which is generally both imitated and spoken against And there can be no other reasonable account given of the Agreement of so many other Nations with the Jews in their Rites and Customs but that these Nations in the times of Solomon or some time after during the flourishing estate of the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel or perhaps after the Captivity and since the Dispersion of the Hebrews had conformed themselves to them A Tradition of the manner of the Passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea was retained among the People of Heliopolis related by (q) Apud Euseb Praepar l. 9. c. 27. Artapanus Miracles were sometimes wrought among the Heathen by the Invocation of the God (r) Orig. â—mtra Cels l. 1 4. Vid. Gret ad Matth. xii 27. of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and these and other Hebrew Names as Zebaoth and Adonai were commonly used by the Gentiles in their Incantations and Exorcisms which they retained by Tradition though they knew not the meaning nor original of them Those who first travell'd into China (s) Trigaut de Christ Exped apud Sinas l. 1. c. 11. found Hebrews there who called themselves Israelites but knew not the Name of Jews they were dispersed in divers Provinces and read the Pentateuch in the Hebrew Tongue in their Synagogues without Points The observation of New Moons Years of Jubilee and Circumcision was found among the Americans and an infinite number of Ceremonies and Customs says (t) Jos Acosta Hist l. 5. c. 27. l. 6. c. 2. Acosta which resembled the ancient Law of Moses They had likewise (u) Ler. Hist Navig in Bras c. 16. Pet. Mart. Dec. 6. c. 4. a Tradition of Noah's Flood Hornius acknowledgeth (w) Horn. de Orig. Americ Praef. l. 2. c. 10. l. 4. c. 15. that the Name of Joseph was in use among the Americans and that they frequently mention'd the word Alleluia in their Songs and us'd Circumcision and he shews that in their several Languages they have many Words from the Phoenician or Hebrew Tongue The People of Bengala retain'd the Name of Adam and in Madagascar they (x) Voyage de Jean Struys Tom. 1. had the Names of Adam Eve and Noah So that there is no Nation but has still had some Memorials of Reveal'd Religion And it has been shewn by Clem. Alexandrinus by Eusebius and Theodoret and by Modern Authors that the Philosophers had generally some knowledge of the Religion of the Hebrews as it was particularly affirm'd by Numenius the Pythagorean that the Brachmans also of India were not unacquainted with it and that the Laws of the Wisest Heathen Nations were taken from the Laws of Moses III. The Oracles ascrib'd to the Sybils are so plain and so particular that if they should be admitted for genuine not only the Revelations made to the Jews but all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion must be fully discover'd to the Heathen but their Plainness has been the Cause why their Authority has been much question'd which yet ought not wholly to be rejected since the Sibylline Oracles were preserv'd in the Capitol till the Reign of Honorius when they were burnt by Stilico And it is not to be imagin'd that Justin Martyr and other Christians would cite Oracles which were in the Possession of those against whom they cited them unless they had been able to make good their Authority This is a Subject which has exercis'd the Pens of many Learned Men. I shall here set down what appears to me most probable upon the Question as briefly as I can 1. It is evident from Virgil that in the Verses of the Sibyl of Cuma the Birth of some Great Person was foretold and from Tully that this Person was to be a King Though both in Tully and Virgil the
several Prophecies we have recorded in the Books of Moses and ascribed to others and the last comaining so many remarkable things is from the mouth of an Enemy Moses himself foretold That the Children of Israel should after Forty Years come into the Land of Promise That they should prove Victorious over the Canaanites and That their Country should by the Divine Care and Protection be preserved in safety whilst they went up to worship at Jerusalem thrice every Year Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God the God of Israel For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders netther shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Exod. xxxiv 23 24. Here is the Promise of a constant Miracle to be fulfilled to the Israelites thrice every Year as long as their Government stood all their Males were to go up to Jerusalem at three set and known times every year and yet their Enemies round about them whom they had so many ways provoked were by the Almighty Power of God restrained from taking any advantage of this opportunity which was frequently and notoriously given them of Invading their Countrey The very Nature and Constitution of the Jewish worship made it impossible for their Government to subsist in the observation of their Religion without a Miracle wrought three times in a Year for their preservation And the fulfilling of this Promise which God had made to them by Moses and the preserving of them in the performance of that Worship which he had appointed them was a continual Confirmation of his Law and a repeated Assurance that it was from God By the Law of Moses likewise every Seventh Year they were Permitted neither to sow their Land nor to prune their Vineyards nor to gather any Corn or Fruits that grew of their own accord which was a Law that must have brought them under great extremities and the observation of it had been impracticable if the extraordinary and miraculous Blessing of God had not supplied this constant want of the seventh year's Product with as constant an Overplus in the preceeding years For as God by Moses foretold That on the Sixth Day there should fall Manna enough to supply them on the Sabbath-day so they had a Promise of Three Years Fruits precisely every Sixth Year to supply that want which the Sabbatical Year must otherwise have reduced them to And if ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store Lev. xxv 20 21 22. Which is another clear Instance that the People of Israel could never have subsisted in the observation of their Law but by the constant and miraculous accomplishment of the Prophecies which contained the Promises made to them for their Preservation In blessing the Twelve Tribes of Israel he foretold the peculiar state and condition of every distinct Tribe Deut. xxxiii He foretold to them all in general That they should have miraculous success against the Canaanites That they should possess themselves of their Land That they should set Kings over them That they should have a peculiar Place of Worship whither they should all resort and that they should have the Divine Oracles and a succession of Prophets for their direction in all Matters of great importance and difficulty And Joshua appeals to the Experience of the children of Israel whether all had not been fulfilled which was promised as far as his time And be hold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof Josh xxiii 14. The extent of the Dominions of the children of Israel after they came to be setled in the Land of Canaan is foretold Exod. xxiii 31. and fulfilled 2 Sam. viii 3. Ezra iv 20. And Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple declared in the audience of all the People That there had not failed one word of all God's good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 King viii 56. Moses also foretold that besides a constant succession of Prophets for many Ages there should arise a Prophet of extraordinary Power and Authority and whosoever would not hear that Prophet should be destroyed Deut. xviii 18. This Prophet was the great expectation of the Jews at the time of out Saviour's coming Joh. 1.21 vi 14. vii 40. and the Apostles prove our Saviour to be him Act. iii. 22. vii 37. Lastly Moses foretold the Disobedience and the Revolt of the children of Israel the Judgments that should befall them for their Iniquities and their Deliverance upon their Repentance he foretold so many Years before they had any King That they and their King whom they would set over them should be carried into Captivity and that at the same time when they were taken Captive by the Assyrians who are described in the very same words that the other Prophets use concerning them the remainder should be carried into Aegypt Deut. xxviii 36 49 50 68. and we see it came accordingly to pass Jer. xliii And the Siege of Samaria by the Assyrians and of Jerusalem both by them and the Romans is particularly described to the very circumstance of their eating the flesh of their sons and of their daughters Deut. xxviii 53. which is a thing that has scarce ever happen'd in any other Siege but those of Samaria and of Jerusalem Lam. ii 20. iv 10.2 King vi 29. This monstrous and dreadful thing was twice known in Jerusalem first when it was besieged by Nehuchadnezzar and again when it was destroyed by the Romans under Titus And such a circumstance could not be foretold so long before but by a Divine Prescience and that so strange and unnatural a thing should befall the Children of Israel three several times according to the express words of a Prophecy could have nothing of Chance in it Thus we see that besides the Prophecies concerning the other Nations of the Earth every State and Condition of the People of Israel from their first Original to the Destruction of Jerusalem was the Perpetual Fulfilling of express Prophecies contained in the Books of Moses CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses IF it be once proved That Moses did what is related of him in the Pentateuch it will unavoidably follow That he did it by a Divine Power and that he was God's Servant and Minister and that
a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of
were kept of every Family made them have a more separate and distinct Interest in every Tribe and a more exact Account of Times and perfect Knowledge of things in every Family and therefore they were not so capable of being imposed upon in things of this nature as the People of other Nations might be where Marriages and Inheritances are promiscuous and no occasion is given for the like emulation and watchfulness over one another and where no such Remembrances and Notices of the Transactions of Affairs are to be consulted by any one of every private Family In the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of the land of Aegypt Moses and Aaron assembled all the congregations together and they declared their pedigrees after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of their names from twenty years old and upward by their poll Num. i. 1 18. and this was done again in the Plains of Moab at the end of Forty Years chap. xxvi And these Genealogies we preserved not only during the Captivity Ezra vii and down to the Reign of Herod but even to the time of Josephus who in his First Book against Apion says That they had the Genealogies of their Priests then still extant for two thousand Years By which means it came to pass that every Tribe had a kind of separate Interest which was the occasion of Korah's Sedition against Moses And every Man amongst their Tribes might certainly hereby know how many Generations he was removed from those who first took possession of the Land of Promise and might find the Names of his Ancestors registred who were in the Wilderness with Moses or came with Joshua over Jordan And this must make the memory of their Ancestors more dear and familiar to them and it must make them have a greater regard for any thing they had left behind them especially for a Book upon which their Rights of Inheritance and the Title they had to all they enjoyed depended This was the Deed by which they held their Estates and the Last Will and Testament as it were of their Ancestors amongst whom the Land was divided But it is certain Men are more careful of nothing than of the Writings by which they enjoy their Estates and there is no great dauger when a will is once come to the hands of the right Heir that it will be lost or salsified to his prejudice but if the Books of Moses were altered it must be upon the account of some advantage to such as must be supposed to make the Alterations and consequently to the disadvantage of others who therefore would have found themselves concerned to oppose such Alterations But as the Books of Moses were in the nature of a Deed of Settlement to every Tribe and Family so they were a Law too which all were obliged to know and observe under the severest Penalties And being so generally known and universally practised it could no more be falsified at any time since its first Promulgation than it could be now at this day For 2. Another thing which made the People of Israel less capable of being imposed upon in this matter was That they were by their Laws themselves obliged to the constant study of them they were to teach them their Children and to be continually discoursing and meditating on them to bind them for a sign upon their hand that they might be as frontlets between their eyes to teach them their children speaking of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way when they lay down and when they rose up to write them upon the door-posts of their houses and upon their gates Deut. xi 18 19 20. Nothing was to be more notorious and familiar to them and accordingly they were perfectly acquainted with them and as Josephus says knew them as well as they did their own Names they had them constantly in their mouths and thousands have died in defence of them and could by no Menaces or Torments be brought to forsake or renounce them And to this end One Day in Seven was by Moses's his Law set apart for the learning and understanding of it The Jews have a Tradition That Moses appointed the Law to be read therice every Year in their publick Assemblies And Grotius (q) Grot. ad Matth. xv 2. is of this opinion However the Scripture informs us that Moses of old time had in every city them that preached him being read in the synagogues every sabbath-day Act. xv 21. It is indeed the common opinion That there were no Synagogues before the Captivity But then by Synagogues must be understood Places of Judicature rather than of Divine Worship for there is no reason to question but the Jews had their Proseuchas or Places of Prayer from the Beginning since it is incredible that those who lived at a great distance and could not come to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-days and other time of Divine Worship besides the three great Festivals when all their Males were bound to be at Jerusalem should not assemble for the Worship of God in the places where they dwelt nay they were by an express Law obliged to it on the Sabbaths The seventh day is the sabbath of rest an holy convocation ye shall do no work therein it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings Lev. xxiii 3. They must therefore have places in all their Dwellings to resort to where they held their Convocations or Assemblies and these they went to on the New Moons as well as on the sabbaths 2 King iv 23. which made the Psalmist lament that the Enemy had burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land Psal lxxiv. 8. And being met together there is as little doubt to be made but that they read the Law which was to be read by them in their Families and much more in their Publick Assemblies on their solemn Days of Divine Worship The Books of Moses therefore were â—ead in their Synagogues in every City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ancient Generations or from the first settlement of the Children of Israel in the Land of Canaan And then at the end of every Seven Years the Law was read in the most publick and solemn manner in the Solemnity of the Year of Release in the Feast of Tabernacles Moses wrote a Book of the Law and commanded it to be put in the side of the Ark Deut. xxxi 29. as the Two Tables of Stone were put into the Ark it self chap. x. 5. and this he delivered to the Priests and to all the Elders of Israel and commanded them saying At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the feast of tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their
hearing Gather the people together Men and woman and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law And that their children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it Deut. xxxi 10 11 12 13. How is it possible that any more effectual care could have been taken to secure a Law from being depraved and altered by Impostures Every seventh Day at least was set apart for the reading and learning it in their seveval Tribes throughout all the Land and then once in seven years it was read at a publick and solemn Feast when they were all obliged to go up to Jerusalem And for this purpose Moses wrot a Book of the Law which was put in the side of the Ark that it might be there for a Testimony against them if they should trangress it much more if they should make any Alterations in it And out of this Book the King was to write him a Copy of the Law Deut. xvii 1â— and this Book of the Law was found by Hilâ—iah the High-Priest in the House of the Lord 2 Cron. xxxiv 14.2 King xxii 8. For after all that the wicked and idolatrous Kings could do to suppress the Law of Moses and draw aside the People to Idolatry the Authentick Book of the Law writen by Moses himself was still preserved in Josiah's time besides the several Copies which must be dispersed throughout the Land for the use of their Synagogues and those which must be remaining in the hands of the Prophets and other pious Men. And there is little reason to doubt but that this very Book written by Moses was preserved during the Captivity and was that Book which Ezra read to the People It is by no means credible that the Prophets would suffer that Book to be lost much less that they would suffer all the Copies generally to be lost or corrupted which indeed considering the number was hardly possible Is it probable that Jeremiah would use that favour which he had with Nebuchadnezzar to any other purpose rather than for the preservation of the Book of the Law The Jews say the Ark was secured in the burning of the Temple at the time of their Captivity but it is much more probable that the Book of their Law was secured it being both more easily conveyed away and not so tempting a Prey to the Enemy We find the Law cited in the time of the Captivity by Daniel Den. ix 11. by Nehemiah Nehem. i. 8 9. and in Tobit who belong'd â—o the Ten Tribes Tob. vi 12. vii 13. And it is not to be doubted but that these and other pious Men had Copies of it by them and were very careful to preserve them Maimonides (r) Huet 〈◊〉 Prop. 41. says that Mises himself wrote out Twelve Books of the Law one for each Tripe besides that which was laid up in the side of the Ark and the Rabbins teach that every one is obliged to have a Copy of the Pentateuch by him And Ezra and Nehemiah (s) Dros dâ—â—â—â—th Sect. l. 3. c. 11. are said to have brought Three hundred Books of the Law into the Congregation assembled at their return from Captivity It is certain there were Scribes of the Law before the Captivity and in the time of it Jer. viii 8. Ezra is stiled a ready Scribe in the law of Moses and the Scribe even a Scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel And by Artaxerxes in his Letter he is called a Scribe of the law of the God of heaven Ezra vii 6 11 12. By which it appears that there were Scribes of the Law during the Captivity who were known by this solemn Stile and Character and whose care and employment it was to study and write over the Law of whom Ezra was the principal at the time of their Return It is most probable then that the Book of the Law was preserved in Moses's own Hand till the coming of the Jews from Babylon besides the Copies that were preserved in the hands of Daniel Nehemiah Ezra Zechariah and the other Prophets who were not only of unquestionable Integrity but wrote themselves by Divine Inspiration 3. Nothing is more expressly forbidden in the Books of Moses than all Fraud and Deceit and it cannot reasonably be suspected that any Man would be guilty of a Fraud of the highest nature imaginable to introduce or establish a Law that forbids it Moses had forewarned them against all such practices both in his Laws in general and by an express Prohibition Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. iv 2. And all who had any regard to the Observation of his Laws would observe this as well as other parts of it for this preserved the Authority of all the rest inviolable And if they had had no regard to the Law but had altered it as they pleased they would certainly have made such Alterations as would have gratified the People and would have taken great care to leave nothing which might give offence but the Laws of Moses are such as that without a Divine Authority to enforce them they would never have been complied with but would have been grievous to a less suspicious and impatient People than the Jews were If it be said That the Prohibition against Alterations might be added amongst other things there is no ground of probability for it but so much odds against it that a Man might as well suspect that the whole Five Books had been forged as to pitch upon that particular Verse and say that it is not genuine Besides why should Impostors insert such a Clause as would hinder them from changing any thing in the Law ever after why should they not rather reserve to themselves a liberty of changing and adding as often as they thought fit 2. As the Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered after Moses's time so neither could the Account of the Miracles wrought by him be inserted after his death by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men whatsoever For if the Miracles by which the Law is supposed to be confirmed were afterwards inserted they must be intended as a Sanction to give Authority to it and keep the People in awe when they were become uneasie and disobedient under the Government of those Laws But it must needs be much more difficult to introduce Laws at first than to govern a People by them after they have been once introduced and are setled and received amongst them Indeed it is incredible how Laws so little favourable to the ease or advantage of a People which were so expensive and burthensome in there
Ceremonies and which where purposely designed in many things to be contrary to the Customs of all the Nations round about them and to the Customs which they had been themselves acquainted with in Aegypt in so many Instances could be at first introduced but by Miracles but if they could have been once introduced without Miracles there is no reason to think but that when the People were used and accustom'd to them there would have been no need of any pretence of Miracles to keep them in obedience to them and as little reason there is to imagine that they would have been over awed by a Report of Miracles which must be supposed never to have been heard of till the People gave occasion for the Invention of them by their Disobedience The Books of Moses were read as I have shewn in the Synagogues or Religious Assemblies in the several Tribes at least every Sabbath-day and were appointed to be solemnly read in the audience of all the People at the Feast of Tabernacles every Seven Years and if they had had no knowledge of the Laws of Moses but from the Rehearsal of it at the Feast of Tabernacles yet can we conceive that the Body of the Jewish Nation should be so stupid and forgetful as not to remember when these Miracles must be supposed to be first read to them that they had never heard them before But how impossible is it that they should be thus imposed upon when they heard the Books of Moses read every Week to them and had them besides in their own keeping to read them at their leisure The Miracles now make up great part of the Books of Moses they are every where interspersed and intermix'd throughout the History and they are of such a nature as is most apt to make impression upon the Memories of Men And can we imagine that Miracles so often repeated and every were inculcated could be inserted by any contrivance and imposed upon a People who were all wont to hear the Law publickly read in a solemn Assembly once every Seven Years and heard it read in their Synagogues besides every Seventh Day Would they not be infinitely surprised the first time they heard the Relation of the Plagues inflicted on the Aegyptians of the Judgment upon Korah and his Company and of the miraculous Punishments which befell the Idolatrous and Disobedient in the Wilderness Would they not soon have found out so obvious a Deceit as this must have been if it had been one If we can think that such Insertions could pass without discovery why may we not as well believe too that as many more might be made now and not be discovered Would not the whole Body of the People have been able to testifie that all this was counterfeited and inserted into the Law for no such thing was read to them in their Synagogues upon the Sabbaths nor had been read at the end of the last Seven Years but it was all now added to terrifie them and keep them from following the Customs of other Nations Would not this have been the worst contrivance that could have been thought of to keep a People in awe to tell them of such things as every Man of them could disprove that was of Age and had but Understanding and Memory enough to know what he had heard so often read before and to distinguish it from such things as are so remarkable that they could hardly escape any one's Memory who had ever heard of them They had Books of the Law for their private reading and besides the reading of it in their Weekly Assemblies they had a solemn Publication and Proclamation of their Law once every Seven Years as it were purposely to prevent any Design of falsifying it And to have read any thing so remarkable as the Miracles of Moses are in all their circumstances so often repeated and insisted upon if the People had not found them in their own Books and had not been used to hear them read to them from the time of the giving the Law by Moses had been only for the Projectors to proclaim themselves Impostors but could never have deceived any Man And besides the care that was taken for the Preservation of the Books of the Law there were publick Memorials of the principal Miracles enjoined such was the Feast of the Passover in remembrance of the Angel's passing over the Israelites when he slew the first-born born of the Aegyptians and the Feast of Tarbernacles in remembrance of their dwelling in Tents in the Wilderness and such were the Brazen Serpent the Ark and the Tabernacle These were things seen and observed or known by all and they could not be introduced after Moses's time because there could be no pretence for it since they who introduced them must suppose them to have been before at the very time when they designed first to introduce them The Vrim and Thummim was both a constant Miracle and a constant Attestation to the Law by which it was ordained And it appears that the Priests who were to examine and judge of Leprosie either in Persons or Things were secured from the Infection of it though it were infectious to all others And their constant Service could not be performed without a (t) Vid. Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 34. p. 2030. miraculous Dispensation Thus it is evident That there is all the Proof which it is possible to bring in any case of this nature that the Books of Moses could not be falsified by any Man or Party of Men whatsoever since the Nature and Institution of the Law it self did effectually provide against all Impostures and the Jews had all the assurance that it is possible for any People to have that the Books of Moses are the same which he wrote and left behind him And this inspired them with such a zeal for their Law as to sacrifice their Lives in vindication of it whereas there was no Book whatsoever as Josephus observes amongst the Heathens which any Man amongst them would not rather a thousand times see destroyed though it were in never so much esteem with them than he would suffer for it Which shews that the Jews were fully convinced of the Divine Authority of their Law from all the Evidence above-mentioned and were persuaded that it is the same which Moses delivered and left behind him 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it For how is it possible that such a thing should have been concealed from all other Nations and that a whole Nation should know of the Imposture and no Man ever discover it nor no Apostate ever divulge it but they and their Posterity should always profess that they believed the Law to be revealed to Moses by God himself just as we now have it in the Peutateuch that under all Afflictions and Adversities they should impute their Sufferings to the violation of
the Law and that so many should die rather than depart from it Upon the Revolt of the Ten Tribes Jeroboam would certainly have discover'd it if he had but suspected any such thing as an Imposture or could but have hoped to make the People believe that the Laws of Moses were not of Divine Institution but of Humane Invention and Contrivance but he supposed the Truth of its Divine Original whilst he tempted the People to the transgression of it Behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Aegypt 1 King xii 28. he supposes them brought out of the land of Aegypt and brought out by a Divine Power and endeavours to persuade them that the two Calves which he had set up in Dan and Bethel were the Gods who delivered them and by whose Authority the Law was given them and that therefore either of those Places was as proper to sacrifice in as Jerusalem which however absurd it were yet he did not think so absurd as to endeavour to make them believe that their Law it self was no better than an Imposture he had some hopes to succeed in this Project and the Event shews he understood the Temper and Principles of the People he had to deal with but the other was too gross for him to attempt The true Prophets of Israel were ever as zealous for the Law of Moses as the Prophets of Judah and the False Pophets of either Kingdom never durst deny its Authority these False prophets affronted and contradicted the Prophets of the Lord but they ever owned the Law and pretended to speak in the Name of that God who had deliver'd it to Moses And this Division of the Ten Tribes made it impossible afterwards for either the Kingdom of Israel or of Judah to make any Alterations in the Books of Moses because there was so great emulation and enmities betwixt the two Kingdoms that they could never have agreed to insert the same Corruptions and if either of them had attempted such a thing it would soon have been discovered by the other and therefore the agreement of the Samaritan with the Hebrew Pentateuch is a plain argument that they are but different Copies of the same Book and that it is undoubtedly genuine The Children of Israel notwithstanding their great proneness to Idolatry never cast off the Law of Moses as they would certainly have done being so often brought into bondage by their neighbour-Nations if they had not been well assured of the Authority of that Law which they transgress'd but they were reduced to the Obedience of the Law by the Oppressions of Iolatrous Nations they hoped for Deliverance upon their Repentance according to the Promises made in it and could by no Temptations or Torments be persuaded or forced to renounce it But the long Captivity in Babylon wrought a perfect cure in the Jews as to their inclination to idolatry which could never have been unless by their own experience in seeing the Prophecies fulfilled and by other Arguments they had been sully convinced of the Truth of their own Religion beyond all others If it had been of their own invention the People would have made their Law in every respect more favourable to themselves they would not have cloyed it with burthen some Ceremonies to distinguish themselves from the neighbour-Nations whose Idolatries they were so long prone to and which these Câ—remonies were designed to restrain them from They who were for a long time so fond of the Idolatries of the Heathen would never have invented Laws so uneasie to themselves and so contrary and odious to other Nations they would never have framed them themselves and then have pretended a Divine Revelation for those Laws which they were so little pleased with They would never have exposed themselves to the whole World thro' all Ages as a stubborn and rebellious People notwithstanding so many and so convincing Miracles so long wrought amongst them The Miracles which I have mention'd were most of them Judgments upon the Israelites for their Disobedience and they would never have set down these Miracles but would rather have lest them out though they were true as disgraceful to their Nation For thus Josephus has omitted some things to avoid the Scandal which he was a ware would have been given to the Heathen by a full and punctual Relation of the whole History of the Jews as it is described in the Books of Moses And they could be as little ignorant as Josephus what would prove disgraceful to them and what would make for their Honour and Renown and when the design of these supposed Forgeries and Falsifications must have been to advance the Glory of the People of Israel they would never have made such as these No if they had made any Alterations it would have been to strike out those numerous Passages which are so reproachful to their Nation and to have inserted others which might raise the Fame and Glory of Themselves and of their Ancestors and to have changed those Ceremonies that were so burthensome and so singular for those which would have been more easie to themselves and might have recommended them to the good opinion and esteem of the neighbour Nations But when so refractary a People became so zealous for such a Law so uneasie at first and so distastful to them it is an undeniable argument that they had the greatest Assurance of its Divine Original and that they would neither falsifie it themselves nor sufter others to falsifie it The People of Israel must be supposed to be unanimous to a Man in the making these Laws if they were of their own making for if any one had dissented he could not fail of Arguments to draw others after him In making Laws the Interests and Conveniencies of the Law-makers are always the Motives for the enacting them and besides the Publick Honour and Welfare of the Nation which too often are less considered the particular Interest of every single Man would have made him concerned to put a stop to such Laws No People can be supposed to consent to the making Laws by which they are forbidden to sow their Land every Seventh Year and are commanded to leave their Habitations and go up to the capital City from every part of their Country thrice in a Year no People could agree to enact such Laws of their own contrivance because none could subsist in the observation of them without a Miracle How can we conceive it possible for any People to subsist by such Laws if they had been of their own making or that any Nation should agree in the enacting such Laws as must provoke all their neighbour Nations to make War against them nay by which they actually declared an irreconcileable War against seven Nations at once For one Nation to distinguish themselves by their Laws and Constitutions from all other People to lay the very Foundations of their Government in the disgrace and infamy of all their neighbour
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
the most implacable enemies of Christianity and brought Christians into contempt among the Heathen for nothing could make the Gospel of less account in their esteem than to deduce its Authority from the Books of the â—ews who soon after the Crucifixion of Christ became vile and contemptible in the eyes of all the World It can be no great wonder to see men drawn into those vices under the pretence of Religion which no Laws nor Punishments can restrain them from but for a Religion that forbids all vice under the severest penalties to prevail in a vicious world is truly miraculous Besides it is Death by the Law of Mahomet to contradict the Alcoran men are forbid all disputation and discourse about Religion they are charged to believe none but Mahometans and to look upon all others as unworthy of all manner of conversation So that the Sword in the hands of furious and ignorant Zealots is the only way by which that Religion was designed to be propagated But nothwithstanding all these compliances with the Lusts and Passions of men if we take in all Ages since the Incarnation of Christ the Christian Religion not to mention the Jewish has had a much larger propagation than ever Mahometanism has had and has at all times been taught in more parts of the world and even amongst Mahometans themselves And the Alcoran it self asserting the Divine Authority and Mission both of Moses and Christ serves in some measure to propagate the Faith of the Old and New Testament so far I mean as to give an advantage and opportunity for men to make enquiry into them and become acquainted with them CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion MAhometanism is grounded neither upon Prophecies nor Miracles Mahomet indeed calls himself Prophet very solemnly but we have but this one instance of his Prophetick Spirit (a) Alcoran c. 66. When the Prophet went to visit one of his Wives God revealed to him what she desired to say to him he approved one part and rejected the other when he told his Wife what was in her will to speak to him she demanded of him who had revealed it to him He that knoweth all things hath revealed it to me that ye may be converted your hearts are inclined to do what is forbidden if ye act any thing against the Prophet know that God is his Protector Here is not one circumstance to make the story credible Mahomet pretended to no Miracles but when he has raised that objection as he often doth that the world would not believe in him unless they saw some Miracle he answers (b) Meor c. 13. I am not sent but to Preach the Word of God Tho afterwards he mentions that ridiculous story of the Moons being divided in these words (c) Ib. c. 54. The Day of Judgment approacheth the Moon was divided into two parts nevertheless Infidels believe not Miracles when they see them they say that this is Magick they lye and follow but their Passion but all is written Here is no proof nor any pretence to it but only a confident assertion of a thing ridiculous And yet unless we will believe this Prophecy and this Miracle there is nothing in the whole Alcoran either of Miracle or Prophecy to give it any Authority except that must be accounted one which he so often boasts of viz. It s wonderful Doctrine and Eloquence for (d) Ib. c. x xi xvi he challenges all the world to produce any thing like it protesting (e) C. vii that he could neither write nor read and therefore must needs have it by Revelation And he introduceth God swearing to the Truth of it almost in every Chapter and this is all he offers in answer to the suspicions which he so frequently suggests men then had of his being an Impostor CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral I. THE Alcoran is false as when it makes (a) Ib. c. xix the Virgin Mary Sister to Aaron when it asserts that (b) Ib. c. iv Christ was not Crucified but one like him in Contradiction to the Testimony of Jews Christians and Heathens and that Christ (c) Ib. c. lxi Prophesied of him by Name without the least proof or ground for it but against all the evidence that can be to the contrary II. The Alcoran contains things absurd and ridiculous as in that story of the sleepers (d) C. xviii the Infidels say they were five and that their Dog was the sixth they sâ—eak by opinion but the true Believers affirm them to be seven and their Dog to be the eighth And (e) Ib. c. xxvii in the story of Solomon's Army composed of Men Devils and Birds of the Queen of the Pismires and Solomon's discourse with the Bird called the Whoop who brought him tydings of the Queen of Sheba III. The Doctrines of the Alcoran are impious and immoral Mahomet makes all the Angels worship Adam in several parts of his Alcoran and his sensual Paradice is well known and his allowance of many Wives but perhaps his injustice is not so generally taken notice of (f) Ib. c. iv xxiii in permitting the professors of his Religion to take away their Slaves Wives from them The Law of Mahomet proceeds from a savage and cruel spirit obliging those that embrace it to destroy all that are not of it however the Mahometans have not always acted according to the cruelty of their Religion humane Nature not being always able to act so much contrary to it self But this is Mahomet's Doctrine (g) Ib. c. iii. God loveth not the unjust he forgiveth sins to those that believe and extirpate Infidels (h) Ib. c. iv If they forsake it the Law of God pretended to be set down in the Alcoran kill them where you find them Be not negligent to pursue the Infidels And this the (i) Tavern Voyage de Ind. lib. iii. c. 24. Faquirs at their return from Mecha are very mindful of with a furious zeal killing all they can that they meet who are not Mahometans till they are killed themselves and then they are reputed Saints and Prayers are made at their Graves Such is the Alcoran as we now have it and yet it is not now as it was at first written by Mahomet (k) Sandys Trav. lib. i. p. 54. many alterations have been made in it by inserting some things and striking out others and taking some of the absurdities away Mahomet the Second particularly is said to have made great alterations and additions (l) Ricauts Hist of the Ottom Empire lib. ii c. 10. But the Persians the followers of Haly charge Abu-Beker Omar and Ozman whom the Turks follow with falsifying the Alcoran CHAP. IX Of Mahomet AFter this account of Mahomet's Alcoran there will be no need to say much of his Person the general Doctrines of the Alcoran shew him to have been lustful proud fierce and cruel
Errors and both he and Socrates practised the Idolatries of their Country They asserted many excellent Truths which they had received as they profest from Antiquity but whenever they argu'd any Point they commonly fell into mistakes which oftentimes were of very ill consequence So weak a thing is Humane Wisdom without the guidance of Divine Revelation And of this the Philosophers were so sensible that divers of them would have it thought that they had some supernatural Assistance tho' they were able to bring no sufficient Proof of it The Pretences of others deserve no Regard their Impostures were too Notorious to admit of any Denial or Excuse The Genius of Socrates may be supposed Worthy of more Consideration yet it amounts to no more than this that Socrates declared that a certain Genius had accompanied him from his Childhood which often forbad him to do what he had design'd but never put him upon doing of any thing and by the Information of this Genius he often forewarned his Friends of the ill Success of what they were about to undertake But after the best Search I have been able to make concerning this Genius of Socrates I cannot but look upon it as an intricate and perplext Business It may suffice in this place to observe that (x) Xenoph. de exped Cyri. lib. 111. Xenophon acquaints us that when he advised with Socrates whether he should follow Cyrus in his Expedition Socrates sent him to the Oracle of Apollo who he said was to be consulted in obscure and uncertain Affairs which affords no very advantageous Character either of Socrates himself or of his Genius (y) Ciâ—â—dâ— Divtâ— lib. â— Tully informs us that Antipater the Sâ—oick had made a Collection of such things as Socrates's Geniu had discovered to him but whatever they were it appears that Tully had little regard to them And this we are sure of that all the Philosophy of Socrates ended in nothing but Uncertainties For when he had just before his Death discours'd of the State after this Life the most that he could say to his Friends in Conclusion was (z) Plato Phaed. that they had a Noble Prize before them great Hopes and a glorious Venture and therefore ought to possess and Charm their Minds with those Thoughts The suggestions of his Genius signified little to him if it left him no better instructed as to a future State in the last Moments of his Life It must be acknowledg'd that Socrates made great Improvements in the Moral and useful part of Philosophy He was of an excellent Understanding loving and belov'd of honest Men and had Courage and Resolution enough to bear the Affronts and withstand the Malice of others he minded none but the practical Doctrines of Philosophy and tho' he never had travelled in search after Learning as it was the Custom in those Ages for Philosophers to do but scarce ever stirr'd out of Athens yet he knew how to make the best use of the Notions which were brought to him by those who had been in foreign Countries It must be confess'd that if Plato had not made Socrates the Author of things which he had never sâ—â—d as not only (a) A. Gell lib. 14 c. 3. Diog. Laert. in Platon Xenophon but Socrates himself declar'd but had â—iven us as plain an Account of Socrates's Philosophy as Arrian has of that of â—pictetus we might have known more of him than we now are able to do But from what Plato and Xenophon have said of Socrates we may be assur'd that he did not reâ—â—ain from Idolatrous Worship nor reject the Heathen Oracles nor deliver his own Doctrines without much Uncertainty and Diffidence Plato carried his Philosophy to far greater Heights than Socrates had done and the sublimer Parts of it were not to be discovered to the Vulgar which were so difficult that he declares to (b) Epist 2. Dionysius that Men of Great Abilities and as great Application and Industry after the Study of thirty Years at last with much ado understood them Some things were not to be written at all or so obscurely as not to be intelligible if they should fall into the hands of Men who were not fit to be trusted with the Secret of them and he acknowledgeth that his best and only sure Argument for the Immortality of the Soul without the Knowledge of which all Philosophy can be but of little worth was from (c) Epist. 7. antient and sacred Tradition The Notions and Traditions which Plato had brought from other Countries with his delightful way of setting them forth gain'd him great Reputation some Attempts were made by himself and those of his Sect to bring his Laws into practice and to erect a Commonwealth after the Model of them his Name and Memory was had in Great Esteem his Birth-day was kept and the Solemnity of it was renewed about two hundred Years ago by some of his Admirers as we are told by (d) Comment in Conviv Plat de Amere c. 1. Ficinus one of that Society But there is too much Alloy found in his Philosophy for any Endeavours to gain it a constant and general Reception His Errors in some Cases are so notoriously gross and scandalous that (x) Vid. Plat de Repub lib. v. Serran edit Serranus sets over against them in the Margin Prima Insania hominis delirantis and Portentosa Insania (e) Orig. coâ—r Cels â—lib 2. Aristotle had studied twenty Years under Plato but he so often confutes and contradicts his Master that he has been charged with Ingratitude for it And if Socrates and Plato did not firmly believe the Souls Immortality Aristotle believ'd the contrary as (f) vid. Jac. Billium in Greg Nariam Orat 3â— many have prov'd out of several places in his Works (x) Diog. Leert His Will shews that he was both in his Practice and Judgment for the Idolatries of his Country His Books by an Accident lay conceal'd till they were brought to Rome upon the taking of Athens (g) Strabo lib. 13. Plut. in Sylla by Sylla But they were known to few Philosophers in (h) Lic Topiâ— Tully's time And a Learned Author has given an Account what their Fate has been since The Sect of the Stoicks is observed by Josephus in the Account of his own Life to have been like that of the Pharisees which (i) Grot. ad Mat. xxii 23. Grotius says is no wonder since in Cyprus which was Zeno's Native Country there were always many Jews But if the Stoicks were at first indebted to the Jews they certainly afterwards borrow'd much more from the Christians This Sect was very numerous and had Men of great Note in the Primitive Ages of Christianity who did not lose the opportunity offer'd them of improving it But the Philosophers then began to carry on a Joint-Interest and those who denominated themselves from any particular Sect were no longer strict in adhereing nicely to its Principles For
upon the preaching of the Gospel to the World the Philosophers thought it concern'd them to review all that had been formerly written to unite their Forces and select those Notions out of every Sect which were most plausible omitting such as they saw would then give Offence and it appears that they were greatly beholden to the Religion which they opposed and pretended to despise it is evident that they had read the Scriptures and do sometimes make use of Terms which they had taken from thence unknown to former Philosophers But Philosophy after all their Endeavours still retaining many Errors and wanting that Evidence and Authority which is the foundation of all true Religion could never maintain its ground against that Religion which was preach'd by those whom they contemned as ignorant Men but which in a short time wrought such a Reformation in the World as the Philosophy of all Ages had been never able to effect It is not to be denied that there were many great and eminent Examples among the Heathen but then there were always as great Enormities allow'd in the most civiliz'd Nations Philosophy was (x) Tertul Apol. c. 47 prohibited by three of the Principal States of Greece by the Thebans the Spartans and the Argives And the Romans who have set so many Famous Examples to the World were little oblig'd to Philosophy for all their Worth and Greatness was raised upon the Stock only of common Notions the Traditions that they had receiv'd with the rest of Mankind and the Laws brought from Athens which were enacted by Solon who had been in Aegypt at a time when the Jews were there in sufficient Numbers But it was a long while before Philosophers were suffered at Rome they had been (k) A. Gell. lib. xv c. 11. expell'd by the Senate Tully was the first that brought Philosophy into any Credit there and by the Apologies which he often makes for his giving himself to the Study of it we may perceive under what Prejudices it then lay among the Romans and that there was need of all his Wit and Eloquence to gain it Admission A strict Discipline both in Peace and War great Application and Industry by which they improved their common Notions and arriv'd to wonderful Experience and Dexterity in the Management of Affairs a zealous Love of their Country and an unparallell'd Constancy manifest in all their Actions and especially in the Observation of their Laws raised the Romans to that mighty Height and Extent of Empire But that which they retain'd of Truth in relation to Matters of Religion had been so abused and disguised with Fabulous Corruptions that at length it had generally lost all Belief amongst them (l) Pro Cluemio Tully made no Scruple at a publick Tryal in a Court of Judicature to deny the Punishments of the Wicked in a future State as a ridiculous Fiction which shews a strange Corruption of Principles in that Age when he could propose to himself to gain his Cause by speaking in that manner In another Oration he says (m) Pro M. Caeiiâ— Non semper superet vâ—ra illa directa Ratio vincat aliquando cupiditas voluptasque rationem That this should be spoken in a publick Pleading by one of the Gravest and most Learned of all the Romans shews how little either the Philosophy which he had studied or the Roman Laws themselves could do towards the Establishment of Vertue and that the Modesty of Youth and the Vertue and Honour of Families must be secur'd upon some better Principles Afterwards he adds Verùm siquis est qui etiam meretriciis Amoribus interdictum juventuti putet est ille quidem valde severus Negare non possum sed abhorret non modo ab hujus seculi licentia verùm etiam a Majorum consuetudine atque concessis I believe there is scarce any man so far lost to all Shame among Christians that he would be willing to hear himself so defended in a Publick Court or any Judge that would admit of such a Defence which is a manifest Argument of the Excellency of the Christian Religion that it lays such a powerful Restraint upon Men. But this loosness of Manners was the fatal Fore-runner of that horrid and monstrous Lewdness which afterwards like a Leprosy overspread the Roman Empire The Conspiracies of that Time which so much endanger'd the State were contriv'd by Libertines and no greater Cruelties have ever been committed than by this Sort of Men when once they have got into Power as may be seen in Tiberius Caligula Nero c. And Tully himself perhaps might feel the Effects of these Encouragements to Vice being kill'd by a Villain whose Life he had formerly saved by that Eloquence which was sometimes employ'd as if he had been retain'd against Vertue It must be owned that Tully has in many places of his Works laid down admirable Rules of Vertue but then it is with little or no Regard to such Principles as are the only sure Foundations of a Vertuous Life viz. the Fear of God and the Expectation of Rewards or Punishments after Death aed such was the defect of his Philosophy that he could be positive and certain in nothing Seneca as he professeth has taken many of his best Precepts from Epicurus which without a due Consideration had of a God and a Providence are no better than Prudent Cautions against Temporal Evils either of Body or Mind Seneca many times diverts rather than Instructs what he says is always fine but not always Solid he dances upon the surface according to Quintilian's Censure of him but seldom descends to the depth of things and it were well if that Character which he has given of Seneca's style might not be applyed to his Sense abundat dulcibus Vitiis a luscious Poison sometimes diffuseth it self in his Writings Seneca (x) Sen. Epist 82. de Benefic lib. 1. c. 3 4. derides the subtilty and trifling both of Zeno and Chrysippus but he did it seems think himself more concern'd to exposâ—â— them for being Teachers of ill Doctrins tho upon this account they were so very scandalous that Sextus (xx) Sext. Empir Pyrrh Hypot lib. 3. c. 24 25. Empericus endeavours to prove from their Words that there is no real and certain Difference betwixt Vertue and Vice The bare knowledge of the Christian Doctrin even without a sincere belief of its Authority has taught Men to abhorr those Crimes which were approved of by the Philosophers and Prâ—ctised in the Wisest Heathen Nations and when things notoriously Evil were received and taughâ— by those who did and said so many things well it is Evident that what was good was not owing so much to the strength of their own Reason as to some higher Principle I will here give but one Instance and it shall be concerning the Lawfulness of killing Infants or exposing them to be starved or destroyed This was the express Doctrine of (n) Plâ—â—t de Repub. lib.
v. Aristot Polit lib. viii c. 16 Plato and Aristotle who contradicts him in most other things follows him in this Indeed this was so general a Practice (o) Aeâ—ian lib. iâ— c 7 that it is taken particular Notice of that the Thebans had a Law to forbid it (p) Dionys Halicarn lib 2. Romulus made a Law to regulate this Practice and to hinder it in some Cases (q) Taciâ— Hist lib v. 〈◊〉 Morib Germ. cum notis â—ips Tacitus observes it as a thing deserving his Remark that this was not practised either by the Jews or the Germans tho' the latter had a Custom of casting their Children into the Rhine for a tryal of their legitimacy But that which is more strange is (r) Senâ—â— de Iâ—a lib. 1. c. 15. Plut. in Lyeurg that Seneca â—â—d Plutarch who liv'd since the Preaching of the Gospel should approve of such Barbarous Cruelty (Å¿) Fragm apud Stobae Serm. 73. Hierocles who as Lactantius informs us was well acquainted with the Scriptures was contented to say that it is natural and answerable to the ends of Marriage to bring up all or at least most Children which was a great Concession in a Philosopher Solon was as Famous for his Philosophy as for his Laws and the Legislator to that State which was the Seat and proper Soil as it were of Philosophy by an express Law (x) Sext. Empiric Pyrrh Hypot lib. 3. c. 24. indemnifyed all that killed their Children and the Philosophers were ever true to these Principles I have insisted upon this the more not only because it is an evident instance of the insufficiency of Heathen Philosophy but because some Readers may be as difficult to believe a thing which must needs seem very Monstrous to Christians as (t) Al Pelgas Cent. 1. Epist 85. Lipsius's Friend was to whom he wrote a long Epistle to convince him that this was the Practice of Heathen Nations and agreeable to the Judgment of their Philosophers So that many of the Adversaries of the Christian Faith may perhaps owe their Lives to that Religion which they Blaspheme I have purposely avoided too curious an enquiry into the lives of the Philosophers and rather chose to cast a Veil over what not only their Enemies but their Friends have said of them The Practice of Men is generally worse than they confess it ought to be they never live above their Rule and Profession it is well if in most things they do not fall much short of it and if their Principles be Bad what must we expect from their Examples But the Actions of the Philosophers concerned those with whom they lived our Business is with their Writings and I need not fear the Censures of Learned and Judicious Men in any thing I have said of them for they will acknowledge it to be Truth and others ought to be told so that they be no longer willing to change the Bible for the Works of Philosophers which they commonly read and understand as little as they do the Bible it self The utmost that Philosophy could reach was no farther than to uncertain Hopes and doubtful Arguments But our Saviour and his Apostles taught with Authority and not as did the Philosophers The Words which they spake they were Spirit and they were Life They came with full Power and had their Credentials from Heaven to produce which are the same that we now allege for the Authority of their Commission And what can be more certain than plain Matter of Fact which is clearly prov'd by undeniable Circumstances and by Witnesses beyond Exception and which is of that Nature that all the Divine Attributes are engag'd for the Truth of it It is strange that Men should pretend to fetch their Infidelity from the Depths of Philosophy and the Oracles of Reason as if any floating confus'd Notions might not serve for objections But it is to the advantage of a bad Cause to involve it in tedious and unnecessary Disputes to make Digressions into doubtful Points of Criticism and Philosophy to amuse the Reader and draw him off from the main Question Whereas a good Cause may commonly be brought to a clear and short Issue The present Controversy will admit of all kinds of Learning but has no need of it My Business therefore has been to free this Matter as much as may be from all the Intricacies of Learning to reduce it to plain Circumstances of Fact whereof every man may be capable of making a true Judgment and to bring it to that very Case in which St. John argues He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son 1 John v. 10. And how can we forbear to adore the Wisdom and Goodness of God who by the wonderful Dispensations of his Providence has not suffered himself to be without Witness in any Age or Nation If Idolatry spread it self from Egypt into many other parts of the World as (x) Herod lib. ii c. 43. c. Diod Sic. lib. 1. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have shewn we have the more reason to admire the wisdom of divine Providence in appointing Egypt to be the place where the People of Israel did so long sojourn and where so many signal Miracles were wrought to give a check and stop to Idolatry in the very Source and Fountain of it if Men had not been beyond all measure obstinate in their Folly and Disobedience And the same goodness of God has not been wanting to any Nation of the World For (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Athan. de Incarnation Verbi Dei tho' the Law of Moses was peculiarly designed for the People of Israel yet provision was made for the receiving of all such as were willing to become partakers of it to the observation even of their ceremonial and typical Service none besides the Israelites were required to observe it but neither were any excluded from it And by the constitution of the Jewish Law and Government as well as by the Providence of God in all his Dispensations towards that People effectual Care was taken that all the necessary points of Religion which concern Mankind in general should by them be communicated to the rest of the World But the Christian Religion was by its original Institution and Design equally extended to all Nations and was soon propagated all over the World Nations but lately known to us have been constant objects of the Divine Care and had early Discoveries made to them of the reveal'd Will of God as I have proved at large by the Testimonies of Protestants as well as of Papists And it is very observable which (u) Varen de Relig in Regn. Japan c. 5. Varenius has remark'd that the Jesuits in some places at least have Preached the substance of Christianity without the mixture of many of those Doctrins which are peculiar to the Roman Communion and he owns that their Success
Papists that no difference is to be found in the several Copies of the Bible which can prejudice the Fundamental Points of Religion or weaken the Authority of the Scriptures p. 135. No less may be said in behalf of the New Testament than of the Old The great care and Reverence which the Primitive Christians had for the Books of it Hereticks could not corrupt the Text and pass undiscovered to the Orthodox or even by other Hereticks p. 140. CHAP. VI. Of the Difficulties in Chronology in the Holy Scriptures THe uncertainty of Chronology in general p. 142. Differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the Matters of Fact themselves p 143. They do not infer that there was any Chronological Mistake made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures p. 145. The total Term of Years is not always exactly distinguished from all the Particulars of which it is composed and this has been the occasion of Mistakes in Chronology p. 146. Another occasion of Mistakes has been that sometimes the Principal Number is set down and the odd or lesser Number is omitted which is added to the Principal Number in other places p. 147. Sometimes an Epocha is mistaken by Chronologers p. 149. The likeness of two Words may occasion Variations in Chronology p. 150. The Numeral Letters were easily mistaken by Transcribers ib. Some Alterations of the Septuagint from the Hebrew seem to have been made with design p. 151. The Terms of Time sometimes taken inclusively and at other times exclusively p. 154. CHAP. VII Of the Obscurity of some places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophecies HOw it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood p. 157. Some Doctrins are difficult in themselves p. 158. The Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times consisted in Proverbs and Parables p. 161. Many places of Scripture which are obscure to us were not obscure in the Ages when they were written p. 164. The main scope and design of Parables is to be observed and not every word and circumstance to be insisted upon p. 168 The Obscurity of Prophecies and Types considered p. 170. Differences in the interpretations of Phrophecies no Argument for the uncertainty of them ib. It is evident and agreed by Interpreters that Prophecies have been fulfilled tho' they differ about the Time when they were fulfilled p. 171. Some Prophecies purposely obscure and why p. 172. Some Prophecies had never been conveyed down to Posterity unless they had been obscurely written p. 175. Others could never have been fulsilled ib. If Prophecies had been plainer it would have been thought that they had been fulfilled only by design and contrivance p. 177. Men would have committed Sin in many cases to fulfill Prophecies ib. They may sometimes be obscure in Mercy to Men p. 178. And at other times for a Judgment upon the Obstinate p. 179. The obscurity of Prophecies designed to abate the Confidence and exercise the diligence of Men p. 180. Some Prophecies plainly delivered by all Prophets those which are not so delivered of great use even before the Accomplishment This shewn of the Revelation of St. John p. 182. The Nature and Certainty of Types considered p. 177. The obscurities of Scriptures is not such as to be any prejudice to the end and design of them p. 180. CHAP. VIII Of the Places of Scripture which seem to contradict each other NO Reason to expect that the Scriptures should be so penned as to afford no suspicion of Contradiction to injudicious and rash Men p. 184. what Method ought to be taken to make a true Judgment of any Author p. 186. An Objection may imply too much as well as prove too little to be of any force p. 187. Contradictions in Points of Chronology and other things of little moment tho' they should have happened by the fault and negligence of Men would be no Argument against the Authority of the Scriptures p. 190. CHAP. IX Of the Creation of the World and the Preservation of it OF the Time when the World began p. 193. There is no Reason to suppose the World to have been at first made by Mechanical Laws tho' it was preserved according to such Laws p. 194. Sufficient Reasons may be given for the Creation of the World in that manner which we find related in the Book of Genesis p. 196. with respect to the Angels p. 200. with respect to Men p. 203. The Preservation of the World is not performed according to Mechanical Principles p. 208. The Mechanical Hypotheses grounded upon mistake viz. that there is always the same Quantity of Motion p. 208. that there is a Plenum ib. They suppose it move Worthy of God to leave Matter and Motion to perform all by themselves without his immediate Interposition and Assistance p. 210. The Ordinary and Extraordinary or Miraculous Works of God considered p. 211. The Laws of the Material and of the Moral part of the World compared p. 213. The Mechanical Hypotheses inconsistent with our Duty of Prayer to God for deliverance in Sickness and Dangers p. 214. The Mechanical Philosophy proceeds upon a mistaken Notion of God p. 215. CHAP. X. Of other Habitable Worlds besides this Earth ALL things are alike easy to God yet Men are most inclined to admire and Glorify Him for the vastness of his Works p. 218. Wonderful Discoveries lately made upon Earth by Microscopes as well as by Telescopes in the Heavens But Angels who have no need of artificial Helps to discern them glorify God for his Works more than Men p. 219. The use and benefit of the Stars p. ib. The Earth to be considered as the Seat of Mankind in all Ages under which Notion it is no contemptible Place p. 220. The Planets not inhabitable ib. For what uses they may be designed p. 222. CHAP. XI That there is nothing in the Scriptures which contradicts the late Discoveries in Natural Philosophy THe use of popular Expressions implies neither the Affirmation nor the Denial of the Philosophical Truth of them p. 224. How the Sun is said to stand still Jos x. 12. p. 225. The Firmament in the midst of the Waters Gen. 1.6 explained p. 226. The Sun and the Moon how said to be Two great Lights Gen. 1.16 p. 227. The Pillars of the Earth 1 Sam. 11.8 p. 229. The Sky-strong and as a Molten Looking-Glass Job xxxvii 18. ib. The Scripture speaks strictly according to Philosophy p. 230. CHAP. XII Of Man's being Created capable of Sin and Damnation THis repugnant neither to the Justice nor Mercy of God p. 231. The Objection rightly stated p. 233. The Glory of God is more advanced and the Attributes of his Wisdom and his Justice and of his Goodness it self are more displayed by leaving Men to a freedom of Acting than they would have been by Imposing an inevitable Fate upon Mankind p. 234. Freedom of Action conduceth more to the Happiness of the Blessed than a necessity of not Sinning could
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
be avoided but by the care and concernment of an extraordinary providence and they are of so little moment that it could not be expected that God should particularly concern himself to prevent them 3. The Penmen of the Scriptures in their Proverbs or Parables often allude to Customs or to things that happened in those times in which they lived that were then commonly known but being unknown now may well make many places of their Writings obscure to us which were not so to those of their own time This is alledged as the reason of the obscurity * Obscuâ—itates inquit sex 〈…〉 â—ssignemus culâ—◠〈…〉 sed inscitiae non 〈…〉 quanquam hi 〈…〉 quae Scripta 〈…〉 â—ercipiunt culpa 〈…〉 â—am longâ—aetas ver 〈…〉 â—ores veteres oblite 〈…〉 qâ—â—â—us verbis moribus 〈◊〉 sententia legum comprenensa est A. Gell. lib. xx c. 1. of the Laws of the Twelve Tables among the Romans at the distance of less than seven hundred years after their first being enacted And thus it is in all Books of Antiquity especially in such Books as have frequent occasion to hint at things so notorious at the time when they were written that it was needless to give any particular account of them This has made Notes and Comments necessary upon all Ancient Books and those places need them most which treat of things formerly so well known that the Authors did not think fit to insist upon them but supposed them and only alluded to them rather than exprest or explained them For which reason we owe the Informations which we have of the Roman Antiquities chiefly to Greek Authors because it had been absurd for Romans writing to men of their own City and Nation to acquaint them with the customs of Rome which they knew as well as themselves but those things were proper for Foreigners to take notice of for the information of Foreigners And whatever Allusions either in Parables or otherwise are made to such things must needs be difficult to us because whatever is thus spoken with reference to any thing can be known no better than the thing itself and that which served for an Illustration at the first Writing renders the sense obscure when the thing used for Illustration becomes unknown Nothing is more generally known than the proverbial Sayings of a Nation to the people of it but there is nothing that needs more explication to Foreigners And these Sayings are very frequent both in the discourses of our Saviour and throughout the whole Scriptures for they are the most significant and instructive way of Discourse and the most easily apprehended by such as are used to them The use of Proverbs is natural to all Nations and they are the result of the experience and observation of any people So that the most effectual and readiest way of Instruction is to apply these Sayings generally known and received to particular cases and occasions But then these commonly depend upon the customs of a people or upon some History or particular Accident and oftentimes are taken up at first upon small occasions and the intention and signification of them is apt to be forgotten or mistaken in future Age or by other Nations And therefore all places of Scripture exprest in Allegorical or Proverbial Forms of Speech or by Types and Resemblances of things must needs have been better understood in those times when they were written than they are now because we have but an imperfect Notion of many things to which the Allusion is made or from whence the similitude is taken and the very thing which makes them now obscure to us made them the more plain and intelligible to them who lived at the time of their being written 4. Maimonides * Maim More Nevoch Praef. lays this down as a fundamental Rule of the explication of the Scripture that we should attend to the main Scope any Design of Parables and not insist upon every word and circumstance which is added to make them more Natural but not as any necessary part of them And in those Ages when Prophecies were so frequent and Types and Allegories so constantly made use of they had certain Rules and Methods †Joseph Gell. Jud. lib. iii. c. 14. of Interpretation as we learn from Josephus which thro length of time and the corruption of succeeding Ages are now lost And it is certain that the Jews in the time of our Saviour and his Apostles were often confused and silenced by them with the Application of Types and Prophecies which were then acknowledged to belong to the Messias and were ever so understood by the Jews but would scarce be understood so by us if we did not find them thus interpreted and apply'd We see then that the obscurity of many places of Scripture proceeds from the length of Time and other accidents and that therefore it could not be prevented unless God should make a New Revelation to every Ago and Nation of the World which yet would be of little effect to those who will not be convinced nor perswaded by that Revelation which we have in the Scriptures Tho the Scriptures were designed for the Benefit and Instruction of all Ages and Nations yet they often had a more direct and immediate Regard to the Age and Nation in which they were first penned We have nothing left but the Names of most of the Historians mentioned by St Jerom as necessary to be read in order to explain the Prophecies of Daniel and many objections made against the Scriptures would have no pretence if we knew the circumstances of affairs and had a compleat History of those times to which they relate but God having given us full evidence that the Scriptures are written by his Appointment and Direction expects to be believed upon his word and has not thought fit to gratify the curiosity of men who will disbelieve it And if men will use any tolerable care and diligence the Sense and Importance of the Scriptures may be so far understood as is needful in all Times whatever difficulties there may be in some particular passages II. I shall consider more particularly the obscurity of Prophesies and shall shew what certainty there is in the Types made use of by the Prophets 1. As for any differences which are to be met with in the Interpretation of Prophecies they may proceed partly from the Infirmities and Passions of humane Nature by which it comes to pass that when men undertake to write upon any subject they are seâ—dom sausâ—â—d with what others have said before them but 〈…〉 seeking 〈…〉 Iâ—â—erprâ—â—tion 〈…〉 partâ— â—â—om the 〈◊〉 ficulty of sixing the particular and prâ—â—se time of Actâ—â—â— But this 〈…〉 objection against 〈…〉 the Truth of all 〈…〉 well conclude that things 〈…〉 to paâ—s because learned 〈◊〉 diffâ—â—◠〈◊〉 time of their being done as â—hat they 〈◊〉 never prophesied of for the same reason Expâ—siâ—â—rs may differ in the niceties of the Chronological part but in the
might not suffer a Book written by his own Appointment and Authority to be encumbred thro' length of Time and the frailty and negligence of Men with insuperable Difficulties if it be supposed still to retain the visible Marks and Characters of a Divine Original in all the Evidence necessary to prove it from Matter of Fact and in the Doctrines delivered by it For as long as these two things are secured all the rest tho' it be of never so great Use and Excellency yet cannot be necessary in order to the ends of a Divine Revelation And therefore a Book of Divine Revelation might be permitted by God for the Sins and by the Fault and Ignorance of Men to become perplext with abundance of divers Readings and even with Contradictions in the Chronological and less material Points of it For so long as it cannot be proved Defective as to the ends and purposes of a Divine Revelation either for want of evidence to make it appear to be such or thro' defect of the Matter and Doctrine contained in it all other Difficulties will never prove it not to be of Divine Authority because so long as there is no Defect but what might be in any Book tho' we suppose it to be of Divine Authority CHAP. IX Of the Creation of the World and the Preservation of it BY Creation in the Book of Genesis is understood not only the Production of the World out of Nothing but the Formation and Disposal of the several Parts of the Universe But there has an Opinion of late years prevailed very injurious to Religion and repugnant to Reason and the Judgment of former Ages That God only created Matter and gave it Motion to be performed under certain Laws by which all the Phaenomena of Nature both in the Creation and Preservation of Things are brought about without any farther immediate Divine Power or Concourse than what is just necessary to continue this Matter and Motion in Being that is God created Matter and put it into Motion and then Matter and Motion do all the rest in a settled Course and by established Laws without any need of the Divine Aid or Direction This Notion indeed can never be reconciled to the Scriptures but then it is as little befriended by Reason and Natural Religion In proof of which I shall consider I. The Creation of the World II. The Preservation of it and shall shew that neither of them could be performed in this way I. As to the Creation we may consider both the Time and the Manner of it And by the Time of the Creation we may understand either the Time when the Creation of the World began or the Time which was taken up in the Creation of it But this latter sense will come under what is to be said of the Manner of the Creation 1. The Time of the Creation of the World as that signifies the Beginning of Time or of the Worlds Duration must be wholly Arbitrary and absolutely at God's Sovereign Pleasure and Disposal For there could be nothing in eternal Duration to fix the Creation of the World more to one Time than another or to determin why it should begin sooner or later And since it is impossible that the world should be eternal it is evident that the Time of the Creation whenever it was can be no good Objection because tho' the World had been created never so long before there must necessarily have been as much a Pretence for such an Objection For there must have been some Period of Time when the World had existed no longer than it has done now and no beginning of the World can be supposed so long ago but still it might with the same Reason be ask'd why it was not created sooner 2. In considering the Manner of the Worlds Creation I shall prove 1. That there is no Reason to suppose the World to have been at the first made by Mechanical Laws tho' it were preserv'd according to such Laws 2. That there are sufficient Reasons to be given for its Creation in that Manner which we find related in the Book of Genesis 1. There is no Reason to suppose the World to have been at first made by Mechanichal Laws tho' it were preserved according to such Laws whereas I shall afterwards prove that it is not preserved according to them There is no Reason that the World should be first framed according to the Laws of Motion which are established for its Preservation and Government in its fixt and settled State The Origin of the Universe was by the immediate hand of God before the Appointment of the several Laws which afterwards were to take place and we may as well endeavour to reduce the working of Miracles to the standing Laws of Nature as the Creation of the World For certainly of all Miracles the Creation of the World must be the greatest not only as it signifies the Production of Matter and Motion out of Nothing but as it was the putting things into such Order as to make them capable of the Laws of Motion ordained for them It is not yet agreed nor is it ever like to be what these Laws of Motion are which the Philosophers so much talk of and there being such a mutual Connexion and Combination of Bodies and such a Dependance of every Body upon so many others in every Motion it is impossible to know how any two Bodies would act upon each other if they were separate from all Bodies besides or were out of that State which they now are in It is reasonable therefore to imagine that the several Parts of the World must be ranged and settled before these Laws could take place and to reduce the Creation of the World to the Laws of Motion which now prevail in it is to suppose a Creation antecedent to that by which the World was made This is as if an Indian should attempt to give an Account of the making of a Watch by the several Motions which he sees performed in it after it is made and should imagine that the Materials moving in such a manner at last arrived to the exact frame of a Watch. 2. There are sufficient Reasons to be given for the Creation of the World in that manner which we find related in the Book of Genesis It is great Presumption in Men to be too curious and inquisitive about the Reasons of God's Actions for whatever he delivers of himself we ought entirely to believe both the Thing it self and the manner and Circumstances of it Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast Vnderstanding Job xxxviii 4. But this must be said to the Glory of God and to the Shame of all such as Censure and Cavil at his Word that even by Men such Reasons may be given of his Actions as all his Adversaries shall not be able to gain-say God hath ordered all things in Measure and Number and Weight Wisd xi 20. And as to
ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them Male and Female And said for this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh Matth. xix 4 5. And St. Paul in like manner to shew that the Woman ought not to usurp Authority over the Man proves it by this Argument For Adam was first formed then Eve 1 Tim. ii 13. and in another place and upon another occasion he observes that the Man is not of the Woman but the Woman of the Man 1 Cor. xi 8. And long before the Prophet Malachi had Argued from the same Topick Malach. ii 15. And Hebr. iv 4. it is noted that God did rest the Seventh day from all his Works from whence the Apostle concludes that he that is entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Vers 10. Now as these and whatever other Arguments are to be found in the Scriptures of the like Nature do evidently suppose the Creation of the World in the same manner as it is related in the Book of Genesis so they explain to us the Reasons why it was thus Created For all these Arguments had been lost and there could have been no ground for them if the World had been otherwise created As certainly therefore as this Arguing from the manner of the Creation is good So certain it is both that the World was so Created and that there was great Reason for it But whatever some Philisophers may think now there is nothing which would have been more disagreeable to the Notions of the Generality of the wisest Men in all Ages than that the World should be made upon Mechanical Principles He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fact Psal xxxiii 9. He Commanded and they were Created Psal Cxlviii 5. This expresses not only the Truth of the History but the general sense of Mankind who have ever had this Notion of God that to command and to do is the same thing with him And therefore the Objection till of late has run the other way that God did rather Create the World in an instant than in six days It was little suspected formerly that divers Years or many Ages were spent in the Creation It was in the Description of the Creation of the World that Longinus observed the sublime Style of Moses and if the Relation of it be admirable the Creation it self in such a manner as is there related must be much more admirable For it is proper for it to be thus described for no other Reason but because it was proper for it in this manner to be done But what would Longinus have said if the Creation had been related to have been performed not by any command which had its immediate effect but by the tedious Process of Mechanical Causes What Grandeur what evidence of the Divine Power and Majesty is there in this more than in any Chymical Operation if the Mechanical Hypothesis were true It were strange Presumption to demand of Almighty God a Reason of all his Actions and not to believe him upon his Word that he has done any thing but when and how some Men conceit it ought to have been done But what I have now said may at least serve to silence the Cavils of such Men. 2. The Preservation of the World is not performed according to Mechanical Laws or Principles The Mechanical Hypothesis supposes that Bodies act upon Bodies or Actives upon Passives in a certain course and according to such Laws as that being left to themselves they necessarily produce their Effects without any immediate Interposition of a Divine Power But this Notion is grounded wholly upon mistakes 1. It supposes that there was at first a certain quantity of Motion infused or impressed upon Matter which still continues passing from one Body to another according to certain Methods or Rules prescribed But this Supposition that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World is wholly precarious or rather notoriously false and the best Philosophers have been able to give no Account how Motion can be Communicated without an immediate Impulse or Concourse of the Divine Power 2. By the Mechanical Hypothesis it is supposed as a thing certain that there is a Plenum which at least is very uncertain or rather it has been demonstrated by Mr. Newton that there is a Vacuum not only interspersed but of a Prodigious and almost incredible extent at the distance of the Earths Simidiameter from us And by his Principles Gravitation must proceed from an immediate and constant Impression or Impulse of God For it proceeds from no Action of one Body upon another but is a Quality belonging to all Matter alike and to every particle of Matter however separate and distant from all others The Projectile Motion and that Attractive Force by which the Planets are carried in their Orbits cannot be communicated or performed according to any Mechanical Laws whereby they are determined from a Rectilinear to an Orbicular Motion For Bodies can act upon Bodies only by Contract and therefore cannot Communicate their Motion or any way determin or affect the Motion of each other in a Vacuum so vast as it must be near the Circumference of the several Orbits so that the old occult Qualities and Substantial Terms were not more repugnant to the Mechanical Hypothesis than these Principles are The being of a Vacuum must suppose an immediate Divine Power necessary to keep the System of the World in that order in which we see it continue For otherwise by this Principle of Gravitations being inherent in every Part of Matter all Bodies would press towards the Center and in a Vacuum there can be nothing to hinder their tendency towards it till they come crowding the upon another so that all the Order of things would soon be reduced to one confused Heap or Moss unless some immaterial Power interposed to hinder it It is evident then that the Mechanical Hypothesis is quite destroyed by these Principles For by these here is no Connexion of Causes and Effects according to any Laws of mere Matter and Motion but all must be done by the immediate Power of God Gravitation and the Projectile Motion must be impressed and suspended without any dependance upon surrounding Bodies they must produce their Effects thro' prodigious void Spaces where Bodies have no Communication of Motion from one to another And all being performed by the immediate directing and assisting Hand of God a Man may as well pretend to solve a Miracle Mechanically as to give any Account of the Phaenomena of Nature by Mechanical Laws according to these Principles 3. The Abetters of the Mechanical Hypothesis argue that God acts in the most General and Uniform ways that it is more becoming his Wisdom to let Nature have its course and that constantly to interpose would be a disparagement to the Order
and Contrivance in his Establishment of the Laws of Motion that Matter and Motion are with that Wisdom set to work that they can perform all without any more than preserving and sustaining them in their Being and Operations and that he is the best Artist who can contrive an Engine that shall need the least medling with after it is made But it ought to be considered what the Nature of the Engine is and what the ends and uses of it are and if the Nature of it be such that it cannot answer the ends for which it was framed without sometimes an assisting Hand it would be no point of Wisdom in the Artificer for the Credit of his Contrivance to lose the most useful Ends design'd by it As if among other uses this curious Engine were design'd to reward the Good and punish bad Men to remove the punishment upon Amendment and to renew it upon a Relapse Since Brute Matter is uncapable of varying its Motion and suiting it self to the several States and Changes of Free Agents he must assist it unless he will lose the Chief end for which it is to serve It is no defect in the Skill and Wisdom of the Almighty that Matter and Motion have not Free will as Men have But it would be a great defect in his Wisdom not to make them the Instruments of Rewards and Punishment because it is impossible for them of themselves to apply and suit themselves to the several States and Conditions of Free Agents The Nature of Matter and Motion is such that they cannot serve all the Designs of their Creator without his Interposition and therefore he constantly doth interpose according to a certain Tenour which he has prescribed to himself but this Tenour and Course is altered upon some important Occasions In a natural and ordinary way he Cures Diseases sends Rain or dry Weather or else our Prayers to him would be insignificant upon such Occasions and there would be no room left for his inflicting these Temporal Rewards and Punishments He feeds the Hungry that cry to him and he punishes the Wicked when he sees it fitting by Famine or Drought or Pestilence in the ordinary Methods of his Providence But sometimes he alters these ordinary Methods and acts above them or contrary to them to signalize his Mercy or his Judgments And thus Christ fed so many thousands in the Wilderness and God Rained down Fire from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah by a particular and miraculous Dispensation Miracles are the particular Appointment of God in peculiar Cases and Occasions and the course of Nature is his general and perpetual Appointment at all other times God at no time leaves Nature to it self but ever concurs with it by assisting its Power and directing its course he ordinarily interposes in the constant course of Things according to established Laws But Miracles are his wonderful Work when he interposes in an extraordinary manner and alters that Method which he has prescribed to himself to observe in the common course of Nature God doth not in an extraordinary manner interpose to prevent the irregular or unusual productions of Nature as in mostrous Births c. For how irregular soever these may seem yet they are according to this standing Rule that they shall be suffered to happen in certain Cases and they rarely happening serve to illustrate the Divine Wisdom in contriving Nature so that in its general Course all its Operations should be regular and uniform and from hence it appears that God doth not extraordinarily interpose to alter the Course of Nature but for great Ends Superiour to those which concern only the material World We may well suppose that God has at much regard to his Wisdom in his Government of the Moral as of the Material Part of the Creation and yet he has added supplemental Laws to enforce the Moral Laws and these additional Laws have been changed as the Circumstances and Condition of Men required Why then should the Laws of the Material World be so much more sacred as that he should never intermeddle with them He assists Moral Agents with the continual supplies of his Grace and natural Agents with that help which is needful for them to perform his will God may hasten and assist natural causes upon our Prayers he may quicken the Motions and enforce the Powers of Nature and remove secret Impediments to help and make way for natural Operations or he may slacken or retard natural Causes To say that God has so ordered the course of Nature as upon the fore-sight of Mens Prayers to him to grant them what they Pray for and upon the fore-sight that they will not Pray to withhold from them what they want by Mechanical Laws is by no means satisfactory For there is neither Proof nor possibility of Proof of it it is merely a Supposition without any ground of Reason but only this that the Mechanical Notion cannot otherwise be maintained But I will suppose with much more Reason that two Men are Sick of the same Disease that the Circumstances of the Disease are all the same and all outward Accidents likewise the same till the Prayers of one of them make a Difference For one of these Men upon his Prayers Recovers the other neglecting to Pray Dies The natural Causes are supposed to be the same excepting only so far as Prayer moves God in his Mercy to make a Difference in their Case To say that this never happened is wholly precarious and hard to believe since it probably may often happen in Epidemical Distempers but it is much harder to believe that it can never happen and if this either have or can happen it is not upon fore-sight of their Prayers by the contrivance of Mechanical Laws in their first Establishment but by an immediate Act that God assists Men upon their Prayers to him The strange Providential Deliverances of some certain Persons are observable in every Age and all Histories mention them But how shall particular Men amidst the greatest Dangers be preserved in the common Calamities of the Sword and Famine and Pestilence but by a particular interposing Providence Were these Men who have been so remarkably preserv'd all of one Constitution or do Soldiers Slay Mechanically tho' the Plague and Famine should be supposed to do so I wonder it should be thought less agreeable to Philosophy for God to interpose in directing natural Causes than in over-ruling Moral Agents where the Designs of the Providence equally require it The same Providence delivers both from the snare of the Hunter and from the noisome Pestilence A thousand shall fall besides thee and ten thousand at thy Right Hand but it shall not come nigh thee Psal xci 3.7 4. The Mechanical Philosophy proceeds upon a wrong Notion of God supposing it unworthy of him to be concerned immediately in every thing which is done We may as well imagine it below him to know every thing as to suppose it unworthy of him
and Aids of Grace to avoid the Punishments and are as earnestly invited and as sufficiently enabled to obtain the Rewards God hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live as he solemnly and with an Oath declares by his Prophet Ezekiel xxxiii 11. It is His principal Intention and Desire that all Men should be saved He has proclaimed Himself to be the Lord The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin but then it is added that he will by no means clear the guilty that is the obstinate and impenitent Sinner Exod. xxxiv 6 7. He exhorts he invites he promises he threatens he promises eternal Happiness and threatens eternal Misery to give all the Discouragement to Vice and all the Enducement to Religion and Vertue which is possible Last of all he has sent his Son to instruct us in our Duty and to confirm all this to us and to purchase our Redemption with his own Blood God deals with Men in the plainest and most condescending manner He lays their Duty before them with the Rewards and Punishments annex'd and both eternal the better to secure them in their Obedience and force them to be happy and then he takes Men at no Advantage but makes all reasonable Allowances in consideration of the frailty of Humane Nature and in condescension to their Infirmities He exacts not absolute Perfection nor any impossible Obedience but requires that tho' we cannot live without Sin yet we should not sin wilfully and obstinately that we should not allow and indulge our selves in Sin and should repent if we have done so He requires a faithful and sincere Diligence in all the Parts of our Duty which is no more than what every Father and Master expects from his Children and Servants When Men have sinned God admits of their Repentance and if after Repentance they sin again yet still they shall be accepted upon a renew'd Repentance nay after a long course of Sin a sincere Repentance may reconcile them to God and no Repentance can be too late that is sincere It is extreamly dangerous indeed to defer our Repentance for one Moment because our Lives are so uncertain and we may provoke God to that degree that he will no longer afford us an Opportunity to repent nor bestow that Grace upon us which is necessary to Repentance But this is after repeated Provocations and an obstinate rejecting of the Goodness of God which leads Men to repentance And these are the Terms of the Gospel that when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive There is Great Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth and the returning Prodigal is received with the greatest Favour and Tenderness If we will be obedient we have the Assistance of God's Grace and if we have done amiss yet His grace is offered us to bring us to Repentance and we may be pardoned upon sincere Resolutions of Obedience for the future But if Men either disbelieve or disregard all these things if they neither care for God's Promises nor fear his Threatnings if they trample under foot the Blood of his Son and grieve his blessed Spirit if all the Methods of his Mercy and Goodness be lost upon them there remains no other Remedy but Justice must have its course If when they are told so long beforehand what danger they are in Men will continue obstinate in their Disobedience after so many Invitations and Encouragements to Repentance and after so great Importunity and Forbearance they can have no reason to complain of the Severity of that Sentence which they have been so often threatned with and have as often despised Since the Rewards are eternal on the one hand and the Punishments on the other the Rewards being proportionable to the Punishments the Terms are on both sides equal and since it is in our Power by the Help of the Divine Grace to avoid the Punishments and obtain the Rewards the Condition is such as that any wise Man would be thankful for it and would be glad that such a Prizee is put into his hands so far would he be from complaining that the Terrors of Punishments are join'd to the Encouragement of Rewards that all Motives concur to make him happy and that God has used all means both inward by his Grace and outward by his Promises and Threatnings to bring us to Salvation I repeat it again for God himself often repeats it in the Holy Scriptures God hath no Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but hath used all means to prevent it he hath provided Heaven for us and threatned Hell if we will not be perswaded to go to Heaven If Men will neglect the Means of their Salvation and will not repent and turn to him notwithstanding all his most loving and compassionate Exhortations and the Death of his own Son for them if neither Heaven can invite nor Hell frighten them from their Sins they must thank themselves only for that Destruction which they bring upon themselves The Appeal which God so long ago made to the House of Israel may at the last Day be alledg'd to Sinners Ye have said that the way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O ye Sinners Is not my way equal have not your ways been unequal And the ways of God shall then appear so equal and the ways of wicked Men so unreasonable and perverse that their own Consciences shall bear Witness against them and He that died to save them will pronounce the Sentence of eternal Damnation upon them CHAP. XV. Of the Jewish Law THere is nothing which vulgar Minds are more surprised and offended at nor at which Men of Understanding and Experience are less enclin'd to wonder or take Offence than the several Laws and Customs of divers Nations in the different Ages and Climates of the World The Habit the Language the Letters and manner of Writing the Food the Complexion the Features of the Body and Disposition of the Mind are various in different Countries and Ages And theresore it is no wonder that the Political and Ceremonial Part of the Jewish Law which was given so many Ages ago and in a Country which is at this Day very different in its Customs from ours should be as different from the Customs in use amongst us as the Age and Climate For when God doth appoint Laws for Men he must be supposed to appoint such as are suitable to the Necessities and Occasions of those for whom they are made And some who have travelled into the Eastern Countries which are not so variable in their Fashions and Way of Living as the Western Nations are have found great advantages both from the Nature of the Inhabitants and of the Climates and from the Customs and Manners of
those Parts of the World for the explication of divers places of Scripture which depend upon the knowledge of those Countries Now the whole Jewish Law may be divided into the Moral the Political or Judicial and the Ceremonial Law The Moral Part of Moses's Law which is contain'd in the Ten Commandments and enjoyns our Duty towards God and towards our Neighbour is just and holy beyond all Controversy or Exception And the Political or Judicial Part with the Ceremonial was adapted to the Circumstances and Necessities of those Ages and that Nation And if the Moral Part be absolutely most Divine and Holy and the Positive Institutions both Political and Ritual were the most fit and proper for that Time and Government that is if they were the best that could be for those Ages and that People then the whole Body of the Mosaick Law is without all just Exception And that this is so it will be evident if we observe the Reasons upon which the Positive Laws amongst the Jews were instituted 1. The Judicial Laws relating to the Administration of Justice in the Jewish Government are so reasonable that they have been transcrib'd into the Laws of the wisest Heathen Nations as hath been particularly shewn by Learned Men. There are but few of the Judicial Laws which have been objected against and these have been often and effectually vindicated The Law which seems most harsh and rigorous is that of Retaliation which yet was the most antient way of Punishment in most Nations and was not unjust for the Laws to inflict tho' it was sinful in the Persons injured to require it out of a Desire of Revenge and with a Delight to gratify themselves in their Enemies Sufferings For if it be just to punish the taking away of a little Money with Death how can it be unjust to inflict the same Punishment for the depriving a Man of his Eye And if it be not unjust to make Death the Punishment of striking out an Eye and what Nation doth not punish much less Injuries with Death How can it be unjust to punish the Offender with the Loss of his own Eye One of the severest Laws that ever was known amongst a civilised People was that of the Twelve Tables which gave leave to (a) Sunt enimquaedam non â—audabilia Natura sed jure concessa ut in xii Tabulis Debitoris Corpus inter Creditores dividi licuit quam legem mos ' Publicus repudiavit Quintil. Institut lib. iii. cap. 6. the Creditors among the Romans to divide the Debtor's Body between them if he were insolvent This was one of those things which are not commendable in their own Nature but yet are allow'd and permitted as Quintilian has observ'd upon particular Reasons but this Law was laid aside by a general Disuse and (b) Lighf Hor. Hebraic ad Mat. v. 38. that of Retaliation among the Jews was interpreted by them according to an Antient Tradition to be meant not of strict Retaliation but of a Compensation to be made in Money to the Person maimed 2. Many of those Rites which may seem strange to us were so far from being esteem'd absurd that they became common in those Countries as Circumcision was antiently and is to this day practised in many Parts of the World (c) Grot. ad Lev. xi Act. x. 15. the Aegyptiaus and many other Nations abstain'd from Swines Flesh and the Aethiopians from most of the Meats which were forbidden the Jews such Abstinencies being necessary for Health in those Countries Frequent Washings likewise are requisite in hot Countries for Health and Refreshment Religion prescrib'd only the Time and Manner and particular Occasion of it the Thing it self is Natural And when we see such a Body of Laws of so great Antiquity well contriv'd and wisely instituted for the Substance of them if there be in some of them any thing peculiar and singular tho' they were but the Laws of a Man yet common Modesty and Candor might make us conclude that so wise a Lawgiver must have some good Reason for those particular Laws which at this distance of Time and Place cannot be so obvious to us but it would be Rashness to suspect that he had no sufficient Reason for those who appears to have enacted the rest with so great Wisdom Thus it would be natural for a Man of tolerable Modesty to conclude even concerning a System of Humane Laws tho' no probable Account could be given of many of them But when God is the Lawgiver this ought to silence all Disputes that they are his Laws and therefore must be wise and good for that People at that Time and in their Condition and Circumstances The Will and Authority of God without any other Reason is sufficient of it self in any Case to be alledg'd and it may be fit in some Cases that we should have no other Reason to produce It is a rash and dangerous thing to conclude that God did not command this or that because we do not see why it should be commanded this is to say that we will not believe God to be the Author of any thing which we do not like or would not have to be His. Are we wont to argue thus about Humane Laws Would it be any Excuse for a disobedient Subject to say that in his Opinion such Laws were not fit to be made and that therefore he would not believe his Prince had made such Laws when he had all due notice and full evidence that he had appointed them but was resolved to reject the whole Body of Laws upon the account of some which he did not fancy which yet were obsolete and out of Date Do we not allow that Reasons of State and of Government may require many things to be done and many Laws to be made which it doth not belong to private Men to be curious about and which the greatest Part of the Subjects are not able to comprehend And are not God's Thoughts infinitely above the Thoughts of the wisest Men and infinitely farther out of our Reach than the Counsels of the most Prudent and Politick Prince can be above the Understanding of his meanest and most ignorant Subjects How shall we dare then to reject any Divine Revelation because it is not agreeable in every particular to our Thoughts and Notions of things But I shall enquire however into the Reasons and Grounds which appear to us at this distance of Time for the Ceremonial Laws and I doubt not but these will be sufficient to justify them to all impartial Men. 1. The Ceremonial Laws were given the Jews to prevent them from falling into Idolatry For they were design'd to distinguish the Jews in many things from the Neighbouring Nations and to hinder them from following their Idolatrous Customs And the Customs of the (d) Summa vero rei haec eft quemadmodum in praecedentibus tibi dixi dogmata ritus Zabiorum hodie nobis esse incognitos ita
humanae vitae speculum constitutum est Novatian de lib. Judaic c. 3. signification of such Prohibitions is implied in the Proverb alleged by St. Peter concerning Dogs and Swine which are two of the Animals prohibited the Jews 2 Pet. ii 22. Sacrifices and Offerings were to represent to them that they depended upon God for all they had and therefore they were to offer something of every kind in Acknowledgment that they had received all which they enjoyed from him They were likewise designed to signify to them that their Sins deserved Death even Everlasting Burnings The daily Sacrifices were to be Remembrances to them of that Acceptable and Living Sacrifice which they were to offer to God a broken and a contrite Heart and an Innocent and Blameless Life Ps iv 4 5. Cxli. 2. And the Scriptures frequently testify how little Pleasure God took in the Sacrifices of Beasts and in Burnt-Offerings Incense and Oblations and how small Regard he had to them He never required these things for themselves and upon their own Account or because there is any thing acceptable to him in them Psal xl 6 4. l. 8 li. 17. To do Justice and love Mercy is more acceptable to God than all Sacrifices Prov. xxi 3. Jer. vii 22 23. This is so evident throughout the whole Old Testament that the Scribes and Pharisees in the most superstitious and corrupt Age of the Jewish Church could not but confess that the Love of God and of our Neighbour is of more Account in God's sight than all the Sacrifices and Oblations in the World Mark xii 37. The Ceremonial Part of the Law was always to give place to the Moral thus Acts of Charity were to be done tho' it happened that they were performed by the violation of the Jewish Sabbath and the Prophets were upon necessary Causes held exempted from the Legal Observances For I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Burnt-Offerings Hos vi 6. 3. All the Jewish Worship appointed by the Mosaical Law was Typical of Christ and his Gospel By a Type we are to understand the Likeness and Resemblance which one thing has to another as that of the Impression to the Seal or of the Shadow to the Substance or of the Picture to the Man whom it represents Thus the Death of Christ was typified or resembled or represented and prefigured by the Death of the Beasts which were Sacrificed they were signs appointed to keep up the Remembrance that Christ was to be Sacrificed and were very apt and proper to put Men in Mind of it It was acknowledged by the Jews and received from the Beginning as a certain Rule for the Interpretation of Scripture that there was a Typical as well as a Literal Sense of it relating to the Messias and his Kingdom Circumcision was to signify to them that Christ was to be born of the Seed of Abraham to whom Circumcision was first enjoyned upon the Promise made to him of Isaac from whom Christ was to descend And the Blood shed in Circumcision was Typical of that Blood which Christ was to shed for us The most probable Account of the Origiginal of Sacrifices is that they were at first of Divine Institution and were appointed soon after the Fall of Man as Types of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ who was promised to be sent to die for the Expiation of Sin For tho' there be a natural Reason why we shouuld not Offer unto the Lord our God of that which doth Cost us nothing but should Honour the Lord with our Substance 2 Sam. xxiv 24. Prov. iii. 9. and should present some part of the best of what we have in Devotion and Gratitude to him from whom we have received the Whole Yet no sufficient Reason can be given why Beasts should be Slain in Sacrifice before they were used as far as it appears for Food by Men or how it should be imagined that God would accept of the Blood of any Creature or be pleased with the taking from it that Life which he had given it or why a peculiar Efficacy towards the Expiation of Sin was supposed to be in the Blood unless it had been upon the Account of the Blood of Christ which was Typically prefigured by the Blood of Beasts By Faith whereof Abel offered his Sacrifice and was accepted Heb. xi 4. The Paschal Lamb was a plain Type of Christ for which Reason Christ is styled the Lamb of God and our Passover which is Sacrificed for us Jo. i. 29. 1 Cor. v. 7. And for the same Reason the Feast of the Passover was appointed to the Israelites just before their Escape out of Aegypt to be a Type to thâ—m of that Deliverance which Christ was to accomplish of which their Deliverance out of Aegypt was but a Figure Aaron was a Type of Christ and all the Sacrifices he offered were Types of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross They were appointed to take away the Legal Uncleanness to restore Men to a State of Legal Purity which was Typical of Moral and Spiritual Purity and to put the Legal Worshipers into such a Condition as the Law required to qualify them for the Legal Service and Worship and herein they were Figures of that one Sacrifice which was to be offered up once for all in Attonement for the Sins of all Mankind Hebr. ix 14. whereby Men might be rendred Capable of paying God an acceptable Service in Spirit and in Truth Legal Purifications were Typical of that Purification which is by the Blood of Christ Tit. ii 14. 1 John i. 9. And the smoak of the Incense ascending signified how the Prayers of the Saints come up before God Rev. v. 8. viii 3 4. The State and Dispensation of the Gospel is exprest by the Prophet Malachi under the Figure of Incense and a Pure Offering Malach. 1.11 The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is written upon this subject to shew that all the Legal Rites and Ceremonial Worship were but Shadows and Types and Figures of Christ and of that Redemption Righteousness and Sanctification which was to be wrought by him and that therefore they were to cease when in him they had received their Accomplishment Their Incense and Purificatitions their Sacrifices their Temple and the Priests themselves were all but so many Types of Christ and his Kingdom under the Gospel Christ had been promised to our first Parents immediately after their Fall and this Promise had been renewed to Abraham with an Assurance that he should descend from Isaac and Circumcision was instituted as a perpetual mark in the Flesh of that Covenant and all Sacrifices from the beginning of their Institution were as so many Types and Memorials of the Sacrifice of Christ which was promised before any Sacrifice had been offered And more especially that of the Passover at the deliverance of the Israelites out of Aegypt was a lively Representation of our Redemption by the Death of Christ They had ever
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
recedant Hieron in Amos. c. v. Ex quo perspicuum est Apostolos Evangelistas ipsum Dominum salvatorem ex Hebraeo transferre quod legerint non curantes de syllabis punctisque verborum dummodo sententiarum veritas transferatur Id. in Malach. c. iii. CHAP. XX. Of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God THIS is that Article of our Faith which was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. i. 23. and has ever been most liable to the Objections of Infidels and therefore I shall take the more care to give the clearest and fullest account I can of it I. I shall here consider the necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the satisfaction of the Justice and the vindication of the honour of God II. Tho' it should be suppos'd that God could have pardon'd the Sins of Men upon any other terms than the death and satisfaction of his own Son in our Flesh I hope fully to prove that this is so far from being unworthy of God that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we are able to apprehend could have been so becoming the Divine Wisdom and Goodness 1. There seems to have been a necessity for the Incarnation of the Son of God for the satisfaction of God's Justice and the vindication of his Honour For God is Infinite Justice as well as Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice must punish Offenders unless full satisfaction be made for the Offence because Infinite Justice must demand to the utmost extent of Justice and must require whatsoever can in Justice be demanded But Infinite Mercy found out a Means to satisfie this Infinite Justice which Satisfaction could be made only by the Obedience and by the Death of the Son of God who by his Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross vindicated the Honour of God by performing in our Nature a perfect and absolute Obedience to all that ever God required of Mankind and by suffering to the utmost of all that the Sins of the whole World deserv'd It is for the Honour of God that his Laws should be exactly observ'd and observ'd by one who is of that very Nature for which they were ordain'd and that Satisfaction should be made in the same Nature for the Sins of it Christ therefore taking our Nature upon him paid down the uttermost Farthing which in strictness of Justice must have been demanded but which could never have been paid by any Created Being for the Sins of the whole World And he fulfill'd all Righteousness in Obedience to the Divine Laws which otherwise could never have been fully obey'd And as far as God's Justice and Honour was concern'd to see his Laws obey'd and to demand satisfaction for the breach of them so far the Incarnation of the Son of God must be necessary because these things could be perform'd by no Creature 2. Tho' it should be suppos'd that God could have pardon'd the Sins of Men upon other Terms than the death and satisfaction of his own Son in our flesh yet the Incarnation and Death of his Son is so far from implying any thing unworthy of God that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we can apprehend could so much have become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness First There is nothing in this whole Dispensation unworthy of God Here I am to consider that which was the great prejudice taken against the Christian Religion at its first Propagation and is still the great Objection of the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ and of their own Salvation They are apt to represent it to themselves as an unnecessary thing and unworthy of God that he should send his only begotten Son into the World for the Redemption of Mankind they imagine that the Infinite Wisdom of God could have found out other Methods of Salvation for us and that this would never have been made use of if there could have been any other It might be enough in Answer to such Objections to say with the Apostle nay but O Man who art thou that replyest against God shall the Person saved say unto him that saved him why hast thou saved me thus will we not be contented to be saved unless we can be fully certified in all the Reasons and Methods of our Salvation May not God bring to pass our Redemption in such a way as he shall see fitting or shall we question his Wisdom if his Mercy be so much greater than we can comprehend How infinite is his Mercy and how monstrous our ingratitude if his goodness be made an objection against the truth of his word and be alledg'd as an Argument for our Unbelief What if God willing to shew the heinousness of Sin and to make known the riches of his Mercy chose this way for the Redemption of the World What if many Reasons may be given why this Method was the most proper and expedient and what if there might be infinitely greater and better Reasons for it than all the wisdom of Man can conceive But tho' the Revealed will and Counsel of God ought to silence all Disputes in this as well as in all other Cases yet I think this Objection is capable of a very plain and direct Answer For whatever weight there may seem to be in it it is all grounded upon a Mistake and upon a wrong Notion of the Union between the Divine and the Humane Nature of Christ For if the Godhead be not so united to the Manhood as to suffer with it there is no imaginable Reason why its Union with the Manhood should be supposed to be unworthy of God I shall therefore 1. Shew the unreasonableness of this Supposition that the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ should cause the Godhead to suffer with the Manhood 2. I will prove that the Humiliation of the Son of God in assuming our Nature may be accounted for without supposing that the Godhead suffer'd 3. That the satisfaction of Christ by dying for our Sins may be explain'd without it I. The unreasonableness of this supposition that the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ should cause the Godhead to suffer with the Manhood This Objection supposes the Godhead to be so united to the Manhood in the Person of our Saviour as that the Divine Nature must really and properly partake in all the Sufferings which befell his Person It supposes that Christ as God suffer'd the Miseries of Humane Life and at last underwent Death upon the Cross which is so far from being the Doctrine of the Gospel that it is no better than Heresie and Blasphemy and has always been rejected and condemned as such by the Catholick Church That the Union of the Godhead with the Manhood should render the Godhead capable of Sufferings as the Soul by being united to the Body becomes sensible of its pains is indeed a thing not only unworthy of God but
to make known his Name and Truth among the Gentiles In the time of Moses this People it self was uncapable of that pure and Spiritual Worship which the Messiah was to appoint and stood in need of a Ceremonial Law and Service to restrain them from Idolatry and to preserve the sense and remembrance of the Promises and Laws deliver'd to Adam and Noah And this Ritual Service was unworthy that the Messiah should come purposely to appoint it who was indeed himself the principal thing signified and typified by it and the Types and Figures of himself could not be Instituted by himself in Person for then they would have been insignificant and there could have been no use or occasion for them But the most Excellent and Divine Institution was reserv'd for his Appointment to which all the rest was but preparatory The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made Gal. iii. 19. After the Revelation of God's Will and Commandments had thro' the great neglect and wickedness of Mankind become ineffectual God sent all his Servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them an expression setting forth his great care and watchfulness over his People for their good yet they hearkned not unto him nor enclin'd their ear but hardned their neck Jer. vii 25 26. To Cure this strange stubbornness and their proneness to Idolatry God sent this People into Captivity for Seventy years which wrought so thorough a Reformation in them that they were never afterwards given to Idolatry but endur'd all extremities of Torments rather than they would be brought to any compliance with the Heathen Worship and therefore there could be no longer such necessity that the Ceremonial Law should be continu'd to them to keep them from the Worship of Idols But in other respects their Provocations were still very great And as the Lord in the Parable first sent his Servants and last of all his Son saying they will reverence my Son and thereby left those wicked Men without excuse and manifested the Justice of his Vengeance upon the Murtherers of his own Son So God first sent his Prophets and when the Jews who had been train'd in the knowledge and worship of him and were to conveigh it to other Nations would not be reclaim'd by them but revil'd and destroy'd them and then set up their own Traditions in opposition to their Doctrines he sends his Beloved Son before he would utterly take away their City and Nation and effected that by the death of his Son whom they Crucified which the experience of so many Ages had shewn could be effected no other way God reveal'd himself at sundry times and in divers manners and in his Infinite Wisdom proportioned the ways and measure of his Revelations to the capacities and the necessities of the several Ages in which they were made till at last he hath spoken unto us by his Son Heb. i. 1 2. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. iv 3 4. 2. The Reception of Christ and his Gospel in the World would have been much more difficult if so many Prophets in so many several Ages had not foretold his coming Our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him appeal to Moses and the Prophets for the truth of their Doctrine this was the great Argument which they us'd to the Jews in Confirmation even of their Miracles themselves they prov'd that the Prophets had foretold that Christ should come at that very time when he came and that he should work those Miracles which he wrought and should empower his Disciples to do the like his Death and Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost were all Prophesied of and Prophecies thus foretelling the Miracles and Miracles fullfilling the Prophecies and both mutually confirming and supporting each other afforded all the Evidence that could be given for Prophecies and Miracles are all the ways by which God can be supposed to reveal himself to Mankind And therefore thousands of the Jews were convinc'd out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ and were Converted to the Christian Faith And the Prophecies concerning the Messiah are still an unanswerable Argument in vindication of our Religion which Argument we must have wanted if our blessed Saviour had come so much sooner as not to have been Prophesied of so many Ages beforehand And those who reject the Gospel now would have thought they had had much more Reason on their side than they can now pretend to have for there had then been so much less means for their Conviction So that the coming of our Saviour was deferr'd to give the greater Evidence and the fuller conviction of his being the Christ It would have been hard to believe that the Son of God should come into the World with little or no notice given of it beforehand and few or no Prophets sent to foretell his coming and prepare his way But when he had been so long before Prophesy'd of even from the beginning of the World thro' the several Ages of it when there had been a general expectation of the Messiah to be born and the Time and Place and Tribe and Family and Person of whom he was to be born by degrees and at several times had been foretold when Mens hopes and desires to see him were thus from Age to Age awakened and alarmed this was a Solemnity worthy to introduce and attend the Son of God into the World and a Method which would prove a standing Evidence of his being come into it 3. The time of Christ's coming may depend upon things which we are uncapable of knowing For it may depend upon the duration of the World and it is impossible for any Man to know how long that shall be The Scripture speaks of the times of the Gospel under the Phrase of the last Days but this is to be understood in relation not to the continuance of the World but to the Christian Dispensation which is the last means of Salvation that God will vouchsase to Mankind and with regard to the Jewish Church and Government which was just then at an end as I shall shew in the next Chapter Now if the World may continue as long under the dispensation of the Gospel as it had done before it and no Man can tell but it may we shall find little cause to wonder that Christ was not sooner born into the World For we find that the Faith and Zeal of Christians decays as we are at a farther distance of time from the Incarnation of our Saviour and the first propagation of his Gospel and the length of the time it self proves a temptation to some to disbelieve it for men are apt to give less credit to what happened long ago and to think themselves less concern'd in it
If therefore Christ had been born at the beginning of the World how many more pretences would those Men have feigned to themselves for their Infidelity who are now so prone to unbelief and so unwilling to be Christians Men are tempted to suspect that there is something of obscurity and uncertainty in all things long since past and if Christ had been born a thousand or two thousand years sooner those who now think he came too late would then have cavilled that he came too soon and that it was too long ago to be believed and had happened in a dark and fabulous Age. And therefore it seems that Christ came in the very season and centre of time that as the former Ages were not so remote as not to be capable of all the benefits of his Death and Passion to be in due time accomplish'd so the last Ages of the World may have no pretence to question the truth of the Christian Religion upon any account of the long distance of time since the Death of our Saviour and his Apostles This may be the Case for ought any Man can tell or many other Reasons there might be much better and more important than this to deferr the Incarnation of our Saviour and therefore it is an absurd thing to raise Objections about it Many Reason there might be for it which we are uncapable of knowing and it is sufficient for us to know that it was in the fulness of time and that this time was the most proper and expedient and therefore was the time appointed and determined by God from all Eternity 4. God had by the various Methods of his Providence given such signal opportunities to the Gentiles to become acquainted with the Scriptures of the Old Testament as did mightly prepare them for the acknowledgment of Christ at his coming into the World All the Dispensations of the Divine Providence from the Beginning had been as so many several preparations to the Birth of Christ God chose Abraham to be the Father of a peculiar People and when that People had been by the constant manifestation of a miraculous Providence preserv'd and by their Laws and Ceremonies distinguished from all other People they were driven into Captivity as well in mercy to other Nations as by God's just Judgment upon them for their Sins that by this means the Gentiles might be instructed in the Worship of the true God and the Prophecies concerning Christ might become divulged and all Nations might be in a readiness to acknowledge and receive him who was to be the desire of all Nations and the joy of all People First the Ten Tribes were by Shalmaneser carried away Captive and then the two remaining Tribes by Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus was by Name appointed to restore them Alexander's Conquests made yet way for a farther reception of the Prophecies which were the most considerable about the time of the Captivity And besides the Prophecy of Balaam by which the Wise Men were directed to find out Christ by the guidance of a Star those of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel must be well known in the East The Bible had been about three hundred years before our Saviour's Birth at the Command of a Heathen Prince Translated into the Greek Tongue which was by the Victories of Alexander become the most known Language in the World And we read of no Revolution of Empires no Blessing no Affliction which befell the Jews but it contributed in a remarkable manner to raise an expectation of Christ and to prepare for his Coming It is certain that at the time of his Birth there was among the Jews an Universal expectation of the Messiah and that it was a receiv'd Opinion in that Age all over the East that a great Prince should arise out of Judea this appears both from the Scriptures and from (z) Sueton. in Vespas c. 4. Tacit. Hist lib. v. Heathen Writers the Wise Men came to enquire after him and Herod's Jealousie proceeded to the utmost Rage and Cruelty and could not have failed of success if it had been against any but the true Messiah whom God did by an immediate Revelation deliver out of his hands All the World stood in expectation of some extraordinary Person and it was no unwellcome piece of Flattery to one of the Roman Emperors not long after to have it reported that he was the Prince spoken of and expected in the East but it was esteemed his Glory and his Happiness to be thought the King that was to arise amongst a despised and hated People The expectation of Christ was so great that he could not lie conceal'd in that obscure and mean Condition but was adored in a Manger and receiv'd more than Royal Honours from the remotest parts of the Earth And in this respect it was the fulness of time or the most convenient and proper time for Christ to appear because the Divine Providence had wonderfully disposed and prepared the World for the expectation of him 5. The particular temper and disposition of the Age in which our Saviour was born made it the most fitting and proper Age for him to be born in for there were several things peculiar to that Age which very much conduce to the proof of the certainty of his Religion That Age was so remarkable and the History of it has been delivered down to us by so many eminent Writers that it is more studied and generally better known than any Age of the World besides and it was fit that a thing of this nature and consequence should come to pass in such an Age that it might be fully enquired into in any Age afterwards and that no distance of time might cause such doubts concerning it as should ever render it the less certain to any who are willing to acquaint themselves with the truth of it If it had been an Imposture this surely had been the most unlikely time of any for it to succeed No Prince could be more jealous than Herod who was so enraged at the Report of the Birth of Christ that he too plainly shew'd how much he credited it And no Age perhaps since the Creation could be more unlikely to have a Cheat put upon it than this in which Peace and Learning and all Polite Arts flourish'd which refine Men's Understandings and make them the most unfit and difficult to be imposed upon Policy was in its highest perfection in the Courts of Augustus and Tiberius which have been esteemed the greatest Patterns of it ever since the Scribes and Pharisees were in great Power and Authority at Jerusalem who were a subtle Generation of Men and the worst Enemies any one could have to deal withall Vice which was likely to give the greatest hindrance to a holy Religion was the fashion of the times and that Empire was never so abandoned to wickedness as at the first propagation of the Gospel As Men were then most able to discover any Imposture so they must have been most
unwilling to find the Christian Religion true which puts such a check to all Licentiousness and to their beloved and long accustomed Vices Vice would be sure to make a strong defence and an eager Plea and nothing could be difficult for it to discover when it had such a number of such subtle and devoted Advocates In this Conjuncture of time the Saviour of the World appears and he appears in a mean and low Condition despised by his own People who soon became as much despised themselves by all the World besides The Prince of Peace is Born in a time of setled and Universal Peace when Men had most leisure and opportunity to examine and consider things and when by the Establishment of the Roman Empire under Augustus in its full power and extent there was an open and free Correspondence between all Nations and the Apostles and their Followers by this means might find a like admittance to preach the Gospel in all Countries but to be alike hated and persecuted in all parts of the World The Religion of Christ was not to make advantage of any Troubles and Confusions in the Empire as that of Mahomet afterwards did but to recommend it self by its own worth and efficacy to the most serious and impartial Minds and under all these disadvantages it soon made its way into the Emperor's Court where Craft and Luxury and every thing that is most contrary to the purity and simplicity of the Gospel reigned St. Paul had his Proselytes in Caesar's Houshold and his Bonds in Christ were manifest in all the Palace and in all other places at Rome Phil. i. 13. iv 22. The truth of the Gospel approved itself to the most prejudiced Judgments it stood all the Trials and Conquer'd all Opposition that Wit and Learning and Vice it self could make For by the leave of the Atheists and Deists of our own Age the Christian Religion found the subtilest and most dangerous Adversaries at its first propagation The Epicureans and the Stoicks encountred St. Paul at Athens and these last especially were inferiour to no other Sect of Philosophers either for their obstinacy in adhering to their own Opinions or for their Art and Skill in Disputation And it appears from the several Apologies made afterwards in vindication of our Religion that all was at the very first alledged against it which can with any pretence or colour be objected Thus was Christ Born in the fulness of time when all the Prophecies concerning his coming were fulfilled and when the World was in expectation of him and had such general notice of his coming in a time the most unlikely for an Imposture to pass undiscover'd and therefore the most seasonable for Truth to manifest it self since that must needs be true which neither Learning nor Prejudice nor Vice nor Interest could prove to be false The accomplishment of Prophecies and the Conversion and Martyrdom of such numbers of Men in such an Age recommends the Gospel to us with all the advantage which any Juncture of Time could give CHAP. XXII Of the last Days and of the last Day or the Day of Judgment BY the last Days in the Scriptures must be meant either the last Days of the World or the last Days of the Jewish State and Government or the Days of the Gospel Dispensation which are the last Days in respect of the Means and Opportunities of Salvation vouchsafed to Mankind I. The last Days of the World are seldom mention'd directly and in express terms but under such Resemblances as were fit to represent them in the description of other Events For it was a known thing among the Jews that their whole Dispensation being Typical whatever happened to them under their Law and Government must afterwards be fulfilled in a more eminent manner under the Oeconomy and Dispensation of the Messias and therefore the last Days of Jerusalem must be Typical of the last Days of the World For the Destruction of Jerusalem at the Conclusion of the Jewish Dispensation was only a Type of the final Destruction of the World at the consummation of all things when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father 1 Cor. xv 24. For which Reason our Saviour makes use of such words Matt. xxiv as are applicable to both of these events and oftentimes more fitly to the last Judgment that after the Destruction of Jerusalem it might appear that the rest remains still to be accomplished at the Day of Judgment But there are likewise such Expressions used as evidently shew that the Destruction of Jerusalem is the thing immediately designed in the Prophecy This will appear if we consider several Verses of that Chapter Then let them which be in Judea flee into the Mountains ver 16. and that with the greatest hast for let him which is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house v. 17. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his Cloaths v. 18. But the Condition of such would be very miserable who should be unfit for flight And woe unto them that are with Child and to them that give suck in those days v. 19. But pray ye that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath Day v. 20. There will be no flying from the general destruction of the World but the Disciples are here warned to fly from the destruction of Jerusalem and escape into the Mountains and they are commanded to pray that their flight might be hindred neither by the season of the year nor by the Sabbath on which the Jews were permitted to travel but a very little way Which supposes that the World was to last after the Tribulation there spoken of and that therefore the final destruction of this material World is not the thing there immediately meant And except those days should be shortned there should no Flesh be saved but for the Elects sake those days shall be shortned v. 22. If this Destruction should have raged long in that manner no Man of the Jews could have survived it but it was to be so abated and so soon over that the converted Jews might be preserved from it which Promise was very remarkably and wonderfully fullfilled to the Christians at the Siege of Jerusalem who made their escape into the Mountains and retir'd to Pella For wheresoever the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together ver 28. which is a plain allusion to the Roman Eagles or the Standards of their Armies Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken ver 29. This was in some respect litterally fulfilled at the Destruction of Jerusalem But it is usual with the Prophets by these Figures to describe the Destruction of Nations and the false Teachers are styl'd by St. Jude ver 13. wandring
who lived near that time (f) Ammian Marcellin lib 23. c. 1. but by an eminent Heathen Historian of the same Age. Now it was foretold by the prophets Haggai and Malachy that Christ should come before the destruction of the Second Temple and the destruction of this Temple was foretold by Daniel with the precise time of our Savour's coming and to manifest to the world that Christ is come and that therefore the Jewish Worship and Government is utterly at an end as the Prophets had foretold God has been pleased in so miraculous and terrible a manner to shew that he will not suffer their Temple to be rebuilt and whereas the Messias was to come to the Second Temple now for so many hundreds of years they have had no Temple at all for him to come to 2. As the time of Christ's Birth was foretold by the Prophets so was the place likewise and that was Bethlehem a small City and therefore the more unlikely in all humane account to have that honour bestowed upon it to become the Birth place of him who the Jews expected should be a Temporal Prince yet this when so well understood by the Jews of that time notwithstanding their mistaken notion of a Temporal Messias that when Herod gathered all the Chief Priests and Scribes of the people together and demanded of them where Christ should be born they answered him with one consent in Bethlehem of Judaea and quoted the Prophecy of Micah for the proof of it Matt. ii And many believed that Jesus was the Messias or the Christ which they then were in expectation of others made this objection that he could not be the Christ because he came out of Galilee but hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the Town of Bethlehem where David was This was the great objection against our Saviour that he could not be the Christ because he did not come out of Bethlehem but out of Galilee for they thought he had been born at Nazareth in Galilee not at Bethlehem in the Tribe of Judah whereas he was indeed born at Bethlehem and that by so strange and particular a providence as doth evidently prove him to be the Christ For it came to pass in these days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed and registred according to their Families and all went to be taxed every one into his own City into the City which belonged to his Lineage and Family And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the City of Nazareth into Judaea unto the City of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the House and Lineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espoused Wife being great with Child and so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered Luke ii 1 c. Here we see that their going from Nazareth to Bethlehem was not in the least designed by the Virgin Mary and Joseph but they were obliged to go thither by a new and strange decree of the Emperor and accordingly they went in Obedience to this Decree If the Blessed Virgin had dwelt at Bethlehem though the Prophecy had been fulfilled yet there had been nothing in the circumstances extraordinary if she had gone thither of her own accord or if some private business had called her thither this might have been looked upon as a contrivance and a design to be thought the Mother of the Messias if God himself had by an immediate Revelation sent her thither yet this still had been liable to cavils and might have been suspected of imposture But when at the Command of an Heathen Prince and such a command as had never been given out at any time before the Virgin Mary was forced upon a long and tedious Journey at an unseasonable time of the year being then great with Child and therefore very unfit for such a Journey and not in a condition to have the least inclination or thought of undertaking it when she was obliged by so unexpected and unwelcom a command to repair to Bethlehem and was at that very time delivered of her Son all these circumstances so wonderfully concurring have something more convincing in them than can well be express'd And 't is observable that this Tax or Register was designed and begun in some parts of the Empire 27 years before but was hindred by disturbances which happened upon which account anciently the Spaniards begun their Aera 27 years before the computation of other Christians supposing that the Taxing mentioned in St. Luke had been at the same time that it was begun amongst them so many years before but the divine Providence so ordered things that it should not be carried on then but should be deferred till that very time when Christ was to be born that by this means Bethlehem might be the place of his Birth And by the same special Providence it came to pass not only that this Prophecy was fulfilled concerning his being born at Bethlehem but that it should be registered in the Publick Records of the Empire to which Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal in their Apologies for the proof of it and St. Chrysostom mentions them as extant at Rome in his time near four hundred years after the Birth of our Saviour And his being born there proves that he was of the Seed of David as it was prophesied that the Messias should be for the Decree required that all should resort to the City of their Lineage or Family and Bethlehem was the City of David So that from our Saviour's being born at Bethlehem and that by so remarkable a Providence without any humane foresight or design we have two evident proofs that he is the Christ he was of the Seed of David and was born at Bethlehem and this was attested by the Publick Records or Censual Tables at Rome which were often appealed to for the Truth of it and were remaining to be consulted for several hundred years afterwards (g) Lightf Choro Graph Centur c. 51 And the Jerusalem Gemarists do confess that the Messias was born at Bethlehem before their times 3. The person of whom our Saviour was born had been likewise foretold For not only the time of his Birth that it was to be before the destruction of the Temple and the Place that it was to be at Bethlehem but the Tribe of which he was to be born the Tribe of Judah and the Family the Family of David and the very person that she was to be a Virgin all were particularly foretold by the Prophets and accordingly expected at that time by the Jews Concerning the Tribe and Family of which our Saviour was born I shall observe that effectual care was taken by the Law of Moses to keep a perpetual distinction of their several Tribes and Families for by the Law of the Inheritances no inheritance could pass out of
a Family either by sale of Lands for every fiftieth year was a year of Redemption and every man returned to his own Possession and every man to his own Family Lev. xxv io Or by defect of Heirs Male for if there were Daughters they were to inherit and if there were no Daughter it was to Pass to the nearest Kinsman Numb xxvii and the Daughters who were Heiresses were obliged to marry to one of the Family of the Tribe of their Fathers Numb xxxvi 8. But if a man died without Children his Brother or his next Kinsman was to raise up Seed unto the deceased and the First born was to succeed in the name of him that died without issue Deut. xxv 5 6. Ruth iii. 12. So that he had a Natural and a Legal Father the names of both which must be enroll'd in their Registers to intitle him and his Heirs to their Inheritance All which was appointed with a peculiar regard to the Messias that the Prophecies concerning his Tribe and Family might be known to be fulfilled at his Birth The Genealogies of the Jews therefore were of two kinds one of their Natural and the other of their Legal Descent and Parentage and we have both these Genealogies of our Saviour set down the one by St. Matthew and the other by St. Luke which must be exactly the same with the Registers of the Genealogies then extant which both in their publiâ—k (h) Lighâ—f on Mart. i. 1. Records and in their private Books were kept with great care and exactness their expectation of the Meâ—â—â—as obliging them to it and the constitution of their Government necessarily requiring it for all the Title and Claim they could have to their Inheritances entirely bepended upon it and they were so careful herein that their Genealogies were preserved to the destruction of Jerusalem and if the Genealogies in St. Matthew and St. Luke had been different from those in the publick Registers this had for ever silenced and extinguished all pretences to our Saviour's being the Messias but they being exactly the same did prove that the Prophecies concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him For the Virgin Mary being the only Child of her Father it was lawful for her to be espoused to none out of her own Family and therefore the Pedigree of Joseph as was customary in such cases is set down this shewing her Lineage and Family as certainly as her own Pedigree could have done for the poorest amongst the Jews observed the Law of Inheritances as strictly as the rich and even in exile it was observed as well as when they were in possession of their Inheritances Tob. vi 10 11. Isaiah had prophesied that the Messias should be born of a Virgin and (i) See Bp. Peaâ—so◠〈◊〉 the Crâ—â—â— so his Prophecies had been constantly understood And that a Virgin should bear a Son can seem to no man incredible who will but consider that the God of Nature cannot be confined to the Laws of his own Institution and that to make Man of the Dust of the Earth or by other means than by natural Generation as the first Man and Woman must certainly be made whatever Hypothesis be admitted is as unaccountable and as wonderful as this can be But to make this Conception of the Blessed Virgin the more easily believed the Birth of Isaac when his Mother Sarah was old and had been barren and other Births of the like nature were both Types of Christ's Birth and an evidence of the power of God above the course of Nature particularly St. John Baptist being born of a Mother who was both old and barren was in this as well as in other things the fore-runner of Christ But this Virgin was to be espoused to Joseph a just and good man both that he might be a security and protection to her and might be assisting to her in her care and tenderness for the Blessed Infant and likewise that he who was most concerned to make the discovery if it had been otherwise might testify to the world that an Angel from Heaven had satisfied him that she was with Child of the H. Ghost Jealousy the wise man says is the rage of a man therefore be will not spare in the day of vengeance he will not regard any ransom nither will he be content though thou givest him many gifts Prov. vi 34 35. And the Jewish Law in this case was as severe as any could well be For a Virgin betrothed who had been thus found guilty was to be stoned to Death Deut. xxii 23. And though Joseph not being willing to make her a publick example was minded to put her away privately yet this shews that if it had proved as he at first suspected he was not a man that would have been insensible of the Injury and it is a good evidence that there was nothing to be objected when there was nothing that jealousy could object and no Testimony could possibly have satisfied those who will not be satisfied though Joseph himself testified that the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Dream saying Joseph thou Son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy Wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost And his carrying the Infant into Egypt at another appearance of an Angel and all his Behaviour shews that as he was the most competent person to deliver this Message of the Angel to the world so he was the most zealous and forward asserter of this Article of our Faith And besides his first suspicions his other prejudices and discouragements must be so great that nothing but a clear and undoubted Revelation could possibly remove them he could expect nothing but trouble and danger to himself he could not hope to be reputed the Father of the Messias since the Prophets had fortold that he was to be born of a Virgin and nothing could be more contrary to the expectation the Jews had of him than that he should be a Carpenter's Son this was thought by them a sufficient reason to reject both his Doctrine and his Miracles And Joseph had no cause to flatter himself that it would be otherwise Simeon prophesied of Christ that he was set for a sign which should be spoken against and Herod presently seeks to take away his Life by a terrible Massacre yet Joseph was so well satisfied of the Angels Revelation to him and was so well assured of the certainty of it that he willingly exposed himself to all the inconveniencies and dangers which he could not but see must be the necessary consequence of it and which he soon saw come so thick and violently upon him A Sword was to pierce through the Virgins own Soul also but all the hazards and the sorrows which were foretold them and which accordingly they underwent may abundantly convince us that they could have no design or prospect of any advantage but of declaring the Truth and of that Salvation
unbelief the evil Spirit was cast out of his Son Mark ix 23.24 The End and Design of Christ's Miracles required that those who were Cured by him should believe in him For they were wrought with a design to convince Men that he was the Son of God and that he was come not so much to Cure their Bodies as to save their Souls and he forgave their Sins at the same time that he healed them of their Diseases Mark ii 5. And since Faith is so necessary a Doctrine of the Gospel it was as requisite that Christ should teach this as any other Doctrine But how could he do it more properly and more effectually than by requiring Faith in those who came to be healed If they would partake of his Mercy they must qualifie themselves for it by believing that he was the great Prophet and Messias who was then so much expected and of whom it was foretold that he should make the Blind to see and the Lame to walk and the Deaf to hear c. Luke vii 22. Isa xxxv 5. And unless their Bodily Cure did conduce to the Cure of their Souls by Faith and Repentance it would be but ill bestowed upon them and therefore with great Reason might be denied them And upon this Account we find our Blessed Saviour both requiring Faith in some and rewarding it in others to whom his miraculous Power was extended Luke viii 48. xviii 42. And St. Paul perceiving that the Cripple at Lystra had Faith to be healed immediately healed him without being ask'd to do it Acts xiv 9. 2. Faith in the Miracles of Christ is required of Men in all Ages of the World though Miracles are ceased and if this be Reasonable now it could not but be fitting then that those who came to Christ should believe in him for the sake of the Miracles which they had been certified that he had done upon others For Miracles when they are fully attested are as sufficient a Ground of Faith as if we had seen them done and to manifest that they are so our Saviour might require Belief in his former Miracles of those who expected any Advantage from such as they desired him to do If they would give no Credit to the Miracles which were so notorious and so abundantly testified by Multitudes who saw them done how should others believe in Times to come when no more Miracles should be wrought for the Conviction of Unbelievers Might no Man be required to believe unless he saw the Miracles himself Then how should the the Church subsist in future Ages when Miracles would be no longer wrought but were for great Reasons to be with-held We must now believe upon the Account of the Miracles which were then done and why therefore should they not be required to believe upon the Account of them who lived at the very Time and in the same Country where they were wrought though they had never seen them Our Saviour in these Instances might introduce that Method and establish the Evidence and Certainty of those Means and Motives whereby Faith was to be produced in Men of all succeeding Ages and might hereby signifie and declare that he requires the same Faith of us from the Testimony of others that he would do if we had seen and experienced his miraculous Power our selves CHAP. XXIX Of the Ceasing of Prophecies and Miracles PRophecies are generally of more Concernment and afford greater Evidence and Conviction in future Ages than when they were first delivered For it is not the Delivery but the Accomplishment of Prophecies which gives Evidence to the Truth of any Doctrin The Events of Things in the Accomplishment of Prophecies are a standing Argument to all Ages and the length of Time adds to its Force and Efficacy and therefore when all that God saw requisite to be foretold is deliver'd to us in the Scriptures there can no longer be any need of New Prophecies which would be of less Authority than the ancient ones inasmuch as their Antiquity is the thing chiefly to be regarded in Prophecies For if to foretel Things to come be an Argument of a Divine Prescience the longer Things are foretold before they come to pass the better must the Argument needs be He therefore that requires New Prophecies to confirm the Old little considers the Nature of Prophecies and wherein the Evidence and Use of them lies but in great Wisdom and Caution will give no Credit to the best Evidence unless there were something less evident to prove it by The chief Enquiry then seems to be concerning the Cessation of Miracles but from what has been elsewhere said the Reason may appear why the miraculous Power which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost was not to be of perpetual continuance in the Church but was to cease in future Ages For the Cause and End of the Gift of Miracles bestowed upon the Apostles was to make them capable of being Witnesses to Christ and when the Gospel of Christ was sufficiently testified there could be no longer need of such a Power which was given to enable Men to bear Testimony to it For what is once effectually proved by sufficient Witnesses is for ever proved and needs no after Evidence if this Proof be preserved and transmitted down to Posterity The Power of Miracles continued till the Gospel had been Preached not only in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria but unto the utmost Parts of the Earth which was the declared Intention of our Saviour in bestowing it Acts i. 8. And when the Gospel had stood at the Tryals and conquered all the Opposition that could be made against it by Jews and Heathens and Apostates themselves when Miracles had been wrought for several Ages before all sorts of Men upon all Occasions and had extorted a Confession from the Devils themselves of the Divine Power by which they were wrought when the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists in which these Miracles are Recorded had been dispersed in all Nations and Languages so that it was impossible that the Memory of them should be lost whence once the Gospel was thus divulged and attested to the World it could not be necessary that this miraculous Power should be any longer continued Because this is the only Reason and Design why Miracles should be wrought to awaken Mens Attention and prepare them for the Reception of the Doctrin which is revealed and convince them of the Truth of it If then it be enquired Why the miraculous Gifts which were at first bestow'd upon the Church were not continued to it in all succeeding Ages The plain Answer is Because this Power was bestowed for the Establishment of the Christian Religion in the World by convincing Men of its Truth and Authority and therefore when a sufficient Evidence had been given in all Parts of the World of the Divine Authority of that Religion upon the Account whereof these Gifts were bestowed the Reason for the bestowing
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an