bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
is their Knowledge the same there is nothing in their common Nature to determine them that they should be born or die together or that there should be any mutual communication of the Thoughts and Operations of their Minds much less that their Life and Death and Operations should be all the very same So that this Principle of Individuation whatever be assigned to be it cannot belong to the Divine Nature which is Omnipresent Eternal and Omniscient the Existence Knowledge and Local presence of Men are Personal not Essential but Omnipresence Eternity and Omniscience are Essential Attributes of God and not Personal or do not belong to each Person as they are distinguished from one another but as they are united in the same Essence for they are predicated of the Father as God of the Son as God and of the Holy Ghost as God and not of each severally as Father as Son and as Holy Ghost Every of these Essential Attributes therefore cannot be numbred with the Persons in the Deity but can be but One as the Essence itself of the Deity is and tho' the Father be Eternal the Son Eternal and the Holy Ghost Eternal yet they are not Three Eternals or Three Individual Beings of Eternal Existence as Three Humane Persons are Three Men of a Finite Existence It is a Contradiction that there should be Three separate Infinite Persons for their being separate must suppose them to be Finite or to have a limited and confined Subsistence and therefore Three Infinite Persons can be but One God or One Being which has all the perfections of Personal Distinction without the imperfection of the Division of Persons 3. From hence appears the Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons The Persons of Men are distinct Men as well as distinct Persons but this is no ground for us to affirm that the Persons in the Divine Nature are distinct Gods because the Divine Nature is acknowledged to be Infinite and Incomprehensible and when we speak of Three Persons in it we do not mean such Three Persons as Three several Men are But we read of the Person of the Father Hebr. i. 3. and of Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. v. 7. and when we speak of Three Intelligent Beings we can have no Conception of them but under the Notion of Persons We learn from the Scriptures that there are Three Persons in the Deity which bear that Relation to each other which is best express'd by the Terms of Father Son and Holy Spirit but the Terms of Father Son and Spirit are not therefore so to be understood as they are in Humane Relations and the word Person is not to be understood as it is of Humane Persons and therefore whereas we use the word Person the Greeks call them Subsistencies but acknowledge that they mean the same thing under that difference of words And yet this is all the foundation of any pretence of contradiction in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity that Men will needs understand the Terms of Person and of Father Son and Spirit when they are applied to God as they do when we speak of Men and from thence they conclude that Three Persons in the Divine Nature must be Three Gods as Three Persons amongst Men are Three Men and that the Father must be Superiour and Elder than the Son as it is in Humane Generations But this is all Mistake Adam is stiled the Son of God in a sense of the word peculiar to himself Luke iii. 38. God is in one sense the Father of all Mankind and in another sense he is the Father of the Regenerate only and when in either sense we call him our Father we take not the Word Father in the same sense that we take it in when we apply it to Men and when we say he is the Father of his only begotten Son this is another sense of the word Father very different from all the former The Relation between the Father and Son is not the same in the Nature of God that it is amongst Men nor are the Divine Persons such as the Persons of Men are but these are the fittest and the most proper and significant Terms to express the Nature of God to us that Humane Language and Humane Understandings are capable of We must acknowledge that there is a vast disproportion and impropriety in these expressions and that they give us but a very imperfect conception of the Divine Nature but it is the most perfect that we are able to have of it or that it is necessary for us to have of it in this Mortal state and if we will but allow for the incompetency of our own Faculties to have Words and Notions adequate to the Divine Nature and will remember that God is God and that we are but Men there will appear to be no contradiction in the Notion of the Trinity The Divine Nature is such that it has Three distinct Principles of Operation and Subsistency which are so described and represented in the Scriptures by Personal Acts and Properties that we know them to be as really distinct as Humane Persons are which yet being but One God cannot in this respect be like Humane Persons And whoever will oppose this Doctrine of the Holy Trinity must prove that the Three Persons of the Trinity cannot be as really distinct as the Persons of Three Men are tho' they are not such Persons as the Persons of Men. And to prove this he must understand the Nature of God as well as he understands the Nature of Man for otherwise he can never be able to prove that Three Divine Persons may not be One God tho' Three Humane Persons cannot be One Man That they are distinct Persons is revealed and that these Three distinct Persons are but one God is revealed but wherein the Distinction and the Unity of these Three Persons consists is not revealed nor is it possible for us to understand it at least without a Revelation The Distinction of the Persons of Men is founded in a separate and divided Subsistence but this cannot be the foundation of the Distinction of the Divine Persons because Separation and Division cannot belong to an Infinite Nature There is then not Repugnancy in saying that there are Three Subsistencies or Three distinct Principles of Personal Acts and Properties in one undivided Infinite Nature or that the Persons in the Trinity act as distinctly and personally as Persons do amongst Men but are united in one Infinite Nature which is uncapable of existing in separate Subsistencies tho' not of acting and subsisting in Three distinct Persons or as distinctly from each other as the Persons among Men do act and subsist The Summ is that in the most perfect Unity of the Divine Nature do subsist the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost between whom is a real Distinction which tho' not the same yet is
worought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine The Confession of the False Gods when they were adjur'd by Christians p. 401. CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions The Theology of the Heathens absurd p. 403. Their Religious Worship wicked and impious p. 405. Humane Sacrifices customary in all Heathen Nations p. 406. No Body of Laws nor Rules of Good Life proposed by their Oracles p. 402. But Idolatry and Wickedness approved and recommended by them ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens The Heathen Philosophy very defective and erroneous p. 411. Whatever there is of Excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation p. 423. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and as excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation p. 429 CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion p. 436. CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion p. 439 CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral p. 441 CHAP. IX Of Mahomet That he was Lustful Proud and Cruel appears from the Alcoran it self p. 443 PART IV. CHAP. I. THat there is as great Certainty of the Truth of the Christian Religion as there is of the Being of God p. 447 CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith The Scriptures considered 1. As Historically true 2. As to their Doctrine which concerns Eternal Salvation p. 451 452. From both these Considerations it follows that they are infallibly True p. 455. In many cases there is as much cause to believe what we know from others as what we see and experience our selves p. 456. And thus it is in the present case concerning the Resolution of Faith p. 460. The Evidence of Sense and of Humane Testimony in this case compared p. 462. The Certainty of both ultimately resolved into the Divine Veracity c. ibid. An Objection from Joh. xx 29. answered p. 467. The Truth of the Christian Religion evident even to a Demonstration p. 470 Newly Publish'd CHristian Thoughts for every Day in the Month with Reflections upon the most Important Truths of the Gospel To which is added Prayers for every Morning and Evening Price 1 s. A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism By Thomas Bray D. D. The Third Edition Price 5 s. Very proper to be read in Families A Minister's Counsel to the Youth of his Parish when Arrived to Years of Discretion Recommended to the Societies in and about London By Francis Bragge Vicar of Hitchin Hertfordshire Price 2 s. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK I. PART I. IN Discoursing of the Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion I shall use this Method I. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation II. I shall enquire into the Way and Manner by which this Revelation may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World III. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God and the Nature and Design of a Divine Revelation it follows That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Divine Revelation IV. That no other Books or Doctrines whatsoever can be of Divine Revelation V. I shall from hence give a Resolution of our Faith by shewing That we have the same Evidence for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that we have for the Being of God himself because it follows from the Notion of a God both that there must of necessity be some Divine Revelation and that the Scriptures are that Divine Revelation VI. Having done this I shall in the last Place endeavour to clear such Points as are commonly thought most liable to Exception in the Christian Religion and shall propose some Considerations which may serve to remove such Objections and obviate such Cavils as are usually rais'd against the Holy Scriptures CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows that there must be some Divine Revelation IN the first Place I shall shew how Reasonable and Necessary it is to suppose That God should Reveal himself to Mankind And I shall insist the rather upon this because it is not usually so much consider'd in this Controversie as it ought to be for if it were it certainly would go very far towards the proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures since if it be once made appear that there must be some Divine Revelation it would be no hard Matter to prove that the Scriptures are that Revelation For if it be prov'd that there must be some Revealed Religion there is no other which can bear any Competition with that contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament My first Business therefore shall be to shew from the Consideration of the Attributes of God and of the Nature and State of Mankind that in all Reason we cannot but believe that there is some Revealed Religion in the World There is nothing more evident to Natural Reason than that there must be some Beginning some first Principle of Being from whence all other Beings proceed And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that that wonderful Variety of Beings in the Heavens and Earth and Seas which all the Wisdom of Man is not able in any Measure to understand or throughly to search into should yet be produc'd and continu'd for so many Thousand Years together without any Wisdom or Contrivance that an unaccountable Concourse of Atoms which could never build the least House or Cottage should yet build and sustain the wonderful Fabrick of the whole World that when the very Lines in a Globe or Sphere cannot be made without Art the World it self which that is but an imperfect Imitation of should be made without it and that less Skill should be requir'd to the forming of a Man than is necessary to the making of his Picture that Chance should be the Cause of all the Order and Fortune of all the Constancy and Regularity in the Nature of Things and that the very Faculties of Reason and Understanding in all Mankind should have their Original from that which had no Sense or Knowledge but was meer Ignorance and Stupidity This is so far from being Reason and Philosophy that it is down-right Folly and Contradiction From a Being therefore of infinite Perfection must proceed all things that are besides with all their Perfections and Excellencies and among others the Virtues and Excellencies of Wisdom Justice Mercy and Truth must be deriv'd from him as the Author of all the Perfections of which the Creatures are capable And it is absurd to imagine that the Creator and Governor of the World who is infinitely more Just more Wise and Good and Holy than any Creature can be will not at last reward the Good and punish the Wicked For Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right
Is it to be suppos'd that the Wise and Good God would create Men only to abuse themselves and one another To live a while in Sin and Folly here and some of them in the most extravagant and brutal Wickedness and then go down to the Grave and so there should be an end of them for ever What is there worthy of the infinite Wisdom of God in so poor a Design as this Doth not the Voice of Nature it self teach us and has it not been the general Belief and Expectation of all Ages and Nations that the prosperous Sinner who is subtle and powerful to do Mischief must suffer in another World for what he has done amiss here And that all is not to pass away with us in Sport and Extravagance in Laughter and Noise in Riot or in Violence and Cruelty as some Men are willing to believe as if the World were made for the Wicked and they to abuse it It appears likewise from the common Belief and Experience of Mankind that as there is a God of infinite Goodness and Holiness so there are wicked and malicious Spirits which are ever contriving the Mischief and Ruine of Men. For besides the Evidence of this from Scripture which we must be allow'd here to alledge in the Nature at least of an History it is Folly to imagine that all the Oracles and Prodigies of the Heathens could be meer Forgeries and that there was no Ground nor Foundation for such a Belief as universally obtain'd in all Nations and Ages of the World and for the Customs and Practices which follow'd upon this Belief that there are Daemons or Spirits of an evil and malicious Disposition and Power I shall instance only in the unnatural Cruelties which the Heathen World even the Greeks and Romans themselves were continually put upon by the Instigation of these malicious and wicked Spirits For the Heathen Nations offer'd up Multitudes of innocent Men and Women and even their own Children in Sacrifice to their false Gods which is as sure an Evidence that there are such Beings which requir'd these Cruelties from them as it is that there are Tyrants and Persecutors when they cause innocent Men to be murther'd and Children to be torn from the Arms of their Parents and slain in their sight And though the Dominion of Satan be now restrained by the over-ruling Power of the Gospel we have as great Evidence from all History that there are such Beings as Devils as we have for any other Matter of Fact whatsoever There have been indeed many false Stories concerning Spirits as well as in other Matters of History but doth this prove that there are none True Or could the Historians of all Times and Places be perpetually imposed upon or conspire to impose upon others There is no ancient History but gives some Instance or other of these things and all the Modern Histories of Heathen Nations are full of such Relations as confirm this Truth to us and even among Christians those who have by unlawful Arts put themselves under the Power of wicked Spirits have been convinced that there are such Beings which is proved not only by the publick Confessions of Witches in all Nations but by the private (a) See Mr. Boyle's Excellency of Theology c. § 1. Acknowledgments of divers learned Men both Physicians and others who have made attempts to discover the truth of this matter in different places and were Persons neither timorous nor superstitious But the Apparition of Spirits is Praeter-natural and therefore that Good Spirits who live in perfect Obedience to the Divine Will and in Conformity to the Order of their Nature should appear is now no more to be expected than any other Miracle But there are frequent Apparitions of Bad Spirits in Countries where the Christian Religion is not receiv'd and where it is receiv'd they appear to such as are willing to com◠under their Power but very rarely to others And if the Devil after so much Humane Blood as he has caus'd to be spilt in his Sacrifices and after so many Oracles and Impostures can yet perswade same Men that there is no such Being this is one of his subtilest Stratagems of all and proves how great Power though in a different kind and manner he still retains over the Minds of Men. Since therefore it is most certain That there is a Being of insinite Power and Wisdom and Justice and Goodness and that there is likewise a malicious cruel Spirit ever watchful and industrious to abuse and destroy Mankind It is highly reasonable to believe that a Being of such infinite Perfections after he had created Man would communicate himself to him would set him a Rule by which he ought to live and prescribe him Laws whereby he might answer the Ends of his Creation and attain to that Happiness which he was made capable of and design'd for by his Maker We cannot suppose that the God of all Goodness and Wisdom would create Man and then leave him to himself to follow his own Inventions and to live at random without any Law or Direction to frame his Actions by and to be expos'd to all the Assaults of an implacable subtile Enemy without any Caution and Instruction given him or any Help and Assistance afforded for his Defence Man in his Innocence was not thus to be left to himself And we have all the reason in the World to believe though we had not the express Word of Scripture for it that the God of infinite Goodness would not disregard this corrupt State of Mankind but would use some Means to reclaim them from the Error of their Ways to bring them to a Knowledge of themselves and of the Divine Majesty to inform them of their Duty and direct them to Happiness How Man became so prone to all Evil we can know only by Revelation and therefore those who reject all Revelation must suppose that Man was first created in this State of Sin and Misery which is a very heinous Imputation upon the Goodness and Justice of God but to suppose him plac'd in this Condition without all help or remedy is to charge God still more foolishly But how Men became so is not here the Matter of Enquiry it is evident that Man is of himself in a miserable and helpless Condition and considering the great Ignorance and Wickedness which have been from the Fall of our First Parents visible continually in the Word and still reign in it considering I say the notorious Wickedness and gross Ignorance of Men which from the earliest Records of Antiquity have continued down to our own Times nothing is more reasonable than to think that a Being of Infinite Perfection would take some care to rectifie the Mistakes and reform the Manners of Men. Can we believe it consistent with Infinite Truth never to manifest it self in the World but to suffer all sorts of Men of all Nations to be exposed to all the Designs and Delusions of Impostors
come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Isai xlii 23. But because Things foretold may sometimes come to pass by Chance or it may be in the Power of Evil Spirits to foretell them when they are in Design and Agitation and just ready for Action or to discern Things done at distant Places and to make probable Guesses which may prove true from the various Circumstances of Affairs which they observe in the World We may therefore be assur'd from the Consideration of the Divine Attributes of Goodness and Truth that God will not suffer false Religions to be impos'd upon the World under his own Name by Diabolical Predictions without affording Means to discover them to be such When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him Deut. xviii 22. This is the Mark of Distinction between a False and a True Prophet That whatever the latter foretold in the Name of the Lord should come to pass but whatever the first foretold in his Name should not come to pass which implies that God will disappoint such Predictions and not suffer them to come to pass otherwise the coming to pass of Things foretold could be no certain Mark of a true Prophet because they might come to pass by Chance The Prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the Prophet shall come to pass then shall the Prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him Jer. xxviii 9. But if the Prophecy were not pretended to be in the Name of the True God but were given out with a profess'd Design to entice Men to the Worship of False Gods then God might suffer it to be fulfill'd to prove his People Deut. xiii 1 2 3. For this was consistent with God's Truth and Goodness especially after Warning given and after so clear a Revelation both by Prophecies and Miracles If any Man in this Case would be seduc'd by any Wonder or Prophecy to follow other Gods it must be great Perverseness in him But when Prophecies are deliver'd by many Prophets in divers Ages and different Places all teaching the same Doctrine and tending to the same End and Design in their several Revelations and that End is the Discouragement of all Wickedness and the Maintenance of all Vertue and true Religion these Prophecies have all that can be requisite to assure us that they are from God and God by suffering them to pass so long in the World under his own Name and with all the Characters of his Authority upon them has given us all possible Assurance that they are his and engag'd us in Honour to his Divine Attributes to believe that they really are by his Authority And the Certainty of Prophecies being thus grounded upon the Divine Attributes besides the direct Evidence which they afford to whatever is deliver'd by them they add an undeniable Confirmation to those Miracles which have been foretold and are wrought at the Time and in the Manner and by the Persons foretold by the Prophets and the Prophecies likewise receive as great a Confirmation from such Miracles For Prophecies and Miracles which are singly a sufficient Evidence of Divine Revelation do mutually support and confirm each other and hereby we have all the Assurance that can be expected of any Divine Revelation And therefore as Prophecy is in it self a most fitting and proper way of Revelation so in Conjunction with Miracles it is the most certain way that can be desir'd 2. The Suitableness and Efficacy of Miracles to prove a Divine Revelation It is an extravagant thing to conceive that God should exclude himself from the Works of his own Creation or that he should establish them upon such inviolable Laws as not to alter them upon some Occasions when he foresaw it would be requisite to do it For unless the Course of Nature had been thus alterable it would have been defective in regard to one great End for which it was design'd viz. it would have fail'd of being serviceable to the Designs of Providence upon such Occasions The same Infinite Wisdom which contriv'd the Laws for the Order and Course of Nature contriv'd them so as to make them alterable when it would be necessary for God by suspending the Powers or interrupting the Course of Nature to manifest his extraordinary Will and Power and by the same Decree by which he at first establish'd them he subjected them to such Alterations as his Wisdom foresaw would be necessary We can as little doubt but that He who made the World has the sole Power and Authority over it and that nothing can be done in it but by his Direction and Influence or at least by his Permission and that the Frame and Order of Nature which he at first appointed can at no time be alter'd but for great Ends and Purposes He is not given to change as Men are and can never be disappointed in his Eternal Purposes and Designs But when any thing comes to pass above the Course of Nature and contrary to it in Confirmation of a Revelation which for the Importance and Excellency of the Subject of it and in all other respects is most worthy of God we may be sure that this is his doing and there is still further Evidence of it if this Revelation were prophesy'd of before by Prophets who foretold that it should be confirm'd by Miracle As when Men Born blind receiv'd their Sight when others were cur'd of the most desperate Diseases by a Touch or at a Distance when the Dead were rais'd and the Devils cast out these were evident Signs of a Divine Power and Presence which gave Testimony to the Doctrine deliver'd by those by whom such Miracles were wrought and the Divine Commission and Authority was produc'd for what they did and taught For what could be more satisfactory and convincing to Men or more worthy of God than to force the Devils themselves to confess and proclaim his Coming To cause the most insensible things in Nature to declare his Power by giving way as it were and starting back in great Confusion and Disorder at his more immediate and particular Presence to inform Men that the God of Nature was there This gave Testimony to the Things reveal'd and challeng'd the Belief of all Men in a Language more powerful than any Humane Voice whilst God shew'd forth his Glory and made known his Will by exercising his Sovereignty over Nature in making the whole Creation bow and tremble and obey All which was perform'd according to express Prophecies concerning Christ that there might be a visible Concurrence both of Prophecies and Miracles in Testimony of him And this Dispensation of Miracles was admirably fitted to propagate that Religion which concern'd the Poor as well as the Rich the Unlearned as well as the Learned Miracles were suitable
the Pentateuch for Antiquity And the Antiquity of these Books is one considerable Circumstance whereby we may be convinc'd that they are of Divine Revelation For if God would not suffer the World to continue long in a state of Ignorance and Wickedness without a Revelation we may conclude that he would not suffer the Memory of it to be lost and therefore a Book of this Nature which is so much the ancientest in the World being constantly received as a Divine Revelation carries great Evidence with it that it is Authentick For the first Revelation as hath been proved is to be the Criterion of all that follow and God would not suffer the ancientest Book of Religion in the World to pass all along under the Notion and Title of a Revelation without causing some Discovery to be made of the Imposture if there were any in it much less would he preserve it by a particular and signal Providence for so many Ages It is a great Argument for the Truth of the Scriptures that they have stood the Test and received the Approbation of so many Ages and still retain their Authority though so many ill Men in all Ages have made it their endeavour to disprove them but it is still a further Evidence in behalf of them that God has been pleased to shew so remarkable a Providence in their preservation The Account we have of Divine Revelation in the Writings of Moses is from the Creation of the World for he relates the Intercourse which from the Beginning past between God and Man and this might be delivered down either by Writing or by Tradition till Moses's time For Methuselah living with Adam and Shem with Methuselah Isaac with Shem and Amram the Father of Moses living with the Patriarchs the Sons of Jacob the History of the Creation and of the Manifestations which God had been pleas'd to make of himself to their Fore-fathers could not be unknown to that Age Such a Posterity could not but be zealous to preserve the Memory of so great Honours and Blessings and their living in Goshen separate from the Aegyptians did much contribute to the Preservation of their Antiquities for there they liv'd in Expectation of a Deliverance and of seeing the Prophecies fulfill'd that were made to their Fore-fathers concerning it The famous Prediction made to Abraham Gen. xv 13. could not be forgotten in so few Generations for the coming out of Aegypt was as it was there foretold it should be in the Fourth Generation reckoning from Isaac the first of the promised Seed to Moses exclusively Exod. vi 16. Moses seems to referr to some things that happened near the Beginning of the World as well known in his own time as Gen. iv 22. where he says the sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah For no probable account can be given why Naamah should be mention'd but because her Name was then well known among the Israelites for some reason which it doth not concern us to be acquainted with but which served to confirm to them the rest of the Relation Some have delivered that Naamah by her Beauty enticed the Sons of God or the Posterity of Seth to commit Idolatry Gen. vi 2. And so Gen. xi 29. we read that Haran was the Father of Ischa as well as of Milcah and Gen. xxxvi 24. this was that Anah that found the Mules or the Hot-Baths or that fell upon the Emims or Giants mention'd Deut. ii 10 11. however the word be understood in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father These and such like Particulars must have been preserved and commonly known among the Israelites and were therefore inserted to serve as Epocha's and notes of Remembrance for the better understanding the rest of the History The Story and manner of Life of Nimrod was conveyed in a Proverb Wherefore it is said Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. x. 9. And the Remembrance of Abraham's offering up his Son was retained both by the Name of the Place and by a Proverbial Saying And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh as it is said to this day In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen Gen. xxii 14. And there is no doubt to be made but that there were other the like Remembrances of the most remarkable Transactions Josephus has proved that Authors of all Nations agree that in ancient Times Men lived to the Age of about a Thousand Years and some are known to have lived to a very great Age in latter Times But however it had been more serviceable to Moses's purpose if he had had any other design but Truth that Men should not have been so long lived For when he had so much scope for his Invention if it had been an Invention of his own he would never have fix'd the Creation of the World at the distance of so few Generations from the time in which he wrote but would rather have made the Generations of Men more and their Lives shorter that so he might the better have concealed his Fictions in obscure and uncertain Relations which must be supposed to be delivered through so many hands down to that Age. The distance of Time from the Flood to Moses was more than it is from the Conqust to the present Age but half of this time Noah himself was living and therefore allowing for the greater length of Mens Lives in those Ages than in ours the time when Moses wrote cannot be computed at so great a distance from the Flood as we are at from the Reformation But is it possible to make any Man of tolerable Sense amongst us believe that Henry VIII was the first King of England that he lived above Seven hundred Years ago that there was a Deluge since his time which swept all the Inhabitants away of this Island and of the whole World besides but some seven or eight Persons and that all whom we now see were born of them And yet this as ridiculous as it seems is not more absurd than Moses's Account of the Creation and the Flood must have been to those of his own Time if it were false For it is very reasonable to think as Josephus informs us that Writing was in use before the Flood And it is not improbable as some have conjectured that the History of the Creation and the rest of the Book of Genesis was for the substance of it delivered down to Moses's time in Verse which was the most easie to be remembred and the most ancient of all sorts of Writing and was at first chiefly used for Matters of History and consisted of plain Narration without much of Art or Ornament We read of Instrumental Musick Gen. iv 21. before the Flood and Vocal Musick being so much more natural than Instrumental it is likely that Poetry was of as great Antiquity both in their Hymns and Praises of God and as a help to their Memories which are the two Ends to which Moses
recourse to the History of the Bible since it is acknowledged by all learned Men to be so much the ancientest Book which can give us an Account of Religion in the World For unless we will reject all History and believe nothing related of Ancient Times we must take our Accounts from such Books as treat of them And till by the Method proposed I have proved the Bible to be of Divine Authority I shall alledge it only as an Historical Relation of Things past in which respect it would be unreasonable to deny it that credit which is allowed to other Books of that nature And this is all that is now desired in order to the clearing of what I am at present upon which is to shew That nothing requisite to a true Revelation is wanting to the Scriptures and therefore that they have been sufficiently promulged and made known to the World In the Beginning of the World God was pleased to create but one Man and one Woman and to People the Earth from them which must exceedingly tend both to the preservation of Order and Obedience amongst Men and to the retaining of the Knowledge of God and of his Ways and Dealings with the first Parents of Mankind But if Multitudes had been created and the Earth had been peopled at once the natural effect of this had been Ambition and Strife Confusion and Ignorance For as the Inhabitants of the World multiplied so did all Sin and Wickedness encrease though all descended from the same Parents and these Parents lived to see many Generations of their Off-spring and to instruct and admonish them which if any thing could have done it must have kept up a sense of God and Religion amongst Men. Adam himself performed the Office of a Father a Priest and a King to his Children and the Office and Authority of these three descended upon the Heads of Families in the several Generations and Successions of Kingdoms amongst his Posterity For that the same Person was both King and Priest in the earlier Ages of the World we learn from the best Antiquities of other Nations and it was so likewise amongst the Jews till God had appointed an Order and Succession of the Priesthood in one Tribe and therefore Esau is stiled a profane Person for selling his Birth-right Omnesque primogenitos Noe donec sacerdotio fungeretur Aaron fuisse Pontifices Hebraei tradunt Hieronym Quaestion seu Tradit Hebraic in Genes because the Priesthood went along with it Heb. xii 16. By all the Accounts we have of the World before the Flood we are assured that God was pleased at first to afford frequent Communications of himself to Mankind and even to the Wicked as to Cain whose Punishment it afterwards was to be hid from the face of the Lord and driven out from his presence Gen. iv 14 16. And when the Wickedness of Men had provoked God to drown the World he revealed this to Noah and respited the execution of this Judgment an Hundred Years and Noah in the mean time both by his Preaching and by preparing an Ark warned them of it and exhorted them to Repentance by preparing of an ark to the saving of his house he condemned the world Heb. xi 7. and he was a preacher of righteousness to the old world 2 Pet. ii 5. He made it his business for above an Hundred Years together to forewarn the wicked World of their approaching Ruine which he did by all the Ways and Means that a Wise and Great Man could contrive proper for that End Noah lived after the Flood Three hundred and fifty Years Gen. ix 28. and it was between One and Two hundred Years before the Division of Tongues and the Dispersion of the Sons of Noah And when all the Inhabitants of the Earth were of one Language and lived not far asunder Noah himself living amongst them the Judgment of God upon the wicked World in overwhelming them with the Flood his Mercies to Noah and his Family in their preservation when all the rest of the World perished and the Commandments which God gave to Noah at his coming out of the Ark with his Promises and Threatnings respectively to the performance or trangression of them must be well known and the sin in building the Tower of Babel for which the Universal Language was confounded and the Race of Mankind dispersed could proceed from nothing but the heigth of Presumption and Perverseness After the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of Mankind they could not on the sudden remove to very distant and remote Places by reason of the unpassable Woods and Desarts and Marshes which after so vast an Inundation must be every where to be met with to obstruct their passage in those hot and fruitful Countreys when they had lain uninhabited for so many Years This we may the better understand from the slow progress which was made in the Discoveries of the West-Indies For the Spaniards in those places where they found neither Guide nor Path did not enter the Country ten Miles (f) See Sir W. Rauleigh l. 1. c. 8. §. 3. in ten Years And in those Ages they could not but be ill provided either by their own Skill or by convenient Tools and Instruments with fit means to clear the Countrey which they were to pass and they were likewise unprovided of Vessels to transport any great numbers of Men with their Families and Herds of Cattle which were for many Ages their only Riches and absolutely necessary for their Sustenance for Navigation had never had so slow an Improvement in the World if it had so soon been in that Perfection as to enable them for such Transportation And as for these Reasons the Dispersion of Noah's Posterity over the Earth must be gradual and many Generations must pass before the remoter Parts of it could be inhabited so the several Plantations must be supposed to hold Correspondence with those to whom they were nearest allyed and from whom they went out they must be supposed to own some sort of Dependance upon them and pay them such Acknowledgments as Colonies have ever done to their Mother-Cities It is natural to suppose that they first spread themselves into the neighbouring Countries and as Sir Walter Rauleigh has observed the first Plantations were generally by the Banks of Rivers whereby they might hold Intelligence one with another which they could not do by Land that being overspread with Woods and altogether unfit for travelling And the great affinity which is observable between the Eastern Languages proves that there was a continual Correspondence and Commerce maintained between the several Nations after the Dispersion All which considering the great Age that Men lived in those times must without a very gross Neglect and Contempt of God preserve a true Notion of Religion in the several Parts of the World For Noah himself lived Three hundred and Fifty Years after the Flood his Sons were not soon dispersed their Dispersion was gradual and
between Virgil's Fourth Eclogue and the Translation of it into Greek in Constantine's Oration is rather an Argument for the Authority of the Sibylline Oracles than against it For Constantine was wont to compose his Orations and Epistles in Latin and they were Translated into Greek by some whom be employ'd in that Service And the Author of the Translation Translated only what was properly Virgil's but when he came to what was by Virgil borrow'd from the Sibyl he wrote down the Original Greek not translating the Variations which Virgil had made from it to apply the Prophecy to his own Subject It is well known that the Ancients took as great a Liberty as this in their Translations and it was the more allowable when there could be no Design or Likelihood of Deceit in the Translation of so Famous a Poem as that Eclogue of Virgil. This was but to point out the Alterations which Virgil had made and to shew how easily these Parts of his Poem might be supply'd from the Original Greek And perhaps this was a known Translation of that Eclogue which had been made with this Design It were no difficult Matter to answer all the other Objections which are wont to be brought against the Sybilline Oracles so far as the Notion here propos'd is concern'd in them For though the Books which we have now contain manifest Falsifications and Forgeries yet there must have been something real to give a Pretence and Countenance to so many elaborate Forgeries of this Nature and that was the Sibylline Oracles mention'd in Tully Sallust Virgil c. We may therefore conclude That the True Religion receiv'd a considerable Promulgation from these Oracles which serv'd to awaken in the Gentiles an Expectation of a King to be born in Judaea As soon as the Gospel appear'd in the World like the Rising Sun it diffus'd its Divine Light and Influence into all Parts of the Earth its Propagation was it self a Miracle and answerable to that Miraculous Power of Languages and other Means by which it was accomplish'd Tertullian acquaints us (h) Tertull. adv Judoees c. 7. that it was soon propagated beyond the Bounds of the Roman Empire he speaks of the Northern Parts of Britain and we know it received as early a Propagation in other Places more remote being preached by St. Bartholomew (i) Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 1. l. 5. c. 10. to the Indians by St. Thomas to the Parthians and to the Scythians by St. Andrew In St. Augustine's time (k) St. Aug. de Vtilit Credendi c. 7. the Christians were more numerous in all the known Parts of the World than the Jews and Heathens together And we have reason to believe that the Zeal of the Apostles and their immediate Disciples and Followers had carried the glad Tidings of the Gospel farther than either Ambition or Avarice it self till of late years had made any Discovery which Tertullian likewise sufficiently intimates The Cross was found to be in use among the Chineses by those who first went from Europe (l) Trigaut de Christ Expedit apud Sinus l. 1. c. 11. Alvar. Semedo Hist of China part 1. c. 31. into China and a Bell was seen there which had Greek Characters engraven on it And those who honour'd the Cross were in so great numbers in the Northern Provinces that they gave Jealousie to the Infidels The Christians there were call'd Isai from the Name Jesus And from the Chaldee Books which were found upon the Coasts of Malabar it appears that St. Thomas preach'd the Gospel in China and founded many Churches there The Passages which prove this may be seen in Trigautius and Semedo translated out of those Books Nicolas de Conti (m) Purch part 1. l. 4. c. 16. saith of the Chinese that when they rise in the Morning they turn their Faces to the East and with their Hands joined say God in Trinity keep us in this Law The Gospel was preach'd in China (n) Le Compte's Memoirs p. 348. Semedo ib. by some who came from Judaea and seem to have been Monks A. D. DCXXXVI as it appears by a Marble Table erected A. D. DCCLXXXII and found A. D. MDCXXV This Monument contains the principal Articles of the Christian Faith the substance of the Inscription may be seen in Le Compte's Memoirs and the whole is translated by Semedo Hornius (o) Horn. de Orig. American l. 4 c. 15. indeed rejects this Inscription which was likewise produced by Kircher as counterfeit but without any cause that I can perceive For if it were a Fraud there is no reason to think that we should not find all the Points of Popery inserted in it Osorius writes (p) Hierom. Oâ—r de Rebus Eman Lusitan Regis l. 2. that the Brachmans believed a Trinity in the Divine Nature and a God Incarnate to procure the Salvation of Mankind and that the Church of St. Thomas was esteemed most Holy among the Saracens and other Nations for the report of Miracles wrought there The Gentiles of Indostan (q) Continuat of the History of M. Bernier Tom. 4. retain some Notion of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Second Person though corrupted with fabulous Stories The People of Ceylon (r) Capt. Knox his Hist of Ceylon part 3. c. 5. do firmly believe the Resurrection of the Body The Indians in America (s) Jos Acost Hist l. 5. c. 28. worshipped a God who they said was One in Three and Three in One. They Baptized (t) Pet. Mart. Decad 4. c. 8. Decad. 8. c. 9. their Children and used the Cross in Baptism having a great veneration for the Cross and thinking it a preservative against Evil Spirits they believed the (u) Lerii Navigat in Bras c. 16. Resurrection of the Body they had Monasteries Nunneries Confessors and Sacraments And the Mexicans (x) Acost l. 5. c. 14 23 24 25. in their ancient Tongue called their High-Priests Papae's or Sovereign Bishops as it appears by their Histories It is a remarkable Relation which Lerius gives (y) Lerius Navigat ibid. of the People of Brasil That when he had discoursed to them concerning Religion and endeavoured to persuade them to become Christians one of their ancient Men answer'd That he had declared excellent and wonderful things to them which put him in mind of what they had often heard from their Fore-fathers That a long while ago many Ages before their time there came a Stranger into their Countrey in such an Habit and with a Beard as they saw the French wear for these Americans wear none who preached to them in the same manner and to the same effect as they had now heard him do but that the People would not hearken to him Upon which Lerius observes that Nicephorus writes That St. Matthew preached the Gospel to Cannibals and he thinks it not improbable that some of the Apostles might pass into America that the Sound of
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
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
as the Jews them selves ever understood it and what ever Testimony is produced from thence brings with it the Evidence of the whole And a like Evidence is again reflected upon the whole Old Testament by the Accomplishment of any part of it in the New and by the appeal which our Saviour and his Apostles constantly made to it CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour THat in the reign of Tiberius there lived such a Person as Jesus Christ who suffered (a) Tacit. Annal. lib. 25. under Pontius Pilate is expresly written by Tacitns and that he cured Diseases and wrought other Miracles was never denied by the worst Enemies to the Christian name and Doctrine So that the substance of the History of the Life and Death of our Saviour is acknowledged by our very Adversaries and the Power by which he wrought his Miracles is the thing which was in dispute between them and the Primitive Christians And therefore I shall take the observations which I make concerning our Blessed Saviour from that account which the Evangelists give of him which is in great part confessed by the Jews and Heathens and which deserves at least the same credit that all other Histories do till it can be disproved and in the following Chapters I shall shew that it is infallibly true The Divine Nature of our B. Saviour is of another consideration we are in this place to consider him according to the Appearance he made in the World and this was such as shewed him to be void of all ambitious and aspiring thoughts and to be meek and humble and perfectly vertuous and holy his Miracles were wrought without vanity and ostentation and never out of Revenge or to shew his Power over his Enemies but always with a gracious and merciful design he avoided all opportunities of Popularity he would not intermeddle in private affairs when he was appealed to and made his escape when the people would have taken him by force to make him a King after they had seen the Miracle of the Loaves by which it appeared that he who was able to sustain so many thousands in the Wilderness might have raised and maintained what Army he pleased and might have made himself as great as he would notwithstanding any opposition He dealt freely and generously with his Disciples not deluding them with vain hopes nor promising them great Matters but checking their aspiring Thoughts and telling them truly and plainly that they were to expect nothing but miseries in this World from the Profession of his Doctrine he put it to their own choice whether they would take up their Cross and follow him and when he was betray'd by one of those very Disciples he uses no upbraiding or reproachful Language but bespeaks him with a Divine Patience and Meekness Noman ever suffer'd with so much injustice and cruelty nor ever any man with so great compassion and charity towards all his Enemies He lived a mean and despised Life and never was in such a condition as could tempt any man to flatter him or to conceal any fault if he had been guilty of any and he had always many Enemies who endeavoured to fasten the worst calumnies upon him but their malice tended only to render his Innocence the more manifest and illustrious The person who betray'd him and delivered him into the hands of his Enemies was one of the Twelve one of his own Disciples and Apostles whom he had sent out to gain Proselytes and had committed to him a Power of working Miracles and of doing whatsoever was requisite to gain Reception for his Religion in the World Judas was one of the Twelve who were nearest to him and were admitted to all the secrets of his Kingdom and were entrusted with the most hidden Mysteries and obscure Doctrines of his Religion whatsoever was spoken to others in Parables was explained afterwards to them in private nothing was with-held from them which it was convenient for them to be acquainted withal or which they were capable of knowing Nay Judas seems to have had a particular mark of Favour plac'd upon him in that he was the keeper of the Bag for it was an Office of some Trust and Confidence however it gave him an opportunity of knowing whether his Master had any such ambitious designs as he was accused of For if he had perverted the Nation and forbidden to give Tribute to Caesar and had endeavour'd to set himself up as King of the Jews which was the charge laid against him before Pilate such a Project could not have been carried on without amassing a great Treasure which therefore if any such thing had been in hand Judas had been best able to give an account of But when one who had constantly attended upon him and was so intimately acquainted with all the secrets of his Life and Doctrin had nothing to alledge against him after he had betray'd him what could make more for his Justification or be a clearer Demonstration of his Innocence When men are once prevail'd upon to turn Traytors they seldom do things by halves but if there be the least pretence or colour to be found they will be sure to lay hold of it to justify their villany And it is the most undeniable proof our Saviours's Innocence that Treachery it self could discover nothing to fasten upon him but tho' Judas had been suborned by the chief Priests to betray his Master for thirty pieces of Silver yet neither that nor a greater sum which we may be confident would not have been denied him could prevail with Judas himself to undertake to appear as a witness against him When one of his own Disciples was perswaded or rather had offer'd of his own accord to betray him it could not be imagin'd but that the Chief Priests would urge him to come in as a witness to the Accusations which they had framed against him this had been a much a more acceptable service to them than barely to deliver him up for what could have brought a greater disgrace upon his Person or more discredit upon his Religion than for one of his own Disciples to witness against him that the had committed things worthy of Death Men who were at such a loss for matter to charge Christ with and at last could not make their Witnesses agree together would never we may be sure have omitted such an opportunity as this of loading him with infamy and stifling his Doctrine in his death And he who was so ready and forward to betray his master wou'd never have stuck at accusing him if he had had any thing to say against him and no other reason can be given why he did not do it but that he was over-awed by that Innocence and Holiness which he knew to be in him and was seiz'd with that remorse of Conscience and terrour of Mind as not to be able to bear up under the guilt of what he had already done For Judas who had betrayed him when
the end of the world He foretold the denial of St. Peter and the manner of his Martyrdom and both were foretold to St. Peter himself and his denial but a very little while before it came to pass when St. Peter looked upon it as a thing impossible who alone could have it in his power to hinder it He prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem which came to pass about forty years after his own Death within the compass of that Generation as he had foretold the very foundations of the Temple and City were destroyed and the ground plowed up so that one stone was not left upon another of all the magnificent Buildings of the Temple which the Disciples so much admired when our Saviour told them that this should be the Fate of that glorious Pile Matt. xxii 2. And as I have already observed upon another occasion when Julian with a design (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozom. lib. 5. c. 21. to defeat this Prophecy endeavoured to have it rebuilt both the Works and the Workmen were miraculously destroyed by a fire bursting out of the ground The Inhabitants fell by the edge of the Sword and were led away captive into all Nations Luke xxi 24. the chiefest place of security was the mountainous part of Judea which our Saviour foresaw when he advised his Disciples to flee to the Mountains Matt. xxiv 16. And Cestius Gallus compassed Jerusalem with his Army which was a warning to the Christians to depart and then by raising the Siege gave them an opportunity to escape to Pella in the Mountains of Perea exactly according to Luke xxi 20 21. And what Dion Cassius relates in the Reigns of Claudius Nero Vitellius and Titus may serve as a comment upon our Saviour's Prophecy for there were famines and pestilences fearful sights and great signs from Heaven and great Earthquakes the Sea and the Waves Roaring xxi 11 25. The Sun was darkned and the Moon did not give her light Matt. xxiv 29. Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which were coming on the Earth Luke xxi 26. and there was so terrible an eruption of Vesuvius that the Ashes were carried by the winds into Africk and into Egypt and Syria with so great smoak and darkness that it was thought the world had been at an end Our Saviour's Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias for the Jews expected that the Messias should manifest himself by Miracles to the world as they concluded from the ancient Prophets and therefore St. John Baptist did no Miracles that he might not be mistaken for the Messias of whom Miracles were a principal Token to know him by His Miracles were wrought in the midst of his Enemies and extorted a confession from the Devils themselves of his Divine Power they were of that nature that it was impossible for them before whom they were wrought to be imposed upon by them and as impossible for them to be performed but by the immediate Power of God The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes was twice done and the Persons who were Witnesses to it were at one time five thousand men besides Women and Children Matt. xiv 21. and the other time four thousand men besides Women and Children Matt. xv 38. a Miracle wrought at two several times and obvious to all the sences of so many thousand Men besides Women and Children who being hungry found themselves filled and satisfied with this miraculous food in the barren Wilderness where it was impossible for them to be supplied by natural means was impossible to be mistaken The Miracles of our Saviour were so many and so publick and undeniable that St. Peter appeals to the Jews themselves declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves also knew Acts ii 22. The Nobleman's Son was cured at a distance and the multitude were Witnesses to the request he made to our Saviour and to our Saviour's answer upon it and the Nobleman's Family were Witnesses that the cure was effected at that very time He cast Devils out of one known to have been a long time possess'd and then suffered them to go into the Swine to make it appear that they were indeed evil Spirits which had possess'd the Man contrary to the Doctrine of the Sadduces who believed no such thing as Spirits He cured the Leprosy and sent the cured to the Priest as the Law required that he by inspection might examine whether it were a perfect cure or no. He gave sight to one born Blind and this was upon examination attested to the Pharisees themselves Lazarus was raised to life again after he had been dead four days before so many Witnesses that the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to contradict the Truth of it but were mightily enraged against him for it and consulted to put Lazarus to death because many were induced to believe on Christ by reason of so great and manifest a Miracle Some who had been cured and others who had been raised from the Dead by our Saviour were living for many years after (b) Enseb Hist lib. iv c. 13. Hieron Catalog as Quadratus testified of his own time in his Apology to Adrian the Emperor The circumstances of these and the rest of our Saviours Miracles shewed that they were really performed and they were wrought with this intent and design to prove him to be the Christ The nature therefore and end of them shews that nothing less than a Divine Power could have effected them For God would never have suffered them to be wrought to vouch an Imposture to the World under his own Name and Authority (c) Guil. Ader me dici enarrationes de a grotis morbis in Evangelio A â—earned Physician has Written a Treatise to shew that according to the Principles and Axioms of the best Physicians all the Diseases which our Saviour cured were incurable by natural means and it is evident to every man that many of them were so But I shall insist more particularly upon the Resurrection of our Saviour this being the most wonderful and a confirmation of all his other Miracles and of the whole Gospel to us CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our B. Saviour THE Resurrection of our B. Saviour was Prophesied of by David Psal xvi 8. Act. ii 27. And it was prefigured by the Type of Isaac's deliverance when he had been offered up by Abraham who both believed that God was able to raise him up even from the Dead and received him also from thence in a Figure Heb. xi 19. and it was also prefigured by the Type of Jonas his being three days and three nights in the Whale's Belly Matt. xii 40. Our Saviour was three days and three nights in the Grave that is three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or three natural days according
it is true because it is for the benefit of Mankind that it should be so and upon that account it carries the visible Characters of Divine Wisdom and Goodness in it for it is certain that the Religion which God has established in the World must be of this nature that none but wicked men can dislike it and that all sober and good men must be well satisfied with it and mightily enclined to believe it nay even the worst men must be forced to confess that they owe their own safety and protection to the Doctrines of it And that such is the nature of the Christian Religion will be evident if we consider that I. It teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man II. It layeth down the only true Principles of Holiness III. It proposeth the most effectual Motives IV. It affords the greatest helps and assistances to an Holy Life V. It expresseth the greatest compassion and condescension to our infirmities VI. The propagation of the Gospel has had mighty effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind VII The highest mysteries of the Christian Religion are not merely speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice and were revealed for the advancement of Piety and Virtue amongst men I. The Christian Religion teacheth an Universal Righteousness both towards God and Man It teacheth us the nature of God that he is a Spirit and therefore ought to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and gives us an account of the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Creation of the World and in the various dispensations of his Providence in the preservation and Government of it and especially in the wonderful work of our Redemption God is represented in the Scriptures as slow to anger and great in Power and who will not at all acquit the wicked Nahum i. 3. and we are required to love and serve him with all our Abilities both of Body and Mind Deut. vi 5. Matt. xxii 37. The Duties of men towards one another are no less strictly enjoyned than our duty towards God himself For the Scriptures oblige all men to the Conscientious performance of their several Duties in their respective capacities and relations They teach Wives and Children and Subjects and Servants Obedience not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake and they teach Princes and Husbands and Fathers and Masters a proportionable care and kindness and affection they check and restrain the rich and powerful from violence and oppression and command them to relieve those that are in want and to protect all that are in distress and to root up the very seeds and principles of Vice in us they regulate our desires and give Laws to our words and looks and thoughts they command an universal Love and Charity towards all Mankind to hurt no body so much as in a Thought but to do all the good which is in our power they oblige men to do as they would be done unto in all cases to consider others as men of the same nature with themselves and to love and respect them accordingly upon all occasions I may add what Grotius has not omitted that more favour and equity is extended to one half of humane kind by the Christian Religion than ever had been by any other for among Infidels Women are esteemed but as slaves to the Lusts of men who may have as many Wives as they please and change them as often as they think fit II. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principles of Holiness For they teach us to perform all Duties both towards God and Man upon Principles of Love and Charity which are the only Principles that can make men happy in the performance of their respective duties and that can cause them to persevere in it What men do upon Principles of Love they do with delight and what men delight in they will be sure to do but fear hath torment and men will use all Arts to get rid of their fears and of that sense of Duty which proceeds only from an apprehension of Punishments and therefore is perpetually grievous and burthensom to them Rewards themselves may become ineffectual by proposals of contrary Rewards for smaller advantages which are present and in hand may be more prevalent than never so much greater which are future and looked upon only at a distance But a sense of Love and Gratitude and Charity can never fail of its effect because this brings its reward with it and makes our duty a delight He who loves God will certainly obey him and he that does not love him never can truly obey him as he ought but will be ever repining at his Duty and will be for seeking all pretences to excuse himself from it He who doth not love his Neighbour will be for taking all opportunities of pursuing his own advantage against him but he who loves him as himself will never do him any injury He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. xiii 8. The Love of God and of our Neighbour comprehends the whole duty of man which is a Doctrine no where to be met withal but in the Holy Scriptures all the Wisdom of Philosophers could never discover this Doctrine which sets before us the only infallible principles of obedience And it must be a most gracious and wise Law which makes Love the Principle and Foundation of our whole duty both towards God and Man III. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual motives of Obedience and Holiness of Life The moral Reasons and Arguments for a vertuous Life are so great and evident that those who live otherwise are generally convinced that they ought not to do it but because the Arguments from Reason are to faint and lifeless to oppose to sense and passion therefore the Christian Religion is purposely fitted to every faculty and presents us with greater objects of fear and love and desire than any thing in the world can do And as God will be served by us upon no other Principle but that of love so the chiefest Motive to our Obedience express'd throughout the Scriptures is the Divine Love They represent to us all the methods which God has been pleased to use as necessary to reclaim the world by his mercies and his judgments by sending his Prophets at sundry times and in divers manners and at last by sending his own Son He saw the fondness that men have for this World and for the pleasures and sins of it how subject they are to Temptations and how prone to comply with them and therefore he has been pleased to pursue
when he proposes Rules of Vertue and cautions to arm men against Vice and Temptation how much short doth he fall of the Christian Doctrine If any man says he tell you that such an one hath spoken ill of you make no Apollogy for your self but answer He did not know my other faults or else he would not have charged me with these only cap xlviii This is a sine saying a pretty turn of thought but what is there in it comparable to that aweful and sacred Promise Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. v. 11 12. Again when a man values himself says Epictetus for being able to understand and explain the Books of Chrysippus say you to your self unless Chrysippus had written obscurely this man would have had nothing to boast of But what do I design To study Nature and follow it cap. lxxiii This is no ill Satyr upon the vanity of men but is there any thing in it like that Piety and Authority with which St. Paul reproves the same vice 1 Cor. viii 1.2 3. The best thing that can be said of the Heathen Philosophers is that most of them frequently confest the great imperfection of their Philosophy and placed their greatest wisdom in this That they were more sensible than others of their ignorance and Socrates profest that to be the Reason why the Oracle of Apollo declared him to be the wisest man because he knew how ignorant he was better than other men did As to the Chinese Philosophy we know little of it their (u) Confuc lib. iii. Par. 4. p. 36. Philippi â—â—uplet Prooem Declar. Books of Philosophy being all destroyed at the command of a Tyrant who reigned about two hundred years before Christ from the Fragments which were afterwards gathered up and yet remain among them we can only perceive that Confucius and the rest of their best Philosophers taught no more than what they had learnt by Tradition from their Ancestors and when they forsook this Tradition they fell into the grossest errors which are maintained by the learned men amongst them at this day II. Whatever there is of excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation It is generally supposed that humane Reason could have discovered the more common and obvious Precepts of Morality contained in the Scriptures but it is more probable that it could not have discovered most of them if we may judge by the gross absurdities which we find as to some particulars in the best Systems of Heathen Philosophy and from the general practice of offering up men for sacrifices to their Gods and of casting away and exposing their Children in the most civilized Nations But it is evident from what has been already proved at large that the Heathens were not left destitute of many helps and advantages from the Scriptures which divers of the Philosophers had read and many things which seem now to be deductions from natural Reason might have their Original from Revelation for things once discovered seem easie and obvious to men which they would never have been able to discover of themselves We wonder now how men should ever suppose there could be no Antipodes and are apt to admire how America could lie so long concealed rather than how it came at last to be discovered and the case is the same in many other Discoveries especially in moral Truths which are so agreeable to Reason that they may seem the natural Productions of it though a contrary custom and inclination and the subtlety of Satan working upon our depraved Nature might perhaps have made it very difficult if not impossible without a Revelation to discern many Doctrines even of Morality which now are most common and familiar to us What Maxim is more agreeable and therefore as one would think more obvious to humane Reason than that every man should do to others as he would have them do to him And yet Spartianas an Heathen Historian says that Alexander Severus had this excellent rule of natural Justice and Equity either from the Jews or Christians There is no Book of Scripture which seems to contain plainer and more obvious things than the Proverbs of Solomon and (x) Ld. Bacon Advance of Learning B. viii c. 2. yet an Author of great Learning and Judgment has given an Essay how a considerable defect of Learning may be supplyed out of this very Book producing such cautions instructions and axioms from thence relating to the business and government of humane Life in all varieties of occasion as are no where else to be met withal No man can tell how far humane Reason could have proceeded without Revelation since it never was without it but always argued from those Principles which were at first delivered by God himself to Noah and were propagated amongst his Posterity throughout all Ages and Nations though they were more corrupted and depraved in some Ages and Nations than in others (y) Plat. de Legib. Dialog 1. Plato derives the Original of all Laws from Revelation and the Doctrines of Morality of the most ancient Philosophers were a kind of Cabbala consisting of general Maxims and Proverbs without argument or deduction from Principles and it is the same thing at this day in those Countries where Aristotle's Philosophy has not prevailed who was one of the first that undertook to argue closely from Principles in Morality And in other parts of Philosophy I shall prove by some remarkable instances that humane reason failed them in the explication of things which were generally received and acknowledged The existence of God is clearly and unanswerably demonstrated by Tully and (z) Tull. de Legib. lib. 1. the Unity of the God-head is as plainly asserted by him with what strength of Reason with what plainness with what assurance doth (a) Tull. de Natur. Deor. lib. 2 ii Balbus the Stoick speak concerning the existence of the Deity but when he would explain the Divine Nature he describes a mere Anima Mundi and exposes himself to the scorn and laughter of his Adversary which shews that humane Reason could go no further than to discover the existence of God and that we can know little of his nature but by Revelation and that whatsoever true and just notions the Heathens had of the Divine Nature must be chiefly ascribed to that That the world was created the Philosophers before Aristotle generally asserted and that Water was the first matter out of which it was formed is acknowledged by (b) Arist de coelo lib. i. c. 10. Metaphys lib. i. c. 3. Aristotle to be esteemed the most ancient opinion but when he set himself to argue the point he concluded the world to be eternal which according to modern Philosophy is as absurd and impossible as any thing that can be imagined The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul was delivered down from all
But thus much in this place shall suffice all particulars having been largely insisted upon in their proper places And since as sure as there is a God there must be a Revealed Religion if any Man will dispute the Truth of the Christian Religion let him instance in any other Religion that can make a better Plea and has more certainty that it came from God let him produce any other Religion that has more visible Characters of Divinity in it and we will not scruple to be of it but if it be impossible for him to shew any such as has been proved then he ought to be of this since there must be some Revealed Religion and if that Religion which has more evidence for it than any other Religion can be pretended to have and all that it could be requisite for it to have supposing it true and which it is therefore impossible to discover to be false if it were so If this Religion be not true God must be wanting to Mankind in what concerns their eternal Interest and Happiness he must be wanting to himself and to his own Attributes of Goodness Justice and Truth And therefore he that upon a due examination of all the Reasons and Motives to it will not be a Christian can be no better than an Atheist if he discern the consequence of things and will hold to his own Principles for there can be no Medium if we rightly consider the Nature of God and of the Christian Religion but as sure as there is a God and nothing can be more certain the Gospel was revealed by him CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith HAving proved the Truth and Certainty of our Religion I shall in the last place upon these Principles give a Resolution of our Faith which is a subject that has caused such unnecessary and unhappy Disputes amongst Christians in these latter Ages for in the Primitive Times this was no matter of Controversie as indeed it could not then and ought not now to be 1. Considering the Scriptures only as an History containing the Actions and Doctrines of Moses and the Prophets and of our Saviour and his Apostles we have the greatest humane Testimony that can be of men who had all the opportunities of knowing the truth of those Miracles c. which gave Evidence and Authority to the Doctrines as Revealed from God and who could have no Interest to deceive others but exposed themselves to all manner of dangers and infamy and torments by bearing Testimony to the Truth of what is contained in the Scriptures whereas Impostures are wont to be invented not to incur such sufferings but to avoid them or to obtain the advantages and pleasures of this world And so this Testimony amounts to a moral certainty or as it is properly enough called by some to a moral infallibility because it implies a moral impossibility of our being deceived by it such a certainty it is as that nothing with any reason can be objected against it We can have as little reason to doubt that Christ and his Apostles did and suffered and taught what the Scriptures relate of them in Jerusalem Antioch c. as that there ever were such places in the world nay we have that much better attested than this for many men have died in Testimony of the Truth of it II. This Testimony being considered with respect to the nature of the thing testified as it concerns eternal Salvation which is of the greatest concernment to all mankind it appears that Gods Veracity and Goodness are engaged that we should not be deceived inevitably in a matter of this consequence So that this Moral Infallibility becomes hereby Absolute Infallibility and that which was before but Humane Faith becomes Divine being grounded not upon Humane Testimony but upon the Divine Attributes which do attest and confirm that Humane Testimony and so Divine Testimony is the ultimate ground why I believe the will of God to be delivered in the Scriptures it is no particular revealed Testimony indeed but that which is equivalent to it viz. the constant Attestation of God by his Providence For it is repugnant to the very notion of a God to let men be deceived without any possible help or remedy in a matter of such importance And so we have the ground of our Faith absolutely Infallible because it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God doth confirm this Humane Testimony by his own III. The Argument then proceeds thus If the Scriptures were false it would be impossible to discover them to be so and it is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of Almighty God to suffer a deceit of this nature to pass upon mankind without any possibility of a discovery therefore it follows that they are not false Here is 1. The object or thing to be believed viz. that the Revelation delivered to us in the Scripture is from God 2. The Motive or Evidence to induce our Belief viz. Humane Testimony 3. A confirmation of that Testimony or the Formal Principle and Reason of our Belief viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth The object therefore or thing believed is the same to us that it was to those who saw the miracles by which the Scriptures stand confirmed viz. the revealed Will of God and the Ground and Foundation of our Belief is the same that theirs was viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth whereby we are assured that God would not suffer Miracles to be wrought in his own Name according to Prophecies formerly delivered and with all other circumstances of credibility only to confirm a Lye The only difference then between the resolution of Faith in us and in the Christians who were Converted by the Apostles themselves is this that tho we believe the same things and upon the same grounds and reasons with them yet we have not the same immediate motives or evidence to induce our Belief or to satisfie us in these reasons and convince us that the Revealed Will of God contained in the Scriptures is to be believed upon these grounds that is to satisfie and convince us that the belief of the Scriptures being the Word of God is finally resolved into the Authority of God himself and is as well certified to us as his Divine Attributes can render it For they were assured of this from what their own senses received but we have our assurance of it from the Testimony of others The Question therefore will be whether the motives and arguments for this Belief in us or the means whereby we become assured that the Revealed Will of God is contained in the Scriptures be not as sufficient to produce a Divine Faith in us and to establish our Faith upon the Divine Authority as the motives and arguments which those had who lived with the Apostles and saw their Miracles could be to produce that Faith in them which resolved it self into the Divine Authority And this enquiry will depend upon these two things 1. Whether
have done p. 237. CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our first Parents THE Fall of Angels how caused p. 243. The Fall of Man The effects of it Visible however the Thing may be disputed p. 244. No Preexistence of Souls ib. Eve beguiled by the Serpent p. 246. The Sin of Eating the forbidden Fruit p. 249. Many Circumstances omitted in the Scripture concerning the State of our First Parents in Paradise and relating to their Fall ib. Why a Commandment was given them concerning a thing of an indifferent Nature p. 250. The Curse upon the Serpent p. 254. The Curse of the Ground p. 255. The Punishment of our First Parents p. 256. The Fall not Allegorical p. 374. The effects of it upon all Posterity p. 376. CHAP. XIV Of the Eternity of Hell Torments THE Eternity of Hell Torments consistent with the Justice of God because 1 Rewards and Punishments are a like Proposed to our choice p. 383. 2 The Rewards are Eternal as well as the Punishments p. 384. 3 It was necessary that the Sanction of the Divine Laws should be by eternal Rewards and Punishments p. 387. 4 It is necessary that eternal Punishments should be inflicted upon the Wicked according to this Sanction p. 388. Objections obviated p. 359. The Eternity of Hell Torments consistent with the Mercy of God p. 362. CHAP. XV. Of the Jewish Law OF the Judicial Laws p. 369. Of the Ceremonial Laws p. 371. They were given to prevent Idolatry p. 341. To signify and represent inward Purity and Holiness p. 344. This shewn of Circumcision p. 345. Of Purifications p. 346. Of Abstinences p. 346. Of Sacrifices and Oblations ib. The Jewish Worship was Typical of Christ and his Gospel p. 347. This proved of Sacrifices p. 348. Purifications p. 350. Incense ib. During this Ceremonial Dispensation there was a sufficient Revelation of the Internal and Spiritual part of Religion p. 352. The Love of God and of their Neighbour ib. A Future State p. 353. the Resurrection p. 354. CHAP. XVI Of the Cessation of the Jewish Law THE Types of the Law fulfilled in the Messias p. 332. The strange Evasions and absurd Opinions of the Jews ib. It was foretold by the Prophets that the Law was to cease upon the coming of the Messiah p. 335. It was afterwards to become impracticable p. 323. How it is to be understood that the Mosaical Law was to endure for ever p. 324. CHAP. XVII Of the Sinful Examples recorded in the Scriptures SEveral Places of the Scriptures relating Evil Actions contain only matter of Fact p. 327. The Rules of Good and Evil by which we are to judge of Actions are plainly delivered in the Scriptures p. ib. The Relation of the bad Actions of Good Men may be of use 1. To shew the Sincerity of the Pen-Men of the Scriptures 2. To discover the Frailty of Humane Nature and the necessity of imploring the Divine Grace 3. To shew that God can bring Good out of Evil p. 328. 4. For the Glory of God's Grace and for a Warning to future Ages p. 329. CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament MAny of these Expressions are used in reference to the Nations on whom God had Commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments p. 331. David being a King was a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that did Evil. p. 332. It is Lawful to Pray that Malefactors may be punished ib. The Jews might appeal to God as their Political Legislator and Governour p. 333. Those which seem Imprecations are oftentimes Predictions and Denunciations of Judgment p. 334. Divers Places are to be understood of Judas or of others like him p. 336. This supposition is implyed in Imprecations if they will persist in their Sins if they will not repent ib. What Charity was required under the Law and what was meant by the Word Neighbour p. 337. CHAP. XIX Of the Texts of the Old Testament cited in the New THe Apostles cited in the Scriptures of the Old Testament according to the Exposition of them then acknowledged by the Jews p. 340. A remarkable Passage from F. Simon to this purpose p. 342. The Epistle to the Hebrews much admired by a learned Jew for the sublime Sense therein given to the Texts of the Old Testament ib. CHAP. XX. Of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God I THe necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God considered p. 344. 2. Tho' it should be supposed that God could have pardoned the Sins of Men upon other Terms yet the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God is so far from implying any thing unworthy of him that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we are able to apprehend could so much have become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness p. 345. 1. There is nothing in this whole Dispensation unworthy of God p. 346. which is proved by shewing 1 The unreasonableness of this Supposition that the Union of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ should cause the God head to suffer with the Manhood p. 347. 2 The Humiliation of the Son of God in affirming our Nature may be accounted for without supposing that the Godhead suffered p. 350. 3 The Satisfaction of Christ by Dying for our Sins may be explained without supposing it p. 351. 2. No other way as far as we can apprehend could have been so proper and expedient as the Incarnation of the Son of God to procure the Salvation of Mankind p. 357. 1 The Doctrin and Preaching of the Son of God was of more Power and Authority than the Preaching or Doctrin of a Man or Angel could have been p. 358. 2 His Example is of greater Perfection and Holiness p. 360. 3 His Mediation and Intercession is of greater efficacy p. 362. 4 The Incarnation and Death of the Son of God is the most effectual means to excite in us Faith Hope and Charity and to dispose and engage us to all Vertue and Piety p. 364. CHAP. XXI Of the Fulness of Time or the Time appointed by God for the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour GOd had before-hand used all other means to shew the necessity of sending his Son at last p. 371. The Reception of the Gospel had been much more difficult if it had not been foretold in so many several Ages by the Prophets p. 374. The Time of Christ's coming might depend upon the Duration of the World p. 376. The World was then prepared for his coming p. 378. The particular Temper and Disposition of that Age in which our Saviour was born made it the most seasonable p. 380. CHAP. XXII Of the last Days and of the last Day or the Day of Judgment THE last Days of the World seldom mentioned in express Terms in Scripture but under the Resemblances of other Events p. 384. The Destruction of Jerusalem Typical of the Day of Judgment p. 385. This appears from Matt. 25. ib. The
last Days of the Jewish Dispensation p. 388. The Times of the Gospel meant by the last Days p. 389. St. Paul did not suppose that the Day of Judgment was approaching in his time p. 391. There is no reason to suppose that the last Judgment must be confined to one Day p. 393. CHAP. XXIII Of Sacraments THE Nature and design of Sacraments p. 396. 1. They are outward and Visible Signs of our Entrance into Covenant with God or of our Renewing our Covenant with him ib. 2. They are Tokens and Pledges to us of God's Love and Favour p. 402. 3. They are means and Instruments of Grace and Salvation p. 404. 4. They are Federal Rites of our Admission into the Church as a Visible Society and of our Union with it as such p. 406. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper fully Answer the end and Design of the Institution of Sacraments p. 407. CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed Trinity THere is no Contradiction in this Mistery of our Religion p. 412 The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity p. 413. The Unity of the Divine Nature p. 414. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 417. Other things are and must be believed by us which are as little understood as this Doctrine p. 421. The necessity of the Belief of this Doctrine explained and Defended p. 423. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the Advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great Influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men p. 427. CHAP. XXV Of the Resurrection of the Dead GOD is certainly able to raise the Dead p. 431. Bodies after their Corruption and the Dissolution of the Parts which Compose them may be restored to Life by the Reunion of these Parts again p. 436. We may rise again with the same Bodies which we have here notwithstanding any change or Flux of the Parts of our Bodies while we Live or any Accidents after Death p. 437. It is not only credible and Reasonable to believe that God can but likewise that he will raise the Dead p. 443. CHAP. XXVI Of the Reasons why Christ did not shew himself to all the People of the Jews after his Resurrection THere are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of his Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the Dead p. 449. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards mankind for him to have done it p. 451 Great Numbers of the Jews being given over to hardness of Heart would not have believed tho' they had seen Christ after his Resurrection p. 452. If the Jews had believed in Christ their Conversion had not been a greater Proof of the Truth of his Resurrection than their Unbelief has been p. 453. The Power of Christ's Resurrection manifested in the Miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles was as great a Proof of his Resurrection as the Personal Appearance of our Saviour himself could have been p. 454. CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remained upon the Earth after his â—â—â—surrection and of the manner of his Ascension MAny things in the Life of Christ before his Passion omitted by the Evangelists p. 459. And likewise after his Resurrection p. 461. What may be concluded from that which we Read of his conversing with his Disciples after it p. 463. The manner of his Ascension p. 465. CHAP. XXVIII Why some Works of Nature are more especially ascribed to God why means was sometimes used in the Working of Miracles and why Faith was sometimes required of those upon whom or before whom Miracles were wrought ALL Creatures act with a constant dependance upon the Divine Power and Influence but things may be said more especially to be done by God himself whereby upon some extraordinary Occasion his Power and his Will are more particularly manifested or his Promise fulfilled p. 469. Miracles are more peculiarly the Works of God because they are wrought without the concurrence or subserviency of Natural Means ib Means used as Circumstances to render Miracles more observable not as concurring to the Production of the effect 470. Christ had given undeniable Proof of his Miraculous Power before he required Faith as a condition in such as came to see his Miracles and to receive the benefit of them p. 471. Whether he required Faith of any before his working of a Miracle who had not already seen him work Miracles p. 481. Great Reason that no Miracle should be purposely wrought for the captious and Malicious p. 482. The case of his own Country-men was particular ib. The case of those who came to desire his Help p. 487. Our Saviour hereby signified that he requires the same Faith of those who have not seen his Miracles as he did of those who had seen them p. 489. CHAP. XXIX Of the ceasing of Prophâ—â—â—es and Miracles THe Antiquity of Prophecies adds to their force and Evidence p. 491. The Cessation of Miracles We read of no Miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses p. 492. Neither Prophecies nor Miracles in the Jewish Church for more than four hundred years before Christ p. 495. Miracles if common would lose the design and nature of Miracles p. 498. Men would pretend to frame Hypotheses to solve them p. 499. A constant Power of Miracles would occasion Impostures ib. They would occasion Pride in those that wrought them p. 501. No more Reason for Miracles to prove the Christian Religion among Christians than there is need of them to prove a God ib. A Divine Power is notwithstanding evident among Christians living in Heathen Countries p. 502. CHAP. XXX Of the Causes why the Jews and Gentiles rejected Christ notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by him and his Apostles ASupernatural Grace necessary to True Faith p. 504. Jews and Proselytes were converted in great Numbers p. 508. Many durst not own Christ Others had their hearts hardned p. 511. They had violent prejudidices against the Gospel p. 512. The Signs and Wonders of false Prophets a cause of the Infidelity of the Jews p. 514. The unbelief of the Jews being foretold by the Prophets is a confirmation of the Gospel p. 515. Great Numbers of the Heathens converted p. 516. The cause of unbelief in the Philosophers ib. Of Epictetus and Seneca p. 518. The prejudices of the Gentiles p. 521. They would not be at the Pains rightly to understand the Christian Religion p. 522. Oracles had foretold that it should not last above 365 Years p. ib. Heresies and Schisms gave great Scandal p. 523. Many Heathens however had more favourable and just Thoughts of the Christian Religion p. 524. Of the Writings of the Heathens against it p. 528. The Writings of the ancient Jews confirm it p. 530. CHAP. XXXI That the Confidence of Men of false Religions and their Willingness to suffer for them is no prejudice to the Authority of the True Religion THe Martyrs for the Christian Religion more
Watches for Animals and could not imagine how men could hold correspondence at a distance by a little piece of Paper What man is there among the Vulgar that can conceive how the dimensions and distances of the Sun and Stars can be taken and how the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and of the Satellites of Jupiter can be calculated And is not the knowledge of the wisest man upon earth infinitely more surpass'd by the Divine Wisdom than his Knowledge can excel that of the greatest Idiot III. Those who disbelieve and reject the Mysteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible I. He that will not believe the Being of an Eternal God must believe Matter to be eternal for it is certain something must be eternal because nothing could produce nothing and unless there always had been something there never could have been any thing But this Eternal Matter must either have been once without Motion or always with it if it were once without Motion then Matter must move itself that is Motion must be produced without any thing to produce it If it were always in Motion then there must have been an eternal Succession since Motion cannot be all at once for the very nature of Motion supposes Progression and no Body can move in this space and the next at the same instant for then it must be in two places at once But all Succession of Duration is gradual and the Degrees of it are capable of being numbred and to suppose an Eternal Succession is to suppose an Infinite Number that is a Number to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be substracted or a Number which is no Number Motion therefore could not be Eternal and consequently the World could not exist from Eternity But since there must be something Eternal there must be something the duration whereof is indivisible or which has all its existence together so as to have existed now no longer than it had done before the Beginning of the World For this is the notion of Eternity that it has neither Beginning nor End and therefore things eternal never had a less or shorter duration than they now have and can never have a longer after millions of Ages than they had the first year or day from whence we may be supposed to begin the computation of those Ages For a longer or shorter Duration must suppose a Beginning from whence the computation is made and therefore that which is eternal and had no Beginning can have neither a longer nor a shorter Duration but always the same and by consequence Time can bear no proportion to Eternity because that which had a Beginning can bear no proportion to that which had none Yet Eternity must coexist with Time in all the differences and successions of it and must be present with every part of it that is the Eternal Being exists the space suppose of a thousand years and a Temporal or Created Being exists at the same time as long and the Temporal Being becomes a thousand years older than it was but the Eternal no older than it was before because tho it coexist with Time yet it has no respect to the division of it into Past Present and Future There is no Mystery in Religion more difficult and perplexing than this and yet this is no more than what every one tho he be a Deist or an Atheist must acknowledge to believe if he will but consider it 2. Whoever believes that there is a God and yet believes no Revelation or that the Scriptures are not by Revelation from him must believe a God and yet deny the Divine Attributes he must believe that there is a God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Alex. contr Julian lib. 8. who is not essentially just and good and holy which is in effect to believe no God at all as I have proved at large in the former Book Much more might be said upon so copious a subject but this is enough to make us more humble and modest in judging of the Divine Mysteries For shall poor Mortals who know so little and that little so imperfectly presume to censure the Holy Scriptures because they contain things which they cannot understand Shall he that cannot fully explain the Nature of the vilest Infect reject what God hath delivered concerning himself because he doth not comprehend it The thoughts of mortal men are miserable and our devices are but uncertain For the corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out Wisd 13 14 15 16. But * Ld Bacon ' s Advancement of Learning B. 3. c. 2. out of the contemplation of Nature and out of the Principles of humane Reason to discourse or earnestly to urge a point touching the mysteries or Faith and again to be curiously speculative into those secrets to ventilate them and to be inquisitive into the manner of the mystery is in my judgment not safe Da fidei quae fidei sunt For the Heathens themselves conclude as much in the excellent and divine Fable of the Golden Chain that Men and Gods were not able to draw Jupiter down to the Earth but contrarywise Jupiter was able to draw them up to Heaven Wherefore he laboureth in vain who shall attempt to draw down Heavenly mysteries to our Reason it rather becomes us to raise and advance our Reason to the adored Throne of Divine Truth CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALl the Motion of Material things is derived from God and the best account which those who have the most studied the nature of Motion have been able to give of it is only this that it is an effect of the Divine Power manifesting itself according to certain Laws or Rules which God has been pleased to prescribe for the communication of Motion from one Body to another And it is at least as conceivable by us that God doth act upon the Immaterial as that he acts upon the material part of the World and highly reasonable to suppose that he concerns himself with our Souls much more than with our Bodies There is no doubt to be made but that separate and unbodied spirits have ways of of conversing or communicating their thoughts to one another indeed all the communication and discourse that is among men in this world is properly between their Souls which use their Bodies as instruments for the conveyance of their Thoughts and Notions from one to anoand as their Bodies are more or less fit and serviceable to this end so their discourse is more or less easily convey'd and therefore Souls when they are at Liberty from these Bodies must have a Power to communicate their
gift any one had received he was confined to the exercise of it and might not presume to pretend to another which he had not received The gift of tongues and of the interpretation of tongues being so particularly distinguished this must imply that the Apostles who are supposed to have had all the gifts which others had but in part were guided by the Spirit in their words and expressions since those who spoke by the Spirit were unable to interpret without a particular gift for no interpretation was sufficient but such as rendred the sense with infallible truth and exactness and if this exactness of words was requisite in their Assemblies it must be much rather necessary in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists Among other gifts of the Holy Ghost are reckon'd the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge 1 Cor. 12.8 the former Grotius understands of speaking wise sayings and the latter of knowledge in History and to the rest was added the gift of discerning of spirits v. 10. And as there were several gifts so there were several offices in the Church Ephes 4.11 12. Now the several gifts of the Holy Ghost were not all bestowed ordinarily upon the same person but such as were necessary for that office and employment which he was to execute But as the Apostolical Power comprehended in it the powers of every other office so it was requisite that they should possess the gifts proper for the performance of whatever was to be done by them And when God by his providence and disposal of things gave the Apostles and Evangelists occasions of writing upon such and such subjects and to such and such persons or Churches he by his Spirit inwardly excited and assisted them in it bestowing upon them the gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge and of writing and speaking either in their own or any other Language in which they were required to write or speak For we are not to suppose that any gifts were bestowed upon others and yet denied to them to whom they were most useful and necessary in order to the delivering of that Faith and Doctrine which was to be the standing rule for the attainment of Salvation to all Christians unto the end of the world When others had the gift of speaking and interpreting strange Languages it cannot be conceived that the writers of the Holy Scriptures should be refused that necessary assistance in the Languages in which they wrote that might preserve them from error and if any without the gifts proper for it had undertaken any office or ministration the gift of discerning of Spirits was a security to the Church from any hurt that might ensue by the pretences of such undertakers We may be certain that all the Gifts which were bestowed for the edification of the Church were as far as they were needful vouchsafed more especially to all such as were to leave behind them for the benefit of the Church in all Ages an account of the Gospel of Christ and the terms of the Salvation to be obtained thereby and that no such Guidance and Direction of the Holy Ghost was wanting as might preserve them from error in any particular for there is no particular but it will fall under some one of those gifts which were bestowed upon the first Disciples They were not necessarily to write in an exact and elegant style but in such as was secured from error in whatever they delivered To what purpose else had been so many several Gifts To keep them from gross errors and fundamental mistakes there could have been no need of such a variety of Gifts but when every sort of error which men are prone to had a Remedy provided to prevent it we may be assured that no error was suffered in those Writings which were the most important work of the Apostolical Function and designed for the edifying of the Body of Christ not in one Age and Nation only but throughout all Ages and in all parts of the World II. I shall now proceed to make such Inferences as may afford a sufficient Answer to the objections alledged upon this subject 1. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude humane means such as information in matters of fact either by their own senses or by the testimony of others or reasoning from their own notions and observations but the Holy Ghost guided them infallibly in the use of all such means 2. The Inspiration of the Prophets and Apostles or Evangelists did not exclude the use of their own words and style and as they might be permitted the use of these so they might be permitted or in some cases directed to use the words of others Many things delivered in one Book of the Scriptures are likewise delivered in another and some things are repeated in the same words that God revealing the same things and in the same express words at different times and by different persons might make the Revelation of them the more evident and remarkable For that in which several inspired persons concur is the more taken notice of and becomes the more observed as a thing of great weight and moment The reason why the Dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice was because the thing was established by God and God would shortly bring it to pass Gen 41.32 It is in this as it is in all other things it is expedient that in matters of great concernment there should be the more solemnity and that they should be the oftner repeated and the more insisted upon and if they be exprest in the same words this implies that those words carry more than ordinary weight in them And therefore not only all the Divine Writers agree in the same purpose and design and testiâ—â—ie the same things as to the chief points of Religion but some Prophets have foretold the same things even in the same words with others as Isai 2.2 3 4. Mic. 4.1 â— 3. and several Laws and Matters of Fact are repeated in words which are very near the same 3. Tho some things are set down in the Scriptures indefinitely and without any positive assertion or determination this is no proof against their being written by Divine Inspiration For this doth not prove that the Pen-men of those passages were uncertain and doubtful in the particulars so exprest because the things were of that nature that it was needless to speak precisely of them As when St John says Jo. 21.8 They were not far from Land but as it were two hundred Cubits it cannot from hence be concluded that the Evangelist was ignorant how far they were from Land For it was not material to his design to be more particular in a circumstance of that nature but it was sufficient to say that they were about two hundred Cubits off at Sea and it is usual with all Writers to omit fractions and insert only whole numbers when it is not material to their purpose to insist upon every minute circumstance It
of time often cause them to be quite laid aside But then this borrowed and Metaphorical sense of words may be very strange to Men of other Countries especially when they are taken for things peculiar to the place where they are used The Horn of the Son of Oyl signifies in our way of expression a very fruitful Hill Isa 5.1 and Horn signified strength in the Hebrew Tongue as familiarly as Robur or Oak signifies the same in Latin And not only the Valleys are said to shout and sing Ps 65.13 but the best Fruits in the Land are in the Hebrew called the singing of the Land Gen. 43.11 The word Rock is often used to denote the Almighty Power of God and by the Septuagint and vulgar Latin is sometimes translated God For their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies being Judges Deut. 32.31 those versions render it their Gods and our God and in like manner v. 4 15 18. Ps 31.3.73.26 Is there any God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Isai 46.8 in the Hebrew it is there is no Rock as the Margin of our Bibles remarks This use of Metaphors ariseth partly from the likeness that is perceiv'd between things which makes one thing to be exprest by another and gives a delightful illustration to the things discoursed of and partly from our want of fit words to express the various natures of things especially of things spiritual which we commonly speak of in Negative terms and rather deny that they are like things sensible than positively affirm what they are Thus we say that they are immaterial invisible incorruptible c. And when we speak positively of them we must use such words as sensible objects can furnish us withal since we can have no other for we understand their Nature so imperfectly that we are not able to frame a Language on purpose to express it and he who should go about such a work would neither be understood by others nor well known what he meant himself But of all Beings God himself is so far above our comprehension that we can never speak of him in expressions suitable to his Divine Nature and therefore when true concâ—ptions are had of him it is fittest to speak of him in such terms as many serve to raise and preserve in us a due sense of Gods Honour and of our duty to him The Reasons then why God is often spoken of in the Scriptures after the manner in which we are wont to speak of men may be reduced to these particulars 1. The use of Metaphorical and Figurative expressions is usual in all Languages and no Language is sufficient to set forth the Majesty and Attributes of God 2. The peculiar Nature and Genius of the Hebrew Tongue inclined or constrained the Writers in that Language to express themselves in this manner Gen. 9.5 at the hand of every Beast will I require it that is I will require it of every Beast Sin in the Hebrew signifies a Sin-offering as it is translated and must of necessity be understood in many places of Scripture and in this sense Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 We read Jos 24.27 that Joshua said unto all the people behold this stone shall be a witness unto us For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God This might have been a very improper and unintelligible Speech to another people but was most significant and emphatical to the people of Israel who well understood upon what account sense was often ascribed to inanimate things as Gen. 31.52 Num. 20.8 Deâ—t 4.26.30.19.32.1 and afterwards frequently by the Prophets 3. An express Law was made against the worshipping of God under any Image or Similitude and the people are put in mind that they saw no similitude but only heard a voice when the Lord spake to them from the Mount Deut. 4.12 and that he is without change or repentance Num. 23.19 1 Sam. 15.29 Malach 3.6 4. When this caution had been given and such a Law made it cannot be expected but that the Divine Writers should make use of such expressions as were commonly used and were as commonly understood in a Metaphorical or improper sense when applied to God to give the more force and emphasis to their discourse * Maimoâ—id More Nevoch Par. 1. c. 1 26 27 28 36.48 Maimonides has proved from the propriety of the Hebrew words that the Image and Likeness of God in which man is said to have been made is to be understood of the faculties of his Mind and he lays this down as a general and known rule amongst the Jews Loquitur Lex secundum linguam Filiorum hominum and he likewise observes that both Onkelos and Jonathan have in their Paraphrases taken care to give the true sense of such expressions as seem to imply any thing corporeal in God The Scriptures make mention of his eyes and hands and feet to express the effects of those Actions which are performed by men with these members and when it was said it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6.6 This was well understood to mean no more than that God acted as men are wont to do when they change their minds and repent and grieve at what they have done and that he would certainly destroy the world which he had made for Moses himself instructs the Children of Israel that God is without any bodily shape or substance and therefore cannot be said to have any heart or to be grieved at his heart in the same sense that it is said of men And Num. 23.19 it is declared that God is not a man that he should lye neither the Son of man that he should repent And when God says that it repented him that he had set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 this is explain'd v. 29. where we read that the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent and yet again in the last verse it is said that the Lord repented that he had made Saul King over Israel The most careless writer could not so soon and so often forget himself but what is said of Gods repenting is to be taken in an improper and figurative sense to imply that God would act in that case as men act when they repent of what they have done tho without any change of mind or any grief or other passion in him attending it the effect was the same as if God had repented and therefore by a Metonymy the effect is exprest by that which in men is wont to be the cause of such effects tho repentance was not the cause of it but the reason and state of the case which he had fully known and considered from all eternity and therefore could not be surprized or
moved to any alteration of Judgment by it His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Judg. 10.16 or it was shortned as the Hebrew word is literally translated in the Margin that is according to * Maimon More Nevoch Part 1. c. 41 47. Part. 3. c. 24. Maimonides the Lords mind was shortened from afflicting them or he had no longer a mind to punish them When God is said to see the meaning is that he knows what is done when he is said to hear this signifies that he understands what is said †Non enim aliquid ignorat Deus ut examinando cognosâ—â—â— â—ed sciat Deus ita dixit beatus Job ut scire alios faciat secundum illud tentat vos Deus Dominus ut sciat uâ—rum diligatis eum id est ut scire caeteros faciat Hieron in Job c. 31 6. Now I know that thou fearest God Gen. 22.12 that is now I have had the proof of it and have made it evident that I know it To prove thee to know what was in thine heart Deut. 8.2 is the same as to make that appear and become known which I know to be in thine heart Gen. 11.5 the Lord is said to come down to see the City and Tower of Babel and Gen. 18.20 Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know which implies that God is not forward or willing to punish but that he proceeds as men do in things about which they use most care and deliberation God is represented as a good Governour who is unwilling to believe ill Reports and will make a full enquiry and inspection into the case before he punish offenders or in short here is an illustration in Fact of that adorable character which God proclaims of himself the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34.6 God says that he could not destroy Sodom till Lot was escaped out of it Gen. 19.22 and to Moses he says Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them Exod. 32.10 But we must not imagin that the Reasons and Motives which Moses there represents to God in his prayer in behalf of the people of Israel could prevail more with him than his own infinite Wisdom and Goodness or that he could not have preserved Lot in the midst of Sodom as well as he delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abednego out of the Fiery Furnace But these things are thus exprest for an encouragement in Righteousness and to teach us dependance upon God for the righteous have power with God as well as with men and shall prevail Gen. 32.28 It was an exercise and trial of the Faith and Charity of Moses and is proposed as an example of Faith and Charity to all who should read that account of him Besides he was a Type of Christ and as such was to make intercession and attonement for the sins of the People Exod. 32.30 For Christ before his coming in the Flesh exercis'd his Mediatory power as to the visible administration of it by those who were appointed to be his Types and Representatives here upon Earth which may give a satisfactory account of that power which Abraham Jacob and Moses and others are said to have had with God The summ of all is that to give the more Force and Life to the Discourses of the Prophets and to render them the more effectual to the ends for which they were designed God who is by the infinite excellency of his Nature uncapable of any Passion is pleas'd to be represented as subject to Love and Anger and Hatred and all the Passions of Humanity and He who knows perfectly all events from Eternity is contented even to seem sometimes to doubt of the effects of his designs and proposals and of the events of humane Actions to shew as * Origen Philocal c. 23. Hieron Theodoret ad Ezek. 11.5 Origen St. Jerom and Theodoret have observ'd the freedom of Men and to declare that their destruction is from themselves He speaks to us in the Language of Men and assumes to himself all the Passions of humane nature that by any means sinners may be perswaded to turn to him he is described as angry and grieved at the sins of Men and as one who rejoyceth at their Repentance not that the Divine Nature can be capable of Anger or Grief or Rejoycing which imply change and imperfection and therefore must be impossible in the most absolutely perfect Being but because Men are wont to be angry when they punish and to be grieved when those do amiss whom they would have do well and are wont to rejoice when they begin to reform therefore to set forth that God will certainly punish unrepenting Sinners and receive the returning Penitent and reward the Righteous both the Goodness and Justice of God are explain'd in such terms as may most move and affect Men to shew that the punishments he inflicts will in the end be as grievous as if he receiv'd some loss and disappointment by the obstinacy of the Wicked and that he will as bountifully reward the Good as if they had done him some great benefit and kindness and had made some addition to his own Joy and Happiness which is infinite and eternal and therefore uncapable of any 3. The Decorum or suitableness of the matter in the stile of Scripture This is to be considered with respect to the Persons the Occasion and Time and Country the Rules of Decency being variable according to Circumstances not fix'd and immutable as the Precepts of Morality are * More Nevoch Par. 3. c. 8. Maimonides has observ'd that the Holy Tongue has no words to express things obscene and 't is very remarkable that in those ruder Ages as they are commonly reckon'd the Hebrews had peculiar forms of Decency in their Expressions upon all occasions which required them And to know in that signification which it hath Gen. 4.1 and in many other places of Scripture was likewise used by the Greeks and is particularly taken notice of by * Hermog de Invent. lib. 4. c. 11. Hermogenes for the modesty of it We find the Heroes of †Vid. Athenae lib. 1. c. 4. cum Casaub Animad De Antiquis illustrissimus quisque Pastor erat ut ostend it Greca Latina Lingua veteres Poetae Varro de Re Rustic lib. 2. c. 1. Homer employ'd in as mean Offices as the Patriarchs and * Herodot 6. c. 137. Herodotus declares that in Ancient Times the Greeks had no Servants but did their own work themselves or had no other help but that of their Children and 't is reasonable that their manner of speech should be suitable to their way of living
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
of Nice inasmuch as they are referred to by that Council and that they are styl'd Apostolical because they were made by Apostolical Men or such as lived next to the Apostles times and delivered in these Canons what they had received from the Apostles Dr Beverege thinks they * Bever Annot. ad Pandect Can. Cod. Can. Eccl. Primit vind Cave Histor Liter in clem Roman were collected into one Body by Clemens Alexandrinus and Dr Cave seemed inclined to be of the same judgment As to the Authority of the particular Apostolical Canon which contains the Canon of Scripture of the Council of Laodicea gives a sufficient Testimony to it so far as it concerns the Books of the New Testament and shews wherein it has been corrupted since All which very well agrees with that which I observed from Tertullian that frequent Councils were called in the first Ages and that they had the Canon of Scripture among other things under consideration which we find set down in the last of the Apostles Canons and from thence in the Canons of the Council of Laodicea no Book being omitted but the Revelation of St John which yet had been acknowledged and received as Authentick from the beginning of those who had most reason to know of what Authority it was but none were inserted into the Canon but such Books as were appointed to be constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians It appears then that the Canon of Scripture was finished by St John and that such Books as were not of Divine Authority were rejected by Councils held when there were living Witnesses to certify St John's Approbation of the Canon or at least those who had received it from such Witnesses the Gospels of the other Evangelists were translated into divers Languages in St John's Life time and we must in reason suppose the same of the other Books of Scripture this is certain that they were all very early translated into many Tongues and dispersed into so many Hands in so many Countries that it was impossible they should be either lost or falsifyed espeble cially since the several sects of Christians were never more jealous and watchful over each other in any thing than in this particular the several Interests and Pretensions of all parties being chiefly concerned in it and no Catalogue of Books could have been received exclusively to all others but upon the clearest evidence XII When it once appeared that the Books which had been doubted of belonged to the Canon of Scripture they were afterwards generally acknowledged and constantly received in all Churches every Sect has since used all Arts and Endeavours to reconcile the Scriptures to their own Doctrines few or none presuming to reject the Authority of any of these Books which they would never scruple to do if they suppos'd they could make out any plausible pretence for it Protestants have refused to admit of the Apocryphal Books as inspired but whoever have gone about to reject any part of the Canonical Scriptures have been universally declared against for it whereof no other reason can be given but the Evidence that is for the Authority of the Canonical Books of Scripture which is wanting for the Authority of the Apocryphal Books Papists own the Authority of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and of the fourteenth Chapter of that Epistle which is directly against praying in an unknown Tongue and they acknowledge the Epistle to the Galatians to be genuine tho the second Chapter be so clearly against the pretensions of the Church of Rome These Espistles indeed were never controverted but the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise is not rejected by the Socinians the Divine Nature of Christ and the Merit and Satisfaction of his sufferings are so plainly asserted in it and they dare not deny the Authority of the Gospel and Epistles of St John tho they are so hard put to it to expound them to their own sense that Socinus was forc'd to pretend to I know not what Revelation to help out one of his explications which he would not have done if he could have found out any colour for not admitting the Authority of a Text so directly contrary to his own Tenents that he could not expect that any thing less than a Revelation should procure any credit to his Interpretation And generally the case is the same with other Sects those that differ never so much one from another in the Interpretation of particular Texts yet agree in the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Canon of Scripture itself or can find out no sufficient pretence to disown it CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament IT is to be observ'd that an extrardinary Providence has in a great measure secur'd the Holy Scriptures from those Casualties which are incident to humane Writings For the great Antiquity of many Books of the Scriptures beyond that of any other Books in the World the multitude of Copies which have been taken in all Ages and Nations the difficulty to avoid mistakes in transcribing Books in a Language which has so many of its Letters and of its Words themselves so like one another the defect of the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention as it is generally now acknowledged of the Points the change of the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew for the present Hebrew Character the captivity of the whole Nation of the Jews for seventy years and the mixtures and changes which were during that time brought into their Language in short all the accidents which have ever happened to occasion errors or mistakes in any Book have concurred to cause them in the Old Testament and yet the different Readings are much fewer and make much less alteration in the sense than those of any other Book of the same bigness and of any Note and Antiquity if all the Copies should be carefully examined and every little variation as punctually set down as those of the Scriptures have been But tho from hence it may appear that a peculiar providence has been concerned in the preservation of the Books of the Scriptures yet from humane considerations and arguments we may likewise be assured that nothing prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures has happened by any of these means 1. The defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late Invention of the Points is no prejuduce to the Authority of the Bible as we now have it Tho the Points which crititically determine the exact Reading of the Hebrew Tongue be of a later invention yet that Tongue was never without its Vowels For Aleph Vau and Jod and which some add He and Gnajm before the invention of the Points were used as Vowels as it is evidently proved from Josephus Vid. Walton Prolegom iii. s 49. Origen and St Jerom by the best Criticks in that Language It must indeed be confest that these Vowels could not be so effectual to ascertain the true Reading as the Points have since been but
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
Son are Thoughts which must create a new Heaven as it were in Heaven it self I mean they will enlarge our Souls to the utmost Capacities of our Natures and fill and actuate them with such Divine Ardors of Love as if we had been kept necessarily from all Sin seem impossible to have been raised in us The Angels themselves rejoyce over one Sinner that repenteth and that Joy must have been wanting to them who are of so much higher and more excellent a Nature than we are of if there had been no Possibility either of Sin or of Repentance And the wonderful Dispensation of the Gospel is an eternal Subject of Praise and Adoration an eternal Fountain of Love and Joy and Happiness to all the Blessed Spirits in Heaven The more the Divine Attributes are displayed the more Adorable the Majesty of God will appear and will become the greater Object of our Praise and Veneration those that are wise and good will be made the wiser and better by it and the happier in the Contemplation of the Divine Perfections Now a Governour in his Laws and in the Method and Order of his Government has regard chiefly to the Good and Obedient and has little Concern for the rest And we must consider God not only as the Father but as the Governour of Mankind and tho' an earthly Father perhaps would by all means possible preserve his â—on from incurring Punishment yet a good Governour when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his Liberty would not restrain him by any Force or Violence Therefore if the Liberty of Choice in Men and the Possibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God and for the Benefit of good Men and be no Injury to the Bad this is a sufficient Account why man was not necessarily restrained from Sinning tho' Damnation be the consequence of it CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our First Parents IN the Beginning God created every thing perfect in its kind and endned the Angels and Man with all intellectual and Moral Perfections suitable to their respective Natures but so as to leave them capable of sinning For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God for the Reasons already alledg'd and for many more and greater Reasons perhaps than any man is able to imagine to place them in a State of Tryal and to put it to their own Choice whether they would stand in their present Condition of Innocence and Happiness in which they were created or fall into Sin and Misery We have little or no Account in the Scriptures of the Cause or Temptation which occasioned the Fall of Angels because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it and therefore it little becomes us to be inquisitive about it Indeed it is very difficult to conceive how Beings of so Great Knowledge and Purity as the Fall'n Angels once were of should fall into Sin But it must be considered that nothing is more unaccountable than the Motives and Causes of Action in Free Agents when any Being is at Liberty to do as it will no other Reason besides its own Will need be enquir'd for of its Actings What is liable to Sin may sin whatever the Motive be and to enquire after the Motive is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent that is an Agent which may determine it self upon any Ground or Motive But how perfect and excellent soever any Creature is unless it be so confirmed and established in a State of Purity and Holiness as to be secured from all possibility of Sinning it may be supposed to admire it self and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge God the Author of them but to sin and rebell against Him And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason that Pride was the cause of the Fall of Angels For those Excellencies which might secure them from any other Sin proved a Temptation to this and the greater their Perfections were the greater was the Temptation as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical Pride all that is good and commendable in him affords him only matter for his Sin So that where there is a freedom of Will and a possibility of Sinning the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an Occasion to sin and that which excludes other sins may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride which therefore we have reason to conclude was the Sin of the Fall'n Angels As to the Fall of Man however the Thing may be disputed the Effects of it are visible in the strange Proneness of Humane Nature to act against Reason and Conscience that is to act in plain contradiction to it self and its own Principles This is a State in which it cannot be supposed that Mankind was at first created by the infinitely Good and Holy God And the most plausible Opinion and that which has most generally obtained among the Heathens is that the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World and were sent into Human Bodies in Punishment for what they had done amiss in a precedent State But this is mere suspicion and Conjecture without any possibility of Proof and there is this plain Reason against it that â—o man can be punished for his Amendment who knows nothing of it For it is inconsistent with the Nature and end of Punishment that the Offender should not be made sensible of his Fault especially when the Punishment is designed for his Amendment as it is said to be in the present Case If it can be supposed that Men may possibly retain no Remembrance of what they did in another State yet if their Faults were not kept in Memory they should be brought to their Remembrance if this Life were designed as a State of Punishment in order to Amendment But the State of this Life is so far from being thought a Punishment that Men naturally are of nothing more fond nor dread any thing more than to leave it And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here yet those do not befall those only or chiefly who by their Proneness to Evil in this Life might be supposed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former State and every Calamity has not the Nature of Punishment The Sufferings and Miseries which we endure by reason of Adam's Transgression are not so properly Punishments as the Effects and Consequences of his sin But Personal Faults such as are supposed to have been committed in a State of pre-existence require a proper Punishment and if the Punishment be for Amendment as it is supposed to be in this present State both the Fault and the Punishment must be known with the Cause and End of its being inflicted and the greatest Offenders must undergo the severest Punishment The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents may be considered either 1.
be more easily observ'd than this so it was most proper for the place in which they were and for their manner of Life and State of Innocence The common Rules and Laws of Morality could then scarce have any place but it was requisite that this or some such other Instance of Obedience should be imposed Theft and Murder and Adultery and other Sins against Moral Duties were then either impossible to be committed or so unnatural that it can hardly be imagined how any of them should be committed when there were yet but two Persons in the World in a State of perfect Innocence and therefore in Moral Duties there could be no Tryal of the Obedience of our First parent besides these were so well known to them that there could be no need of any Command concerning them But God gives them a Command in a Thing of an indifferent Nature that so he might have a plainer proof of their Obedience in a thing which was both indifferent of it self and so easy to them that nothing but a careless and perverse Neglect could betray them into Disobedience To suppose Good and Evil to be in the Nature of Things only and not in the Commandments and Prohibitions of God is in effect a renouncing of God's Authority but this Tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil For it made them sensible of the Divine Authority upon which Moral Good and Evil formally depend tho' matterially they be in the Nature of Things Whatever God is pleased to command or forbid however indifferent it be in it self is for that very Reason so far as it is commanded or forbidden by him as truly Good or Evil as if it were absolutely and morally so being enacted by the same Divine Authority whereby all Moral Precepts become obligatory as Laws to us for all Moral Truths or Precepts or Rules of Life however certain and necessary in themselves yet receive the Obligation of Laws from the Divine Authority this being the most certain Truth in Morality and in order of Nature antecedent to all others that God is to be obeyed in all that he commands or forbids But the Divine Authority was solely and purely concern'd in this Commandment which had no foundation in the Nature of Things but depended meerly upon the Will and Pleasure of God and by the Transgression of this Law it became notorious to our First parents and their unhappy Posterity that both Good and Evil whatever they may be in Speculation and abstracted Notions yet as they concern us in the Practice of our Lives are to be resolv'd ultimately into the Divine Authority God is our Lawgiver and nothing can be a Law to us but by His enacting and what he enacts must be a Law to us and of the same necessary indspensable Obligation so far as he is pleased to enjoyn it whether it be a Moral Precept or only an indifferent Thing in its own Nature It seems then that God was pleased to manifest his Soveraign Authority in this Commandment and to shew that it is absolute and independant upon Moral Good or Evil and that tho' his infinite Holiness and Goodness would not permit him to Command any thing contrary to Moral Duties nor suffer him not to command Moral Good and forbid Moral Evil yet his Authority is arbitrary over us extending as far beyond all the Duties of Morality as he pleases which indeed are only Truths and Precepts but not Duties to us but by Vertue of his Authority This Commandment therefore was given in Assertion of God's Authority whom it is always and in every thing good to obey and evil to disobey as our First parents found by sad Experience (n) Maim More New voeh Par◠〈◊〉 c. 2. Maimonides observes that they had the Knowledge of Truth and Falshood before but Good and Evil became known to them by their Fall whereby they understood the Value of that Good which they had lost and were made sensible of the Misery of that Condition into which they had brought themselves They perceived how good it was to obey God and how evil to be disobedient to Him in any thing whatsoever (o) Lib. 1. Disc xxvi◠Mr. Mede has observed that their Sin was Sacrilege God had reserved that Tree as holy to himself in Token of his Dominion and Soveraignty and appointed it to such uses as he had designed it for and therefore it was a Sacrilegious Prophanation to eat of it it was a Theft or Robbery no less than the Robbing of God as the Prophet stiles Sacrilege and an Invasion of his Right And the Lord God said Behold the Man is become as one of us to know Good and Evil. Gen. iii. 22. which words are generally supposed to have been spoken by a severe Sarcasm or with an upbraiding Anger and Indignation but they seem to admit of an easier Sense if they be thus interpreted The man is become as one of us he has made himself as one of us he has assumed to himself an equality with us Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. ii 6. to be equal is there to claim an Equality and so to become as one of us is to challenge or pretend to become as one of us according to the Devil's Suggestion Christ knew it to be no Injury or Presumption in Himself who was in the Form of God and was God as well as Man to assume to Himself an Equality with the Father But our First Parents who were made in the Image of God and after his Likeness were not contented with this but affected something higher than the Perfections of a Creature and aim'd at an independant State of Wisdom and Immortality being seduced by the Serpent who said unto the Woman Ye shall not surely die ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. Gen. iii. 4 5. This was a most heinous Crime to believe the Serpent rather than God Himself and to be seduced by him and hope by his Advice to procure to themselves Divine Wisdom and Immortal Happiness II. The Consequences of the Fall of our First Parents were answerable to their Crime and were either upon themselves or upon their Posterity or upon the Serpent and other Creatures I. The Curse upon the Serpent was by a visible Object and Representation to denote that Curse and Punishment which was denounced against the Tempter himself who assumed the Body of a Serpent The Serpent before had a freer and stronger Motion and could lift up himself and reach the Fruits of the Trees but is since confined to the Ground and is forced to seek his Food in the Dust And there being Relations of Serpents which carry Part of their Body erect this before the Curse might belong to the whole Kind of them in another manner than it doth since to any one Sort. The Basilisk is said to go with his Head and Breast erect and a Serpent call'd (p) Knexe's Hist of Ceyl Part 1.
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
impossible to conceive The Immortal and ever-blessed God can be subject to nothing of passion or frailty The Godhead is uncapable of any imperfection and therefore uncapable of receiving any impressions of Sufferings from the Humane Nature as the Soul doth from the Body of Man So that tho' the Union between the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ be fitly explain'd by that between the Soul and the Body in Man yet the manner of acting is very different For Finite Beings can mutually act and be acted upon by each other in their several actions and passions but the Divine Nature of Christ being impassible could suffer nothing by all that was inflicted on the Humane but remain'd infinitely Happy and Glorious under all the Torments and Agonies endur'd by our Saviour both in his Soul and Body As God is pleas'd to aid and assist and support innocent and good Men in their sufferings and to direct and conduct them thro' the course of their Lives So God was not only present with the Humane Nature of Christ but was so united to it as to become one Person with it which since the Godhead could suffer nothing from it is no more unworthy of God than if he had only guided him with his Spirit as he did the Prophets without any personal Union There is no inconvenience or absurdity in believing that God should by the most intimate and personal Union become united to a Man who did weep and bleed and die For as God by this Union did not change the Nature he had assumed or prevent the Sufferings of it so he did not partake in them No Man can deny â—upon Principles of Philosophy but that it is very reasonable to believe that God may afford a more peculiar presence to one Man than to another and that this Man may yet be subject to Afflictions and therefore the Son of God might become united to the Soul and Body of Christ in as intimate a manner as the Soul and Body are united to each other in us and yet this union of the Divine Nature might not preserve the Humane from the Sufferings incident to the rest of Mankind but must leave it to submit to them tho' they were never so grievous when this was the very End and Design of the Union It was not below the Majesty of God to be Personally united to a most Innocent and Sinless and Holy Man tho' he was a Suffering and Afflicted Man and it is not the Personal Union as some are apt to conceive which could be any diminution to God's Glory but their own error and mistake in what they surmise would be the consequence of such an Union II. The Humiliation of the Son of God in assuming our Nature may be accounted for without supposing that the Godhead suffer'd It was the greatest condescension and humiliation in the Son of God to take upon him our Nature For it is a gracious and merciful condescension for him to take care of us by his Providence God humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth Ps cxiii 6. But some times and in some places he is in a more peculiar manner present upon Earth and that is an extraordinary condescension tho' he is always the same in himself and never the less present or the less happy in Heaven But it was the most wonderful condescension in God to unite himself to our Humane Nature and to become one Person with it and so to die for us tho' his Divine Nature did not and could not suffer but only the Humane Nature to which it is united He was not ashamed to call Men his Brethren and in all things to be made like unto his Brethren Hebr. ii 11 17. but vouchsafed to assume our Nature in its lowest Condition and to be so strictly and personally united to the most afflicted of all the Sons of Men as to ascribe all his Sufferings to himself for the benefit of all Mankind It is the Infinite Mercy of God to vouchsafe us the comfort of his presence in any way or measure but it is the most astonishing and adorable act of his goodness that he would be pleas'd so far to condescend as to take our very Nature upon him that he might be born and might die for our sakes And that which magnifies his mercy and goodness in the highest measure is certainly most worthy of the good and merciful God III. The satisfaction of Christ by dying for our Sins may be explain'd without supposing that the Godhead suffer'd The Christian Faith is That as the Reasonable Soul and Flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ and that this Person consisting both of God and Man united suffer'd for our Salvation But that all the Sufferings were inflicted on the Humane Nature and terminated in it But by vertue of the Personal Union of his Divine with his Humane Nature all Christ's Sufferings receiv'd an infinite value and merit and became entituled and ascrib'd to God himself because they were undergone by that Person who is God as well as Man tho' they were not undergone by him in his Divine but only in his Humane Nature Thus God is said to have purchas'd his Church with his own blood Acts xx 28. For Actions and Passions in any person are Personal and are attributed to the whole person and sometimes those Actions and Passions which can be perform'd in one of those Natures only which constitute a person are yet attributed to the other Nature which is uncapable of them otherwise than by that relation which results from the union of both Natures whereby all things that befall the person may be affirmed of it as such and therefore have respect to both the Natures of which it consists and may be apply'd to it under the denomination of either of them All the Souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy Souls Exod. i. 5. If a Soul touch any unclean thing Lev. v. 2. And the Soul that eateth of it shall bear his Iniquity Lev. vii 18 20. In these and many other places of Scripture Actions and Passions peculiar to the Body are by reason of the union of the Soul and Body attributed to the Soul Nay both in the Hebrew and the Greek Text the Soul is sometimes put for the Body even of a dead Man Lev. xxi 11. xxii 4. in which sense (x) On the Creed Art v. Bishop Pearson explains Acts ii 27. Ps xvi 10. And in other places the Body or Flesh is often taken for the whole Man and that is attributed to it which the Flesh is of it self uncapable of The Flesh distinctly considered and apart from the Soul can neither Sin nor Pray nor Understand nor Worship nor partake of the Spirit nor be Justified and yet all these things are ascribed to the Flesh without any mention made of the Soul All Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth Gen. vi 12. O thou
that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all Flesh come Ps lxv 2. And all Flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob Isa xlix 26. All Flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord Isa lxvi 23. And all Flesh shall see the Salvation of God Luke iii. 6. I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh Acts ii 17. Joel ii 28. By the works of the Law shall no Flesh be justified Galat. ii 16. And we say in our own Language any Body thinks or any Body understands tho' we all know it is the Soul and not the Body which thinks and understands It is very usual in other Books and very agreeable to the stile of Scripture and to the common speech and sense of Men for those Actions of a Person to be attributed to one of the united Natures which could be perform'd only in the other And the Union between the Godhead and the Manhood being like that which is between the Soul and the Body the Son of God is said to have Suffered and the Son of Man to have come down from Heaven not that the Godhead Suffered or that the Humane Nature of Christ was in Heaven before his Incarnation but according to the usual stile of Scripture the Union between the Divine and Humane Natures entitles the Person consisting of them both under the denomination of either Nature to that which was done in the other tho' as the Humane Nature did not partake of the perfections of the Divine so neither did the Divine Nature partake of the sufferings of the Humane But both Natures being personally united the person is sometimes denoted by one and sometimes by the other Nature All the Objections against the Incarnation of the Son of God proceed upon the like mistake with theirs who are apt to imagine that it is unworthy of God to be every where and in all places to behold and be present at the worst of Actions as if the Sun's brightness would not be the more resplendent and glorious if it could penetrate into the obscurest corners and recesses of the Earth or as if his Rays could be sullied and defiled by the foulness of any Object which they shine upon And if it be no diminution to God's Infinite Glory and Majesty to be Omnipresent it can be none to be more nearly and even Personally united to some part of the Creation and therefore it cannot be unworthy of God to be so united to the Humane Nature to manifest his love and favour and extend his goodness to Mankind As God is every where present so he is in a more especial manner present in some places than in others by the acts of his Power or of his Grace and Favour and he has vouchsafed a more especial presence to some Persons than to others and thus he was present with his Prophets who were sent to prepare for and foretell Christ's coming But he was personally united to the Humane Nature of Christ And this is the highest Honour and Advancement to our Nature for God thus to assume it but it can be no diminution to the Divine Majesty because God continues as he was from all Eternity without any alteration only by his personal Presence and Union with our Humane Nature he causes all the performances and sufferings of it to be meritorious for the Salvation of Mankind The Son of God did not so come down from Heaven as to be no longer there but to forsake his Father's Kingdom He still continued in Heaven in the same Bliss and Glory that he enjoy'd with his Father from all Eternity tho' he so manifested himself to the World as to come and abide in it by assuming our Humane Nature Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Joh. iii. 13. No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven He who fills Heaven and Earth with his presence was still in Heaven as much as ever with respect to his Godhead tho' he made a more peculiar residence than he had before done on Earth by dwelling in our Nature here The Son of God who is at all times every where present is yet in a peculiar manner present where ever he is pleas'd to manifest himself by peculiar acts of his goodness and power as he was pleas'd to do in a most stupendous manner in that Flesh which he took upon him of the Blessed Virgin And it cannot be thought inconsistent with the Majesty of God to actuate the Humane Nature and to be joyned in the most strict and vital union with it supposing God only to act upon it and not to be acted upon by it nor to suffer the miseries and feel the pains which the Humane Nature endures which would be Blasphemy to assert of the Divine Nature of Christ but to be in Heaven still in his sull Power and Majesty But some Man will say how is this Union between the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ made or wherein doth it consist To whom we may reply as our Saviour sometimes did to the Scribes and Pharisees by asking another Question and enquiring how the Body and Soul in Man are united or how God is present in all places and how in him we live and move and have our Being And if no Man can tell how these things are tho' no Man can deny the truth and reality of them then it is not to be expected that we should be able to tell how the union between the Divine and the Humane Nature in Christ is made or in what it consists We must acknowledge it a Mystery which it is above any Man's capacity to explain but that there is such an union we learn from the Scriptures and thither we appeal for the truth of it And the putting such Questions argues either a great mind to cavil or great inconsideration and shortness of thought For what Man is there pretending to Reason and Argument of so little observation as not to take notice that of all the things which we daily see and perceive to be in the World the nature and manner of existence of very few or rather of none of them is fully understood by us It is sufficient for us to know that great Reasons may be given for this dispensation of the Son of God Incarnate and that no Material Objection can be framed against it Secondly No other way as far as we can apprehend could have been so proper and expedient as the Incarnation of the Son of God to procure the Salvation of Mankind and therefore none could so well become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness The proof of this must depend upon the Reasons for Christ's coming into the World and they are all comprehended in this one thing the abolishing or taking away of Sin And ye know that he was manifested to take away our Sins and in him is no Sin 1 Joh. iii. 5. We are
to consider then that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh did more powerfully and effectually take away Sin than any other way or means of Salvation could have done I. The Doctrine and Preaching of the Son of God had more Power and Authority with it than the Preaching and Doctrine of a Man or Angel could have had God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Hebr. i. 1 2. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience receiv'd a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him Heb. ii 1 2 3. This being the last Message which God had resolv'd to send to Mankind a Person of the greatest Dignity and Authority was to bring it But last of all he sent unto them his Son saying they will reverence my Son Matt. xxi 37. It is the last expedient and the very utmost that could be done to reduce Sinners to Obedience and if this will have no effect upon them they must be lest without all excuse This is the heaviest aggravation of Sin and that which renders Men utterly inexcusable he was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not Joh. i. 10 11. If the only begotten Son of God had not come and manifested himself in so wonderful a manner to the World something of a Plea might have been pretended but to reject the Son of God was an evident despight done to the Father and even hating of the Father who had sent him as our Saviour declares Joh. xv 22 23 24. And the Blaspheming of the Holy Ghost in those who vilified the Miracles of Christ and ascribed them to Beelzebub was therefore without forgiveness because it was a rejecting of Christ not as the Son of Man but as God blessed for-ever and a despising and vilifying that which is the last means that can be used to reclaim the World and that means whereby he manifested himself to be the Son of God To reject Christ was to reject the whole Trinity which was jointly concern'd in this wonderful dispensation The Dignity of Christ's Person adds all the force and efficacy to his Doctrine that is possible and therefore it was requisite that the Son of God should become incarnate God had before spoken from Heaven but that was too terrible and full of Majesty to be born by Mortals and they that heard the voice entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more for they could not endure that which was Commanded and so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Heb. xii 19 20 21. But now God was pleas'd to converse with Man in a more familiar and humble manner and our Blessed Saviour came to live amongst Men with all the gentleness and meekness of the Humane Nature and all the Authority of the Divine For in him dwelleth all the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily Colos ii 9. The Godhead dwelt here in him under our Humane Nature laying aside that awful Majesty which no Man can approach unto II. We have a greater Example of all perfection and Holiness set before us by the Son of God Incarnate than we could otherwise have had It has been the general complaint made of other Teachers and Lawgivers that they seldom observe their own Rules or live themselves according to what they require of others But our Saviour has given us an Example if it be possible even beyond his own Doctrine For tho' he be no rigorous Lawgiver but a most indulgent and gracious Master to us yet he was pleas'd to excuse himself from no Duty or Instance of Obedience but fulfilled both the Moral and the Ceremonial Law there is nothing so mean nor so difficult and painful but he perform'd it to set us an absolute Pattern of Obedience to the Whole Duty of Man in all that ever God requir'd of Mankind It became him to fulfill all Righteousness this was the end and intention of his coming into the World and he fulfilled it in the most absolute and perfect manner in all particulars And to give such an Example is of unspeakable use and benefit for Men are more easily led by Example than by Precept and it is commonly observ'd that it is Example for the most part which governs the World Men will follow the Vices of those whose Vertues they never imitate and the Faults of Wise and Great Men have too sure and too fatal an effect upon such as their Excellencies never reach It was necessary that an Example of absolute perfection should be given to the World and this Example must be given by one of the same nature with our selves or else it might have been an Example for Angels and Spirits but not for Men and therefore such an Example the Son of God Incarnate only could give because it was impossible for any created Being under all the Infirmities and Temptations incident to Humane Nature to live up to such a Divine Height and Excellency of all perfection as our Saviour did and to leave such an Example to the World He came not to teach us the wisdom of this World how to get Riches and Honours in this Mankind was well enough instructed before and it could not but be unworthy of the Son of God to be Born into the World with a design to enjoy the pleasures and the profits and the honours of it this was beneath the Majesty of Heaven and the Insinite Perfection and Essential Bliss and Happiness of the Divine Nature But to manifest himself to shew the mean and worthless Vanity of those things of which Men are so fond to give an Example of Contentment in a low Condition of Victory under Temptations and of Patience and Meekness under the severest Afflictions and Torments to discover to Men the way to Happiness in the worst Circumstances of this World to teach those who enjoy this World's goods not to be proud of them nor despise others and those who want them to be contented and happy without them to lead Men in the way to happiness thro' all Conditions thro' all the Miseries and Calamities which must befall many of us in this Mortal State this is a Glorious and Godlike Design it is such as none but the Son of God could perform and such as we may in reason believe he would undertake and for which he might vouchsafe to live a Humane Life upon Earth III. The
Mediation and Intercession of Christ for us is of greater power and efficacy than any could have been if the Son of God had not become Man to die for our sakes There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. ii 5. he was to be Man as well as God that coming with Divine Power and Authority and yet with the Affability and Accessibleness of a Man he might in all respects be fully qualified to perform the Office of a Mediator between God and Man If he had not been God he could not have come with absolute Authority to offer us Terms of Reconciliation and unless he had been Men he could not have treated with Men in so familiar and condescending a way upon these terms And the Right and Authority of Christ's Mediation and Intercession in behalf of Sinners is founded upon his merits and satisfaction for the Sins of Men and this supposes him to be both God and Man Man that he might Suffer and Die for us and God that his Divine Nature might give an infinite value to his Death and Sufferings and render them satisfactory for the Sins of the World Tho' it should be supposed which can never be proved that God in his Mercy might have pardoned Sinners without the satisfaction of Christ yet if in mercy he might have forgiven he might in justice have punish'd them unless satisfaction had been made and nothing could have made satisfaction to his Justice but the Sufferings of his Son The Obedience and Sufferings of no Created Being could have been of that value as to make satisfaction for the Sins of Mankind and therefore no Creature could have Redeemed Man or have become Mediator for him upon the terms of his own merits in Man's behalf so as to plead the price of Redemption laid down for him God may grant the Requests of Angels and Men out of his free Mercy and Bounty but there can be no necessary force and efficacy in Intercessions where there is no precedent merit and satisfaction on the part of the Intercessor But Christ pleads his merits on our account and mediates our Cause with his Father upon the terms of strict Justice and by vertue of the Ransom of his own Blood and is so powerful an Intercessor for us that not only the Mercy and Goodness but even the Justice of God cannot deny his Intercession It was the free grace of God to send his Son to Suffer in our stead but since he was pleas'd to admit of this Commutation of the Punishment which we had deserv'd and to tranferr it upon his own Son his Death was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World which the death of no Creature could have been and therefore no Created Being could have become our Mediator by vertue of his own Merit and have satisfy'd the utmost Justice of God much less could any Creature have merited the assistance of Grace and the Rewards of Glory for us IV. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the most effectual means to excite in us Faith and Hope and Charity and unfeigned Love of God and of our Neighbour the love of Vertue and the hatred of Sin and to dispose and engage us to all Vertue and Piety The Son of God assuming our Nature gives us the greatest assurance of his compassion for our Infirmities and his desire of our Happiness God is infinitely merciful in his own Divine Nature but he never could give such an instance of his mercy and love towards ours as by taking it upon himself God is essential Truth and Holiness and yet willing more abundantly to shew to the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel he confirm'd it with an Oath and in like manner in the present Case God being willing to give us all the grounds for Faith and Confidence in him that can be imagined took our Nature upon him that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to deceive we might have a strong Consolation both from the goodness of the Divine Nature and from the tenderness and compassions of our own For we have not an High-Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities and therefore are exhorted in this confidence to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace Heb. iv 15 16. vi 17 18. We are assured that he has the greatest concern for that Nature which he has taken into a personal Union with himself and continually presents before his Father in Heaven for us And we are likewise assured of the Father's love towards us For now we know that he loves us seeing he has not withheld his Son his only Son from us but sent him into the World to die for our Salvation He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us Rom. viii 32 33 34. And as the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh is peculiarly adapted and design'd to raise our Faith and Hope and Trust and Confidence and Dependance upon God so it is above all the most prevailing motive to engage our Love The infinite Love of Christ in dying for us must needs require and even extort from us all possible returns of Love and Praise and Adoration (y) Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 7. St. Chrysostome gives this as one Reason why the Son of God was Incarnate to become the Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind because if it had been possible for a Creature to undertake and effect our Redemption Men would never have thought they could have had esteem enough for him or have made due expressions of their gratitude unless they had Deified him and committed Idolatry in Worshipping him and paying him all Divine Honours and to prevent this in Moses who was but a Temporal Deliverer and but a Type of Christ his Sepulchre was conceal'd from the Israelites So dear is the memory of great and generous Benefactors wont to be that Men are apt to think they never can be sufficiently grateful to them unless they even adore and worship them which was one chief occasion of Idolatry among the Heathens therefore the Redemption of the whole World was a thing that could belong only to the Son of God to whom all Love and Reverence all Worship and Adoration is due And this being the great Aim and Design of the Christian Religion to bring us to obey God upon Principles of Love the Foundation of it is laid in the Love of God towards us Nothing can be conceiv'd which could have so powerfully prevail'd upon Men to love God as the Incarnation of his Son
manner what our inward Faith and Resolutions are This is that sort of security which Men have of one another and when God makes a Covenant with Men he considers them as Men that is he appoints such Solemnities of it as have respect to the Body as well as to the Soul he doth not deal with us as with immaterial Spirits but as with Creatures consisting of Soul and Body and who little regard and are little affected with that which doth not some way concern the one as well as the other And it is strange to see to what Extravagancies those have proceeded who have set up for a purely Spiritual Worship without any thing Sacramental for a visible Sign in it For not to mention the Pretensions of our Enthusiasts who by decrying the use and necessity of Sacraments have made Religion nothing but an empty and uncertain Name amongst them Prophyry who was a Man of Study and Learning after he had Apostatiz'd from the Christian Religion upon a ridiculous Occasion as History relates it was ashamed to return to the Heathen Idolatry which after the appearance of Christianity in the World soon became too notoriously absurd and abominable for any Man pretending so much to Reason and good Sense to own it but he placed all Divine Worship in Mental Prayer and so far rejected all outward and Bodily Worship (g) Porphyr de Abstinent lib. 2. §. 34. that he pretended the Prayers of Men were polluted and defiled by any thing of that Nature and rendred unacceptable to the Deity and that they never were sufficiently pure and perfect if they were express'd by the Voice but were then in their highest degree of Perfection when they were all Contemplation and Rapture and Extasie And the very same Notions were taught by (h) Euseb Praepar Evang. lib. iv c. 13. Apollonius Tyanoeus and have been revived of late by such as undervalue all outward Ordinances which may be a Warning to others and an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in appointing Sacraments as outward and visible Signs of our Covenant and Communion with God 2. As these outward Signs serve to raise our Attention and fix our Minds and to put us in Remembrance that Heaven and Earth Angels and Men are Witnesses against us if we prove treacherous and unfaithful in this Covenant so they are as Tokens and Pledges to us of God's Love and Favour and of his merciful and gracious Intentions towards us in taking us into Covenant with himself they give us sensible and visible Assurances of that Grace which is invisible and Spiritual And this seems but necessary for Creatures that are led so much by Sense as we all are in this Life that God together with his Word and Promises should besides appoint something which may be perceiv'd by our Bodily Senses in Token of those Blessings which are bestow'd upon the Soul that what is no Object of Sense may yet be represented and signified by something that is sensible to bring as far as it is possible the most Divine and Heavenly things down to our very Senses which may be a Sign and Token of present Grace and Favour and a Pledge and Earnest of future Glory and Happiness And this is what is found very useful and necessary amongst Men who are better contented with something present and in hand tho' of little value and insignificant in itself as a Token and Pledge of what is promised and made over to them than they are with the greatest Promises and Protestations without any thing as an Earnest to confirm them because this is a Natural Evidence that they are indeed in Earnest as our English word expresses it and really intend what they say and it may be produced against them if they should fail of Performance Now what is inward and invisible is absent as to Sense and what is future has need of something present to represent it to us And God who was pleased to bind himself even by an Oath for our farther Comfort and Trust in him has been pleased likewise that he might be wanting in nothing which might help our Infirmities and assist our Faith he has been pleased in condescention to the Condition and Frailty of Humane Nature to appoint visible Signs and Pledges of that which is Invisible and to give all the Assurance to our very Senses that they are capable of that all the Promises of his Spiritual Blessings and Graces shall as certainly be fulfilled to us as the outward Signs and Pledges are appointed for us and duly received by us 3. Sacraments are not only Signs and Tokens of Spiritual Gifts and Graces but they are ordained as Means and Instruments of Grace and Salvation to us that as the Body partakes in the Moral Actions of Vertue and Vice so it might concur in the Religious Acts ordained for our Sanctification For God who has made us so as to consist of Soul and Body and to have the Vital Union between Soul and Body depend upon a fit Disposition of the Body and to be maintained by the Health and Nourishment of it has been pleas'd to appoint certain Bodily Actions as the Means and Instruments of our Spiritual Life that the Soul might not even in this Case where itself is more immediately concern'd be wholly independent of the Body but that since both must be either happy or miserable together in the next Life both might concurr in the way and means of Salvation in this yet so as that the Soul should be the first and principal Agent and the Body should act only in subordination and subserviency to it in this as it doth in other Cases that as in Moral Actions the Soul acts vertuously or viciously by the Body so in Spiritual Actions the Soul might receive Advantage and Benefit by Bodily Acts and be deprived of it upon the Omission or Neglect of such Acts. The Body without the Soul is not the Man nor the Soul without the Body but both Soul and Body together and the whole Man becomes dedicated and consecrated to God's Worship and Service in the use of Actions performed outwardly in the Body And it is requisite that the Body as well as the Soul should be thus dedicated to God in Token of the Resurrection of the Body and of that Happiness which it must receive in Heaven if the Soul be happy St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to glorifie God in their Body as well as in their Spirit 1 Cor. vi 20. he tells them that the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body know ye not says he that your Bodies are the members of Christ what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost There have been those in several Ages who have made such high Pretences to Spiritual Worship that they would allow the Body no part or share in it and others from the great irregularity and corruption which they could not but observe in
equivalent to the Distinction of Persons among Men. That there is this Unity and this Distinction we learn from the Scriptures but what kind of Distinction this is or how far it is to be reconciled with our Notion of Persons amongst Men and after what manner it is consistent with the Unity of the Godhead the Scriptures have not told us and it is impossible for us to determine II. Other things are and must be believed by us which are as little understood as this Doctrine Our Knowledge at the best concerning Finite Things is very imperfect which is so generally acknowledged by all Men of Wisdom and Experience that it is esteemed a great point of Wisdom for a Man to be truly sensible of his own ignorance and it is the Character which Solomon himself giveth of the Fool that he rageth and is confident Prov. xiv 16. But when we consider things Infinite we are much more at a loss That there must of necessity be something Eternal must be acknowledged by all who understand what is meant by the word even those that are so foolish as to say in their hearts there is no God yet must believe something else to be Eternal they must believe that there always was something because if ever there had been nothing there never could have been any thing For how could any thing have been produced by Nothing Out of Nothing it might but then there must have been something to produce it We can be certain therefore of Nothing if we are not sure of this that there is something Eternal the Atheist himself cannot deny it unless he be so stupid as not to know what it means And yet what apparent contradictions may he fancy to himself in the Notion of Eternity For what is Eternal can never be capable of either a shorter or a longer Duration than it always had so that Millions of Ages hence it will not have continued longer than it had done as many Million of Ages past And how strange and contradictory doth this seem to be that not only Three Ages and one Age should be the same but that there should be no difference between one Hour or Moment and never so many Ages in respect of Eternity And there is no avoiding this difficulty if a Man be of any Religion or no Religion let him but apprehend what is meant by Eternity and he must own both that there is such a thing and that he is utterly unable to explain it Here then is an unaswerable Difficulty in a thing which all the World must believe if they have it but so proposed to them as to be made understand what it is And there is no difficulty imaginable in the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity which can be pretended to be greater than that which is inseparable from this Notion which all must of necessity hold And if we do but observe it in Finite things which are usual and familiar to us and the Objects of our Senses every day we Believe what we very little understand or are capable of understanding Our Knowledge indeed is so very imperfect concerning the Nature of most things that I may almost venture to say that if we will but be contented for the present to believe what God has delivered concerning his own Nature we may hereafter know God himself as plainly as now we know many things here For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known 1 Cor. xiii 12. If it be thought unreasonable however that such abstruse Mysteries should be made necessary to Salvation and that we should pronounce that whosoever will be saved must thus think of the Trinity and that all who do not thus think and believe shall without doubt perish everlastingly Let it be considered that in all Religions whether Natural or Revealed there must be something believed which is above all Humane Comprehension and which can be known no further than in order to be believed there can be no Faith without all Knowledge but Knowledge if it were compleat would exclude Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen Knowledge may be considered either as it is general and imperfect or as it is particular and adequate to the Nature of the thing known we must have a general Knowledge of whatever is the Object of Faith but if we had a particular and adequate knowledge of it there could remain nothing of it unknown to be the Object of Faith The difference between Science and Faith is not that we are less certain of the Objects of Faith than of the Objects of Science but that we know less of them For Certainty depends upon our general Knowledge as that God is true and therefore what he has revealed is as certain as if we saw it or could demonstrate it in every particular And this general Knowledge which is necessary in order to Faith is in Natural Religion attained to by Reason and in Revealed Religion from Revelation Thus we attain to such a general Knowledge of the Divine Nature by Rational Evidence as to be convinced that Infinite Power and Goodness and Truth and all manner of Infinite Perfections belong to it but we believe the Divine Perfections without any particular comprehensive Knowledge of them in like manner from Revelation we attain to this general Knowledge that the Divine Nature consists of Three Persons in One undivided Essence but we believe these Three Persons to be One God without any particular and comprehensive Knowledge of so great a Mystery for then it would no longer be a Mystery and Faith would be no more Faith I would therefore ask the Adversaries of this Doctrine whether the Belief of a God Omnipresent Eternal Almighty Omniscient Infinitely Holy Just and Merciful be not necessary to Salvation No rational Man can deny it I enquire further whether Insants and Ideots are obliged necessarily under pain of Damnation to this Belief They must certainly answer no because none can be obliged to Impossibilities I demand then again whether if one or more of these Attributes or the Agreement of them one with another be impossible to be understood with a general and imperfect Knowledge by any who are capable of knowing and believing the rest the ignorance of these Articles which are above their Understandings even as to this general and imperfect way of Knowledge can be destructive of their Salvation They must needs say it cannot because God can require nothing impossible of any Man And the very same Answers applied to the Cavils against the Athanasian Creed will be sufficient to Silence them That Creed contains such Truths as are necessary to be believed in order to Salvation but necessary to particular Persons so far only as they are capable of knowing them in order to believeing them He that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity but this supposes him capable of thinking
could not deny the Evidence of the Fact supposing the thing possible but they would not own it possible that such a thing should be and upon that account rejected all the Evidence that could be produced as tending only to prove an Impossibility and so not to be regarded I shall therefore shew the possibility of the Resurrection of the Dead and that it is unreasonable to think it incredible that God should raise the Dead If it be incredible that God should Raise the Dead it must be upon one of these Two Accounts either because he cannot or because he will not do it For what God both can and will do is so far from being Incredible that it is a most undoubted Truth Therefore I shall First Prove that God is certainly able to Raise the Dead and Secondly That he certainly will do it 1. That God is certainly able to Raise the Dead is a thing credible in it self and therefore ought to be esteemed incredible by no sort of Men whatsoever tho' they have no Knowledge of any Revealed Religion if they have but right Apprehensions concerning God No Man can have a true Notion of God but he must know that God is a Being of Infinite Power and Wisdom that he made the World and all things therein that he preserves and sustains all Creatures and that all things are wholly at his Will and Disposal to do with them as he pleases that nothing can oppose or resist his Will or give him the least hindrance in any thing which he is pleased to undertake How then can it seem incredible that God should raise a Dead Man to Life again when he at first gave him his Life And is it not as easie to restore it to him as to give it him at first Might we not as well dispute that it is impossible for a Man to be Born as that it is impossible for him to be Raised from the Dead if our own experience did not convince us of that but not of this God who gave all that Power and Ability which Natural Causes have to produce their Effects may if he pleases produce the same Effects immediately by himself For it is not because he stands in need of any help from Natural Causes that he has appointed them but because it seemed best to his Infinite Wisdom to appoint this Course and Order in the World And it is evident even to Natural Reason that there must have been some who were immediately Created by God and were not born of others as Men are since that there must have been some First Parents some who had no Parents themselves but were of Gods immediate Creation that there must have been some who were the First of all Mankind and therefore could be born of no others Since then Man must of necessity have been first formed by God himself and not have come by a Natural Birth into the World it is evident that God might have made as many Men and Women after this manner as he had pleased and he who is the Author of our Nature may act without it and as much beyond and above any Natural Powers and Faculties in his Creatures as it seems best to him And it may as well be thought incredible that God should at first make Man as that he should be able to raise him up again after Death for Death is only the End of Nature's power of working not of the Power of God himself who as he originally made the Race of Mankind so he appointed the Nature of Things and gave it a stinted Power which it cannot exceed but his own Power is Infinite and no Bounds can be set to it When a Man is once Dead Nature has done with him and can never recover him to Life again for God ordained at first that according to the Course of Nature he should only be born and live here a while not that his Life should be restored again to him after Death But he is not so confined himself that he cannot give Life to the Dead but has reserved this as his own Prerogative and above any thing in Nature's Power God who formed Adam of the Dust of the ground might have formed all Mankind so if he had pleased and he can as easily raise all Mankind to Life again out of the Dust as he made the first Man out of it And the Atheist one would think has of all Men the least pretence to scruple the Resurrection of the Dead who must suppose that Mankind at first sprung out of the Earth as Plants do by a Spontaneous Production and for him to pretend that the Bodies of Men cannot be raised to Life again by an Almighty Power is as unreasonable as any thing in Atheism it self can be When at certain Seasons every Year we see things receive a New Life as it were according to the Course of Nature we may well conclude that if so strange an Alteration can proceed from Natural Causes then surely God is able to effect that which is much more wonderful and to raise even these Bodies of ours after they are dead and rotten in the Grave to Life again And since the Corn which is Sown in the Earth is not quickned except it die and will not revive and grow again and come to perfection unless it be first buried in the Ground and undergo great Alterations there it is a foolish thing as the Apostle argues to doubt of the Resurrection of the Dead because we cannot understand the way and manner of it Let Men Answer all the Difficulties in Nature and it will be time enough afterwards to dispute with them about a Resurrection but when we are at a loss about the most common and obvious things it must be great Presumption to deny the Resurrection because we cannot comprehend it when alas what is there besides that we are able to comprehend Will we presume to say that God can do nothing but what we understand how it may be done when every thing we see may inform us that his Wisdom is Infinite and his ways past finding out Indeed if we understood every thing else there might be some pretence to scruple the Resurrection because we do not understand how it shall be But when our Ignorance is so notorious in all other things it is the heighth of Folly and Perverseness to think our selves competent Judges of such a Mystery as this So far are we from being able to make any Estimate of God's Power and so far is the Resurrection from being Incredible because there may be Objections made about it which may seem unanswerable that if no other Answer could be given this would be sufficient that God can do more than we can have the least Thought or Conception of and that it is no Argument that he cannot do what we cannot conceive how it should be done so long as there is nothing contrary to the Divine Nature in it nor which implies a Contradiction the
Life have been the Soul must be United to the self same Body so disposed and qualified to affect the Soul as it was in this Life only with Infinitely greater more exquisite and more lasting Degree of Pain or of Joy and Satisfaction yet without any mixture of gross and sensual Pleasures in the Righteous but only such as are suitable to Spiritual Bodies And this Disposition of Body depends upon the Vertuous or Vicious Actions and Habits of Men here for a Body by Vicious Practices and Customs prone to raging and furious Passions insatiable Appetites and tormenting Inclinations and Desires without any thing to gratifie or asswage them must have quite another effect upon a Soul than a Body subdued to the mild and calm and obedient Temper of Religion and Vertue And tho' God could by his Almighty power form another Body to that Frame and Disposition which the Body of any particular Man was in when his Soul departed out of it yet it doth not seem agreeable to the Divine Goodness and purity by his immediate power to frame a New Body to the depraved Temper and Inclinations of a Vicious Man And we are so little acquainted with the Union of the Soul and Body that for ought we know a Soul can be United only to its proper Body The Truth is we know nothing of these Matters but from the Scriptures all besides is only Conjecture But the Doctrine of the Scriptures is probable even to our Reason tho' indeed it ought to over-rule Reason especially in things which are so obscure and so little understood by us God has declared that he will raise these Bodies to Life again at the Day of Judgment and whatever we may think of it to him all things are alike easie it is as easie for him to do as to say it CHAP. XXVI Of the Reasons why Christ did not shew himself to all the People of the Jews after his Resurrection ST Peter speaking of Christ's Resurrection says him God raised up the third Day and shewed him openly not to all the People but unto Witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the Dead Acts x. 40 41. After his Resurrection he was shewn openly but not to all the People he was seen in a plain and open manner yet not so publickly as to make all the People Witnesses of his Resurrection The Will and good Pleasure of God is a sufficient Reason to us of all his Actions especially in Acts of Mercy For it would be a strange Return made but to a Man for any Favour received to be captious and quarrelsome about the manner of his bestowing it instead of being grateful to him for it But besides this General Reason which ought to be of Force with us in all Cases there are Reasons peculiar to the present Case whereby we may be able to give an Account of it even according to our own Apprehensions of things I. There are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of Christ's Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the dead II. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards Mankind for him to do it III. Great Numbers of the Jews were given over to hardness of heart and would not have believed tho' they had seen Christ after his Resurrection IV. If they had Believed their Conversion had not been a greater proof of the Truth of his Resurrection than their Unbelief has been V. The Power of his Resurrection manifested in the Miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles was as great a Proof of his Resurrection as the Personal Appearance of our Saviour himself could have been 1. There are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of his Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the Dead Christ after his Resurrection was to act according to the Majesty of the Divine Nature not according to the Infirmities and Condescension of the Humane the time of his Conversing with Men was at an end at his Death and then another method and manner of Dispensation was to begin he was then to Converse only with his particular Friends and Favourites to satisfie them of his Resurrection and to instruct and enable them both by their Doctrine and Miracles to satisfie others It could not be suitable to the Dignity of his Majesty which he had assumed after his Resurrection to submit himself to the Censures of his Enemies he had suffered enough from them already in the State of his Humiliation and must he never be above the Suspicion and Scrutiny of their Malice Shall not his Resurrection free him from it When they saw him hanging upon the Cross they cried out with upbraiding and insolent Scorn that they would believe in him if he would come down from thence but neither did they deserve such a Miracle to be wrought at their Pleasure who thus called for it nor was it suitable to the Divine Dispensation that it should be wrought It was neither fitting that he should save himself from Death nor that he should appear to them after he was risen from the Dead He was to Die for our Redemption and as we had wanted the Argument from his Resurrection for the Truth of our Religion if he had come down from the Cross so if he had appeared to all the Jews we had wanted other Evidence which as I shall shew at least amounts to all the Proof which that could have given In the State of his Humiliation our Saviour was pleased to suffer himself to be exposed to the contradiction of Sinners and to all their Affronts and Injuries but when this their Hour and the Power of Darkness was once past they were to see him no more but with confusion of Face and terrour of Mind yet his Mercy was still the same towards them one of the greatest Persecutors was converted by a Voice from Heaven the Son of Man speaking to him from thence that he might be the happy Instrument in the Conversion of others and a Pattern to them of the long suffering of Christ 1 Tim. i. 16. But his manifestation of himself to St. Paul at his Conversion was with dreadful Awe and Majesty not in that mild and gracious Glory in which he was seen by St. Stephen and it is reserved for those who persecuted and pierced him to look upon him with Consternation and Anguish at the Last Day Rev. i. 7. 2. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards Mankind for Christ to be shown openly to all the People God might work such astonishing Miracles and strike such Terrors into the Minds of Men as to make it impossible for any one to doubt of his Existence or of the Truth of his Word but he doth not all which he can do but what he in his Wisdom sees fit to be done he doth not use all the
regard as to Strangers against whom they had not that unjust and foolish Prejudice For we never read that the Apostles did any where forbear to work Miracles because of Unbelief but in all Places and among all Persons they shewed forth the wonderful Works of God But when the Works of Christ which were so wonderful and so well known in all Parts of Galilee had so ill effect upon those of his own Country St. Mark says That he could there do no mighty Work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them and he marvelled because of their Unbelief Mark vi 5 6. He wrought such Miracles as his infinite Goodness meerly drew from him and then wondred at the Obstinacy of their Unbelief which hindred him from working any more For there are some things which God himself cannot do not for want of Power but because it would imply an Imperfection in him a Defect of Power and a Contradiction to his Divine Nature to do them God cannot lye he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. ii 13. Tit. i. 2. He can act nothing unbecoming his own Wisdom and Goodness he cannot do Miracles when he sees they will be to no good purpose but will be abused to a very ill one Yet to shew his Compassion and to manifest that his Power was not restrained in it self but that their Unbelief had restrained it from them he laid his Hands upon the Sick and healed them but did no more for he can do nothing improper and unfit to be done The requiring of more Miracles when sufficient had been wrought already was a Tempting and Provoking of God it was impiously to bid Defiance to his Power and to Challenge him to do whatever they durst demand of him Our Saviour therefore rebukes the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees for Seeking after a Sign Matth. xii 39. xvi 2. But the first time he had wrought a Miracle just before in the Cure of the Man whose Hand was withered and of the blind and dumb Man who was possest with a Devil and when they still required farther Signs and being unmoved with what had been already done they had now charged him with casting out Devils by Belzebub our Lord had great Reason to refuse to work any more Miracles before such obstinate and ungrateful Men which he saw were so far lost upon them that that served only to render them altogether unpardonable in Blaspheming the Holy Ghost and therefore he tells them That there was no other Sign left for them who had not yet incurred that Sin which was never to be forgiven but the Resurrection of the Son of Man This was a Sign which might convince the most Incredulous and which denied to none but was reserved as the last means And several things which were done and said by Christ in private were not to be divulged till after his Resurrection because before they might fall under Suspicion but that and the Miracles wrought by vertue of it would sufficiently prove whatsoever his Disciples should say of him When they again demanded a Sign he had a little before healed great Multitudes and had fed several Thousands by Miracle in the Wilderness and therefore he again refers this wicked and adulterous Generation of Men to the Sign of the Prophet Jonas We have as little Reason to imagine that our Saviour should work Miracles to gratifie the Curiosity of Herod Luke xxiii 8. who hoped to have seen some Miracle done by him or that he should expose his Divine Power to Herod's Contempt and Mockery when he had so lately wrought a Miracle in curing the Ear of Malchus who was so far from believing in him that he was one of them who came to apprehend him It was an Act of Mercy to Cure this Man but to work Miracles only to give Men an occasion to vilifie that Power by which they were done could be neither worthy of God nor any Charity to Men but it would have been unsuitable to the Character and Authority of Christ to debase himself to a compliance with them who used him with such Scorn and Derision and only reviled and tempted him Herod was disappointed in his hope and expectation of seeing a Miracle and was not denied it for want of Faith For he believed that Christ had wrought Miracles and supposed that John the Baptist whom he had Beheaded was risen from the dead and that therefore mighty Works did shew forth themselves in him Matth. xiv 2. But perceiving him not to be John the Baptist he set him at naught 2. In the case of those who came to desire his help for the Cure of themselves and others though they had not seen any Miracle wrought by him before yet it was reasonable that Christ should work no Miracle for them if they wanted Faith in what he had already wrought and did not believe him able to perform what they would seem to expect and desire him to do When he had given so many Demonstrations of a Divine Power he might justly expect an Acknowledgment and Belief of it in all that came to him and would receive any Benefit from it He might surely bestow his Favours and Benefits upon his own Terms and no Terms could be more reasonable than that those who came to ask them should really believe that he was able to bestow them and should apply themselves to him with an expectation to receive what they asked of him Otherwise to come to him for Cure was no better than to Tempt to Mock and Deride him it was to ask what they did not believe he could bestow but they resolv'd only to try what he could do supposing that if they received no good yet however there could be no hurt in the Experiment Now can any Man think that the Miracles which Christ wrought were to be bestowed upon no better Considerations than these Or that those were in any measure worthy to be Cured who came with so indifferent an Opinion of him and with so little expectation of Relief Christ wanted no opportunities of shewing his Power he had shewn it in many and wonderful Instances and would do it again as often as he saw occasion upon fit and proper Objects But if they so little regarded what he had already done as not to believe that he had done it and could again perform the same they but ill deserved what they came for the Divine Power and Goodness was not thus to be debased and exposed as to be employed in the Cure of Men who asked what they did not believe he could perform but only thought it would cost them nothing to make the Tryal and for that Reason made Application to him Our Saviour therefore says to the Father who came to him in behalf of his Deaf and Dumb Son If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth and upon that humble and passionate Declaration Lord I believe help thou my
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