Man would conceive or endeavour to put in Practice It is absolutely impossible to find any Man so much an Enemy to himself as willingly to lose his Quiet his Liberty Friends Relations and all his Acquaintance only to assert and defend a Lye that must unavoidably be attended by such fatal and sorrowful Consequences For Nature is not insensible of Grief and Pain As she is exposed to Griefs and Sufferings so when she suffers 't is with Reluctance Complaints Sighs and Tears She cannot accustom her self to bear slightly Contempt or Infamy Nothing disturbs and exasperates her more nothing makes her more impatient than Mortifications and Disgraces How then is it possible so great a Company of People should on a sudden renounce all those inviolable Sentiments of Nature which no Violence can root out on purpose to maintain that they had seen a thing which they really never saw This is a Consideration that cannot be too often repeated Lastly it is such a Design as is not in the nature of Man to conceive For to maintain an Imposture with such Constancy as the Disciples did is such a piece of extraordinary Courage as is above the Nature or Power of Man An Impostor that thinks and knows himself to be one whose Mind tells him that he acts contrary to his Natural Sentiments cannot go long undiscover'd He is seiz'd with Remorse and his Conscience is awakened He trembles and unwarily discovers himself to the World upon the least danger he meets with He is ready to confess the whole Cheat as soon as he is brought before his Judges and is frighted with the Punishments of a secular Power and he never fails of betraying himself either by confessing the whole Business or maintaining what he has advanced after so weak and fearful a manner that he will not be long if but closely urg'd to it before he discovers the whole Truth For such is the usual Temper of Men upon such an Occasion And if a single Person that should not act thus in this respect would be looked upon as an unheard of Prodigy how much more shall an infinite number of People be looked upon as such Who can imagin that so many Persons should either on a sudden renounce their humane Nature or be of a different make from all other Men since the Beginning of the World For my part I cannot conceive how it should be and therefore look upon this as a most sensible and evident Truth But we must yet carry on this Conviction further by following those Notions which it has pleased God in his Wisdom to put into our Mind upon this Subject CHAP. V. The fourth Center of Truth A particular Consideration of the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples THE last Degree of Evidence that occurs in the Demonstration which sensibly proves to us the Truth of the Christian Religion is the Truth of a fourth matter of fact naturally proved by its own proper Characters and that is the Effusion of the Holy Ghost on the Disciples of Jesus Christ This Demonstration of the truth of Christian Religion has three different Degrees of Evidence which also consist in the three Parts of the Testimony of the Apostles The first whereof is this Jesus Christ the Son of Mary did such Actions as cannot but be supernatural and miraculous such are for instance the Resurrection of the Dead which we have been Eye-witnesses of The second is We even we our selves have received the Power to work Signs and Wonders and such as are equal to those of Jesus Christ himself as he foretold and declared it several times unto us The third is We have not only the power to do those Miracles but can also impart it to others and those we shall hereafter convert will know themselves to be the true Disciples of Jesus Christ in that they shall work Signs like unto ours and to those which Jesus Christ himself wrought The first Degree of this Evidence must necessarily convince us For it is a very convincing Demonstration indeed to have present to one's Eyes nay in ones own Disposal and Power the Witnesses of the Miracles of Jesus Christ and such Eye-witnesses too that both heard what he said saw every thing he did familiarly conversed with him and often question'd him concerning the Difficulties that offered themselves to their Mind and lastly such Witnesses who all unanimously deposed the very same matter of fact and boldly maintain'd it even in the midst of the most cruel Torments And yet such Witnesses as these had those who were first converted to the Christian Faith But it is a thing yet somewhat more perswasive to hear those Men affirm that they had not only seen the Miracles of Jesus Christ but that they themselves were able to work the same Miracles Certainly of all the Witnesses in the World those are soonest to be received and believ'd who proffer to shew you the very Things they testify But what seems to me to be the last Degree of Evidence and the clearest Demonstration is that those very Witnesses undertook to convince Men of those matters which they affirmed to be true not only by relating those Miracles which they saw Jesus Christ do not only by profering to do the like themselves but also by promising to enable those People who should believe their Words to operate the very same things For they imparted the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to their Proselytes as it appears by the Example of the Centurion Cornelius And those Gifts became afterwards so frequent and visible that Simon Magus would have bought them for Mony They were so very remarkable that they made great and publick Impressions on the Minds of several Jews who were already converted to the Gospel of our Lord and praised God for his having also visited the Gentiles Lastly the Gospel which those Disciples preached tells us that such should be the Signs that followed the true Disciples of Jesus Christ namely that they should heal the Sick c. Certainly how strong soever the obstinacy and prejudices of the Incredulous may be yet they cannot any longer hold out against the powerful Convictions of that threefold Truth It is impossible that the Disciples should bear witness to the Miracles of Jesus Christ if they had not been true neither can we suppose they would have had the Boldness Power or Will to do it It is impossible they should have contrived together such an unparallel'd Imposture by agreeing among themselves to preach the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ of which they were never Witnesses But it is extravagant to imagin that the Apostles boasted they were able to do Miracles meerly to have other Men believe those of Jesus Christ and it argues yet a greater Extravagance to suppose they promised all those they should convert to him to make them able to work the very same Miracles they attested Besides we are to consider two things in
God but then being willing also to flatter Men's Inclinations to draw them to his side he confusedly mixed with that Idea the carnal and gross Notions the Heathens had of Paradise borrowing from Christianity such Objects as must necessarily mortify our Passions and assuming those from Paganism which serve to flatter our bad Inclinations But the Christian Religion keeps no such Measures either with Policy or Corruption Policy complains that the Doctrine of Christ necessarily softens Men's Courage and that instead of encouraging them to list themselves Soldiers for the welfare and preservation of the State it rather makes them Lambs who can hardly be exasperated against their Enemies whom they must continually pray for and are obliged to love as themselves And as for human Frailty and Corruption it murmurs to see itself impugned by the Christian Religion even in the Dispositions and most secret Recesses of the Soul and that the Veil of Hypocrisy and the pious Pretences and Dissimulations of the Soul under which it thought to lye secure are ineffectual against it VVho then but God can be the Author of a Religion so equally contrary both to the covetous Desires of the mean and the Ambition of the great and so equally averse both to Policy and Corruption X. Other Religions would have God should bear the Image of Man and so necessarily represent the Deity as weak miserable and infected with all manner of Vices as Men are Whereas the Christian Religion teaches us that Man ought to bear the Image of God which is a Motive to induce us to become perfect as we conceive God himself to be holy and perfect That Religion then which restores God his Glory and the Image of God to Man must necessarily be of Divine Authority XI Lastly Other false Religions were the irregular confus'd Productions of the politest and ablest Men of those Times whereas the Christian Religion is a wonderful Composition which seems wholly to proceed from the most Simple and Ignorant sort of People The Heathens have often condemned the extravagant Notions the vulgar People had framed to themselves of the Deity they have blamed the barbarous Cruelty of those Sacrifices which were offered to their Gods in so many places and the impurity of their Mysteries the Falshood of their Oracles and the Vanity and Childishness of their Ceremonies Cicero says in some part of his Works that two Augurs could not look one another in the Face without Laughter And nothing can be more extravagant than the Divinity of the Gnosticks who held that there are Invisible Eternal Spirits who mixing one with the other produc'd others We all know that when Philosophers took upon them to treat of Religion they always exceeded one another in Extravagancies and no one I dare say is still to learn what are those Visions and fabulous Stories with which the Rabbins filled their Traditions the Catalogue of which would be very curious indeed were it not so extreamly long And tho we cannot disown but that the Heathens the Philosophers c. made several wonderful Discoveries in Arts and Sciences Yet it will appear that a long succession of very understanding Men among them were guilty of many repeated Extravagancies in this respect and that by a Prodigy not to be parallelled did not the Christian Religion offer such another by shewing us a Company of Wise and Learned Men in such Ignorant Persons as the Disciples of Jesus Christ Certainly 't is a strange thing to see the most understanding Men become the most stupid and the most ignorant prove the most understanding in matters of Religion 'T is a true sign that God design'd to confound the understanding of the VVise and a proof that their Religion was form'd rather according to the corrupt desires of their Hearts than the dictates of their Understanding For had it been according to their Understanding it would have been more reasonable in proportion to the VVisdom and Knowledge of the Authors of it But because it was made to sooth their corrupt Desires and flatter their Passions it is as extravagant and irregular as those Passions And now let us put together all these Characters and ask the Incredulous whether they can be so extravagant as to ascribe to an Impostor a Religion so perfect in it's Original that nothing could ever since be superadded to it but what necessarily lessens the Perfection of it a Religion that proposes it's Mysteries with such Authority and Boldness that brings Men from Sensual Objects to Spiritual ones that extirpates Corruption restores the Principles of Righteousness and Vprightness that were imprinted on our Souls that teaches us to glorify God without any regard had to Self-love or Pleasure to exalt God and humble our selves to submit our selves to his VVill who is above us all and to raise our selves above those Beings that he has put in subjection under us a Religion that is contrary to Policy and yet more averse to Corruption that astonishes our Reason and yet gives us the peace of a good Conscience and in a word is as delightful to the one as it is comfortable to the other If the Christian Religion then has all these Qualifications as it certainly has we cannot doubt but that it is directly as to these Qualifications opposite to all other Religions And if it be thus opposite to all other Religions it must necessarily have a Principle opposite to them So that as all other Religions peculiarly belong to the Flesh the Christian wholly appertains to the Spirit and as the former are the Products of the corrupt Desires and Imaginations of Men so the latter must have for it's Principle the God of Holiness and Purity III Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in it's Effects WE may distinguish Four several kinds of Societies in which the Efficacy of Religion may be acknowledg'd viz. a Natural a Political a Vicious and a Religious Society And first the Society of Nature is innocent and equitable in it self but it cannot stand out a Trial with Men's irregular and disorder'd Passions Men will indeed be united among themselves as long as they are concern'd only in indifferent matters but Covetousness soon disunites them And therefore there is something wanting to establish and confirm it As for the Society of Corruption and Vice it is essentially sinful and therefore Self-interest and Men's Desires and Passions that form it are either to be remov'd or regulated A Political Society is soon violated by Law-suits Wars and Dissentions all which are occasion'd too by the Passions To support therefore and maintain it such Principles of Fidelity are to be establish'd as shall remain inviolable All which is best done in a Society of Religion the most perfect of them all and as it were a Prop to the rest This Society must be firmly oppos'd to all accidental Revolutions must unite those Persons together whom the distance of Time and Place and the disparity of Interest would otherwise
account Perhaps we should not think it at all hard to conceive if the Holy Ghost had been pleased to reveal its Nature a little more clearly to us But such is the wonderful Conduct of God who is resolved to humble us and not to satisfy our vain Curiosity nor indulge the Pride of our Understanding which is too greedy of Knowledge 4 thly Because we are not wholly destitute of Images there being several capable to illustrate that Object tho never so incomprehensible in it self Thus for instance the same Soul is an Vnderstanding as it perceives a Will as it has a desire and a Memory as it recalls the things past to the Mind all which three Faculties are comprehended in one and the same Understanding In like manner also the same Light is in the Heavens a Sun in the Air Brightness and in the Cloud a false Sun 5 thly To all this we may yet further add that the greatest Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from those Speculations in which School Divinity has involved it to the great Scandal of our Faith and eternal Confusion of our Reason For who can endure the Liberty those Metaphysical Divines have taken in pretending to form and decide ridiculous rash and impious Questions concerning that greatest Mystery of our Religion Can we think any reasonable Man could read all their impertinent Questions without Indignation As whether several Divine Persons could take but one and the same Person Whether the Word could have taken upon him in an Hypostatical Union the Form of an Angel of a Beast of a Woman of an insensible Being of an Accident of an Act of Sin of a Devil so that if these Propositions were true God is a Sin a c. Whether the Word has taken the Soul in an Hypostatical Union rather than the Body or the Body rather than the Soul Whether if Man had not Sinned the Word would not have taken our Flesh upon him Whether Humane Nature was first united to the Essence or the Person Whether the Humane Nature was united to the Divine by several Unions Whether a Divine Person may take upon it self the Form of a created Person Whether Humanity was united to the Person of Christ by way of Accident or of Substance Whether the Humane and the Divine Nature are a part of Christ and whether Christ be two several things Whether Christ be of a create or uncreate Unity How it came to pass he did not take upon him the very individual Nature of Adam Whether this Proposition Christ is Man was true during those three Days he remained in the Grave Lastly Whether Christ should have died of old Age had he not been crucified in his Youth c. These are the only Difficulties that occur in the Christian Religion As for the rest 't is so essentially so visibly and so necessarily agreeable to Reason that we cannot but wonder that our Incredulous Adversaries have not yet perceived it This we have already sufficiently proved in several places of this Work and we cannot well insist further upon it without repeating again what has been already said It is sufficient therefore to observe that Christ is as it were the Reason of Nature Society and Religion He is the Light enlightening every thing without which we should fall into infinite Troubles and Perplexities Christ is the Center of all Events which seemingly relate to his coming he is the Center of Truths which are the more clearly revealed the nearer we approach him the Center of all the Mosaical Ceremonies which are meer Extravagance in themselves if they relate not to him the Center of all Virtues which have no sufficient Force or Motives able to induce us to practise them but by the consideration of Life and Immortality revealed to us in Christ the Center and Foundation of the inviolable Rule of Conscience which would be nothing else but Errour and Illusion if the Christian Faith were a Fable The Center of all those Characters of Wisdom visibly diplay'd in all the Works of God since nothing but the Christian Religion can lead Man to the true End of his Creation none but that can justify the Wisdom of God the Center of all the Hopes of Man for what is there that he could hope for if Christianity were a Lye The Center of all the Evidence and Certainty that is in our Knowledge for what is there that we could be certain of if our Soul were only a Disposition of Atoms and had no such Spirituality and Immortality as that imputed to it by the Christian Religion There need have been only a different Configuration of Parts to form first Notions quite contrary to those we now have Let any one therefore closely consider the Matter and it will appear to him that if we deny Christ who teaches to know our own selves in revealing to us Life and Immortality no Salvation can be expected either for Reason or Conscience X Portraiture of the Christian Religion Or the Proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion THere is nothing truer than that the Jewish Religion is great noble and divine and we cannot reflect on the Greatness of its Miracles the Sublimity of its Morality the Purity of its Doctrin the Holiness of its Precepts and the Completion of its Prophecies without immediately acknowledging it to be stampt with Divine Characters But yet we shall find it altogether defective if we separate it from Christianity since its Essence consists in its relation to that We cannot conceive without it how God can be the God of one Nation and yet not be that too of other Nations also that the Deity should be contained in a material Ark and being the Father of Spirits should so carefully seek after an external and corporeal Purity that unwilling to satisfy his Justice he should require Sacrifices of Men or if willing to be appeased by Offerings and Oblations he should demand such mean ones of them which were unworthy the Majesty of his God-head that God who made Heaven and Earth should dwell in a Temple made with Hands or that he who created all things visible and invisible should take pleasure in an external Pomp that he who made the Smelling which he wants not himself should delight in the smell of Incense or that his Voice properly so called should be heard to which Thunder it self scarce bears the Resemblance of an Echo I say we can never conceive any of these things without the help of Christian Religion For who can reconcile the Wisdom seen in the Religion of Moses with the Imperfections discoverable in it How could that Lawgiver prove so contrary to himself And how could so many Characters of Divinity be attended with so many seemingly superstitious Customs and trivial Ceremonies Consult but the Christian Religion and you 'll then no longer wonder at it there you will find both the Reason and Wisdom of every thing that surpris'd you in the Old Covenant All the Customs contained in the
in them Could there proceed from the Malice and Perfidiousness of a man who had so lately accused his Nation of a Crime he knew to be utterly false so many Exhortations to fear God so strong so moving in themselves and so often repeated that they wholly take up the Writings of this Apostle Could his humility proceed from thence whereby he refers every thing to God as to the Center of all good things so sincerely telling us What hast thou that thou didst not receive And if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. We are yours you are Christs and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 23. Could his hatred too for vice arise from thence which upon all occasions he testifys and expresses after so strong and lively a manner His Charity appears no less in his passionate concern for the sanctification of his Brethren All his Epistles are a continued serious of tender or moving Exhortations or rather ardent requests he makes them to love one another He desires they should live soberly justly and religiously He addresses himself both to Servants and Masters to Poor and Rich to Parents and Children to Young men and Old men Having no prejudice nor hatred for any one he pours out himself in thanksgivings and blessings for all men he speaks to them after a very tender and moving manner He calls them his little Children his Beloved his Bowels his Glory and his Crown And what was his design in all this only to inspire them with the love of God and their Neighbour How does he extol the excellence of Charity Tho' I speak says he with the tongues of men and of Angels and have no Charity I am become as sounding brass or tinkling Cymbal and tho' I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and tho' I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up does not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no Evil rejoyceth not in Iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. 1 3 4 5 6 7. Such is the Idea St. Paul had of Charity in which appears the force of Reason and of true Vertue without the fantastical weakness of superstition he prefers Charity to miraculous gifts and therein appears the spirit of true Religion This consideration of the Character and Vertue of this Apostle is so much the more considerable that it forces us in despight of our selves to assertâ— one of these two things either that St. Paul was a wicked man and a notorious Impostor or else that he had heard the voice of Jesus Chrict in the way to Damascus that he had received the Holy Ghost and was truely the Apostle of Christ So that whosoever proves that St. Paul was no wicked person does even thereby prove the Divinity of Christian Religion I desire therefore the Reader throughly to consider the style of his Epistles and examine them from the beginning to the end to discover the true Genius and Character of them What is it this Apostle desires of God that those whom he speaks to might live good lives and that God might be glorified by their works What does he complain of Vice What is it he chiefly praises Vertue By what motive does he act or speak as he does By quite another motive than that of self interest St. Luke had already told us in the Book of Acts that he work'd for his Living and that his Employment was to make Tents Whereupon we shall make these two observations I. That St. Paul having been a Pharisee bred up at the feet of Gamaliel would have thought it beneath him to follow so vile a profession had he been worldly minded or ambitious Secondly that this Apostle resolved to work with his own hands for his Living in a time which other people would have greedily embraced to acquire wealth For what could have been refused to those men who opened to mankind the direct way way to Heaven and gave them certain hopes of Eternal Salvation For it cannot be denied but that was the opinion of the Primitive Christians with regard to the Apostles But if St. Luke should be thought to have imposed upon us in the Relation of this Matter 't is but hearing what St. Paul himself says of it who certainly would not have undertook to perswade those people of it against their own proper knowledge Behold says he to the Corinthians the third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you for I seek not yours but you For the Children ought not to lay up for the Parents but the Parents for the Children 2 Cor. 12. 14. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you c. and then have I caught you with guile And in another place Have I committed an offence in abasing my self that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the Gospel of God freely 2 Cor. 11. 7. St. Paul would never have spoken to them after this manner had he preach'd only out of self interest according to the Custom of those who carrying a worldly mind along with them into the Sanctuary are meer huchsters of Religion and make a Trade of the most sacred and sublime Mysteries of Christianity But supposing St. Paul acted not by a principle of self interest which is generaly the center of other mens Actions who will assure us that he owed not his Virtues to Pride which is another nice kind of Interest to which some men direct all their Actions I am very well perswaded that men may out of a capricious fancy ascribe the best Actions to Pride and give the name of Hypocrisy to the most sincere Vertue For what can put a stop to the continual rovings of a Soul that endeavours only to raise doubts and scruples But then I also affirm that there are such visible marks in the conduct and actions of St. Paul as manifestly evince in spight of Incredulity that his Vertue was solid and his self denial â—incere But this I hope will more plainly appear by the following reflexions We need but a very indifferent Knowledge of mens hearts and inclinations to know that as there are two different states into which men may fall so likewise there are two different sorts of Passions which then arise in the soul Prosperity is the cause of pride with all the other Vices that accompany it Poverty and Misery that of Covetousness with all that is consequent upon it Not but that Covetousness is found sometimes even in Prosperity as well as Pride in the midst of Misery but that is not my meaning I only would say that Prosperity is as it were the Kingdom of Pride and Poverty the Kingdom of Avarice because a man that is
to look upon that word as Divine which those Tongues have preached we cannot but look upon those Writings as Divine in which that Word it self is contained I hope that whosoever shall seriously reflect on the Connexion of all these principles will fully be perswaded that their Union is not to be dissolved If there was such a Book as the New Testament in the days of Clemens Polycarp and of the Primitive Fathers as without dispute there was that Book could never have been forg'd If the Book of the New Testament could not have been forg'd it is impossible but that certain publick matters of fact which are inserted in that Book as being publickly known by all the Christians are true And if those matters of fact are true it can never be denied but that the Apostles received the Holy Ghost If the Apostles did receive the Holy Ghost certainly their Writings must be looked upon as Divine I have made choice of these principles only among several others which I have established but lest any one should imagin that they subsist meerly by their Connexion I desire the Reader to remember that I have proved each of them apart by themselves after several different ways It is very true therefore that the New Testament as well as our Religion is divine for these two Truths are properly one and the same The Christian Religion can't be Divine if the Word or the Scripture which is the ruleof the Faith of its Professors be Humane and the Scripture can never be Divine unless the Christian Religion be of an heavenly Original and proceeded from God But it is fit that we should examin the Difficulties that are opposed against this grand principle CHAP. XIV Wherein we shall examin those Difficulties which may probably be raised against the foregoing Truths TRuth is an Enemy to all shifts and tricks let us therefore briefly consider what doubts we may possibly entertain in the foregoing Truths Let us give full scope to our imagination to frame what suspicions we can as to the persons of Jesus Christ and his Apostles their Miracles the Resurrection of our Lord and the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost which were imparted to mankind by the hands of the Apostles themselves And I. to begin with the Person of Jesus Christ there are some who believe that Jesus Christ was an Essene and that he borrowed from that Sect the purity of his Morals and the soundness of his Doctrine And indeed it appears from the Description which Philo and Josephus gave us of that Sect that the Essenes lived among themselves in a perfect union that they possessed all things in Common that they looked upon one another as so many brethren and that they had very rational and sound Ideas of God and Religion All this pretty well agrees with the Nature of Chistianity Besides it does not appear that Jesus Christ ever opposed their Doctrine when he pronounced so many woes against the Scribes and Pharisees And if it be true that Jesus Christ borrowed his Doctrine from that Sect we should have less Reason to be surprised at his extraordinary Morality and Holiness of life But 't is easy to refute this notion if we consider that there was no such Sect as that of the Essenes in Galilee which was the native Country of Jesus Christ that the Essenes avoided all correspondence with other men as looking upon them as impure and prophane and for that reason dwelt not in any great Cities Whereas Jesus Christ travers'd Towns and Villages taught multitudes Preached in the Synagogues c. Besides the Essenes abhorr'd Matrimony whereas Jesus Christ made choice of such Disciples as were Married and lastly that he had several Fishermen to attend him but none of them were Essenes But II. May we not think that Jesus Christ ow'd his knowledge to his Education But how could that be For as much as he was bred up in the shop of a Carpenter as his Enemies themselves confess in their reproaches of him III. Some will object that 't was out of spite to the Scribes and Pharisees and other Rulers of the Jews that he first exclaimed so much against them and after invented on purpose to thwart them a Religion quite opposite to theirs But what had the Son of Mary to do with all those Teachers since he neither was Priest nor Levite nor pretended to any such dignities What should make him come in competition with them Besides it is not sufficient to assert that Jesus Christ seemed very much exasperated against their Doctrine and Behaviour it must also be considered whether he had not a great deal of reason to be so IV. 'T is objected that perhaps he was ambitious of being thought a Prophet or it may be not rightly understanding certain Oracles which seemed to determine at that time the coming of the Messias he really thought himself to be that Messias But nothing of this is true For Jesus Christ could not have thought himself to be the Messias out of meer simplicity and ignorance nor have endeavoured to make the World believe it out of malice or deceit We have no reason to believe the former if we consider his Morality and Doctrine and his holiness of life gives us no occasion to imagin the latter The incredulous will soon be reduced to an evident absurdity if they assert that Jesus Christ was the most ignorant or most wicked of men the most ignorant if he thought himself to be the Messias without being really so or the most wicked if he endeavoured to make other men believe it when he believed it not himself because one must be wilfully blind not to perceive that the Christian Religion proceeds both from a very clear principle and a good foundation too V. But may we not say the same of Mahomet The incredulous compare them often together They pretend that Jesus Christ and Mahomet might have been animated both with the same Spirit But of all the shifts of the Incredulous this is certainly their weakest and 't is a plain demonstration that they have no manner of Idea of the things they speak of when they insist upon this comparison For we can here produce several essential differences betwixt Jesus Christ and Mahomet Mahomet never pretended to Establish his Religion by working miracles although several have been imputed to him Whereas Jesus Christ desired no belief but upon the testimony of his extraordinary Miracles being willing thereby to convince the eyes and senses of his Disciples by sensible matters of fact and such miracles as he gave them also power to work themselves when he sent them forth to preach abroad his Resurrection and Miracles at the same time he threatned them with Death and eternal Damnation in case they should endeavour to deceive any body with fictions or even disguise the Truth it self Mahomet left no such prophecies behind him as have been accomplished whereas we have several of Jesus Christ which have
been clearly explained by their event Neither the Books of the Old or New Testament bear the least record of Mahomet whereas the Prophets had foretold the coming of Jesus Christ as of a Messias that was to unite the Jews and Gentiles and to carry the Covenant of God unto the ends of the World Mahomet established himself in the World by force and violence but Jesus Christ only by patience and sufferings The former was environ'd with Soldiers the latter was attended with Martyrs The one put men to Death but the other received Death for our sakes Mahomet's ambition who established such a flourishing Empire was presently seen in the success he had in his undertaking But Jesus Christ was far from self Interest or Ambition since he withdrew himself when they would have made him King and declared his Kingdom was not of this World Instead of encouraging the carnal prejudices of his Disciples he took care to undeceive them and to foretell all the Evils they were to expect And tho' any should presume openly to dispute all these matters of fact still they appear by the end and success of the Gospel the design of which was to sanctify the heart and calm the disorderly passions of the Soul Mahomet invented such a Religion which agreed only with corrupted Reason and the loose inordinate desires of the heart He made the scandal of the Cross to give place to the magnificence and grandeur of the World he took away the most spiritual and difficult matters of Morality to fill the minds of his Disciples with carnal and sensual Ideas But not so did our Saviour act who proposed his Cross to the minds of men as an astonishing Paradox and a continual cause of Mortification and Repentance Mahomet Established his Religion by the help of Ignorance and Darkness by suppressing such Books as might have enlightened mens Understandings and by requiring a blind submission from them Jesus Christ on the contrary would not have them believe his Doctrine but as they found it conformable to that of the Prophets Search the Scriptures says he for in them ye think ye have eternal life John 5. 39. Mahomet established himself in the World by dissembling and disguising his thoughts He promised in the beginning a toleration of all Religions carried it fair to the Christians but afterwasds did his utmost endeavours to extirpate them utterly But Jesus Christ declared at first his intention and design which was to save mankind and overthrow Superstition it self Nor he nor his Disciples used any Policy or Circumvention in this respect Mahomet died but never rose nor pretended to rise again from the dead thereby to shew he was approved of God Jesus Christ died but it was believed he rose again from the dead upon the testimony of those who had seen him after his Resurrection and testified of the Truth of this matter of fact to all the World at the expence of their lives and effusion of their blood Mahomet's Religion was invented maintained and supported by Policy but that of Jesus Christ was at first offensive to all the Princes upon earth and was established in the World notwithstanding all their endeavours to the contrary Mahomets's Religion appear'd at first view to be as it were the Triumph of Humane Industry and Covetousness but the Religion of Jesus Christ shew'd that of integrity and justice in their full perfection and Natural Religion in that proper purity and simplicity that was restored to it by Charity Mahomet laid the foundation of a particular Monarchy and established such Laws as humanly speaking are serviceable only in those places wherein he has settled his Dominion but Jesus Christ has given us new Principles of union and intelligence very usefull to the good of publick society in general and very fit to cement the union of all men together by making the spirit of Charity reign in the World The coming of Mahomet did not sanctify mankind but that of Jesus Christ was attended with an innumerable Company of persons who all renounced the World meerly by the Faith they had in him 'T was not Mahomet but Jesus Christ who exactly fulfilled the Oracles concerning the calling of the Gentiles because Mahomet derived all his knowledge of the true God from Jesus Christ as we have already shewed Lastly Temporal Prosperity was the true Character of the Religion of Mahomet and it might be very well affirmed that Mahomet was a Man of God if it were true that all those who enjoy the greatest Prosperity in the World that is all Tyrants wicked and unjust men are the favorites of God But the Character of the Religion of Jesus Christ is patience self-denial innocence and a simplicity of manners and certainly he was approved of God if God approves of vertuous patient humble and charitable men It concerns now the Incredulous to answer all these differences if they would have us allow of this Comparison for otherwise we shall ever reject it as being very ridiculous and extravagant CHAP. XV. Where we further examin the objections of the Incredulous THe Incredulous are apt to raise as many suspicions against the miracles of Jesus Christ as against his person because of all those proofs which establish his Religion there are none that can move the senses so much as that taken from true Miracles I. Then they object that Jesus the Son of Mary might have healed two or three people either by chance or by vertue of Second causes and that that good success might have got him afterwards the name of a Prophet through the ignorance of the people who are wont to ascribe to supernatural Causes every thing that is unknown to them We answer that we have here a very great number of miracles all of different kinds evident and sensible miracles in their Nature unimitable and above all Imposture Such are the Resurrection of the dead healing the Blind the Lame and the sick of the Palsy c. II. They pretend that he might perhaps have suborned Witnesses to testify some fabulous miracles But how could this be Since Jesus Christ had neither money to give nor dignities to promise and as for cunning Politick niceties Riches and Credit they were only amongst the Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law his implacable Enemies who took all opportunities to prejudice him because he publickly censured their hypocrisy upon all occasions III. They object that Jesus Christ was so prudent as to work his miracles only before three of his chosen Disciples viz. Peter James and John Now say they who knows but that those three Disciples to flatter the ambition of their Master might have attested certain Miracles as true which were not really so To remove this suspicion we need only reflect upon the many miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the presence of his other Disciples He raised from the dead the Son of the Widdow of Naim as he was a carrying to be interr'd He raised Lazarus from the grave in
the Divinity of the Christian Religion St. MARK CHapt I. 14. Now after that John was put in Prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. All these Expressions the Gospel or good Tidings the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. are very strange and extraordinary And because our Ears are somewhat used to them we do not reflect on them so much as we ought Certainly it must be a strange kind of mutual agreement that several Fishermen made together to go preaching about the World and call the Subject of their preaching by the name of Gospel Chap. IV. 19. And the Cares of this World and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entring in choke the word c. T is not usual for other Men thus to declare open War against their Passions or if they do they fail not presently to discover themselves and lay open their own Hypocrisy to the World Vers 41. And they said one to another what manner of Man is this that even the Winds and Sea obey him c. We too may as well say what manner of Man is this that not only the Sea and Winds but Diseases Graves Death Hell Earth Men and Devils all obey him For it is observable there was nothing within the bounds of Nature but what was sensible of his Miracles Chap. VI. 2 3. From whence has this Man these things And what wisdom is this which is given unto him that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands Is not this the Carpenter the son of Mary c. Whence rather proceeds this astonishment of theirs and what is the reason of this sort of reproach had not Christ wrought several Miracles amongst them Vers 4 5 6. But Jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honour but in his own Country c. And he could not do many mighty works there save that he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and he healed them And he marvelled because of their unbelief Every thing in this passage carries with it an Air of Truth without the least semblance of Falsity For he that would invent a story and desire other Men should believe it would never make choice of such Circumstances as these Vers 56. And whithersoever he entred into villages or Cities or Countries they laid the Sick in the Streets and besought that they might touch if it were but the border of his Garment and as many as touched him were made whole It is impossible for any Man to impose upon other People in such matters of fact as these Chap. VIII 27 28. And by the way he asked his Disciples saying unto them Whom do Men say that I am And they answered some say John the Baptist but some say Elias and others one of the Prophets Here we may observe what a great Impression Christ 's Miracles had already made upon other Mens minds Chap. XIV 33. And He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy To own that Jesus Christ was reduced to this State nay him whom they would have Men look upon as the Son of God is the effect of a strange and surprizing sincerity Vers 62. And Jesus said I am And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Did ever any Criminal brought before a Tribunal of Justice speak thus Chap. XVI 17 18 20. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with strange Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the Sick and they shall recover c. And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with Signs c. Either all these matters of fact must have been necessarily true or St. Mark must have been strangely besides himself when he related them Let us consider What is it that he relates Or whom did he design to impose upon nay what time did he choose to effect it How could he possibly perswade the Disciples that they had done such Miracles as they were never able to do And how should they perswade themselves that Christ had given them that power to do Miracles which they never received St. LUKE Chap. I. 64. And his mouth was opened immediately and his Tongue loosed and he spake and praised God And fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the Hill Country of Judea No man is so mad as to pretend to impose upon Men's belief in matters of fact so publick as these he would rather make choice of passages scarce heard of or at least but obscurely known Chap. II. 16. And found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger Great was the exactness of these Writers in giving us a simple Relation of things as they really were What can seem more contrary and irreconcilable one with another than all these Circumstances A Child sleeping in a Manger but a Child whose Nativity was declared even by Angels and celebrated by all the Host of Heaven a Child that was banished the Society of Men but elevated in dignity even above the blessed Spirits a Child that was inconsiderable and of no esteem on Earth but great in Heaven and adored by Angels that was indeed a while after his Birth worshipped by some Wise-men that brought him Presents but soon â—orced to fly into Egypt for the safety of his Life Certainly there appears nothing like a Fiction in all these Circumstances Chap. V. 19. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude they went upon the House-top and let him down through the tiling with his Couch into the midst before Jesus Do such things as these enter easily of themselves into a Man's mind who writes nothing but of his own invention Chap. VII 38. And she stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with Tears and did wipe them with the Hairs of her Head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the Ointment 'T was easie to know the Redeemer of the World by that saving alteration he was seen to make in those that followed him Chap. IX 45. But they understood not this saying and it was hid from them that they perceived it not Great indeed was the Evangelists sincerity who stuck not to own the ignorance and stupidity of the Disciples Chap. X. 19. 20. Behold I give unto you Power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the Power of the Enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven A certain Character of true Religion indeed which sets a greater value upon
represents the Disciples continually fasting and praying could not devise that matter of fact supposing it to be false He would be very extravagant that should believe that the Apostles led an ill course of Life and plunged themselves in all sorts of lewd Debaucheries Their Words their Actions convince us of the contrary Yet it may be said that they were Villains indeed if what they preached was false But if they were downright plain honest Men as their speech necessarily evinces to us then was their preaching also necessarily true Vers 12. Then the Deputy when he saw what was done believed being astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. 'T would argue but little Judgment in any one that designs to impose a Fiction upon Men's belief to pitch upon Circumstances as are contrary to publick knowledge The Conversion of a Deputy was certainly an Event very remarkable Chap. XV. 39. And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus This Historian is very exact in relating the least occurrences He is sincere too since he scruples not to relate the Contentions which arose among the Apostles themselves Chap. XX. 12. And they brought the young Man alive and were not a little comforted Can any thing be more surprising or convincing than the Resurrection of the Dead Chap. XXIV 25. And as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled and answered go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee Great indeed was the Divine efficacy of his words which made a Judge tremble sitting on his Tribunal of Justice and before the Chains of his Prisoner Chap. XXVIII 30 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired House and received all that came unto him preaching the Kingdom of God c. Here endeth the History of the Acts of the holy Apostles written by St. Luke 'T is manifest he compiled it before the Destruction of Jerusalem because he mentions nothing of that Event Neither do the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles speak of it But they often speak of the sudden coming of the Lord or of the Judgments he had resolved to execute upon the Jewish Nation CAHP. IX Wherein we shall yet farther produce from the Epistles of St. Paul St. Peter and St John several Texts very proper to make us truly sensible of the Divinity of the Christian Religion Epistle to the Romans CHap. I. 1 2 3 4. Paul the Servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God c. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead Men generally insert all their Titles in the Epistles they write but St. Paul inserts the whole Gospel in his And what was the reason of it Because his Mind and Heart were so full of it that he could not speak of any thing else Jesus Christ was his Alpha and his Omega his Beginning and his End Vers 7. To all that â—e in Rome beloved of God called to be saints Grace be unto you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Did ever Man before him write in this stile He directs his Discourse to those only that were called to be Saints He does not vainly complement them after the usual way of the World but wishes them the Peace and Grace of God Certainly he would not have wrote thus had he been an Impostor or an Enemy to his Country Men who endeavoured to render them odious throughout the World by accusing them of an imaginary Crime Vers 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth c. How strongly perswaded must that Man be of what he says who expresses himself after so pathetical a manner And how well does the fulness of his mind appear by all these manifold and multiplied expressions Chap. VIII 37 38 39. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels c. An immoveable Constancy indeed and a Divine confidence which he so naturally set down and which could not possibly arise from the Soul of an Impostor Chap. XI 28 29. As concerning the Gospel they are Enemies for your sake but as touching the Election they are beloved for the Father's sake For the Gifts and calling of God c. Why did St. Paul here speak so movingly and tenderly of the Jews And why did he earnestly endeavour to soften and mitigate the Minds of the Gentiles towards them Whence comes that inclination both of his Heart and Affections to favour those implacable Enemies who sought nothing but his Destruction and Ruin Certainly a Man that had forsaken his own Nation out of spight or a desire of revenge could not be of such a Temper Chap. XII 2. And be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind c. We have here a Man who having been wholly changed having acquired new Knowledge new Habits and new Affections speaks of nothing but of being transformed renewed and becoming a New Creature c. A Man who having been enlightned in his way to Damascus speaks of nothing but of illumination of a Light that shone from Heaven of a Kingdom of Light A Man in fine who having had mercy shewn him in the midst of the fury of his persecutions speaks of nothing but Pardon and Grace T is an easy matter to collect his History from his very expressions Vers 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in Honour preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer distributing to the necessity of Saints given to hospitality Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not rejoyce with them that do rejoyce c. Can we suppose these to be the words or thoughts of an Impostor Chap. XIII 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Religion as it were Cements the good and welfare of a State and Piety seems inseparable from the publick good of a Society because God by whose appointment Kings reign is the prime Author of Religion Vers 12 14 The night is far spent the day is at hand c. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof This Author's words continually follow and express his thoughts He considered the Gospel as a Light that dissipated all the erroneous Darkness and Ignorance of his Mind he considered
the Paper it is written upon yet they are enjoyned to oppress Men that bear the Image of God by their Religion which breaths out nothing but Violence Fury and Oppression The Reason why Men usually refer thus every thing to their Senses is because a Worship that is corporeal and sensual is far more easie It is much easier for a Man to take the Sun for a God than to be continually taken up in seeking after a God that is invisible to solemnize Games and Festivals in honour of a pretended Deity than to renounce himself for the sake of a true one 'T is much easier for him to fast than to renounce his Vices to sing spiritual Songs or bow to a Statue than forgive his Enemies It appears then that the Christian Religion bears a more excellent Character in that it gives us for the Object of our Worship not a God under an human Shape but a God that is a Spirit in that it teaches us to honour him not with a carnal but a Spiritual Worship And this Christ himself has very elegantly told us in these Words God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4. 24. Who could fill his Mind with such elevated Notions And how comes it that he so excellently sets down in that short Precept the Genius of true Religion of which Men before were wholly ignorant V. It may be said of all other Religions without Exception that they induce us to look after the Pleasures and Profits of the World in the Worship of God whereas the Christian Religion makes us glorify God by renouncing the World Thus the Heathens designing rather to please themselves than their Deities introduced into Religion whatever could any ways flatter and divert them And the Mahumatan Religion not being Incumbred with many Ceremonies at least affixes temporal Advantages to the Practice of its Worship as if the Pleasures of the World were to be the future Reward of Religion But certainly both of them are much mistaken for the Heathens should have known that the Worship of God consisted not in diverting and pleasing themselves and the Mahumetans should not have been ignorant that since temporal and worldly Advantages were insufficient in themselves to satisfy the boundless Desires of Man's Heart they could not come in Competition with those Benefits which true Religion had peculiarly designed for him But both these follow'd the Motions of Self-love which being naturally held in suspense between the World and Religion imagins that nothing can be more pleasant than to unite them both thinking thereby to reconcile its Inclination and Duty consecrate it's Pleasures and put no difference between Conscience and Interest But the first Rule of true Religion teaches us that that mutual Agreement is impossible or to use it 's own Words that Christ and Belial are incompatible one with the other that we must either glorify God at the expence of worldly Pleasures or possess the Advantages of the World with the Loss of our Religion And this certainly shews the Christian Religion to have a Divine Character VI. Other false Religions debase the Deity and exalt Man whereas the Christian Religion humbles Man and exalts the Deity The Egyptians a Nation that boasted so much of their Antiquity made Monsters of their Deities and the Romans made Deities of their Emperors who were rather Monsters than Men The most famous Philosophers were not ashamed to rank their Deities below themselves and themselves ever before Jupiter but the Christian Religion teaches us that we owe all to God who owes nothing at all to us It humbles us by the Consideration of that infinite Distance there is between God and us it shews that we are miserable despicable Creatures in comparison of God who is a Supream Being and only worthy our Love and Adoration Who then can chuse but admire so excellent a Religion VII Other Religions made us depend upon those Beings which were given us to command and saucily pretend a Power over that supream Being upon whom we ought wholly to depend They taught Men to burn Incense to the meanest Creatures and impudently to equal themselves to the Universal Monarch of the World But 't is no wonder that Men should be so impious as to desire to become Gods since they were so base as to forget that they were Men and yet how ill their Pride became them when they disdain'd not to submit to the four-footed Beasts to the Fowls of the Air the creeping Animals and Plants of the Earth as St. Paul reproaches them and how basely superstitious were they in that they were not content to Deify themselves but would also Deify their own Vices and Imperfections But the Christian Religion alone restores that equitable Order which ought to be establish'd in the World by submitting every thing to the Power of Man that he might submit himself to the Will of his God And what can be the Duty of true Religion but to restore such just and becoming Order in the World VIII We need no deep search into other Religions to find that they chiefly tend to flatter Men's corrupt Desires and efface those Principles of Justice and Vprightness which God has imprinted on their Minds But he that shall truly consider the Christian Religion will certainly find that it tends to the rooting up those corrupt Desires out of our Hearts and restoring those bright Characters of Honesty and Justice imprinted on our Minds by the hand of God The Heathens flattered their Passions to that degree as to erect Altars in Honour of them and Mahomet was so well pleas'd with temporal Prosperity that he made it the End and Reward of his Religion The Gnosticks imagined that when they had arrived to a certain degree of Knowledge which they called a State of Perfection they might commit all sorts of Actions without any Scruple of Conscience and that Sin which polluted others would be sanctified in them But what Blindness what Impiety was this How admirable is the Christian Religion which alone among all others shews us our own Wickedness and Corruption and heals it with such Remedies as are as wholsome to the Soul as unpleasing to the Body IX 'T is observable that other Religions are contrary to Policy either in favouring or restraining too much human Weakness and Corruption upon the Account of Policy Whereas the Christian Religion preserves it's Rights and Privileges inviolable independent from either The Pagan Religion was against Policy in giving too much to human Weakness and Corruption It would have been much better for the Good and Welfare of the State if Men had framed to themselves a greater Idea of the Holiness of their Gods because they would have been less licentious and more submissive to the Civil Laws whereas they were encourag'd by the Example of their Deities to violate the most sacred and inviolable Rights Mahomet desirous to avoid this Irregularity retain'd the Notion of a true
have for ever divided Now the Christian Religion restores the Society of Nature For by uniting Men so strictly in the Bond of Charity it farther strengthens that natural Love which we call Humanity It destroys too the Societies of Interest and Ambition because it extirpates such inordinate Desires as are not true Principles of Vnion and good Vnderstanding one among another It also strengthens Civil Society by commanding us to obey our Superiours and teaching us to render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods Lastly it establishes such a Society as restores the Equality of Nature among us and whereas there was in the World till the coming of Christ a Society of Men externally indeed united by the Bond of Civil Laws Government and the Degrees of Proximity of Blood but internally divided by their irregular Passions Christ shews us a Society of Men externally divided by the distance of Time and Place and the disparity of their Conditions but internally united by the Bonds of the same Faith the same Hope and the same Charity Nor are these meer Ideas or Speculations for besides that the Christian Religion visibly relates wholly to the Design of making Men holy and pure and dedicating them to God besides that the Apostles tell us that it is the End of their Preaching directing themselves in their Epistles to those that are called to be Saints and to the Spiritual Israel and declaring concerning Apostates that they went from them because they were not of them besides that Jesus Christ on all occasions makes the very same Distinction refusing to own them for his Disciples that should be wholly taken up with the advantages of the World and giving this Mark and Character of those whom he owned for his My Sheep hear my Voice and the World hates them because they are not of the World Joh. 17. 14. I say besides all this we have this Satisfaction that we can produce a Society of holy Men that yielded not to any Powers of the World but withstood the most rigorous Trials of Persecutions and renounced the enticing Charms of the World the better to adhere to the Cross of Christ A Society victorious in Temptations that overcame Vices and deluded the indefatigable Endeavours of Tyrants a Society composed of Mortal Men yet not to be exstinguished by Death that was subject to the Laws of Nature yet encourag'd with motives Super-natural that conversed in the World yet despised it that was dispersed in several different Times and Places yet always united in the same Thoughts and Opinions that was continually attack't by different Passions yet constantly surmounted them In a word a Society that still flourish'd in the midst of Persecution increas'd the more as often as it was defeated and rais'd it self out of it 's own ruins Certainly he must have read but little of Ecclesiastical History that is unacquainted with all these Truths and he must be wilfully blind and purposely impose upon himself that acknowledges not the Efficacy of Religion in all those wonderful Effects And 't is properly in that Society of holy Men or in the Church it self that we ought to seek for the Fruits of Religion for there we shall find the Accomplishment of those ancient Prophecies which promised to shew us the Sheep feeding with the Bear and the Leopard with the Lamb c. And as the Ark of God could not be left in the midst of it's Enemies without working several Wonders among them which even those Infidels were sensible of so the Christian Church cannot continue in the World without producing such remarkable Effects in it which the most incredulous themselves cannot call in question For let them tell us if they can how came the Oracles of the Heathens to be immediately silenced when the Apostles first preach'd the Mysteries of Christianity and by what Power the Sound of those Men being gone to the end of the World made those Oracles eternally cease which had so long foretold things to come and so forc'd the Heathenish Writers as Plutarch and others to inquire into the Cause of that so sudden and so unexpected Silence For to object with Julian that the Jewish and Christian Oracles have been also silenced concludes nothing because the Apostles foretold that the Gift of Prophecy should cease But how appears it that the Oracles among the Heathens declar'd they should one day be silenced The Accomplishment of our Prophecies being an everlasting Proof of the Truth of our Religion serves us instead of Perpetual Oracles But what Accomplishment of Prophecies confirms the Pagan Religion No less wonderful an Effect of our Religion was the abundance of Revelation which brought so many Superstitious and Idolatrous Nations to the Knowledge of the true God Hence came the World to be fill'd with Wisdom by the preaching of ignorant Persons and the meanest Servants to have more noble and rational Ideas of the Deity than the most quick Clear-sighted Philosophers and that too by the Proposal of such a Doctrin as seems indeed to the Flesh an Object of Scandal and Horror We cannot deny but that the Christian Religion has the advantage of all others for having utterly abolished all those Sacrifices wherein they offered the Blood of Men Neither can we doubt but that this cruel and bloody Superstition was sufficiently advanc'd in the World since we find that the Holy Scripture reproaches the Jews for having sacrificed their Children to Moloch and that Julius Cesar tells us in his Commentaries that it was an ancient Custom among the Gauls to offer Human Victims to their pretended Deities I confess indeed the Romans had already renounced such a barbarous and cruel Superstition but then I question whether they did not still retain some Spice of it in those Spectacles they exhibited to the People wherein they were extreamly pleased to see the Blood of their Gladiatours run down who killed one another meerly to make them Sport A Sacrifice so much the more impious because dedicated rather to the unlawful pleasure of Men than the Honour of those Beings they look't upon as Gods And what but the Christian Religion could have abolished all those bloody Spectacles and horrid Divertisements We have just reason to be surprized to think how licentiously that abominable Sin usually punish'd by God and Man with Fire reign'd heretofore in the World and we cannot without horror and amazement reflect how that the love of both Sexes seem'd equally grown common to Men and that ancient Authors freely speak of that kind of Debauchery which our own Writers dare not so much as mention lest they defile their Writings Socrates is represented to us by some of them as being deeply smitten with the Beauty of Alcibiades and the Emperour Trajan whose Panegyrick well deserv'd thirty Years labour strangely blemished his Reputation by that monstrous Lechery Which pretty well shews the just Grounds for St. Paul's reproach to the Heathens who says that because when
they had known God they glorified him not as God therefore God also gave them up unto vile Affections Rom. 1. 21. And indeed it was no inconsiderable service the Christian Religion did Men in partly abolishing and disgracing so much that kind of detestable Debauchery that we look upon those to be no less than abominable Monsters that seem any way inclinable to it Humility and Charity those two Virtues so Essential and necessary to Men were so utterly unknown formerly that their Names were scarce known in all the Pagan World To what then do we owe the knowledge and Esteem we have of those two so excellent Virtues but to the Religion we profess Lastly 't was by the means of this Religion that the Creature was again call'd a Creature and God again called by his own Name Jehovah 'T was this Religion that took away from Vice the name of Virtue and reclaimed Virtue from the scandal of passing for Vice restored right Reason to it's former Privileges enlightned the Consciences of Men mortified their irregular and disorderly Passions and confounded their Avarice And surely by all these divine effects you must necessarily perceive and acknowledge the Divinity of Christianity IV. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as consider'd in the Purity of it's End IF the Effects of the Christian Religion are truly answerable to the Characters of it we may also affirm that it's End is truly answerable to it's Effects it being manifest there never was any so uncorrupt so pure so extraordinary and so perfect For we cannot but acknowledge that it is the main End and Design of Christian Religion to check and mortify Men's irregular Passions and restore the Principles of Righteousness and Uprightness in them which their Corruption had as it were Effac'd And it cannot be suppos'd this was the intention of the Devil whom we conceive to be as a Spirit naturally averse to the Good of Mankind nor that of Flesh and Blood that aim at nothing else but to satisfy their Lusts nor that of Nature which is easily perswaded being byassed by the Pleasures which Vice gives her a Prospect of nor that of Policy which tends only to the restraining the Licentiousness of all external Crimes in as much as they violate and invert the Order of publick Society but looks indifferently upon all Crimes that respect the Soul Neither can it be the scope and design of Reason which is easily corrupted by Avarice nor even that of Pride which is mortified much more than all the other Passions by this Doctrin unknown to the Flesh and insufferable to Nature Who then is it that concerns himself so much with Pride as to take away it's Errors it 's Vain-glory it 's chimerical Perfections Preferences Hypocrisy and Affectations and all this only by a serious Consideration of the divine Nature Who takes upon him to deprive Self-love of it's Injustice the Flesh of it's unlawful Pleasures and in a word all human Passions of their Disorders and Irregularities What can such a Design mean And how could this Thought of sanctifying Mankind enter of it self into any Man's Mind We may justly therefore ascribe this End and Design to the Christian Religion For it is certain it contains neither Exhortation nor Precept Promise nor Threat History nor Prophecy but what directly aims at that very End The Holy Scripture is not of the Nature of those Books that contain nothing but vain Speculations or curious Enquiries all those of that kind were brought to the Apostles to be burnt who returned no other Answer to those that asked them Men and Brethren what shall we do But this Repent ye They plainly declared that the Design of the Gospel was to free Men from the Bondage of their Sins and their Example shews us as much For what other Design could they have had in renouncing every thing and enduring all Persecutions but to perswade other Men they should renounce this present World Besides whether they speak or write they don't run out into vain Contests and Disputes the ordinary product of the Vanity of Mankind but come immediately to their purpose and insist only on what is material and essential to it Every particular in their Discourses and Writings is practical and relating to the Perfection of Morality so much they despise the Fineness of Eloquence and Subtilty of Human Philosophy and propose only to themselves the edification of Men. These things write I unto you say they that ye Sin not 1 John 2. 1. But supposing them such Deceivers as the Incredulous imagin what was it to them whether we Sinned or not What injury would it have been to the Son of a Carpenter tho the Pharisees were dissembling Hypocrites and dishonour'd the Deity by their Traditions and tho there had been Tables of Money-changers in the Court of the Temple What was it to him whether Sinners repented of their Sins or not Whether Men were Just and Merciful or thought they could appease God only with vain Offerings Whether the City that kill'd the Prophets knew the things that belong'd to her Peace or not What could move him to shed Tears in such abundance at the thoughts of the approaching Destruction of Jerusalem A sensible and effectual Proof indeed of his being very much concern'd for her Salvation What would it have signified to a few poor deluded Wretches whether the Gentiles had the Knowledge of the true God or not To a Company of false Witnesses whether Men were Cheats or Liars To persons odious and had in abomination every where whether Men truly loved one another or not To the Victims of publick Hatred whether Men were reconciled to God or not To such afflicted and disconsolate Wretches whether other Men were truly made sensible of a Divine Comfort and of the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Who can imagin that those Men designed to be wicked only to make us become honest To deceive all Mankind on purpose to establish a sacred and inviolable Law of Fidelity To become the Enemies of their own Nation to make us be in Charity with all Mankind In a word to establish a Religion in the World that tends wholly to the Sanctification of Mankind by the most signal Imposture and most heinous Crime that Men could be guilty of 'T would be strange if such wicked and deceitful Men as the Incredulous imagin the Apostles to have been should have the least Thoughts of sanctifying others And 't would be yet more surprizing if that Thought should be so fixed in their Minds as to become a full and perfect design of venturing and losing all to compass it Nay 't would be next to a Miracle if that Design should be put in execution and yet more 't would be an unheard of Prodigy if a continual succession of People should adhere to the same Principles and continue in the same disposition of Mind against their own Interest and in spite of the severest Persecutions Certainly we may confidently
say that Imposture and Deceit never had such a design or the like success For tho' self-love may have hitherto made use of Deceit and Falshood to effect its own Desires without any regard had to Justice and Charity so indispensably due to our Neighbour it was yet never known nor ever will be that Charity made use of Imposture and Deceit to bring about its Designs for the good of others without the least consideration of its own Interest and Desires And to insist further upon it would be to endeavour to add Light to the Sun and prove a thing that is already as clear as Noon-day V. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is Considered in it's Suitableness to the Necessities of Mankind WE cannot seriously reflect upon our selves without immediately discovering our own Weakness Misery and Corruption Neither can we look upon the Christian Religion without acknowledging that it was peculiarly designed to free us from those three Imperfections inherent in our Nature As to the Corruption of Man it may be said that it was the only thing in the World that Men most knew and yet at the same time were most ignorant of For the effects of it were palpable and evident to the Senses It was easily believed that Men were very wicked and corrupt when it was so manifestly seen that they committed so many enormous Crimes But Men were still ignorant that there was a general Depravation from Nature in the Heart of every Man that dispos'd him to the strangest Irregularities and it has so happened that Men have made no great Reflexion upon the Nature of that Original Depravation so incident to Mankind that it continually attends them from the Cradle to the Grave They only concern'd themselves about what was external without searching into the bottom of their Hearts and Consciences But the Christian Religion gives us in that respect all necessary light It teaches us that we are corrupt and that that Corruption proceeds from our selves It shews us the extent of it and confirms what the Old Testament taught us That all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6. 12. It shews us that that Corruption makes us subject to the Curse of God and that we are by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. It assures us that that Original Corruption has such power over Man's Heart that it moves all the Faculties of his Soul so that every imagination of the heart of man is only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. Lastly It shews us how impossible it is for Man ever to recover himself of that Malady so inveterate and deeply rooted within him and that by representing him to us as one that is lame that has a Lethargy that is dead in respect of Life Holyness and Justice all which Truths we know too well by Reason and Experience How comes it then that the Christian Religion teacheth us such things as were so generally unknown to Mankind Above all how comes it to shew us so distinctly the true Principle of our own Corruption Who taught the Son of Mary that Self-love is the true Source and Original of all our Irregularities And why does he make Man to become an Enemy to himself Yet the Christian Religion not only teaches us to know Man and thoroughly to search into all his Frailties but also that alone furnishes us with such Remedies as can cure all his Weaknesses and Imperfections For we can't see that any thing else can do it Not Education which is as often evil as good not the Civil Laws whose business is only to regulate outward actions Nor the Law in general which instead of removing rather increases this Original Corruption being in that respect like a Bank which causes the Flood to swell Not the Decorum observed among Men which usually varies according to the diversity of Countries Nor the Respect we commonly have for our selves a thing too thin and metaphysical not to submit to the Sense of Pleasure Not Reason it self which the Passions so easily corrupt Nor the Example of Men who commonly lead a very irregular life Not worldly Honour which regards only external Pomp and Grandeur nor Lastly Philosophy which wants motives sufficient to effect it or if it has any it derives them all from our own Pride Must we then have recourse to the Virtues in fashion in the World we may easily perceive that they are only Pride and Interest differently manag'd according to the various Turns and Affairs since they have no other Motives but what they have from the World The Falshood of Human Virtues is a thing not to be disputed We all know that Self-denial is only a piece of nice delicate Interest Liberality a meer Trade of Pride which values no Gifts provided it have the Glory of being liberal Modesty the Art of concealing our Vanity Civility but an affected Preference of other Men before our selves to conceal how much we really value our selves above all the world Bashfulness but an affected Silence in those things which our Lusts make us think of with pleasure the desire of obliging other Men but a secret desire of obliging our selves by getting them to befriend us another time just as Impatience to acquit our selves of an Obligation is but a Shamefacedness for having been too long beholding to others for some Favour received So that all these Virtues in general are so many Guards Self-love makes use of to prevent our darling and secret Vices from appearing outwardly What Remedy then can be brought for the Irregularities of our corrupt Nature the pernicious Poyson of which secretly insinuates it self ev'n into our Virtuousactions And who can cure such a Distemper when the Remedies applied to it are rather a Disease than a Cure Experience shews us that by effectually resisting one Vice we often confirm and establish another Would you destroy Avarice you must attack it by such Arguments as necessarily flatter Pride And is Pride to be overcome it must be impugn'd by such Motives as encourage Avarice In vain shall you strip Self-love of all it's pleasing Objects and Allurements still it will endeavour to secure it self either by contemning the Goods of Fortune or by shewing it's Moderation in patiently enduring Disgraces Self-love when seated on the Throne makes Tyrants when reduc'd to Want and Poverty it makes Philosophers who despise every thing they can't enjoy It oft indeed changes it's Object but not it's Disposition It 's Pride as I may say out-lives its own Death and not being able to prevent it's perishing it would seem to look pleasantly upon its Downfal and as it were triumph in it's own Ruin Who then can give this Hydra it's Deaths wound when the lopping off one Head serves only to give rise to another It is certain therefore that nothing can remedy this Corruption unless it be more constant than the Principles of Education more infallible than the Rules of Decency and Civility more holy than the Civil Laws which require only an
distinguish the Object from the manner after which it is represented to us The first indeed is very reasonable great and sublime worthy to take up our Thoughts and able to move our Hearts And we have already sufficiently evinced its Conformity to our Reason in shewing that we either must deny any Evidence to be in the light of Reason and Nature of things themselves or else acknowledge a future Judgment And what can be greater than an Object which justifies the Wisdom of God his Justice and all his other Attributes and brings all Men under his strict Examination all their Actions all the Thoughts of the Understanding and all the Motions of the Heart And this Object is that alone as is real and immutable As for the manner that is proposed to us of its Accomplishment 't would never suit with our weak Knowledge were it altogether as sublime as the Object it self and we should be so far from comprehending any thing in the nature of it that it would certainly dazzle our shallow Reason if God did exactly represent it to us as it is in it self But Christ has sufficiently shewed us we must not push too far the signification of any of those expressive Images in that he uses such a multitude and variety of others to represent that Judgment to us For sometimes he describes it by the Parable of the groom and the Virgins then again by the just Judgment a Lord past upon all his Servants whom he had in his absence intrusted with his Talents One while he represents the Judge of all the World as a Shepherd selecting his Sheep from the He-goats another time he describes him under the Image of an Housholder plucking up the Tares and dividing it from the Wheat that he might burn the former but gather the latter into his Barn In a word he compares him to a glorious and triumphant Monarch who is preceeded by several Legions of Angels or Messengers sounding the Trumpet before him Now all these Descriptions would certainly be of no use were they to be taken in a strict and literal Sense The same Judgment must necessarily be made of the History of Dives and Lazarus which tho it appears never so reasonable and circumstantially told yet for all that is but a Parable in the Opinion of all the sensible part of the World and would seem absurd if it were understood in a literal Sense Let not then Philosophy any longer be offended at any of the Scripture Phrases or its figurative Expressions Let it not object that a material Fire properly so called cannot burn up our Souls that Angels have no Mouths to sound Trumpets that the Valley of Josaphat is too little to contain all Mankind c. These are such trivial Difficulties as can't puzzle those who are never so little acquainted with the Language of Canaan Besides it is certain that the Mixture Men have made of Philosophy and Religion has been considerably prejudicial to our Faith For first Philosophy as it were heaping up one Speculation upon another tells us that there is an infinite Extension of Matter that there are other Globes inhabited and peopled other World 's framed of the Concourse of Atoms that there are certain invio Iable Laws of Nature that there is an Eternity of Matter and several other Imaginations of this kind as have not the least relation with the Principles of Religion And thereupon the Passions which are upon the watch to catch and embrace every thing that favours their several pretences in resisting Faith authorise the smallest Conjectures and give such weight and credit to those things which otherwise would certainly pass for meer Extravagancies And thus it happens that the Scruples of Philosophy are changed into Certainties through our unreasonable desire of changing Certainties of Religion into Doubts Secondly Philosophy creates in us an Habit of endeavouring to judge of every thing by our selves only a Disposition indeed absolutely contrary to the Nature of Faith which requires of us a Belief purely grounded on the Testimony of God But Men are so far from relying upon it that they are continually asking Demonstrations of us and those too they would have to be Geometrical ones that is so clear and evident as to be free from all perplexing Obscurity These Men make large Pretensions and Demands and sure it is that we have sufficient Demonstrations but they are all Demonstrations of Faith and there can be no Faith but what has some Obscurity as well as Light Thirdly Another very dangerous Effect of Philosophy is that it changes Religion from Practice into Speculation For the nicer and sublimer our Inquiries are into the Nature of Mysteries the more we neglect the Body of Religion which is essentially practical Religion appears not then to us in its usual Brightness and Majesty And the more we pursue it by nice Speculations the farther it gets out of our reach Experience teaches us that the Progress we make in reasoning sets us at a greater Distance from the true Center of Religion which is Piety and that the more Metaphysical it is the less able it is to satisfy our Mind but rather raises Scruples in the Understanding Whereas on the contrary the more we practise Religion the better we are acquainted with it because we grow then sensible of its divine Efficacy by our own Experience and are made to believe the true value of it by the Impressions it leaves in our Hearts Had Religion indeed been purely design'd to teach us how to Philosophize and argue about the Nature of things it would have been sufficient to take the Measure of it from a Speculative Knowledge of the Understanding But since it was given us to sanctify our Hearts it is but reasonable that Contemplation should yield to Practice and the inward sense we have of its Divine Efficacy VIII Policy is yet a far greater Enemy to Religion than Philosophy Not but that it often happily makes use of Religion to keep Men within the Bounds of their Duty but it pretends to have a Right of Superiority over it It would have Religion submit to its Orders whereas Religion submits only to the Orders of God Policy generally looks upon the greatest part of Men as no better than Slaves to those that are in power but Religion in spite of Policy makes all Men equal and effectually removes all those Distinctions which humane Passions had put between them Policy according to the Prejudices of Pride and Ambition acts as if the Lives of the meaner sort of People were of no more value than those of Brutes But Religion assures us that the Soul of a Peasant is as dear and precious to God as that of a Monarch What! Says the Ambitious Man must all People become my Equals and Companions Yes certainly replies Religion and far happier than thou art like to be unless thou repentest A great and mighty Character indeed which truly convinces us that it solely springs from God
Phenomenon it would be also contrary to Sense since all unanimously testify there is such a thing But Sense certifies the Existence of that Phenomenon and Reason is truly perswaded that it is so Reason thinks it a very hard matter to understand and Sense affirms not the contrary Reason therefore and Sense perfectly well agree together and such is likewise the joint Agreement of Faith and Reason in the greatest Mysteries of Religion Those are Difficulties indeed worthy to be admired which Philosophy so confidently starts up in matters of Divinity There are many things in Nature whose Existence we readily own but nothing tho inconsiderable in it self the manner of which we can comprehend and yet it never came into any Man's Mind that had but common Sense to call them in question If then we shew our selves so very reasonable in Natural things why should we prove so senseless in matters of Religion In common things our Understanding acts naturally but in Religion 't is deluded by the Passions which continually seek how to suggest to it new occasions of Doubting We may pass the same Judgment upon matters of Grace Do but distinguish Philosophy from Divinity and you will avoid thereby an infinite number of Difficulties it being certain that for the most part they proceed either from the eager desire we have to understand what is altogether incomprehensible or from the Speculations we have already made upon that we could not comprehend Now to know the Injustice of Men in this we need but observe that most of them being fully perswaded that God preserves us nourishes and supports us by his perpetual Concurrence without which the Meat we eat and the Care we have of our Preservation would stand us in no stead and by which we immediately Subsist yet we never heard that any one did seriously conclude from thence that we ought wholly to lay aside the Care of our own Preservation and solely rely on the Concurrence of God We never saw any one so sensless as to perplex himself with these sorts of needless Questions If it can be said that I nourish my self by taking those Aliments as are absolutely requisite for my Preservation how can it be reasonably affirmed that God nourishes or preserves me Or if it be God as nourishes me how do I lie under an Obligation of doing it my self I say we never heard any of those Difficulties objected against Natural things whereas it appears they are continually started in matters of Religion However there are as good Grounds for them in the one as the other because they consist in the Dependence we have upon the Deity either in our being Creatures already or being born again or becoming new Creatures In Nature we all know we subsist only by the Concurrence of God without inquiring into the manner of it But in Religion we are not content to know that we are Regenerated by Grace we further desire to search into the manner of that Operation and our principal care is how to find it out so that those very Difficulties which could not perplex Men in matters of Eating and Drinking seem terrible and frightful to them when 't is requisite they should lead a good Life If you would know the reason of it you must consult the Heart of Man 'T will be sufficient for us if we Act with as much reason in Religion as we do in civil Life If we consult the purest Lights of Reason it will inform us that 't is as necessary the New Creature should have its Dependence upon God as that the Creature should depend upon him because God himself is as well the Author of the one as of the other and as our Bodies have neither Life Motion nor Being but from him so our Souls have no Faculties Knowledge or Affections but what they derive from thence Every Being comes from him and nothing but what is defective can have any other Principle The thing it self then is very certain I mean that there is such a Grace to which we must necessarily refer all the good that is within us and that belongs to Divinity But the manner of its operation that is the degree of virtue it displays over us the manner in which it determines our Free-will its minutest Conjunctures c. may be hidden Mysteries belonging to the consideration of Philosophy but not in the least prejudicial to our Faith which consists in an humble Submission as well as in Knowledg and can as readily profess its utter Ignorance of a hidden Mystery as it gladly perceives it when revealed I question whether Divines have observed that when the Apostles are pleased to point out to us what is most eminent in Mysteries they neither examine the Order of the Decrees of God nor the inconceivable Transmission of Original Sin whereby the Wickedness of the First Man was conveyed down to us nor why Grace seems incompatible with Free-will Whence proceeds this if not from their Ignorance of Philosophy and want of vain Curiosity which by their own Example they designed to teach us to avoid What is then according to them the great Mystery of Godliness This is it God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels believed on in the World preached unto the Gentiles received up into Glory Tim. 3. 16. The Incarnation which is expressed in these Words God was manifest in the Flesh is a great and sublime Mystery but if we lay aside our Prejudices we shall find it conformable to our Reason 1. For it must be first of all granted that in this Covenant the Almighty debases not himself in favour of those with whom he makes it as we see in dishonourable Treaties where a King is upon equal terms with his Subjects This is a Covenant wherein God unites himself to the Creature without diminishing his Greatness and Glory and where the Creature unites it self to God without losing its due sense of Humility The Sun unites himself with the Cloud where it imprints its Brightness without an Eclipse and why should not God unite himself with an innocent Nature without lessening his real Worth and Dignity 2. We have an excellent Representation of this Truth in the Union of our Soul and Body where two Substances distinct in the highest degree are united together without having any natural proportion betwixt them What has the Soul to do with the Body And how can there be any Affinity betwixt things of so different a Nature It may perhaps be answered that there is a greater Disparity betwixt the Humane and Divine Nature than the Soul and the Body I agree that the Disparity is infinitely greater but the Diversity is still the same and there is a great deal of difference betwixt an Union which carries a mutual dependence along with it such as that of our Soul and Body and an Union which contains the dependence only on the one part such as that which is betwixt the Divine and Humane
Books of the Old Testament are partly reducible to Three Heads 1 st To a general Preparation of all things for the reception of the Messias who was to come 2 ly To the Representation of his Office and Oeconomy by a Type or Shadow 3 dly To the describing of him after such a manner as to render it altogether impossible for the Elect Souls not to know him when he came Whosoever shall consider the Books of the Old Testament under these Three Notions will certainly discover nothing in them that can perplex his Faith but he will find that every thing therein serves to increase his Knowledg by discovering to him as it were the Scheme of God's Councels and his great Plan and Design of Religion But since 't is not our present Design to dive into the unfathomable Abyss of the Justice Wisdom and Mercy of God so neither shall we enquire into the Reasons which induced him to permit Men to sin or why he was pleased to save some rather than others or upon what account he made use of the Intervention of a Mediatour rather than of any other Means or whether there were any other way to expiate the sins of Mankind but the Death of Christ I say we shall not trouble our selves about any of these vain and fruitless Enquiries And since it is but just we should freely own our Ignorance I think we can never find a better opportunity to acknowledge it than when we are talking about the secret Methods and Councels of God because we can never discover the bottom of them unless we cease to be what we are or he to be what he is Without attempting then to search into the manner of these things which is altogether incomprehensible to us and of which we are not able to speak but imperfectly we freely suppose the Truth of them We do not in the least question but God permits Sin because we are all Sinners We know that a small Number of Men are sanctified to whom the Scripture makes several great and sublime Promises And we are also taught that they are delivered from their Sins by the intervention of a Mediatour and that God had resolved to bring it to pass by such means even before the Foundation of the World But let us now consider how the Wisdom of God prepared and disposed Men for it These Preparations related in the Old Testament are manifold For there are Preparations of Events Preparations of Ceremonies Preparations of Prophecies Preparations of Precepts and Preparations of Tenets As for the Events they all relate to this great Center of Religion Had Abraham always lived in Vr of the Chaldees he must necessarily have fallen into Idolatry as well as the rest of his Kindred or he could never have preserved to his Posterity the Knowledge and Worship of the true God and his Seed consequently could not have been a Seed of Blessing for all the Nations to come It was then absolutely requisite he should forsake his Country as well as his Kindred And had Jacob always lived with his Father Laban the Posterity of the latter would have corrupted that of the former so that Esau having already mixed himself with Strangers the holy Race could by no means avoid being confounded with the profane and so the Promise of the Messias would not have been entailed upon any particular Family or Nation because in Succession of Time it would have been altogether impossible to distinguish it from the rest It was then necessary that Jacob should forsake his Father-in-Laws House and consequently live apart from all other Nations And had it not been for the protecting Providence of God this People who was honoured with his Covenants and intrusted with his Oracles would have absolutely perished in Egypt and together with them the Hopes of a promised Redeemer To preserve therefore such comfortable hopes they were necessarily separated from all other Nations and the better to keep themselves in that State tho' they differed from them all in matters of Policy Manners Inclinations and Religion yet it was necessary they had God for their supream Magistrate who gave them all those wonderful Marks of his Protection we read of in the Old Testament Tho' thev were carried away captives into Babylon for their Sins they were necessarily gathered together again from that Dispersion Seventy years after lest a longer Bondage should have made them for ever lose the Marks of their Election 'T is no difficult matter to perceive that it was in behalf of the Messias only that God was pleased to make so many Distinctions And the Promise of his coming could not be entailed upon every Nation of the World He set apart one single Nation from the rest purposely to intrust them with so great a Salvation And because 't was absolutely requisite this Distinction should remain till the Birth of that Redeemer so for that End he appointed five very remarkable Principles of that Separation The first whereof was the Knowledge of the true God a divine Character of the Election of that People and a Priviledge they could not chuse but be infinitely jealous of especially when they considered what profound Darkness Ignorance and Superstition was then dispersed in the World The second was the Circumcision that sign of his Covenant which God was pleased the Israelites should bear in their Flesh to distinguish them the more effectually from all other Nations For it was not by meer Chance or out of any fantastical Humour that this Custom was first settled among the Jews 'T is not to be supposed they could have received without very powerful Motives to it so painful and difficult a Custom so contrary to the natural Affection of Mothers as appears by the Example of Zeporah nay which even seems at first view somewhat shameful and obscene As for Philo's and other Mens Reflexions on the Customs of the Circumcision they are very pitiful The third Principle of that Distinction was the Land of Canaan which God gave to the Patriarchs and their Posterity after them tho' he did not give them immediatly an actual possession of it He fixed the Hearts of that People upon that particular Land lest they should have been insensibly dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth And the Patriarchs upon their Death-beds strictly recommended the carrying of their Bones into it the better to fix the Hopes and Affections of the whole Nation upon it But lest it should have happened that the Canaanites the Perisites the Jebusites c. who were before in possession of that Land should have intermixed themselves with the holy Generation and consequently corrupted them by their Superstition God himself consented that those Nations should in this Life undergo an exemplary Punishment for their Sins which had been carried on to the utmost pitch of Excess and for that end his Vengeance made use of Josuah and his Armies as Instruments to destroy them utterly The fourth was the Tabernacle and afterwards the
Temple which God resolved should be the Center of the ceremonial Worship he having solemnly declared that no Sacrifices or any other material Oblations whatsoever could be acceptable to him but what were offered in them intending to prevent by that means the Israelites wandring from that place which was to be as it were the Center of their Religion and by consequence to establish their Separation from all other Nations upon a surer and stronger Foundation which too was necessary to make one day their Messias known Lastly the fifth Principle of that Distinction was the Worship of the Law it self which was of such a Nature that the observance of its Ordinances indispensably obliged the Jews to abominate and detest all Commerce with other strange Nations or induced all other Nations to look upon the Jews with Horrour and Indignation For it injoyned the Jews to sacrifice the Creatures other Nations worshipped as Deities and the latter scrupled not to feed upon the Flesh of those Animals which the Jews had in Execration c. In a word the external and corporeal Purity the Law so carefully prescribed them prohibited the Jews all manner of Commerce with those prophane and polluted Nations But God thought it not sufficient to set apart unto himself one particular Nation from the rest he was further pleased to seperate also in that Nation one Tribe from all the rest viz. the Tribe of Judah in particularly assigning to it those Promises of the Messias which are contained in that excellent Prophecy uttered by the Mouth of an expiring Patriarch The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be Gen. 49. 10. God was also pleased to chuse one single Family in that Tribe to ascribe principally to it the Promise of the Messias And that was the Family of David to whom he promised that he would make his seed sit upon the Throne as long as the Sun and Moon endureth which Promise would have been manifestly false and absurd were it not exactly fulfilled in the person of the Messias Lastly he chose such a Branch of the Family of David as shot forth as it were out of a dry ground and out of the root of Jesse that is a Branch of it that was fallen in a very mean and wretched Condition All which Distinctions were designed only to make Men discern and know the true Messias and to prevent the loss of that Knowledge so necessary to their Salvation in the Confusion of Nations Tribes Families and Generations But it was not only by meer Events that God disposed the Hearts of the Israelites to receive the Messias he imposed upon them also an infinite number of Ceremonies to inspire a more fervent Desire in them of being freed from the Burthen of those Rites He revealed to them but in part many sublime and important Tenets that they might earnestly desire a clearer and fuller Revelation of them He gave them a Law too which wholly consisted in carnal Motives and Rewards and was attended only with temporal Blessings and Threatnings which Law was to dispose them by its Insufficiency to receive a better Covenant The Law intervened that Sin might abound and God suffered it to abound by way of prevention that Men at length being made sensible of their Guilt might have recourse to his Mercy which was ready to be revealed unto them in Jesus Christ Thus it appears all things as it were prepared the Jews to a new Oeconomy and Dispensation We may also add that there was nothing but what represented it The Lawgiver and People the Covenant it self the Mediatour the Worship and State of the Faithful in a word every thing was shadowed in the Old Testament as in a great and magnificent Picture drawn by the hand of God himself and exposed to the publick view of Men in all Ages to come Therein the Deity is represented under an humane Shape to give us a Type of God manifested in the Flesh He is said to have wrestled with Jacob as an Admonition to us that Prayer is a sort of Wrestling wherewith God is well pleased He charged Moses not to come near the fiery Bush where he manifested himself till he had first put off his Shoes from his Feet the better to make us understand that without Holyness we neither ought or can approach unto God He shewed his Back-parts only to his Servant Moses to inform us that the advantage of seeing him Face to Face that is of perfectly knowing his Will and his Councels particularly belonged to a far greater Prophet than Moses The Two Covenants are likewise represented to us by Abraham's Two Wives The Covenant of the Gospel by Sarah the Mother of the free Children and the Covenant of the Law by Agar the Mother of the Bond-men The faithful People that is the Church or the Congregation of those Men who are chosen for eternal Life are farther represented to us sometimes by the People of Israel sometimes by the Assembly of the first-born and sometimes by the Multitude of the Levites and Priests And the Conformity betwixt the People of Israel and the Christian Church is very remarkable The People of Israel were set apart from all other Nations and so are the faithful from the rest of Mankind God was the Protector of Israel only when at the same time he forsook all other People In like manner none but that Holy Congregation of People we call the Church however dispersed in all Times and in all Places of the World can justly boast of its being immediately protected by the Almighty The People of Israel were abhorred and had in execration by all other Nations and so is the Church hated by all the World The People of Israel cried unto God for help in the midst of their Oppression and their Cry came unto him and just so has the Church had its Martyrs and afflicted Sufferers continually crying out night and day How long Lord c. The People of Israel had no other Guide but God no other Light but his no other Support to defend them but his Providence They were fed for a long time with nothing but that Bread he miraculously gave them from Heaven for their Sustenance c. The Church in like manner has no other Lights but what proceed from God no other means of preservation but his Providence no other Support but his Strength c. God dwelt in Israel and being willing to conform himself as it were to the Israelites would have a Tabernacle erected him when they themselves dwelt in Tabernacles and a House when they also made their Abode in Houses So God is now in the midst of his Church and the Faithful themselves are his Temple and his Sanctuary Further the Divine Worship paid to God in Israel was an excellent Figure and Type of that spiritual Worship that we Christians are bound to give him To the Temple
uncircumcision but a new Creature Great indeed was his Faith for he would not subscribe to their Maxims who constrained the faithful to be Circumcised tho he might have thereby avoided a sharp Persecution But he shews us that the Circumcision of the Heart only was acceptable to God that none but the New Creature could be for the future agreeable to him A Circumcision indeed infinitely more painful than the first and a New Creature established upon the Ruins of the World the pleasures of which are so dear to us Certainly it is impossible this Doctrine so spiritual so holy and so necessary in it self should have proceeded only from Flesh and Blood Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. III. 17 18 19. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth all Knowledge c. Had the Apostles been such Deceivers as the Incredulous would have them to be what mean those transports of admiration as often as they reflect on the mercy of God which every Page of this Book is full of Were they then deceived No surely because they could not be imposed upon in such certain matters of fact Had they then a mind to deceive other people That could not be neither because their Writings seem to be designed only to induce Men to fear God Chap IV. 24 25. And that ye put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness Wherefore putting away lying speak every Man truth with his neighbour c. A strange and surprising Discourse indeed but which would have been much more astonishing should it have been uttered by the mouth of an Impostor Epistle to the Philippians Chap. I. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake The Stoicks who had so much distinguished and raised themselves above all other Men by their sublime Morality had ever imagined that the Wise man might very well preserve a tranquil and sedate Mind in the midst of his Afflictions and they were so much intoxicated with Pride that they were altogether insensible of any Pain or Torment But the Disciples of Christ went yet higher They looked upon the most cruel Sufferings as upon so many Benefits and so many causes of Joy and Peace and Ineffable Consolation and Comfort They cried out I rejoyce in my sufferings c. I delight in Stripes in Afflictions c. Nay more than this they returned Thanks to God for having been thought worthy to suffer for his Name 's sake Their Afflictions gave rise to their Gratitude And all this because they were supported by a Divine hand and were most certain to obtain an everlasting Reward A strange thing indeed that this Certainty only should be absolutely requisite to demonstrate the truth of Religion The Apostles could never have entertained any false hopes of reward because their hopes were grounded on what they had seen and on the miraculous Gifts of God they had both received and often imparted to others We can't then doubt but that they had the hopes of a future Reward in prospect unless we will be wilfully Blind and Ignorant So blind must the Incredulous be who wilfully shut their Eyes and refuse to be convinced of so evident a Truth First Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. I. 4. For our Gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost c. By these words it appears that the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost continually testified of the Gospel Chap. III. 4. For verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as â—t came to pass and ye know The Disciples of Christ had been prepared by him and had prepared themselves nay prepared their Successors also to suffer patiently according to the Words of this Apostle who says in another place 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution T was therefore in cold Blood with their own choice and free deliberation they suffered such Torments Chap. V. 27. I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren St. Paul feared not in the least his being contradicted or convinced of any Falsity he had advanced concerning his Afflictions and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost And therefore he commanded that his Epistles should be read to all the holy Brethren First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 16. And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into glory This mystery can't be invented only by Humane understanding for several Reasons 1. Because it is so great and sublime that Men tho never so learned and quick sighted in other things yet would never have been able to find it out of themselves barely by the Scrutinies of their Reason 2. Because they were only poor Fishermen that preached it 3. Because this so sublime and magnificent Object proceeds if I may so speak from the Death and Sufferings of a Man who was condemned and punished with the most rigorous Punishments that could be thought of For t was only after the Passion of Christ that the Disciples went about preaching every where the wonderful works of God 4. And lastly because the contemplation of it depends upon Experience it self and altho this mystery appears at first view infinitely exalted above the reach of our capacity yet it must have been both seen and touched by the Disciples They certainly saw Christ and beheld his glory as the Glory of the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth They saw with their Eyes that Flesh in which corporeally dwelt an intire fulness of the glorious Godhead They were fully convinced of the extraordinary excellence of his Mysteries and the perfection of his Holiness They themselves received the Gifts of that same Spirit in which God himself was justified They saw Angels ascending and descending to minister unto him They preached it themselves to the Gentiles and so compelled the World to believe in him by their Patience and Preaching which was continually attended with the Demonstration of that Spirit and the Evidence of those Miracles performed by them in the Name of Jesus Lastly he ascended into Heaven in their sight So that these are all sure and certain proofsof the Truth of that great Mystery which can't in the least be suspected Second Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 15 16. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures c. All Scripture is given by inspiration There is no maintaining false Religions in the World but by the help of Ignorance Negligence and a blind Submission But the Christian Religion can't be suspected of any
such defects because it is wholly founded upon Instruction and Knowledge Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life John 5. 39. Chap. IV. 7 8 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness St. Paul was drawing nigh toward his latter end and the words of a dying Man are always to be regarded Whence then comes that chearful Joy the Apostle so naturally expresses in this occasion His Hopes had they been of this World must have been soon buried with him in his Grave and his Happiness too at an end Whence then derived he that great Confidence which he seems to have had Was it from the inward sense of a guilty Conscience which reproach'd him for having betray'd the Synagogue blemished his Country Men deceived Mankind testified of a Seducer and forg'd such fictitious Visions by the most signal Imposture that ever was Let any one believe it if he can First Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Mind of those Writers was so full of the Salvation that was revealed to them that they were never weary of returning thanks to God for it Chap. II. 17 18 19 20. Honour all men Love the brotherhood Fear God Honour the King Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward c. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God c. It is a strange thing we should be desired to own that a mutual Agreement of Malice and Falshood which really is a wonderful Agreement of Piety Charity Obedience and Righteousness Paul expressed himself like Peter and Peter spoke like Paul They both acted and suffered alike nay they bore the very same Testimony being endowed with the same Patience practising the very same Virtues and discovering one and the same Wisdom in all their words Now what have we any reason to suspect in all this Second Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 16 17 18. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount c. This is a Witness who spoke of what he had seen who suffered Death in defence of the Truth of his Testimony who saw it not alone for several others had seen the same thing who spoke not out of any principle of Interest or concealed what he knew through any fear or apprehension of Death and who for all that did his utmost endeavours to sanctifie Mankind and bestowed all his Time his Labour and his Life in advancing such an extraordinary work which is so little to be suspected And if so what Man is there that can reasonably mistrust him First Epistle of St. John Chap. I. 1 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life declare we unto you c. If you should doubt whether the Apostles did really go about testifying every where that they had seen with their Eyes both the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ 't is but learning it from their Epistles and their own words too Chap. II. 1. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not But what was it to him whether Men sinned or not Did ever the design of sanctifying Mankind and contributing to their Salvation at the cost of ones Blood ones Liberty ones Life enter before into any Man's Heart but theirs These and the like Reflexions are of themselves sufficient to give the Reader a relish of those Truths and incite him to make some of his own as shall more effectually instruct and convince him For my part I have made several which perhaps satisfy me better than they would any body else And no question but he will also make several of his own that will convince him far better than those of another In the mean while let us pass on to the consideration of the Substance of that Religion which Christ himself did bring into the World For after having considered the outside t is very necessary to look into the inward part of the Building SECTION IV. Wherein we shall prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Consideration of it's Nature and Properties Several Portraitures in which it may be considered HItherto we have insisted as it were upon the Shell and Bark of Religion we have examined the proofs taken from matters of fact being the first that offered themselves to our mind It seems therefore now Expedient we should discover as it were the Substance and Spirit of Christianity and so proceed to those other proofs drawn from the Nature of it and that by shewing the truth of it by it's Beauties and proper Excellencies But because this is too copious a Subject for us who study Brevity we shall endeavour to reduce what we have to say into as small a Compass as we can and since we cannot allow our Reflexions their due and proper Extent to give at least some Plan or Draught of the same as shall supply that defect And tho the Christian Religion may be considered under several different Faces because in this respect 't is like unto its Object which has no Bounds to confine it's Extent yet methinks we may give an Idea just and adequate enough to our present design by considering it in eleven different Draughts or Portraitures I. In the Multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it which we shall touch upon cursorily because we have already partly examined them all II. In its essential opposition to all false Religions that ever were III. In it's Effects which can only justly be referred to a Divine and Supernatural Cause IV. In the Purity of its end V. In it's Suitableness to the Heart of Man which it undertakes to reform VI. In the Relation it has to the Glory of God which it should advance VII In it's Morality VIII In it's Mysteries IX In the conformity of it's Mysteries to the light of Reason X. In that exact proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion XI And lastly in that proportion it bears to Natural Religion I hope these Portraitures will like so many
that was divided into the Porch the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies is answerable the World the Church and the Heavens the eternal Sanctuary of God To the Levites all the Faithful without Exception that are designed to serve God to the White Cloathings of the Ministers of the Tabernacle the Innocence and Holyness of all those who design to approach unto him to the Purity of the Body the Purity both of the Heart and Conscience to the Blood of Goats and of Lambs which was a Confirmation of the Old Covenant the Blood of Jesus Christ which confirms the New Testament to the Entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies wearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes written upon his Breast and presenting to God the Blood that was shed in the Porch corresponds the Ascention of Christ into Heaven where he continually presents us to God his Father and intercedes for us by virtue of that Blood which he shed for the Expiation of our Sins to the purifying Waters which washed away all the Pollutions of the Body the Waters of Grace which sanctify the Spirit To Mount Sinai Mount Zion to the sound of the Trumpet of Rams Horns the Voice of the Gospel to Moses himself the Mediatour of the Law Jesus Christ the Mediatour of the New Covenant The different state and condition of the Church is is also further represented to us by the various condition of the People of Israel Our spiritual Bondage is marked out by their temporal Slavery our Deliverances by their Deliverances our Enemies by their Enemies and so just and reasonable is the Conformity there is betwixt those Images and their Original that the Holy Scripture often makes little distinction betwixt them and intermixes in one and the same Chapter that which concerns the temporal State of the Israelites and that which concerns the Spiritual condition of the Faithful as also the Events that attended the Jewish Oeconomy and the Wonders of the New Covenant These things are worth our Observation and he that does not duly consider them will never be able to understand any thing in the Prophecies contained in the Books of the Old Testament Lastly The Wisdom of God was resolved we should not want a competent number of Types that might sufficiently represent to us the Excellence Offices and Ministry of our Mediatour Thus Isaac conceived in the Womb of a barren Woman the Delight of his Father the Foundation of all the Promises of God offered up for a Sacrifice upon a Mount by the very hand of his Father rising as it were from the Dead by being delivered from the Knife he had already lifted up against him and having afterwards a Seed as numerous as the Stars of Heaven and the Sand of the Sea this Isaac I say was a lively Image of Jesus Christ who was conceived in the Virgins Womb the Darling of his Father in whom he was well-pleased the Foundation of all his Promises the Source of his Blessings dying upon Mount Calvary rising again in a wonderful manner after his Death and seeing his Seed after him when he had made his Soul an Offering for Sin Thus again Joseph sold by his Brethren betrayed out of Envy accused tho' Innocent condemned because he would not submit to the immodest Desires of a lascivious Woman delivered out of Prison appearing before Pharaoh cloathed in Garments suitable to that Honour and then sitting at his Right Hand was a wonderful Representation of Jesus Christ betrayed out of Envy sold by the Jews themselves who were his Brethren condemned for refusing to comply with the Synagogue cast down into the Darkness of Death endued with heavenly Gifts raised again to Heaven and sitting at length at the Right Hand of God Moses defigned to be the Mediatour of the Legal Covenant rescued at his Nativity from a Deluge of Blood exposed to the River-side and as it were given up to a sure and infallible Death but afterwards delivered by a kind of Miracle from the Fury of the Waters and also delivering not long after his own Nation himself by a lucky Turn when he seemed to be cast away was an exact Representation of Jesus Christ who came into the World to be the Mediatour of the New Covenant was delivered at his Birth from the Murder of Herod and saved Men after his having suffered Death Jonas who was cast into the Sea to appease the Tempest and swallowed by a Whale which three Days after cast him again on the Shore sufficiently gives us to understand who it was that calm'd by his Death that Storm our Sins had raised that went down into the Grave and afterwards rose again the third Day Lastly David being raised from the State of a Shepherd to that of a Monarch was an excellent Type of Christ who after his Humiliation inherited a Name that is above every Name And as for those Prophecies which have described to us by such notable Epochaes and signal Characters both the Person Coming and the Time of the Coming of the Messias we have already very largely spoke of them so that what we have said in that respect is more than sufficient to make us admire the exact Proportion there is betwixt the first and second Covenant as well as betwixt the Jewish and Christian Religion Moses Illustrates Christ as we have proved in our first Part of this Treatise and Christ again Illustrates Moses as appears plainly by the Comparison we just now made of them XI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the Proportion it bears to natural Religion WE have already described the Christian Religion as it is thus considered in having fully proved in several places of this Work that it takes away the Corruption which had disordered Nature that it subverts Paganism which was the Corruption of natural Religion that 't is the perfect Restauration of the latter that it reestablishes the Principles of Justice and Equity which God had imprinted in our Hearts that it produces the most perfect Union of Society by Love and Charity that Humility Temperance Wisdom and all other kind of Virtues which support natural Religion derive the Force of their Motives from the Christian Religion they alone being equivalent to all sensible Objects and lastly that it makes us answer the End of our Creation 'T is a wonderful Comfort and Satisfaction to our Minds and at the same time exalts our Nature to reflect that the End for which Man was designed is the same with that of Christian Religion and the End of Christian Religion the same with the true End of Man's Creation Every thing that goes to the Constitution of Man's Nature does in a manner seek after God The infinite Curiosity of our Minds incessantly thirsting after the Knowledge of New Objects seeks after that Deity which the Christian Religion discovers to us because that Deity contains all things in the Excellence of its own Nature The greedy and hasty Desires of our
Hearts which can never be truly satisfied with any Object we see seek after God as a Supreme Good which contains in it all other Advantages It was a thing before unheard of that a Man must satisfy the Desires of his Heart by glorifying God To give our selves up to Godby renouncing our selves and to renounce our selves to dedicate our selves wholly to God are meer Paradoxes yet such the Christian Religion plainly demonstrates to be true by supplying the Defects of Mankind and restoring natural Religion And now reflect upon those Eleven different Portraitures or Characters which we have thus offered to your Consideration Observe that our own Imagination had no share in the Product of natural Religion of the Revelation of Moses of the Heart of Man of the Morality of Christ of its Doctrin its End and the Effects of it of the Testimonies given in favour of it of its relation to the great End of Man's Creation the Glory of God Consider that all those Representations depend not upon any of our foolish Fancies or fantastical Whimsies of the Incredulous and that altho we should not understand the Original of the Christian Religion yet we ought to refer it to a Celestial Principle since we have discovered that it is qualified and adorn'd with so many Characters of Divinity What then shall we say when we reflect that we have it by a voice from Heaven that an infinite number of Martyrs suffered Death to confirm it that the Events and Miracles performed in the World taught it us that many undeniable matters of Fact convince us of it that the Prophets declare it and the Devils themselves silently own it What can we say now that we are surrounded on all sides with Light with the Light of the Senses the Light of Reason the Light of Prophecy and the Evidence of their accomplishment the Light of Knowledge the Light of inward Sense the Light of Experience the Light of Testimony the Light of matter of Fact the Light of Doctrin the Light of the Heart and the Light of the Vnderstanding We shall certainly own that it is the Work of God and earnestly beseech him who granted us the Knowledge of his holy Religion that he would be pleased both to defend it against the false Subtilties of its secret and open Enemies and deeply imprint it in our Hearts for the sake of his Glory and the Salvation of our own Souls Amen FINIS ERRATA Occasioned by the Translator's Absence from the Press PAge 15. l. 36. r. Ministry p. 39. l. 6. r. not now p. 44. l. 23. r. Epistles p. 71. l. 6. r. of the p. 81. l. 32. r. throughout the p. 90. l. 3. r. series p. 93 l. 23. for the r. he p. 116. l. 28. r. any one p. 130. l. 14. for Writings r. Witnesses p. 139. l. 7. r. ascending p. 137. l. 6. r. contemned p. 162. l. 28. r. implied p. 202. l. 19. r. State p. 307. l. 22. for do r. to p. 312. l. 28. r. far from p 315. l. 9. r. even p. 339. l. 15. r. Mortal but p. 391. l. 31. for has r. was p. 405. l. 33. delâ— are Tertullian in his Apolog. Origen contra Cels lib. 16. Mat. 26. 39. Mat. 11. 19. Mark 13. 2. John 21. 22. Joseph de bello Judaico lib. 3. cap. 14. 7 12. Sueton. in vitâ— Claud. Tacit. lib. 5. Histor cap. 13. Plutarch in the life of Romulus Mâ—l 4. 2. Luke 1. 78. Gem. tract San. Cap. 11. Gem. tract San. Lib. 12. Gem. Tract San. Cap 11. Tertul. Apolog. 5. See a discourse concerning Universal History by the Bishop of Meaux See Minâ—t Feliâ— Juvenal 〈…〉 58. 5. â— Kings â—8 28.