a confirmation of the Authority of them the persons there mentioned were as so many Witnesses to attest that they were genuine For besides the general concernment of the Catholick Church and of the several Churches more especially to which such Epistles were written the persons who were saluted by name in them were more particularly concerned to take cognizance of them and to know all the circumstances relating to them And St Paul's advice to Timothy to drink no longer Water but to use a little Wine for his stomach's sake and his often infirmities 1 Tim. v. 23. was requisite to be given in that Epistle that it might remain recorded in the Scriptures in confutation of that superstition which some were guilty of in abstaining from things lawful and particularly from Wine out of an opinion of Holiness in refraining from them and of sin in the use of them 5. That infallible Spirit which assisted and inspired the Apostles and other Sacred Writers was not permanent and habitual or continually residing in them nor given for all purposes and occasions as we may observe in St Paul who acquaints us in some things that he had not received of the Lord what he writes But the gifts of the Spirit were bestowed for the benefit and edification of the Church and therefore wâ—re given in such measures at such times and upon such occasions as might be useful for edification We find that in a matter of great concernment and importance to the whole Church the Apostles met together in Councel to decide the controversy both because according to our Saviours promise to them they might expect a more abundant effusion of the Holy Ghost upon them when they were assembled in his name for that purpose and because the thing in debate depended upon Matter of Fact viz. that the Holy Ghost was given to the Gentiles and therefore it was requisite that many should meet together and testifie of that matter Besides several that came down from Judea to Antioch had refused to submit to the Authority of St Paul and St Barnabas and it was necessary that these men should be convinced by the unanimous and joint Authority of the Apostles who being met in a full Councel declared It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Acts 15.28 that is not only to us but to the Holy Ghost to the Holy Ghost as well as to us And this was for an Example and Precedent to the Church in future Ages to determine Controversies by the Authority of Councels 6. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed upon men who might have personal failings and were men of like Passions with us Act. 14.25 They had this Treasure in earthen Vessels that the excellency of the Power might be of God and not of themselves 2 Cor. 4.7 But they werechosen to be Apostles and Evangelists and therefore must be so far exempt from error in the execution of their Office and Ministry as not to deliver false Doctrines in their Writings which were to be read and received of all Churches in all Ages of the World for this would have defeated and subverted the design of the Institution of the Apostles and of the Mission of the Holy Ghost and therefore this God would not suffer tho they might be suffered to incur such failings as were no prejudice to the Gospel of Christ 7. There being nothing asserted in the Canon of Scripture but what has some relation to the edification of the Church tho some parts of it have a less direct and apparent tendency to this end than others if any one passage or circumstance should have been erroneous this would diminish the Authority of the Scriptures and make them in some degree less capable to promote the end for which they were written And there being so many particular Gifts the Gift of Wisdom and of Knowledge of Tongues and of Interpretation of Tongues and of discerning of Spirits and so many distinct Offices as Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists and Pastors and Teachers we cannot conceive how those Gifts and these Offices could be better employed than in preserving that Book from error which was to be the standard of Truth for all Ages or how if that Book had not been secured from error by them these Gifts and Offices had answered the end of their appointment Thus much may suffice to prove the Scriptures to be infallible in all the parts and circumstances of them But it may be observed that if the Infallibility of the Sacred Writers had not extended to the words and circumstances but only to the substantial and fundamental points of Religion this of itself were enough to vindicate the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion Nay further if the Scriptures were written only with the same certainty and integrity that is in Thucydides or in any other credible Historian which the most obstinate and inveterate Adversary can never deny yet even then no man without much unreasonableness cou'd reject it CHAP. III. Of the Style of the Holy Scriptures WHen God reveals himself to men he must be supposed to do it in such a manner as is suitable to the necessities and occasions of those to whom the Revelation is made and in such Language and Forms of Speech as that he may be understood by those to whom he reveals himself he may be suppos'd to speak in the Idiom and in the Metaphors and Phrases in use amongst them and to allude to their customs and manner of life to have regard to the condition and state of their affairs and to condescend in some measure to their weaknesses to speak to their capacities so as to be understood in his Laws and to encourage and excite men to obey them For tho the particular reason and design of every Law be not always necessary to be known yet it is necessary that those to whom they are given should know what the Laws are and that they should have their Duty prescribed in such a way as may be effectual to recommend the Practice of it to them The style of the Holy Scriptures is a subject which has been largely discoursed of by Mr Boyle and others What I intend to say upon it I shall reduce to these Heads I. The Grammatical construction II. The Metaphors and Figures and Rhetorical Schemes of Speech III. The Decorum or suitableness of the Matter or the Things themselves IV. The Method I. The Grammatical construction and propriety of Speaking It has been by many observed that there is a great resemblance between the style of the Old Testament and that of Homer the most ancient Book we have besides and it is likewise observable that those things which are by some looked upon as defects in the Scripture style as the using one Gender or one Number or Case or Tense for another the putting Participles for Verbs the Comparative or Superlative for the Positive Actives for Passives or Passives for Actives are particularly taken notice of by
Hereticks viz. the Marcionists and Valentinians and perhaps the Disciples of Lucanus or Lucianus for in this he could not be positive tho this Lucanus was a follower of Marcion IX There are still extant Copies of great Antiquity The Cambridge Copy in Greek and Latin containing the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and that which is supposed to be the second part of it containing St Paul's Epistles in the French Kings Library and another the like Copy which is in the Library of th Benedictines of St Germains * F. Simon Crâ—t Hist of the N. Test Part 1. c. 31. Mabil de Re Diplom lib. 5. Tabell 1. are concluded to be a thousand years old at least Morinus thought them to be ancienter than St Jerom's time The Alexandrian Copy is believed to have been written by Thecla above one thousand three hundred years ago Morinus †Epist 54. inter Antiquâ— Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth it to be of above twelve hundred years date Bishop * Prolegom ix 34. Walton supposes the Alexandrian MS. to be at least as old as that in the Vatican which is allowed to be twelve hundred years old There is †F. Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. part 2. c. 4. one Syriack MS. of the Gospels in the Library of the Duke of Florence of above a thousand years Antiquity and another not much less ancient A * Gruter Inscript p. 146. Gothick Translation of the Four Evangelists in the Abbey of Werdin is likewise of above a thousand years Antiquity And what ancient Books are there of which the Originals are still extant or of which there are so ancient Copies as of the Scriptures X. Sufficient reasons may be given to shew how it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of 1. The Epistle to the Hebrews had no name prefixt either because the Jews were prejudiced against St Paul or because the Gentiles were his more peculiar care or for some other reason unknown and in this it differs from the rest of St Paul's Epistles and the †Hieroâ— Catal. i Petr. Paul style is different which occasioned the first doubts about it as it happend likewise to St Peter's second Epistle upon the account of its style and then the Novatians alledging some Texts in the Epistle to the Hebrews in favour of their opinion this made the Orthodox the less inclined to receive a Book which before had been disputed and therefore tho it was received in the East it was questioned at Rome where Novatian begun his Schisms The second Epistle of St Peter might be scrupled on the same account and both that and the Revelation of St John being alledged for the Millennium by such as undestood it in a gross sense this caused the Authority of those Books to be called in question which is said * Euseb Hist lib. vi c. 25. expresly of the Revelation 2. Some Epistles were written to particular persons or directed to such as lived at a great distance and by reason of Persecutions arising the Authentick Epistles might not readily be produced 3. Some Books were not usually read in the Churches as the rest were All the Books of Scripture except the Revelation of St John are inserted in the Catalogue of the Council of Laodicea and this was omitted because by reason of the abstruse Mysteries contained in it it was not publickly read in Churches for that Catalogue was designed to shew what Books ought to be read in the publick Assemblies But the Revelation was long before acknowledged to be genuine by †Justin Mart. Dialog Tertull. de Resur c. 27 38. Adv. Marcion lib. ii c. 5. iii. c. 14. Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 18. v. c. 8. Hierom. Catal. in Johannum Justin Martyr by Irenaeus and by Tertullian and others both Justin Martyr and Irenaeas wrote a comment upon the Revelation of St John The Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St James and the the second Epistle of St Peter are cited by Clemens Romanus in his first Epistle which was itself wont to be read in Churches 4. The Hereticks would use all their endeavours and subtilty to hinder the reception of those Books by which their Heresies were disproved and they might so far have effect as to make some doubt for a while of their Authority For instance Diotrephes an ambitious aspiring man who prated against St John with malicious words and had so much power as to cast the Brethren out of the Church would forbid the receiving of St John's Epistles as well as the receiving the Brethren of that Apostles Communion and that he did this St John himself intimates when he says I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the Pre-eminence among them receiveth us not Joh. Epist iii. 9. that is he received not St John's Epistle for that would have been to receive him as an Apostle or to acknowledge his Authority XI Tho the Authority of some Books hath been questioned by private men yet those Books were never rejected by any Council of the Church tho frequent Councils were called in the first Ages of Christianity and had this very thing under consideration * Tertull. de Pudicit c. 10. Tertullian after he had turned Montanist rejecting the authority of Hermas's Pastor as not being received into the Canon of Scripture says that it was reckoned amongst the Apocryphal Books by all the Councils of his Adversaries the Orthodox From whence it is evident that in Tertullian's time divers Councils had past their Censure upon the Apocryphal Books and that the Canon of Scripture had been fixt long before So that the time in which some of these Councils were held must probably be whilst St Polycarp a Disciple of St John was yet living whose Martyrdom by the earliest computation was not till A. D. cxlvii at least they must be held in Irenaeus life time who conversed with St Polycarp and lived at the same time with Tertullian Thus was the Canon of Scripture vouched by those who had received it from St John and Councils upon occasion were called which †Tertull. de Jejun c. 13. Tertullian elsewhere mentions as very numerous and frequent in Greece to give testimony to the Genuine Canon and censure Apocryphal Books It is manifest that the Canon of Scripture was settled before the Council of Laodicea which in the lixth Canon appoints that no Books * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Laod can lix which are extra Canonem but only Canonical Books should be read in the Christian Assemblies and then subjoyns the Titles of the Canonical Books which Title they had as Zonaras and Balsamon observe because they were inserted into the Apostles Canons and all others were styl'd uncanonical And it is concluded after the strictest examination by the best Criticks that those which go under the Name of the Apostles Canons are the Canons of Councils assembled before the Council
Moses's time or after it p. 206. Of what Consequence the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Pentateuch is towards the proving the rest of the Scriptures to be of the same Authority p. 214. CHAP. VII of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government Joshua the Author of the Book under his Name p. 215. The Book of Judges written by Samuel p. 216. The Waters of Jordan divided p. 217. The Males circumcis'd at the first coming into Canaan and thereby disabl'd for War contrary to all Humane Policy p. 219. The Walls of Jericho thrown down and the Prophecy concerning them ib. The Integrity of Joshua p. 220. of Eli p. 221. of Samuel p. 222. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings From the Revolt of the Ten Tribes an Argument for the Truth of the Law of Moses Prophets in the Kingdoms both of Israel and Judah p. 223 CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings The kinds of Prophecy among the Jews p. 224. The Freedom and Courage of the Prophets and the Reverence paid to them even by bad Princes p. 226. They laid down their Lives in Confirmation of their Prophecies p. 227. Many of their Prophecies fulfill'd during their own Lives p. 228. Their Prophecies committed to writing ibid. They as well as the Law were carefully preserv'd during the Captivity in Babylon p. 229. The Books of the former and of the latter Prophets the Books of Samuel by whom written p. 231. The Books of Chronicles and of Kings by whom written ibid. Of the Psalms Moses and the Prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament p. 233. The Hebrew Tongue sufficiently understood by the Jews when they return'd from Babylon ibid. The Scriptures could not be corrupted afterwards p. 235. CHAP. X. Of the Prohecies and Miracles of the Prophets Josiah Prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth the Circumstances of that Prophecy p. 236. The fâ—â—filling of Elijah's Prophecies p. 238. The Confession of Julian the Apostate p. 240. Divers other Prophecies and Miracles ibid. Cyrus prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth p. 241. Jeremiah's Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem p. 243. The Contradiction which was then thought to be betwixt the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel a manifest Proof of the Truth of the Prophecies of them both p. 245. Other plain Prophecies fulfill'd p. 247. These Prophecies and Miracles manifestly true p. 249 CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament proves the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Essect p. 252. CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour Our Blessed Saviour's undeniable Innocence and Holiness of Life p. 257. Judas himself gave Testimony to it p. 259. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias fulfilled in him p. 265. The Prophecies concerning his Life fulfilled p. 277. The Prophecies concerning his Death fulfilled p. 280. And those concerning his Resurrection and Ascension p. 286 CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour Our Saviour foretold the Treachery of Judas and the manner of his own Death p. 287. The Destruction of Jerusalem with the circumstances of it and the Prodigies attending it ibid. His Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias p. 290 CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour The Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour prophesied of and typified p. 293. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceiv'd themselves in it p. 295. They would not deceive others p. 306. They alledged such Circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive p. 307 CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists The Apostles were Men of sufficient Vnderstanding to know what they testified p. 312. They had sufficient Means and Opportunities to know it p. 313. They were Men of Integrity and truly declared what they knew for they had no worldy Interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering p. 315. There are peculiar marks of Sincerity in all their Writings p. 319 CHAP. XVI Of the prophecies and Miracles of the Apostles c. Of their Prophecies p. 328. Of their Miracles p. 330. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles themselves p. 331. A Power of working Miracles communicated by them to others p. 336. Their supernatural Courage and Resolution p. 342. This likewise was communicated to their Followers p. 351 CHAP. XVII Of the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists The History of our Saviour's Life and Death contains so notorious and publick circumstances that it was an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not p. 354. The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides these likewise contain many memorable and publick Matters of Fact p. 361. The Gospel and other Books of the New Testament cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles and owned for genuine both by the Jews and Heathens p. 363. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age p. 364. The chief Points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors ibid. CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures The Christian Religion teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man p. 368. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principle of Holiness p. 370. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual Motives to Obedience and Holiness of Life p. 372. It afferdeth the greatest Helps and Assistances to an Holy Life p. 374. It expresseth the greatest Compassion and Condescension to our Infirmities p. 374. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind p. 376. The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not meerly speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst Men p. 382 PART III. THat there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 385. CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions The Pretences of the Aegyptians to Antiquity examined p. 387. Of the Chaldaeans ibid. Of the Chinese p. 389. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions The Heathen Religions never extant in Books to be publickly read p. 392. Every Country had its peculiar Deities They prevailed only by the Temporal Power Though the Heathens more in Number yet the Religion of Christians more promulged p. 392 CHAP. III. Of the Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions Of the Oracles of the Heathens p. 394. That they were uncertain and ambiguous p. 396. But they could not be all counterfeit p. 398. The cessation of Oracles gradual p. 399. Their Miracles never
worought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine The Confession of the False Gods when they were adjur'd by Christians p. 401. CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions The Theology of the Heathens absurd p. 403. Their Religious Worship wicked and impious p. 405. Humane Sacrifices customary in all Heathen Nations p. 406. No Body of Laws nor Rules of Good Life proposed by their Oracles p. 402. But Idolatry and Wickedness approved and recommended by them ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens The Heathen Philosophy very defective and erroneous p. 411. Whatever there is of Excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation p. 423. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and as excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation p. 429 CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion p. 436. CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion p. 439 CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral p. 441 CHAP. IX Of Mahomet That he was Lustful Proud and Cruel appears from the Alcoran it self p. 443 PART IV. CHAP. I. THat there is as great Certainty of the Truth of the Christian Religion as there is of the Being of God p. 447 CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith The Scriptures considered 1. As Historically true 2. As to their Doctrine which concerns Eternal Salvation p. 451 452. From both these Considerations it follows that they are infallibly True p. 455. In many cases there is as much cause to believe what we know from others as what we see and experience our selves p. 456. And thus it is in the present case concerning the Resolution of Faith p. 460. The Evidence of Sense and of Humane Testimony in this case compared p. 462. The Certainty of both ultimately resolved into the Divine Veracity c. ibid. An Objection from Joh. xx 29. answered p. 467. The Truth of the Christian Religion evident even to a Demonstration p. 470 Newly Publish'd CHristian Thoughts for every Day in the Month with Reflections upon the most Important Truths of the Gospel To which is added Prayers for every Morning and Evening Price 1 s. A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism By Thomas Bray D. D. The Third Edition Price 5 s. Very proper to be read in Families A Minister's Counsel to the Youth of his Parish when Arrived to Years of Discretion Recommended to the Societies in and about London By Francis Bragge Vicar of Hitchin Hertfordshire Price 2 s. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK I. PART I. IN Discoursing of the Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion I shall use this Method I. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation II. I shall enquire into the Way and Manner by which this Revelation may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World III. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God and the Nature and Design of a Divine Revelation it follows That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Divine Revelation IV. That no other Books or Doctrines whatsoever can be of Divine Revelation V. I shall from hence give a Resolution of our Faith by shewing That we have the same Evidence for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that we have for the Being of God himself because it follows from the Notion of a God both that there must of necessity be some Divine Revelation and that the Scriptures are that Divine Revelation VI. Having done this I shall in the last Place endeavour to clear such Points as are commonly thought most liable to Exception in the Christian Religion and shall propose some Considerations which may serve to remove such Objections and obviate such Cavils as are usually rais'd against the Holy Scriptures CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows that there must be some Divine Revelation IN the first Place I shall shew how Reasonable and Necessary it is to suppose That God should Reveal himself to Mankind And I shall insist the rather upon this because it is not usually so much consider'd in this Controversie as it ought to be for if it were it certainly would go very far towards the proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures since if it be once made appear that there must be some Divine Revelation it would be no hard Matter to prove that the Scriptures are that Revelation For if it be prov'd that there must be some Revealed Religion there is no other which can bear any Competition with that contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament My first Business therefore shall be to shew from the Consideration of the Attributes of God and of the Nature and State of Mankind that in all Reason we cannot but believe that there is some Revealed Religion in the World There is nothing more evident to Natural Reason than that there must be some Beginning some first Principle of Being from whence all other Beings proceed And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that that wonderful Variety of Beings in the Heavens and Earth and Seas which all the Wisdom of Man is not able in any Measure to understand or throughly to search into should yet be produc'd and continu'd for so many Thousand Years together without any Wisdom or Contrivance that an unaccountable Concourse of Atoms which could never build the least House or Cottage should yet build and sustain the wonderful Fabrick of the whole World that when the very Lines in a Globe or Sphere cannot be made without Art the World it self which that is but an imperfect Imitation of should be made without it and that less Skill should be requir'd to the forming of a Man than is necessary to the making of his Picture that Chance should be the Cause of all the Order and Fortune of all the Constancy and Regularity in the Nature of Things and that the very Faculties of Reason and Understanding in all Mankind should have their Original from that which had no Sense or Knowledge but was meer Ignorance and Stupidity This is so far from being Reason and Philosophy that it is down-right Folly and Contradiction From a Being therefore of infinite Perfection must proceed all things that are besides with all their Perfections and Excellencies and among others the Virtues and Excellencies of Wisdom Justice Mercy and Truth must be deriv'd from him as the Author of all the Perfections of which the Creatures are capable And it is absurd to imagine that the Creator and Governor of the World who is infinitely more Just more Wise and Good and Holy than any Creature can be will not at last reward the Good and punish the Wicked For Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right
Principles of Natural Reason and Religion But when Miracles were perform'd which both for the End and Design of them as well as for the Manner and Circumstances of their Performance had all the Credibility that any Miracle could have if it were really wrought by God's immediate Power to confirm a Revelation if these Miracles have been foretold by Prophecies as on the other side the Prophecies were fulfill'd by the Miracles if they were done publickly before all sorts of Men and that often and by many Men successively for divers Ages together and all agreed in the same Doctrine and Design if neither the Miracles themselves nor the Doctrines which are attested by them can be discover'd to have any Deceit or Defect in them but be most excellent and divine and most worthy of God in such a Case we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Miracles and of the Religion which they were wrought to establish that we can have for the Being of God himself For if these Miracles and this Religion be not from God we must suppose either that God cannot or that he will not so reveal himself by Miracle to the World as to distinguish his own Revelation from Impostures Both which Suppositions are contrary to the Divine Attributes contrary to God's Omnipotence because he can do all things and therefore can exceed the Power of all finite Beings and contrary to his Honour and Wisdom and Goodness because these require both that he should reveal himself to the World and that he should do it by Miracles in such a manner as to make it evident which is his Revelation But if he both can and will put such a Distinction between False Miracles and True as that Men shall not except it be by their own Fault be seduc'd by false Miracles then that Religion which is confirm'd by Miracles concerning which nothing can be discover'd to be either impious or false must be the true Religion For we have seen that there must be some Reveal'd Religion and that this Religion must be reveal'd by Miracle and we have the Goodness and Truth and Justice of God engag'd that we should not be impos'd upon by false Miracles without being able to discern the Imposture And therefore that Religion which both by its Miracles and Doctrine and Worship appears to be Divine and could not be prov'd to be false if it were so must certainly be true because the Goodness and Honour of God is concern'd that Mankind in a Matter of this Consequence should not be deceiv'd without their own Fault or Neglect by Impostures vented under his own Name and Authority Upon which account the Sin against the Holy Ghost in ascribing the Miracles wrought by Christ to Belzebub was so heinous above all other Crimes this being to reject the utmost Means that can be us'd for Man's Salvation and in Effect to deny the Attributes and very Being of God The Summ of this Argument is That though Miracles are a most fit and proper Means to prove the Truth of Religion yet they are not only to be consider'd alone but in Conjunction with other Proofs and that they must necessarily be true Miracles or Miracles wrought to establish the true Religion when the Religion upon the account whereof they are wrought cannot be discover'd to be false either by any Defect in the Miracles or by any other Means but has all the Marks and Characters of Truth Because God would not suffer the Evidence of Miracles and all other Proofs to concur to the Confirmation of a false Religion beyond all Possibility of discovering it to be so 3. How Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World It is reasonable to suppose that Divine Revelations should be committed to Writing that they might be preserv'd for the Benefit of Mankind and deliver'd down to Posterity and that a more than ordinary Providence should be concern'd in their Preservation For whatever has been said by some of the Advantage of Oral Tradition for the Conveyance of Doctrines beyond that of Writing is so notoriously fanciful and strain'd that it deserves no serious Answer For till Men shall think it safest to make Wills and bequeath and purchase Estates by Word of Mouth rather than by Instruments in Writing it is in vain to deny that this is the best and securest way of Conveyance that can be taken So the common Sense of Mankind declares and so the Experience of the World finds it to be in things which Men take all possible Care about and it is too manifest and much to be lamented that Men are more sollicitous about things Temporal than about Eternal which affords too evident a Confutation of all the Pretences of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition upon this Ground That the Subject Matter of it are things upon which the Eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind depends Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever Isa xxx 8. 4. It is requisite that a Divine Revelation should be of great Antiquity Because upon the same Grounds that we cannot think that God would not at all Reveal himself to Mankind we cannot suppose that he would suffer the World to continue long under a State of Corruption and Ignorance without taking some Care to remedy it by putting Men into a Capacity of knowing and practising the Duties of Vertue and Religion 5. Another requisite of a Divine Revelation is that it should be fully promulg'd and publish'd to the World for the general Good and Benefit of Mankind that it may attain the Ends for which a Revelation must be design'd THE Reasonableness and Certainty OF THE Christian Religion PART II. FROM what has been already Discours'd it appears That these Things are requisite in a Divine Revelation I. Antiquity II. Promulgation III. A sufficient Evidence by Prophecies and Miracles in Proof of its Authority IV. The Doctrines deliver'd by Divine Revelation must be Righteous and Holy consistent with the Divine Attributes and suitable to their Condition to whom it is made and every way such as may answer the Design of a Revelation CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures AS it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God would not so wholly neglect Mankind as to take no Care to discover and reveal his Will and Commandments to the World so when there was so great a Necessity of Divine Revelation in order to the Happiness of Mankind both in this World and the next it is not to be believed that he would defer it so long before he made known his Will as till the Date of the first Antiquities amongst the Heathen It cannot be deny'd that some Books of the Seripture are much the Ancientest Books of Religion in the World for it were in vain to pretend that the Works in this kind or indeed in any other of any Heathen Author can be compar'd with
Condemnation And it is not only Just but Merciful for him to with-hold the Knowledge of his Reveal'd Will from those who he forefees would reject it and abuse the Opportunities which should be offer'd them to the Aggravation of their own Guilt and Punishment Especially if it be observ'd 2. That as to particular Persons we have reason to believe that God who by so wonderful a Providence has taken care that every Nation under Heaven might have the True Religion preach'd in it and who has the whole World at his Disposal and orders all things with great regard to the Salvation of Men we have abundant cause to think that he would by some of the various Methods of his Providence or even by Miracle bring such Men to the knowledge of the Truth who live according to their present Knowledge with a sincere and honest Endeavour to improve it When St. Peter was by Revelation sent to Cornelius he made this Inference from it Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. x. 34 35. From whence what less can we conclude than that every Man in any part of the World who is sincerely good and pious in the Practice of his Duty so far as it is known to him shall rather by an express Revelation have the rest discover'd to him as in the Instance of Cornelius which gave occasion to these words of S. Peter than that he should be suffer'd to perish for want of a true Faith and sufficient Knowledge of his Duty And it is Just with God to punish those Heathens who sin without any Reveal'd Law for their Sins against Natural Reason and Conscience and for neglecting to use and improve their Reason and to embrace the Opportunities afforded them of becoming Christians We may likewise be certain that besides Natural Reason and Conscience God in his Goodness is not wanting to afford such inward Motions and Convictions of Mind to such of the Heathen as are not wilfully blind and stupify'd by their Vices as may prepare them for the reception of the Gospel which by his Providence he gives them so many Opportunities of becoming acquainted withal And if once they do discern the Defects and Faults of their own Religions which are so grosly against Natural Reason and Conscience they may make enquiry of Christians concerning their Religion as some of the Americans did of Cortes's and the Christians some of them at least however negligent they be in propagating it would never refuse to instruct them in it And it must be remembred that among those who have not receiv'd the True Religion yet many Points are taught and believ'd which had their Original from Revelation as is evident not only of the Mahometans but of several Heathen Nations which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the Reception of the whole Truth if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate Tendency and Consequences I shall not say That the Merits of Christ and the Salvation of the Gospel do extend to those who in the Integrity of their Hearts dye under an invincible Ignorance of it I believe rather that God suffers no Man so qualify'd and dispos'd to remain in invincible Ignorance But it is sufficient to vindicate God's Justice and Goodness that all Nations have had such Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumstances of particular Men. It was well said That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleas'd to deal with such Persons it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them But if it be difficult for us now to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World if all Mankind were in the State of Heathens without any Divine Revelation What will become of the Heathen as to their Eternal State is not the Subject of this Discourse nor doth it concern us to know some of them will have more to plead for themselves in point of ignorance than others can have and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind and there we must leave them But it must be acknowledged that it is much more agreeable to the Goodness and Mercy of God to reveal his Will and to give so many Opportunities to the World to be instructed in it though never so many should neglect the Means of Salvation than it is to suppose him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness without giving them any warning against it I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Come ye near unto me hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am I Isa xlv 19 22. xlviii 16. Having proved That the Scriptures want nothing requisite to a Divine Revelation in regard either of the Antiquity or Promulgation I proceed to shew That they have sufficient Evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles in proof of their Authority This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves in their several circumstances as we find them stand Recorded or the Lives and Personal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed or by whom they are related in the Scriptures For if we can be assured both that they are truly related and that if they were done as they are related they could proceed from none but a Divine Power we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron THat Moses was a very Great and Wise Man is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers and I think it has never been denied by any Man But it is no less evident that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities Exod. iii. 11. iv 1 10 13. Num. xi 10. xx 12. xxvii 14. and never speaks any thing tending to his own Praise but upon a just and necessary occasion when it might become a prudent and modest Man especially one Divinely Inspired For all the Praise of such an one doth not terminate in himself but is attributed to God whose Instrument and Servant he is and in such cases where God's Honour is concerned it was a Duty to set forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him though some Honour did redound
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
of Babylon and be carried to Babylon Ezekiel That he should not see Babylon Jeremiah That he should die in peace and be buried after the manner of his Ancestors Ezekiel That he should die at Babylon and if we compare all this with the History nothing ever was more punctually fulfilled For Zedekiah saw the King of Babylon who commanded his Eyes to be put out before he was brought to Babylon and he died there but died peaceably and was suffered to have the usual Funeral Solemnities 2 King xxv 6 7. And therefore both Prophecies proved true in the Event which seemed before to be inconsistent And so critical an Exactness in every minute Circumstance in Prophecies delivered by two Persons who were before thought to contradict each other was such a conviction to the Jews after they had seen them so punctually fulfilled in their Captivity that they could no longer doubt but that both were from God Jeremiah foretold also That the Kingdom of the Chaldaeans should be destroyed and that the Jews should be restored after a Captivity of Seventy Years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldaeans Jer. xxv 11 12. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Jer. xxix 10. And this Prophecy of Jeremiah the Jews depended upon under the Captivity Dan. ix 2. Zech. i. 12. and it was exactly fulfilled to them The Generations of Nebuchadnezzar's Posterity that should succeed him till the Destruction of that Monarchy are foretold Jer. xxvii 7. The Destruction of Babylon with the manner of Taking the City as it was foretold and described by the Prophet agrees punctually with the Account of it by (l) 〈◊〉 â—odo◠〈◊〉 c. 191. Herodotus One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to shew the king of Babylon that his City is taken at one end and that the passages are stopped and the reeds they have burned with sire and the men of war are affrighted And this was declared in a memorable and solemn manner by writing it down and by casting the Book into Euphrates Jer. li. 31 32 62 63. The Destruction of Tyre and Zidon and of Aegypt was foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel and the Restoration of the Aegyptians after Forty Years Ezek. xxviii 19. xxix 12 13. The Prophanation of the Temple and of the Sanctuary by Antiochus Epiphanes with the Death of Antiochus and a Description of his Temper and of his very Countenance was clearly delivered by Daniel Four hundred and eight Years (m) Joseph Antiquit. l. 11. c. 11. before the accomplishment Dan. viii Daniel likewise described the Fate of the Four Monarchies the Restoration of the Jews and the Rebuilding of their City and the Birth of the Messias with the precise Time of it And Alexander the great is said (n) Ibid. l. 11. c. 8. to have been encouraged by Daniel's Prophecy in his Expedition Indeed his Prophecy and the History of the Four Monarchies are so exactly parallel that Porphyry could find no other evasion but to say That the Book of Daniel was writen after the Events which as Grotius observes is as absurd as if a Man should maintain that the Works of Virgil were not written under Augustus but after his time For the Book of Daniel was as publick and as much dispersed and as universally received as ever any Book could be Lastly Haggai and Malachi prophesied That Christ should come before the Destruction of the Second Temple Hag. ii 7 9. Mal. iii. 1. And Hosea foretold the present state of the People of Israel in those remarkable words They shall be wanderers among the nations Hos ix 17. Not to insist therefore upon other Miracles and Prophecies which were concerning things of lesser moment or less remarkable in the eyes of the World these may suffice which were of that Publick nature that there could be no deceit or mistake in them multitudes of Men whom Prejudice or Malice had prepared to make the utmost Discoveries were Witnesses to the Miracles and both the Prophecies themselves and the Fulfilling of them were notorious to other Nations as well as to the Jews to whom they were delivered and in whose hands they have ever since been being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day The Jews had as good Evidence for Instance that Elijah wrought his Miracles as they could have that there was such a Man in the World And when the publick Transactions and Councils of Princes the Fate and Revolution of Empires with the Prefix'd Time and Place and the very Names of the Persons were so particularly foretold Two or Three hundred Years before the Things came to pass we may as well question the Truth of all History as the Certainty of these Revelations For indeed they are the History of Things that were to come set down in the very Circumstances in which they afterwards were brought to pass And yet if a Man should dispute whether there ever were such a Man as Elijah or such a Prince as Josiah or Cyrus he would but make himself ridiculous but if he deny that Elijah wrought such Miracles or that Isaiah spoke of Cyrus and another Prophet of Josiah by Inspiration perhaps he may be thought to have made some great Discovery and to know something above the rest of Mankind and shall be likely to meet with Applause instead of that Contempt which such Pretences deserve so strangely partial are Men for any thing which is but against the Authority of the Scriptures For I think it will be hard for Men to bring better Proof that there were such Men as Elijah and Josiah and Cyrus than may be brought to shew that the latter were by Name prophesied of long before their Birth and that the first wrought all the Miracles related of him or to produce clearer Evidence that there was such a City as Jerusalem before the Reign of Cyrus than we have that the Destruction of the City and Temple and the Captivity of the people with their Restoration after Seventy Years was foretold by Jeremiah The prophets did their Miracles in the most publick manner and their Prophecies were delivered not in corners but openly before all the People not in obscure and ambiguous Words but in plain Terms with a particular Account of Persons and Time and Place they were kept they were read and studied by that very People who at first as little regarded them as any Man now amongst us can do but slew the prophets themselves and rejected their Prophecies with rage and indignation but were afterwards by the Event of Things so fully convinced which was likewise foretold Ezek. xxxiii 33. of their
Divine Inspiration and Authority that they wholly depended and relyed upon them and lived in an uncomfortable Exile upon the sole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the rest of their Prophecies fulfilled And theirfore the Posterity of those who had slain the Prophets had the Highest veneration for the Memory of these Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed they built and adorned their Sepulchres and chose to die any Death rather than renounce the Authority of their Books or part with them even when they had forsaken their Doctrine and changed their Religion for vain Traditions and superstitious Observances and when it was so reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment That they were the the Children of them which killed the Prophets Matth. xxiii 31. they referred themselves to these Prophets for the Authority of their Religion and acknowledged that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament prove the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Effect IT is a thing altogether incredible that the Inhabitants of so small a part of the World as Judaea is should lay a Design of imposing upon the rest of Mankind which could prove so successful for so many thousand Years together and that they should be such Masters of Deceit and the World so fond of receiving Revelations from them that at last though the greatest part of that People disclaimed the Books which some few and those the most unlearned among them would impose for Inspired Writings yet the Authority of these Books should be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World than those had ever been in which they all unanimously agreed and the rest should be received for the sake of these more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the case of the Books of the Old and New Testament If the Jews even the meanest and most ignorant of them could do this merely by their own Wit and Device they must have a Genius superiour to that of all Mankind besides For what imaginable Reason is there why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations should never be much regarded and now in a manner utterly lost and that the Books of the Jews should still be preserved in their full Authority but the power and Advantage of Truth in these and the want of it in them And the Evidence of this Truth is most observable in the mutual Dependence which all the Parts of the Scriptures have one upon another They were penn'd by Men of different Countreys different Ages different Conditions and Callings and Interests from the King to the poor Fisherman and yet all carry on the same Design They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods which must stand or fall by themselves but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures by which the several Parts of them give a mutual support and attestation to each other The Pentateuch and Moses contains the first Lineaments and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the rest He foretold That a succession of Prophets should arise and that at last the Great Prophet should be sent who is Christ and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews from his own time to the Destruction of Jerusalem And as Moses has given us the general State of the Jews for all Generations so the several Prophets who were sent from time to time according to his Predictions foretold particular Events and more-especially they foretold and described the Times of the Gospel This was the great Design of all Prophecies and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets which have been since the world bigan Luk. i. 70. For in Christ was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Testament And this Dependance and Coherence between all the Parts of the Scriptures in the Matter and Design of them which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the same Author can be upon another gives great strength and confirmation to the whole since it is an Evidence that it was all Inspired by the same Infallible Spirit and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true all must be so for besides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately we must consider the Connexion which it has with the rest and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this Connexion if the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority than the Prophets who succeeded Moses must be Divinely Inspired because he foretold the succession of such Prophets And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine the Pentateuch must be so because they all along acknowledged and appealed to it as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews and being therefore the ground and foundation of their own Mission if Moses and the Prophets be from God the Gospel must be from him if that be foretold by them And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Disciples prove their Divine Authority the Writings of Moses and the Prophets must be likewise of the same Authority because they acknowledge them for such and prove their own Authority from them as well as from the Miracles that they themselves wrought And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Moses or of the Prophets or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves and apart from the rest be sufficient they must needs be more convincing when they are considered together in their united Force and Light I might further observe That Miracles without Prophecies or Prophecies without Miracles or that one evident Miracle or one evident Prophecy at least That either the Miracles or prophecies of some one Person in the several Ages in which so many Prophets lived would have been a sufficient ground of Faith and that therefore they must all be much rather so in conjunction But I shall only desire it may be remembred That whatever Evidence has been brought in proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of Moses and of the Prophets doth reciprocally prove both the one and the other and that therefore whatever is brought from either of them in Proof of the Gospel has the Evidence of the whole and that the Gospel in different respects doth prove them and is proved by them both deriving Authority from the Books of the Old Testament and communicating its own Authority to them For as the Cause may be proved by its Effect and the Effect by its Cause so both Predictions prove the Things foretold and the accomplishment of the Things foretold verifie the Predictions and Miracles wrought in consequence of Prophecies concerning them have doubly the Divine Seal and Attestation Now the Messias is the Scope and Centre of the whole Old Testament
they had been never so vicious and profligate before The Christians are represented as an innocent devout and charitable sort of men by Pliny Lucian and Julian the Apostate himself Plin. Epist ad Trajan lib. 10. Epist 97. Lucian de Morte Peregrini Julian Epist 44. by those who had most narrowly enquired into their Doctrines and Practices and were worst affected to them And by these means the Christians became as so many Lights in the world to guide and direct others in the ways of Vertue for by their example and doctrine they soon reformed even the Heathen world to a great degree Morality was taught by the Philosophers in much greater perfection than ever it had been before and they became so much ashamed of the grossness of their Idolatrous worship that they sought out all arts to refine and excuse it And those vices which made up so great a part of their Idolatrous Mysteries appeared too abominable to pass any longer for Religion The Oracles soon ceased and the seducing Spirits confessed that they were hindred from giving out their Answers by the Power of Christ and all that Julian the Apostate could do was ineffectual to bring the Heathen Oracles into reputation again These are things before insisted upon and so notorious in History that they cannot be denied to be solely owing to the Power and Influence of the Christian Religion I shall mention but one instance more and that is the barbarous cruelty of the Heathen Religions which the Gospel has delivered the world from For they were wont to offer up innocent Men and Children in sacrifice to their false Gods and that frequently and in some places daily and in times of great danger and upon extraordinary occasions they sacrificed so great numbers of men at once that it would be incredible if we had not the Authority of the best Historians for the truth of it And this custom of sacrificing men to their Gods prevailed not only here in Britain and in other Countrys which were accounted barbarous but all over Greece and in Rome it self It may well seem strange to us now that such a practice should so generally prevail in the world yet nothing is more certain from all History than that it did prevail and that men were with difficulty brought off from it For when Mankind was thus cruelly tyrannized over by bloody Daemons nothing but the omnipotent mercy of God could rescue them And for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John iii. 8. which he soon did Beasts and Idols were no longer worshipped and men were no longer made Sacrifices when once Christianity began to appear in its full power and efficacy in the world The plain and humble Doctrine of him that was laid in a Manger and died upon a Cross was in a short time more effectual to reform Mankind than all the Precepts of Philosophers and the Wisdom and Power of Lawgivers had ever been Those Enemies to their own Souls who are so fond of little cavils against the Gospel as if they were resolved not to be saved by it yet owe the happiness of this present Life in great measure to its influence they would not have been so safe in their Bodies and Estates nay perhaps they might have been sacrificed to some cruel Daemon long before this if that Religion which they resolve to despise but will not be at the pains to understand had not been believed by wiser and better men Of so great advantage has the Gospel been to those who will not be reclaimed and converted by it it has destroyed the works of the Devil and has dispossest him of that Tyranny which he held over mankind it has made the unconverted world less vicious and has banished all the profess'd Patrons and Deities of wickedness from amongst men it has made Idolatry less practised and reduced it to narrower bounds confining it to the remoter parts of the Earth and every where upon the first approach of the Gospel the evil Spirits are disarmed of their power and flee away before it as we learn from the History of Lapland and other Countries So general a Blessing is the Gospel of Christ that even unbelievers are the better for it in this world tho they exclude themselves from the benefit of it in the next And the Christian is the only Religion against which the common objection concerning the prejudices of Education in favour of it cannot be urged for as it first prevailed in the world by conquering all the prejudices of Education so it still maintains it self against all the opposition that corrupt nature and a vicious Education can make to it Indeed it may seem a needless thing to have been thus large in the proof the excelleney of the practical Doctrine contained in the Scriptures when God knows this is the greatest exception that most men have against them and if the precepts were not so strict and holy but they might be allowed to live in their sins half the evidence we have for the Authority of the Scriptures would satisfy them VII The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not merely speculative but have a necessary relation to practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst men As there is nothing in the practical Duties taught and enjoyned by the Scriptures but what is most excellent and worthy of God and which has raised and improved the Nature of man beyond what could have been attained to without it so the speculative Doctrines have as evident Characters of the Wisdom and Goodness of God They all tend to the advancement of our Nature to make us better more wise and more happy and are not designed to gratify a vain and useless curiosity but to excite in us the Love of God and a care and concernment for our own happiness They set before us the Original and Creation of all things the innocence in which man was first created and God's love and compassion to him after his Fall how the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are concerned in our Redemption that the Father sent his Son that the Son was born that he lived a despised and persecuted Life and at last underwent for us a most shameful and grievous death that he rose again and ascended into Heaven and there continually interceeds for us and that he sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter who supports and assists us under all temptations and dangers in our way thither and will if we be not wanting to our selves safely conduct us to Heaven there to reign with Christ in Eternal Bliss and Glory both of Body and Soul but if we will be disobedient and obstinate to our own ruine we must be eternally tormented with the Devil and his Angels The Apostles who without Learning or Philosophy taught the most sublime and useful Truths more plainly than the wisest Philosophers ever had done must derive their knowledge from
But thus much in this place shall suffice all particulars having been largely insisted upon in their proper places And since as sure as there is a God there must be a Revealed Religion if any Man will dispute the Truth of the Christian Religion let him instance in any other Religion that can make a better Plea and has more certainty that it came from God let him produce any other Religion that has more visible Characters of Divinity in it and we will not scruple to be of it but if it be impossible for him to shew any such as has been proved then he ought to be of this since there must be some Revealed Religion and if that Religion which has more evidence for it than any other Religion can be pretended to have and all that it could be requisite for it to have supposing it true and which it is therefore impossible to discover to be false if it were so If this Religion be not true God must be wanting to Mankind in what concerns their eternal Interest and Happiness he must be wanting to himself and to his own Attributes of Goodness Justice and Truth And therefore he that upon a due examination of all the Reasons and Motives to it will not be a Christian can be no better than an Atheist if he discern the consequence of things and will hold to his own Principles for there can be no Medium if we rightly consider the Nature of God and of the Christian Religion but as sure as there is a God and nothing can be more certain the Gospel was revealed by him CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith HAving proved the Truth and Certainty of our Religion I shall in the last place upon these Principles give a Resolution of our Faith which is a subject that has caused such unnecessary and unhappy Disputes amongst Christians in these latter Ages for in the Primitive Times this was no matter of Controversie as indeed it could not then and ought not now to be 1. Considering the Scriptures only as an History containing the Actions and Doctrines of Moses and the Prophets and of our Saviour and his Apostles we have the greatest humane Testimony that can be of men who had all the opportunities of knowing the truth of those Miracles c. which gave Evidence and Authority to the Doctrines as Revealed from God and who could have no Interest to deceive others but exposed themselves to all manner of dangers and infamy and torments by bearing Testimony to the Truth of what is contained in the Scriptures whereas Impostures are wont to be invented not to incur such sufferings but to avoid them or to obtain the advantages and pleasures of this world And so this Testimony amounts to a moral certainty or as it is properly enough called by some to a moral infallibility because it implies a moral impossibility of our being deceived by it such a certainty it is as that nothing with any reason can be objected against it We can have as little reason to doubt that Christ and his Apostles did and suffered and taught what the Scriptures relate of them in Jerusalem Antioch c. as that there ever were such places in the world nay we have that much better attested than this for many men have died in Testimony of the Truth of it II. This Testimony being considered with respect to the nature of the thing testified as it concerns eternal Salvation which is of the greatest concernment to all mankind it appears that Gods Veracity and Goodness are engaged that we should not be deceived inevitably in a matter of this consequence So that this Moral Infallibility becomes hereby Absolute Infallibility and that which was before but Humane Faith becomes Divine being grounded not upon Humane Testimony but upon the Divine Attributes which do attest and confirm that Humane Testimony and so Divine Testimony is the ultimate ground why I believe the will of God to be delivered in the Scriptures it is no particular revealed Testimony indeed but that which is equivalent to it viz. the constant Attestation of God by his Providence For it is repugnant to the very notion of a God to let men be deceived without any possible help or remedy in a matter of such importance And so we have the ground of our Faith absolutely Infallible because it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God doth confirm this Humane Testimony by his own III. The Argument then proceeds thus If the Scriptures were false it would be impossible to discover them to be so and it is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of Almighty God to suffer a deceit of this nature to pass upon mankind without any possibility of a discovery therefore it follows that they are not false Here is 1. The object or thing to be believed viz. that the Revelation delivered to us in the Scripture is from God 2. The Motive or Evidence to induce our Belief viz. Humane Testimony 3. A confirmation of that Testimony or the Formal Principle and Reason of our Belief viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth The object therefore or thing believed is the same to us that it was to those who saw the miracles by which the Scriptures stand confirmed viz. the revealed Will of God and the Ground and Foundation of our Belief is the same that theirs was viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth whereby we are assured that God would not suffer Miracles to be wrought in his own Name according to Prophecies formerly delivered and with all other circumstances of credibility only to confirm a Lye The only difference then between the resolution of Faith in us and in the Christians who were Converted by the Apostles themselves is this that tho we believe the same things and upon the same grounds and reasons with them yet we have not the same immediate motives or evidence to induce our Belief or to satisfie us in these reasons and convince us that the Revealed Will of God contained in the Scriptures is to be believed upon these grounds that is to satisfie and convince us that the belief of the Scriptures being the Word of God is finally resolved into the Authority of God himself and is as well certified to us as his Divine Attributes can render it For they were assured of this from what their own senses received but we have our assurance of it from the Testimony of others The Question therefore will be whether the motives and arguments for this Belief in us or the means whereby we become assured that the Revealed Will of God is contained in the Scriptures be not as sufficient to produce a Divine Faith in us and to establish our Faith upon the Divine Authority as the motives and arguments which those had who lived with the Apostles and saw their Miracles could be to produce that Faith in them which resolved it self into the Divine Authority And this enquiry will depend upon these two things 1. Whether
we may not be assured of some things as certainly from the Testimony of others as from our own Senses 2. Whether this be not the present case relating to the resolution of Faith I shall therefore consider in the first place the certainty which we have for the matters of fact by which the Authority of the Scriptures is proved and confirmed to us compared with the evidence of sence and will then apply it to the resolution of Faith I. In many cases men seem generally agreed that there is as much cause to believe what they know from others as what they see and experience themselves For there may be such circumstances of credibility as equal the evidence even of sence it self no evidence can satisfie sence so much indeed nor perhaps so much affect the passions as that of sence but there may be other evidence which may give as clear conviction and altogether as good satisfaction to our Reason as that which is immediately derived from our sences concerning the Being of Objects or the Truth of matters of fact Thus those who never travelled to the Indies do as little doubt that there is such a place as those who have been never so often there and all men believe there was such a man as Julius Caesar with as little scruple as if they had lived in his time and had seen and spoke with him I suppose no man in his wits makes any more doubt but there are such places as Judoea and Jerusalem from the constant report of Historians and Travellers than if he had been in those places himself and had lived the greatest part of his Life there and the greatest Infidel that I know of never pretended yet to disbelieve that there was such a person as our Saviour Christ But all men think themselves as well assured of things of this nature upon the credit of others as if they had seen them themselves For how doubtful and intricate soever some things may be for want of Knowledge or credit in the Relaters yet there are other things delivered with that agreement and certainty on all hands that to doubt of them would be as unreasonable as to doubt of what we our selves see and hear And if our Saviour's Resurrection for instance be of this nature we can with as little reason doubt of it as if we had lived at that time and had conversed with him after his Resurrection from the Dead But we have as great assurance that he was alive again after his Crucifixion as that he ever lived at all and we have at least all the assurance that there was such a Person as Christ that we can have that there once lived any other man at that distance of time from us We can no more doubt that our Saviour was born in the Reign of Augustus Coesar and was Crucified under Tiberius than that there were once such Emperors in the World nay we have it much better attested that Christ was Born and was Crucified and rose again than that there ever were such Princes as these two Emperors for no man ever made it his business to go about the world to certifie this and to testifie the truth of it at his Death But the Apostles themselves and their Disciples and Converts and innumerable others ever since from the beginning of Christianity have asserted the particulars of the Life and Death and Resurrection of our Saviour under all dangers and torments and deaths and have made it their great aim and design both living and dying to bear Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel So that a man may as well doubt of any matter of fact that ever was done before his own time or at a great distance from him as doubt of these fundamentals of the Christian Religion and yet there is no man but thinks himself as certain of some things at least which were done a long time ago or a great way off as if he had been at the doing of them himself Indeed in some respects we seem to have more evidence than these could have that lived in the beginning of Christianity for they could see but some Miracles we have the benefit of all they relyed upon their own sences and upon the sences of such as they knew and conversed with we upon the sences of innumerable People who successively beheld them for the space of Divers hundred years together so that whoever will not believe the Scriptures neither would he believe though one rose from the Dead that is though the greatest Miracle were wrought for his conviction This was said of the Old Testament and therefore may with greater reason be said of that and the New both And we have besides one sort of evidence which those that lived at the first planting of Christianity could not have for we see many of those Prophecies fulfilled which our Saviour foretold concerning his Church we know how it sprung up and flourished and from what small unlikely beginnings it has spread it self into all corners of the Earth and continues to this day notwithstanding all the malice of Men and Devils to root it out and destroy it The continuance and success of the Gospel under so improbable circumstances was matter of Faith chiefâ—y to the first Christians but to us is matter of Fact and the object of sense they saw the work indeed prosper in their hands but their Faith only could tell them that it should flourish for so many Ages as we know it has already done This is a standing and invincible proof to us at this distance of time and has the force of a twofold Argument the one of a Power of Miracles the other of Prophecies we know that a miraculous power has been manifested in conquering all opposition and in a wonderful manner bringing those things to pass which to humane wisdom and power are altogether impossible And the fulfilling hereby of Prophecies is a visible confirmation to us of the truth of those Miracles which by the Testimony of others we believe to have been done by the Prophets whose Prophecies we see fulfilled And since it must be acknowledged that things may be so well attested that we may with as much reason doubt of the truth of our own sences as of the Authority by which we are assured of the truth of them and must turn Scepticks or worse if we will not believe them we may conclude as well upon the account of these Prophecies which we our selves see fulfilled as upon all other accounts that the Historical evidence in proof of the Christian Religion amounts to all the certainty that a matter of Fact is capable of not excepting even that of sense it self II. Let us now apply all this to the Resolution of Faith and give an account how a divine and infallible Faith may be produced in us Humane Testimony is the Motive by which we believe the Scriptures to contain God's revealed Will this certifies us that such Miracles were wrought
and such Prophecies delivered as give to the Scriptures the full evidence and authority of a Divine Revelation If therefore it be enquired why we believe the Scriptures to be the word of God the Answer is upon the account of the Miracles and Prophecies which concurring with all other circumstance requisite in a Revelation confirm the Truth of them If it be asked how we know that these Prophecies and Miracles are true and effectual and not feigned or insufficient I answer because we have them so related and attested that considered barely as matter of Fact they have all the credibility that any matter of Fact is capable of and therefore may as safely be relied upon as any thing which we do our selves see or hear If it be further urged that for all this I may be deceived since all men are fallible and no man is infallibly assured that there is such a place as Rome who never saw it though no man neither can any more doubt of it than he can doubt whether there be such a place as London who lives in it I acknowledge that there is a bare possibility of being deceived in all humane evidence but yet I deny that we can possibly be deceived in this case because though the evidence it self be humane yet the things which it concerns are of that Nature that God would never suffer the World to be thus long imposed upon in them without all possibility of finding out the Truth So that here we resolve our Faith into the Divine Authority by reason of the same Miracles by reason whereof the Eye witnesses of them did resolve theirs into it but they believed these Miracles as seen by themselves and we believed them as seen and witnessed by others but both they and we believe them as the works of God himself It might have been alledged if we had seen those Miracles that we might possibly be decived and so indeed we might if we could not have securely relyed upon Gods Truth and Goodness that they were designed by him to confirm the Doctrine for the sake of which they were wrought and we may with equal security rely upon the same Truth and Goodness for the certainty of the History of them as we could have done for the sufficiency of them to the purpose for which they were wrought tho they had been performed in our sight since it is as impossible to find out any deceit in the account given of them as it would have been for us to find any in the Miracles themselves at the time of their performance Humane Testimony is the conveyance and the means of delivering the Truths contained in the Holy Scriptures down to us and we who could neither see the Miracles nor hear the Doctrines at the first hand have at this distance of time the truth of them ascertained by a continued successive Testimony till we arrive at such as were immediate witnesses of them Now those that saw and heard all things which are delivered to us in the Scriptures could not esteem their sences infallible but they notwithstanding believed our Saviour and his Disciples to be so of whom yet their senses only could give them means of assurance that they were infallible They knew their senses might deceive them or that they might be mistaken concerning the objects of sence but nevertheless they believed that our Saviour and the Apostles could not deceive them upon this only ground that their sences or their reason by deduction from sence told them so There was not one man of them perhaps but had often observed his senses misrepresent objects to him and yet in this case upon the sole Testimony of their senses they grounded an infallible Faith because though their sences had misrepresented objects yet it was in a wrong medium at an undue distance or by reason of some indisposition of the sense it self and still their sences or rather their reason by the help of their sences discovered that their sences had led them into mistakes But in the present case when the Object was placed in open and frequent view to the greatest advantage when it was publick and exposed to multitudes when all agreed in the same opinion concerning it and when the matter was of infinite importance here they had reason to conclude that the God who framed their Sences would not suffer them to be so hurtful to them as they must needs have been if they had been deceived by them In like manner in the Testimony which descends to us from former Ages we see with other mens eyes and hear with other mens ears and though the Testimony of others may often fail us and is subject to a double inconveniency through the incapacity and unfaithfulness of witnesses yet as in the former case so here when all circumstances are weighed and considered and after the utmost tryal no reason can be found to with-hold our assent but all things stand undisproved and no just scruple appears but only a bare possibility of being deceived and this arising not from any defect but that of humane nature it self here Gods Goodness and his Truth must needs interpose to take away that only impediment which otherwise must unavoidably hinder any thing from ever being known to be infallible The only certainty which we can have that our sences are true is this That God will not suffer them to be deceived where the disposition of the medium and distance of the Object and all other circumstances are rightly qualified because that would be inconsistent with his Attributes of Justice Goodness and Truth but it would be inconsistant with these Attributes not upon the account of our Bodies for they would be provided for as well though our sences were deluded we should see and hear and taste just as we do now though we were never so much deceived in these sensations therefore the Truth and Goodness and Justice of God are engaged not to suffer us to be deceived in respect to our Souls not in regard to our Bodies and if we have no certainty that our sences do not deceive us but because God would not suffer such a cheat to be put upon us as we are intelligent and rational Beings we have the same and much greater reason to conclude that he would not suffer us to lye under such a delusion in reference to our eternal Interest If God would not suffer our minds unavoidably to lye under a temporal delusion of no great consequence have we not much more reason to conclude that he would not suffer us unavoidably to be deceived by any means whatsoever in reference to our eternal Interest For in this case to be deceived is to be destroyed and to suffer it is a thousand times worse than if he should suffer all Mankind at once not only to be deceived by their sences but to be poisoned by that deceit and therefore the special Providence and particular care of God must be concerned to prevent it
If we have nothing to object but the imperfection of human nature we may rely upon God that this shall never mislead us in a matter of such consequence whether the imperfection be in our own sences or in the Testimony of others In short the Miracles related in the Scriptures will as effectually prove a Divine Revelation to us as they could to those that saw them but the difference is that they believed their sences and we believe them and all things considered we have as much reason to believe upon their evidence as they could have to believe upon the evidence of their sences Let us consider History as a medium by which these Miracles become known to us and compare this medium with that of Sight If a man would be sceptical he might doubt whether any medium of Sight be so fitly disposed as to represent objects in their due proportion and proper shape he might suspect that any Miracles which he could see were false or wrought only to amuse and deceive him and there would be no way to satisfy such an one but by telling him that this is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of God So in this other medium of History which to us supplies the want of that of Sight a man may doubt of any matter of Fact if he Pleases notwithstanding the most credible evidence but in a matter of this nature where our Eternal Salvation is concerned we may be sure God will not suffer Mankind to be deceived without all possibility of discovering the deceit The circumstances have all the marks of credibility in them and therefore if they be duely attended to cannot but be believed and the Doctrine which they are brought in evidence of being propounded to be believed under pain of Damnation require that they should be attended to and considered and that which is in its circumstances most credible and in its matter is supposed necessary to Salvation must be certainly true unless God could oblige us to believe a Lye For not to believe things credible when attended to and known to be such is to humane nature impossible and not to attend to things proposed as from God of necessity to Salvation is a very heinous Crime against God and to think that God will suffer me to be deceived in what I am obliged in Honour and obedience to him to believe upon his Authority is to think he can oblige me to believe a Lye But it may be objected if this be so how comes it to pass that they are prâ—nounced blessed who have not seen and yet have believed John xx 29. Which seems to denote that a peculiar Blessing belongs to them because they believe upon less evidence I answer that they are there pronounced Blessed who had so well considered the nature and circumstances of things the Prophecies concerning the Messias and what our Saviour had delivered of himself as to believe his Resurrection upon the report of others not because others might not have as sufficient Grounds for their Belief as those who saw him after his Resurrection but the evidence of sense is more plain and convincing to the generality of men though Reason proceeds at least upon as sure and as undeniable Principles A demonstration when it is rightly performed is as certain as the self evident Principles upon which it proceeds though it be so far removed from them that every one cannot discern the connexion Demonstrations may be far from being easie and obvious but are oftentimes we know very difficult and intricate which yet when they are once made out are as certain as sense it self The Blessing is pronounced to him who believes not upon less evidence But upon that which at first seems to be less which is less observable and less obvious to our consideration but not less certain when it is duly considered For which reason our Saviour after he had wrought many Miracles that were effectually attested by sufficient witnesses required Faith in those who came to be healed of him because the Testimony of others was the means which in Ages to come was to be the motive of Faith in Christians and he thereby signified to us that there may be as good Grounds for Faith upon the report of others as we could have from our own sences and generally those who came in unbelief went away no better satisfied Wherefore it is said that in his own Country because of their unbelief he could do no mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick Folk and healed them Mark vi 5. He could not do his mighty works because they would be ineffectual and would be lost upon them and he could do nothing Insignificant or in vain if they would reject what had been so fully witnessed to them they would not believe whatever Miracles they should see him do It is very remarkable that amidst all his Miracles our Saviour directs his Followers to Moses and the Prophets and appeals to the Scriptures for the Authority of his very Miracles and that even after his Resurrection he instructs his Disciples who saw and discoursed with him out of the Scriptures to confirm them in the truth of it Luke xxiv 26 27. He requires the Jews to give no greater credit to his own Miracles than that which he implies they already gave to the wrirings of Moses so as firmly and stedfastly to believe that he came from God And we having all the helps and advantages which the Jews had to create in them a Belief of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and many more and greater Motives if it be possible to believe these of the New must therefore have sufficient means to excite in us that Faith which our Saviour required of those who saw his Works and heard his Doctrine which certainly was a Divine Faith and all the Faith which if it be accompanied with sincere and impartial obedience is required in order to Salvation Upon the whole matter I conclude that the Truth of the Christian Religion is evident even to a Demonstration for it is as Demonstrable that there is a God as it is that I my self am or that there is any thing else in the World because nothing could be made without a Maker or created without a Creator and it is as Demonstrable that this God being the Author of all the perfections in men must himself be infinitely perfect that he is infinitely Wise and Just and Holy and Good and that according to these Attributes he could not suffer a false Religion to be imposed upon the world in his own Name with such manifest Tokens of credibility that no man can possibly disprove it but every one is obliged to believe it FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by R. Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard Newly Published A Treatise of Medicines containing an Account of their Chymical Principles the Experiments made upon them their Various Preparations and Vertues and the
upon any Subject and then they trample with wonderful Scorn and Triumph upon that which they conceive is so miserably overcome but alass the Victory is over themselves nothing is either the more or the less true for their believing or disbelieving it and Religion is always the same how profanely soever it may be spoken of We have no design to impose upon any Man's Faith but if there be Reason in what we say it may well be expected from Reasonable Men that they should hearken to Reason Religion is Reason and Philosophy as the Fathers often speak the best and truest Philosophy And I am persuaded how much soever I may have failed in the performance that the Christian Religion is capable of being proved with such clear and full Evidence even to ordinary Understandings as to make all Pretences of Arguing against it appear to be as ridiculous as they are impious THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason THE Divine Authority of the Scriptures being proved in the First Book such Points are cleared in the Second as are thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion But before Men venture upon Objections against the Scripture it is fit for them to consider the strength and compass of their own Faculties and the manifold Defects of Humane Reason p. 1. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be demonstrable p. 4. Every Man believes and has the Experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be p. 12. Those who disbelieve and reject the Misteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible p. 24. CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALL motion of Material things is derived from God and it is at least as conceiveable by us that God doth Act upon the Immaterial as that He Acts upon the Material part of the World and that He may act more powerfully upon the Wills and Understandings of some Men than of others p. 28. Wherein the inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist and how far it extended p. 31. Such Inferences from thence as may afford a sufficient Answer to the Objections alleged upon this Subject p. 41. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude Humane Means as information in Matters of Fact c. p. 42. It did not exclude the use of their own Words and Style ibid. Tho' somethings are set down in the Scripture indefinitely and without any positive Assertion or Determination this is no proof against their being Written by Divine Inspiration p. 43. In things which might fall under Humane Prudence and Observation the Spirit of God seems to have used only a directive Power and Influence p. 46. This infallible Assistance was not permanent and Habitual P. 49. It did not prevent Personal failings p. 50. No Passage or Circumstance in the Scripture Erroneous p. 51. CHAP. III. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures THE Grammatical Construction and Propriety of Speech p. 53. Those whch are look'd upon as Defects in the Scripture-Style were usual in the most approved Heathen Authors p. ib. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes and Figures p. 57. The Style different of different Nations p. 58. The Titles of Kings p. 59. What Arts were used by Orators to raise the Passions p. 60. That they sometimes Read their Speeches p. 62. The Figurative Expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were Suitable to the Customs of the Places and Times wherein they Liv'd ibid. Several things related as Matter of Fact are only Parabolical Descriptions or Representations p. 64. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech usual with the Eastern Nations p. 66. The want of Distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures p. 68. The Antiquity and various ways of Poetry p. 69. The Metaphorical and Figurative use of Words in Speaking of the Works and attributes of God p. 71. The Decorum or Suitableness of the matter in the Style of Scripture p. 79. The Method p. 86. Some Books of Scripture admirable for their Style p. 89. Why the Style not alike excellent in all the Books of Scripture p. 93. CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ANy Controversy concerning the Authority of some Books of Holy Scripture no prejudice to the rest p. 96. The uncontroverted Books contain all things necessary to Salvation p. 97. The Dispute concerning the Apochrypha falls not here under consideration p. 99 No Suppression or Alteration of the Books of the Old Testament by Idolatrous Kings c. p. 100. The Book of the Law in the Hand-Writing of Moses found in the Reign of Josiah p. 102. No Books but those which were Written by Inspiration received by the Jews into their Canon p. 103. What opinion the Ten Tribes had of the Books of the Prophets c. p. 105. Neither the Samaritans nor the Sadduces rejected any of the Books of the Old Testament p. 106. Of the Books whereof mention is made in the O. T. p. 106. Why the Books of the Prophets have the Names of the Authors exprest and that there was not the same Reason that the Names of the Authors of the Historical Books should be exprest p. 108. A wonderful Providence manifest in the Preservation of the Books of the O. T. for so many Ages p. 109. The New Testament confirms the Old p. 111. The Caution of the Christian Church in admitting Books into the Canon ib. The Primitive Christians had sufficient means to examine and distinguish the Genuine and inspired Writings from the Apochryphal or Spurious p. 113. The Gospel of St. Matt. in Hebrew how long preserved p. 115. The Greek Version of it p. 116. The Canon of Scripture finished by St. John and the Books of the other Evangelists c. reviewed by him p. 117. The Testimony of the Adversaries of our Religion ib. Copies of great Antiquity still extant p. 118. How it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of p. 119. The Canon had been fix'd and confirmed in Councils in Tertullian's time p. 121. The Canon of Scripture generally received by Christians of all Sects and Parties p. 124. CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament AN extraordinary Providence manifest in the preservation of the Scriptures from such Casualties as have befaln other Books p. 126. The Defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention of the Points no prejudice to the Authority of the Bible p. 127. The change of the old Hebrew Characters into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text p. 130. The Keri and the Ketib no prejudice to it ib. The Difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the Versions themselves no way prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures p. 132. It is confessed by the greatest Criticks both Protestants and
Papists that no difference is to be found in the several Copies of the Bible which can prejudice the Fundamental Points of Religion or weaken the Authority of the Scriptures p. 135. No less may be said in behalf of the New Testament than of the Old The great care and Reverence which the Primitive Christians had for the Books of it Hereticks could not corrupt the Text and pass undiscovered to the Orthodox or even by other Hereticks p. 140. CHAP. VI. Of the Difficulties in Chronology in the Holy Scriptures THe uncertainty of Chronology in general p. 142. Differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the Matters of Fact themselves p 143. They do not infer that there was any Chronological Mistake made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures p. 145. The total Term of Years is not always exactly distinguished from all the Particulars of which it is composed and this has been the occasion of Mistakes in Chronology p. 146. Another occasion of Mistakes has been that sometimes the Principal Number is set down and the odd or lesser Number is omitted which is added to the Principal Number in other places p. 147. Sometimes an Epocha is mistaken by Chronologers p. 149. The likeness of two Words may occasion Variations in Chronology p. 150. The Numeral Letters were easily mistaken by Transcribers ib. Some Alterations of the Septuagint from the Hebrew seem to have been made with design p. 151. The Terms of Time sometimes taken inclusively and at other times exclusively p. 154. CHAP. VII Of the Obscurity of some places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophecies HOw it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood p. 157. Some Doctrins are difficult in themselves p. 158. The Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times consisted in Proverbs and Parables p. 161. Many places of Scripture which are obscure to us were not obscure in the Ages when they were written p. 164. The main scope and design of Parables is to be observed and not every word and circumstance to be insisted upon p. 168 The Obscurity of Prophecies and Types considered p. 170. Differences in the interpretations of Phrophecies no Argument for the uncertainty of them ib. It is evident and agreed by Interpreters that Prophecies have been fulfilled tho' they differ about the Time when they were fulfilled p. 171. Some Prophecies purposely obscure and why p. 172. Some Prophecies had never been conveyed down to Posterity unless they had been obscurely written p. 175. Others could never have been fulsilled ib. If Prophecies had been plainer it would have been thought that they had been fulfilled only by design and contrivance p. 177. Men would have committed Sin in many cases to fulfill Prophecies ib. They may sometimes be obscure in Mercy to Men p. 178. And at other times for a Judgment upon the Obstinate p. 179. The obscurity of Prophecies designed to abate the Confidence and exercise the diligence of Men p. 180. Some Prophecies plainly delivered by all Prophets those which are not so delivered of great use even before the Accomplishment This shewn of the Revelation of St. John p. 182. The Nature and Certainty of Types considered p. 177. The obscurities of Scriptures is not such as to be any prejudice to the end and design of them p. 180. CHAP. VIII Of the Places of Scripture which seem to contradict each other NO Reason to expect that the Scriptures should be so penned as to afford no suspicion of Contradiction to injudicious and rash Men p. 184. what Method ought to be taken to make a true Judgment of any Author p. 186. An Objection may imply too much as well as prove too little to be of any force p. 187. Contradictions in Points of Chronology and other things of little moment tho' they should have happened by the fault and negligence of Men would be no Argument against the Authority of the Scriptures p. 190. CHAP. IX Of the Creation of the World and the Preservation of it OF the Time when the World began p. 193. There is no Reason to suppose the World to have been at first made by Mechanical Laws tho' it was preserved according to such Laws p. 194. Sufficient Reasons may be given for the Creation of the World in that manner which we find related in the Book of Genesis p. 196. with respect to the Angels p. 200. with respect to Men p. 203. The Preservation of the World is not performed according to Mechanical Principles p. 208. The Mechanical Hypotheses grounded upon mistake viz. that there is always the same Quantity of Motion p. 208. that there is a Plenum ib. They suppose it move Worthy of God to leave Matter and Motion to perform all by themselves without his immediate Interposition and Assistance p. 210. The Ordinary and Extraordinary or Miraculous Works of God considered p. 211. The Laws of the Material and of the Moral part of the World compared p. 213. The Mechanical Hypotheses inconsistent with our Duty of Prayer to God for deliverance in Sickness and Dangers p. 214. The Mechanical Philosophy proceeds upon a mistaken Notion of God p. 215. CHAP. X. Of other Habitable Worlds besides this Earth ALL things are alike easy to God yet Men are most inclined to admire and Glorify Him for the vastness of his Works p. 218. Wonderful Discoveries lately made upon Earth by Microscopes as well as by Telescopes in the Heavens But Angels who have no need of artificial Helps to discern them glorify God for his Works more than Men p. 219. The use and benefit of the Stars p. ib. The Earth to be considered as the Seat of Mankind in all Ages under which Notion it is no contemptible Place p. 220. The Planets not inhabitable ib. For what uses they may be designed p. 222. CHAP. XI That there is nothing in the Scriptures which contradicts the late Discoveries in Natural Philosophy THe use of popular Expressions implies neither the Affirmation nor the Denial of the Philosophical Truth of them p. 224. How the Sun is said to stand still Jos x. 12. p. 225. The Firmament in the midst of the Waters Gen. 1.6 explained p. 226. The Sun and the Moon how said to be Two great Lights Gen. 1.16 p. 227. The Pillars of the Earth 1 Sam. 11.8 p. 229. The Sky-strong and as a Molten Looking-Glass Job xxxvii 18. ib. The Scripture speaks strictly according to Philosophy p. 230. CHAP. XII Of Man's being Created capable of Sin and Damnation THis repugnant neither to the Justice nor Mercy of God p. 231. The Objection rightly stated p. 233. The Glory of God is more advanced and the Attributes of his Wisdom and his Justice and of his Goodness it self are more displayed by leaving Men to a freedom of Acting than they would have been by Imposing an inevitable Fate upon Mankind p. 234. Freedom of Action conduceth more to the Happiness of the Blessed than a necessity of not Sinning could
numerous than the Sufferers for any other p. 531. Zeal for Falshood no prejudice to Truth p. 532. The preference for the Christian Religion before all others p. 534. The proper Notion of Martyrdom p. 535. CHAP. XXXII That Differences in Matters of Religion are no prejudice to the Truth and Authority of it Differences in matters of Religion must be unless God should miraculously and irresistibly interpose to prevent them p. 539. It is not necessary that God should thus interpose p. 544. nor expedient p. 546. These Differences how great and how many soever they may be are no prejudice to the Truth and Certainty of Religion p. 549. All Parties are agreed in the Truth of Religion in general and of the Christian Religion in particular p. 551. It is not Religion about which Men dispute but there is nothing besides in which Men have not disagreed p. 555. Prophecies are hereby fullfilled p. 557. CHAP. XXXIII Though all Objections could not be Answer'd yet this would be no just Cause to reject the Authority of the Scriptures A True Revelation may contain great Difficulties and if the Arguments in proof of the Scriptures remain in their full Force notwithstanding any Objections and no positive and direct Proof be brought that they are insufficient the Objections must proceed from some Mistake and ought to be rejected as insignificant p. 559. This is shewn in Particulars p. 561. The way of Reasoning which is made use of to disprove the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures considered in cases of another nature p. 563. Difficulties can never alter the nature of things p. 566. CHAP. XXXIV The Conclusion containing an Exhortation to a serious Consideration of these things both from the Example of the wisest and most learned Men and from the infinite Importance of the things themselves AS wise and learned Men as any that ever lived in the World have suffered Persecutions and Martyrdom for the Christian Religion p. 568. The Causes of Unbelief among Christians Immorality a Spirit of Contradiction and singularity of Opinion p. 569. It is at every Man 's own Peril if he make a rash and partial Judgment p. 570. This is too serious a Subject to jest and trifle withall p. 574. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK II. CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason HAving in the former Book proved the Divine Authority of the Scriptures I proceed in this to clear such points as are commonly thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion and to propose some considerations which may serve to remove such prejudices and obviate such cavils as are usually raised against the Holy Scriptures But before men venture upon making Objections against the Scriptures they would do well first to consider the compass and strength of their own Parts and Faculties and to observe in how many things they daily find themselves deceived how many men there are who understand much more than themselves and how much folly and ignorance there is in the wisest men Those commonly that raise objections against the Scriptures are as confident in the management of them as if they understood all things besides and therefore conclude that must needs be false which they do not understand not considering how very reasonable it is to suppose that God should command and reveal many things the Natures and Reasons of which we may not be able to comprehend This must be granted by every man who believes God to be infinitely wise but doth not think himself to be so and acknowledgeth God's soveraignty over him For as he is infinitely wise he may reveal things above our capacities and as he is the supream Lord and Governor of the world he may command us what in his infinite wisdom he shall see fitting tho we may not perceive the Reason and Design of it And yet this is the utmost that upon a due examination many of the objections against the Authority of the Scriptures amount to that there are several things in them of which some men think no clear account can be given and others which seem to them unworthy of God Now what is the meaning of this way of objecting and where lies the force of such Arguments but in this that it is not to be conceived that God would reveal or command any thing with which they are not satisfied or which they cannot perfectly understand This is all the strength of this sort of objections There is all the Reason in the world to believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God if they did not contain things which these men in their great wisdom think should not be there if they were his word which is to make their own understanding the measure and Criterion of Divine Revelation And some have turned Scepticks for as good Reasons and others have been Atheists upon the same Principles finding as much fault with the System of the World and the Order and contrivance of the parts of it as the Deist doth with the Scriptures they have renounced all belief of a God upon the same grounds upon which he disbelieves the Christian Religion To convince men therefore of the Narrowness and Weakness of Humane Reason I shallshew I. That in some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be â—demonstrable II. That very man believes and experiences several things which in the Theory and speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be III. That those who reject the Mysteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible I. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to us demonstrable Several instances might be given of this I shall instance only in the divisibility of Matter Nothing seems more evident than that divisibility is essential to Matter and that therefore all Matter is divisible so that the least part of Matter is as divisible as the biggest because the least particle of Matter is Matter that is it is of the same Nature and Essence with the whole and all Matter differs only in Bulk or Figure or Place or Rest or Motion It being then of the Nature of Matter to be divisible it must ever be divisible tho it be never so often divided since it can never be so divided as to lose it own Nature or cease to be Matter On the other side it is demonstrable that Matter cannot be infinitely divisible because whatever is divisible is divisible into parts and no parts can be infinite because no Number can be so For all Number is necessarily in it self capable of being counted or numbred tho no Finite Being may be able to number it a Numberless Number is a contradiction it is a Number which is no Number therefore all Number must be even or odd and must be capable of Addition and Substraction which is contrary to the Nature of Infinite For what is less or greater has certain bounds or limits and therefore cannot be
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
of fact which are past an Author may easily be disproved if he relates what is false of his own times or of times whereof there are memorials still extant But the Credit of Prophecies concerning things to come a long time after to pass must depend upon the Mission and Authority of the Prophet only and therefore it was necessary that the Names of the Prophets should be annext that their Predictions might be depended upon when they were known to be delivered by men who by other Predictions already fulfilled had proved themselves to be true Prophets IV. The very preservation of Books of so great Antiquity thro so many changes and revolutions against all the injuries of Time and Ignorance against the violence of War and the malice of Adversaries and so many other Accidents which have destroyed most other Books of any considerable Antiquity is a certain indication of a wonderful Providence concerned for them and of that evidence whereby they were at first attested The Laws of the wisest Law-givers of the most flourishing and powerful Nations have been so little regarded by the people to whom they were given that they soon forsook the practice of them and readily delivered up themselves to be governed by other Laws upon any Revolution and all the pretences to Revelation which most of the Ancient Law-givers assumed to themselves could make them no longer adhered to nor so much valued as to outlive the fate of the particular Kingdoms and States for which they were contrived but most of them were changed or laid aside before and the rest given up and abandoned as out of date and of little use or esteem afterwards and all of them were so little able to withstand the destruction of time that we know not much more of them than that the best and most ancient were in great measure taken out of the Laws of Moses But the Books of Moses and the Prophets have continued entire and unchanged under all accidents and revolutions of affairs bearing this character as well as others of him who is immutable they have been still asserted against all the malice and opposition of Enemies by a captived and dispersed people who by the signal providence of God tho they reject their Messias yet still acknowledge those prophesies which foretold his coming and after their dispersion for so many hundred years are so far from renouncing them that they assert and maintain them and are zealous even to superstition for those Books which command that worship and appoint those Solemnities which they have so long been out of all possibility to observe as if those Laws which were once so uneasy to their Fore-fathers were now become natural to their Posterity or rather because they were revealed by him whose word shall never pass away till all be fulfilled V. The New Testament gives evidence and confirmation to the Books of the Old which are so often cited in it VI. The Christians were religiously cautious and circumspect in admitting Books into the Canon of the New Testament The * Hieron Catalog Eccl. Script Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Epistle of St Peter were at first scrupled only or chiefly upon the account of the style the style of the former being thought different from that of St Paul and the Style of the latter from that of St Peter The Epistle of St Jude was likewise doubted of for this reason because the Apocryphal Book of Enoch is cited in it Writings which went under the names of several of the Apostles were rejected and by general consent laid aside The genuine Epistle of St Barnabas who is stiled an Apostle Acts xiii 2. xiv 14. was never received but as Apocryphal and the First Epistle of St Clement of whom St Paul gives as high a character Phil. iv 3. as he doth of St Luke or as St Peter ever gave of St Mark was never admitted among the Canonical Books tho it was wont to be read in Churches But the Gospel according to St Mark and the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles written by St Luke have ever been received for canonical For which no reason can be given but that St Mark and St Luke were known to have written by inspiration since upon all personal and humane Accounts an Epistle of St Barnabas or St Clement must have carried as much Authority with it as any thing under the name of St Mark or St Luke †Unam ad aedisicationem Ecclesiae pertinentem Epistolam composuit quae inter Apochryphas scripturâ—s legitur Id. ib. St Jerom says that St Barnabas was the Author of one Epistle written for the edification of the Church which is read among the Apocryphal Books so that Books were styled Apocryphal not because it was uncertain who were the Authors of them but because it was doubtful whether they were written by inspiration or no. So careful was the Primitive Church to receive none into the Canon but Books certainly inspired It is well observed * Crit Hist of the N. T. Part. 1. c. 1. by F. Simon to this purpose that if we compare the Gospels and the other Books of the New Testament with the Liturgies that we have under the names of several Apostles to whom the most part of the Eastern Christians do attribute them we shall be convinced that the Gospels are truly the Apostles For all the Churches have preserved them in their Ancient Purity whereas every particular Nation hath added to their Liturgies and hath taken the liberty often to revise them The respect that hath been always had to the Writings of the New Testament without in serting any considerable additions therein is an evident proof that all people have looked upon them as Divine Books which it is not lawful for any to alter On the contrary they have been perswaded that the Liturgies tho they bear the Names of the Apostles or of some Disciples of Jesus Christ were not originally written by them to whom they were attributed And therefore it hath been left free to the Churches to add to them or to diminish from them according as occasion requires VII As the Primitive Christians were very jealous and cautious in admitting Books into the Canon so they had sufficient means and opportunities to examine and distinguish the genuine and inspired Writings from the Apocryphal or spurious The way of Writing and the hands of the Apostles were well known to those to whom they wrote as St Paul intimates of his own hand and manner of Salutation for when he used an Amanuensis yet he wrote the Salutation with his own Hand as his token in every Epistle 2 Thess iii. 17. They generally wrote to whole Churches but particular men are frequently named in their Epistles which was a great means to ascertain the Authority of them * Ago jam qui voles curiofitatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhue Cathedrae
of Nice inasmuch as they are referred to by that Council and that they are styl'd Apostolical because they were made by Apostolical Men or such as lived next to the Apostles times and delivered in these Canons what they had received from the Apostles Dr Beverege thinks they * Bever Annot. ad Pandect Can. Cod. Can. Eccl. Primit vind Cave Histor Liter in clem Roman were collected into one Body by Clemens Alexandrinus and Dr Cave seemed inclined to be of the same judgment As to the Authority of the particular Apostolical Canon which contains the Canon of Scripture of the Council of Laodicea gives a sufficient Testimony to it so far as it concerns the Books of the New Testament and shews wherein it has been corrupted since All which very well agrees with that which I observed from Tertullian that frequent Councils were called in the first Ages and that they had the Canon of Scripture among other things under consideration which we find set down in the last of the Apostles Canons and from thence in the Canons of the Council of Laodicea no Book being omitted but the Revelation of St John which yet had been acknowledged and received as Authentick from the beginning of those who had most reason to know of what Authority it was but none were inserted into the Canon but such Books as were appointed to be constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians It appears then that the Canon of Scripture was finished by St John and that such Books as were not of Divine Authority were rejected by Councils held when there were living Witnesses to certify St John's Approbation of the Canon or at least those who had received it from such Witnesses the Gospels of the other Evangelists were translated into divers Languages in St John's Life time and we must in reason suppose the same of the other Books of Scripture this is certain that they were all very early translated into many Tongues and dispersed into so many Hands in so many Countries that it was impossible they should be either lost or falsifyed espeble cially since the several sects of Christians were never more jealous and watchful over each other in any thing than in this particular the several Interests and Pretensions of all parties being chiefly concerned in it and no Catalogue of Books could have been received exclusively to all others but upon the clearest evidence XII When it once appeared that the Books which had been doubted of belonged to the Canon of Scripture they were afterwards generally acknowledged and constantly received in all Churches every Sect has since used all Arts and Endeavours to reconcile the Scriptures to their own Doctrines few or none presuming to reject the Authority of any of these Books which they would never scruple to do if they suppos'd they could make out any plausible pretence for it Protestants have refused to admit of the Apocryphal Books as inspired but whoever have gone about to reject any part of the Canonical Scriptures have been universally declared against for it whereof no other reason can be given but the Evidence that is for the Authority of the Canonical Books of Scripture which is wanting for the Authority of the Apocryphal Books Papists own the Authority of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and of the fourteenth Chapter of that Epistle which is directly against praying in an unknown Tongue and they acknowledge the Epistle to the Galatians to be genuine tho the second Chapter be so clearly against the pretensions of the Church of Rome These Espistles indeed were never controverted but the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise is not rejected by the Socinians the Divine Nature of Christ and the Merit and Satisfaction of his sufferings are so plainly asserted in it and they dare not deny the Authority of the Gospel and Epistles of St John tho they are so hard put to it to expound them to their own sense that Socinus was forc'd to pretend to I know not what Revelation to help out one of his explications which he would not have done if he could have found out any colour for not admitting the Authority of a Text so directly contrary to his own Tenents that he could not expect that any thing less than a Revelation should procure any credit to his Interpretation And generally the case is the same with other Sects those that differ never so much one from another in the Interpretation of particular Texts yet agree in the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Canon of Scripture itself or can find out no sufficient pretence to disown it CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament IT is to be observ'd that an extrardinary Providence has in a great measure secur'd the Holy Scriptures from those Casualties which are incident to humane Writings For the great Antiquity of many Books of the Scriptures beyond that of any other Books in the World the multitude of Copies which have been taken in all Ages and Nations the difficulty to avoid mistakes in transcribing Books in a Language which has so many of its Letters and of its Words themselves so like one another the defect of the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention as it is generally now acknowledged of the Points the change of the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew for the present Hebrew Character the captivity of the whole Nation of the Jews for seventy years and the mixtures and changes which were during that time brought into their Language in short all the accidents which have ever happened to occasion errors or mistakes in any Book have concurred to cause them in the Old Testament and yet the different Readings are much fewer and make much less alteration in the sense than those of any other Book of the same bigness and of any Note and Antiquity if all the Copies should be carefully examined and every little variation as punctually set down as those of the Scriptures have been But tho from hence it may appear that a peculiar providence has been concerned in the preservation of the Books of the Scriptures yet from humane considerations and arguments we may likewise be assured that nothing prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures has happened by any of these means 1. The defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late Invention of the Points is no prejuduce to the Authority of the Bible as we now have it Tho the Points which crititically determine the exact Reading of the Hebrew Tongue be of a later invention yet that Tongue was never without its Vowels For Aleph Vau and Jod and which some add He and Gnajm before the invention of the Points were used as Vowels as it is evidently proved from Josephus Vid. Walton Prolegom iii. s 49. Origen and St Jerom by the best Criticks in that Language It must indeed be confest that these Vowels could not be so effectual to ascertain the true Reading as the Points have since been but
whatever defect there might be in the Vowels it was supplied by constant use and practice and by some general Rules which they observed in the Reading The Bible being a Book which by Divine Commandment was so often and carefully read both in publick and private the Hebrew Text might be exactly read and the true sense certainly retain'd and known and it is no wonder that by constant use and continual practice and custom from their infancy the Jews could read it with ease and readiness without Points which is no more than is ordinarily done now by men who are skilful in that Language and divers have attain'd to it by their own observation and industry If there were the more difficulty in the Hebrew Tongue before the invention of Points there was the more care and study used about it the Jews having times purposely set apart for the reading of the Law studied it with that diligence and exactness that they knew it as well as they did their own Names or better * Joseph contr Ap. lib. ii Josephus expresses it if that were possible and they used so great accuracy both in their Pronouncing and Writing that there could be no danger that any considerable mistake should be occasioned by any defect in the Vowels before the Points were found out This was a great part of the Jewish Learning as †Considerat considere c. x. S. 8. Bishop Walton observes the true Reading of the Text and they who were most accurate and exact therein were honoured most amongst 'em and had their Schools and their Scholars and Disciples whom they instructed from time to time till at length in regard of their many dispersions and banishments that the true reading might not be lost with the Language they began to affix Points to the Text as well to facilitate the reading as to preserve it the better from any alteration or change But this is an objection which never could have been made but in the Western parts of the world for in the East they commonly write yet without points as the Jews likewise write the Western Languages where they live without points in the Hebrew Character * Walt. Prolegom iii. s 40. Morin-Epist 15. 70. inter Antiquit Eccl. Orient The Samaritans still have no points And †Joseph Scalig. Epist 243. the Children of the Turks Arabians and Persians and generally of all the Mahometans learn to read without them * Voss de Sibyll Orac. Isaac Vossius says the Asiaticks laugh at the Europeans because they cannot read as they do without Vowels †Walt. Prolegom iii. s 50. Schickard confest that he had known Children of seven years of age read the Pentateuch meerly by use * Lud. Capel de Punct Hebr. Antiqu lib. ii c. 27. s 4 5 6. Clenard and Erpenius himself who was so famous for the Arabick and other Eastern Languages both of them declared that they learned the Arabick only by their own study and diligence from Books without points and Arpenius had attained to such accuracy in that Language before he had read any Book with the points that Isaac Casaubon so far approved of the Translation which he had then made of the Arabick Nubian Geography into Latin that he was very earnest with him to publish it Ludovicus Capellus besides gives an instance from his own knowledge of one who when he had scarce been taught the Arabick Alphabet made a great progress in that Tongue in four months only by his own industry and without the help of points All these things considered it would be a strange Paradox to pretend that there is no certainty in the Ancient Eastern way of writing and that no body can certainly know what their Authors meant nay that they did not know one anothers meaning as well as we do now in our manner of writing before some certain time when the points are supposed to be first found out II. The change of the Old Hebrew Character into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text. Because this was but the writing over that which was before in one Alphabet into another the Language being still the same and this if it were done with sufficient care as we have all the reason in the world to believe it was could make no material mistakes and we find it hath not by the agreement between the Hebrew and the Samaritan Pentateuch still extant III. The Keri and the Kelib or the difference in some places between the Text and the Marginal Reading is no prejudice to the Authority of the Scripture For as the various Lections of the Bible are much fewer considering the Antiquity of it and the vast numbers of Copies which have been transcribed in all Ages and Countreys than those of any other Book so many of them may be easily reconciled and the occasion of them as easily discovered Some of them were occasioned by the likeness of several of the Hebrew Letters which were not easily to be distinguisht in Books written in such small Characters * Hieron Proaem in Ezech. Comment lib. 8. as St Jerome complains were used in writing the Hebrew Bibles of his time Others happen'd from Abbreviations and some might proceed from Marginal Glosses It must likewise be observ'd that all the words we meet with in the Margin of the Hebrew Bibles are not to be look'd upon as various Lections for divers of them were placed there by the Jews out of superstition because they scrupled to pronounce certain words and therefore appointed others to be read in their stead But when the Jews were dispersed into divers Countreys their Dialect or manner of Pronunciation must needs be different and as the same words were pronounced differently so they would in time be differently written which gave one chief occasion to the various Lections in the old Testament for from the emulation between the Schools of the Jews at Babylon and those at Jerusalem there arose a set of various Lections under the Title of of the Eastern and the Western Readings but it is acknowledged that they †Vid. Walt. Proleg 8. S. 28. are of no moment and that as to the sense it is much at one which reading is admitted for they concern matters of Orthography rather then of Orthodoxy as Buxtorf speaks and the Jews of Palestine and of Europe who follow the Western Readings yet do not altogether reject the Eastern but in some editions have printed them both * Id. Proleg iv s 9. The different readings of Ben Ascher and Ben Naphtali had the same original the Eastern Jews following the one and the Western observing the other but these concern the Points and Accents only and not either the Words or Letters There is no Antient Book in the World of which we can be certain that we rightly understand it if it be necessary to the right understanding of a Book that it be without various Lections
for what Book is there without 'em or what Book of the same bigness and of any Antiquity has so few various Lections as the Bible and what Book can be Transcribed or Printed but it is liable to have mistakes made in it IV. No difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the several Versions themselves is any prejudice to the Authority of the Scriptures nor can prove that the Hebrew Text was ever different in any thing material from what it is now The Translation of the Septuagint * Id. Prolegom ix s â—2 x. s 8. as it hath been observed from St. Jerom and others is in many places rather a Comment or Paraphrase than a strict Version and gives the sense rather than the words of the Hebrew Texts Many times there is supposed to be a difference where there is none for want of a sufficient knowledge of the Original as †Pocock Append. ad Porâ— Mos c. 1 2 3 4. Pears Praef. ad Septuag Edit Cantab Is Voss de lxx Interpret Walt Proleg ix 46. Dr Pocock has shewn in divers Instances and Bp Pearson in others besides what has been written by Isaac Vossius to this purpose and one very skilful in the Oriental Tongues had undertaken to shew the agreement between Hebrew and and the Septuagint throughout and had made a considerable Progress in the work as Bishop Walton informs us Other differences proceed from the mistakes of Transcribers as it must needs happen in Books of which so many Copies have been taken in all Ages and from the rashness of Criticks in making unnecessary alterations or by inserting into the Text such Notes as were at first placed only for explication in the Margin In some things of less consequence the Translators might be mistaken or they might follow a different Copy The Authority of the Text of Scripture is greatly confirmed from the citations of the Greek and Latin Fathers from whence it appears that in the several Ages of the Greek and Latin Churches the Copies which they made use of had no such variations from those we now use as to be of any ill consequence in matters of Religion As to the Imputation that was charged upon the Jews by some of the Fathers that they had corrupted the Scriptures in such places as according to the Translation of the Septuagint and the sense of their Ancestors must prove the Truth of the Christian Religion against them this is to be understood of the Versions of Aquila Symmachus and Theodosian who being all either profest Jews or Judaizing Hereticks designed their Translations to countenance their own errors especially Aquila who undertook his Version purposely to oppose that of the Septuagint For it is now generally agreed that the Jews never deserved the Censure of having corrupted the Hebrew Text tho they perverted the sense of it and where there were various Readings chose to follow that which was most favourable to their own pretences tho it were in contradiction to the Judgment of their Forefathers as well as the Christians Philo in a discourse cited * Euseb Praepar Evang. lib. viii c. 6. by Eusebius who thereby owns the Truth of it said that for the space of above two thousand years there had not been a word altered in the Law but that the Jews would chuse to dye never so many deaths rather than they would consent to any thing in prejudice of it And †Contra Apion lib. i. Josephus declares of the whole Old Testament that it had suffered no alteration from the beginning down to his own Time * Antiqu. Eccl. Orient Epist 38. Morinus himself whatever he hath elsewhere said to the contrary declares in a Letter to Dr Comber Dean of Carlisle that he supposes no man can doubt but that the Jewish Copies caeteris paribus are to be preferred before any Copies of the Samaritans which he in his Writings so highly magnifies It must be acknowledged that the numbring of the Verses and Words and Letters and the observing which was the middle Letter of every Book could signify little to the securing of the Hebrew Text entire because there may be the same number of Verses and Words and Letters in different Books and the same Number of Letters may make up different Words and the same Words diversely placed and apply'd may express a very different sense nor could there be any charm in a word that stood in the midst of a Book to keep all the rest in their proper places But this scrupulous and even superstitious diligence of the Jews in little things is an evidence of their constant study of the Scriptures and of the great value and reverence they had for it so that they would neither corrupt it themselves nor suffer it to be corrupted by others but were careful and zealous to preserve every ever letter and tittle and as I observed before from Josephus they were so well acquainted with it that he thought he could not fully enough express their skill and accuracy but by saying that they knew it better than their own names V. It is evident and confest by the Criticks that neither by these nor by any other means any such difference is to be found in the several Copies of the Bible as to prejudice the fundamental Points of Religion or weaken the Authority of the Scriptures All relating to this controversy has been eagerly debated by contending parties who yet agree in this whatever they differed in besides that the various Lections do not invalidate the authority of the Scriptures nor render them ineffectual to the end and design of a Divine Revelation inasmuch as all the various Lections taken together are no preiudice to the Analogy of Faith nor to any Points necessary to Salvation * Non minus ex ijs quae supra disputata sunt planum est id quod statim libri primi initio monuimus saepius toto opere inculcavimus plerasque omnes quae observari deprehendi in sacris libris possunt varias Lectiones levissimi esse ac pene nullius momenti ut parum admodum intersit aut vero perinde omnino sit utram sequaris sive hanc sive illam Ludovic Cappel Crit. Sacr. lib. 6. c. 2. Ludovicus Cappellus who had studied this subject as much as any man and was as well able to judge of it after the strictest examination he could make found that the things relating either to Faith or Practice are plainly contained in all Copies whatever difference there is in lesser things as in matters of Chronology which depend upon the alteration or the omission or addition of a Letter or in the Names of Men or of Cities or Countreys But the fundamental Doctrines of Religion are so dispersed throughout the Scriptures that they could receive no damage nor alteration unless the whole Scriptures should have been changed Wherefore not only the most learned Protestants but â€
negligentia presertim tot jam seculis intercedentibus veritatem fuisse corruptam quam ut Propheta erraverit Sicut in hoc ipso nostro opusculo futurum credimus ut describentium incuria quae non incuriose a nobis sunt digesta vitientur Sulpic. Sever Hist Sacr. lib. 1. c. 70. common in all Greek and Latin Authors and to prevent this inconveniency Mr Greaves acquaints us that the Emp erour Vlug Beg Nephew to Tamerlane the Great †Greaves Pyramidogr in his Astronomical Tables the most accurate of any in the East has exprest the numbers of the principal Epocha's first in Words at length and again in Figures and then a third time in particular Tables whose example this excellent Author alledgeth for his own exactness in describing the dimensions of the Pyramids after the same manner supposing it very improbable if any one of these Accounts should happen to be altered that two of them should not agree and that those two which agree shall not express the true number 5. In some places the Alterations which cause the differences in the Chronology of the Septuagint from that of the Hebrew Text are so uniform that they could not be made but by design of some Transcribers or of the Translators themselves For instance in the Lives of the five first Patriarchs and of Enoch the * Vid. Ludovic Capell Chron. Sacr. seventh they add an hundred years before their having children and deduct the same number of years from the time they lived after wards which is conjectured to have been done because they supposed that by years there are to be understood Lunar years or months and so they altered the Chronological account of their Lives For if those be the years meant by the Hebrew account they must have been Fathers of children at 5 6 7 or 8 years of Age. Another conjecture is that it might be supposed that as Mens lives were longer then so the Age at which they were capable of Marriage must not be the same that it is now but must bear proportion to the length of their Lives and therefore they altered the Chronology to make the Patriarchs fathers of children at such an Age as might answer to the Age at which men are capable of having children in these latter times The mention of Cainan the son of Arphaxad both in the Version of the Septuagint and in the Gospel of St Luke tho it be not in in the Hebrew is a matter of greater Difficulty But Bishop * Prolegom ix s 64. c. Walton notwithstanding saw sufficient Reason to conclude however with such caution and candor as became so great a Judgment that the Septuagint followed the Hebrew Copies of those times and the Answers to the Arguments brought to prove the contrary have since been considerably enforced by the Learned †Castigat ad Script Georg. Horn. c. 4. Isaac Vossius There is reason to believe that the Hebrew and the Samaritan Account were the same * Siquidem in Hebraeis Samaritanorum libris ita scriptum reperi Et vixit Mathusala c. Hieron Quaest in Gen. vid. Capell Chron. Sacr. in St Jerom's time and that the difference between them has happened since 6. The Son often reigning with the Father his Reign is sometimes put down as commencing from his Partnership with his Father in the Kingdom and in other places from his Reigning alone after his Fathers decease Thus the difficulties are explained concerning the beginning of the Reigns of Jehoram King of Israel Son of Ahab and Jehoram King of Judah Son of Jehosaphat 2 Kings i. 17. iii. 1. For it is said expressly that Jehosaphat being then King of Judah Jehoram the Son Jehosaphat King of Judah began to Reign 2 Kings viii 16. It is likewise manifest that Jehoash the Son of Jehoahaz King of Israel must reign with his Father 3 years 2 Kings xiii 1 10. This is also applyed in the explication of other Questions by St * Hieron ad vital Jerom. The Reign of Azariah is computed from his taking the Government upon himself at sixteen years of Age in the 27th year of Jeroboam King of Israel for then he is said to begin to reign 2 Kings xv i. whereas his Father Amaziah lived but to the 15th year of Jeroboam's Reign 2. King xiv 17. In the Kingdom of Israel there was a long Interregnum between Jeraboam the second and Zachariah 2 Kings xiv 23. xv 8. Some assign a threefold computation of the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign the first from his laying Siege to Jerusalem the second from his taking it and the beginning of the captivity the third from his entire Monarchy after the conquest of Egypt Others assign two beginings of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign the one from his coming with his Army into Syria during the Life of his Father the other from his Father's death 7. The Terms of Time in Computation are sometimes taken inclusively and at other times exclusively Matt. xvii 1. we read After six days Jesus taketh Peter James and John his Brother and bringeth them up into an high Mountain apart and in like manner Mark ix 2. But this is said Luke ix 28. to come to pass about an eight days after which is very consistent with what the other Evangelists write For St Matthew and St Mark speak exclusively reckoning the six days between the time of our Saviours discourse which they there relate and his Transfiguration but St Luke includes the day in which he had that discourse with his Disciples and the day of his Transfiguration and reckons them with the six intermediate days The Rabbins * Lightf Harm of the N. T. S. ix also observe that the very first day of a year may stand in computation for that year and by this way of reckoning mistakes of years current for years compleat or years compleat for years current in the successions of so many Kings and the Transactions of affairs for so long a time may amount to a considerable number of years For this reason †Thucyd lib. v. c. 20. Thucydides says he computes the years of the Peloponnesian War not by the Magistrates yearly chosen during that time but by so many Summers and Winters These and several other ways by which Disputes in Chronology may be occasioned are a sufficient Argument to us that they do not imply that there were originally Chronological Mistakes in the Books themselves And if they might so many ways arise without any error in the Original Writings if the same difficulties occur upon so very nice and intricate a subject in all Books in the World and it could be by no means necessary that Books of Divine Authority should be either at first so penned as to be liable to no wrong Interpretations or be ever after preserved by Miracle from all corruption it is great rashness to deny the Divine Authority of the Scriptures upon the account of any difficulties in Chronology CHAP.
VII Of the Obscurity of some Places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophesies HEre it must in the first place be remembred that it has been a common and true observation that all Authors are rather perplex'd and obscured than explained by a multitude of Commentators and this is so true of no Book as of the Scriptures for as none has had so many Glosses and Comments put upon it by men of all Ages and Nations so most of them endeavour to find out some new Explication or to serve a Cause and maintain some particular opinions by their Expositions So that it is a wonder that any part of the Scriptures should be clear after Volumes have been written I may truly say upon every Text rather than that difficulties should be found in them But at the same time it must be acknowledged that we find it declared in the Scriptures themselves that there are places of difficulty in them which makes it but so much the more unreasonable that this should be urged as an objection against them For what is acknowledged and profest must be suppos'd to be with a design and for some good reason and the reason and design ought to be inquired into before this be used as an objection St Peter speaking of Christ's coming to Judgment says that St Paul in his Epistles had delivered some things hard to be understood and St Paul himself intimates that there had been mistakes concerning what he had written in this matter 2 Thess ii 1 2 3. St Peter on this occasion says that it so happened not only to St Paul's Epistles but to other Books of the Scriptures thro the ignorance and rashness of unlearned and unstable men 2 Pet. iii. 16. And it happens more especially in those places of Scripture which are concerning things of this nature or contain whatever Prophecies of things to come Therefore I shall I. give an account how it comes to pass that there are things hard to be understood in the Scriptures in general II. I shall in particular consider the obscurity of Prophecies and shall prove the certainty of the Types made use of by the Prophets and shew that there is great force and evidence in the Arguments brought from them III. I shall prove that the obscurity of some places of the Scriptures is no prejudice to the Authority of them nor to the end and design of them I. I shall give an account in general how it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood 1. Some Doctrines which it mightily concerns us to be acquainted withal could not be delivered in so plain a manner but that they must needs have great difficulties in them as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Resurrection and of the Joys of Heaven and of the Torments of Hell There are several things which we are capable of knowing and which are necessary to be known of which yet we cannot have so perfect and absolute a knowledge but that something of them will still remain unknown to us As there is no object more visible or better known to us than the Sun is but to calculate the dimensions and the distance of the Sun from us to know how its light is communicated and suddenly spread over the face of the Earth are things of great difficulty and can never perhaps be fully accounted for In like manner what the Scriptures deliver to us concerning the Nature of God and the state of the World to come must needs have difficulties in it tho we are never so well assured that there is a God and a future state because these are things above our understandings we may perfectly understand that there are such things but can have no full and clear conception of all that may be fit to be delivered to us concerning them Nothing can be made plainer to us than we are capable of knowing it or than the Nature of it and the portion our Faculties bear to it will allow God being incomprehensible whatever is delivered concerning him can never be without all difficulty and whilst we are in this world we can never understand the state of the next so fully as we shall do hereafter And these are difficulties which must be unless the Nature of the things or our own Nature were different from what it is Nevertheless the greatest Mysteries in the Christian Religion so far as they are revealed and so far as they are required to be known by us contain no inexplicable difficulties but if we will needs know more of the Mysteries of Religion than is revealed and more than is required to be known no wonder if we meet with difficulties What is meaut for instance by the Doctrine of the Trinity is capable of being very well understood as the opposers of this Doctrine must own unless they will confess that they oppose they know not what He that says a thing is not true knows what it is which he pretends not to be true if he understands what he says The thing then is known tho there be difficulties in the explication but the explication concerns the manner of existence not the truth of it For that may certainly be and we may certainly know it to be which yet we know not how it should be And the Doctrine itself only is revealed as necessary to be believed not any particular explication of it And if it can be proved that this is the Doctrine of Scripture and it be plain to be understood what is meant by this Doctrine as it is delivered in Scripture this shews the plainness of the Christian Religion in all things necessary to Salvation tho divers things relating to this Doctrine be difficult to be explained because the Doctrine is plainly enough and intelligibly delivered so far as it is required to be understood and believed Several Arts and Sciences which are very difficult and abstruse in the Theory are easy in the Practice and a man may very well unsterstand what the Theorem itself is which is to be proved tho he be altogether uncapable of understanding the proof of it Now what God says is as certain as any demonstration can be and what he has plainly delivered is plain as well as certain and it is never the less certain or plain because we cannot make out the proof of it nor are able to understand how it can be It is sufficient that the Scriptures are plain in this Doctrine so far as we are concerned to know it it is not necessary that the Doctrine itself should be plain in all the controversies which may be raised about it when we know the meaning we must take Gods word for the Truth of it The manner of the distinction of Persons and the Unity of Essence in the Godhead is not required to be believed but the Thing and we know the Thing to be so because God himself has said it tho
we can know nothing of the manner of it We know the Proposition which is to be believed tho we cannot make good the Proof of it in the way of natural Reasoning but only from the Authority of the Revealer which is of it self sufficient and ought to be instead of all other Reasons to us 2. Some parts of the Scriptures were fitted and accommodated to former Ages and were more proper and useful for them than if they had been written in such a manner as to be less obscure and difficult We may well imagin that many parts of the Scriptures must have been more peculiarly adapted to their use and advantage for whom they were immediately designed and the Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times consisted in Parables and Proverbs and obscure Forms of Speech in Prophecies in Subtil and Dark Parables and in the secrets of grave Sentences Eccl. xxxix 1 2 3. And it was foretold of the Messias in particular that he should speak in Parables as a matter of great excellency I will open my mouth in a Parable I will utter dark sayings of old Ps lxxviii 2. Matt. xiii 35. This was in Ancient Times the Language of Courts and the properest way of Address to Kings Nathan the Prophet and the woman of Tekoa came to David with a Parable 2 Sam. xii 1. xiv 4. And Jehoash King of Israel sent a Message of the same nature to Amaziah King of Judah 2 Kings xiv 9. and Cyrus * â—eâ—odot lib. i. c. 141. answers the petition of two Nations at once to him in a short Parable To understand a Proverb and the Interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings was the best description that Solomon himself could give of Wisdom Prov. i. 6. And * Joseph Antiqu. lib. viii c. 2. â— Solomon and Hiram are related by Josephus to have propounded Problems and Riddles or Parables to each other upon condition of a forfeiture to be paid by him who could not explain the Riddle sent him This would be looked upon now as a strange correspondence between Kings but then it was otherwise thought of many of their Epâ—â—â—â—s were preserved as he tells us to his time at Tyre and the Heathen Historians whose Testimonies he produceth thought it deserved their particular observation This custom of propounding Riddles was as old as Sampson's time Judg. xiv 12. and examples of the same nature are to be seen in Herodotus †Vid. Athenae lib. x. c 15. c. and other Authors Whether it be true or false that Homer died of grief because he could not explain the Riddle of the Fishers it shews that Riddles were in great request amongst the Ancient Greeks for otherwise there could have been no ground either for the Truth or Fiction of such a story Plutarch relates it as the true cause of Homer's death and when * Herod Plut. in Vit. Homer Herodotus denies this he owns the Report and by the Verses which he says Homer spoke upon this occasion it appears what opinion Homer had of this sort of Wit Hesiod is by †Quintil. institut lib. v. c. xi Quintilian thought the Author of the Fables which pass under the name of Aesop however this makes it probable that he did write Fables and perhaps there were few men of Learning and note in those times who did not Mythology was in the highest esteem amongst the Ancients and indeed all the Ancient Learning was of this kind The Aegyptians who were in great Reputation for Learning delivered their Notions in Hieroglyphicks as if they had resolved not to be understood And the Philosophers of old Pythagoras Heraclitus c. greatly affected obscurity Socrates himself and Plato and Aristotle purposely concealed their meaning in many cases from vulgar capacities and Thucydides took the same course in â—is History and was obscure out of design as Marcellinus has observed in his life The Books of the Old Testament for the most part seem to have been the most plain and the most easily intelligible of any Writings of ancient times and they could not have been more obvious but they must have been contemptible and useless to those for whom they were immediately designed The precepts and exhortations are always plain and obvious and the obscurity of other things is so far from being an exception to the Books of Scripture that it was necessary according to the Learning and Customs of ancient times The Parables of our Blessed Saviour are explained to us and there can now be no pretence of obscurity in them and in his Discourses with the Jews to whom they were not explained he alluded to those Proverbs and Customs which were best known and most in use among them to whom upon any occasion he spoke that thereby all who had ears to hear and were not by their sins hindred from attending to what they heard might be the more affected with them and the better inclined to give themselves up to his Instructions when they heard him make use of such Allusions as they knew according to the way of teaching amongst them had some excellent hidden meaning which they would be very desirous to become acquainted withal 3. Many places of Scripture which are obscure to us were not obscure in the ages in which they were written 1. Because the obscurity for the most part is rather in the form and manner of Speech than in the notions themselves so that that might be clear at first which is obscure to us who are but little acquainted with the Phrases and Idioms of the Language and the Eloquence of those Times and Countries For the Fashions of Speech vary as much as those of the Garb and Habit and the Eloquence and ways of Expression are as different as the Dialects and Languages of divers Ages and Nations 2. The names of Animals of Flowers and Plants and Minerals are very liable to be mistaken and especially whatever is peculiar to any Country must needs be difficult to be understood by Foreigners who have no such things among them and perhaps want words to express their Nature and can scarce have a true and exact notion of them The precise value of Coins and proportion of Weights and Measures used so long ago and in Countreys so far from ours can hardly now be known and must necessarily admit of great variety of opinions there is much uncertainty about these in all ancient History but the great Antiquity of the Jewish History above others may make us reasonably expect to find many more such difficulties in it and the different Names of the same Persons and of the same Places in the Scriptures is another occasion of obscurity The Names Coins Weights and Measures and Habits of ancient times afford the greatest work for Criticks which were so well known when the Authors who mention them wrote that it had been ridiculous for them to explain them These are difficulties of that Nature that they could not
unless we were likewise acquainted with the particular time and the Names of the Places and Persons described in it It is as much as our Salvation is worth to be informed of a Future Judgment tho' we are not told when it shall be and that Book which sets Rewards and Punishments Heaven and Hell before us is of the greatest Advantage for the Edification and Salvation of Men tho' the several Circumstances and Particularities described are unknown to us 8. Tho' the Arguments from Types are above all apt to be look'd upon as uncertain and to depend rather upon the Conjectures and Fansies of Men than upon any clear Evidence Yet we shall find the contrary if we do but a little consider the Nature of them A Type is a Likeness a Form or Mould as the word signifies and where the Antitype represented by it and prefigured Answers exactly to it there is no more question to be made but that the one belongs to the other than there is reason to doubt when we see an Impression made upon Wax what kind of Seal it was by which it was made Or when we see a good Picture of one we know to enquire who sat for it A Type is much of the same Nature in Actions or Things and Persons as an Allegory is in Words but Allegories are oftentimes so plain that no man can well mistake what is meant by them And thus it is as to Types in many Cases Indeed where there is but one Type or one Resemblance it is not so easily discern'd but where many concur he must be very wilful that does not acknowledge the Agreement When an Author as it often happens describes the Persons of his own Time under feigned Names a Reader who knows nothing of it may perhaps over-look one or two Characters supposing them to be by chance but when he perceives that they all exactly agree to so many several Persons whom he knows he no longer doubts of the Author's Design And when many Types concur in the same Person with a great number of Particularities any two of which perhaps never concurr'd in any one Man before as in the Person of our Saviour these things concurr'd that he was compell'd to carry his Cross as Isaac had carried the Wood that he was lifted up and fastned to it as the Brazen Serpent had been lifted up in the Wilderness that as the Bones of the Paschal Lamb were not broken so not a Bone of him was broken when the Bones of these were who were Crucified with him and that he was Crucified at the very time when the Paschal Lamb was to be Sacrificed when so many different Circumstances concur which have no dependance one upon another nor upon the Will of Him in whom they concur but proceed from the Will and as in this Case from the Malice of others if these things meet by chance it must be a very extraordinary and unaccountable Chance indeed and much such another as that was which some would perswade us made the World it must be such a Chance as never happened before nor will ever happen again But must not these Men rather speak and think by chance who can argue at this Rate Sometimes the Characters are so lively that the Types are as evident as express Words could have made them as when in the Description of the Kingdom of Christ he is stiled David because as he was prefigured by David so he was to descend from him Jer. xxx 9. Ezek. xxxiv 23. xxxvii 24 25. Hos iii. 5. several Descriptions which were Metaphorical in reference to the Persons immediately concern'd in them were litterally fulfilled in our Saviour Thus the Gall and Vinegar the Casting of Lots upon the Garments and the Piercing of the Hands and Feet are Metaphorical Expressions of great Contempt and Cruelty used towards the Persons to whom they were at first applied but in their ultimate End and Design they were true to the very Letter And where there is thus a Two-fold Signification of any place of Scripture the one improper and Metaphorical the other proper and Litteral the Person described in Metaphorical Terms is as clearly a Type of him from whose real Condition and Circumstances the Metaphor is taken as a Metaphor is a Representation of the plain Sense contained under it The Legal Dispensation was all Typical and so the Jews ever understood it to be which made the Apostles dispute with them from the Types of their Law as they surely would never have done if it had not on all sides been agreed that it was a proper way of Argument Their Prophecies were given out in Actions as well as in Words and as the Mind either of God or Man may be exprest as fully by Actions as by the plainest Words so certainly we must acknowledge this to be the Case when Types so evidently denote the Person and so properly belong to him as to declare and bespeak him to be the Man in such a manner that we should conclude that any Person of our own Times must needs be meant by any Author who should thus describe him in a Book the Design whereof was known to be to make such Descriptions It is not indeed every Resemblance which we may conclude from but where many Types concur in the same Person where the concurrence depends wholly upon the Will of his Adversaries or not in the least upon his own Will when these Types were alledged from a Dispensation which was all along held to be Typical in this case they may be urged and as safely relyed upon as any other Argument III. In the last place I am to shew that the obscurity of the Scriptures is not such as to be any prejudice to their Authority nor to the End and Design of them And the Reason of this is implied by St. Peter when he says that there are but some things hard to be understood in the Scriptures and the rest are plain and obvious All things necessary to Salvation are sufficiently clear in the Scripture and tho' there be other things in them which are obscure yet we see that Reasons may be given and perhaps many more and better than I am able to produce why they are and ought to be so God supplies us in Necessaries with a bountiful and open Hand and what is not necessary he surely may discover more sparingly and more obscurely to us It is so in the things of this Life Our Senses seldom or never fail us in things necessary to our Life and Health tho' in other things we find our selves misled by them every Country and Place affords the Necessaries of Life and that which is most rare is always least necessary it may be useful but yet we may very well be without it Now to complain that all places of Scripture are not intelligible by all is as if we should blame Providence for not making all Men Rich and all Countries like the Land of Canaan it is a
first the whole Design and Contrivance and Method and Stile of it not to criticize upon some difficult Parts of it without any regard had to the rest This is the Method used by all who would criticize with Judgment upon any Author And some Passages of Scripture are explained to our hands to be a Key as it were and a Direction to us in the Explication of others Thus whereas in one place it is said that Jesus baptized in another it is said that he baptized not and the former place is expalined to be meant not of Baptism performed by Himself but by his Disciples who baptized in his Name Joh. iii. 22. iv 1 2. III. It is reasonable to observe whether the Objections be not such as do suppose Mistakes which a Man who could write such a Discourse as they are imagined to be found in could not run into For if they be of this Nature this very Consideration is enough to take off the force of the Objection against the Authority of any Book and we must conclude that the Objections are capable of being answered and that the Mistake lies not in the Book it self but in the Readers who without sufficient Skill or Attention pass a rash Judgment upon it For by all the Rules of Reasoning an Objection may imply too much as well as prove too little to be of any force And the common Rules of Candor and Equity would prevent many Objections which are wont to be made against the Scriptures For if we will but suppose the writers of the Scriptures to have been Men of any tolerable Sense even without Inspiration they could never have committed such mistakes as some would fasten upon them We read Exod. xxxiii 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a Man speaketh unto his Friend yet Vers 20. the Lord answers Moses who had besought God to shew him his Glory Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live Would it not be impudent Trifling to pretend any Contradiction in these two Verses when they are easily understood in a consistent Sense and no Man of any Judgment can be supposed to write Contradictions and lay them so near together When it is said Act. ix 7. that the Men who journeyed with St. Paul heard a Voice but saw no man and Act. xxii 9. that they heard not the Voice of him that spake to St. Paul besides the Explications which are known and obvious to reconcile these Texts those who who will not be at the Pains to consult Expositors or to consider the Importance of the Words may be pleased to observe that St. Luke was a Man bred to Learning and this History of the Acts of the Apostles shews him to have been at least a prudent and wise Man and therefore he could never have written so palpable a Contradiction as the Objection must suppose in so small a Compass concerning one of the most remarkable Things in his whole History relating to a Person with whom he constantly travelled and convers'd I appeal to any Man whether if he had met with two such Passages which seem to contradict each other in Thucidides or Xenophon or even in the very worst Historian he would not be enclined rather to seek out for some way of reconciling them than to suspect that he could so soon forget what he had written so little a while before in an Account of a Thing of that Nature Of the same kind is that Difference which is between the Genealogy of Christ in St. Matthew and that in St. Luke For there is no doubt but the Genealogies of the Jews were then and long after extant in the Publick Registers (x) Ab exordio Adam usque ad extremum Zorobabel omnium generationes ita memoriter velociterque precur runt ut eos suum putes referre nomen Hieron in Tit. iii. 9. they could repeat them by heart with as much readiness as they could their own Names and to insert a wrong Genealogy had been to give up all the Arguments that could be alledg'd for our Saviour's being the Christ Nothing could be more destructive to their Cause than for the Evangelists to produce a false Pedigree when the True one might be so easily produced by any who had a mind to disprove them The Merits of their Cause wholly depended upon the Proof of Christ's Descent from Abraham and David and therefore whatever Difficulties there may now be thought to be in this Twofold Genealogy it was certainly acknowledged by those of that Age and beyond all Dispute or else it would never have been produced by the Evangelists or had for ever ruined their Cause if they had produced it Some Crimes are too great to charge upon Men of any Credit or Reputation and some Errors are so notorious that no Man of common Prudence can be supposed to commit them And therefore when we find an Author rational and consistent in other parts of a Discourse the ordinary Ingenuity and Condor of Mankind will hinder us from supposing him to commit gross and palpable mistakes and it is great disingenuity and folly to shew the less Respect to any Author because he is at least believed to have written by Inspiration or to deny him the Respect due to a Man because God has enabled him to write Infallible Truth IV. If any Contradictions be framed or forced from the various Readings the difficulties in Chronology or whatever elsé of this Nature is to be found in the Disputes of Criticks they prove no more against the Authority of the Scriptures than they do against the Authority of all other Books in the World unless it could be shewn that these Difficulties could not happen in a Book written by Divine Inspiration but that it must be first written in such a manner as to afford no occasion for Disputes and that it must be ever after so preserved by a constant Miracle that it may be subject to none of the Accidents and Casualties to which all other Books are liable On the contrary it can never be proved that God might not permit Books written by Inspiration to be obnoxious to any such Casualties as are not prejudicial to the End and Design of a Revelation But if the necessary points of Doctrine be preserved entire and the Evidence of Matters of Fact be sufficient to prove the Truth of the Miracles and Prophecies in Confirmation of that Doctrine all lesser Matters may be lest to the same contingencies which befall all other Books in the World That the Evidence is very clear and full in Proof both of the Prophecies and Miracles which demonstrate to us the Divine Authority of the Scriptures has been already shewn and if no more could be produced than has by me been brought to prove their Authority yet unless this can be proved to be insufficient from some mistakes or defects in it no such Objections can invalidate it Because no Man can prove that God
astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him And in divers other places of the Old Testament Charity towards Enemies is highly recommended and earnestly inculcated Job xxxi 29. Prov. xx 22. xxiv 29. Malach. ii 10. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self we read Lev. xix 18. but thou shalt hate thine Enemy is no where to be found in the Old Testament and therefore Matt. v. 43. it is to be taken as a false gloss of the Interpreters of the Law which our Saviour rejects unless it be to be meant as Grotius understands it of that enmity which the Jews were to shew in all acts of Hostility towards the seven Nations of Canaan and the Amalekites Exod. xvii 16. xxxiv 11. Deut. vii 1. xxv 19. yet these very Nations were not utterly excluded from becoming Proselites and to me it seems very remarkable that tho' the Children of Israel had receiv'd such hard and cruel usage in Aegypt which is so often mention'd in the Law of Moses they were nevertheless by the same Law commanded not to abhor an Aegyptian but to admit the Children of Aegyptian Parents into the Congregation of the Lord in the third Generation Thou shalt not abhor an Aegyptian because thou wast a Stranger in his Land Deut. xxiii 7. Thou shalt not abhor him that is thou shalt not revenge upon him the injuries done thee but shalt relieve him in time of distress which (q) Lightf Hebr. Talmud Exercit. on Matt. vi 2. Charity the Jews ever held themselves oblig'd to extend to the Gentiles and there is reason to suspect that they have been wrong'd in the reports of their uncharitableness to all of other Nations but any thing is easily believ'd of a hated and despised People And I am not to vindicate their Practice but their Law (r) Philo Jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judoeus has an excellent Treatise in which he discourseth at large upon this Subject and shews to how great Humanity and Charity the Jews were oblig'd by the Law of Moses CHAP. XIX Of the Texts of the Old Testament cited in the New THO' the Apostles having prov'd their Divine Commission by so many and so undeniable Miracles had an infallible Authority to interpret and apply the Texts of the Old Testament in confirmation of the Gospel yet it is not to be doubted but that the Citations which seem to have most difficulty in them are such as that the Jews of that time against whom they were urged could not but acknowledge that the Apostles gave the true Exposition of them tho' they deny'd that they were truly apply'd to our Saviour and his Gospel For unless the Apostles had either made out their Citations from the Old Testament by Maximes and Principles then known and receiv'd among the Jews or had alledg'd them in such a sense as was then generally acknowledg'd it had been to no purpose to alledge them at all against them It is known likewise and observable upon this occasion that after the Captivity in Babylon tho' the Bible was read in the Synagogues in the Original Hebrew yet it was also Interpreted into the vulgar Language and the Interpreter did not always Translate the Text verbatim but often gave the sense of it in different words and with some latitude to render it the more intelligible This way of Interpretation was at length improv'd into a Chaldee Paraphrase containing with the Text a short explication of it according to the sense of the most Learned among the Jews tho' there must be supposed to have been many Notions current among them which would not be brought within the compass of that Exposition The Writers therefore of the New Testament might sometimes give such an Interpretation of the Texts of the Old Testament as was as well or better known among them for whom they wrote than the Greek or Hebrew Text was or they might take upon themselves the liberty of Interpreters the better to explain the Texts alledged and enforce their Arguments Thus for instance St. Stephen Acts vii would never have produc'd any thing out of the Old Testament before the Sanhedrim nor would St. Luke have Recorded it soon after if it had been capable of any disproof or confutation whatever difficulties at this distance of time there may appear to us to be in it And so in all other Cases we may depend upon it that the Apostles and other Disciples who had such demonstrative Evidence for the conviction of Unbelievers by a constant power of Miracles would never make use of any Arguments to the Jews from the Old Testament but such as they well knew their Adversaries could never be able to disprove or deny For there were then certain Methods of Interpretation as we learn from (s) Joseph Bell. Jadaic lib. iii. c. 14. Josephus which are now lost and they disputed from acknowledg'd Maxims and Rules the only difference and matter of dispute was in the application of them to their particular case however our ignorance of things then generally known may now make it difficult to reconcile some Texts of the New Testament with those of the Old from whence they were cited F. Simon (t) Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. Part I. C. xxi in his Critical History has a remarkable Passage upon this Subject The Book says he where the most of that sort of Citations are found is the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews where we find nothing else but passages of the Old Testament explain'd in a manner that is altogether Allegorical and foreign to the Letter which has also given an occasion to some Writers to suspect that St. Paul was not the Author But it seems on the contrary that if we reflect upon the Pharisees Method in their expounding Scripture it cannot be attributed to any other than to that holy Apostle who having studied in Jerusalem under the Doctor Gamaliel did penetrate into all the most refined points of their secret and mystical Interpretations of the Bible And indeed after I had recommended the reading of this Epistle to a Jew who was well read in his own ancient Authors he having perused it freely declar'd that it must needs have been written by some great (u) A Man of Tradition Mekubal of his own Nation And he was so far from telling me that St. Paul had wrested the true sense of Scripture with his Allegories at pleasure that he extolled his profound Skill in the sublime sense of the Bible and always return'd to his great Mekubal of whom he never spake but with admiration Hoc in omnibus scripturis sanctis observandum est Apostolos Apostolicos viros in ponendis Testimoniis de veteri Testamento non verba considerare sed sensum nec eadem Sermonum culcare vestigia dummodò à senteniis non
Evangelists wrote his Life with the same Humility with which he lived And it is observable that when St. John says that there were so many other things which Jesus did he speaks with relation to the things done by him after his Resurrection having just before given an account of what our Saviour had said to St. Peter And so in the foregoing Chapter when St. John has declared how our Saviour certified St. Thomas of the Truth of his Resurrection he adds and many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Joh. xx 30 31. So that we are acquainted with no more than was necessary of what pass'd between our Saviour and his Disciples after his Resurrection the rest concerns us not to know it was for their Instruction and encouragement in their Duty and they were empower'd to teach and instruct us We know that beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Luke xxiv 27. but we are no where told what were the Particulars of his Exposition only we are sure that the Apostles in their Explications of the Old Testament followed the Interpretations which he had given We read that he was seen of them forty days and spoke of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God from whence we may conclude that the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ was chiefly spent in comforting and instructing them and in expounding to them the Scriptures concerning his Passion and Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension St. Paul mentions that he was seen by above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part were then still alive to testifie the Truth of what he said 1 Cor. xv 6. tho' this Particular however remarkable is omitted by the Evangelists for they relate things just as they saw it needful upon every Occasion and since they said enough to convince Men they were not careful to say all that might be said they were ready to die in Testimony of what they delivered and daily wrought Miracles to confirm it and therefore were not sollicitous to lay together all the Particulars or to put them into any exact Order and Method they declared what they knew and their Miracles proved it and they depended not upon such Niceties as Humane Proofs have need of We may reasonably conclude then notwithstanding the silence of the Sacred Writers that when Christ had once fully manifested himself to his Disciples and satisfied them in his Resurrection the rest of the time till his Ascension was most of it spent with them in Divine Discourses for their Instruction and Comfort such as those are which we read in the Evangelists one of whom declares that a full account of all that pass'd between him and his Disciples was more than could well be express'd That happy time was employ'd in pure and Spiritual Joys and Contemplations in forming and preparing them for the Reception of the Holy Ghost As soon as Mary Magdalen knew our Lord after his Resurrection she fell at his feet to Worship him and would touch his Sacred Body Matt. xxviii 9. Joh. xx 17. For this Reason perhaps too as well as out of Devotion to him that she might be able to give the Apostles the better account of his being risen again But he forbad her saying touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father and then sends her to his Disciples to his Brethren as he with infinite Love and Condescension styles them He was not yet ascended or was not then about to ascend but to stay many days upon Earth and there would be time enough for her nearer approaches to him either for the encrease and confirmation of her Faith or for her Acknowledgment and Adoration After his Resurrection Christ made himself known to his Disciples by degrees and by several Appearances to them at distant times in divers Places and in different manners he suffered them to doubt of that great Article of our Faith for a while that he might overcome their Unbelief and extort a Conviction from them by such means as that no Man unless he would be very unreasonable and obstinate should pretend any Cause to doubt of it afterwards But when he had thoroughly convinc'd them of his Resurrection we may conclude from what we read of his Conversing with them that from that time he admitted them to a freer and more intimate Communication with himself and Discoursed with them in the most mild and gracious and instructive manner of all which it concerned them to know pertaining to his Kingdom or which they were capable then of knowing before the descent of the Holy Ghost sometimes perhaps vouchsafing his Presence to one and sometimes to others of them and most commonly to them altogether when they were assembled as we find they generally were And when he withdrew himself it was because their Mortal State would not bear a constant and uninterrupted Attendance for so long a time upon their Blessed Master and because it was requisite that they by degrees should be accustomed to endure his Absence and to walk by Faith not by Sight and after his Ascension the Holy Ghost the Comforter did not immediately come upon his Departure from them but their Faith was to be exercised in the expectation of him for the space of Ten Days and then his Promise was to be fulfilled in the fittest and most proper Season on the Feast of Pentecost In few words Christ was seen of them says the Scripture forty Days which implies that these for the most part were spent in his Presence and we are in the same place told how this time was employ'd in speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God II. We may observe the manner how our Saviour left his Disciples when he ascended up from them into Heaven He had before prepared them to expect his Ascension for besides what he had said to them before his death immediately upon his Resurrection he sent this Message to his Disciples by Mary Magdalen Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. xx 17. They were in hopes it seems that he would at this time have restored again the Kingdom to Israel and did not think he would have left them before that which they so much desired had been accomplished However taking his Leave of them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which says he ye have heard of me And whilst he was giving them repeated Assurances that this Promise should be most effectually fulfilled while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received
well assured of that in which they agree that is of the Truth of Religion in General and of the Christian Religion in Particular as to the Fundamental Points of it The Differences among Christians may serve to prove to us Divine Authority of our Religion and of the Scriptures which contain it since Christians agree in asserting their Divine Authority and have never been so much at unity among themselves as to be able to agree to corrupt them but have certainly delivered them down entire to us 2. It is not Religion only which Men Dispute about but there is nothing besides in which they have not disagreed It is observed that want of Experience and Knowledge of the World leads Men into more inconveniencies than want of Parts and Abilities And it is as certain that a thorough Knowledge of the Debates and Contentions in Philosophy would sooner cure most Men of their Infidelity than any Arguments could do Those who raise Objections against Religion if they would but consider that almost every thing else has as great Difficulties would be ashamed to reject Religion upon Pretences which if they hold must force them to reject all other things with it and to believe just nothing at all There have been Disputes in all Ages concerning Light and Motion the Wind and Seas and other Wonders of Nature but it would be absurd for this Reason to question whether there be any such thing as Light and Motion and whatever besides Men have disputed And yet it is more absurd if it be possible to allow that is a good Argument against Religion but against nothing else If the Sun yield his Light and Nature go on in her constant Course tho' Men differ never so much in their Philosophy about it what can Religion be the worse for their Disputes no body thinks that he sees ever the less for any Difficulties which have been urged concernning Vision and why should we be ever the less inclined to believe the Truth of Religion by reason of any Controversies in it Men may dispute any thing and there is hardly any thing but it has been disputed but nothing is the less credible for being disputed unless it can be disproved but is rather confirmed and advanced by it Truth is nevertheless Truth for meeting with opposition but is the more tried and the more approved as Strength and Courage is by the sharpest Conflicts Since then there will be Vices as long as there are Men in this World and Differences and Dissentions in Religion as long as there are Vices since they cannot be hindered but by the Omnipotent Power of God and there are great Reasons why he should not interpose to prevent them since Differences in Religion are so far from implying any uncertainty in Religion that they rather prove a Confirmation of it and are in divers respects made useful and expedient to the Edification of Christians it must be great inconsideration and weakness to produce them as an Objection against Religion There must be Heresies and the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to Seducing Spirits and Doctrins of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisy having their Conscience seared with an hot Iron 1 Tim. iv 12. The Scripture could not be true unless these things should happen which are foretold in several Places of Scripture Behold says our Saviour I have told you before Matt. xxiv 25. it ought to be no new nor surprising thing to Christians to see Heresies arise tho' they be never so wicked and abominable because we are forewarned to expect them and they serve to give a kind of Testimony to the True Religion in fulfilling the Predictions of it They help to prove the Religion which they would destroy For if there had been no Heresies that Religion could not be True which has foretold them but since there are Heresies our Religion is at least so far true as to contain express Prophecies concerning them which we see daily fulfilled and as they evidently prove our Religion true in this particular so they invalidate it in no other Which is the (b) Just Mart. Dial. Answer that the Christians anciently returned to the Enemies of Religion when they made this Objection against it Let us follow the plain the known and and confessed Duties of Religion Humility Temperance Righteousness and Charity and when once we have no Temptations to wish Religion untrue upon the account of the plain Precepts and Directions of it we shall never suspect it to be so by reason of any Controversies in it For if Men will impartially consider things that Religion which has now For so many Ages stood out all the Assaults and Attempts with Enemies from without and Parties within could make against it and has approved it much better and more gloriously than it could have done if there never had been either Heresies or Schisms Let us therefore hold fast the Profession of our Faith without Wavering being assured that the Gates of Hell that is all the Power and Stratagems of Satan shall never be able to prevail against the Church of Christ but shall only serve to add to its Victories and adorn its Triumphs The Malice O Lord and fierceness of Man shall turn to thy Praise And the fierceness of them shalt thou refrain Ps Lxxvi 10. CHAP. XXXIII Though all Objections could not be answerred yet this would be no just Cause to reject the Authority of the Scriptures ALL Objections which can with any Colour or Pretence be alleged have been considered and answered by divers Men of Great Learning and Judgment and several Objections which have made most noise in the World as that about the Capacity of the Ark and others have been Demonstrated to be groundless and frivolous But tho' all Difficulties could not be accounted for yet this would be no just or sufficient cause why we should reject the Scriptures because Objections for the most part are impertinent to the Purpose for which they were designed and do not at all effect the Evidence which is brought in proof of the Scriptures and if they were pertinent yet unless they could confute that Evidence they ought not to determine us against them He that with an honest and sincere Desire to find out the Truth or Falshood of a Revelation enquires into it should first consider impartially what can be alleged for it and afterwards consider the Objections raised against it that so he may compare the Arguments in proof of it and the Objections together and determine himself on that side which appears to have most Reason for it But to insist upon particular Objections collected out of Difficult Places of Scripture tho' they would likewise observe the Answers that have been given which few of our Objectors have patience to do but run away with the Objection without staying for an Answer I say to allege particular Objections without attending to the main Grounds and Motives
which induce a belief of the Truth of the Scriptures is a very deceitful way of Arguing Because it is not in the least improbable that there may be a true Revelation which may have great Difficulties in it But if sufficient Evidence be produced to convince us that the Scriptures are indeed God's Word and there be no proof on the contrary to invalidate that Evidence then all the Objections besides that can be raised are but Objections and no more For if those Arguments by which our Religion appears to be True remain still in their full Force notwithstanding the Objections and no positive and direct Proof be brought that they are insufficient we ought not to reject those Arguments and the Conclusions deduced from them upon the Account of the Objections but to reject the Objections for the sake of those Arguments because if those cannot be disproved all the which can be thought of must proceed from some Mistake For when I am once assured of the Truth of a thing by direct and positive Proof I have the same assurance that all Objections against it must be vain and false which I have that that thing is true because every thing must be false which is opposite to Truth and nothing but that which takes off the Arguments by which any thing is proved to be True can ever prove it false But all Objections must be false themselves or insignificant to the Purpose for which they are alleged if the Evidence for the Truth of that against which they are brought cannot be disproved that is if the Thing against which they are brought be True To shew this in Particulars If a Man muster up never so many Inconsistencies as he thinks in the Scriptures yet unless he be as well assured at least that these which he calls Inconsistencies cannot be in any Book of Divine Revelation as he may be that the Scriptures are of Divine Revelation he cannot in Reason reject their Authority And to be assured of this it must be considered what is inconsistent with the Evidence whereby the Authority of the Scriptures is proved to us For whatever is not inconsistent with this Evidence cannot be inconsistent with their Authority In like manner as if a Man should frame never so many Objections against the Opinion commonly received that Caesar himself wrote the Commentaries which go under his Name and not Julius Celsus or any other Author unless he can overthrow the Evidence by which Caesar appears to be the Author of them all his Objections will never amount to a Proof that he was not the Author It is very possible for God to reveal things which we may not be able to comprehend and to enact Laws especially concerning the Rights and Ceremonies enjoined a People so many Ages past the Reasons whereof we may not be fully to understand and it is very possible likewise that there may be great Difficulties in Chronology and that the Text may in divers places have a different Reading And though all these things have been cleared to the satisfaction of reasonable Men by several Expositors yet let us suppose at present to gratifie these Objectors and this will gratifie them if any thing can do it that the Laws are utterly unaccountable that the Difficulties in Chronology are no way adjusted that the divers Readings are by no means to be reconciled yet what doth all this prove That Moses wrought no Miracles That the Children of Israel and the Aegyptians were not Witnesses to them That what the Prophets foretold did not come to pass That our Saviour never rose from the Dead and that the Holy Ghost did not descend upon the Apostles Or that any thing is contained in the Scriptures repugnant to the Divine Attributes or to the natural Notion of Good and Evil Doth it prove any thing of all this or can it be pretended to prove it If it cannot and nothing is more plain than that it cannot then all the Evidence produced in Proof of the Authority of the Scriptures stands firm notwithstanding all this mighty noise of the Obscurity and the Inconsistency and the Uncertainty of the Text of the Scriptures And the next enquiry naturally will be not how the Scriptures can be from God if these things be to be found in them for it is already proved that they are from God and therefore this must from henceforth be taken for granted till it can be disproved but the only Enquiry will be how these Passages are to be explained or reconciled with other Places For let us consider this way of Reasoning which is made use of to disprove the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures in other things and try whether we are wont to reason thus in any case but that of Religion and whether we should not be ashamed of this way of arguing in any other Case How little is it that we throughly unstand in natural Things and yet how seldom do we doubt of the Truth and Reality of them because we may puzzle and perplex our selves in the Explication of them For instance we discern the Light and feel the Warmth and Heat of the Sun and have the Experience of the constant returns of Day and Night and of the several Seasons of the Year and no Man doubts but that all this is effected by the approach or withdrawing of the Sun's influence But whoever will go about to explain all this and to give a particular Account of it will find it a very hard Task and such Objections have been urged against every Hypothesis in some Point or other as perhaps no Man is able fully to answer But doth any Man doubt whether there be such a thing as Light and Heat as Day and Night though he cannot be satisfied whether the Sun or the Earth move Or do Men doubt whether they can see or not till they can demonstrate how Vision is made And must none be allowed to see but Mathematicians Or do Men refuse to eat till they are satisfied how and after what manner they are nourish'd Yet if we must be swayed by Objections which do not come up to the main Point nor affect the Truth and Reality of Things but only fill our Minds with Scruples and Difficulties about them we must believe nothing which we do not fully comprehend in every part and circumstance of it For whatever we are ignorant of concerning it that may it seems be objected against the thing it self and may be a just Reason why we should doubt of it We must have a care of being too confident that we move before we can give an exact account of the Cause and Laws of Motion which the greatest Philosophers have not been able to do we must not presume to eat till we can tell how Digestion and Nourishment are made In short this would run us into all the Extravagancies of Scepticism For upon these Principles it was that some doubted whether Snow be white or Honey sweet or any
thing else be of the same Colour or Tast which it appears to be of because they could amuse themselves with Difficulties and they were too much Philosophers to assent to any thing that they did not understand tho' it were confirmed by the Sense and Experience of all Mankind They were rational Men and it was below them to believe their Senses unless their Reason were convinced and that was too acute to be convinced as long as any Difficulty that could be started remained unanswered And thus under the pretence of Reason and Philosophy they exposed themselves to the Scorn and Derision of all who had but the common Sense of Men without the Art and Subtilty of imposing upon themselves and others And it is the same thing in effect as to matters of Religion The Scriptures come confirmed down to us by all the ways of confirmation that the Authority of any Revelation at this distance of time could be expected to have if it really were what we believe the Scriptures to be Why then do some Men doubt whether they be Authentick Can they disprove the Arguments which are brought in defence of them Can they produce any other Revelation more Authentick Or is it more reasonable to believe that God should not reveal himself to Mankind than that this Revelation should be his No this is not the case but there are several things to be found in the Scriptures which they think would not be in them if they were of Divine Revelation But a wise Man will never disbelieve a thing for any Objections made against it which do not reach the Point nor touch these Arguments by which it is proved to him It is not inconsistent that that may be most true which may have many Exceptions framed against it but it is absurd to reject that as incredible which comes recommended by our Belief by such Evidence as cannot be disprov'd Till this be done all which can be said besides only shews that there are Difficulties to be met withal in the Scriptures which was never denied by those who most firmly and stedfastly believe them But Difficulties can never alter the Nature of Things and make that which is true to become false There is no Science without its Difficulties and it is not pretended that Theology is without them There are many great and inexplicable Difficulties in the Mathematicks but shall we therefore reject this as a Science of no Value nor Certainty and believe no Demonstration in Euclide to be true unless we could Square the Circle And yet this is every whit as reasonable as it is not to acknowledge the Truth of the Scriptures unless we could explain all the Visions in Ezekiel and the Revelations of St. John We must believe nothing and know nothing if we must disbelieve and reject every thing which is liable to Difficulties We must not believe we have a Soul unless we can give an account of all its Operations nor that we have a Body unless we can tell all the Parts and Motions and the whole Frame and Composition of it We must not believe our Senses till there is nothing relating to Sensation but what we perfectly understand nor that there are any Objects in the World till we know the exact manner how we perceive them and can solve all Objections that may be raised concerning them And if a Man can be incredulous to this degree it cannot be expected that he should believe the Scriptures But till he is come to this height of Folly and Stupidity if he will be consistent with himself and true to those Principles of Reason from which he argues in all other Cases he cannot reject the Authority of the Scriptures upon the account of any Difficulties that he finds in them whilst the Arguments by which they are proved to be of Divine Authority remain unanswered And all the Objections which can be invented against the Scriptures cannot seem near so absurd to a considering Man as to suppose that God should not at all reveal himself to Mankind or that the Heathen Oracles or Mahomet's Alcoran should be of Divine Revelation CHAP. XXXIV The Conclusion containing an Exhortation to a serious Consideration of these things both from the Example of the wisest and most learned Men and from the infinite Importance of the Things themselves AS Wise and as Learned Men as any that ever lived in the World have died in the Belief of the Christian Religion when they had no Interest to engage them to it and many of them have led their Lives under Pesecutions and have at last been put to Death rather than they would renounce that Faith which the Scriptures declare to us It cannot be denied but that there have been Men of as great Learning and as great Numbers of them professing the Christian Religion as have been of all other Religions in the World Indeed all manner of Arts and Sciences have been more improved by Christians than by all other sorts of Men whatsoever and all rational and solid Learning is confined as I may say within Christendom For besides the Idolotrous Worship and other Impieties notorious among them whatsoever Learning is to be found among the Chinese or other Heathen Nations their Notions of Things so far as they differ from what is contained in the Scriptures are so obscure and confused at the best and so groundless that that Christian must be very weary of his Religion who can think of changing it for such Uncertainties And no Man that profess'd and called himself a Christian ever disbelieved the Scriptures but there were visibly other Reasons for it than these which the Nature of the Christian Religion could afford It was apparent in his Life that he wished the Christian Religion were false before he endeavoured to persuade himself that it is not true Some are possess'd with that intolerable Spirit of Pride and Contradiction that meer Vanity and a Conceit of being wiser than others makes them find fault with any thing that is generally received and the greatest Fault which these Man can find with the Christian Religion is that they have been bred up in it and therefore they make heavy Complaints of the prejudices of Education and the hindrances which ingenuous Minds labour under from the influences of it in the pursuit of Truth And these Men perhaps might have talk'd as much and to as much purpose for Christianity as they now talk against it if they had not been Born among Christians and been bred up in the Christian Religion they scorn to be the better for their Education and are ashamed of nothing more than to believe and think like other Men and they might almost be persuaded to be Christians still if they could but be singular in being so For the mere Affectation of Singularity makes them dispise and dispute against any thing which others allow and esteem But it will be hard to find any learned Man of tolerable Modesty and Vertue and
who was not as singular in other things and in his Notions of Religion but he has firmly believed the Divine Authority of the Scriptures It concerns all who have any Doubts about these things to weigh the Objections with the Answers that have been given to them by divers Authors and withal to observe the importance of the Objections and how far they affect the main Cause and still to remember that it is at every Man 's own Peril if he make a rash and partial Judgment If our Faith could be of no Benefit or Advantage to us nor Infidelity any Prejudice we might take the same Liberty to give Credit or no Credit to what we read in the Bible that we use in the Reading all other Books and to receive or reject it as we think fit or to believe only just so much as lies even with our own Understandings and Notions of Things and at the worst this would be but Folly in us But it is madness to reject our own Happiness and make our selves miserable because we do not perceive the Reasons of all the Means and Methods which God has been pleased to use to make us happy or are not able to understand every Word of that Book which contains the Terms of our Salvation This is as if a Son should chuse to live miserably rather than to enjoy a large Estate left him by his Father because he doth not perceive the design and full meaning of every particular in his Will he searches out for all Ways and Arts for cavilling at it and is fond of any pretence to cast it aside as Counterfeit being resolved never to believe it to be his Father's For his Father was a wise Man and if it were his such and such Clauses would not be in it since there is no reason that he can see why they should be inserted several things mentioned in it he believes are mis-timed the Bounds of the Lands are not described by fit Names besides it is interlined and he never will accept of such an Estate conveyed to him by such a Will but chuses rather to be miserable all the Days of his Life This would be such peevishness and perversness as is not to be met withal where our Temporal Interest is concerned But too many are too forward to reject the Tenders and despise the Terms of an everlasting Inheritance in Heaven tho' at the same time they become obnoxious to all the Curses threatned to Unbelievers because the Old and New Testament contain some things which may afford matter of Exception and Cavil to captious Men. God has sent his Prophets to call and admonish us and his Son to reconcile us to himself by his Death and to offer us Eternal Peace and Happiness and he has given us all the Evidence of it that the nature of the things would admit The Jews have asserted the Authority of the Old Testament from the times of Moses and the Prophets and the Christians asserted the Truth of the Gospel when it was impossible for them not to know whether it were true or not without any prospect of Advantage by it in this World but with a certain expectation of all manner of Torments and Deaths and the greatest part of the Known World was converted to the Belief of it and became Christians when in this World Christians were of all Men the most miserable and were supported only by the stedfast hope and expectation of that Happiness which is promised to us in the Scriptures after this Life And all things considered we have as sufficient Grounds for the Authority of the Scriptures as we have not only that any other Book was composed by the Author whose Name it bears but as we have to believe any thing else in the World Now what do these Men How do they receive so great a Blessing Why they overlook all the Evidence that can be brought to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and search up and down for doubtful and obscure Passages to disprove it by not considering in the mean time that nothing can overthrow their Authority but that which can invalidate the Evidence by which it is establish'd It would be the highest Folly and Ingratitude thus to despise God's Mercy and Care over us if there were no danger in it but it being a thing of infinite Danger it is no less than Madness For what milder Term can be found to express the desperate Folly of them who reject a Book which sets before us the means of Salvation but at the same time forewarns us upon pain of the severest effects of God's Displeasure not to neglect them It is madness I say if we rightly consider it to reject such a Book and at once both to affront the Mercy and despise the Threatnings of the infinitely Merciful and the infinitely Great and Powerful God It is a good Caution to the Atheist to forbear his Blasphemies and Contempt of the Divine Majesty for fear it should prove true that there is a God at last and then it will be a dismal thing after all his profane Talking and Arguing to be called before that God whom he has so often denied And it is as good Advice to those who make it their business to find Fault with the Scriptures to consider seriously whether they are sure that these are not God's Word after all that can be said against them and if they be not absolutely certain of this the Name and Title which they bear and which Men as wise and as Judicious as themselves thought to belong to them should methinks keep Men within some bounds of Modesty and Discretion For if they be indeed the Word of God and nothing is capable of being made more evident than how dearly must they pay for a little cavilling Wit and Subtilty The best and most Divine things may be despised and affronted by a bold and Scurrilous Wit but can Men think it a safe or a prudent thing to ridicule and Scoff at those Books which for ought they know may be of Divine Revelation when all the Reason of which they fansie themselves so great Masters can never be able to confute the Arguments brought in Vindication of them Can they value the contemptible Reputation of a little Satyr and Drollery at that mighty Rate as to run the hazard of being damned for it If Men have any real Doubts or Scruples they must needs grant that it is too serious a thing to jest and trifle withal when no less than the Terms of our everlasting Happiness or everlasting Misery is the thing in Controversy And what Wit there may be in it I cannot tell but I am sure it is no sign of a very Wise Man to speak contemptibly of a Book by which he can never prove but that he must be judged at the last Day As a Mad-Man says Solomon who casteth Fire-brands Arrows and Death so is the Man that deceiveth his Neighbour and saith Am not I
in Sport Prov. xxvi 18 19. But what Description or Comparison can be found equal to his Madness who deceiveth and destroyeth himself and that Eternally and yet says Am not I in Sport Is not this the very perfection of Wit and Raillery Wo unto him that Striveth with his Maker Isai xlv 9. Do they provoke me to anger saith the Lord do they not provoke themseves to the Confusion of their own Faces Jer. vii 19. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord and that I have heard all thy Blasphemies Thus with your Mouth ye have boasted against me and have Multiplied your Words against me I have heard them Ezek. xxxv 12 13. Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he 1 Cor. x. 22. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3. But Beloved remember ye the Words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be Mockers in the last time who should Walk after their own ungodly Lusts Jude 17.18 If all that I have discoursed be insufficient to convince these Men yet let their own Arguments and even their own Blasphemies convince them for the very worst that they can say or do serves to fulfil the Prophecies and confirm the Authority of the Holy Scriptures FINIS ADDENDA The BOOK having been long ago fitted for the Press and out of the Author's Custody he could not insert the following Additions in their proper places CHAP. IV. p. 112. l. 3. after St. Mark and St. Luke add If either in the Epistle of St. Barnabas or St. Clement it be supposed that the Reasoning is not always just but is sometimes too Allegorical and sometimes founded upon Mistakes in Natural Philosophy yet it is certainly agreeable to the ways of Reasoning and the Philosophy of that Age so that nothing of this kind could then be any hindrance or prejudice to the Reception of these Epistles CHAP. X. p. 222. l. ult after Principles add And besides other Uses which may be found out hereafter one very considerable has been already made of the Satellites for the benefit of the World in rectifying Geography and determining the Longitude of Places Philos Burgund Tom. 5. c. 8. Disseâ—t 3 M. Cassini has drawn up Tables for this Purpose and Written a Treatise on the Subject And the Le Compte's Memoire p. 15. and 505. Missionaries by their Observations have discovered that the Empire of China is Five Hundred Leagues nearer Europe than Geographers have placed it CHAP. XI p. 226. l. 27. * after Opinion add The same Words which Joshua used is Translated to wait upon and wait for Ps LXII 1. LXV 1. So that all which can be Concluded from the Word is that the Sun attended he lengthned the Day and waited for the Victory or waited upon the Army of Israel CHAP. XIII p. 256. l. 24. after Christ's sake add A State of Damnation is a State of Death and the Soul which lies under the Divine Wrath is in that State tho' it be not irreversible during this Life So that the Death Threatned being Twofold viz. of the Soul and of the Body it was accordingly inflicted on both But it was not Threatned that this Death should be to the final Destruction either of Soul or Body but thro' the Redemption of Christ the Body might be recovered from the Death to which it became Subject to a Blessed and Glorious Resurrection and the Soul be restored from the Death into which it had faln to a State of Reconciliation and Favour with God CHAP. XV p. 325. l. 15. after in the New add Of the Assistance of Divine Grace we are Taught Deutr. XXX 6. Psalm XXV 4. XXVII 11. LI. 10 11 12. LXXXVI 11. CXIX 12 26 33 64 66 68. 108. 124. 135. CXLIII 10. Prov. 1.23 Isa XLIV 3. LIX 21 Jer. XXXI 8. XXXII 40. Ezek. XI 19. XXXVI 26 27. CHAP. XVI p. 338. l. 10. after Religion add The Soveraignty was in due time to be placed in the Tribe of Judah which was fulfilled in David's being advanced to the Kingdom and from that time the Scepter and the Lawgiver c. CHAP. XXII p. 391. l. 5. after expected add The Duration of the World is considered in the Scriptures with relation to Christ's coming and all the Time after his coming is stiled the last Days as in the Description of the Different States of Job's Life the space of an Hundred and Forty Years of it after his Sufferings is Stiled the latter end of his Life and all the precedent part is Termed the Beginning of it Job XLII 12 16. CHAP. XXVIII p. 486. l. after Prophet Jonas add Dr. Lightfoot in his Remains lately published has observed as the Reason why the Jews were so importunate for a Sign notwithstanding the many Miracles which our Saviour Wrought before them That their Traditions Taught them to expect these two Signs of the Messias when he came viz. that he should raise the Old Prophets and other Holy and famous Men from the Dead and that he should bring down Manna for them from Heaven In their Old Writings and Records he says they speak much of these Two things of their Expectation I am inclined to believe that these Traditions if they had been rightly understood were not so blind and foolish as that Learned Author Stiles them but had respect to the very Time and Occasion to which our Saviour refers the Jews when they required these Signs of him For at his Resurrection many Bodies of Saints which Slept arose Matt. xxvii 52. And speaking to them of the Manna or Bread which came down from Heaven he puts them in Mind of his Ascension What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before Joh. vi 62. Whereby he intimates that then would be the time of sending this Manna when upon his Ascension he would bestow the Gifts of the Holy Ghost The time was not yet come for these Miracles to be wrought they were not to be wrought at their Demand it was sufficient that they had Intimations given to expect them and in the mean time they ought to have been contented with others CHAP. XXX p. 519. l. 12. after he pleased add But it seems most of all strange that the excellent Emperour M. Antoninus who had so much of the Christian Morality both in the Speculation and in the Practice of it should not also be of the Christian Faich especially if he owned that a signal Miracle was by the Prayers of the Christians obtained for the deliverance of himself and his whole Army Apol. c. 5. ad Scap. c. 4. as Tertullian who could not be Ignorant of the Truth of it Declares But it should be considered that M. Anteninus was very superstitious in all the Heathen Worship and was so much addicted to the Philostr Vit. Sophist in Herod Hermag Aristid Adrian Sophists of his