broke forth like the Sun in his strength has over-spred the whole Horizon of the Christian Church And where ever the Gospel is owned these Books are received with that Veneration that becomes due to such Sacred Writings The Church of England Judges the doubts that have been at any time made about any parts of the New Testament not worthy of our Notice And therefore in the sixth Article it is thus expressed In the Name of the holy Scriptures we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church That is no considerable doubt no general doubt in the Whole Church Nor indeed any such doubt as ought to disturb either the Churches determination or any particular mans judgment about this matter For it cannot be shewed that any One intire Church or that any National or Provincial Council or indeed that any Considerable part of the Christian World in any Publick Confessions Catechisms or otherwise have rejected any of those Books we now reckon within the Canon The most Considerable Doubt that we find made about any one of them was about the Epistle to the Hebrews which for some time was doubted of in the Roman Church And yet Eusebius says onely It was doubted of a quibusdam in Ecclesia Romana by some in the Roman Church and 't is certain much of that doubt was whether St. Paul were the Authour of it or no But to conclude an Answer to this Question let these two things be Considered First under the Old Testament so soon as all the Parts of it were finished the Canon of That was exactly settled by men of an infallible Spirit in the times of Esdras and those last Prophets contemporary with him and so no further Doubt was or could reasonably be made about that Secondly under the New Testament it pleased God so to order it that he that closed up the whole Bible and wrote the Conclusion of it so far out-lived all the other Pen-men that he himself might very well see the Whole conjoyned and deliver it over to the Church intire as we now have it The Apostle St. John not onely survived Titus and that famous Destruction of the Temple and the Jews in his time but he lived through Domitian's time and Cocceius Nerva's time to the Reign of the Emperour Trajan which was somewhat above a Hundred years after our Saviours Birth and sixty and odd after his Crucifixion so Irenaeus tells us lib. 2. p. 192. And some other of the Apostles it should seem lived long for the same Author says that there were in his time Saniores qui non solum Johannem viderint sed alios Apostolos Elders that had not onely seen S. John but others of the Apostles That the Canon of the New Testament was established and setled by Apostolical Authority seems very probable S. Austin contra Faust Man lib. 11. cap. 5. and in his 19. Epist positively affirms it Distincta est says he à posteriorum libris excellentia Canonica authoritatis veteris Novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus Saint Jerome sayes Johannem omnium longissimè vixisse videre libros omnes confirmare pâ—sset si qui fictitij liberi ederentur eos à sâ—cris verè Canonicis distinguere That the Apostle John out-lived all the rest of the Apostles that he might perâ—se and confirm all the Parts of the New Testament and distinguish them from all counterfeit Writings if any such came abroad And he further adds That some Spurious Writings concerning the actions of S. Paul were brought to him and that he by his Apostolical Authirity condemned them Tertullian de Prescript says expresly The Canon of the Bible is founded upon Apostolical Authority And Eusebius gives this plain testimony to it Narrant veteres Johannem Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum rogatu Germanum Scripturae Canonem constituisse The antients tell us says he that St. John upon the request of the Asiatick Churches settled the true Canon of Scripture 'T is certain that S. John before his death made his abode much at Sardis and Ephesus and amongst those Asiatick Churches For after the death of Domitian he was restored from his Banishment by the Emperour Nerva and returned from Patmos into Asia and there governed the Churches until his death And 't is extreamly probable that upon their desire he then fully settled the Canon of the New Testament for that there was then occasion for the doing of it we sind by Enseâ—ius his History of those times And it is evident from S. John himself that the Church of Ephesus had been attempted by false Apostles in those days and whatever Doubts of that kind were then extant we cannot otherwise suppose but that they would be proposed to him and End in his Apostolical determination So that if we lay all these things together St. Johns living so long after all â—he Parts of the New Testament but the Revelation were Written And his surviving some very considerable time after the Writing of that for it is most probable that he received those Visions and wrote them in the end of the Reign of Domitian his closing the whole with that Book after which he declares as many think by pronouncing a Curse to him that should add to it or diminish from it that there was to be no further Revelation expected having therein given a full account of the State of the Church to the end of the world Considering the Doubts that were then extant about some Parts amongst such as had not a thorough Information about them and that False apostles did then appear considering of how great a Concern it was then and would be to all future Ages to have the Canon of the whole Bible settled by an Infallible judgment and considering the material Evidence we have from many Primative Writers That indeed it was so All these things considered there seemes very probable Ground to believe that the Apostle John before he left the world did fully Determine this matter and 't is most likely that as the Knowledge of what he had done came to be published abroad the Doubts that were then made dis-appeared And we that live in these latter Ages see that all the Questions and Doubts that have at any time been are perfectly vanished and the whole bopy of the New Testament hath now gained an Universal reception Thirdly How can we that have not the Originals of the Scriptures not the Outographa 's of those that Wrote them but onely the Copies of them and most but the Translations of those Copies rest assured we have Gods Mind as it was first delivered In Answering to this Question it must be acknowledged that the Original Records of every Part of the Bible did at first consist of Perishable matter and have undergone the common Fate of all othâ—r Writings 'T is evident it was not the pleasure of God that the Authority of the Scriptures
all the certain notions we have of another and a farther World and the great account of all invisible things and Secondly because 't is the highest Motive we have to all good living 't is from hence from the authority of this Book that we are chiefly obliged to all that is holy and good and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life nothing can seem more necessary then a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare we may rely upon this Book as that great and only Revelation by which God will inform rule and judge the world I have hereby attempted to make evident not only from its own excellent nature and composure and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanyed its first Publication and lasted till the Church was so far built that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down but also from many other considerations from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result And this task if sufficiently perform'd as 't will give answer to all reasonable doubts and cast a just contempt upon all prophane reproaches so it will also reflect much upon those who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other who by a twofold superfoetation that of endless Traditions and that of new and continued Revelations have rendred the whole Scriptures if not useless Yet as to their great end and design altogether deficient and imperfect My Lord I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible nor any way to secure my self against the just reproach of an ill performance the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You and that Candor and love to Truth you possess 'T is alone that great Honour and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship that Interests Your Name in this matter though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature Yet there is nothing more due from me then an open and publick profession that my self and what ever I do is devoted to Your Service I know my Lord into what hands I commit these Papers when I present them to You that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter and want not a due sense what the success must needs be I know also your remedying kindness and am enough secur'd thereby am in this case upon the same terms of relief that he was that discoursed before Caesar who thus address'd to him Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent humanitatem My Lord as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism So I promise my self some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief as I know no better Property can be convey'd to the World then a Rational Possession of God and his Word So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required To whom I owe all that is due to the most Generous and most lasting Friendship and shall ever be as much as I can be which is but what I ought to be My Lord Your Lordships most true Friend And most Humble Faithful Servant CHARLES WOLSELEY THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE there needs little to be said to prove it The instance were as hard to find as 't is unreasonable in it self to suppose that any man should at the same time reject the Bible as Fictitious and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion which is absurd to suppose of any Religion or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew and renounce the Olâ— Testament nor he a Mahumetan that disclaimâ— the Alchoran Because to deny the Authority of those Books is visibly to rase the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions Although the fact of Christs being in the World and many other things relating to the Christian Religion be attested to by other writings yet the Scriptures are the onely means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation and which alone contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion No considerable attempt has been at any time made to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other systeme of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation lay'd whereon to erect Christianity where the Bible is excluded For whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible by writing or tradition descended down to the World touching the Christian Religion has been either by its Friends or its Enemies For the Latter no mention is made in any Heathen Writer of any Christian Laws nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion farther then what we find in the Bible it self And so amounts to no more then a Cumulative help to its Credibility And 't is evident those of the Heathen who have at any time opposed the Christian Profession and disputed most against it have opposed it as contained there That Book being granted on all hands to comprise its Doctrine and to be the stated rule of that Religion For the former whatever has been by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion and gave their Assent to it conveyed down to us can never induce any other Rule of that Religion then the Bible For besides that all such Collateral traditions are in their own nature relative to the Bible dependant upon it and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it they have also come from the hands
the Whole And 't is as true that his Rule no way destroys the freedom of mans will Nor is the world subjected to any such thing as a Stoical Fate from any necessary connection of causes but all the actions of men proceed from the free choice and determinations of their own breasts Every mans own Will being the true cause of his own doings Thus much may serve to silence and shame all the ignorant doubts and profane denials of providence to assure men there is a God that Rule 's in the earth and to justifie the exercise of a supreme ' Dominion over the world Upon the truth of which the validity of all Divine Laws must necessarily depend Such who in the third place admit the being of God of Providence and Religion but reject the Christian-religion and consequently the Bible as not true and close with some other in opposition to it against those the whole of this discourse will chiefly tend If the Divine Authority of the Bible be sufficiently made good and the Scriptures proved in trueth to be what themselves tell us they are Laws sent us from God by which he will Rule and judge the world two things will result from it first All other Religions but the Christian will thereby appear to be false and fictitious Secondly Such who have embraced the Christian Profession will be abundantly confirmed in the verity thereof freed from all such doubts as may arise about it and be ascertained of the truth of those grounds upon which it is established In the prosecution of this matter when we deal with Antiscriptural men such as pay no homage at all to the Bible nor yield any obedience to its Authority two things are to be avoided and ought not to be insisted on in order to their confutation First 'T is not a reasonable step towards it to say the Scriptures are the Principle upon which our Religion is built and therefore ought to be granted to us Because in every particular Science some Principles must be granted as the Substratum without which it cannot be upheld and by a denial of which the being of it is subverted This unwary demand is the ready way to six every man in his own profession whatever it be and to prevent the most important Discourse of Religion amongst all such who have already embraced any Religion for there is no Religion without some prime Principles upon which 't is erected and by the grant of which it will be established And as we are sure 't will be equally expected so there is no better ground upon which it can be denyed Nor no less reason why we should admit the principles of other mens Religion then they grant ours And if so we shall soon come to a full point in all our debates about different Religions To such who have already closed with the Christian-profession this holds good And he that admits not the Scriptures as the first Principle and Rule of all discourse upon any internal point of the Christian-Religion is not to be disputed with Because in disowning that principle he destroys the being of the Religion he is contending about and subverts the whole by the manner of his disputing about a part But when we deal with men out of the Church and Enemies to it and the doubt is about the Scripture it self we cannot otherwise defend it then by admitting it a matter Debateable and indeavouring its justification upon principles common to us both and such rational grounds as carry in them the greatest aptness to convince such opponents 'T is not to be denied but that in all Rational enquiries after truth and all humane-debates there must be some common maxims and principles acknowledged on all sides without which there can be no due measures of any discourse nor any Standard by which a man can proceed either to satisfy himself or convince another and 't will be utterly impossible ever to come to a rational end of any debate whatever For If one thing be to be proved as it must be where things are in controversy by another and every thing may be still denied we must prove in infinitum He that opposeth needs nothing to help him but a bare Negative and he that is to prove will be lost in an endless circle Some principles therefore there are which govern all mens thoughts and discourses as things granted by them and are of absolute necessity to the rational conduct of the World And they are of two sorts First Such as are in themselves so obviously true to our Senses and Reason that they gain an Universal Assent and are approved by the common Vote of Mankind These are such things as no man can be supposed to deny if he would no more then he can deny himself to be Reasonable and do discover to us the truth of the rational faculty by the natural Emanation of which we fix upon many positions as undoubtedly true and beyond all question or dispute and from thence measure out the truth of all other things Therefore Aristotle says that in all acquisition of knowledg there is a proceeding from premisses known and agreed to conclusions that before were not known nor agreed These first principles are secured by the innate rectitude of the rational faculty These prove themselves by their consonancy to the rational Nature and cannot be otherwise proved because they are the ground and foundation of all other proof And of these 't is true what the Schools say A posteriori possunt manifestari non per aliquid prius probari Whatever knowledge we find attained to amongst Mankind 't is deduced from these first principles and is a Science subalternated to them 'T is from hence that all thoughts and debates are steered to some end and guided to some conclusion These principles are not to be confined to any enumeration being of equal extent with the rational capacity it self and are occasionally produced by our reason according to the various objects 't is conversant about Nor can any other Character be given of them but that they are such genuine Issues of Reason as become self-evident Maximes to the universal Reason Secondly There are acquired principles amongst mankind which are taken as granted truths and proceeded upon as such that are not of this first nature These secondary principles lye more remote from the first view of our reason and are discovered by a chain of Inductions and our assent to them proceeds from an Industrious exercise of reason by which we come at length to acknowledg their verity as agreeing to that idaa of truth we find seated in the rational Nature and corresponding to those primary dictates of Reason and equally true with them These things men accidentally make principles to themselves and laying them aside from debate as things granted and agreed to proceed to superstruct other notions and principles upon them such principles as these in the pursuit whereof mankind doth greatly differ and often mistake
to men of one perswasion Whenever men in order to the founding of any Science lay down positions and Principles upon which they proceed if such Principles be beyond the first and common rudiments of every mans Reason though in themselves never so true yet they ought to be subject to debate and admitted questionable in all Reasonings about that very Science Not to admit some universal Maxims is the way to make Mankind certain of nothing and to admit any particular mens Opinions as indisputable Principles is the way to inslave the World to every party The Scriptures are the first Principles of Christians but not of Men. The first of Christian Religion but not of all Science And therefore we ought to begin their Proof against all Antiscriptural opposition from the common Notions of every mans Religion and Reason and from thence induce an assent to their Divine and Sacred Authority which we shall find God has made sufficiently evident to a rational and impartial inquiry Secondly The Testimony given by the Holy Ghost in the Minds and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures though it be the most convincing Evidence that can be given to them and that way God is pleased to reserve to himself of giving men an unquestionable satisfaction about that and all other Divine things yet 't is not to be urged in proof of the Scriptures against its professed Adversaries And that upon two accounts First Because the blessed Spirit it self is not a common demonstrable Principle amongst Mankind and so cannot be made use of against those that know no such Testimony nor admit the being of any such Principle Nothing but what a man does assent to can with any good Reason be urged upon him to prove what he does not assent to To go about to prove the Scriptures by any Evidence arising from the Holy Ghost must needs be visibly absurd because there is no other way to prove that there is any such thing in Being as the Holy Ghost but by the Scriptures themselves So that what I am about to prove must first be admitted before I can make good the existence of that Medium I take to prove it by Secondly Whatever Evidence the Holy Ghost gives to any man to assure him of the Truth of any proposition that Evidence as such can never go beyond his own Breast nor can I ever prove any thing by it as it is a Divine and infallible Evidence because such Evidence is no way Communicable to another but in an ordinary way Nothing is visible to another in such cases but the Reasons I can produce The Divine illumination I have within my self to convince me that such Reasons are Cogent and prevailing can never be so demonstrated as to convince another that has no such illumination The illuminations of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men are no other way to be conceived of then that he is pleased to propose the right Grounds and Reasons upon which things are to be believed and to convince and satisfie the understanding that they are so and to bring men to acquiesce in Conclusions by assertaining them of the Truth of the Premises 'T were Heterodox and false and one of the worst sorts of Enthusiasme to say That Divine illumination were not always accompanied with rational Evidence And that any thing were the product of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men for which no Reason could be given 't were most unsuitable to a reasonable being and most contrary to the manner of Gods dealing with Men all the intercourse between God and Man being maintained by the truest exercise of our rational faculties and no otherwise Whoever rests assured from a Divine Testimony of the Truth of the Scriptures as coming from God may deal with an Antiscripturist by those Grounds and Reasons upon which such Testimony is built But will vainly and to no purpose urge that satisfaction he receives of the validity of such Grounds and Reasons from such a Testimony when that Testimony can be no further made Evident then by such Reasons and Arguments as he is able to produce for it of the sufficiency of which every other Mans Reason in an ordinary way must necessarily be the Judge To this present undertaking there ought also to be this praeliminary Consideration that as there are divers Things of divers Natures true so there are various ways of rendring the Truth of them Evident and Mediums of proof proper and peculiar to each This is visible in Aethicks in Physicks in Mathematicks and in all other Sciences When we discourse of the Bible divers things will come in question the Truth of which by various Mediums of proof must be established First in the general whether it be reasonable to believe that there should be any such Supernatural Law as this sent from Heaven or no! This is to be cleared from the exercise of our own Reason and the common principles of such natural Religion as every man is born with Secondly whether this Book as 't is now proposed to us be in the Matter of it such as is likely to come from God and to be that Law by which the Supreme Maker of all things would Rule and Judge the World This must also be cleared from that Natural Divinity that lodges in every Man 's own Breast and those primary Notions of God and Religion which all unprejudiced Reason assents to and which are antecedently supposed to all discourses of Revelation and whatever is Supernatural Thirdly whether this Book was written by those Persons whose Names it bears and in those Times wherein it avows it self to be written Whether such Miracles were wrought such Praedictions fulfilled All things of that Nature being matters of fact must be proved to us by credible Testimonies and by such means as can ascertain us about a matter of fact and a thing long since past He that demands to be satisfied about a matter of fact long since past and yet denies to acquiesce in Historical Evidence is so absurd as at the same time to propose a Doubt and resolves against all way of Answer Fourthly whether this Book as now we have it be the same it was when it was first written and have not been since corrupted or changed The proof of this depends upon what may be rationally urged to make it credible That this Book should still be secured by a Divine care and to render the ways and means Historically Evident by which such a Divine care in all Times and Ages hath been exerted And so in all other things that may be in doubt about the Bible there are proper inducements to our belief as will appear hereafter and such as the Nature of such a subject requires And he that will not acquiesce in a belief of things upon the Evidence they are capable of though perhaps not so full and convincing as some other things will afford declares himself to be obstinately willful and absurd Nothing
Methods by which Mankind came since to be saved things beyond all natural kenn and which only served to reproch the wisest thoughts and to tell men how little they could discover of what they were most concerned to know Moses having told us more in two Pages then the whole World ever discovered by the utmost of all Humane search Nor has the world any way improved it self in this kind of Sience to this day However men by experience and industry have meliorated the condition of Humane Affairs in other things whatever advance they have made in Natural Theories or in any Mechanick contrivance whatever Rust of Errour or Ignorance that stuck to former Ages may be worne off by an improvement of Natural Speculation in this yet where the Scriptures are either not Known or Rejected they are at the same Loss in point of Divinity they are as Ignorant of the True God as ever And the Result of all Natural Theology without the help of some Revelation has been and still is no other then this That while men have been most busily contemplating the nature of an Infinite Being and contriving Ways to gain Acceptance with him they have Lost themselves in the Crowd of their own vain Imaginations Secondly Such have been the Principles and Practices of all Nations in all ages that it evidently appears The world men themselves have generally found and acknowledged a Necessity of Revelation and out of an experimental sense of their own Impotency without it have still lived in expectation of somewhat Supernatural to be Revealed from Above Mankind since the Fall have been still listening after some further discovery of God then what the Work of his hands does afford them and some more perspicuous Notices of his pleasure then what their own Natural Abilities could dictate to them as that which Gods goodness and his own excellent Nature seemed to promise to the World and mans natural Tendency to some Supernatural happiness as the great end of his being continually call'd for The Genius of the World has been so suited to the notion of Revelation and mens thoughts have been so constantly taken up with an Expectancy of some Divine Instruction that they have been still in danger to fall into all the extreams of deluding Enthusiasme Not only their Religion but whatever else they thought well off they were ready to Father it still upon Revelation Scarce was there a Mechanick Invention but they ascribed it to a Discovery made by the Gods Pythagoras when he had found out an excellent Demonstration in Geometry sacrificed a hundred Oxen in gratitude to the Gods who had favoured him with such a Discovery Whatever was in it self difficult or Excellent they imputed the Accomplishment of it to a Supernatural Power Homer the great Oracle of the Heathen Divinity not only ascribes to the gods the Invention of all abstruse matters and all the Heroical motions of the mind but referrs our Ordinary Cogitations to Divine Impulses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talis nempe mens est Terram incolentium hominum Qualem in dies indit pater hominumque Deumque And his Book is filled throughout with Enthusiastick Advertisements directed to Men from the Gods Cicero in the end of his 2. Book De Nat. Deor. is large in his expression this way Nec unquam Magnus vir sine aliquo Afflatu Divino Never was there any great Man sayes he without some Inspiration Not only were the Poets who seem to be the Divines of the Pagans and the Priests of their Mysteries all Inspired Men but not an eminent Physician or a Souldier was there among them nor a Man any way excellent but they derived his Abilities from some Supernatural Gift and thought his Qualities from Above Socrates that excellent person often says That virtue and Religion are not things to be learnt as Arts and Sciences are but to be had by inspiration being Divine and Heavenly gifts He avowed himself raised up by God to Philosophize and by his Precepts to Reforme the Athenian manners And when condemned to dye and sentenced to the Poisonous Cup Resolutely protested Though the Prison-dores should be opened to him with an injunction never more to Philosophize he would wholly refuse his Liberty upon those Termes and would chose to obey God rather then Men. We read not of an eminent Legislator in a Commonwealth but pretended he received his Laws from the gods Solon's Laws were said to come from Minerva Lycurgus derived his Laws from Jupiter And much more was their Religion and the Rites thereof still fathered upon some Deitie or other and handed down to the world with a Supernatural Stamp Numa Pompilius the first founder of the Romane Ceremonies declared he received them from the Goddess Egeria No Religion in any Nation but has made some pretence to Revelation That absurd Imposter Mahomet was wise enough to father his Medley Divinity and all the confused trash of his Alchoran upon Revelation Nothing else could have cheated so many into a belief of such a Religion but that they were first perswaded it came from Above and that Mahomet had it Revealed to him from Heaven The Heathen world were in Truth without any Revelation in Religious affairs that is They had no Divine Laws given them from Heaven to direct their Religious obedience Whether it pleased God to Reveal any particular matters at any time to any of them I dispute not But He gave his Statutes his Divine Laws to Israel and he did not deal so wit◠any Nation besides And yet nothing more general then the expectation of it and nothing more common then Pretensions to it This seems to have been a Catholick Maxime that the true knowledge of the Deity and the right way of serving him must be revealed from Above All the Nations of the Earth seem to have concenter'd in this belief that Divine Revelation and a Supernatural intercourse between God and Man was necessary for the present and future good of Mankind 'T is well expressed by the Learned Camero Omnium Gentium etiam Barbararum consensu receptum est ut homini bene sit praeter eam Rationem quam nimis magnifico superbo Titulo vitae Ducem vocant requiri Coelestem quandam Sapientiam inde Nata est Religio Ritus Cerimoniae quae sola Sanctitate se commendant Praelect de Verb. Dei 'T is a thing says he agreed to by the consent of all Nations yea the most Barbarous that in order to mans well being there should be a heavenly Wisdome to direct him besides the guide of his own Reason and from thence comes Religion c. 'T was from this General apprehension that the World came to be so often and so easily imposed upon by deluding pretensions to inspiration and the many gross Cheats of Enthusiasme the greatest Impostors still setting up for Enthusiasts 'T was upon this account that the Heathen parts of the World were so enslaved to their Oracles
till our Saviours coming and the writing of the New Testament when there was again a Flood-gate of Divine Power let open in Mighty and Miraculous Operations all the parts of the Old Testament that were at any time written and they were not all Written till the time of Ezra after whom and the erection of the second Temple God made no further Addition all the other parts I say of the Old Testament were principally to be judged of by what Moses at first established Working of Miracles after his time was not to be the great and onely Rule of Prophesie and Revelation God had declared and commanded the contrary Nor indeed has the Holy Ghost thought fit to record to us whatever might be done in that kind that any one Pen-Man of the Old Testament wrought any Miracles after Moses his time 'T is a truth that there was among the Jews a Succession of the Office of Prophets after Moses and certain Schools of them which first began and were continued in the Cities of the Levites who dwelt dispersed amongst all the other Tribes And of many that were probably trayn'd up in those Schools we read in Scripture as of God and Nathan and other Seers and Prophets That some of them wrote no part of the Bible nor that we read of were any way extraordinarily imploy'd but most likely were so stiled because they had their education there were bred up and devoted to that Office and Employment That God did often make use of those that were of that Prophetical Society in extraordinary Matters I doubt not But in dictating the Bible God was pleased arbitrarily to chuse out what Instruments of conveyance he pleased and confin'd not himself to any one sort of Men nor to any Prophetical Office to give us any assurance from thence in this case For he sometimes chose men out of the Court as he did Isaiah the Kings Nephew And sometimes from the Herd as he did Amoz the Shepherd who sayes himself He was neither a Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet And God in an extraordinary way by the Word and the Prophesie that he gave such to utter created them Prophets And the greatest evidence of such mens Prophetical Authority arose if no Miracles were wrought by them from the Word they uttered And if any were of which we cannot be certain the Holy Ghost being silent about it from a conjunction of both A Miracle wrought in confirmation of any Doctrine correspending to what God by Moses had at first established was the greatest assurance that the Judaical Church after Moses was capable of No false Prophet in those dayes ever arrived so far That is They never had the concurrence of a Personal and a Doctrinal Justification together If any such wrought a Miracle to gain them a personal credit yet their Doctrine was still faulty And being to lead men from God and to subvert those Laws of his by Moses so solemnly setled That was an intimation sufficient from God's own direction to discover and shame them But supposing the several Pen-Men of the Old Testament after Moses wrought no Miracles at all and that God made most of them Prophets by that very Employment which 't is certain he did and that they were not previously in any such Office so that nothing of that kind could give men any assurance Yet by these three wayes men might be then much secured in that case in the first Edition of every distinct part of the Old Testament First From the known personal Sanctity and Integrity of the Writers themselves God never made use of any ill men or such as could come under any reasonable suspition of Imposture to write any part of the Bible nor of any but such whom men in that Age wherein they lived had very good reason to credit This being a certain and revealed Truth that in writing all the parts of the Bible 't was Holy Men still that Spoke and Wrote Now there could not be a more superlative imposture and wickedness than to ascend the Throne of God to speak in his Name and pretend his Authority without his Order No Man not wholly forsaken of all fear of God and respect to men could be supposed to make such an attempt Nor could any Man of known Piety and Honesty be reasonably suspected of it Secondly and chiefly From the conformity of what was then writen to the Laws and Precepts of Moses setled upon such unquestionable evidence for whatever was superstructed upon that Foundation came under the same Justification So that if any Writings were published in God's Name that appeared to be as all the other parts of the Old Testament did but a further discovery and promise of the Messiah a renewal of those Threatnings and Promises in Moses to that People and a further promotion of those Holy Laws and that Religion and Worship by him established there was no absolute necessity of Miracles in such cases If any man will suppose there might be in those times Books piously written and grounded upon the Doctrine of Moses that came not from any Divine Inspiration in judging of which Men might be possibly deceived and mistaken I answer Either such Books pretended to a Divine Mission from God or they did not If they did not no man could be indangered by them If they did They must either be written by true Prophets or False No true Prophets would do it And 't is not reasonable to think any false prophets should because they could serve no Design by it Nor could the Devil or any ill Instruments any way promote their own Interests by perswading men to serve the true God in the right way Nor do we find that in Fact any such thing ever was Thirdly There appeared in most if not all the parts of a Bible a peculiar Majesty a savour of Divine Authority in a more than ordinary way A great and eminent difference as the Prophet Jeremiah sayes between the Chaff and the Wheat Nor is it fit to suppose but that whâ—â— came by an immediate Inspiration from God should carry some Impressions of his Wisdom Power and be some way differenced from the common Writings of weak and fallible men Besides from many other Circumstances attending the first Edition of the several parts of the Bible relating to the Matter written and the Authors that wrote might God give a further evidence to their Divine Authority of which we are now wholly ignorant And it would be perhaps somewhat of curiosity and of little use to enquire after And some of them are recorded to us in the Scripture it self As particularly the foretelling of future Events that accordingly came to pass Two wayes God himself had previously appointed by Moses for the discovery of all false pretentions to Revelation First If any Pretenders that way came to seduce men from the true God and that Divine Worship of his then established God commands They should be rejected And secondly If
should be terminated singly in them but be of a much farther Extension and of a perpetual Duration 'T is not to be doubted but that the Apographa's Copies truely taken from the Originals of any part of the Bible were of equal Authority with the Originals themselves 'T was not the Paper nor the Ink nor the Hand wherein they were writ nor any thing Circumstantial of that kind but the Matter it self as dictated by the Holy Ghost that gave Authority to them And wheresoever that Matter is truely contained there is also the same Authority present The great Question in these dayes will be Whether those Copies we have of the Scriptures in those Original Languages in which they were first Writ be True and whether they have not been since Defaced or Corrupted The Satisfaction that ought to be given to this Inquiry must arise these two wayes First by considering the Scriptures themselves in their present posture And Secondly by considering such Circumstances as attended their first Transcription and the various Copies that were then and have been since taken of them I begin with the Latter First the Old Testament we know was delivered over as it first became written to the Church of the Jews and committed by God himself to their Custody And 't was they alone that had the Care incumbent upon them punctually to Transcribe and safely to secure it That they performed this Trust with great Care and exactness and delivered the Old Testament over intire to the Christian Church we have good cause to believe and that both upon general and some more particular ground First upon General ground 'T is notorious that the Jews had the highest value imaginable of their Law and prized it above all else they possessed Both Josephus and Philo tell us that the Jews would rather have suffered a thousand Deaths then that the least thing should be once altered in the Divine Laws and Statutes of their Nation The miraculous power upon which the first Foundation of it was Established had imprinted in that People an indelible veneration of it Secondly it was the Municipal Law of their Countrey and that by which all matters of right were daily Adjudged and by which each mans Property amongst them was maintained and secured Thirdly their Law was not onely the Glory of their Nation and the Foundation of their Political and Ecclesiastical being but it was also the great Title they had to their Countrey The Scriptures contained in themselves the Deeds by which God himself conveyed to them the Land of Canaan and gave them the highest Right to possess it 'T is not hard from hence to conceive that the Jews would be careful of such a Book wherein their Bodies their Souls their Estates their Honour and indeed their All was so much concerned Secondly it appears more particularly and in fact that they were so For after that by Gods Providential disposal Ezra and that Famous Synagogue with him had exactly settled their Canon and delivered over the Scriptures pure and intire to the People at their return out of Babylon the indefatigable Care of the succeeding Mastoriâ—es from those very Times downward to preserve every Letter and Syllable of the sacred Text intire is notoriously known to all that converse with the Jewish Writers even to so great an exactness had they arrived that they knew how often every Letter was used in the Bible And indeed they took such a course to preserve the Original Text intire that it was morally Impossible that the least considerable Alteration or Change could at any time be made in it Eusebius speaks with great Wonder of the Industry and Care of the Jews in this matter Mirabile mihi videtur says he duobus annorum millibus inâ—o majore tempore jam ferè transacto non enim exquisitissimè annorum possum dicere numerum Nec verbum unum in Lege illius esse immutatum sed Centiès unusquisque Judaeorum moritur quam Lege Mosaicae derogavit It seems wonderful to me that for the space of two thousand years and upward for I cannot exactly reckon the number of years not so much as one word should be Changed in their Law but that every Jew would rather dye a hundred times over then derogate in the least from it And that this care of the Judaical Church was by Gods blessing effectual and successful for the securing of the Old Testament from all maime or Imperfection and the least considerable alteration from what it was when it was first Delivered There needs no other Evidence then that our Saviour and the Apostles fully approved it as the Jews were then in possession of it and never charged them with the least Guilt either of Corruption or Neglect in that kind And to suppose the Jews have Corrupted it since considering that it was near three hundred years before our Saviours time translated into Greek and that any after-corruption must needs have been manifestly Discovered from thence and confidering how much of it is quoted in the New is very absurd so thought st Jerome in his time siquis dixerit post adventum Christi predicationem Apostolorum Libros Hebraeos fuisse Falsatos risam tenere non potero ut salvator Apostoli ita Testimonia protuleriâ— sicut à Judaeis falsandâ—erant If any man think the Old Testament says he falsifyed after our saviours coming I can scarce forbear smiling to think that our saviour and the Apostles should quote the Old Testament so as the Jews should falsify it after their times And with the same Contempt speaks Origen and s Austin of such a vain and absurd supposition That we have also good reason to believe that the New Testament is safely and intirely and without any Considerable variation from what it was when it was first written descended down to us will likewise appear first from the Circumstances attending its first Transcription and the Manner and Circumstances of its Conveyance And secondly from its Present condition and posture For the first When the several Parts of the New Testament were first written so very many had imbraced the Doctrine thereof from the Preaching of Christ and the Apostles that it is not to be doubted but that multitudes of Copies were immediately taken and dispersed into all parts of Europe into Asia and Egypt and wheresoever the Christian Religion was by any received Nor can we suppose that men that suffered daily for a Religion the loss of their lives and estates would not be careful Exactly to know the Doctrine of it and to be safely possessed of that great Rule by which they were to be in all things Directed when ' t was so easily to be had Nay ' t is probable that the Apostles themselves might disperse several Transcripts of their own Writings amongst the Christians so innumerable Copies might be taken from many Originals But however Certain it is that the Autographa's of the Apostles the very Originals of the New Testament