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
own thoughts in a way much more free and unconfin'd than in this Life as they have more knowledge in a separate state so they must have fitter means to communicate it And since the happiness of Heaven consists in the Vision of God that is in the communications of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness God certainly can as well act upon the minds of Men in this mortal state tho we be less capable of receiving or observing the influences of his Spirit Since finite Spirits can act one upon another it is reasonable to believe that the Spirit of God the God of the Spirits of all flesh doth move and work upon the Spirits of Men that he enlightens their understandings and inclines their Wills by a secret Power and Influence in the methods of his ordinary Grace And he can likewise act upon the Wills and the understandings of some men with a clearer and more powerful Light and Force than he is pleased to do upon others in such a manner as to render them infallible in receiving and delivering his Pleasure and Commandments to the World He can so reveal himself to them by the Operations of his Holy Spirit as that they shall be infallibly assur'd of what is revealed to them and as infallibly assure others of it Which kind of Revelation is styl'd Inspiration because God doth not only move and actuate the minds of such men but vouchsafes to 'em the extraordinary Communications of his Spirit the Spirit then more especially may be liken'd to the Winds to which it is compared in Scripture for by strong convictions and forcible but gracious Impressious he breaths upon their Souls and infuses his Divine Truths into them But upon those to whom God did thus reveal himself by inward light and knowledge he did moreover bestow a power of giving external evidence by miraculous works that their pretences were real and that what they spoke was not of them but was reveal'd to them from God This inspiration the Apostles profest to have both in their Preaching and Writings and this evidence they gave of it In speaking of the Inspiration by which the Scriptures were written I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended II. I shall from thence make such inferences as may afford a sufficient answer to the objections alledged upon this subject I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended And here we must consider both the Matter and the Words of Scripture The Matter is either concerning things reveal'd and which could not be known but by Revelation or it is something which was the object of Sense and Matter of Fact as when the Apostles testify that our Saviour was crucify'd and rose again or lastly it is matter of Reason as discourses upon Moral subjects and inferences made from things reveal'd or from matter of Fact God who is a Spirit can speak as intelligibly to the spirits and minds of Men as Men can speak to the ear and in things which could not be known but by Revelation the notions were suggested and infused into the minds of the Apostles and Prophets by the Holy Ghost but they might be left to put them into their ow 〈◊〉 * Praeterea scito unumquemque Prophetam pecuâ—iare quid habere ea lingua eaque loquendi ratione quae ipsi est familiaris consueta ipsum impelli à Prophetia sua ad loquendum ei qui intelligit ipsum Maimon More Nevoch Part 2. c. 29. Words being so directed in the use of them as to give infallibly the sense and full importance of the Revelation In matters of Fact their Memories were according to our Saviours promise assisted and confirm'd In matters of Discourse or Reasoning either from their own natural Notions or from things Reveal'd or from matters of Fact their understandings were enlightned and their Judgments strengthned And still in all cases their natural Faculties were so supported and guided both in their Notions and Words as that nothing should come into their Writings but what is infallibly true They had always the use of their Faculties tho under the infallible Direction and Conduct of the Holy Ghost and in things that were the proper objects of their faculties the Holy Ghost might only support and guide them as in matters of sense and natural Reason and Memory and in their Words and Style to express all these But in things of an higher Nature which were above their faculties and which they could have no knowledge of but from Revelation the things themselves were infused tho the words in most cases might be their own but they were preserv'd from error in the use of them by that Spirit who was to guide them into all Truth For tho the several Writers of the Scriptures might be allowed to use their own Words and Style yet it was under the infallible guidance and influence of the Spirit as when a man is left to the use of his own Hand or manner of Writing but is directed in the Sense and Orthography by one who dictates to him or assists him with his help where it is needful Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 The Holy Ghost saith by the Psalmist to day if ye will hear his Voice Hebr. 3.7 David saith of himself the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23.2 And God is said to speak by the hand of Moses his servant and by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Prophet 1 Kings 8.53.14.18 By which it appears that he used the Prophets as his Instruments in revealing his Will For as Miracles were by the immediate power of God though wrought by the hands of men so the Revelations were of God though spoken or written by the Prophets and Apostles But though God used them as his Instruments yet not as mechanical but as rational Instruments and as in working their Miracles they were not always necessarily determined to the place or to the persons on whom they were wrought but in general were guided to work them when they were proper and seasonable and the Actions by which they wrought them were their own though the power that accompanied them was of God so in their Doctrines they might be permitted to use their own Words and Phrases and to be guided by prudential Motives as to time and place and persons with a directive power only over them to speak and write nothing but infallible truth upon such occasions and in such circumstances as might answer the end of their Mission with which they were entrusted God promised Moses when he sent him to Pharaoh that he would be with his mouth and with Aaron's mouth and would
of Nice inasmuch as they are referred to by that Council and that they are styl'd Apostolical because they were made by Apostolical Men or such as lived next to the Apostles times and delivered in these Canons what they had received from the Apostles Dr Beverege thinks they * Bever Annot. ad Pandect Can. Cod. Can. Eccl. Primit vind Cave Histor Liter in clem Roman were collected into one Body by Clemens Alexandrinus and Dr Cave seemed inclined to be of the same judgment As to the Authority of the particular Apostolical Canon which contains the Canon of Scripture of the Council of Laodicea gives a sufficient Testimony to it so far as it concerns the Books of the New Testament and shews wherein it has been corrupted since All which very well agrees with that which I observed from Tertullian that frequent Councils were called in the first Ages and that they had the Canon of Scripture among other things under consideration which we find set down in the last of the Apostles Canons and from thence in the Canons of the Council of Laodicea no Book being omitted but the Revelation of St John which yet had been acknowledged and received as Authentick from the beginning of those who had most reason to know of what Authority it was but none were inserted into the Canon but such Books as were appointed to be constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians It appears then that the Canon of Scripture was finished by St John and that such Books as were not of Divine Authority were rejected by Councils held when there were living Witnesses to certify St John's Approbation of the Canon or at least those who had received it from such Witnesses the Gospels of the other Evangelists were translated into divers Languages in St John's Life time and we must in reason suppose the same of the other Books of Scripture this is certain that they were all very early translated into many Tongues and dispersed into so many Hands in so many Countries that it was impossible they should be either lost or falsifyed espeble cially since the several sects of Christians were never more jealous and watchful over each other in any thing than in this particular the several Interests and Pretensions of all parties being chiefly concerned in it and no Catalogue of Books could have been received exclusively to all others but upon the clearest evidence XII When it once appeared that the Books which had been doubted of belonged to the Canon of Scripture they were afterwards generally acknowledged and constantly received in all Churches every Sect has since used all Arts and Endeavours to reconcile the Scriptures to their own Doctrines few or none presuming to reject the Authority of any of these Books which they would never scruple to do if they suppos'd they could make out any plausible pretence for it Protestants have refused to admit of the Apocryphal Books as inspired but whoever have gone about to reject any part of the Canonical Scriptures have been universally declared against for it whereof no other reason can be given but the Evidence that is for the Authority of the Canonical Books of Scripture which is wanting for the Authority of the Apocryphal Books Papists own the Authority of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and of the fourteenth Chapter of that Epistle which is directly against praying in an unknown Tongue and they acknowledge the Epistle to the Galatians to be genuine tho the second Chapter be so clearly against the pretensions of the Church of Rome These Espistles indeed were never controverted but the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise is not rejected by the Socinians the Divine Nature of Christ and the Merit and Satisfaction of his sufferings are so plainly asserted in it and they dare not deny the Authority of the Gospel and Epistles of St John tho they are so hard put to it to expound them to their own sense that Socinus was forc'd to pretend to I know not what Revelation to help out one of his explications which he would not have done if he could have found out any colour for not admitting the Authority of a Text so directly contrary to his own Tenents that he could not expect that any thing less than a Revelation should procure any credit to his Interpretation And generally the case is the same with other Sects those that differ never so much one from another in the Interpretation of particular Texts yet agree in the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Canon of Scripture itself or can find out no sufficient pretence to disown it CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament IT is to be observ'd that an extrardinary Providence has in a great measure secur'd the Holy Scriptures from those Casualties which are incident to humane Writings For the great Antiquity of many Books of the Scriptures beyond that of any other Books in the World the multitude of Copies which have been taken in all Ages and Nations the difficulty to avoid mistakes in transcribing Books in a Language which has so many of its Letters and of its Words themselves so like one another the defect of the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention as it is generally now acknowledged of the Points the change of the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew for the present Hebrew Character the captivity of the whole Nation of the Jews for seventy years and the mixtures and changes which were during that time brought into their Language in short all the accidents which have ever happened to occasion errors or mistakes in any Book have concurred to cause them in the Old Testament and yet the different Readings are much fewer and make much less alteration in the sense than those of any other Book of the same bigness and of any Note and Antiquity if all the Copies should be carefully examined and every little variation as punctually set down as those of the Scriptures have been But tho from hence it may appear that a peculiar providence has been concerned in the preservation of the Books of the Scriptures yet from humane considerations and arguments we may likewise be assured that nothing prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures has happened by any of these means 1. The defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late Invention of the Points is no prejuduce to the Authority of the Bible as we now have it Tho the Points which crititically determine the exact Reading of the Hebrew Tongue be of a later invention yet that Tongue was never without its Vowels For Aleph Vau and Jod and which some add He and Gnajm before the invention of the Points were used as Vowels as it is evidently proved from Josephus Vid. Walton Prolegom iii. s 49. Origen and St Jerom by the best Criticks in that Language It must indeed be confest that these Vowels could not be so effectual to ascertain the true Reading as the Points have since been but
and of seducing and Apostate Spirits without any sufficient Means afforded them to undeceive and rescue themselves Can we suppose that God of Infinite Majesty and Power and who is a Jealous God and will not give his Honour to another should suffer the World to be guilty of Idolatry to make themselves Gods of Wood and Stone Nay to offer their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils and to commit all manner of Wickedness in the Worship of their False Gods and make Murther and Adultery and the worst of Vices not only their Practice but their Religion Can we imagine that the True God would behold all this for so many Ages among so many People and yet not concern himself to put a stop to so much Wickedness and to vindicate his own Honour and restore the Sense and Practice of Vertue upon Earth I shall in due place prove at large That Mankind have in all Ages had the greatest necessity for a Revelation to direct and reform them and That the Philosophers themselves taught abominably wicked Doctrines who yet were the best Teachers and Instructors of the Heathen World And we have no true Notion of God if we do not believe him to be a God of Infinite Power and Knowledge and Holiness and Mercy and Truth and yet we may as well believe there is no God at all as imagine that the God of Infinite Knowledge should take no notice of what is done here below that Infinite Power should suffer it self to be affronted and despised without requiring any Satisfaction that Infinite Holiness should behold the whole World lie in Wickedness and find out no way to remedy it and that Superstition and Idolatry and all the Tyranny of Sin and Satan for so long a time should enslave and torment the Bodies and Souls of Men and there should be no Compassion in Infinite Mercy nor any Care over an erroneous and deluded World in the God of Truth Would a wise and good Father see his Children run on in all manner of Folly and Extravagancy and take no care to reclaim them nor give them any Advice but leave them wholly to themselves to pursue their own Ruine And if this be unworthy to suppose of Natural Parents how much more unreasonable is it to imagine this of God himself whom we cannot but represent to our selves with all the Compassions of the tenderest Father or Mother without the Weakness and Infirmities that accompany them in Humane Parents How unreasonable is it to entertain such a Thought of Almighty God infinite in Goodness and Mercy as to suspect that he would suffer Mankind to make themselves as miserable as they can both in this World and the next without putting a Stop to so fatal a Course of Sin and Misery or interposing any thing for their Direction to shew them the Way to escape Destruction and to obtain Happiness The Fall of our First Parents is known to us only by Revelation and therefore is not to be taken into Consideration when we argue upon the meer Principles of Reason But I consider Mankind as we find it in Fact setting aside the Advantages of Revelation Wicked and abandoned to Wickedness in the Snares of the Devil taken captive by him at his will unable to work out their own Salvation lost and undone without Power or Strength without any Help or Remedy And in this State of the World however it came to pass is there no Reason to believe that infinite Goodness should take some Course and not disregard all Mankind lying in this Condition The great Argument of the Scoffers of the last Days St. Peter tells us would be this That all things go on in their constant Course and that God doth not meddle or concern himself with them Where is the Promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the Creation 2 Pet. iii. 4. And if no Promise had ever been made they would have had some Reason in their Arguing For that which rendred the Heathen without Excuse was That they did not make use of the Natural Knowledge that they had of God to lead them to the Knowledge of his Revealed Will which they had frequent Opportunity of becoming acquainted withal and had many Memorials of it amongst them in every Nation but they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge And this is the Force of St. Paul's Argument Act. xvii Rom. i. unless this latter Chapter were to be understood as Dr. Hammond interprets it of the Gnostick Hereticks That the Gentiles ought not to pervert and stifle those Natural Notions which God had implanted in their Minds but from the Law of Nature to proceed to find out the Written Law and for this Reason the Bounds of the Habitation of other Nations were determin'd and appointed by God according to the Number of the Children of Israel that they might seek the Lord and might be able to find and discover the True Religion and Way of Worship among that People to whom he had reveal'd himself Deut. xxxii 8. Act. xvii 26 27. They might have been less vicious than they were without the Knowledge of a Revelation and therein they were inexcusable that though they could not free themselves from the Power of Sin yet they might not have given themselves so wholly up to it as to become excluded from the Grace and Salvation to be obtained by the Revealed Will of God And when God has revealed himself all who will not use the Means and by a due Improvement of their Reason endeavour from Natural Religion to arrive at Revealed become inexcusable for their Negligence and Contempt of God and the Abuse of those Talents and Endowments which God has bestowed upon them For when God has once given Men warning and directed them in the way of Salvation and they will not regard it they must be wilfully ignorant if they will not consider that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day and it is Argument of his Patience and Long-suffering that he doth not bring speedy Vengeance upon a disobedient and rebellious World The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night Now this is very well consistent and exceedingly agreeable with all the Divine Perfections that he should give Men Warning of the Evil and Danger of Sin and afterwards leave them to their own Choice whether they will be Righteous and Happy or Wicked and Miserable and then that he should not take the first Opportunity to punish them nor lay hold of any Advantage against them but give them time for second Thoughts and space for Consideration and Repentance but if they abuse so much Patience and Loving-kindness that he should at last come
they held a Correspondence after their Separation and lived long to educate and train up their Children in that Knowledge of God which they had received and been instructed in themselves and besides they had little else to discourse upon but such things as would necessarily lead them to it The History of their own Nation and Family is that which Men are naturally most fond of and in these Ages the Particulars could be but few and those very remarkable and almost within the memory of some yet living and every Occurrence must bring to their remembrance what they had heard and had been taught concerning God and his Dealings with them and their Forefathers Moreover there was the special Hand of God and a particular Over-ruling Providence in the Dispersion and Division of Nations For when the most High divided to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel Deut. xxxii 8. He determined the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him Act. xvii 26 27. This was the reason of the Division of the Nations according to the number of the children of Israel There was a particular regard had to the Number of the Chosen Seed that they might bear a fit proportion to the rest of Mankind and might be as so much Leaven to the whole Mass as a quickning and enlivening Principle to excite and maintain due Apprehensions of God and his Worship and Service in the World And this is the Reason given why Polygamy was permitted them That they who were the peculiar People of God and were to teach his Commandments to the rest of the World might sufficiently encrease and multiply For though it appears by our Registers (g) See Graunt on the Bills of Mortality that here more Males are born than Females to a considerable disproportion and that therefore Polygamy amongst us would not tend to the multiplication of Mankind but rather to the contrary yet in Judaea it might be otherwise or the Captive Women whom they were permitted to marry might raise the number of Females above that of the Males or their perpetual Wars lessen'd the number of Males to a degree beneath the Females However this is the reason alledged by learned Men why Polygamy which was not permitted from the Beginning should be allowed the Israelites for indeed it was of great cousequence that they should multiply so as to have a due proportion to the rest of the World and for the same reason the surviving Brother was to raise up Seed to the deceased Barrenness was a Reproach and to die Childless a Curse and a numerous Off-spring a Blessing so often promised that it is evident that many Dispensations of the Divine Providence depended upon it And the better to revive and keep up a Sense of Religion amongst Men those who were most eminent for Piety were employed to be God's Heralds and Embassadors to the rest of the World as the whole People of Israel are appealed to as his Witnesses Isai xliii 12. and xliv 8. The Jews have a Tradition (b) S. Hierom Quaest. in Genes S. August Quaest in Genes l. v. qu. 25. That Abraham refusing to worship the Fire the God of the Chaldaeans was thrown by them into it and was delivered out of it by Miracle And therefore they understand it not that he went forth from Vr of the Chaldees as it signifies a Place but from the Fire of the Chaldees Vr in the Hebrew Tongue signifying Fire But we have no need of recourse to such Traditions This is certain Abraham was sent by God's Command out of Chaldaea into Canaan and there he had no fix'd or settled Habitation but journeyed going on still towards the South Gen. xii 9. till a Famine happening in that Countrey the Providence of God so disposed of Things that He and Lot went into Aegypt And when he was there he was by a very remarkable Accident taken great notice of by Pharaoh himself For Pharaoh admiring the Beauty of Sarah Abraham's Wife takes her into his House for which great Plagues were inflicted on him and his Houshold and Pharaoh perceiving the reason of it sends him away with his Wife and all that he had By this it became notorious to Pharaoh and his Princes that Abraham was under God's peculiar Care and Providence and that therefore it concerned them to regard what he professed concerning Religion and the Worship of God Abimelech likewise King of Gerar sent and took Sarah Upon which God appeared to him in a Dream and declared to him that Abraham was a Prophet and that he should pray for him and this Abimelech told to all his servants Gen. 20.7 8. and he calls upon God by his Name Jehovah ver 4. which shews that he had Knowledge of the True God After Abraham and Lot were returned into Canaan from Aegypt upon some disagreement between their Herds-men they parted from each other Lot going towards Sodom and Abraham to the Plain of Mamre in Hebron And it came to pass that there was War between Nine Kings of that Countrey four being Confederate on the one side and five on the other But the King of Sodom and his Confederates being defeated in Battle Lot who dwelt in Sodom was with all his Goods carried away by the Enemy Of which when Abraham was informed he armed his Servants and with no more than Three hundred and eighteen Men gained a signal Victory retook Lot and brought him back with all his Family and Goods And at his return he is met by the King of Sodom and by Melchizedeck King of Salem who being the Priest of the most high God in a most solemn manner blesseth Abraham who gives him the Tenth of all his Spoil Which whole Action must needs render Abraham mightily renowned in all that Country So much Mercy did God extend to the Canaanites who after they had filled up the measure of their Iniquities were to be rooted out to make way for the Israelites to possess their Land that Abraham and Lot and Melchizedeck and their Families were appointed as Monitors and Instructors to them in the ways of Righteousness and Piety And when all this was ineffectual to their Amendment Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a most miraculous and visible Judgment with Fire from Heaven after God had declared at Abraham's Intercession that if there had been but Ten Righteous Persons in those Cities he would have saved the rest for their sakes Lot with his Family only escaped this dreadful Judgment and his Wife looking back out of fondness for the Place she had left was turned into a Pillar of Salt which were so strange and so remarkable Judgments that it must be a prodigious obstinacy in Sin not to be reclaimed and brought to an acknowledgment of God's Power and Authority by them The Moabites and
c. 18. lib. v. c. 7. Quadratus had this gift of Prophecy and it continued in the Church to the time of Justin Martyr and of Irenaeus II. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles were according to an express promise of Christ to them that after his Ascension they should do even greater Works than he had done himself John xiv 12. that is they should do works that would be more eminent and observable in the eyes of the World though not more excellent and divine for nothing could be greater in that sense than to raise a man from the dead Which promise was fulfilled to them at the Feast of Pentecost when men from all parts of the world were made witnesses to it For they were commanded by our Saviour not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for this promise and he assured them that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days after his being taken up from them into Heaven and that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them and should be witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Acts i. 4 5 8. And this miraculous power was visibly bestowed not only upon the Apostles themselves but upon the (c) Monstrabatur locus ubi super centum viginti credentium animas spiritus sanctus descendisset Hieron Epitaph Paulae vid. Dr. Light exercit on Act. ii 1. p. 643. hundred and twenty mentioned Acts i. 15. I have already shewn that the Apostles were effectually qualified to be witnesses of what they delivered concerning Christ and that they could neither be deceived themselves in it nor could propose any advantage to themselves by deceiving others and that if they had designed any deceit they alledged such circumstances as made it impossible for them to have past undiscovered All which will be exceedingly confirmed by considering the miraculous Gifts which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost according to this promise of our Saviour I shall therefore shew how the Apostles were enabled by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to become witnesses to Christ 1. By the Miracles which they wrought themselves 2. By that power which was conveyed by them to others of working Miracles 3. By their supernatural Resolution Courage and Patience under their sufferings I. The Apostles were enabled to become witnesses to Christ by the Miracles which they wrought themselves This power of Miracles qualified them most effectually to be witnesses of the Resurrection and Ascention and other Articles of our Faith for they could neither deceive nor be deceived in these miraculous Gifts which were bestowed upon them to be an assurance to themselves and an evidence to others that it was the Cause of God in which they were engaged and his truth which they delivered They could not be deceived them selves undoubtedly in a thing of this nature they could not be ignorant whether they were real Miracles which they wrought or not they must needs know whether their own pretences were true or false and whether they could speak the Languages and do the Wonders which the world believed them to do and speak and they could not but know by what power and means they were enabled to perform all their miraculous Works And these works were of that nature and done in that manner that they could impose upon no man by them they could not make men believe that they spoke all kinds of Languages if they did not speak them nor that they cured all sorts of Diseases if they had not cured them nothing is more easy than for a man to know a Language that he understands when he hears it or than for men that were sick to know that they are recovered when they feel themselves well And the manner oâ— their performing these Miracles was the most publick and notorious in respect of the time and place and the persons on whom they were wrought Our Saviour had been crucified at the Feast of the Passover in the sight of the Jews and Proselytes who were met together from all parts of the World at that Solemnity and but fifty days after at the next solemn Festival of the Jews in the very same City where he had been Crucified in the presence of multitudes of people of all Nations and Languages which came to keep the Feast of Pentecost the Apostles declared to them in all their several Tongues that this same Jesus was by the Almighty Power of God raised from the dead and that they were impowered by him to speak all those Languages The Apostles were at the same time taken notice of to be Gallileans men of low Birth and of new Education St. John in particular was known to the High Priest himself and the rest were all known to many that heard them their Parentage and place of Abode and manner of Life might easily be enquired into for they were no strangers nor in a far Country and from all these it appeared that it was impossible that they should be capable of speaking any of these Languages but by inspiration and to speak all Languages is a thing which no man ever could hope to arrive at by study or conversation though he should make it the whole business of his Life and therefore this could least of all be suspected of men of mean Employments and who got their Livelihood by their daily labour and industry The Miracles which the Apostles wrought were likewise in the most publick places of the City and in the most publick manner upon persons who had been most remarkable and generally taken notice of for their Infirmities St. Peter by pronouncing only these words In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk cured a man of above forty years of Age who was known to have been lame from his Birth and was carried and laid daily at one of the Gates of the Temple where there was wont to be the greatest resort of people to ask an Alms of them that entred into the Temple and this man being immediately cured went with St. Peter and St. John into the Temple and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that it was he which sat for Alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple Acts iii. 9 10. And the Rulers of the Jews enquired into the matter and upon examination when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus and beholding the man which was healed standing with them they could say nothing against it but confessed among themselves that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it Acts iv 13 14 16. By this and other evident and publick Miracles the miraculous Power of the Apostles
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
to the customs of other Nations well known and practised at that time Thus the Slaves were wont to have their Masters Name or Mark upon their Forehead and the Souldiers to have the name of their General upon their Right hand and the like marks were wont to be received by men in token that they had devoted themselves to their Gods from whence we read of the mark of the Beast received by his Worshippers in their right Hand or in their Foreheads * Vid. Grot. ad loc Rev. 13.16 and of his Fathers Name written in the Foreheads of those that stand in Mount Sion with the Lamb Rev. 14.1 St Paul alludes to the Grecian Games in his Epistle to the Corinthians who were much addicted to those sports and had one sort of them the Isthmian perform'd among them 1 Cor. 9.24 25. and he alludes to the distinction among the Romans between Freemen and Slaves For which he gives this reason that it was in condescention to them I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh Rom. 6.19 Melchisedec is said to be without Father without Mother without descent Heb. 7.3 because his Pedigree is unknown which was a most significant way of expression to the Jews who were so careful and exact in their Genealogies But the very same manner of expression is also used †Patre nullo matre serva Liv. lib. 4. c. 3. â—ullis majoribus ortos Horac Serm. lib. 1. sat 6. duos Romanos Reges â—sse quorum alter Patrem non habet alter Matrem Nam de servij Matre dubitatur Anci Pater nullus Numae nepos dicitur Senec. Epist c. 8. by Livy Horace and Seneca upon the like occasions There is much of Nature but very much likewise of Use and Custom in the several Schemes and Forms of Rhetorick We meet with a sudden change of the Person speaking Jer. 16.19 20 21.17.13 and with interlocatory discourse Isa 63. and many places of Scripture are obscure to us for want of distinguishing the Persons who speak Thus for instance Jer. 20.14 the Prophet seems transported abruptly from one extream to another but if they be the words of the wicked mention'd ver 13. under the divine vengeance from the 14th ver to the end of the Chapter the sense will be more easy This abrupt change of the Person is taken notice of by Longinus as an excellency in Homer Hecataeus and Demosthenes and the want of distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures * Justin Apol. 2. Origen Philocal c. 7. as Justin Martyr and Origen observe Many Instances of the like nature might be given in the best Heathen Poets And the reading the ancient Poets is the best help for the understanding all other Authors of great Antiquity for the ancienter any Author is the nearer his stile comes to Poetry The first design of Writing was to delight so as to be the better able to instruct which made Verse much more ancient than Prose and tho it be natural for Men to speak in Prose and not in Verse yet it seems the humour oâ— Greeks would not bear tho writing Philosophy in Prose till the time of Cyrus for then * Plin. Hist Lib. 5. c. 29.7 c. 56. vid. Harduin ad loc Pliny tells us Pherecydes first wrote in Prose which must be understood of Philosophy for he ascribes the first writing of Prose in History to Cadmus Milesius And the ancient Writers now extant in Prose Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon have many Expressions which are seldom or never met withal besides but in the Poets H. Stephens made a Collection of the Poetical words used by Xenophon which is prefix'd to his Works And the Orators both among the Greeks and Romans were as exact and curious in the Feet and Measure of their Prose as the Poets could be in Verse Great part of the Scriptures is in Verse and the different way of writing in different Ages and Nations appears in nothing more than in the several sorts of Poetry That way of writing all Verse in Rhime which in these parts of the World is most in use and esteem would have been ridiculous to the Greeks and Romans Tho' the use of Rhime in Verse is so far from being example in Antiquity that it is perhaps the most ancient of all ways of writing Verse Acrosticks tho' of no esteem and little us'd in many Ages and Countries are of great Antiquity Verses composed in the Acrostick and Alphabetical way were found to be a help to the Memory and this benefit and the ornament which it was then supposed to give to Poems is the cause why it is sometimes used in the Scriptures and sometimes the Inspiration was so strong upon the Writers mind as to interrupt the Art and Method which he had proposed to himself as Ps 25. and 145. or perhaps it might be customary upon certain occasions to omit some Letter in the Alphabet in such compositions for reasons which we are ignorant of but which might be very satisfactory and agreeable to the sense of those Times and Countries * Athenae lib. 10. c. 21. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an example of this among the Greeks used by Pindar and other ancient Poets The old †Casanb in Athen. lib. 8. c. 11. Spartan Dorick and Aeolick Dialect changed σ into P the rough sound of this Letter being more agreeable it seems to those People and if any of them had written Acrosticks and Alphabetical Poems σ would have been omitted Rhophalick Verses which begin with a Monosyllable every word encreasing by one syllable more than the former are to be found in Homer and the Leonine or Monkish Verses with a double Rhime one in the middle and the other at the end are not without precedent To say nothing of the Poems composed of divers sorts of Verse and framed into the shape of several things by Simmias Rhodius some of which are ascribed to Theocritus The Repetitions so frequent in Homer were not for want of words for no Author ever wanted them less than he but out of choice though latter Poets have not thought fit to imitate him in this and Martial turn'd it to Ridicule It is certain that nothing is more various than the Wit and Fancy of Man and it is as certain that whoever would write to any purpose must write in some such manner as the temper of the people to whom he writes will bear and as their customs require But before I leave this particular it may be proper to consider the stile of Scripture in the Metaphorical and Figurative use of words in speaking of the Works and Attributes of God There never was any Book written in a strict and literal propriety of words because all Languages abound in Metaphors which by constant use become perhaps better known to the Natives of a Country than the original words themselves and in process
of time often cause them to be quite laid aside But then this borrowed and Metaphorical sense of words may be very strange to Men of other Countries especially when they are taken for things peculiar to the place where they are used The Horn of the Son of Oyl signifies in our way of expression a very fruitful Hill Isa 5.1 and Horn signified strength in the Hebrew Tongue as familiarly as Robur or Oak signifies the same in Latin And not only the Valleys are said to shout and sing Ps 65.13 but the best Fruits in the Land are in the Hebrew called the singing of the Land Gen. 43.11 The word Rock is often used to denote the Almighty Power of God and by the Septuagint and vulgar Latin is sometimes translated God For their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies being Judges Deut. 32.31 those versions render it their Gods and our God and in like manner v. 4 15 18. Ps 31.3.73.26 Is there any God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Isai 46.8 in the Hebrew it is there is no Rock as the Margin of our Bibles remarks This use of Metaphors ariseth partly from the likeness that is perceiv'd between things which makes one thing to be exprest by another and gives a delightful illustration to the things discoursed of and partly from our want of fit words to express the various natures of things especially of things spiritual which we commonly speak of in Negative terms and rather deny that they are like things sensible than positively affirm what they are Thus we say that they are immaterial invisible incorruptible c. And when we speak positively of them we must use such words as sensible objects can furnish us withal since we can have no other for we understand their Nature so imperfectly that we are not able to frame a Language on purpose to express it and he who should go about such a work would neither be understood by others nor well known what he meant himself But of all Beings God himself is so far above our comprehension that we can never speak of him in expressions suitable to his Divine Nature and therefore when true concâ—ptions are had of him it is fittest to speak of him in such terms as many serve to raise and preserve in us a due sense of Gods Honour and of our duty to him The Reasons then why God is often spoken of in the Scriptures after the manner in which we are wont to speak of men may be reduced to these particulars 1. The use of Metaphorical and Figurative expressions is usual in all Languages and no Language is sufficient to set forth the Majesty and Attributes of God 2. The peculiar Nature and Genius of the Hebrew Tongue inclined or constrained the Writers in that Language to express themselves in this manner Gen. 9.5 at the hand of every Beast will I require it that is I will require it of every Beast Sin in the Hebrew signifies a Sin-offering as it is translated and must of necessity be understood in many places of Scripture and in this sense Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 We read Jos 24.27 that Joshua said unto all the people behold this stone shall be a witness unto us For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God This might have been a very improper and unintelligible Speech to another people but was most significant and emphatical to the people of Israel who well understood upon what account sense was often ascribed to inanimate things as Gen. 31.52 Num. 20.8 Deâ—t 4.26.30.19.32.1 and afterwards frequently by the Prophets 3. An express Law was made against the worshipping of God under any Image or Similitude and the people are put in mind that they saw no similitude but only heard a voice when the Lord spake to them from the Mount Deut. 4.12 and that he is without change or repentance Num. 23.19 1 Sam. 15.29 Malach 3.6 4. When this caution had been given and such a Law made it cannot be expected but that the Divine Writers should make use of such expressions as were commonly used and were as commonly understood in a Metaphorical or improper sense when applied to God to give the more force and emphasis to their discourse * Maimoâ—id More Nevoch Par. 1. c. 1 26 27 28 36.48 Maimonides has proved from the propriety of the Hebrew words that the Image and Likeness of God in which man is said to have been made is to be understood of the faculties of his Mind and he lays this down as a general and known rule amongst the Jews Loquitur Lex secundum linguam Filiorum hominum and he likewise observes that both Onkelos and Jonathan have in their Paraphrases taken care to give the true sense of such expressions as seem to imply any thing corporeal in God The Scriptures make mention of his eyes and hands and feet to express the effects of those Actions which are performed by men with these members and when it was said it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6.6 This was well understood to mean no more than that God acted as men are wont to do when they change their minds and repent and grieve at what they have done and that he would certainly destroy the world which he had made for Moses himself instructs the Children of Israel that God is without any bodily shape or substance and therefore cannot be said to have any heart or to be grieved at his heart in the same sense that it is said of men And Num. 23.19 it is declared that God is not a man that he should lye neither the Son of man that he should repent And when God says that it repented him that he had set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 this is explain'd v. 29. where we read that the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent and yet again in the last verse it is said that the Lord repented that he had made Saul King over Israel The most careless writer could not so soon and so often forget himself but what is said of Gods repenting is to be taken in an improper and figurative sense to imply that God would act in that case as men act when they repent of what they have done tho without any change of mind or any grief or other passion in him attending it the effect was the same as if God had repented and therefore by a Metonymy the effect is exprest by that which in men is wont to be the cause of such effects tho repentance was not the cause of it but the reason and state of the case which he had fully known and considered from all eternity and therefore could not be surprized or
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
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
well as themselves * Apocalypâ—is Joannis tot habeat sacramenta quot verba Parum dixi pramerito volumiâ—â—s laus omnis inferiour est in verbis â—â—â—gulis Multiplicis tatent intellgentâ—e Hieton ad Paulin. Epâ—st And this seems not only to have been the temper of those Ages in which the Scriptures were written when Learning consisted in Types and Parables and in dark and intricate discourses but it has been the study and delight of learned men in most Ages since and of many men in all Ages to search into hidden and difficult truths St Jerom extols the Revelation of St John for the obscurity and hidden sense of it In that Age it seems it was no objection but the highest character that could be given of the Revelation to say that it was difficult to be understood The wisdom of God therefore in condescention to all sorts of men and to fit the Scriptures for the use and benefit of all capacities and disâ—ositions has caused some of the Prophecies to be plain and obvious to all Readers and others to be delivered as to employ the pious and humble labours of the most Learned and Inquisitive to keep them in perpetual dependance upon God for his Grace and Assistance in the explication of the Scriptures and at the same time to take down the vain curiosity and pride of such as little concern themselves about the plain things of the Law but are wholly busied in unfolding hidden things and in pretending to understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge The curse denounced against man upon his fall was that with labour and sweat he should eat the fruits of the ground as his punishment for having eaten the forbidden Fruit and it was but just with God to punish the curiosity of men after forbidden knowledge which occasioned his fall with making the attainment of knowledge more difficult If the Scriptures were all obscure they would be of little use if they were all obvious they would be despised For if obscurity be made an objection by some their plainness and simplicity is objected by others but God has so ordered and proportioned the several parts of them that no man may have just cause to complain that he doth not understand enough for his Salvation nor any man cast them aside or read them with little Care and Diligence since there are so many things in them which may require the utmost Study and Pains of the most judicious and Learned men 7. There is no Prophet so obscure but some Prophecies are very plainly delivered by him which we know to have been fulfilled and this is a Warrant and Assurance to us of his Mission and that we ought to rely upon it that whatever he has delivered concerning other things will as certainly come to pass and in the mean time before they come to pass or are throughly understood they are exceeding useful in the Church The Revelation of St John is hard to be applyed to particularevents because it comprehends so vast a series of time in which long course of years many events may be exactly alike at different times and in different places and there may be a gradual and repeated Accomplishment of some of his Prophecies But the time was at hand for the fulfilling of other of these Prophecies Rev. i. 3. xxii 6 7 10 12. and we know they have been fulfilled in the seven Churches Rev. ii 5 16 22 23. iii. 3 16. which are proposed for examples to all others He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. ii 7. The seven Churches are spoken to by Name and what is said to them having been fulfilled is a certain argument that the rest which concerns all other Churches shall be fulfilled in its due time tho it be not perhaps yet understood But the obscurest Prophefies even before their Accomplishment are of perpetual and inestimable use to us It is acknowledged by all that Parables are very proper and fit for Instruction and therefore in ancient times their Doctrines were wont to be delivered in that way because it is a more familiar and easie method of teaching than by Rules and Precepts and Rational Discourse without that Illustration which is given to them by supposing a particular case For then every one is apt to make the case his own when he sees the Precepts reduced to Example and cloathed with Circumstances and brought home as it were to his very senses which before lay more out of sight in abstract Notions and Speculative Discourse And if feigned cases be so much more effectual than bare precepts or exhortations an infallible account of the state of the Church in all Ages tho we cannot point out the particular times and places when and where every thing shall come to pass must needs be of inestimable value and benefit To hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches to observe what errors and faults are reproved and what vertues and graces are commended and encouraged in the seven Churches of Asia the Praises and Adorations ch iv and the Bliss of the Righteous the joys of Heaven and the rewards of Martyrs ch vii the Terrors of the Great and Dreadful day ch vi the great Apostacy that was to be upon the Earth ch xiii the Patience and Faith of the Saints and the Resurrection surrection of the Dead ch.xx. the description of the new Jerusalem and the glory and happiness of the City of God ch xxi xxii these are the subject of St John's Revelation and are things of the greatest use and importance We have the state and condition of the Church in all Ages presented to our view tho we are not able to mark out the particular times and seasons meant in the several parts of the Prophecy And this is at least of the same use to us that all History is and besides may be of as much more benefit as it more nearly concerns us for we do not know but that we may be faln into the worst times there prophesy'd of Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints We see the care and providence of God over his Church the wonderful deliverances which he is pleased to work for it the supports which he affords his faithful Servants under persecutions and the rewards prepared for them and the final destruction of the Enemies of God and Religion these things are visible in the Revelation and it cannot be denied but these are of excellent use to yield us comfort in the worst of troubles and to excite Faith and Hope and Patience and all Christian Graces in the minds of men The Revelation of St John may be look'd upon as an History of the Church without any Chronology annext to it but will any man say that the exactest and truest History that can be penned of the most important Affairs and such as concern all Mankind is of little value or consequence to the Conduct and Management of our Lives
manner what our inward Faith and Resolutions are This is that sort of security which Men have of one another and when God makes a Covenant with Men he considers them as Men that is he appoints such Solemnities of it as have respect to the Body as well as to the Soul he doth not deal with us as with immaterial Spirits but as with Creatures consisting of Soul and Body and who little regard and are little affected with that which doth not some way concern the one as well as the other And it is strange to see to what Extravagancies those have proceeded who have set up for a purely Spiritual Worship without any thing Sacramental for a visible Sign in it For not to mention the Pretensions of our Enthusiasts who by decrying the use and necessity of Sacraments have made Religion nothing but an empty and uncertain Name amongst them Prophyry who was a Man of Study and Learning after he had Apostatiz'd from the Christian Religion upon a ridiculous Occasion as History relates it was ashamed to return to the Heathen Idolatry which after the appearance of Christianity in the World soon became too notoriously absurd and abominable for any Man pretending so much to Reason and good Sense to own it but he placed all Divine Worship in Mental Prayer and so far rejected all outward and Bodily Worship (g) Porphyr de Abstinent lib. 2. §. 34. that he pretended the Prayers of Men were polluted and defiled by any thing of that Nature and rendred unacceptable to the Deity and that they never were sufficiently pure and perfect if they were express'd by the Voice but were then in their highest degree of Perfection when they were all Contemplation and Rapture and Extasie And the very same Notions were taught by (h) Euseb Praepar Evang. lib. iv c. 13. Apollonius Tyanoeus and have been revived of late by such as undervalue all outward Ordinances which may be a Warning to others and an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in appointing Sacraments as outward and visible Signs of our Covenant and Communion with God 2. As these outward Signs serve to raise our Attention and fix our Minds and to put us in Remembrance that Heaven and Earth Angels and Men are Witnesses against us if we prove treacherous and unfaithful in this Covenant so they are as Tokens and Pledges to us of God's Love and Favour and of his merciful and gracious Intentions towards us in taking us into Covenant with himself they give us sensible and visible Assurances of that Grace which is invisible and Spiritual And this seems but necessary for Creatures that are led so much by Sense as we all are in this Life that God together with his Word and Promises should besides appoint something which may be perceiv'd by our Bodily Senses in Token of those Blessings which are bestow'd upon the Soul that what is no Object of Sense may yet be represented and signified by something that is sensible to bring as far as it is possible the most Divine and Heavenly things down to our very Senses which may be a Sign and Token of present Grace and Favour and a Pledge and Earnest of future Glory and Happiness And this is what is found very useful and necessary amongst Men who are better contented with something present and in hand tho' of little value and insignificant in itself as a Token and Pledge of what is promised and made over to them than they are with the greatest Promises and Protestations without any thing as an Earnest to confirm them because this is a Natural Evidence that they are indeed in Earnest as our English word expresses it and really intend what they say and it may be produced against them if they should fail of Performance Now what is inward and invisible is absent as to Sense and what is future has need of something present to represent it to us And God who was pleased to bind himself even by an Oath for our farther Comfort and Trust in him has been pleased likewise that he might be wanting in nothing which might help our Infirmities and assist our Faith he has been pleased in condescention to the Condition and Frailty of Humane Nature to appoint visible Signs and Pledges of that which is Invisible and to give all the Assurance to our very Senses that they are capable of that all the Promises of his Spiritual Blessings and Graces shall as certainly be fulfilled to us as the outward Signs and Pledges are appointed for us and duly received by us 3. Sacraments are not only Signs and Tokens of Spiritual Gifts and Graces but they are ordained as Means and Instruments of Grace and Salvation to us that as the Body partakes in the Moral Actions of Vertue and Vice so it might concur in the Religious Acts ordained for our Sanctification For God who has made us so as to consist of Soul and Body and to have the Vital Union between Soul and Body depend upon a fit Disposition of the Body and to be maintained by the Health and Nourishment of it has been pleas'd to appoint certain Bodily Actions as the Means and Instruments of our Spiritual Life that the Soul might not even in this Case where itself is more immediately concern'd be wholly independent of the Body but that since both must be either happy or miserable together in the next Life both might concurr in the way and means of Salvation in this yet so as that the Soul should be the first and principal Agent and the Body should act only in subordination and subserviency to it in this as it doth in other Cases that as in Moral Actions the Soul acts vertuously or viciously by the Body so in Spiritual Actions the Soul might receive Advantage and Benefit by Bodily Acts and be deprived of it upon the Omission or Neglect of such Acts. The Body without the Soul is not the Man nor the Soul without the Body but both Soul and Body together and the whole Man becomes dedicated and consecrated to God's Worship and Service in the use of Actions performed outwardly in the Body And it is requisite that the Body as well as the Soul should be thus dedicated to God in Token of the Resurrection of the Body and of that Happiness which it must receive in Heaven if the Soul be happy St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to glorifie God in their Body as well as in their Spirit 1 Cor. vi 20. he tells them that the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body know ye not says he that your Bodies are the members of Christ what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost There have been those in several Ages who have made such high Pretences to Spiritual Worship that they would allow the Body no part or share in it and others from the great irregularity and corruption which they could not but observe in
bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
is their Knowledge the same there is nothing in their common Nature to determine them that they should be born or die together or that there should be any mutual communication of the Thoughts and Operations of their Minds much less that their Life and Death and Operations should be all the very same So that this Principle of Individuation whatever be assigned to be it cannot belong to the Divine Nature which is Omnipresent Eternal and Omniscient the Existence Knowledge and Local presence of Men are Personal not Essential but Omnipresence Eternity and Omniscience are Essential Attributes of God and not Personal or do not belong to each Person as they are distinguished from one another but as they are united in the same Essence for they are predicated of the Father as God of the Son as God and of the Holy Ghost as God and not of each severally as Father as Son and as Holy Ghost Every of these Essential Attributes therefore cannot be numbred with the Persons in the Deity but can be but One as the Essence itself of the Deity is and tho' the Father be Eternal the Son Eternal and the Holy Ghost Eternal yet they are not Three Eternals or Three Individual Beings of Eternal Existence as Three Humane Persons are Three Men of a Finite Existence It is a Contradiction that there should be Three separate Infinite Persons for their being separate must suppose them to be Finite or to have a limited and confined Subsistence and therefore Three Infinite Persons can be but One God or One Being which has all the perfections of Personal Distinction without the imperfection of the Division of Persons 3. From hence appears the Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons The Persons of Men are distinct Men as well as distinct Persons but this is no ground for us to affirm that the Persons in the Divine Nature are distinct Gods because the Divine Nature is acknowledged to be Infinite and Incomprehensible and when we speak of Three Persons in it we do not mean such Three Persons as Three several Men are But we read of the Person of the Father Hebr. i. 3. and of Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. v. 7. and when we speak of Three Intelligent Beings we can have no Conception of them but under the Notion of Persons We learn from the Scriptures that there are Three Persons in the Deity which bear that Relation to each other which is best express'd by the Terms of Father Son and Holy Spirit but the Terms of Father Son and Spirit are not therefore so to be understood as they are in Humane Relations and the word Person is not to be understood as it is of Humane Persons and therefore whereas we use the word Person the Greeks call them Subsistencies but acknowledge that they mean the same thing under that difference of words And yet this is all the foundation of any pretence of contradiction in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity that Men will needs understand the Terms of Person and of Father Son and Spirit when they are applied to God as they do when we speak of Men and from thence they conclude that Three Persons in the Divine Nature must be Three Gods as Three Persons amongst Men are Three Men and that the Father must be Superiour and Elder than the Son as it is in Humane Generations But this is all Mistake Adam is stiled the Son of God in a sense of the word peculiar to himself Luke iii. 38. God is in one sense the Father of all Mankind and in another sense he is the Father of the Regenerate only and when in either sense we call him our Father we take not the Word Father in the same sense that we take it in when we apply it to Men and when we say he is the Father of his only begotten Son this is another sense of the word Father very different from all the former The Relation between the Father and Son is not the same in the Nature of God that it is amongst Men nor are the Divine Persons such as the Persons of Men are but these are the fittest and the most proper and significant Terms to express the Nature of God to us that Humane Language and Humane Understandings are capable of We must acknowledge that there is a vast disproportion and impropriety in these expressions and that they give us but a very imperfect conception of the Divine Nature but it is the most perfect that we are able to have of it or that it is necessary for us to have of it in this Mortal state and if we will but allow for the incompetency of our own Faculties to have Words and Notions adequate to the Divine Nature and will remember that God is God and that we are but Men there will appear to be no contradiction in the Notion of the Trinity The Divine Nature is such that it has Three distinct Principles of Operation and Subsistency which are so described and represented in the Scriptures by Personal Acts and Properties that we know them to be as really distinct as Humane Persons are which yet being but One God cannot in this respect be like Humane Persons And whoever will oppose this Doctrine of the Holy Trinity must prove that the Three Persons of the Trinity cannot be as really distinct as the Persons of Three Men are tho' they are not such Persons as the Persons of Men. And to prove this he must understand the Nature of God as well as he understands the Nature of Man for otherwise he can never be able to prove that Three Divine Persons may not be One God tho' Three Humane Persons cannot be One Man That they are distinct Persons is revealed and that these Three distinct Persons are but one God is revealed but wherein the Distinction and the Unity of these Three Persons consists is not revealed nor is it possible for us to understand it at least without a Revelation The Distinction of the Persons of Men is founded in a separate and divided Subsistence but this cannot be the foundation of the Distinction of the Divine Persons because Separation and Division cannot belong to an Infinite Nature There is then not Repugnancy in saying that there are Three Subsistencies or Three distinct Principles of Personal Acts and Properties in one undivided Infinite Nature or that the Persons in the Trinity act as distinctly and personally as Persons do amongst Men but are united in one Infinite Nature which is uncapable of existing in separate Subsistencies tho' not of acting and subsisting in Three distinct Persons or as distinctly from each other as the Persons among Men do act and subsist The Summ is that in the most perfect Unity of the Divine Nature do subsist the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost between whom is a real Distinction which tho' not the same yet is
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
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