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
Moses's time or after it p. 206. Of what Consequence the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Pentateuch is towards the proving the rest of the Scriptures to be of the same Authority p. 214. CHAP. VII of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government Joshua the Author of the Book under his Name p. 215. The Book of Judges written by Samuel p. 216. The Waters of Jordan divided p. 217. The Males circumcis'd at the first coming into Canaan and thereby disabl'd for War contrary to all Humane Policy p. 219. The Walls of Jericho thrown down and the Prophecy concerning them ib. The Integrity of Joshua p. 220. of Eli p. 221. of Samuel p. 222. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings From the Revolt of the Ten Tribes an Argument for the Truth of the Law of Moses Prophets in the Kingdoms both of Israel and Judah p. 223 CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings The kinds of Prophecy among the Jews p. 224. The Freedom and Courage of the Prophets and the Reverence paid to them even by bad Princes p. 226. They laid down their Lives in Confirmation of their Prophecies p. 227. Many of their Prophecies fulfill'd during their own Lives p. 228. Their Prophecies committed to writing ibid. They as well as the Law were carefully preserv'd during the Captivity in Babylon p. 229. The Books of the former and of the latter Prophets the Books of Samuel by whom written p. 231. The Books of Chronicles and of Kings by whom written ibid. Of the Psalms Moses and the Prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament p. 233. The Hebrew Tongue sufficiently understood by the Jews when they return'd from Babylon ibid. The Scriptures could not be corrupted afterwards p. 235. CHAP. X. Of the Prohecies and Miracles of the Prophets Josiah Prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth the Circumstances of that Prophecy p. 236. The fâ—â—filling of Elijah's Prophecies p. 238. The Confession of Julian the Apostate p. 240. Divers other Prophecies and Miracles ibid. Cyrus prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth p. 241. Jeremiah's Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem p. 243. The Contradiction which was then thought to be betwixt the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel a manifest Proof of the Truth of the Prophecies of them both p. 245. Other plain Prophecies fulfill'd p. 247. These Prophecies and Miracles manifestly true p. 249 CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament proves the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Essect p. 252. CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour Our Blessed Saviour's undeniable Innocence and Holiness of Life p. 257. Judas himself gave Testimony to it p. 259. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias fulfilled in him p. 265. The Prophecies concerning his Life fulfilled p. 277. The Prophecies concerning his Death fulfilled p. 280. And those concerning his Resurrection and Ascension p. 286 CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour Our Saviour foretold the Treachery of Judas and the manner of his own Death p. 287. The Destruction of Jerusalem with the circumstances of it and the Prodigies attending it ibid. His Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias p. 290 CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour The Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour prophesied of and typified p. 293. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceiv'd themselves in it p. 295. They would not deceive others p. 306. They alledged such Circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive p. 307 CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists The Apostles were Men of sufficient Vnderstanding to know what they testified p. 312. They had sufficient Means and Opportunities to know it p. 313. They were Men of Integrity and truly declared what they knew for they had no worldy Interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering p. 315. There are peculiar marks of Sincerity in all their Writings p. 319 CHAP. XVI Of the prophecies and Miracles of the Apostles c. Of their Prophecies p. 328. Of their Miracles p. 330. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles themselves p. 331. A Power of working Miracles communicated by them to others p. 336. Their supernatural Courage and Resolution p. 342. This likewise was communicated to their Followers p. 351 CHAP. XVII Of the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists The History of our Saviour's Life and Death contains so notorious and publick circumstances that it was an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not p. 354. The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides these likewise contain many memorable and publick Matters of Fact p. 361. The Gospel and other Books of the New Testament cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles and owned for genuine both by the Jews and Heathens p. 363. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age p. 364. The chief Points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors ibid. CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures The Christian Religion teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man p. 368. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principle of Holiness p. 370. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual Motives to Obedience and Holiness of Life p. 372. It afferdeth the greatest Helps and Assistances to an Holy Life p. 374. It expresseth the greatest Compassion and Condescension to our Infirmities p. 374. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind p. 376. The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not meerly speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst Men p. 382 PART III. THat there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 385. CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions The Pretences of the Aegyptians to Antiquity examined p. 387. Of the Chaldaeans ibid. Of the Chinese p. 389. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions The Heathen Religions never extant in Books to be publickly read p. 392. Every Country had its peculiar Deities They prevailed only by the Temporal Power Though the Heathens more in Number yet the Religion of Christians more promulged p. 392 CHAP. III. Of the Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions Of the Oracles of the Heathens p. 394. That they were uncertain and ambiguous p. 396. But they could not be all counterfeit p. 398. The cessation of Oracles gradual p. 399. Their Miracles never
of the World had the true Religion brought home to them by the Patriarchs who were sent from place to place to sojourn to be a Pattern and Example to the rest of Mankind And Men who travell'd so far and conversed with so many Nations and were so zealous for God's Honour and had such frequent Revelations and the immediate Direction of God himself in most of the Actions of their Lives and who were so Great and Powerful and so Numerous must needs mightily propagate Religion where-ever they came and leave the Idolaters without excuse and it cannot be doubted but that they had great success in all places for even out of Aegypt where they endured the greatest hardship and were in such contempt and hatred yet a mix'd multitude went up also with them besides the Native Israelites Exod. xii 38. And as Chaldaea and Aegypt were famous for Learning and Commerce and proper Places by their situation from whence the Notions of Religion might be propagated both towards the East and West to other Parts of the World so I must again observe that God's Mercy was particularly manifested towards the Canaanites before their Destruction The Example of Melchizedeck who reigned among them and the sojourning of Abraham and Lot and Isaac and Jacob not to mention Ishmael and Esau with their numerous Famllies afforded them continual Invitations and Admonitions for their Instruction and Amendment especially the Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the miraculous Deliverance of Lot was enough to strike an Awe and Terrour into the most Obdurate But when they would not make any due use of these Mercies when they persisted still in their Impieties and proceeded in them till they had filled up the measure of their Iniquities God made them an Example to others after they would take no Warning themselves yet still executing his judgments upon them by little and little he gave them place of repentance not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation and that their malice was bred in them and that their cogitation would never be changed Wisd xii 10. How much the true Religion prevailed by these Dispensations of Providence among other Nations besides the Hebrews we have an illustrious Instance in Job and his Friends who were Princes in their several Dominions they had knowledge of the Fall of the Angels Job iv 18. and of the Original Corruption of Man which is expressed with this emphasis that he cannot be clean or righteous who is born of a woman because by Eve's Transgression Sin came into the World Job xiv 1. xv 14. and xxv 4. Adam is mention'd chap. xxxi 33. the Resurrection is described chap. xiv 12. and it appears that Revelations were vouchsafed to these Nations chap. xxxiii 15. It appears that the Fundamentals of Religion were known Doctrines amongst them and are therefore mention'd both by Job himself and by his Friends in as plain terms as may be and as fully as can be expected in a Book which is Poetical the nature whereof requires that known things should be alluded to but not so particularly related as in History And there is no doubt but the Propagation of Religion in other parts of the World would be as evident if the Scriptures had not occasionally only and in the Course of other things but of set purpose treated of this matter as me may gather from the footsteps to be found in Heathen Authors of what the Scriptures deliver to us and from the several Allusions and Representations in the Rites and Ceremonies of their Religions expressing though obscurely and confusedly the chief Points of the Scripture-story as has been shewn by divers learned Men. 2. In succeeding Ages after the giving the Law when the Jews by their Laws concerning Religion and Government may seem to have been wholly separated from the rest of the World and the Divine Revelations confined to one Nation there still were sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And here I shall shew 1. That the Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and that the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragment concerning it 2. That the Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews in their Affairs as to offer other Nations frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the true Religion and that multitudes of Proselytes were made of all Nations 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragement concerning it The Strangers or Proselytes amongst the Jews were of two sorts for either they were such as became Circumcised and obliged themselves to the Observation of the whole Law of Moses who were styled Proselytes of Righteousness or of the Covenant or they were such as believed in the True God and professed only to observe the Precepts given to Noah which comprised the Substance of the Ten Commandments and these were called Proselytes of the Gates because they were permitted to live amongst them within their Gates these are the Strangers in their Gates mention'd Deut. xiv 21. who might eat of such thing 's as the Israelites themselves were forbidden to eat of If any would be Circumcised and undertake the Observation of the whole Law they had full liberty and the greatest encouragement to do it At the first Institution of Circumcision not only Abraham and his Seed but his whole Family and all that were bought with money of any Stranger were to be circumcised Gen. xvii 12 27. and at the Institution of the Passover the Stranger is commanded to observe it as well as the Natural Israelite Exod. xii 19. God made no distinction in the Institution of both these Sacraments between the Jews and those other Nations that dwelt amongst them and were willing to conform themselves to the Observation of the Law but first to Abraham when he appointed Circumcision and then to Moses when the Passover was instituted particular Order is given concerning Strangers or Proselytes who would betake themselves to them one law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Exod. xii 49. Deut. xxix 11. And as the receiving the Seal of Circumcision was an admission into Covenant with God and implied an Obligation to observe the whole Law and a Right to the Privileges of it which was confirmed and renewed by their partaking of the Passover so it is to be observed not only that God did in general admit Strangers and Aliens to the same Worship with the Jews but that throughout their whole Law frequent mention is made of them and care taken for their Reception and Behaviour for though what is but once said in Scripture is a sufficient Proof of the Will and Pleasure of God in any matter yet when a thing is often mention'd and every where inculcated it is an
Condemnation And it is not only Just but Merciful for him to with-hold the Knowledge of his Reveal'd Will from those who he forefees would reject it and abuse the Opportunities which should be offer'd them to the Aggravation of their own Guilt and Punishment Especially if it be observ'd 2. That as to particular Persons we have reason to believe that God who by so wonderful a Providence has taken care that every Nation under Heaven might have the True Religion preach'd in it and who has the whole World at his Disposal and orders all things with great regard to the Salvation of Men we have abundant cause to think that he would by some of the various Methods of his Providence or even by Miracle bring such Men to the knowledge of the Truth who live according to their present Knowledge with a sincere and honest Endeavour to improve it When St. Peter was by Revelation sent to Cornelius he made this Inference from it Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. x. 34 35. From whence what less can we conclude than that every Man in any part of the World who is sincerely good and pious in the Practice of his Duty so far as it is known to him shall rather by an express Revelation have the rest discover'd to him as in the Instance of Cornelius which gave occasion to these words of S. Peter than that he should be suffer'd to perish for want of a true Faith and sufficient Knowledge of his Duty And it is Just with God to punish those Heathens who sin without any Reveal'd Law for their Sins against Natural Reason and Conscience and for neglecting to use and improve their Reason and to embrace the Opportunities afforded them of becoming Christians We may likewise be certain that besides Natural Reason and Conscience God in his Goodness is not wanting to afford such inward Motions and Convictions of Mind to such of the Heathen as are not wilfully blind and stupify'd by their Vices as may prepare them for the reception of the Gospel which by his Providence he gives them so many Opportunities of becoming acquainted withal And if once they do discern the Defects and Faults of their own Religions which are so grosly against Natural Reason and Conscience they may make enquiry of Christians concerning their Religion as some of the Americans did of Cortes's and the Christians some of them at least however negligent they be in propagating it would never refuse to instruct them in it And it must be remembred that among those who have not receiv'd the True Religion yet many Points are taught and believ'd which had their Original from Revelation as is evident not only of the Mahometans but of several Heathen Nations which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the Reception of the whole Truth if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate Tendency and Consequences I shall not say That the Merits of Christ and the Salvation of the Gospel do extend to those who in the Integrity of their Hearts dye under an invincible Ignorance of it I believe rather that God suffers no Man so qualify'd and dispos'd to remain in invincible Ignorance But it is sufficient to vindicate God's Justice and Goodness that all Nations have had such Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumstances of particular Men. It was well said That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleas'd to deal with such Persons it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them But if it be difficult for us now to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World if all Mankind were in the State of Heathens without any Divine Revelation What will become of the Heathen as to their Eternal State is not the Subject of this Discourse nor doth it concern us to know some of them will have more to plead for themselves in point of ignorance than others can have and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind and there we must leave them But it must be acknowledged that it is much more agreeable to the Goodness and Mercy of God to reveal his Will and to give so many Opportunities to the World to be instructed in it though never so many should neglect the Means of Salvation than it is to suppose him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness without giving them any warning against it I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Come ye near unto me hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am I Isa xlv 19 22. xlviii 16. Having proved That the Scriptures want nothing requisite to a Divine Revelation in regard either of the Antiquity or Promulgation I proceed to shew That they have sufficient Evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles in proof of their Authority This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves in their several circumstances as we find them stand Recorded or the Lives and Personal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed or by whom they are related in the Scriptures For if we can be assured both that they are truly related and that if they were done as they are related they could proceed from none but a Divine Power we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron THat Moses was a very Great and Wise Man is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers and I think it has never been denied by any Man But it is no less evident that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities Exod. iii. 11. iv 1 10 13. Num. xi 10. xx 12. xxvii 14. and never speaks any thing tending to his own Praise but upon a just and necessary occasion when it might become a prudent and modest Man especially one Divinely Inspired For all the Praise of such an one doth not terminate in himself but is attributed to God whose Instrument and Servant he is and in such cases where God's Honour is concerned it was a Duty to set forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him though some Honour did redound
therefore whatsoever he did or wrote as by his Direction and Command was really so For if there ever were or can be any such thing as a Miracle it must be confessed that the Works performed by Moses were such and therefore the only Enquiry will be Whether they were really performed by Him since it is absurd to think that God may not upon great Reasons alter the course of Nature And I shall undertake to prove supposing only that there was such a Man as Moses and that the Jewish Law was given by him That it is of Divine Authority and stands confirmed by all the Miracles which are related in the Pentateuch to have been wrought by Moses And that there was such a man and that he delivered the Law to the Israelites is affirmed by the best Heathen Authors as Diodorus Siculus Strabo and others and was never yet that I have heard of question'd by any Man For those who will not acknowledge that Moses wrote the Books which contain it yet confess that the Law it self was of his prescribing But if it should be question'd whether there ever was such a Man who gave them their Law how absurd is it to imagine that a new and burthensome Law which at first was so very uneasie to them and which nothing but a full persunsion of its Divine Authority could ever have made them so zealous for should be received by any Nation merely upon a feigned and groundless Report that Moses had at some time or other delivered it in such a manner and in such circumstances if there never had been such a Man or such a Law-giver in the World Could any one or more Men persuade a whole Nation to this or could a whole Nation conspire to deceive their Posterity with a belief of it What mighty Charm could there be in a Name never heard of before and in a Story newly invented that a whole Nation should presently grow fond of it They must consider Humane Nature very little who can fansie any thing so unnatural I shall therefore take it for granted that there was such a Man as Moses and that the Jewish Law was given by him And if it be once proved that the Matters of Fact or Miracles related of him were indeed performed as they are related to have been no rational Man can doubt but that they were brought to pass by an Almighty Power I shall now therefore consider the History of the Jews barely as National Records not as written by an Inspired Author For it will appear from them considered only as an Account of Matter of fact that Moses was a Person inspired and assisted by God and both wrote and did all by God's express Will and Appointment And if we question the Authority of the Books of Moses in this matter when they are considered but as National Records it must be upon one of these accounts Either 1. Because the Matters of fact contained in them as they are there related to have been done were not at first sufficiently attested Or 2. Because the Records themselves are seigned and therefore the Relations there set down are not to be depended upon For if the Miracles be sufficiently attested supposing the Truth of the History then if the History be true the Miracles must be so too 1. The Miracles and Matters of fact contained in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested The permission of Polygamy amongst the Israelites for the encrease of that People the peculiar Fruitfulness of the Climate of Aegypt where the Women are observed to bring forth often two or three sometimes more Children at a birth the long Lives of Mankind in those Ages and above all the Promise of God made to Abraham That he would bless and multiply his Posterity in Isaac's Line Gen. xxii 17. caused the Children of Israel to be exceeding numerous in a few Generations after they came into Aeygpt A Syrian ready to perish was their father and he went down into Aeygpt and sojourned there with a few and became there a nation great mighty and populous Deut. xxvi 5. The fighting-Men from twenty years old and upward that were numbred in the Wilderness of Sinai in the second year after they came out of the Land of Aegypt were Six hundred thousand and Three thousand and five hundred and fifty besides the Tribe of Levi Num. i. 1 46 47. And the Males of the Levites that were numbred from Thirty Years old to Fifty were Egtht thousand and five hundred and fourscore Num. iv 47 48. And the number of Males from Twenty Years old and upward which was taken in the Plains of Moab was Six hundred thousands and a thousand seven hundred and thirty besides the Levites and those that were numbred of them were Twenty and three thousand all males from a month old and upward and not a man of these was numbred before in the wilderness of Sinai chap. xxvi 51 62 64. And those of the other Sex must be supposed to have been about the same number when both these Accompts were taken In all reckoning Men Women and Children and Servants the Number is computed at three Millions And all this People the Parents and the Children who as they died grew up in their stead were conducted for Forty Years together by a constant course of Miracles wrought continually in their sight God took him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations by signs and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm and by great terrours Deut. iv 34. They could not be ignorant whether there were Miracles wrought to procure their Deliverance out of Aegypt these were publick and notorious both to the Israelites and the Aegyptians the Magicians were not able to do the like with their Inchantments but were forced to confess This is the finger of God Exod. viii 19. and they were of that nature and of such mighty consequence that they could not fail of being particularly taken notice of when two Nations were so much concerned in the Effects and Events of them The Children of Israel had been Witnesses of Ten Plagues inflicted successively upon the Aegyptians in the most remarkable manner that can be conceived to procure their Deliverance and when Pharaoh pursued them as they were going away it was impossible for them to escape from him but by Miracle the People were in the greatest consternation they wished themselves again in Aegypt and made such Expostulations with Moses as it was natural for Men in that condition to make and such as shewed that upon the first opportunity they would have been ready â—o deliver up Moses to secure themselves and malâ—â— their peace with Pharaoh And they said unto Moses Because there were no graves in Aegypt hast thou taken us away to die in â—he wilderness Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Aegypt Is not â—his
a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of
Fact to be known to any single Person 2. Having shewn That the Matters of fact and Miracles contained in the Books of Moses as they are related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested and that if we may credit that Relation all the Miracles there mention'd were certainly wrought by him since they are of that nature that the People of Israel could not be deceived in them I now proceed to shew That the Relations there set down are a true Account of those things and such as we may depend upon For if these Matters of Fact or Miracles are either feigned or falsified this must be done either in Moses's his time or afterwards and if in his time then either by Moses and Aaron with others who were concerned in carrying on the Design or by the whole People of Israâ—l together And if it were done after Moses his death then again it must be done either by some particular Man or by the contrivance of some few or more together or it must have been by the joint Knowledge and consent of the whole Nation I will therefore prove 1. That the Miracles could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the death of Moses 3. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books invented or falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it 1. These Things could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design It is plain that they could never invent such an Account as that of their miraculous Escape out of Aegypt and their Travelling in the Wilderness under the conduct and support of the same miraculous Power and then impose it upon the People of Israel for Truth For the People are supposed to be chiefly concerned in the whole Relation Moses appeals to their own sense and experience The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even with us who are all of us here alive this day Deut. v. 3. And know you this day for I speak not with your children which have not known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatness his mighty hand and his stretched-out arm and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Aegypt unto Pharaoh the king of Aegypt and unto all his land and what he did unto the army of Aegypt unto their horses and to their chariots how he made the water of the Red-sea to over flow them as they pursued after you and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day and what he did unto you in the wilderness until ye came into this place and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their housholds and their tents and all their substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did Deut. xi 2 3 4 5 6 7. Here is a Recapitulation of all the Miracles that had been wrought with an Appeal to their Senses for the Truth of them And Moses would never have made such Appeals as these if they could possibly have disproved him they could never be persuaded that they â—ame out of Aegypt after so many Plagues inflicted upon the Aegyptians to procure their Deliverance if there had been no such thing or that they were so long time in the Wilderness and that so many and so great Miracles were wrought in their sight if they had never been done before them Though Men may perhaps be persuaded to believe that their Ancestors a long time ago saw and heard things which they never saw nor heard yet a whole Nation was never supposed to have been persuaded out of their Senses at once and Moses could not attempt to make so many Men believe what they must all have known to have been false as well as himself if it had been so but he would have lard the Scene at a greater distance of time and not have brought those in as chiefly concerned in the whole business who were then alive and present to convince him of falshood And therefore if the Particulars set down in the Pentateuch be false and as ancient as Moses his time they must be invented with the knowledge and received by the consent of the whole Nation For Moses and Aaron could never so far delude so many thousands as to make them believe such variety of Matter of fact in so many and so wonderful Instances set forth and with such notorious Circumstances and appeal to the Senses of those whom they deceived whether they had not seen and perceived and had the experience of what had been done for so many years if it had been all but Fiction 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any confederacy or combination of Men after the death of Moses If the Miracles were feigned after the death of Moses either the Laws must likewise be invented or altered after his death and the Miracles inserted to procure them Authority or the Laws remained as they had been delivered by him and the Miracles only were added For the Books of Moses may be considered either as containing the Laws delivered by him or as relating the Miracles by which these Laws were ratified and established in each of which respects there could be no Forgery or Falsification For 1. The Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered or falsified because the whole Jewish State and Policy was founded upon them and could not subsist without them and therefore they must be as ancient as the Jewish Government which is confess'd on all hands to have been first erected by Moses For not only their Religious Worship but their Civil Rights and Interests depended entirely upon the Laws of Moses their Publick Proceedings and their Private Dealings one with another were all to be regulated and governed by these Laws and when any Laws are brought into constant use and practice in any Nation it is ridiculous to imagine that they can be altered and falsified and a new System of Laws introduced instead of them without the knowledge of the People governed by them or any remembrances of it left amongst them No material Alterations can be made in Laws which are of continual use and which concern every Man's Interest but they must be taken notice of and discovered by such as shall find themselves aggrieved by such Alterations But this was less practicable amongst the Jews than amongst any other People 1. Because the Distinction of their Tribes and the Genealogies which
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
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
moved to any alteration of Judgment by it His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Judg. 10.16 or it was shortned as the Hebrew word is literally translated in the Margin that is according to * Maimon More Nevoch Part 1. c. 41 47. Part. 3. c. 24. Maimonides the Lords mind was shortened from afflicting them or he had no longer a mind to punish them When God is said to see the meaning is that he knows what is done when he is said to hear this signifies that he understands what is said †Non enim aliquid ignorat Deus ut examinando cognosâ—â—â— â—ed sciat Deus ita dixit beatus Job ut scire alios faciat secundum illud tentat vos Deus Dominus ut sciat uâ—rum diligatis eum id est ut scire caeteros faciat Hieron in Job c. 31 6. Now I know that thou fearest God Gen. 22.12 that is now I have had the proof of it and have made it evident that I know it To prove thee to know what was in thine heart Deut. 8.2 is the same as to make that appear and become known which I know to be in thine heart Gen. 11.5 the Lord is said to come down to see the City and Tower of Babel and Gen. 18.20 Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know which implies that God is not forward or willing to punish but that he proceeds as men do in things about which they use most care and deliberation God is represented as a good Governour who is unwilling to believe ill Reports and will make a full enquiry and inspection into the case before he punish offenders or in short here is an illustration in Fact of that adorable character which God proclaims of himself the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34.6 God says that he could not destroy Sodom till Lot was escaped out of it Gen. 19.22 and to Moses he says Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them Exod. 32.10 But we must not imagin that the Reasons and Motives which Moses there represents to God in his prayer in behalf of the people of Israel could prevail more with him than his own infinite Wisdom and Goodness or that he could not have preserved Lot in the midst of Sodom as well as he delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abednego out of the Fiery Furnace But these things are thus exprest for an encouragement in Righteousness and to teach us dependance upon God for the righteous have power with God as well as with men and shall prevail Gen. 32.28 It was an exercise and trial of the Faith and Charity of Moses and is proposed as an example of Faith and Charity to all who should read that account of him Besides he was a Type of Christ and as such was to make intercession and attonement for the sins of the People Exod. 32.30 For Christ before his coming in the Flesh exercis'd his Mediatory power as to the visible administration of it by those who were appointed to be his Types and Representatives here upon Earth which may give a satisfactory account of that power which Abraham Jacob and Moses and others are said to have had with God The summ of all is that to give the more Force and Life to the Discourses of the Prophets and to render them the more effectual to the ends for which they were designed God who is by the infinite excellency of his Nature uncapable of any Passion is pleas'd to be represented as subject to Love and Anger and Hatred and all the Passions of Humanity and He who knows perfectly all events from Eternity is contented even to seem sometimes to doubt of the effects of his designs and proposals and of the events of humane Actions to shew as * Origen Philocal c. 23. Hieron Theodoret ad Ezek. 11.5 Origen St. Jerom and Theodoret have observ'd the freedom of Men and to declare that their destruction is from themselves He speaks to us in the Language of Men and assumes to himself all the Passions of humane nature that by any means sinners may be perswaded to turn to him he is described as angry and grieved at the sins of Men and as one who rejoyceth at their Repentance not that the Divine Nature can be capable of Anger or Grief or Rejoycing which imply change and imperfection and therefore must be impossible in the most absolutely perfect Being but because Men are wont to be angry when they punish and to be grieved when those do amiss whom they would have do well and are wont to rejoice when they begin to reform therefore to set forth that God will certainly punish unrepenting Sinners and receive the returning Penitent and reward the Righteous both the Goodness and Justice of God are explain'd in such terms as may most move and affect Men to shew that the punishments he inflicts will in the end be as grievous as if he receiv'd some loss and disappointment by the obstinacy of the Wicked and that he will as bountifully reward the Good as if they had done him some great benefit and kindness and had made some addition to his own Joy and Happiness which is infinite and eternal and therefore uncapable of any 3. The Decorum or suitableness of the matter in the stile of Scripture This is to be considered with respect to the Persons the Occasion and Time and Country the Rules of Decency being variable according to Circumstances not fix'd and immutable as the Precepts of Morality are * More Nevoch Par. 3. c. 8. Maimonides has observ'd that the Holy Tongue has no words to express things obscene and 't is very remarkable that in those ruder Ages as they are commonly reckon'd the Hebrews had peculiar forms of Decency in their Expressions upon all occasions which required them And to know in that signification which it hath Gen. 4.1 and in many other places of Scripture was likewise used by the Greeks and is particularly taken notice of by * Hermog de Invent. lib. 4. c. 11. Hermogenes for the modesty of it We find the Heroes of †Vid. Athenae lib. 1. c. 4. cum Casaub Animad De Antiquis illustrissimus quisque Pastor erat ut ostend it Greca Latina Lingua veteres Poetae Varro de Re Rustic lib. 2. c. 1. Homer employ'd in as mean Offices as the Patriarchs and * Herodot 6. c. 137. Herodotus declares that in Ancient Times the Greeks had no Servants but did their own work themselves or had no other help but that of their Children and 't is reasonable that their manner of speech should be suitable to their way of living
c. 7. in Ceylon the Noya will stand with half his Body upright for two or three hours together (q) See Mr. Mede lib. 1. Disâ—â— xli These may be for Monuments of the Truth of the Curse upon the rest as some of the Race of the Giants were left in the Land of Canaan till David's time as a Memorial to the Israelites of the Miraculous Power of God in the Conquest of the Land by their Forefathers The Curse of the Ground was for a Punishment to Adam and his Posterity and can be considered no otherwise nor be made matter of Objection unless it be thought unreasonable to inflict a Curse upon Mankind for this Offence of eating the Forbidden Fruit by making the Earth less fruitful and pleasant to them Tho' the Garden of Eden were the most delightful and happy Part of the Earth yet the whole Earth before the Fall was very different from what it has been since For if it had continued as it was the Curse and Punishment upon Mankind could not have been effected in that manner in which it was determined 2. Our First Parents were turned out of Paradise and not suffered to taste of the Tree of Life They had been charged not to eat of the Fruit in the midst of the Garden and Threatned with Death that is that they should become Mortal and be sure to die if they would presume to eat of it To be subject to Misery both in Body and Mind so that the Body should decay and at last be dissolved and the Soul which could not Perish should be miserable after its separation from the Body was the Original Notion of Death and our First Parents who had never feen what Natural dying was understood Death no otherwise than as a Privation of Happiness and consequently a State of Misery both in this Life and the next The first was unavoidable the latter to be avoided by Repentance and a future Obedience thro' Faith in God's Mercy for Christ's sake They were hindred from tasting of that Tree which was to have been the Means and Instrument of Immortality to them For God who has given a Medicinal Vertue and a Power of Nourishment to other Fruits and Herbs might convey a Power and Influence into this Tree of rendring Men Immortal by preventing the decays of Nature and Nourishing or Strengthning them to an endless Life How this should have been we are now no more able to know than to become immortal here upon Earth But this was God's Decree that Immortality should be annext to the tasting of that Tree and therefore our First Parents when they had incurred the Penalty of Death were not suffered to taste of it but were forced out of Paradise and it was just that they should be hindred from enjoying any longer the Delights of Paradise for the Transgression of a Commandment which wantonness only and a vain and criminal Curiosity could make them disobey We are able to give little more Account how the Food we now eat can nourish and sustain us from time to time for Threescore and Ten or Fourscore Years than how the Fruit of the Tree of Life should have been a preservative to keep Men alive for ever only this we have the Experience of and so fancy we can tell how it comes to pass but that is strange to us and what is strange Men wonder at and will hardly believe it But since God has endued our ordinary Food with a power of Nourishment no man can reasonably doubt but that he might endue this Fruit with such a Vertue that it should have made men immortal to Taste of it and have prevented that decay of Nature which now still creeps upon us in the use of other Food We may well suppose that if they had once tasted of this Fruit they should have suffered no Decay but have lived in constant Vigour here tho' partaking afterwards only of other Nourishment till they had been translated to Heaven Or it might be design'd not as a Physical but a Sacramental Cause of Immortality that is as a Sign and Pledge of Immortality God having decreed that upon the Tasting of this Fruit Adam and his Posterity should have been immortal But the Forbidden Fruit being of a most delicious Taste as well as pleasant to the Eyes and containing a very fermenting Juice might put the Blood and Spirits into great Disorder and thereby divest the Soul of that Power and Dominion which it had before over the Body and by a closer and more intimate Union with Matter might reduce it to that miserable Condition which has been propagated and derived down to Posterity with the Humane Nature from our First Parents as some Poysons now strangely affect the Nerves and Spirits without causing immediate Death but make such Alterations in the Body as are never to be cured And it could not be fitting that Man should become immortal in this Condition or that the Threatning of God however should not take place From what has been hitherto said upon this Subject I hope it is evident that there can be no necessity of running to Allegorical Interpretations to explain the Fall of our First Parents And indeed all the Reason that can be given why it is represented under an Allegory will rather prove the Litteral Sense For if the Simplicity and the Customs and Manner of Life in the Beginning of the World did require that the Fall of our First parents should be describ'd under an Allegory of this Nature for the very same Reasons we may suppose that the Fall was in this manner For what is it which makes it seem improbable but only its being disagreeable as some Men conceit to Reason But if it be absurd to suppose that such a thing should have been in the Beginning of the World why is it not as absurd that such a thing should be represented to those who liv'd at the beginning of the World as if it had been If this was then the most fitting and proper Representation of the Fall why was it not the most likely manner for it to happen by God's Dispensations are always fitted to the Capacities and Circumstances of those who are most concern'd in them and the Devil in his Temptations applies himself to the Circumstances of those whom he would seduce And it cannot be conceiv'd that the most remarkable Thing that ever has befaln Mankind except the Redemption of the World by Christ should so come to pass as not to be told to Posterity but in an Allegory For if the Litteral Truth had ever been known it was impossible it should be forgotten in so few Generations and that Moses should put an Allegory in the room of it Did the Children of Israel know the Historical Truth of the Fall or did they not know it If they did why should Moses disguise it under an Allegory rather than the rest of the Book of Genesis If they did not know it how could it be forgotten
been without abundance of Rites and Ceremonies And herein the Wisdom of God appears that to such a People and in such an Age he gave a Law so admirably proper and well contriv'd to preserve the Life and Substance of Religion under the Veil of Ceremonies and to prepare them for the coming of his Son when it was to be of no longer continuance The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. i. 17. that is the Grace of the Gospel and the Truth and Reality or Substance of those Things which were prefigured by the Law CHAP. XVI Of the Cessation of the Jewish Law OUR SAVIOUR was the GREAT PROPHET who was to come as Moses had foretold and who was expected at the time of His coming and it was likewise expected that that Prophet should work Miracles as Moses had done whom he was to be like and he was to be a Lawgiver as Moses had been The Jews had a general Expectation that the Messiah would manifest Himself by Miracles Joh. vii 31. Miracles had not been for a long time wrought in the Jewish Church but it was receiv'd as a known and undoubted Truth that they were to be reviv'd by Him The (x) Maiman More Nevoch Part 2. c. 36. Rabbins still teach that the Gift of Prophecy is to return at the coming of the Messiah according to God's express Promise And the Samaritans themselves had this Notion of the Messiah that he was to give full Instructions in all things relating to the Worship of God Joh. iv 25. And the Prophecies concerning the Birth and Life and Death of Christ in all things necessary to prove him the true Messiah were litterally fulfilled in our Saviour and those things which concern the Nature of His Kingdom have been explain'd by Him and his Apostles So that it being fully prov'd that Jesus is the Christ by the Accomplishment in Him of the Antient Prophecies concerning the Messiah we ought to rest satisfied in his Authority both for the Cessation of the Law of Moses and for any Explication which He and his Apostles have given us of it But this is not all we are able to prove against the Jews from the Books of the Old Testament that their Laws was to cease when the Messiah was come The Gospel is so far from containing any thing contrary to the Law that it is the Fulfilling and Accomplishment of it The Moral Precepts are improv'd and advanced and the Ceremonial and Ritual Part was not properly abrogated and abolish'd but it continued for as long time as it was design'd to do and then expir'd of it self it serv'd these Ends for which it was instituted and afterwards must of consequence cease The Ceremonial Worship therefore was permitted to the Jews who became Converts to the Christian Faith till the Destruction of their City and Temple and then it was no longer practicable but must of necessity cease and the Cessation of the Law of Moses when once it had its Period and Accomplishment was as much the Will of the Legislator at its first Institution as its former Obligation could be The Jewish Law being Figurative and Typical it follows that it was to cease of course when the Things prefigur'd and typified by it should be brought to pass that is when the Messiah should come For then the Types and Figures being fulfilled could be of no longer use nor the Law which enjoyn'd them of any longer continuance when once this Principal Reason of it ceased and all other ends design'd by it might be better attain'd without it by the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth And this Law was so contriv'd as not only to expire upon the fulfilling of it by the Messiah but to become impracticable and impossible to be observ'd afterwards I shall therefore prove the Cessation of the Jewish Law I. Because the Messiah is come in whom it was fulfilled II. Because it was foretold by the Prophets that the Law should cease upon the coming of the Messiah III. Because after the coming of the Messiah it was to become impracticable and impossible to be observ'd 1. The Messiah is come in whom the Law is fulfilled As the coming of the Messiah was prefigur'd in the various Types and Ceremonies of the Law which were therefore to receive their Accomplishment in him so it is manifest that our Saviour is the Messiah since the Prophecies concerning the Messiah have been all fulfill'd in Him This has been already prov'd at large and the Prophecies of Zechariah and Malachy are so very plainly and undeniably fulfilled that (a) Munster de stessia some of the Jews to evade them have been forced to say that the Messiah was born before the Destruction of the second Temple tho' he doth not yet appear but that he was seen at Rome and has ever since lain conceal'd as Moses did in the House of Pharaoh and that the time will come when he shall require the Dismission of the Jews from the Pope as Moses demanded of Pharaoh the Dismission of the Children of Israel But they say that he defers the Manifestation of himself by reason of their Sins and upon this account have made many solemn Humiliations to implore his Help and hasten his coming particularly A. D. MDII. they appointed a Publick Humiliation for Young and Old Men Women and Children in all Parts of the World for nigh a whole Year together (b) Just Martyr Dialog Trypho did not deny that Christ was born and might be somewhere unknown but said that he could not know himself to be Christ nor work Miracles till Elias had anointed him and manifested him to the World (x) Muâ—ster ib. Others have said that there is to be a Third Temple and during the time of the last the Messiah will come only because Abraham call'd the Place where the Temple stood a Mountain Isaaâ— a Field and Jacob an House Some are of Opinion that their Sins hinder his coming some again think that they are neither sinful enough nor righteous enough For say they he must come in a Generation altogether sinful or altogether righteous The Prophecy of Daniel's Weeks is so punctually in all its Circumstances fulfilled that not only (f) Joseph Antiqu judiac lib. x. c. 12. Secundum Scriptum Judai apud Limborch Josephus and the modern Jews apply it to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus but (i) Lud. Viv. de ver Fid. lib. 3. some of the Jews when they could not deny the Computation to be true and to agree exactly with the time of our Saviour's Birth have even dared to say that Daniel himself was mistaken in the Account others have confest that all the Terms of Time assigned for the coming of the Messiah are past and that now their only hopes of deliverance and redemption are to be placed in their Repentance and others lay a Curse upon such as presume to fix any particular Time for the
to make known his Name and Truth among the Gentiles In the time of Moses this People it self was uncapable of that pure and Spiritual Worship which the Messiah was to appoint and stood in need of a Ceremonial Law and Service to restrain them from Idolatry and to preserve the sense and remembrance of the Promises and Laws deliver'd to Adam and Noah And this Ritual Service was unworthy that the Messiah should come purposely to appoint it who was indeed himself the principal thing signified and typified by it and the Types and Figures of himself could not be Instituted by himself in Person for then they would have been insignificant and there could have been no use or occasion for them But the most Excellent and Divine Institution was reserv'd for his Appointment to which all the rest was but preparatory The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made Gal. iii. 19. After the Revelation of God's Will and Commandments had thro' the great neglect and wickedness of Mankind become ineffectual God sent all his Servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them an expression setting forth his great care and watchfulness over his People for their good yet they hearkned not unto him nor enclin'd their ear but hardned their neck Jer. vii 25 26. To Cure this strange stubbornness and their proneness to Idolatry God sent this People into Captivity for Seventy years which wrought so thorough a Reformation in them that they were never afterwards given to Idolatry but endur'd all extremities of Torments rather than they would be brought to any compliance with the Heathen Worship and therefore there could be no longer such necessity that the Ceremonial Law should be continu'd to them to keep them from the Worship of Idols But in other respects their Provocations were still very great And as the Lord in the Parable first sent his Servants and last of all his Son saying they will reverence my Son and thereby left those wicked Men without excuse and manifested the Justice of his Vengeance upon the Murtherers of his own Son So God first sent his Prophets and when the Jews who had been train'd in the knowledge and worship of him and were to conveigh it to other Nations would not be reclaim'd by them but revil'd and destroy'd them and then set up their own Traditions in opposition to their Doctrines he sends his Beloved Son before he would utterly take away their City and Nation and effected that by the death of his Son whom they Crucified which the experience of so many Ages had shewn could be effected no other way God reveal'd himself at sundry times and in divers manners and in his Infinite Wisdom proportioned the ways and measure of his Revelations to the capacities and the necessities of the several Ages in which they were made till at last he hath spoken unto us by his Son Heb. i. 1 2. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. iv 3 4. 2. The Reception of Christ and his Gospel in the World would have been much more difficult if so many Prophets in so many several Ages had not foretold his coming Our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him appeal to Moses and the Prophets for the truth of their Doctrine this was the great Argument which they us'd to the Jews in Confirmation even of their Miracles themselves they prov'd that the Prophets had foretold that Christ should come at that very time when he came and that he should work those Miracles which he wrought and should empower his Disciples to do the like his Death and Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost were all Prophesied of and Prophecies thus foretelling the Miracles and Miracles fullfilling the Prophecies and both mutually confirming and supporting each other afforded all the Evidence that could be given for Prophecies and Miracles are all the ways by which God can be supposed to reveal himself to Mankind And therefore thousands of the Jews were convinc'd out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ and were Converted to the Christian Faith And the Prophecies concerning the Messiah are still an unanswerable Argument in vindication of our Religion which Argument we must have wanted if our blessed Saviour had come so much sooner as not to have been Prophesied of so many Ages beforehand And those who reject the Gospel now would have thought they had had much more Reason on their side than they can now pretend to have for there had then been so much less means for their Conviction So that the coming of our Saviour was deferr'd to give the greater Evidence and the fuller conviction of his being the Christ It would have been hard to believe that the Son of God should come into the World with little or no notice given of it beforehand and few or no Prophets sent to foretell his coming and prepare his way But when he had been so long before Prophesy'd of even from the beginning of the World thro' the several Ages of it when there had been a general expectation of the Messiah to be born and the Time and Place and Tribe and Family and Person of whom he was to be born by degrees and at several times had been foretold when Mens hopes and desires to see him were thus from Age to Age awakened and alarmed this was a Solemnity worthy to introduce and attend the Son of God into the World and a Method which would prove a standing Evidence of his being come into it 3. The time of Christ's coming may depend upon things which we are uncapable of knowing For it may depend upon the duration of the World and it is impossible for any Man to know how long that shall be The Scripture speaks of the times of the Gospel under the Phrase of the last Days but this is to be understood in relation not to the continuance of the World but to the Christian Dispensation which is the last means of Salvation that God will vouchsase to Mankind and with regard to the Jewish Church and Government which was just then at an end as I shall shew in the next Chapter Now if the World may continue as long under the dispensation of the Gospel as it had done before it and no Man can tell but it may we shall find little cause to wonder that Christ was not sooner born into the World For we find that the Faith and Zeal of Christians decays as we are at a farther distance of time from the Incarnation of our Saviour and the first propagation of his Gospel and the length of the time it self proves a temptation to some to disbelieve it for men are apt to give less credit to what happened long ago and to think themselves less concern'd in it
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an
the Greeks as the Scriptures mention the children of Israel and other Greek Authors say the children of the Physicians as the Scriptures say the children of the Bride-chamber and the children of Light * Grot. ad 4. Reg. 19.2 ad Ezech. initio Grotius compares Isaiah to Demosthenes a sublime but a most natural and judicious writer the same Author compares Ezekiel to Homer for the beauty and nobleness of his style †Pref. to Pindarick Odes and Notes upon Pind. Ode â—n Isai 34. Mr Cowley compares the Prophets especially Isaiah to Pindar but of Pindar he says that if a man should undertake to translate him word for word it would be thought that one mad man had translated another For which he gives this reason that we must consider in Pindar the great difference of time betwixt his Age and ours which changes us in Pictures at least the colours of Poetry the no less difference betwixt the Religions and Customs of our Countries and a thousand particularities of Places Persons and Manners which do but confusedly appear to our eyes at so great a distance and lastly we must consider that our ears are strangers to the Musick of his numbers which sometimes especially in Songs and Odes almost without any thing else makes an excellent Poet. And of David he observes that the best Translators have been so far from doing Honour or at least Justice to that Divine Poet that methinks says he they revile him worse than Shimei And Buchanan himself comes in his opinion no less short of David than his Country does of Judea Yet Isaiah and the râ—â—â— of the Prophets and the Psalms are translated into our Language word for word as far as it is possible for one Language to be thus render'd into another and notwithstanding all the differences of Time and Place and Customs and Persons no sensible man reads them in the English Tongue but he must acknowledge that their style with all these disadvantages is truly great and excellent Whereas * Quod sicui non videtur Linguae gratiam interpretatione mutari Homerum ad verbum exprimat in Latinum Plus aliquid dicam eundem in fuâ linguâ prosae verbis interpretetur videbit ordinem ridiculum Poetam eloquentissimum vix loquentem Hieron Praef. in Chron. Euseb there are none of the Heathen Authors that are so much esteemed which if they were literally translated as the Scriptures are would bear the reading but they would appear ridiculous and impossible to be understood For the Spirit and Genius and peculiar Idioms of most Tongues being so very different one from another and depending upon the Customs and Humours of the people of several Countries it was the evident care and providence of God to cause great part of the Scriptures tho written by so many different men and at such distant times and some Books of them in the earlier Ages of the World to be penned in such a language and style as is most natural and which without any want of Art exceeds the most artificial and studied Eloquence in sublime and noble thoughts and expressions and in all the beauties and ornaments of Speech and yet which in all the necessary points of Salvation is easie to be understood under all the disadvantages of a Verbal Translation by men of ordinary capacities who live so many Ages after The Prophesies of Isaiah cannot be read or heard or thought of without being moved by them with what Life then with what Zeal and Flame must they have been delivered And what a mighty Blessing was such a Prophet to his own Age and to all succeeding Generations Of Royal Blood and of a Style and Behaviour suitable to his Birth of Divine Virtues and of Divine Eloquence He declares things which were not to be fulfilled till many Ages afterwards as plainly as if he had seen them before his eyes and would make all others to see them he speaks of Christ as clearly as if with Simeon he had had his Saviour in his arms or with the Wise men had been kneeling down before him and presenting him with more precious Gifts than any they had to offer and describes his Passion as fully as if he had followed him through every part of it and having been Crucified with him had been just entring with him into Paradice If this be thought a Digression from my subject I hope it may easily be excused for who can speak of Isaiah without a Digression when men choose the food of Swine and trample upon Pearls as things of no value as if he and the other Prophets had always the hard fate to preach to the Rulers of Sodom and the People of Gomorrha But if the style of the Scriptures be not in all places alike excellent and exact let it be considered that 1. The same stile is not suitable to all subjects and the stile and dialect is different according to the difference of the matter or of the persons for whose use it was immediately designed What concerns the Assyrian Monarchy in the Prophet Daniel is in the Chaldee Tongue and what relates directly to the Jews is in the Hebrew Part of Ezra is in Chaldee being a relation of Matter of Fact contained in the Chaldee Chronicles and Jer. 10.11 is in the same Tongue that the Jews might reject the Idolatry of the Chaldeans in their Language and openly profess their own abhorrence of it And as upon these occasions the Language of Scripture is changed with respect to the subject and the persons concerned so the style must be sometimes altered upon the same account 2. Artificial strains of Rhetorick whereby the passions are moved to the utmost heighth were very necessary to gain a present point and carrry a Cause by a violent and sudden transport before Reason could interpose But Religion being to be propounded upon reasonable motives there could be no need of Rhetorick when the evidence of those Miracles by which it was established afforded so many other more certain and powerful means of perswasion The Scriptures are not written in the enticing words of mans wisdom but in truth and simplicity and therefore might well have been without any advantages of Eloquence as needing no such helps to recommend them to serious and impartial Minds And tho God has been pleased to condescend so far to the infirmities of men as to convey very much of his Revealed Will to us in such a style as for its own sake is highly to be esteemed and admired Yet it was fit that other parts of the Scriptures should have the bare force and evidence of truth only to convince men that it might appear that our Religion was propagated not by any Arts of humane Eloquence but by its own Worth and Excellency For Eloquence was not used where it would have been most necessary if any humane means could be so in asserting and propagating the Divine Truth In the propagation of the Gospel all the
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in