subject but also by the Rules of that Religion which they had been bred up in by which they had been expresly forbidden to lye one to another and by which they had been taught that a False Witness that speaketh Lyes is an Abomination to the Lord. Lev. 19.11 Pro. 6.16 19. and especially by the strict Command of him whom they had lately taken for their Master and whose Laws and Religion they were to preach and propagate in the World by which they were obliged and under the severest Penalty no less than Eternal Damnation to put away all Lying Eph. 4.25 Rev. 21.8 and to speak every Man the Truth to his Neighbour The Subject Matter of their Relation did also lay upon them the strongest Obligation to have a strict Regard to Truth in every thing that they wrote For if it be a Sin to speak an Untruth in any common Matter it is manifestly a greater Sin to do it in grave and serious Things when Truth is most expected and especially in Matters of Religion wherein a Lye is most unbecoming And if it be a Sin to utter a Slander or to tell a Lye of a Man it is evidently a Sin of a more heinous Nature to report an Untruth concerning God and to utter a Falshood in the Name of God And if to lead Men into any Mistake by a false Relation be a Practice not to be justified altho' the Mistake they are led into be of no hurtful Consequence either to themselves or to the World it is evidently a great Aggravation of the Lye if Men are thereby deceived in a Case of the nearest and dearest Concern to them if they are led thereby into an Error that may prove fatal to them to all Eternity And lastly If it be a very great Sin only once to speak an Untruth that may be prejudicial to one Man it is plainly the greatest and the most unpardonable Sin of this kind to record an Untruth with a Design thereby to deceive to their Everlasting Destruction all the Men that shall ever be born into the World in all future Ages If therefore the Gospel History be false there was manifestly such a Complication of most horrid Wickedness in the Publishers and Compilers of it as it is not fair to suppose even one single Man would be guilty of and much less can it be reasonably supposed that several Men viz. not only the Four Evangelists but all the other Apostles who preached the same things that they wrote did consent to the reporting of so many and such notorious and hurtful Untruths But this it may be it will be said is not a direct proof that the Evangelists were true and faithful in their Relations but only a probable ground of presuming that they were so And I grant it is no more But nevertheless I think if nothing more could be offered this alone wou'd be sufficient to render their Testimony highly credible so long as nothing is alledged on the other side to disprove it And in all other Cases we allow it to be so For by the Testimony of Persons of whose Truth we have no other Assurance but such a probable Presumption all Questions and Controversies of the greatest Concern relating to the Lives and Estates of Men are in this World finally decided every Man that bears Witness in any such Case being by the common Judgment of Mankind taken and accepted as a good Witness unless the contrary appears And by the Testimony of two or three such Witnesses we all consent that every Matter should be established But then I add further that besides this reasonable Presumption of the Truth of the Witnesses of the Gospel History which is all that we ordinarily have or do desire in other Cases there is as good positive Proof of their Truth as can be required And this was the next Thing propos'd to be consider'd viz. 4 The good Evidences that we have of their Honesty and Faithfulness And here it may be noted for tho' it be a thing that we lay no great stress upon in this Case yet I think 't is not to be omitted because 't is one of the best Evidences that we can have of the Faithfulness of any Historian whose personal Character is unknown to us that the Authors of the Evangelical History seem to have related all Matters with the greatest Impartiality that they seem as free in telling the things that were or might be accounted disgraceful to their Master or themselves as in telling those things that were most glorious and reputable For thus in their History of the Life of Christ as they tell us the wonderfulness of his Birth the many Miracles that he wrought the Testimony that was given him by the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon him and by the Voice of God his Glorious Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven so they stick not to tell us also the Meanness of his Parentage the Obscurity of his Birth his poor and low Condition in the World the Affronts that were given him the Contempt he was had in and the shameful Death he was put to And of themselves They have left it upon Record to all Posterity that they were of the meanest Extraction and bred up to very poor or scandalous Employments that they were Fisher-Men Tent-Makers Publicans They own that they were ignorant and unlearned Men they tell their own Childish Mistakes about the Nature of the Kingdom of the Messiah they mention their own foolish and ambitious Contentions with one another about worldly Greatness they confess their own Baseness and Cowardice in forsaking their Master when in Danger after the most solemn Profession of Friendship and repeated Assurances of Stedfastness and Fidelity St. Peter's Denial of Christ is a thing noted by all the Evangelists and by St. Peter himself if the Gospel of St. Mark be accounted his is told with its worst Circumstances and St. Paul freely owns that before his Conversion to Christianity he was a Blasphemer a Persecutor and injurious and the chief of Sinners Now their Recording such things as these concerning their Master and themselves as it is an Evidence of their Impartiality is consequently a good Argument of the Truth of their History for had they allowed themselves a Liberty of varying from the Truth in any particular it cannot be imagin'd but that they would at least have concealed their own Frailties and Infirmities it can't be suppos'd they would have furnished their Adversaries with Matter wherewith to reproach them But 't is possible that an Historian who means to deceive his Readers in some Matter of greater Moment may purposely insert some few such Passages as these thereby to gain himself an easier Belief in other Things and to cover his wicked Design 'T is therefore another and a better Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel History that the Evangelists and other Witnesses of the Facts recorded in the Gospels were Persons not liable to any just
gratifie Men in this unreasonable Desire working every Day new Miracles before their Eyes or sending their deceased Friends to them from the dead to assure them of a future State and to warn them to prepare for it 't is highly probable that very few or none of those who do not believe and are not brought to Repentance by the Preaching and standing Revelation of the Gospel would be perswaded by this Means If they hear not Moses and the Prophets nor Christ and his Apostles neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead I. I shall endeavour to shew that the present standing Revelation of God's Will contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament is abundantly sufficient to perswade Men to Repentance if they are not unreasonably blind and obstinate They have Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles let them hear them And I think that if the standing Revelation which God hath made of his Will in the Holy Scriptures can upon any account be thought insufficient to effect this Design it must be upon one of these two Accounts viz. Either 1. Because no standing Revelation can be sufficient for this Purpose Or 2. Because there are some particular Defects in that standing Revelation which we have in the Holy Scripture which render it not so sufficient for this Purpose as 't is possible a standing Revelation might be 1. It may be pretended that no standing Revelation can be sufficient for this Purpose I am now therefore to enquire with what Reason this can be pretended And in speaking to this Point it does not lie upon me to prove that God could not reveal his Mind afresh to every Man in every Age of the World if he so pleased for there is no question but that the same God who in divers manners spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets could if he pleased speak to every one of us their Children in such Manner as he then spake to the Prophets themselves so that we might be all immediately taught of God as they were But every thing that may be done is not expedient to be done And whether this Method would be expedient or not will be hereafter enquired Neither does it now lie upon me to prove that this Way which God hath thought fit to take to instruct the greatest Part of the World viz. by a standing Revelation is the best Way and the most like to be effectual of any that could be used Of this I shall likewise have Occasion to speak somewhat hereafter But what lies upon me at present to make good is only this That a standing Revelation of God's Will may be so well contrived and so well attested as to be sufficient to perswade Men. And if there be any Ground for the contrary Pretence I think it must be either 1. Because all Matters necessary to be known and done by Men at all Times cannot at once be committed to Writing Or 2. Because there cannot be sufficient Evidence given to satisfie a Rational Man that any Writing that is said to be of divine Inspiration and Authority is indeed so 1. It may be said That all Matters necessary to be known and done by Men at all Times cannot be at once committed to Writing Because every Age of the World produces new Opinions which whether they be erroneous or not cannot be judged by a Criterion that was given many Ages before these Opinions were broached And as the World grows older in Years it likewise improves in Wickedness which cannot be restrained and suppressed by an old Law which was made before several Instances of those Wickednesses that are now practised were either known or thought of And if it were not so what need would there be of such a number of Books as are written in every Age to direct Men how to distinguish between Truth and Error and what Opinions to fix upon in that great Variety of Opinions that are offered to them Or what need would there be of so many new Laws as are daily made in every Commonwealth to restrain the growing Extravagances of Mankind and to keep them within due Bounds So that if there be any Necessity at all of divine Revelation to teach Men the Belief of Truth and the Practice of Righteousness it is necessary that there should be a new and fresh Revelation made at least as often as any new Error is broached or any new Piece of Villainy is practised in the World But to this Objection against the Sufficiency of a Standing Revelation I suppose a full Answer will be given in these two particulars 1. That there is no Arguing from the Wisdom and Power of Men to the Wisdom and Power of God It may be granted to be impossible for a Man to write such a Book as shall be sufficient to confute all the Errors that can possibly at any time afterwards spring up Or to compile such a Body of Laws as shall be sufficient to prevent or punish all future Crimes But what is impossible with Men may be possible with God who has a perfect Foresight of all the Errors that will ever be broached and of all the Wickedness that will ever be practised by Men to the End of the World To a Being of infinite Wisdom and Knowledge it may be not only possible but very easie so to contrive a Revelation designed by him for the Direction of future Ages that no Addition shall ever after need to be made to it Nay indeed 2. The Thing it self that is That a standing Revelation should be thus perfect that it should be so contrived at once and at first as to be sufficient to answer all the Ends of a divine Revelation as long as the World shall last is not very hard to be conceived For tho' Error be infinite Truth at least all Truth necessary to be believed is finite and limited And after a divine Revelation is once given no more is necessary to be believed in after Ages than was at first nor will there ever be more things necessary to be believed to the End of the World unless God shall please to add some new Revelation to the former And this Revelation of all necessary Truth once made being given to Men that are endued with Reason nothing more is or ever will be needful for the Discovery and Confutation of all Errors that can possibly spring up in after Ages but only a right Understanding of the Truths already delivered and a right Use of Reason in making Inferences and drawing Consequences therefrom And this is all that is pretended to by the Books of Controversie that are written in every Age The Design of them is not to declare new Truths or to establish new Articles of Faith but only to shew that those Opinions which they represent as false and erroneous are either in themselves or in their true Consequences contrary to some Maxims that are already receiv'd as true And it is no
of Books as written by such and such Authors without sufficient Assurance thereof But I believe the Truth is There are some Men who for Reasons best known to themselves but which may some of them be easily enough guessed at will not allow that to be sufficient Evidence that a Book was written by a Prophet or an Apostle which they must and do allow to be sufficient Evidence in any other Case of the like Nature For in other Cases we make no Doubt to receive a Book as written by such an Author if he owns himself to be the Author of it or if it be shewn written with his own Hand or if they that are the Publishers of it declare that they had it from him as his own or that they transcribed or printed it from a Copy which they knew to be of his Hand-writing or if it passes current in common Fame and Report to be his and his most intimate friends believe it so and he himself does not disown it and there be none else that pretend any Claim or Title to it Where these or most of these Circumstances do concurr we never doubt but that the Person said to be the Author of such a Book is so indeed unless there be some very clear Reason grounded upon the known Incapacity of the Person to write in such a Language in such a Stile concerning such a Subject or the like whereby it may be demonstrated that whoever was he could not be the Author of it The truth is Now adays and I suppose the Case was much the same formerly whoever is the true Author of any Book finds very little Difficulty to make Men believe that the Book is his the greatest Difficulty is for a Man to conceal himself in case he be not willing to be known to be the Author of it And when once a Book is generally receiv'd as written by such a Person when I say 't is thus receiv'd in that Age in which it was first publish'd and by those that were in the best Capacity to inquire and to judge who was the true Author of it they that live in after times never think it reasonable to question the Authority thereof unless there be evidently something either in the Language Dialect or Stile or else in the Matter of the Book as in the Relation of some Piece of History the References to some ancient Customs the Citations out of other Authors or the like by which it may be clearly made out that the Book cannot be of such Antiquity as it pretends to or could not be the Writing of that Person who is reported and has been commonly taken to be the Author of it Upon such Reasons as these a great many Books are every Day received as written by such and such Authors and tho' we cannot be so sure of a thing that we believe upon these Inducements as we are of what we see with our own Eyes yet such Reasons as these are by the general Consent of Mankind judged to be sufficient in a Matter of this Nature which is hardly capable of better Proof And for a Man to disallow in one Case that same Evidence of the Truth of a Matter of Fact which in other Cases of the like kind he allows to be sufficient for a Man to receive a Book as written by another Person and not to receive a Book as written by a Prophet or an Apostle when he has as much Reason to receive one as the other and no more Reason to reject one than the other is not Judgment or Discretion or reasonable Caution but manifest Prejudice and Partiality But 2. It was further said That tho' we might be well enough assured that a Book was written by the Person who is said to be the Author of it there is no Way to be sufficiently assured that who he was the Author of it did not design to impose upon his Readers It seems then there is no Way to be sufficiently satisfied that any Man is an honest Man and fit to be credited that he does not lye in every thing he says and intend a Cheat in every thing he does For if a Man may be believed in what he says he may as well be believed in what he writes And if he may be trusted in one Concern he may be as safely trusted in another unless good Reason can be shewed to the contrary But in judging of humane Nature in general Men commonly judge of others by themselves What they are inclined to they think is the Inclination of Mankind what they allow themselves in they think others whatever they may pretend make as little scruple of as they do what they freely practice they make no Doubt other Men would practise as freely on the same Occasions and upon the same Inducements So that when any Man is so very suspectful of the Honesty and Veracity of other Men it gives but too just Ground to think that the Reason of his Aptness to distrust all others is his Consciousness of his own evil Designs and of the little Regard that he himself has to Truth in his own Assertions And if those he has to deal with should refuse to give any Credit to any thing that he affirms because according to his own declared Opinion very little Credit can reasonably be given to the Report and Affirmation of others I do not see with what Reason he can blame them for so doing Not but that after all 't is possible that a Man may 't is doubtless what has been done by some give out a Report or write Book on purpose to deceive Mankind But nevertheless I say that it ought not without very good Reason to be suspected that this is any Man's Design and that we may have Assurance enough that a thing is not which yet we must grant was possible to have been Particularly as to the Matter we are now speaking of First In case the Author of any Book or of any Report relates a Matter of Fact of which there are not nor well could be any other Witnesses but himself as if he says that he has received from God such a Revelation with order to publish it to the World or that he himself was an Eye or Ear-witness that such a thing was privately done or spoken by another the Credibility of such a Report whether written or spoken depends Partly upon the Nature of the Report its self Partly upon the Credit of its Author And partly upon the Proofs that he gives of his Honesty and Veracity in that particular And where there is a full Concurrence of all these that is When the Matter of the Report is credible in its self when its Author is a Person of Credit and when he gives the best Proofs that can be of his Veracity in that particular there is no Reason to reject his Testimony there is sufficient Reason to give Credit to it 1. If the Matter of his Report be credible in its
self And if what he reports be that he himself has receiv'd such a Revelation from God with order to publish it to the World I say that this Report in the general is a credible Report because it is very agreeable to the Goodness of God and therefore not unlikely that he should impart to Men by a special Revelation such things as are very useful for them to know and which could not be known or not so well not so fully clearly and certainly any other Way as by Revelation and 't is certainly not incredible that he that has given us a Tongue to utter Words and Skill to express thereby our Thoughts to one another should have Power and Means to reveal and express his own Mind in such a Manner that a Man may understand his Meaning and 't is likewise certainly not incredible in its self that God intending to declare his Will to Mankind should make Use of the Ministry of a Man for this Purpose and having made known his Will to one Man give him Commission to communicate the same to others If therefore there be any thing incredible in the Report of a divine Revelation it must be in the special Matter of it But altho' the particular Matter of any such divine Revelation be such a thing as we could never have found out by natural Reason I say it is nevertheless credible as a Matter divinely revealed if it implies no Contradiction if it be not contrary to natural Reason if it be not repugnant to a former divine Revelation that is well attested and if it be a Doctrine worthy of God that is If in its true Consequences it has no Tendency to encourage Sin but on the contrary has a plain Tendency to promote the Practice of Piety and Virtue among Men. Against such a Revelation as this there can be no just Objection made from the Matter of it There is no Improbability that such a Thing as this should be the Subject of a divine Revelation Or if what he reports be that he himself was by when such a thing was privately done or spoken by another In this case the Matter of his Report is credible in its self if what he says he was an Eye or Ear-witness of be a proper Object of those senses if it be not an impossible thing if it does not imply a Contradiction And in this case the Difficulty the Strangeness the Uncommonness of the Thing it s being a thing that was never known to be done or said before or which no account can be given of by Reason or natural Causes is no just Exception to the Truth of it There is nothing in this kind absolutely incredible but what is plainly impossible But 2. The Credibility of any Report supposing the Matter of it to be credible depends in good Measure upon the Credit of its Author And then a Man may reasonably be thought an Author or a Witness of good Credit in Matters of his own Knowledge when he appears and by all his other Words and Actions shews himself to be grave sober considerate and in his right Wits when he is a Person of unblemished Reputation when he was never known to lye or feign or deceive in other Cases when he gives no just Ground to suspect that he is an intrigueing or designing Person And lastly when he himself is no Party to the Cause has no worldly Interest carrying on in it no Design of Honour or Profit or other temporal Advantage that to appearance can be served by his giving such Testimony when he will be neither the better if his Report be credited nor the worse if it be not believed Such a Witness as this cannot reasonably be excepted against 3. But 3dly Even such a Report made by such a Person is still further credible in case he gives also the best Proofs that can be given or that the Case will bear of his Veracity in that Particular And 't is one very good Token of a Man 's own firm Perswasion of the Truth of what he says if he gives his Testimony in a grave and serious Manner and if he appears to have at that Time a good sense of Religion in his Mind Upon which Account a Solemn Oath by which God is called upon to witness the Truth of what is said is reck'ned the greatest Assurance that ordinarily can be given of the Truth of any humane Testimony and therefore by Evidence given upon Oath all Questions of the greatest Consequence to Men in this World are finally decided Heb. 6.16 An Oath for Confirmation is to Men an End of all Strife Seeing therefore that the great Credit that is given to an Oath is grounded upon that serious Sense of Religion which the Witness is supposed to have in his Mind when he declares that he speaks as in the Presence of Almighty God whenever there is good Evidence given by any Person of the same serious Sense of Religion his Testimony ' tho' without the Formality of an Oath is not less credible Again It is a further Token of a Man's firm Belief of what he reports or affirms in case the Matter of his Report being such as is naturally influential upon Practice he himself lives and acts in all Respects agreeably thereto And especially if in Consequence thereof he declines making such Gain and Profit to himself as 't is probable he would have done had he been otherwise perswaded and denies himself those worldly Pleasures and Sensual Gratifications which other Men not so persuaded do freely allow themselves in and voluntarily undertakes such Labours and endures such Hardships as it can hardly be supposed any Man of another Perswasion would undergo But the surest Token that any Man can give of his Veracity is persisting in the Evidence he has once given to the last When no Promises of Wealth Honour or Promotion can perswade him to forbear speaking the things which he has seen and heard when being brought before Kings and Rulers and straitly threatned to hold his Peace he is thereby rather the more emboldened to speak when being racked and tortured to retract his Evidence he continues in the midst of the greatest Torments to witness the same thing that he did before And in fine when having a certain Prospect before him of losing all that can be dear to him in this World and even his Life its self unless he will either go back from what he has said or at least forbear to repeat and confirm it he willingly and chearfully seals his Testimony with his Blood Such Assurance as this we may have of the Honesty and Veracity of a Person that witnesses a thing only of his own private Knowledge And this being the best we can have he 's an unreasonable Man that desires more or says this is not sufficient But Secondly in Case the Author of any Book or of any Report relates a Thing that was done or spoken publickly in the Sight or Hearing of many
others besides himself we may have still greater Assurance of his Honesty and Veracity and of the Truth of the Report its self And we have so we have I think the the greatest that can be if after the Report is published especially if it be a Matter of great Consequence to the World it be not contradicted by any of those that were present and much rather if they all or a great many of them agree in testifying the same thing Especially if they also are Persons of the like good Credit and if they also give the same Proofs and Tokens of their Veracity that he did Such Evidence as this of the Veracity of any Author in what he writes is beyond all reasonable Exception And therefore when many and especially when all these Evidences of Truth and Honesty do concurr I think we may be sufficiently assured that he did not design to impose upon his Readers But 3. If we may be well enough assured of the Author of any Book and also of his Honesty yet it was further objected that this Author whoever he was could not be sure that he himself was not deceived in his Opinion of his own Inspiration or of a Revelation made to him Or in the Truth of any other Matter of Fact which he has related as of his own Knowledge But first If he could not be sure of his own Inspiration or of a Revelation made to himself how then could any Man now a days be sure of the same if God should vouchsafe to speak to us now as 't is said he did in former times to the Prophets and other inspir'd Men by himself or an Angel So that this Objection if it be well grounded cuts off not only all reasonable Belief of former Revelations but likewise all reasonable Belief of any Revelation that can now be made to our selves or others And 't is to no Purpose to offer at any thing to convince those of the Truth of any Revelation who are of Opinion that even the infinite Power and Wisdom of God cannot make such a Revelation of his Will to them as would be credible such as they should reasonably judge sufficient for their Conviction This therefore is all that I shall say to this Part of the Objection that if they suppose as they seem to do that Almighty God cannot any ways so reveal his Will to any Man as that the Prophet himself can be assured that it is a divine Revelation they suppose God to be of less Power and Skill than a Man is who can utter his Mind in such a Manner to another that the other shall have no Doubt who it is that speaks or what he means But if they will but vouchsafe to grant that God could now speak or otherwise reveal his Will in such Manner to us as that we could not possibly have any Doubt whether it was the Voice of God or an Angel or not then I say there can be no Question but that he might speak in as plain a Manner to Men in former Times and there is almost as little Question but that he has done so But many it may be said have pretended to Inspiration or Revelations and we have Reason to believe have thought themselves inspired when yet the Matter they have said they were inspired with or which they have said has been revealed to them has been such as has clearly evidenced to all rational Men the Falsity of their Pretence True And so likewise many Men have thought themselves at such a Place in such a Company hearing seeing speaking or doing such and such things when yet as it proves afterwards they have been all the while only in a Dream But what then Does it follow that because a Man may think himself awake when he is in a Dream he can therefore never be sure that he is awake And as little does it follow that because some Persons of weak or distempered Brains have thought they have had Revelations therefore no sober and judicious Man in his right Wits can ever be sure of a Revelation But suppose a Man at the first being as it may well be imagined he must be in a great Surprize and Astonishment at the Strangeness and Novelty of the thing should not be very certain of the Reality of the Revelation should not well know whether he was awake or asleep yet certainly the same signs which are sufficient afterwards to satisfie other Men of the Truth of his Inspiration or Revelation must be allowed to be sufficient to satisfie himself of the same thing And therefore If Moses for instance when God first spake to him in Horeb out of the burning Bush Exod. 3. was in some Doubt whether he was in a Trance or awake and in his right Mind whether he really heard a Voice or only dream'd so it can't well be supposed that he continued in the same Doubt afterwards when having at God's Command cast his Rod upon the Ground Exod. 4.3 4. it became a Serpent and having at the same divine Command taken it up by the Tail it became a Rod again in his Hand And when after that V. 6 7. by his first putting his Hand into his Bosom it became leprous as Snow and after his putting it in the second Time it came out like his other Flesh Or if it can be imagined that he might possibly take all this to be only a Continuation of his Dream or at least might not in all this while be sure that it was not a Dream it is not conceiveable however that in all the Time that he was travelling from Horeb into Egypt he should not ever be so throughly awake as to be sure that he was awake and if he was that he should not in all that Time make such Reflections upon what had passed as either to perceive plainly that it had been only a Dream or else to be very certain that it had not been a Dream but a Reality Or if it can be conceived that his Amazement and Concern at what had happened was so great that in all this Time he might not be so well come to himself as to be sure that he had had a true divine Revelation yet I think it was not possible that he should remain in the same Uncertainty after he had been in Egypt for some while and had wrought not only those two Miracles over again in the Sight of the Israelites whereby they were fully perswaded of his divine Mission but likewise all the other great Signs and Wonders mentioned in the 7th and following Chapters of Exodus some of which the Egyptians and even the Magicians themselves could not but acknowledge were done by the Finger of God But this It may be it will be said is proving one doubtful thing by another as doubtful a Revelation by a Miracle for it was further urged in the Objection that no Author of any Book could be sure that he was not deceived in any
the evil things which it threatens to deterr us from Sin are as to the Matter of them the greatest that we are capable of enjoying or suffering and consequently the most probable to raise our Hopes and to excite our Fears to the highest Pitch For the Arguments that do most strongly persuade us to any thing are from Interest from the Profit and Advantage we shall reap by doing it from the Tendency it has to make us happy and Happiness consists in being perfectly free from all Pain and Trouble and Vexation and in the full and free Enjoyment of whatsoever is pleasing and delightful to us But now both these the Gospel gives Assurance of to all those that believe and obey it that is that they shall thereby be freed from that intolerable Pain and Misery which the Wicked and Unbelievers shall be condemned to and also that they shall thereby be instated in the perfectest and compleatest Happiness both of Body and Soul In a Happiness far greater than any they do or can enjoy now nay in a Happiness much greater than any they can now have so much as a Conception or Idea of in their Minds 1 Cor. 2.9 For Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the Things that God hath prepared for them that love him But there is besides a remarkable Circumstance which does much enhanse the Value of any Good and likewise much aggravate the Evil of any Pain or Misery viz. its Duration For how great soever the Good or Evil proposed to persuade us to any thing are in themselves yet if they be but of short Continuance if they will soon expire and be at an End we reckon it not worth while to be at much Pains to obtain such a short-lived Good or to avoid such a transient Evil But in this Respect also the Motives both of Hope and of Fear which the Gospel proposes to us do far surpass all those Persuasives or Inducements which Sin can offer for the most we can hope to escape by the Commission of any Sin is the Pain and Suffering of a few Weeks or Years or a temporal Death which last yet we cannot be so vain as to hope to escape clearly for we can at most but delay it for a short Season And on the other side the greatest Good we can propose to our selves or so much as hope to obtain by any Sin is the Pleasure of a short Life In which Hope Men are likewise very often most sadly disappointed their sinful Gratifications commonly bringing with them or drawing after them much more Trouble and Vexation even in this World than the little Pleasure they can reap from them is sufficient to compensate for But if it were not so If the Pleasures of Sin were certain and sincere yet they are but for a Moment They can be but short because our Life its self is but short Jam. 4.14 being as St. James says a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away But the Motives of both kinds which the Gospel proposes have in this Respect also that is in Respect of the Duration of the Good or Evil proposed all the Advantage that is possible For the Misery we shall escape and the Blessedness we shall attain by yielding Belief and Obedience to the Gospel are both of them Mark 9.46 48. Matth. 25.46 Mark 3.29 Matth. 18.8 2 Thess 1.9 Jude 13. Rev. 20.10.14.11 of eternal and endless Duration A Worm that never dieth a Fire that never shall be quenched Everlasting Punishment Eternal Damnation Everlasting Fire Everlasting Destruction The Blackness of Darkness for ever A Lake of Fire and Brimstone where they shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever and where the smoke of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever These are the Evils which the Gospel threatens to Sin And if these be not sufficient to deterr Men from it what can be sufficient What Evil can that Man be supposed to be afraid of who is not afraid of everlasting Burning A greater Evil cannot be threatned and he who is not scared by this would certainly be less scared by the Threatning of a less Evil. And on the other side Everlasting Life a Crown that fadeth not away a Kingdom that cannot be moved an eternal Weight of Glory Fulness of Joy in the Presence of God and Pleasures for evermore at his right Hand these are the good things promised to Obedience And could greater things be promised than these could we our selves if we were put to desire what we would desire more and if the Promise of unspeakable and everlasting Blessedness be not sufficient to prevail with us to undertake a Godly and Christian Life certainly nothing can be sufficient If God should make never so many Revelations of his Will to Mankind he could not propose greater Encouragement to Obedience than he has done already in the Gospel And if those good things which he has promised do not move us 't is not because they are not great enough to move a wise and considering Man but because we are so bent upon Sin that we will not give way to any Considerations that might serve to restrain us from it In a Word The Gospel Motives to Repentance and Obedience comprehend all that we can fear or hope for so far therefore as Fears or Hopes can work upon us there is plainly nothing wanting in that Standing Revelation that God has made of his Will by Moses and the Prophets and especially by Christ and his Apostles to make it successfull that is to persuade Men to Repentance if they will but hear what they say and give Credit to it But 't is not perhaps the Infidels will say a better Rule that they Want than the Scripture is or better Motives to persuade them to lead their Lives according to it than the Scripture proposes but what they chiefly want is some better Evidence some greater Certainty of the Truth of the Scripture This therefore was what I propounded to do in the next place viz. To shew that we have sufficient Reason given us to convince us of the Truth and Authority of the Holy Scripture and consequently of all the Doctrines which are taught by it But because the handling of this Point would take up too much Time I shall chuse to deferr it and conclude this present Discourse with an earnest Exhortation to all those that do sincerely believe the Gospel to consider often and seriously of those great Motives which it proposes to persuade Men. For tho' we live in an Age of great Infidelity wherein some are bold enough to strike at the very Foundation of all Religion and to dispute at least if not deny the most evident and undeniable Truths of it and others think they pay Respect enough to the common Reason and Judgment of Mankind if they do but grant themselves to be Deists and wherein even among those that
and we do not take Care to avoid it our Lot will be extremely miserable and we shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone And when we consider withal the very little Trouble in Comparison that it will cost us to attain that and to avoid this that 't is but the Labour of a few Years and that the most we can suffer by it is the Loss of a little Sensual Pleasure for which after this Life is over we should be never the better or the enduring of some little Pain or Hardship which will be soon over and for which if no Good should ever come of it after this Life we shall however be then never the worse Considering I say thus the infinitely vast and wide Difference that there is between being eternally happy and eternally miserable 't is enough that it is possible 't is more than enough that 't is probable that there will be such a state and if we neglect to make Provision for it because we are not absolutely certain that it will be it is plain that we do not act so prudently in this as we do in other Cases that are of infinitely less Moment and Concern to us and that as our Saviour says The Children of tâ—â— World are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light Now this is the most that the professed Atheists or Infidels can pretend They 'll say perhaps that for their own parts they do not believe the Being of a God or a Judgment or a Life to come and that they do not see any good Reason to believe these things forasmuch as all the Proofs that are brought for them do in their Judgment fall short of Demonstration and they are resolved not to believe them till such Proof thereof shall be offered as they can make no Exception against not till they shall see with their own Eyes that there is a Heaven and a Hell or till they shall have a Messenger sent to them from thence on purpose to assure them thereof And be it so as they say that there is not an absolute Certainty of the Truth of these things that we have not yet such a sure Proof of them as ocular or mathematical Demonstration would be yet this is the most they can say they themselves cannot pretend that there is any Demonstration on the other side They are not sure they say that there will be another Life or that it will be everlasting Well but are they sure that there will not be such a Life is it absurd or impossible that there should be such a Life this I 'm sure they can't say and all that they have yet dared to say is only that those Proofs thereof that we rely upon are not in their Opinion sufficient But suppose them as insufficient as they can think them yet still if they are not sufficient to prove the Certainty they may be sufficient to prove the Probability of what they are brought to prove or if not so yet still a future Life if it be not certain nay if it be not probable however may be possible And if it be only possible that we may live for ever and that we may be eternally happy or eternally miserable this Possibility alone considering what an infinite Difference there is between these two States ought in reason to put us upon taking the best Care we can that if there be an eternal Life we may be eternally happy in it But after all our Proof of this and other great Truths of our Religion is not so very weak and slender as these Men would represent it It is indeed as good as the Nature of the thing will bear and he 's an unreasonable Man that requires a better Proof of any thing than it is capable of This therefore is what I should now in the next Place proceed to do viz. 3. To shew that there is sufficient Reason to give Credit to the Scripture wherein these Truths are plainly taught But this being too large a Subject to be handled now I have already said I would deferr it to the next Opportunity FINIS THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE Scripture-Revelation As to the Proof of it PART I. A SERMON Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul March the 4 th 1699 700. BEING The Third for the Year 1700 of the LECTURE Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By OFSPRING BlACKALL Rector of St. Mary Aldermary and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. St. LUKE XVI 29 30 31. Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead HAving in my first Discourse on these Words endeavoured to shew in general that a Standing Revelation of God's Will may be so well contrived and so well attested as to be sufficient to persuade Men to Repentance if they are not unreasonably blind and obstinate I came the last time to consider whether that Standing Revelation which we have in the Holy Scripture be such a Revelation Or whether there be not some particular Defects in it which render it not so sufficient for this Purpose as 't is possible a Standing Revelation might be And if there be any such Defect in the Holy Scripture it must be as I said either in the Matter of it or in the Proof of it And if in the Matter of it it must be either that it does not give sufficient Directions what to do Or that it does not propose sufficient Motives to persuade Men to do what it requires And therefore in speaking to this Head I propounded to shew 1. That the Holy Scripture gives us sufficient Directions what to do 2. That the Motives which it proposes are sufficient to persuade us to do what it requires And 3. That we have sufficient Reason given us to convince us of the Truth and Authority of the Holy Scripture and consequently of all the Doctrines that are taught by it And the Two first of these I have already done I proceed now to the Third viz. 3. To shew that we have sufficient Reason given us to convince us of the Truth and Authority of the Holy Scripture and consequently of all the Doctrines that are taught by it And that I shall presume to be sufficient Reason in this Case which we readily accept and allow of as sufficient in all other Cases of the like Nature And I suppose it will be granted that we have sufficient Proof given us of the Truth of the Things contained in Holy Scripture and of the Authority of it if it can be shewn 1. That we have sufficient Reason to believe that the Books
recorded could be worn out nay if we further suppose as I think we may do very reasonably that the Things recorded by the Evangelists are the same which they and the other Apostles and Disciples of our Lord testified by word of Mouth in their Preaching we may truly enough say that the History of the Gospel was begun to be published on that same Day on which the Apostles began to preach viz. on the Day of Pentecost ten Days after our Lords Ascension and that it was fully published in a very short time after So that most of the things recorded in the Gospels are things that had been done or haâ— happened in the compass of less than four Years before the History thereof was first published for it was noâ— so long from our Lord's Baptism to his Ascension and the earliest things of all that are therein recordeâ— which are but few and make but a small part of the History viz. the Birth of St. John Baptist and oâ— our Lord and the things that happened about thâ—â— Time were things done not above thirty five Yearâ— before at the most And the History of the Acts of the Apostles whicâ— because it ends with St. Paul's Imprisonment at Rome we may reasonably think was published about thaâ— Time comprehends a History of some very remarkable things the very first and earliest whereof had noâ— been done thirty Years before And this Consideration affords another very probable Argument of the Truth of the Evangelical History because by this it still further appears how very easie it would have been to have disproved it if it had been false for it being an History of things done so very lately it must needs be that several of those into whose Hands it first came must have certain Knowledge whether some of the things therein related had been so or not And they who had not this Knowledge might easily have had certain Information from others I mean besides the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord whether the Relations therein contained were true or falfe Especially if it be considered further in the 4th Place 4. That the Facts related in the Evangelical History are commonly related with all the Circumstances that were needful or proper to be noted in order to the rendring an Enquiry into the truth of them exceeding easie to such as had any distrust thereof For in the Account which the Evangelists give us of our Saviour's Speeches they commonly tell us not only his Words but likewise when where to whom â—nd upon what Occasion they were spoken and in the Account that they give of his Miracles they usually note the Places where they were done and very often â—he Names or Characters at least of the Persons they were wrought upon and sometimes they mention â—lso who were by and Witnesses thereof and what Discourse concerning him was thereby occasioned And in relating the things that were done or happened before our Saviour's Baptism about the Time of his Birth they carefully note the Time the Place and other Circumstances whereby their Readers were as it were challenged to make Enquiry and desired not to â—ake things only upon their Credit and were also directed readily whither to go and to whom to apply themselves to obtain the fullest satisfaction whether the things they reported were so or not The same may be observed in the Acts of the Apostles And if all the Circumstances of every particular Story which they relate are not always so punctually set down the Omission thereof sometimes is not of much Consideration because it was so very easie by enquiring into the Truth of those many other Stories which are related with all Circumstances for any Person to be satisfied whether their History in general deserv'd Credit or not And whoever had found any one Story falsly reported by them would hardly have troubled himself at least not for his own satisfaction to have examined further into the Truth of the rest 5. It may be further consider'd that most of the things recorded by the Evangelists are related by them as things that were done very publickly as things that were well known to a great many For very few in Comparison of those Discourses of our Lord that are recorded by the Evangelists were address'd in private to his Apostles only but most of them were spoken in publick his set Sermons commonly to great multitudes gathered together on a Mountain on the Sea-shore or in a Synagogue and the rest more commonly in Places of Resort in populous Towns or Cities in Jerusalem or the Temple when many were by to hear what he said And his Miracles were done for the most part in the best Inhabited Cities of Judea and Galilee or if in other Places yet in the open Day-light and commonly when there was a great croud of People about him Or if at any time the Miracle its self was done privately in an House or a Chamber the Effect of the Miracle was usually very visible and such as could not but be taken notice of by a great many And even of those few things which were spoken or done by him most privately there was no want of Witnesses there being except very rarely no fewer than twelve in constant Attendance upon him and several others besides that Companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them Acts 1.21 And this Circumstance of the Facts recorded by the Evangelists as it made them capable of better and more certain Attestation being true so it contributed no less towards the rendring it easie to disprove that Relation which they had given of them if it had been false For when a Man witnesses a thing of his own private Knowledge there may be no way to invalidate his Testimony but either by shewing that the thing which he testifies was not possible or by offering some just Exception to the Credit of the Witness But when neither of these can be done and they cannot always be done altho' the thing testified be false yet in case the Matter was done publickly it is the easiest thing in the World to convict a false Witness by the contrary Testimony of several others that were present and as capable of knowing the Truth of the thing as himself or by the Clashing of the Witnesses among themselves Nothing therefore could have been more easie than to have disproved the Evangelical History in almost every particular of it if it had not been true For most of our Saviour's Speeches and Miracles are related as spoken and done in the Presence not of his Disciples only but of a great many others that happened to be by by Chance or that followed him not for any Liking that they had to his Person or Doctrine but only out of Curiosity or for the Sake of the Loaves and very often they were done before such as came on purpose to watch what he said and did with a Design to lay hold on any
the false Evidence they had given concerning it if it had been false might easily have been shewn other ways for what they testified was that that same Jesus whom the Jews had Crucified and whom they had seen laid into the Sepulchre was risen again and had been seen alive three Days after his Passion by several of his Disciples Had this therefore been false how very easie would it have been for the Jews to have disproved their Evidence of it by only going to the Sepulchre and taking out thence his dead Body and exposing it for some time to publick view And thither doubtless they did go and with this Design but the Body they could not find and yet they had taken all the Caution that was possible to prevent its being conveyed away Mat. 27.62 having obtain'd from Pilate a Guard of Soldiers on purpose to keep watch over it for three Days This therefore is a strong Confirmation of the Truth of the Apostle's Testimony concerning our Lord's Resurrection that it being such as might with the greatest Ease in the World have been disproved if it had been false the Jews had nothing to say against it nothing to oppose to it but only that very ill contrived that self-contradicting Evidence of the Watchmen Mat. 29.13 who said that while they were asleep that is when all their senses were bound up and when they were not in a Capacity of knowing any thing that was done the Disciples came and stole the Body away But if they saw the Body remov'd in which Case only they could be good Witnesses of it they were not as they said they were asleep when the thing was done Or if indeed they were asleep when it was removed they could not be positive how it was removed they could not say he was not risen from the Dead 6. Another thing that may be consider'd in order to shew how very improbable or rather how impossible it was that the Gospel History should ever have gained Credit in the World if it had been false is this that as it was a History of such Matters and was so contrived that it might with the greatest Ease have been disproved so the Matters therein related were in themselves and especially in their Consequences such as must needs have engaged a great many to make the strictest Examination that was possible into the Truth of them and if they had discovered any thing of Falshood therein to make known their Discovery to the World For the whole Doctrine of Christianity was grounded upon the Truth of the Evangelical History This disprov'd would have destroy'd that and this being admitted there was no way to put a stop to the spreading of that And the certain Consequence of receiving the Christian Religion in the World was the Abolishing of all the other Forms of Religion that were then any where receiv'd or establish'd even of that which had been introduc'd by Moses amongst the Jews by the Appointment of God himself as well as of the several sorts of Paganism and Idolatry that were receiv'd in other Countries Now when any Religion be it true or false is the establish'd Religion of a Country there must needs be a great many ingaged by the strongest Worldly Interest to support and maintain it For it was not only at Ephesus that a great number of Craftsmen got their Wealth by making Silver Shrines for Diana Acts 19.24 c. but in every other Country the Living of a considerable Number depended upon the Religion that was therein receiv'd which being destroy'd and their Trade or Profession thereby at an End they must of necessity be hard put to it to get Bread by taking up some new Employment And besides there is nothing that all Men of what Trade or Profession soever they are are generally so zealous and concern'd about nothing that they are so afraid of any Change or Innovation in as Religion This be it well or weakly grounded yet if it be that Form of Religion that they have receiv'd from their Fathers and been bred up in from their Childhood they will not easily let go So that I said too little when I said before that a great many must needs have been engaged to set themselves to discover the Falsity of the Evangelical History for this was in truth the common Concern of all Mankind except only of those few Persons who had been Instructed by our Saviour and believed him to be the Christ All others whether Jews or Gentiles Rich or Poor Learned or â—gnorant Priests or People were engaged either by Interest or Prejudice or Conscience or upon some other Account to convict the Apostles of Falshood in their Relation of the Matters contain'd in the Evangelical History and if any Falshood had been therâ—in it is impossible considering how obvious it must needs lie to Discovery and how many were at Work to find it out that they could have failed of their Aim And if any one had made the Discovery it can't be imagin'd he would have been long before he had imparted to others a Piece of News so very welcome as that would have been to the Generality of Mankind or that such a Discovery of the Falsity of the Gospel History in any one particular once made and publish'd should ever after have been stifled or suppress'd because the same Reasons that put them at first upon making the Discovery were of the same Force afterwards to engage them to preserve the Memory of any Discovery of that kind that had been made And therefore I add in the last Place And 't is that which gives Weight and Strength to all that has been said before upon this Subject and fully compleats that Argument which I am now upon for the Proof of the Truth of the Gospel History 7. That notwithstanding the Easiness of the Disproof of this History if it had been false and the incessant Endeavours of the Adversaries of Christianity to find out some Falshood therein to do which â—hey were not only prompted by their own Interest â—nd Inclination but also frequently and boldly chalâ—enged by the Christians themselves as may be seen in â—he ancient Apologies for the Christian Faith it is nevertheless a History of very good Credit now cavilled â—t perhaps but not denied not pretended to be disproved either by Jews or Mahometans or any other â—ort of Infidels and that it has been of the like good Credit for many Hundred Years past even ever since â—he first Publication of it and that 't is not so much â—s contradicted in any Point by any other Historian â—hat living in or near the Time of its Writing was in a Capacity to contradict it upon good Grounds viz. upon either certain Knowledge of his own or very credible Information from others that any Matter therein had been falsly related True perhaps the Infidels will say There is indeed no History of competent Antiquity now extant by which the Gospel History can be
Evidence of his own Senses But the Gospel of St. Luke it must be granted is not of this sort He himself does not pretend that the Matters by him recorded were of his own Knowledge he only says Luke 1.2 3. He had perfect understanding of them from the very first from those who from the Beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word And of some few Matters recorded by the other Evangelists the same must likewise be granted particularly of the things that were done before they were called to be Apostles of these things I say it must be granted that 't is most probable they were not Matters of their own Knowledge that they recorded them only upon credible Information from others But when 't is consider'd on the other hand that there are very few things related by St. Luke which are not to be found in some of the other Gospels his Testimony that he had perfect Information of the things he has recorded from several Eye-witnesses adds a Degree of credibility even to the other Gospels and is a good corroborating Evidence of their Truth And all the Matters recorded by him or the other Evangelists only upon Information of others must be granted to be more credible than the Matter of most other ancient Histories of good Credit is if we reflect upon what was said in the former Discourse concerning the Nature and Circumstances of the things recorded particularly that they were such things as might be most certainly known and were capable of the best attestation and that they were things done in the same Age and in the same Countrey in which they lived who have written the History thereof And what hath been said is I hope sufficient to shew the good Capacity the Authors of the Historical Parts of the New Testament were in to know the Truth of the Things they have recorded most of them being such as 't is probable three of the Evangelists as Two of them without all Dispute were Eye witnesses of and the rest such as they might have certain Information of from several Persons then alive and well able to witness the same Of the Ability then of these Authors to write a true History of these Matters I think there can be no reasonable Doubt And that there is as little Reason to doubt of their Honesty and Faithfulness will in part appear if we consider in the third place 3 The strong Obligations they were under to write nothing but the Truth according to the best of their Knowledge or Information Now the Obligations that Men are under to speak or write Truth may be reduc'd to two Heads Honour and Conscience By both which the Evangelical Writers were more strongly obliged to Truth in their Relations than commonly other Historians are 1. One Obligation that lies on all Men to speak or write nothing but what is true is Honour For there is nothing that is generally accounted more base or dishonourable than to tell a Lye there is nothing that by those who stand most upon their Honour is thought more reflecting and disparaging and more necessary to be resented as an high Affront than to have the Lye given them What therefore is generally thought to be a great Reproach it may reasonably be presumed unless the contrary appears a Man will be careful to avoid by not giving any just Occasion to have it cast upon him And this is one Ground of that great Credit that is generally given to ancient Histories 't is presum'd unless there be evident cause to think otherwise that the Authors of them were Men of so much Honour and that they had such a sense of the Reproach and Discredit that it would be to them to be found out in a Lye as made them careful not to record any thing as a certain Truth but what they had good Knowledge or Information of But that this Obligation to Truth was stronger on the Authors of the Evangelical History than on most other Historians is abundantly evident from what was noted the last time concerning the Nature and Conditions of the things by them related and of their History of them For the Matter of most other ancient Histories is such that the Historians might report many things untruly or upon slight Information and yet be pretty well assur'd that they should not be reputed Liars because the Matters recorded by them being things either done in some Places a good way of or in some time long before or in the Presence of but few Persons they might know that none of those into whose Hands their Histories would fall would be in a Capacity to contradict them tho' they were false Or they might reasonably suppose that their Readers would rather acquiesce in their Report than travel so far or take so much Pains as they must have done to disprove it especially if it was a Matter of no great Consequence to their Readers whether their Report was true or false But in the Gospel History the Case was quite otherwise and the Historians themselves could not but know that it was so For there were a great many concern'd to find out some Falsity in it and there were a great many that would have taken any pains to have done it and yet the Matters related by the Evangelists and their Manner of relating them were such that their History if it had been false in any particular might have been disprov'd with the greatest ease without being at any Pains to do it because most of those into whose Hands it first came would either have known it to be false or would readily have been told that it was so by abundance of Persons that could of their own Knowledge have contradicted it So that if it be supposed that the Evangelists had any Regard at all to their own Reputation it can't be imagin'd either that they did record any thing contrary to their Knowledge or that in Matters that were not of their own Knowledge they neglected to get the best Information and Intelligence that could be had because if they had done either of these they could not have been so vain as to hope to escape being Censured as the most notorious and shameless Liars that ever wrote But 2. The strongest Obligation that lies on all Men to speak or write nothing but the Truth is Conscience And the sense that all Men are supposed to have of the natural Turpitude of a Lye is the chief ground of that very great Credit that we give to humane Testimony in Cases of the greatest Concern and Consequence But this Obligation to Truth was likewise stronger on the Authors of the Evangelical History than on most other Historians 't was indeed so very strong that nothing less than an evident Proof of their Falsity can justifie the entertaining so much as a suspicion of it For to speak and write the Truth was what they were obliged to not only by the Law of Nature to which all Men are alike
well be accounted a Martyr for the Testimony of Jesus no less than the other Apostles altho' he did not actually expire under his Sufferings as they did Now if it be supposed that a Man especially one who stands much upon his Credit may be willing after he has told a Lye to suffer a great Deal rather than own himself a Lyar tho' I think it cannot reasonably be supposed either that any Man would suffer so many other great Evils as the Apostles did only upon a Point of Honour or that the Apostles did stand so much upon their Honour yet when it is brought to this that a Man who has told a Lye must either retract it or die for it and that he may in all Probability save his Life by retracting it it is not to be supposed that any Man will be a Martyr for a known Falshood for it is a very true Saying and to which there is hardly any Exception tho' it was spoken by the Father of Lyes Job 2.4 that Skin for Skin yea all that a Man hath he will give for his Life 'T is not credible therefore that so much as one Man should be found so foolish as to sacrifice his Life to a known Lye and that too an unprofitable Lye to himself to his Family and to all The World and this only to save his Reputation It is much less credible that so many Men viz. all the Apostles and Evangelists and most if not all the rest of our Lord 's immediate Disciples should be guilty of such prodigious and unheard of Folly and it is least of all credible that among so many as there were that bore Witness of the Facts recorded in the Evangelical History not so much as one Man should be found that was honester and wiser than the rest not one that could be persuaded to give Glory to God by the Confession of his Fault and satisfaction to the World by a publick owning of the Cheat he had been engaged in not one that wou'd chuse to undergo the Disgrace of a Lyar rather than the shameful Death of a Malefactor These are in short the Evidences we have of the Honesty and Faithfulness of the Evangelical Historians those Evidences I mean which they themselves have given thereof and they are plainly as good as could be desired they are the best that could be given by Men. And putting together all that hath been said on this and the foregoing Heads now and in my last Discourse for the Proof of the Truth of the Evangelical History I think we may truly and confidently affirm that altho' we consider it only as a meer humane History we have much greater Reason to give Credit to it than to any History in the World besides But if we receive the witness of Men and who is there that does not 1 Joh. 5.9 the Witness of God is greater And therefore in Order to shew further that there is sufficient Reason to give full Credit to the Evangelical Historians in their Relations of those Matters of Fact which they have recorded I proposed to be considered in the Fifth and last Place 5 The Confirmation that was given to the Truth of their History by God himself For what St. Paul says of his own was likewise true of the Speech and Preaching of all the other Apostles viz. That it was in Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 1 Cor. 2.4 5. that the Faith of their Hearers should not stand in the Wisdom of Men but in the Power of God And so St. Luke says Acts 4.33 With great Power gave the Apostles Witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus For at the same Time that they Witnessed the Miracles of their Master they gave Assurance to Men of the Truth of their Testimony by doing the like Miracles themselves healing the Sick casting out Devils raising the Dead c. just as Jesus himself had done And at the same time that pursuant to their Commission they preached the Gospel to Men of all Nations and Languages they plainly demonstrated both that they had such a Commission from God and that it was the Truth of God which they preached by speaking to every Man of every Nation in his own Tongue Thus as the Author to the Hebrews says Heb. 2.4 God did bear them Witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will And he might well say that God did hereby bear them Witness because that Power wherewith they were endued was so evidently from on high that none that saw their Works Luke 24.49 and considered withall the Purity and Excellence of the Doctrine of Christianity that was thereby establish'd could have any reasonable Doubt whether they were done by the Power of God or no. We know Joh. 3.2 said Nicodemus to our Saviour that thou art a Teacher sent from God for no Man can do the Miracles that thou doest except God be with him Joh. 14.12 But the same Works that Jesus did did his Disciples also after he had sent down the Promise of his Father upon them on the Day of Pentecost yea and greater Works than those did they do so that whoever beheld their Works might so far as Miracles are Evidences of a Divine Power be rather more certain that God was with them than Nicodemus could be that he was with our Lord himself For tho' their other Miracles that were of the same sort with those which our Saviour had done were such Proofs of Divine Assistance as could not with any Reason be gainsaid yet I think it may truly be affirm'd that the Gift of Tongues which was peculiar to them and wherein they did as we may say excell even our Lord himself was more convincing than any of them For he that saw one of their other Miracles might possibly entertain some little Doubt whether the Effect that appeared to him to be Miraculous might not yet be done by some secret Power of Natural Causes that was unknown to him But we all know the Power of Nature so well that we are sure the Knowledge of a Language cannot possibly be attained Naturally even by a Person of the quickest Parts and faithfullest Memory but in so much time at the least as it will necessarily take up to be told by Tutors or to learn from Lexicons what every particular word of the Language to be learnt is by the People of that Language designed to signifie because Words have not a Natural Relation to the Notions or Things thereby expressed but are meer arbitrary Signs thereof So that whoever knew the Education of the Apostles and that they were before altogether ignorant and unlearned and yet saw them every one on a sudden on the Day of Pentecost able to speak readily in all the Languages of all the Nations under Heaven from whence had come some of the Jews that were present at Jerusalem at that
And this he himself urges as a Reason why his Testimony ought to be credited Joh. viii 46. Which of you convinceth me of Sin and if I say the Truth why do ye not believe me And a very good Reason it was for it could not justly be suspected that a Person of whom no other ill thing could be said was yet indeed in the whole Course of his Life guilty of a Crime of the greatest Magnitude viz. of Lying in the Name of God of saying that the Lord had sent him when indeed the Lord had not sent him nor spoken by him 2. It may be also consider'd that this Testimony of our Lord tho' it was concerning himself yet was not for himself I mean it was not for his own worldly Advantage And this Consideration he himself likewise offers to the Jews as an Argument of the Truth of his Testimony Joh. vii 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own Glory but he that seeketh his Glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him Had the Doctrine of our Lord which he pretended was what God had commanded him to teach been contriv'd to advance the Worldly Honour and Greatness of himself or his Followers this would have been a just Prejudice against it and a reasonable Ground of suspecting that he spake of himself but when it was evident to all that heard his Discourses and is no less so to us that read them that he sought not his own Glory in any thing but the Glory of him that sent him and that his whole Doctrine tended to advance the Honour of God and to promote the Practice of Piety and Virtue in the World this rendred his Testimony very credible when he said he was sent by God to teach it to the World for when a Doctrine is plainly worthy of God and according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 it may reasonably be presumed that God is the Author of it 3. It may be further considered that this Testimony of our Lord concerning himself was so far from being to his own Benefit that it was as much as any thing could possibly be to his Worldly Disadvantage exposing him to the Envy and Malice of the Jews and to the Jealousie of the Romans and to all the cruel Sufferings which he endured from both of them And certainly a Man's Testimony concerning himself may be allow'd to be credible if it be against his own Interest if he himself be a great Loser or Sufferer by what he Testifies for it can't be imagined what else but only the Evidence of Truth and an Obligation to declare it should ever induce a Man to say such things concerning himself as will procure his own mischief And I know not what can be said to avoid the Force of this Argument for the Truth of our Saviour's Testimony that he was sent from God and that he was the Messiah unless it be that he was disappointed in his Expectation and that he hoped to make himself Rich and Great in the World by these Glorious Pretences tho' in the Event it prov'd otherwise But the Gospel-History furnishes us with a very clear and full Answer to this Objection in those many Predictions of our Lord therein recorded concerning his own Sufferings Mat. 16.31.20.17 whereby it clearly appears that the Sufferings which befel him for giving this Testimony concerning himself did not happen to him unexpectedly but that he knew long before all that afterwards came to pass And therefore I say again that no Reason can be imagin'd why he should say that he was sent from God but only because he knew it was true and had receiv'd a Command from his Father to declare this Truth to the World Especially if it be consider'd further 4. Lastly That he continu'd to testifie the same at his Death which he had done before in his Life giving thereby the best Assurance that a Man can give of the Truth of his Testimony For the main Matter of his Accusation to Pilate was that he had given out himself to be the Messiah and the Messiah was according to the Expectation of the Jews to be a great Temporal King had our Lord therefore but denied this Charge had he but granted that he was not the Messiah he might have saved his Life But this he would not do he disowned indeed the false Notion that the Jews had of the Messiah my Kingdom John 18.26 Mat. 27.11 Joh. 18.37 Mat. 26.63 64. Mar. 14.61 62. says he is not of this World But that he was a King and that he was the Messiah he boldly owned as well when the Question was put to him by the Roman Governor who had Power of Life and Death as when it had been put to him before by the High-Priest This therefore is a strong Confirmation of the Truth of this Testimony of our Lord and is alone sufficient to make it credible that he witnessed the same good Confession before Pontius Pilate 1 Tim. 6.13 which he had done before his own Nation and Sealed his Witness with his Blood For 't is not to be supposed that any Man tells a known Lye for nothing and it was plainly then too late for him to hope for any good to himself in this World by persisting in this Testimony his only Hope had been in retracting it and 't is not credible that any Man should be so foolish as to expect to better himself in the other World by dying with a Lye in his mouth Thus I hope it appears that the Testimony of our Lord concerning his own divine Mission was credible in it self so that we might rationally believe that he came from God and that he was Christ the Son of God altho' we had only his own Word for it But we have more than his own Word for it I am not alone says he Joh. viii 16 c. but I and the Father that sent me It is also written in your Law that the Testimony of two Men is true I am one that bear Witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth Witness of me And this was the other thing I proposed to consider in order to shew the good Reason that we have to believe that our Saviour was sent from God and that he was the Messiah viz. Secondly The Confirmation that was given to this Testimony of our Lord by God himself And this was given several ways 1. God bare him Witness by the Testimony of ancient Prophets And to this our Saviour frequently appeals Joh. v. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me And again v. 46. Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me And this St. Peter comparing it with that Voice from Heaven testifying him to be the Son of God 2 Pet. 1.18 19. of which he himself had been an Ear-witness calls a more sure word of
Tit. 2.12 who made Heaven and Earth and by teaching them to deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Now the Devil is certainly as subtle as he is powerful and therefore if he has indeed any power to alter the course of Nature and to do a real Miracle he would not however we may be sure make use of this Power against himself he would not thereby assist another to destroy his own Kingdom And by this Argument our Saviour himself clearly confuted this Calumny in Mat. xii 25. When the Pharisees had said that he cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils he answer'd Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation and if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how then shall his Kingdom stand And 3. Lastly As it is not credible that the Devil has such power or if he has and was let alone to himself that he would make use of this power to destroy his own Kingdom so neither is it credible that Almighty God who has all power in his Hands and can controul and limit the workings of the Devil and all created Beings as he pleases would ever permit the Devil to out-do himself in such wonderful Operations so that more and greater Miracles should be done by an Impostor than ever had been done before by any true Prophet which yet is manifestly the Case if indeed our Saviour was an Impostor 2 Tim. 3.8 He suffer'd indeed Jannes and Jambres to withstand his Servants Moses and Aaron for some time and to do or seem to do some wonderful Works like to theirs Ex. 7.10 12. for Aaron cast his Rod upon the Ground and it became a Serpent and so did they And Aaron stretched out his Hand over the Waters Ex. 8.6 7. and the Frogs came up and covered the Land and the Magicians did so with their Inchantments and brought up Frogs upon the Land of Egypt But tho' he suffer'd the Magicians thus to contend with his Prophets the Victory was clearly on his Prophet's side Ex. 7.12.8.18 for Aaron's Rod swallowed up their Rods and when the Magicians endeavour'd by their Inchantments to bring forth Lice as Aaron had done they could not but were forced to own before Pharaoh that it was the Finger of God and from that time forward strove no more for Victory And thus it may be consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness of God Deut 13.1 c. at any time in order prove his People and to know whether they love the Lord with all their Heart Mat. 24.24 to suffer the Sign or Wonder foretold by an Inticer to Idolatry to come to pass and to distinguish his Elect from Reprobates to permit false Christs and false Prophets 2 Thes 2.8 9 10. to shew great Signs and Wonders and in just Judgment upon such as will not receive the love of the Truth that they may be saved to let them alone to be deceived by that wicked one whose Coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders and with all Deceiveableness of Unrighteousness in them that perish But it cannot I think be reconciled to these Attributes of God that he should permit greater Wonders and more clear and undoubted Miracles to be done by a false Prophet than ever were done by any true Prophet because this would be too great a Trial for Humane Nature such Signs and Wonders would be sufficient to deceive even those that enquire after Truth with the greatest sincerity of Heart And I cannot conceive it consistent with the Goodness of God to permit that such as are of honest Minds and sincere Lovers of Truth should after a fair Examination of the Proofs on both sides have greater reason to embrace Error than Truth which yet they plainly have in case the Miracles done by false Prophets be more and greater than have been done by any true Prophet unless the Falseness of the Doctrines which they would thereby establish be more evident than the Truth of their Miracles So that upon the whole I think we may well conclude this Head with those Words of Nicodemus to our Saviour Joh. iii. 2. We know we are assured of it we have no Reason to doubt of it that thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do these Miracles that thou doest except God be with him 6. Another way by which God himself bare Witness to the Truth of our Saviour's Testimony was by Raising him from the dead Joh. 2.19 Mat. 12.40.16 4. To this great Miracle he himself often referred those that had any doubt of the Truth of his other Miracles as what could not but be satisfactory to all that were capable of receiving Satisfaction And this was the chief Subject of the Apostle's Sermons Acts 2.24.32.3.15.4.10.10.40.13.30 the main Proof that they insisted upon to convince Men that Jesus was the Christ And they seem to have no doubt upon them that if they could but persuade Men of the Truth of his Resurrection they would readily own that he was the Christ and without further scruple receive every thing that he had taught them in the name of God as a divine Truth Acts 17.30 By this say they God has given Assurance unto all Men that he has ordained him to be the Judge of the World By this say they he was declared to be the Son of God with Power because it was a thing evident to all Rom. 1.4 that no Power less than God's could raise the dead When therefore this was done and it was done if the Gospel-History be true this was a plain Seal set by God himself to our Saviour's Testimony a Seal not possible to be Counterfeited and wherein the Divine Power is so clearly and deeply engraven that whoever looks attently upon it must be satisfied whose Seal it is So that to grant the Resurrection of our Saviour and yet to doubt whether he was the Person he gave out himself to be is to doubt of the Truth of God himself for granting our Saviour's Resurrection it can't be suppos'd that he was an Impostor without supposing that God himself did consent to the Imposture and work the most evident Miracle that ever wâ—s done on purpose to perswade Men to believe a Lye I shall mention at present but one way more whereby God was pleas'd to confirm our Saviour's Testimony of himself And that was 7. By the Witness of the Holy-Ghost which witness was given to him at his Baptism Joh. 1.32 c. when the Holy-Ghost descended in a visible manner as a Dove and rested on him It was also given to him during the whole Course of his Ministry for the Holy-Ghost not only descended but abode upon him and therefore St. Peter speaking of him Act. 10.38 c. says that God anointed him with the Holy-Ghost and with Power But that
Power of working Miracles should cease too at least till such time as God should think fit to make some Alteration in or Addition to his former Revelations which we have good Reason to think he will never do or 'till he should please to undertake the Conversion of those Nations to the Christian Faith to whom the Knowledge of the former Miracles that had been wrought for its Confirmation could not be so well communicated by credible History as it is to us For as was hinted before Credible History is all the Proof and Evidence that we ever think reasonable to require in other Cases of the like Nature As for instance When a new Law is made concerning any Matter it is requisite according to the Custom of our Country that it should pass both Houses of Parliament and that the King should ratifie and confirm it and that afterwards it should be some way so published and promulged that all the Subjects that are then alive should have sufficient Assurance given them that such a Law is made But after this Law has been once so passed and ratified and promulged it is passed and ratified and promulged for ever and no Man is so unreasonable as to expect that every Parliament that is called afterwards should read and pass over again all the Laws that have been made before their Time or that every King that succeeds to the Throne should afresh ratifie and publish all the Laws that were made by all his Predecessors But all the Proof that we ever require of the Authority of any ancient Law is a true Copy of it and a good History or Record of its being made at such a time by such a King confirmed by the Tradition of all the intermediate Ages to our Time which have allowed of its Authority by citing it as a Law of the Land by Pleading from it and by giving Judgment according to it And he who will not allow of the same Proof and Evidence of the Authority of the Christian Institution so many hundred years ago established but would needs have new Miracles and new Revelations to confirm the former is every whit as unreasonable as that Criminal would be who being Indicted upon some Ancient Statute should refuse to plead to his Indictment upon Pretence that he knew not whether there was any such Law or not it being made if ever it was made long before his Time and there being none now alive that were present at the making of it Shew him the Law in the Statute Book why how does he know he 'd say but that the Printers had a mind to put a Cheat upon the Nation by Printing a Law of their own making as a Law made by some of our ancient Kings nay shew him the Original Record still he 'd say There have been abundance of Forgeries in the World and how does he know but that this is one The Record he 'd own perhaps looks like an Ancient Deed and has all the Marks of such Antiquity as it pretends to but after all 't is possible it may be and therefore he cannot be sure it is not a Forgery and 'till he is assured of this he will not plead to an Indictment that is grounded upon it But if the King and Parliament that now are will be pleased to declare that this is a good Law and if he himself may be allowed to be by when they shall declare it or if at least two or three Witnesses that he can trust shall testifie upon Oath that they were present when it was passed into a Law then he will allow it to be a good Law and after that will be content to suffer the Punishment of it if he shall ever again be a Transgressor Now what Man is there that would think this a reasonable Demand Or what Judge or Court would ever allow of such a Plea And yet as unreasonable as it is it is just the same with theirs who pretending to be more wise and cautious than their Neighbours will not allow of the same sort of Proof tho' indeed much better in its kind of the Truth of the Christian Religion but tho' we have as Authentick Histories as any are in the World such Histories as the greatest Adversaries of Christianity have not been able to say any thing to invalidate the Truth of which declare that Christ and his Apostles taught such and such Doctrines and wrought such and such Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Doctrine yet will not believe that the Doctrine of Christianity is true and Divine unless they may have special Messengers sent to them to declare a-fresh all the same things which the Apostles once did and those endued with a Power of working in their sight and presence the same Miracles over again that are said to have been formerly done by Christ and his Apostles to confirm the Testimony that they gave 2. The Unreasonableness of that Request which the Rich Man here makes in the Behalf of his Brethren viz. That God would make a new Revelation for their particular Conversion or in general The Unreasonableness of our now desiring fresh Revelations new Miracles or Apparitions of Men from the dead to confirm the Truth of those things which are already sufficiently proved to us by the Standing Revelation of the Gospel will further appear if we consider That to us who live now in Christian Countries other Grounds of Faith or stronger Motives to Repentance than we have already in the standing Revelation of the Gospel might be inconsistent with the Excellency of Faith might destroy the Virtue of Believing and might be too great a Force and Constraint upon us such as would in a manner take away our Liberty of Choice For there is no Virtue at all in Believing what we see there is no Praise or Thanks at all due for doing what we are driven or forced to do and for us who have already abundantly sufficient Grounds to believe and embrace Christianity to have fresh Miracles wrought every day before our own eyes such Miracles as we could not possibly doubt the Truth of to confirm those Doctrines which are already sufficiently confirmed would not be to persuade us but to force us to be Chistians so that then the State we are now in would not be as God designed it should be a State of Trial for the Trial of Wisdom is when there are some Reasons on both sides and he is the Wise Man who in that Case gives Judgment on that side on which the Reasons are strongest But against what I have now said perhaps it may be objected That the Evidence which we desire of the Truth of Religion is no more than we are told has been already given to some Men particularly to those who lived in our Saviour's and his Apostle's times and we can't see why it would be more inconsistent with the Nature of Faith and Religion now than it was then or how it would more destroy our Freedom
than it did theirs or how it would be a greater Force upon our Choice than it was upon theirs to have the very same Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion which they had But in answer to this it may be consider'd that as they then had some Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion which we have not so we now have some Evidence thereof which they had not They indeed saw with their own Eyes some of the Miracles that were wrought for the Confirmation of Christianity but they had not as we now have a credible History or Record of a very great number of Miracles that were wrought for that purpose And therefore without considering at present which of these Evidences of the Truth of the Facts upon which our Religion is grounded is the most convincing thus much is plain That if we who have already very good Reason to believe them upon the Credit of a well attested History were also admitted to be Eye Witnesses of some fresh Miracles such as we are told were then wrought both these Evidences together would be stronger and more irresistible than either of them alone So that consequently if we who have already one of these Evidences were allowed to have the other also we should have more Evidence in the whole than they had our Choice consequently would not be so free as theirs was it would not be so much in the Power of our Wills to be Infidels as it was in theirs True perhaps you 'll say we should indeed in that Case have more Evidence than they had but that is not the thing we desire all that we could wish for is the very same Evidence that they had and upon that Condition we could be well contented to want the Historical Evidence which we have and they had not for we can't but think that the Evidence that they had is much stronger than ours and that they had much greater Reason to be Christians than we have For 1. The Apostles of Christ who as 't is said both saw his Miracles and were enabled by the Power of the Holy Ghost to do the like themselves had plainly greater Reason to believe than even those had who heard from their mouths the Testimony that they gave concerning our Lord and saw the Miracles that were done by their Hands in Confirmation of their Testimony And 2. They who saw with their own Eyes the Miracles that the Apostles wrought had more Reason to believe than those had to whom they were only Reported by Eye Witnesses and therefore much rather than we have who receive this Report only by a History that was written many hundred years ago Now this is all that we desire viz. To be upon the same Level with those who lived in the Primitive Times and to have as much Reason to be Christians as they had and we can't see why this Request should be thought unreasonable we do not understand why there would not be then as much Freedom and consequently as great Virtue in our Believing upon such strong Evidence as there was in theirs In Answer to this therefore I shall consider distinctly the two Cases before-mentioned and compare the same with ours 1. I shall consider the Case of the Apostles who both saw our Lord's Miracles and were enabled by the Power of the Holy-Ghost to do the like themselves And that they had a surer Ground of Faith than any since or than any besides themselves ever had I believe must be granted but then 't is to be considered on the other side 1. That the Apostles were but few in number only twelve Persons or if we should reckon in to the number as in this respect equal to the Apostles all those that were called by our Saviour himself to be his Disciples and who were very much tho' not so constantly in his Company as the Apostles were we read but of seventy of them or if we add to these all those that were convinced by our Saviours Miracles that he was the Christ Luke 10.1 and that owned themselves his Disciples while he was upon Earth 't is probable that all these together were no more than five hundred viz. those five hundred Brethren 1 Cor. 15.6 to whom when met together in Galilee our Lord shewed himself alive after his Passion 2. It may be also considered that their Case was extraordinary and peculiar and that this Advantage of greater Evidence as we reckon it which they had above all others was no more than was necessary to qualifie them for that special Office which they and none but they were to be employed in which was to bear Witness to the Men of that Generation by word of mouth and to all future Ages by their written Testimony of the Doctrines and Miracles of our Saviour for no Man is a proper Witness of any matter of Fact but only he who was an Eye Witness thereof 3. It may be further considered that as they had a more clear and unexceptionable Evidence of the Truth of Christianity than any besides ever had so they had also a greater Burden laid upon them than any Christians since have had and it might be no more than necessary that the Grounds of their Faith should be as much surer and stronger than those on which other Men's Faith is built as their Duty was larger and more difficult than other Men's Duty is For a weaker Foundation is as well able to support a low Building placed in a Bottom and well sheltred from Storms as a much stronger is to bear a high built Tower situated on the top of an Hill or by the Sea-shore and continually exposed to violent Winds and Tempests And this was the Condition of the Apostles in Comparison with ours We have indeed several Temptations to resist by the Power of our most holy Faith but then they are only such Temptations as are common to Men and for the overcoming whereof a Faith grounded only upon good Historical Evidence is sufficient for by the Power of such a Faith a great many in all Ages have happily overcome them But the Apostles had Difficulties and Temptations of another sort to contend with they wrestled not only against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against Spiritual Wickedness in high Places It was their Business to go in an untrodden Path to break the Ice and to make plain the way for all that were to follow and our Work very easie in comparison with theirs is only to follow in that Way which they have made plain and smooth to that Kingdom of Heaven into which they could not enter but thro' manifold Tribulations That the Apostles therefore had stronger and more convincing Proofs of the Truth of the Christian Religion than we have and such as they could not so easily resist as we may those which are afforded to us may be granted and yet it may
leads us to continue in the Religion we were first bred in such Proof as we always accept and allow of in other Cases of the like Nature is Proof strong enough And therefore much rather when we have as indeed we have a stronger and more uncontrouled Tradition for the Truth of the Gospel-History that of any History in the World besides we shall be inconsistent with our selves if we do not allow it to be sufficient So that upon the whole Matter considering the Prejudices both from Education and Interest which they lay under who lived in those Times when the Gospel was first reveal'd and preach'd even their own Eye-sight of some of those Miracles that were then wrought to confirm it was not more perswasive than is that good Assurance that we now have by credible and undoubted Records that such Miracles were then wrought The Proof they had consider'd in it self was indeed stronger than ours but considering our different Circumstances that Proof was not more apt or likely to convince them than that which we have given us is to convince and persuade us And if we had now the very same Proof and Demonstration of the Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of our Christian Religion viz. The Evidence of our own Senses this which was but sufficient to them might to us be such a Proof as would be in a manner a Force upon us such clear Demonstration meeting with no strong Prejudice or considerable Interest on the other side might be enough to over-power us so that we could not be Infidels if we would and then there would be no Virtue in Believing 3. The Unreasonableness of desiring more Proof of the Truth of Religion than God has been pleased to afford us by the Standing Revelation of the Gospel and particularly of desiring that God would be pleas'd to work new Miracles for our particular satisfaction or for the Conviction of some of our Friends that are not persuaded by the Gospel-Revelation will further appear if we consider the equal Right that all other Men have to desire the same and the many Inconveniencies and Absurdities that would follow in case all Men should be gratified in this Desire For as to the first of these viz. The equal Right that all other Men have to desire the same What Reason can I pretend for my Infidelity which another Man my not also as well plead for his Have not I as good Proof of the Truth of Religion as my Neighbour has Have not I as free Recourse to the Holy Scriptures as he and the same Evidence of the Truth and Divine Inspiration of them that he has And are we not also in all other Respects alike Being Born in the same Country and having had the same Education and consequently being probable to have the same Inclinations towards or the same Prejudices against or Aversion to the Christian Faith And if so what Reason can I plead for any extraordinary or peculiar Favour For is not he God's Creature as well as I And hath not God the same Tenderness and Regard for him that he hath for me and consequently the same Desire of his Welfare that I can suppose he hath of mine Why then should not God grant him this same Request whether in the Behalf of himself or his Friend as well as I can expect he should grant it me In a word Why may not every Man desire the same as well as I And why should not God grant it to all that desire it as well as to any one But now if God should do this see what Inconveniencies and Absurdities would follow thereupon One sort of Men would not believe unless they might see Apparitions If one went unto them from the dead they would repent And so for their sakes the World must be filled with Ghosts the Dead must never be at Rest in their Graves and the Souls in Bliss who once rejoyced in the thought of being for ever got clear out of a troublesome World must be content to gratifie these Men to leave their Place in Abraham's Bosome and to be deprived of the Beatifical Vision and the unspeakable Joys of Heaven as long and as often as any of these unreasonable Men are pleased to desire it But another sort of Men it may be there are that would not like this kind of Proof A transient Apparition of a Ghost they 'd look upon perhaps as a thing too liable to Cheat and Imposture they 'd therefore desire some more plain and sensible and permanent Miracles than this some such Miracles as those were which our Saviour and his Apostles wrought and if they could but see such they make no doubt but they should be convinced And so for their sakes and for their Conviction half the Men that are born into the World must be born Lame or Blind that so they may be afterwards Cured by Miracle for the satisfaction of these Men And a great many must be possessed with Devils and be grievously torn and tortured by them that these Men may have the Pleasure of seeing with their own Eyes the Evil Spirits cast forth and of observing how much more calm and sober the Men are after the Devil is gone out than they were before But even these Miracles 't is like would not satisfie all but some it may be would be apt to suspect that there might be some Trick or Collusion in them and that what they saw was done only by a Confederacy between the Physician and the Patient to amuse and deceive the Beholders and therefore what they it may be would desire for their particular satisfaction wou'd be to see a dead Man raised to Life again after he had been dead several Days and began to stink and such a Miracle as this they are sure would convince them And so for their sakes a great many Men must die two or three times over or much oftner because perhaps every time before they have been dead a Week some other Person that was not present before may have a desire to see with his own Eyes the same Experiment tried over again But even this Miracle also would perhaps be excepted against by some and nothing less would satisfie them than the very same Evidence which the Apostles themselves had who conversed with our Saviour for some years together and heard all his wise Discourses and saw all his Miracles and mighty Works and were present with him when he expired on the Cross and assisted at the laying his dead Body into the Sepulchre and within three Days after saw him alive again touched and handled him eat and drank with him and after they had thus several times by the Space of forty Days been by many Infallible Proofs assured of the Reality of his Resurrection saw him visibly taken up in his Body into Heaven They that had this they grant had very good Proof and Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion and had they but been of this
will be neither a Gainer nor a Loser but the Profit or the Damage will be all your own it is plainly your Interest as well as your Duty to give Credit to such Evidence as really and in it self is Credible and such I hope I have already shewn that to be which is given us of the Truth of Christianity and not to set your selves to cavil at it and to study Exceptions to it not to take upon you to prescribe to God Almighty and boldly to tell him what sort of Evidence he must give you or else you will not be satisfied Do not then stand in your own Light do not bring Destruction upon your selves when you may avoid it but give Ear to what Moses and the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles speak to you in the Holy Scriptures and hear them without Prejudice with a Mind ready to hearken to Reason and resolved to be persuaded by it and then what they will say to you will be abundantly sufficient to satisfie you for they say as much in this Case or more as by the common Voice and Reason of all Mankind is judged to be sufficient in all other Cases of the like Nature But if you are resolved not to be persuaded so long as there is any Possibility of Doubt or Scruple left if you are resolv'd not to Believe unless you may have just that very Evidence given you that you your selves are pleas'd to require if you will boldly and arrogantly take upon you to teach God as if he knew it not what Evidence he ought to give Men of the Truth of Religion and are resolved to find or make Exceptions against any other Look you to it For if God has done enough already he is under no manner of Obligation to do more more did I say Nay he needed not to have done so much for it was meer Grace and Favour in God that he has done so much as he has done that he has made us any Promises at all and given us any Assurance of the Truth of them And therefore for what he has done we ought to be thankful and not to find fault with him that he has done no more Such Impudence and Sauciness as this for I can call it by no better a Name from a Man to his Maker from a mean inconsiderable Creature to the Great Lord of Heaven and Earth is I 'm sure no proper Qualification to merit extraordinary and peculiar Favours For as our Saviour says to some in a like Case to some who formerly made the like unreasonable Demand that you now do Matth. 12.39 Mark 8.12 It is an Evil and Adulterous Generation that seeketh after a Sign and therefore there shall no Sign be given Verily I say unto you there shall no Sign be given to this Generation Let us then be content with that assurance which God has given us of the Truth of Religion for greater than this we shall not have 'till it be too late Let us thankfully accept of and readily comply with this and not expect or wait for more for God will not gratifie us in our unreasonable Desire He is resolved to deal with us as with Men to incline not to determine our Choice to persuade not to force us to be Happy And having already given us the Standing Revelation of the Gospel which is sufficient both to instruct and convince us and having prov'd the truth of this sufficiently to us he will not be making new Revelations or sending more Prophets Divinely inspir'd or working fresh Miracles every Day He has done enough already to satisfie our sober Judgments and he will not do every thing that we can think of to gratifie our wild and extravagant Fancies And there is the less Reason that he should do so because if the Ordinary Means which he uses for our Conversion do not succeed the Fault lies wholly in us And therefore 't is highly probable so certain that it need not be tried that any other means proper for God to use to reclaim us would be alike unsuccessful If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the Dead This is the last Reply that Abraham makes to the Rich Man's Request and it was the third of those three Points which I at first propounded to speak to but which I must reserve for the Subject of my next Discourse FINIS NEW REVELATIONS Would probably be UNSUCCESFUL A SERMON Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul November 4th 1700. BEING The Eighth for the Year 1700 of the LECTURE Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By OFSPRING BLACKALL D. D. Rector of St. Mary Aldermary and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. St. LUKE XVI 29 30 31. Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead IN Discoursing on these Words I have already done these two Things I. I have shewn that the present Standing Revelation of God's Will in the Holy Scripture is abundantly sufficient to persuade Men to Repentance if they are not unreasonably blind and obstinate This is intimated in the first Verse of the Text They have Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles let them hear them And II. I have likewise shewn that having already such good Grounds of Faith such full Directions for Practice and such strong Motives to Repentance it is unreasonable to desire more This was what the Rich Man had done at the 27th and 28th Verses and which he still continues to do in the 2d Verse of the Text even after Abraham had told him that the Standing Revelation of God's Will in the Holy Scripture was sufficient Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent He says it positively they will repent He speaks it as a thing that no Doubt could be made of In Answer to which therefore Abraham tells him in the last Verse of the Text that that which he thought so very certain was not so much as probable If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead And this was the third Point I propounded to speak to in discoursing on these Words viz. III. To shew that in Case God should condescend to gratifie Men in this unreasonable Desire working every Day new Miracles before their Eyes or sending their deceased Friends to them from the Dead to assure them of a Future State and to warn them to prepare for it 't is highly probable that very few or none of those who do not believe and are not brought to Repentance by the Preaching and
his Grave and appear to them which was the very thing that the Rich Man here desires in the behalf of his Brethren as being in his Judgment the most powerful and so like to be the most effectual method to reclaim them when I say this was done by our Saviour in the presence of a great number so that the Truth of the Miracle could not be doubted and was not denied by any of them all the Effect that it had upon those obstinate and incredulous Men was only that it made them enter presently sooner perhaps than otherwise they would have done into a close Consultation to put to death both Jesus and Lazarus too Some Examples indeed it must be granted there are on the other side For we are told in Acts xi 41. of a great number about three thousand that believed upon the first Preaching of St. Peter and sight of that great Miracle the Gift of Tongues wherewith the Apostles were endued But then it may be considered that it was not the Miracle that convinced them I mean not that alone for many that were then present Verse 13. and heard the Apostles speaking with Tongues were so far from being persuaded thereby that they most falsly blasphemed that as they had done all our Saviour's Miracles before attributing the fruit of that most evident Power of the Holy Ghost to new Wine And it may be further noted that those who were persuaded by it were such as before they saw the Miracle were in a good Disposition to embrace that pure Religion that is taught in the Gospel or else that Miracle would not have persuaded them for the Persons convinced thereby were not of the Pharisees or unbelieving Jews that had rejected our Saviour before Verse 5. but they were Devout Persons Jews or Proselytes who had come at that Feast of Pentecost from other Parts of the World to Jerusalem to Worship and who had probably never heard of our Saviour before more than by uncertain Report but being well read in Moses and the Prophets and giving good heed to them were Converted more by the manifest Accomplishment of all the ancient Prophecies concerning the Messias in the Person of our Saviour than by the sight of that great Miracle This therefore being Matter of Fact and Experience what has been done and come to pass already that new Miracles have been generally unsuccessful upon such as have not regarded a Standing Revelation of God's Will we may reasonably infer that 't is highly probable if not certain that the same Experiment tried over again would have no better success The Summ of all therefore is this such as are as St. Luke says they were who were Converted by the Preaching and Miracles of the Apostles * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Predisposed or fitted for Eternal Life Acts 13.46 that is such as are modest and teachable who hear without prejudice and judge without Partiality and have no Interest of Sin or the World that stands in competition with their Desire to obtain everlasting Happiness such as enquire out the Truth with the same Indifference that a Traveller does his Way who has no Inclination to one Way more than to another but only desires to be directed right and is resolved to take that way which he is persuaded is the right tho' it should not prove so very clean and smooth and pleasant as he hoped it would such I say as are of this honest and docible mind will be persuaded by a good Reason especially if it be as good as the Matter is capable of tho' it falls short of Demonstration and if there be Reason or appearance of Reason on both sides they will judge on that side on which the Reasons seem most weighty and for the Conviction of such as these the Standing Revelation of the Gospel being so well proved as it is is abundantly sufficient so that such shall not need new Miracles or new Revelations And on the other side such as only do need them that is such as being of perverse Minds and stubborn Wills and devoted to Sin will not hearken to Moses and the Prophets nor to Christ and his Apostles speaking in the Scripture would very probably receive no Benefit from new Miracles or new Revelations For nothing will serve to convince those who will not be convinced at all no Arguments can be sufficient to persuade a Man to that which he is strongly prejudiced and fully resolved against And this being the Case of all those who do not hear Moses and the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles preaching to them in the Holy Scripture or are not persuaded by them we may well conclude with Abraham in the Text that any other means that might be used to reclaim them would most probably prove as ineffectual as this has been and that they would not be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead And now having shewn that the present Standing Revelation of God's Will in the Holy Scripture is sufficient to convince and persuade Men having also shewn that more Proof and Evidence than we have of the Truth of our Religion cannot reasonably be desired And having likewise shewn that any other Proof or Evidence thereof would probably be ineffectual upon those who will not hear Moses and the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles preaching to them in the Holy Scripture I have finished all that I proposed to do in discoursing on these Words I shall conclude all with an useful Exhortation first to Infidels who will not by all that has been said be persuaded to admit this divine Revelation and secondly to Christians who do receive it 1. To you who are yet Infidels if there are any such here as I hope there are not or if these Discourses shall happen to fall into the Hands of any such I beg leave to address my self in a few words And I would desire you in the first Place to prepare and dispose your Minds to hear gravely and without prejudice the Reasons that are offered to prove the Truth of Christianity by considering seriously the great Importance of Religion if it be true And if you do but consider this you will quickly see that it is well worth your while to be at some pains to satisfie your selves fully whether Religion be true or not For if Religion be true and you can't be sure it is not till you have well examined the Grounds and Proofs of it you have a great Concern at stake and in a Matter of such Moment it becomes not a Wise Man to be determined by a Jest or a Quibble And if you seriously consider the great Importance of Religion you will likewise readily see that of the two you had much better be mistaken in believing the Truth of Religion tho' it be false than in disbelieving it if indeed it be true so that consequently if it can ever be reasonable for a Wise Man to be under a Prejudice it would be most
reasonable that you should be prejudiced on the side of Religion You will also then see that if in any Case it be Wisdom to be over-credulous that is to believe beyond the strength of the Evidence it is so in the Case of Religion because the greatest Damage you can suffer by Over-credulity in case Religion be all a Cheat is infinitely less than will be the Consequence of unreasonable Infidelity if indeed Religion be true Next I would desire you to examine your selves seriously whether in your Enquiries into the Grounds and Reasons of Religion you have not hitherto had some Byass upon your Minds whether at the same time that you have set your selves to consider of the Proofs of the Christian Religion you have not secretly wished that you might not find them satisfactory to your Reason And if so I desire you to examine further what was the Cause of this whether it was not some worldly Pleasure or Profit which you foresaw you should be debarr'd from in case you should happen to be convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion And if it was I hope that some serious Consideration of the great Importance of Religion which I before advised in order to the removing unreasonable Prejudices will also suffice to satisfie you how unworthy of any Love or Regard any Worldly Pleasure or Profit is in Comparision with that Eternal Happiness which is promised in the Gospel so that consequently when you are enquiring into the Grounds and Reasons of our Hope of that Eternal Life all other Thoughts ought to be laid aside and you ought to have no Eye at all to any thing else because to a Man who must be unspeakably happy or miserable to all Eternity which is the Case of all of us if indeed Reâ—igion be true 't is not a matter worth thinking of whether his Worldly State and Condition will be rendred better or worse by his endeavouring to secure to himself a blessed Portion in the other World And if by these Considerations your Minds shall be â—â—eed from Prejudices and from all Byass of Worldly Inâ—erest I would after this desire you to take a fresh â—nto your Consideration what has been offered in the â—oregoing Discourses for the Proof of the Christian Reâ—â—gion and the much more that has been better said by â—â—thers upon the same Argument for there can be no Hurt in considering these things over and over again altho' after all you should remain as unsatisfied as you are now But I can't but hope I can't but think that if you do consider without Prejudice or Partiality the Reasons that have been offered to prove the Truth of Christianity you must needs be convinced thereby However if the Reasons that are or may be offer'd for the Proof of it should not be sufficient perfectly to cure your Infidelity and to make you become Zealous Christians they may be and they certainly are sufficient to satisfie you that the Christians have some Reason for their Belief even the same at least if not better that you your selves are swayed by in all other Cases and consequently that they are not such very easie and credulous Fools as you perhaps have hitherto taken them to be I 'm confident you must grant that if the Reasons of our Religion are not demonstrative they are at least probable and that if our Religion be not true it has at least a fair shew and Appearance of Truth And if you will but only allow this 't is then a Reasonable Request and what I would next desire of you not to make a Boast of your Unbelief not to ridicule our holy Religion not to make it your Business to proselyte Men to Atheism and Infidelity 1. Not to make a Boast of your Unbelief For if indeed you have no Religion yet what Interest can you have in telling the World so Nay is there any thing that you could do more to your own Prejudice For tho' you are not under the Direction and Influence of any Religious Principles yet so long as you appear to have some Religion you will be employed and trusted as other Men are Men will believe you to be Honest 'till they shall find to the contrary and in the mean time you will have an Opportunity of raising your selves to Wealth and Honour But when once the World shall come to know that you are Men of no Principles that you are under no Restraints of Conscience that you will do whatever you can safely do for your own Advantage that is whatever you can do without danger of a Prison a Pillory or a Gibbet and they will have Reason to think all this of you when you your selves shall tell them that you are of no Religion Who do you think will employ you Who do you think will trust you So that the only way you will then have to make your Fortunes will be by open Force and Violence and in that you will meet with such opposition from all the World as will quickly work your Ruine But you think it may be that 't is a mean and ungenerous thing to disown your Principles or rather your no Principles that it is beneath a Man to seem to be what he is not and to put on a face of Religion when he has none how profitable soever his Hypocrisie might be to him Very well Then you may if you are willing to suffer the Inconvenience of it freely own your selves to be of no Religion but at the same time you should do well to consider that the greatest part of the World is against you that not only the Ignorant and Illiterate but the Wisest the Gravest the most Learned and the most Noble Persons have generally been Men of Religion or at least which is all we can judge by have outwardly professed themselves persuaded of the Truth of it and have expressed the greatest Zeal and Concern for it And therefore 2. Tho' you do believe nothing of it your selves and scorn to conceal your Unbelief you may however be civil to our Religion for 't is but good Manners to treat with some Respect that which those with whom you Converse account Sacred Besides whether Religion be true or false the Subject of it is grave and therefore ought to be handled with a decent Reverence Do not then shew such ill Breeding as to make that the Subject of your Sport and Raillery which all besides your selves account the most serious thing in the World Be not guilty of so much Indecency as to discourse of any Matter in a manner so unsuitable to the Nature of it But if you will needs be attacking our Religion compose your selves first to Gravity and Seriousness and let it be seen by your way of Treating us that your Design is manly and generous only to undeceive and disabuse us not to make Sport with us Isa 41.21 Produce your Cause as the Prophet speaks and bring forth your strong Reasons by them it
openly profess the Christian Religion there is in a great many a Spice and Tincture of Atheism and Infidelity and tho' they do not actually disbelieve the Gospel truths yet they believe them so coldly and faintly that their Faith may rather be called an Inclination to believe than a full Persuasion I say even in this incredulous and unbelieving Age I am nevertheless verily persuaded that for one Man that is ruin'd by Infidelity many hundreds are ruined by Thoughtlesness and Inconsideration that where there is one that is wicked because he believes nothing of the Gospel-motives nor that there is any such Place or State as Heaven or Hell there are a great many that do believe these things and yet continue in their wicked Course because they never take any time seriously to consider what Heaven and Hell are and that vast that infinite difference that there is between these two States and how much it behoves them to use all Diligence to attain that and to avoid this Leaving therefore those who believe little or nothing of these things to my following Discourses wherein I hope to prove the Truth of the Gospel Revelation beyond all reasonable Exception I shall now address my self to you that do believe these things and who every time you meet together in the Church do repeat all the Articles of the Christian Faith and declare your Assent thereto And what I would desire of you is that you would frequently think of those things which you profess to believe that you would meditate much and often thereupon that you would seriously consider the Meaning thereof Particularly That Summary of the Gospel Motives to Faith and Repentance before spoken of that great and last Article of the Christian Creed The Life everlasting Consider what it means and do not content your selves only with saying every Day that you do believe an everlasting Life after this but meditate likewise every Day or very frequently at least what an everlasting Life is and of what Sort and Kind that everlasting Life will be Now Life is a state of Sensation By this a Living Body is distinguished from a dead Carkass that the living Body feels what is done unto it and is affected thereby either with Pain or Pleasure whereas a dead Carkass is not capable of either hath no Sense or Feeling of any thing When therefore in repeating the Creed we declare that we believe we shall live again after our death the meaning is that we shall be hereafter in such a State of Sensation as we are in now that in that Life we shall be as sensible of Pain or Pleasure as we are in this Life But then what makes the great Difference between this Life and that is that this is short transient and momentary that if it be pleasant it is soon over and that if it be painfull it will not last long whereas that such as it is once such it will ever be for that 's the Meaning of a Life everlasting 't is a Life that will never be ended A Life that will continue to all Eternity And now that we come to speak of Eternity tho' the Word has a fix'd Meaning yet how are our Thoughts lost and bewildered when we set our selves to meditate thereupon When we speak of a thousand or ten thousand or even of a Million of Years we have some Notion of what we say but when we come to multiply these thousands and Millions by ten thousands or ten Millions or by Millions of Millions our Thoughts are not capacious enough to conceive and our Mouths want Words to express that infinite Length of Time which these Numbers do comprehend And yet all that these Numbers denote is nothing in Comparison with Eternity If the whole Sea were to run out Drop by Drop what a prodigious Length of Time would this take up and yet in time this would be done and they that live for ever would live to see the vast Caverns of the Ocean without one Drop of Water left in them And which is more yet there would be no Part of their Eternity then spent they would then be as far from dying as they were at first Or if only once in ten thousand Years one of the smallest Sands or Dusts were to be taken from the Earth they that live for ever would live to see all this vast Bulk of the Earth by these slow and imperceptible Degrees wholly removed not so much as a Grain or Atone of it left Nay and even in this prodigious this unconceivable Length of Time their Life would not be in the least diminished they would have the same boundless Eternity still before them that they had when the first Sand was taken away But what do I speak of these little Numbers these Moments of Time as they may truly be called in Comparison with Eternity For even all those Years in which the whole Earth might be removed if only one single smallest Dust thereof were to be taken away once in ten thousand Years I say all these Years may be expressed in Figures in a Line of a few Inches long But if the whole Expanse of Heaven were written quite over with Figures from the Top to the Bottom and from one Side to the other even all these Figures tho' set so close that there was not Room left for one more would not denote or express Eternity And when all these numberless Millions of Years were spent He that lives for ever would be as it were but just then beginning to live and his Sight and Prospect of the Time before him would be still as boundless as ever Thus you see what is eternal Life Or rather you see what it is not It is a Length of Time that cannot be expressed in Words or signified by Figures or conceived in Thought It is a Length of Time to which all that we can have any positive Notion of bears no Proportion And when we believe that we shall live such a Life after this short Life is over does it not highly behove us to think of it now and to make the best Provision that is possible that we may be happy in it And this leads me to the other Branch of Meditation on this Subject which we ought likewise frequently and seriously to dwell upon in our Minds namely of what Sort and Kind this eternal Life will be And as 't is Life 't is as was said before a State of Sensation and as it is an everlasting Life 't is a State in which we shall for ever feel our selves either in Pain or at Ease And if there were no more in it than this tho' the Pain we shall then endure were the least of those Pains wherewith we are now afflicted a little Pain or Aking of one Joint or Member only Or tho' the Pleasure we shall then enjoy were one of the least of those Pleasures wherewith we are now delighted yet when we have added Eternity to these what an