is in the work of Grace So that according to this opinion there must be immediate inspiration as to that act of faith whereby we believe any one to have been divinely inspired and consequently to that whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Secondly Doth not this make the fairest plea for mens unbelief For I demand Is it the duty of those who want that immediate illumination to believe or no If it be not their duty unbelief can be no sin to them if it be a duty it must be made known to be a duty and how can that be made known to them to be a duty when they want the only and necessary means of instruction in order to it Will God condemn them for that which it was impossible they should have unless God gave it them And how can they be left inexcuseable who want so much as rational inducements to faith for of these I now speak and not of efficacious perswasions of the mind when there are rational arguments for faith propounded But lastly I suppose the case will be cleared when we take notice what course God hath alwayes taken to give all rational satisfaction to the minds of men concerning the persons whom he hath imployed in either of the fore-mentioned cases First for those who have been imployed upon some special message and service for God he hath sent them forth sufficiently provided with manifestations of the Divine power whereby they acted As is most clear and evident in the present case of Moses Exodus 4. 1 2 3 4 5. where Moses puts the case to God which we are now debating of Supposing saith he that I should go to the Israelites and tell them God had appeared to me and sent me to deliver them and they should say God had not appeared unto me how should I satisfie them God doth not reject this objection of Moses as favouring of unbelief but presently shews him how he should satisfie them by causing a miracle before his face turning his rod into a Serpent and God gives this as the reason of it vers 5. That they may believe that the Lord God of their Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee It seems God himself thought this would be the most pregnant evidence of Gods appearing to him if he wrought miracles before their faces Nay lest they should think one single miracle was not sufficient God in the immediate following verses adjoyns two more which he should do in order to their satisfaction and further verse 21. God gave him a charge to do all those wonders before Pharoah which he had put into his hand And accordingly we find Pharoah presently demanding a miracle of Moses Exodus 7. 9. which accordingly Moses did in his presence though he might suppose Pharoahs demand not to proceed from desire of satisfaction but from some hopes that for want of it he might have rendred his credit suspected among the Israelites Indeed after God had delivered his people and had setled them in a way of serving him according to the Laws delivered by Moses which he had confirmed by unquestionable miracles among them we find a caution laid in by Moses himself against those which should pretend signs and wonders to draw them off from the Religion established by the Law of Moses And so likewise under the Gospel after that was established by the unparallel'd miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles we find frequent cautions against being deceived by those who came with pretences of doing great miracles But this is so far from infringing the credibility of such a Testimony which is confirmed by miracles that it yields a strong confirmation to the truth of what I now assert For the doctrine is supposed to be already established by miracles according to which we are to judge of the spirits of such pretenders Now it stands to the greatest reason that when a Religion is once established by uncontrouled miracles we should not hearken to every whiffling Conjurer that will pretend to do great feats to draw us off from the truth established In which case the surest way to discover the imposture is to compare his pretended miracles with those true and real ones which were done by Moses and Christ and the ground of it is because every person is no competent judge of the truth of a miracle for the Devil by his power and subtilty may easily deceive all such as will be led by the nose by him in expectation of some wonders to be done by him And therefore as long as we have no ground to question the oertainty of those miracles which were wrought by Christ or Moses I am bound to adhere to the doctrine established by those miracles and to make them my rule of judging all persons who shall pretend to work miracles Because 1. I do not know how far God may give men over to be deceived by lying wonders who will not receive the truth in the love of it i. e. those that think not the Christian Religion sufficiently confirmed by the miracles wrought at the first promulgation of it God in justice may permit the Devil to go further then otherwise he could and leave such persons to their own credulity to believe every imposture and illusion of their senses for true miracles 2. That doctrine which was confirmed by undoubted miracles hath assured us of the coming of lying wonders whereby many should be deceived Now this part of the doctrine of the Gospel is as certainly true as any of the rest for it was confirmed by the same miracles that the other was and besides that the very coming of such miracles is an evidence of the truth of it it falling out so exactly according to what was foretold so many hundred years since Now if this doctrine be true then am I certain the intent of these miracles is to deceive and that those are deceived who hearken to them and what reason then have I to believe them 3. To what end do these miracles serve Are they to confirm the truths contained in Scripture But what need they any confirmation now when we are assured by the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles that the doctrine by them preached came from God and so hath been received upon the credit of those miracles ever since Were these truths sufficiently proved to be from God before or no If not then all former ages have believed without sufficient ground for faith if they were then what ground can there be to confirm us in them now certainly God who never doth anything but for very great purposes will never alter the course of nature meerly for satisfaction of mens vain curiosities But it may be it will be said It was something not fully revealed in Scripture which is thus confirmed by miracles but where hath the Scripture told us that anything not fully revealed
have believed the doctrine of Christ to be the only way to salvation have been deceived either we must deny altogether a Divine Providence or say the Devil hath more power to deceive men then God to direct them which is worse then the former or else assert that there are no such things at all as either God or Devils but that all things come to pass by chance and fortune and if so it is still more inexplicable why such multitudes of rational and serious men and the most inquisitive part of the world as to such things should all be so possessed with the truth and certainty of these things and the more profane wicked and ignorant any persons are the more prone they are to mock and deride them If such men then see more into truth and reason then the sober and judicious part of mankind let us bid adieu to humanity and adore the brutes since we admire their judgement most who come the nearest to them 3. The multitude of these persons thus consenting in this Testimony could have no other engagement to this consent but only their firm perswasion of the truth of the doctrine conveyed by it because those who unanimously agree in this thing are such persons whose other designs and interests in this world differ as much as any mens do If it had been only a consent of Iews there might have been some probable pretence to have suspected a matter of interest in it but as to this thing we find the Iews divided among themselves about it and the stiffest denyers of the truth of it do yet inviolably preserve those sacred records among them from which the truth of the doctrine of Christ may be undoubtedly proved Had the Christian Religion been enforced upon the world by the Roman Emperours at the time of its first promulgation there would have been some suspicion of particular design in it but it came with no other strength but the evidence of its own truth yet it found sudden and strange entertainment among persons of all Nations and degrees of men In a short time it had eaten into the heart of the Roman Empire and made so large a spread therein that it made Tertullian say Hesterni sumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castraipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum sola vobis relinquimus Templa We have but newly appeared saith he yet we have filled all places with our company but only your Temples and before speaking of the Heathens Obsessam vociferantur civitatem in agris in castellis in insulis Christianos omnem sexum aetatem conditionem etiam dignitatem transgredi ad hoc nomen quasi detrimento moerent All sorts and conditions of men in all places were suddenly become Christians What common tye could there be now to unite all these persons together if we set aside the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine of Christ which was first preached to them by such who were eye-witnesses of Christs actions and had left sacred records behind them containing the substance of the doctrine of Christ and those admirable instructions which were their only certain guides in the way to heaven 4. Because many persons do joyn in this consent with true Christians who yet could heartily with that the doctrine of Christianity were not true Such are all those persons who are sensual in their lives and walk not according to the rules of the Gospel yet dare not question or deny the truth of it Such who could heartily wish there were no future state nor judgement to come that they might indulge themselves in this world without fear of another yet their consciences are so far convinced of and awed by the truth of these things that they raise many perplexities and anxieties in their minds which they would most willingly be rid of which they can never throughly be till instead of having the name of Christians they come to live the life of Christians and become experimentally acquainted with the truth and power of Religion And withall we find that the more men have been acquainted with the practice of Christianity the greater evidence they have had of the truth of it and been more fully and rationally perswaded of it To such I grant there are such powerful evidences of the truth of the doctrine of Christ by the effectual workings of the Spirit of God upon their souls that all other arguments as to their own satisfaction may fall short of these As to which those verses of the Poet Dante 's rendred into Latine by F. S. are very pertinent and significant for when he had introduced the Apostle Peter asking him what it was which his faith was founded on he answers Deinde exivit ex luce profundâ Quae illic splendebat pretiosa gemma Super quam omnis virtus fundatur i. e. That God was pleased by immediate revelation of himself to discover that divine truth to the world whereon our faith doth stand as on its sure foundation but when the Apostle goes on to enquire how he knew this came at first from God his answer to that is larga pluvia Spiritûs Sancti quae est diffusa Super veteres super novas membranas Est syllogismus ille qui eam mihi conclusit Adâ—ò acutè ut prae illâ demonstratione Omnis demonstratio alia mihi videatur obtusa i. e. That the Spirit of God doth so fully discover its self both in the Old and New Testament that all other arguments are but dull and heavy if compared with this It is true they are so to a truly inlightened conscience which discovers so much beauty and glory in the Scriptures that they ravish the soul although it be unable to give so full an account of this unto others who want the eyes to see that beauty with which a heart truly gracious hath We see ordinarily in the world that the attraction of beauty is an unaccountable thing and one may discern that which ravisheth him which another looks on as mean and ordinary and why may it not be much more thus in divine objects which want spiritual eyes to discover them Therefore I grant that good men enjoy that satisfaction to their own Consciences as to the truth of the Doctrine of Christ which others cannot attain to but yet I say that such do likewise see the most strong rational and convincing evidence which doth induce them to believe which evidence is then most convincing when it is seconded by the peculiar energy of the Spirit of God upon the souls of true Believers But yet we see that the power and force of the truth of these things may be so great even upon such minds which are not yet moulded into the fashion of true goodness that it may awe with its light and clearness where it doth not soften and alter by its heat and influence Now whence can it be that such
its self A common and universal effect must flow from some common and universal cause So the Stoick argues in Tully If there were no God non tam stabilis opinio permaneret nec confirmaretur diuturnitate remporis nec una cum seculis aetatibusque hominum inveterare potuisset It is strange to think that mankind in so many ages of the world should not grow wise enough to rid its self of so troublesom an opinion as that was of the Being of God had it not been true We see in all the alterations of the world other vain opinions have been detected refuted and shaken off if this had been such how comes it to remain the same in all ages and Nations of the world Opinionum commenta delet dies naturae judicia confirmat It is a great discredit to Time to make it like a river in that sense that it bears up only lighter things when matters of greatest weight are sunk to the bottom and past recovery This may pass for a handsom allusion as to the opinions and writings of particular persons but cannot be understood of such things which are founded on the universal consent of the world for these common notions of humane nature are so suited to the temper of the world that they pass down the strong current of Time with the same facility that a well built ship though of good burden doth furrow the Ocean So that if we must adhere to the Allegory it is easily replyed that it is not the weight of things which makes them sink but the unsuitableness of their superficies to that of the water so we see a small piece of wood will sink when a stately ship is born up so such things which have not that agreeableness in them to the dictates of nature may soon be lost but such as lye so even upon the superficies of the soul will still float above the water and never be lost in the swiftest current of Time Thus we assert this universal consent of mankind as to the existence of a Deity to be a thing so consonant to our natural reason that as long as there are men in the world it will continue But now it is hardly conceivable according to the Principles of Epicurus how mankind should universally agree in some common sentiments much less how it should have such an anticipation as himself grants of the Being of God For if the soul be nothing else but some more active and vigorous particles of matter as Diogenes Laertius tells us that his opinion was that the soul was nothing else but a Systeme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the most smooth and round atoms if so it is very hard apprehending how any such things as anticipations or commctions can be lodged in the soul For if our souls be nothing else but some small sphaericall corpuscles which move up and down the body as the Epicurean Philosophy supposeth then all our knowledge and perception must depend on motion which motion must be by the impression of external objects which Lucretius acknowledgeth and contends for Invenies primis à sensibus esse creatam Notitiam veri If then our knowledge of truth comes in by our senses and sensation doth wholly depend upon the impression of outward objects what becomes of all common notions and of the Prolepsis of a Deity unless we suppose the knowledge of a Deity came in by sense which Epicurus himself denyes when he attributes to the Deity not corpus but quasi corpus as Tully tells us and therefore he is not a proper object of sense So that it is impossible there should be any such thing as a natural notion which may be the ground of universal consent among men according to the doctrine of Epicurus And therefore it stands to all reason in the world that if our senses be the only competent Iudges of truth men should differ about nothing more then such things which cannot be tryed by the judgement of sense Such as the notion of a God is for where should men be more uncertain in their judgements then in such thing which they have no rule at all to go by in the judging of but we are so far from finding it so that men are nothing so much agreed about the objects of sense as they are about the existence of a Deity and therefore we see this universal consent of mankind concerning a God cannot be salved by the principles of those who deny it according to which no account at all can be given of any such things as universal or common notions Neither can this universal consent of mankind be enervated with any greater probability by those Atheists who assert the eternity of the world and resolve this consent wholly into meer tradition such as the Fables of Poets were conveyed in from one to another For I demand concerning this tradition Whether ever it had any beginning or no If it had no beginning it could be no tradition for that must run up to some persons from whom it first came again if it had no beginning it was necessary that it should alwayes be on the same accounts on which they make the world eternal And if it be necessary it must be antecedent to any free act of mans will which tradition supposeth and so some false opinion would be found to be as necessary as the worlds being eternal and by consequence the worlds being eternal may be a necessary false opinion but if any false opinion be once granted necessary it then follows that our faculties are not true and that nature is a necessary cause of some notorious falsity which is the highest impeachment the Atheist could have laid upon his only adored nature which must then have done that which Aristotle was ashamed to think ever nature should be guilty of which is something in vain for to what purpose should man have rational faculties if he be under an unavoidable necessity of being deceived If then it be granted that this tradition had once a beginning either it began with humane nature or humane nature did exist long before it if it began with mankind then mankind had a beginning and so the world was not eternal if mankind did exist before this tradition I then enquire in what time and by what means came this tradition first to be embraced if it doth not supppse the existence of a Deity Can any age be mentioned in history wherein this tradition was not universally received and which is most to our purpose the further we go back in history the fuller the world was of Deities if we believe the Heathen histories but however no age can be instanced in wherein this tradition began first to be believed in the world we can trace the Poetick Fables to their true original by the testimonies of those who believed them we know the particular Authors of them and what course they took in divulging of them we find great
ORIGINES SACRAE OR A Rational Account of the Grounds OF Christian Faith AS TO THE TRUTH AND Divine Authority OF THE SCRIPTURES And the matters therein contained By EDWARD STILLINGFLEET Rector of Sutton in Bedfordshire 2 Pet. 1. 16. For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty Neque religio ulla sine sapientia suscipienda est nec ulla sine religione probanda sapientia Lactant. de fals relig cap. 1. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Henry Mortlock at the sign of the Phoenâ—â— in St. Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1662. To his most Honoured Friend and Patron Sr. ROGER BURGOINE Knight and Baronet Sir IT was the early felicitie of Moses when exposed in an Ark of Nilotick papyre to be adopted into the favour of so great a personage as the Daughter of Pharaoh Such another Ark is this vindication of the writings of that Divine and excellent Person exposed to the world in and the greatest ambition of the Author of it is to have it received into your Patronage and Protection But although the contexture and frame of this Treatise be far below the excellency and worth of the subject as you know the Ark in which Moses was put was of bulrushes daubed with slime and pitch yet when You please to cast your eye on the matter contained in it you will not think it beneath your Favour and unworthy your Protection For if Truth be the greatest Present which God could bestow or man receive according to that of Plurarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then certainly those Truths deserve our most ready acceptance which are in themselves of greatest importance and have the greatest evidence that they come from God And although I have had the happiness of so near relation to You acquaintance with You as to know how little You need such discourses which tend to settle the Foundations of Religion which you have raised so happy a Superstructure upon yet withal I consider what particular Kindness the souls of all good men bear to such Designs whose end is to assert and vindicate the Truth and Excellency of Religion For those who are enriched themselves with the inestimable Treasure of true Goodness and Piety are far from that envious temper to think nothing valuable but what they are the sole Possessors of but such are the most satisfied themselves when they see others not only admire but enjoy what they have the highest estimation of Were all who make a shew of Religion in the World really such as they pretend to be discourses of this nature vvould be no more seasonable then the commendations of a great Beauty to one vvho is already a passionate admirer of it but on the contrary vve see how common it is for men first to throw dirt in the face of Religion and then perswade themselves it is its natural Complexion they represent it to themselves in a shape least pleasing to them and then bring that as a Plea why they give it no better entertainment It may justly seem strange that true Religion which contains nothing in it but what is truly Noble and Generous most rational and pleasing to the spirits of all good men should yet suffer so much in its esteem in the world through those strange and uncouth vizards it is represented under Some accouting the life and practice of it as it speaks subduing our wills to the will of God which is the substance of all Religion a thing too low and mean for their rank and condition in the World while others pretend a quarrel against the principles of it as unsatisfactory to Humane reason Thus Religion suffers with the Author of it between two Thieves and it is hard to define which is more injurious to it that which questions the Principles or that which despiseth the Practice of it And nothing certainly will more incline men to believe that we live in an Age of Prodigies then that there should be any such in the Christian World who should account it a piece of Gentility to despise Religion and a piece of Reason to be Atheists For if there be any such things in the World as a true height and magnanimity of spirit if there be any solid reason and depth of judgement they are not only consistent with but only attainable by a true generous spirit of Religion But if we look at that which the loose and profane World is apt to account the greatest gallantry we shall find it made up of such pitiful Ingredients which any skilful rational mind will be ashamed to plead for much less to mention them in competition with true goodness and unfeigned piety For how easie is it to observe such who would be accounted the most high and gallant spirits to quarry on such mean preys which only tend to satisfie their brutish appetites or flesh revenge with the blood of such who have stood in the way of that ayery title Honour Or else they are so little apprehensive of the in ward worth and excellency of humane nature that they seem to envy the gallantry of Peacocks and strive to outvy them in the gayety of their Plumes such vvho are as seneca saith ad similitudinem parietum extrinsecùs culti vvho imitate the walls of their houses in the fairness of the outsides but matter not vvhat rubbish there lies within The utmost of their ambition is to attain enervatam felicitatem quâ permadescunt animi such a felicity as evigorates the soul by too long steeping it being the nature of all terrestrial pleasures that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by degrees consume reason by effeminating and softening the Intellectuals Must we appeal then to the judgement of Sardanapalus concerning the nature of Felicity or enquire of Apicius what temperance is or desire that Sybarite to define Magnanimity who fainted to see a man at hard labour Or doth now the conquest of passions forgiving injuries doing good self-denial humility patience under crosses which are the real expressions of piety speak nothing more noble generous then a luxurious malicious proud and impatient spirit Is there nothing more becoming and agreeable to the soul of man in exemplary Piety and a Holy well-orderd Conversation then in the lightness and vanity not to say rudeness and debaucheries of those whom the world accounts the greatest gallants Is there nothing more graceful and pleasing in the sweetness candour and ingenuity of a truly Christian temper and disposition then in the revengeful implacable spirit of such whose Honour lives and is fed by the Blood of their enemies Is it not more truly honourable and glorious to serve that God who commands the World then to be a slave to those passions and lusts which put men upon continual hard service and torment them for it when they have done it Were there nothing else to commend Religion
the general defect for want of timely records among Heathen Nations the reason of it shewed from the first Plantations of the World The manner of them discovered The Original of Civil Government Of Hieroglyphicks The use of letters among the Greeks no elder then Cadmus his time enquired into no elder then Joshua the learning brought into Greece by him ENquiries after truth have that peculiar commendation above all other designs that they come on purpose to gratifie the most noble faculty of our souls and do most immediately tend to re-advance the highest perfection of our rational beings For all our most laudable endeavours after knowledge now are only the gathering up some scattered fragments of what was once an entire Fabrick and the recovery of some precious Iewels which were lost out of sight and sunk in the shipwrack of humane nature That saying of Plato that all knowledge is remembrance and all ignorance forgetfulness is a certain and undoubted truth if by forgetfulness be meant the loss and by remembrance the recovery of those notions and conceptions of things which the mind of man once had in its pure and primitive state wherein the understanding was the truest Microcosm in which all the beings of the inferiour world were faithfully represented according to their true native and genuine perfections God created the soul of man not only capable of finding out the truth of things but furnished him with a sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or touchstone to discover truth from falshood by a light set up in his understanding which if he had attended to he might have secured himself from all impostures and deceits As all other beings were created in the full possession of the agreeable perfections of their several natures so was man too else God would have never closed the work of Creation with those words And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good that is endued with all those perfections which were suitable to their several beings Which man had been most defective in if his understanding had not been endowed with a large stock of intellectual knowledge which is the most natural and genuine perfection belonging to his rational being For reason being the most raised faculty of humane nature if that had been defective in its discoveries of truth which is its proper object it would have argued the greatest maim and imperfection in the being it self For if it belongs to the perfection of the sensitive faculties to discern what is pleasant from what is hurtful it must needs be the perfection of the rational to find out the difference of truth from falshood Not as though the soul could then have had any more then now an actual notion of all the beings in the world ocexisting at the same time but that it would have been free from all deceits in its conceptions of things which were not caused through inadvertency Which will appear from the several aspects mans knowledge ledge hath which are either upwards towards his Maker or abroad on his fellow-creatures If we consider that contemplation of the soul which fixes its self on that infinite being which was the cause of it and is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be found necessary for the soul to be created in a clear and distinct knowledge of him because of mans immediate obligation to obedience unto him Which must necessarily suppose the knowledge of him whose will must be his rule for if man were not fully convinced in the first moment after his creation of the being of him whom he was to obey his first work and duty would not have been actual obedience but a search whether there was any supreme infinite and eternal being or no and whereon his duty to him was founded and what might be sufficient declaration of his Will and Laws according to which he must regulate his obedience The taking off all which doubts and scruples from the soul of man must suppose him fully satisfied upon the first free use of reason that there was an Infinite Power and Being which produced him and on that account had a right to command him in whatsoever he pleased and that those commands of his were declared to him in so certain a way that he could not be deceived in the judging of them The clear knowledge of God will further appear most necessary to man in his first creation if we consider that God created him for this end and purpose to enjoy converse and an humble familiarity with himself he had then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of Clemens Alexandrinus Converse with God was as natural to him as his being was For man as he came first out of Gods hands was the reflection of God himself on a dark Cloud the Iris of the Deity the Similitude was the same but the substance different Thence he is said to be created after the Image of God His knowledge then had been more intellectual then discursive not so much imploying his faculties in the operose deductions of reason the pleasant toyl of the rational faculties since the Fall but had immediately imployed them about the sublimest objects not about quiddities and formalities but about him who was the fountain of his being and the center of his happiness There was not then so vast a difference between the Angelical and humane life The Angels and men both fed on the same dainties all the difference was they were in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the upper room in heaven and man in the Summer Parlour in Paradise If we take a view of mans knowledge as it respects his fellow-creatures we shall find these were so fully known to him on his first creation that he needed not to go to School to the wide world to gather up his conceptions of them For the right exercise of that Dominion which he was instated in over the inferiour world doth imply a particular knowledge of the nature being and properties of those things which he was to make use of without which he could not have improved them for their peculiar ends And from this knowledge did proceed the giving the creatures those proper and peculiar names which were expressive of their several natures For as Plato tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The imposition of names on things belongs not to every one but only to him that hath a full prospect into their several natures For it is most agreeable to reason that names should carry in them a suitableness to the things they express for words being for no other end but to express our conceptions of things and our conceptions being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Philosopher speaks the resemblances and representations of the things it must needs follow that where there was a true knowledge the conceptions must agree with the things and words being to express our conceptions none are so fit to do it as those which
elder then Christianity among them Among the Romans was used an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was for the sake of the Nundinae returning every ninth day The Mexicans as Scaliger tells us reckon all by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a System of thirteen dayes Next to these were their Moneths which were either Lunar or Solar The Lunar were either from the Moons return to the same point of the Zodiack again called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was less then twenty eight dayes but this was of no use in civil computations or else from one conjunction of the Moon with the Sun to another which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else from the first phasis of the Moon the second day after its coitus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some as the Graecians reckoned their Lunar moneths from the coitus as Scaliger proves out of Vitruvius others from the phasis as some Eastern Nations did as the Iews began their observation of the New Moons from the first phasis or appearance of her after the coitus The Solar moneths were either natural such as were defined by the Suns passage from one sign of the Zodiack to another or civil whereby the moneths were equally divided into 30 dayes apiece as in the Graecian and Aegyptian year Having thus far seen of what the year consists we now proceed to shew that the ancient Nations did not observe one constant certain form of year among them but had several in use to which their accounts may be referred And because the Aegyptians are supposed to have been best skilled as to the form of the year according to that of Macrobius Anni certus modus apud solos semper Aegyptios fuit We shall particularly demonstrate the variety of years in use among them By which we shall see what great uncertainty there is in their accounts of their Dynastyes For first it is evident that the time of 30 days was among the ancient Aegyptians accounted a year for which we have the testimony of Plutarch in Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Egyptians at first had a year consisting of one moneth and after of four And this if we believe Alexander ab Alexandro was the year most frequently in use among them So Varro in Lactantius gives an account of the great age of some men in ancient times who are supposed to have lived 1000 years Ait enim apud Aegyptios pro annis menses haberi ut non Solis per 12 signa circaitus faciat annum sed Luna quae orbem illum signiferum 30 dierum spatio illustrat It is then evident that this year of thirty days was in use among the Aegyptians the only scruple is whether it was used in their sacred accounts or no and that it was we have a pregnant testimony in Plutarch in the fore-cited place speaking of the Aegyptians great pretence to antiquity he gives this account of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They reckon an infinite number of years in their accounts â—ecause they reckon their moneths in stead of years According to this computation it will be no difficult matter to reduce the vast accounts of the Aegyptian antiquity to some proportion and to reconcile their exorbitant Dynastyes with sobriety and truth especially as to the account given of them by Diodorus Siculus for so Diodorus gives in their accounts that the Gods and Heroes reigned in Aegypt for the space of near 18000 years and the last of them was Orus the Son of Isis From the reign of men in Aegypt he reckons about 9500 years to the time if we admit of Iacob Capellus his correction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Diodorus with his entrance into Aegypt which was in the 180 Olympiad Now as the foresaid learned Author observes Diodorus came into Aegypt A. M. 3940. V. C. 694. the mortal men then had reigned in Aegypt 9500 years which taking it for these Lunar years of 30 dayes makes of Iulian years 780. the Heroes and Gods 18000 moneths that is of Iulian years 1478 from these two summs together are gathered 2258 years which being deducted from the year of the world 3940 falls in the year of the world 1682. about which time Misraim who was the great historical O siris of Aegypt so called by a light variation of his former name might be well supposed to be born for that was in the year of Noah 630. and so Orus might be born who was the Son of Osiris about the year of the world 1778. Between whose time and Alexander the great his Conquest of Aegypt the Aegyptians as the same Diodorus tells us reckon little less then 23000 years Now according to this computation of 30 days for a year we may reconcile this to truth too for from 1778 to 3667 of the world which falls upon the 417 year of Nabonassar there is an interval of 1889 years which makes of these Lunar years of 30 days saith Cappellus 22996. and 15 days which comes very near if not altogether up to the Aegyptian Computation So when the Aegyptians according to Diodorus make no less then 10000 years distance between their Hercules and Hercules Baeotius the Son of Alcmena it must be understood of these Lunar years for granting what the Aegyptians say that Hercules Baeotius lived but one generation before the Trojan war and so his time to fall out about 2783. reckoning now backward from thence and deducting from that year of the world 10000 moneths of 30 days or Iulian years 831. and 130 days the time of the Aegyptian Hercules will fall about the first year of the world 1962. about which time we may well suppose him to live or die And according to this computation we are to understand what the Aegyptians told Herodotus that from their first King or Priest of Vulcan till the time of Sethoes in whose time Sennacherib attempted the Conquest of Aegypt that there had been passed 341 Generations and as many Kings and High-Priests and 11340 years reckoning three Generations to make up a Century But now if we understand this prodigious computation according to this form of years we may suspect the Aegyptians of an intention to deceive Herodotus and the credulous Greeks but yet not impeach them of direct falshood it being thus reconcilable to truth For according to this account 100 years makes 3000 days and a Generation 1000. so many days the Kings or Priests of Vulcan may be allowed to reign so 340 Generations of a 8000 days apiece make up 340000 days to which if we add the 200 days which Sethos had now reigned upon Sennacheribs invasion we have 340200 days which makes up of these years of 30 days apeece 11340 which is the number assigned by Herodotus Iacobus Cappellus thinks the Epocha from whence these years are to be reckoned is from A. M. 2350. when Mephres began to reign in Aegypt from whence
writers speak so much of viz. of dreams and visions the inspirations of the Holy Spirit the gradus Mosaicus the external voyce c. Now in every one of these degrees the Prophet could go no further then his present revelation extended and therefore Aquinas determines that the understandings of the Prophets were instrumenta deficientia respectu principalis agentis i. e. that in prophetical illumination the mind of the Prophet was so moved by the Spirit of God as an instrument in the hand of an Artificer which bears no proportion with the skill of the workman And therefore the mind of a Prophet is moved sometimes only to apprehend the thing represented which they call instinctus divinus of which they say a Prophet may have no certainty whether it comes from God or no sometimes it is moved so far as to know certainly that this revelation is from God this they call lumen Propheticum sometimes a Prophet may be moved to speak those things which he fully understands so it was with most of the true Psophets but sometimes men may be moved to speak that which they understand not as is plain in Caiaphas and probable in Balaam Sometimes a thing was represented to the fancy of one without any possibility of understanding the meaning of those imaginary species as in Pharaohs and Nebnchadnezzars dreams and to another may be given the true judgement of those motions of fancy without the representation of the things to them as in Ioseph and Daniel Now in these and many other different impressions of this prophetical spirit the Prophets to whom the things were revealed could go no further then the degree of the revelation made to them did extend God did not always reveal to the Prophets the internal counsels and decrees of his own will but often only the method and series of his providence in the administration of things in the world Which is the ground of that three-fold distinction of Prophecy in the Schools into prophetia praedestinationis prophetia praescientiae and prophetia comminationis which is taken from the ordinary gloss upon Matth. 1. where they are thus explained the Prophecie of Predestination is when the event depends wholly upon Gods will without any respect to ours as the Prophecie of the Incarnation of Christ the Prophecie of Praescience is of such things as depend upon the liberty of mans will and the Prophecie of Commination only denotes Gods denunciations of heavy judgements against a people But Aquinas doth better reduce the two former to one and so the ground of the difference is to be fetched from the different ways whereby God knows things in the world which is either as they are in their causes and so they note the order and series of things in the world with the mutual respects and dependencies they have one upon another and this refers to Gods administration of things in the world or else God looks upon them as they are in themselves or according to his own positive determinations of them and now in this sense they are unalterable but in the other they are not but God may alter those respects of things when he pleaseth Now though this different manner of knowledge can never be conceived separate from one another in the Divine understanding yet in the revelation made to the mind of a Prophet they may be disjoyned from each other because God doth not always reveal things in the highest degree to the Prophets for no free agent doth always act as far as he can And therefore prophetical revelation is sometimes a representation of Gods internal decrees and then they always take effect and sometimes only the order of causes and effects and they may admit of an alteration and the prophecie nevertheless be true because then it referred only to the series of causes in the world according to which the events would follow if God himself did not interpose These things being thus premised we come to particular resolutions which must arise from the evidences that may be given when prophetical predictions did express Gods internal purpose and decree and when only the order of causes in the world for in these latter it is apparent that events might not answer predictions and yet the Prophet be a true Prophet which is a matter of greater difficulty viz. to find out the exact differences of these two till the event hath made it apparent which came from Gods unalterable purpose and which not But though it be a subject little spoken to either by Iewish or Christian Writers yet we are in hopes there may be some such clear notes of distinction discovered between them even à priori which may sufficiently clear Gods faithfulnes and the Prophets truth though the event be not always correspondent to the words of a prediction I begin then with the evidences that may be given when predictions do flow from internal purpose and decree Every prediction confirmed by a present miracle doth not express meerly the order of causes but the determinations of Gods will because there can be no sufficient reason given why the order of causes in nature should be altered to express the dependences of things on each other for herein a miracle would rather ten d to weaken then strengthen faith because the end of the miracle would be to confirm their faith as to events following upon their causes but now the medium used for that end seems to prove the contrary viz. that God can alter the series of causes when he pleases himself by working miracles and therein going contrary to the course of nature and therefore a miracle seems to be a very incongruous argument in this because its self is an evidence that may be which it comes to prove shall not be But when Prophets come to declare the internal purposes of the will of God concerning future contingencies no argument can be more suitable to demonstrate the truth of what is spoken then the working of a present miracle for this demonstrates to the senses of men that however unlikely the event may be to them which is foretold yet with God all things are possible and that it is very unlikely God would send such a messenger to declare a falshood whom he entrusted so great a power with as that of working miracles Thus it was in that remarkable prophecie concerning Iosias by the man of God at Bethel 260 years before his birth which though it were to come to pass so long after God confirmed it by a sign which was the renting of the altar and the pouring out of the ashes upon it and the withering of Jeroboams hand We cannot therefore in reason think that God would set so clear a seal to any deed which he did intend himself to cancel afterward Praedictions express Gods inward purpose when the things foretold do exceed all probabilities of second causes in which case those words of Tertullian seem very harsh credo quia
their genuine followers they instead of the common and rude name of impostors gave them a more civil title of Philosophers and looked upon their doctrine as a sublimer kind of Philosophy non utique divinum negotium existimant sed mag is Philosophiae genus as Tertullian tells us because the Philosophers pretended so much to moral vertues which they saw the Christians so excellent in but as Tertullian there replies nomen hoc Philosophorum Daemonia non fugat The Devil was never afraid of a Philosophers beard nor were diseases cured by the touch of a Philosophick pallium There was something more Divine in Christians then in the grave Philosophers and that not only in reference to their lives and the Divine power which was seen in them but in reference to the truth and certainty of their doctrine it being a true character given of both by that same excellent writer in behalf of the Christians of his time Veritatem Philosophi quidem affâ—ctant possident autem Christiani what the Philosophers desired only the Christians enjoy which was Truth and as he elsewhere more fully speaks mimicè Philosophi affectant veritatem affectando corrum punt ut qui gloriam captant Christianieam necessariò appetunt integri praestant ut qui saluti suae curant Truth is the Philosophers mistress which by courting he vitiates and corrupts looking at nothing but his own glory but truth is the Christians Matron whose directions he observes and follows because he regards no glory but that to come And to let them further see what a difference there was between a Christian and a Philosopher he concludes that discourse with these words Quid adeo simile Philosophus Christianus Graeciae Discipulus et coeli famae negotiator et vitae verborum et factorum operator rerum aedificator et destructor amicus et inimicus erroris veritatis interpolator et integrator furator ejus et custos As much distance saith he as there is between Greece and Heaven between applause and eternal glory between words and things between building and destroying between truth and error between a plagiary and corrupter of truth and a preserver and advancer of it so much is there between a Philosopher and a Christian. The Heathens might suspect indeed some kind of affinity between the first Preachers of the Gospel and the antient Sophists of Greece because of their frequent going from place to place and pretending a kind of Enthusiasm as they did but as much difference as there is between a Knight Errant and Hercules between a Mountebank and Hippocrates that and much greater there is between a Greek Sophist and an Apostle Socrates in Plato's Euthydemus hath excellently discovered the vanity and futility of those persons under the persons of Euthydemus and Dionysodorus and so likewise in his Protagoras their intent was only like the retiaries in the Roman Spectacles to catch their adversaries in a net to intangle them with some captious question or other but how vastly different from this was the design of the Apostles who abhord those endless contentions which then were in the Heathen world and came to shew them that Truth which was revealed with an intent of making them better men We see the Apostles were not carried forth by any mean and vulgar motives neither did they drive on any private ends of their own all that they minded was the promoting of the doctrine which they preached Nay they accounted no hazards comparable with the advantage which the world enjoyed through the propagation of the Christian Religion This shewed a truly noble and generous spirit in them which would not be hindred from doing the world good though they found so bad entertainment from it yea they rejoyced in their greatest sufferings which they underwent in so good a cause wherein those Primitive Christians who were the genuine followers of the Apostles did so far imitate them that etiam damnati gratias agunt they gave the Iudges thanks that they thought them worthy to lose their lives in a cause which they had reason to triumph in though they died for it And when any of them were apprehended they discovered so little fear of punishment ut unum solummodo quod non ante suerint paeniteret that nothing troubled them so much as that they had been Christians no sooner as one of their number speaks And when the Heathens usually scoffed at them and called them Sarmentitii and Semaxii because they were burned upon the Cross one of them in the name of the rest answers hic est habitus victoriae nostrae haec palmata vestis tali curru triumphamus the Cross was only their triumphant chariot which carried them sooner to Heaven Now this courage and resolution of spirit which was seen in the first planters of Christianity in the world made all serious and inquisitive persons look more narrowly into those things which made men slight so much the common bug-bears of humane nature sufferings and death Quis enim non contemplatione ejus concutitur adrequirendum quid intus in re sit quis non ubi requisivit accedit ubi accessit patiexoptat These sufferings made men enquire this enquiry made them believe that belief made them as willing to suffer themselves as they had seen others do it before them Thus it appeared to be true in them 〈◊〉 qâ—â—que crudelitas illecebra magis est sectae plures â—fficimur quâ—â—ties metimur a vobis semen est sanguis Christianorum The cruelty of their â—nemies did but increase their number the harvest of their pretended justice was but the seed-time of Christianity and no seed was so fruitful as that which was steeped in the blood of Martyrs Thence Iustin Martyr ingenuously saith of himself that while he was a Platonick Philosopher he derided and scoffed at the Christians but when he considered their great courage and constancy in dying for their profession he could not think those could possibly be men wicked and voluptuous who when offers of life were made them would rather choose death then deny Christ. By which he found plainly that there was a higher spirit in Christianity then could be obtained by the sublime notions and speculations of Plato and that a poor ignorant Christian would do and suffer more for the sake of Christ then any of the Academy in defence of their master Plato Now since all men naturally abhor sufferings what is it which should so powerfully alter the nature and disposition of Christians above all other persons that they alone should seem in that to have forgot humanity that not only with patience but with joy they endured torments and abode the flames What! were they all pâ—ssessed with a far more then Stoical Apathy that no sense oâ— pain could work at all upon them or were they all besotted and infatuated persons that did not know what it was they underwent â—t is true some of the
was the great Seal of our Saviours being the Son of God therefore we find the Apostles so frequently attesting the truth of the resurrection of Christ and that themselves were eye-witnesses of it This Iesus saith Peter hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses And again And killed the Prince of life whom God hath raised up from the dead whereof we are witnesses and both Peter and Iohn to the Sanhedrin For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard And the whole Colledge of Apostles afterwards And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him In which words they give them that twofold rational evidence which did manifest the undoubted truth of what they spake for they delivered nothing but what themselves were witnesses of and withall was declared to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost in the miracles which were wrought by and upon believers Afterwards we read the sum oâ— the Apostles Preaching and the manner used by them to perswade men of the truth of it in the words of Peter to Cernâ—lius and his company How God annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Iews and in Hierusalem whom they stew and hanged on a tree Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he comâ—anded us to â—reach unto the people that it is be which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead By all which we see what care God was pleased to take for the satisfaction of the world in point of rational evidence as to the truth of the matters which were discovered concerning our Saviour Christ because he made choice of such persons to be the preachers and writers of these things who were the best abâ—e to satisfie the world about them viz. such as had been eye witnesses of them Now in order to the making it more fully evident what strength there was in this Testimony given by the Apostles to the miracles of Christ we shall more fully manifest the rational evidence which attended it in these following propositions Where the truth of a doctrine depends upon a matter of fact the truth of the doctrine is sufficiently manifested if the matter of fact be evidently proved in the highest way it is capable of Thus it is in reference to the doctrine of Christ for the truth of that is so interwoven with the truth of the story of Christ that if the relations concerning Christ be true his doctrine must needs be Divine and infallible For if it be undoubtedly true that there was such a person as Christ born at Bethlehem who did so many miracles and at last suffered the death of the Cross and after he had lain three dayes in the grave rose again from the dead what reason imaginable can I have to question but that the Testimony of this person was certainly Divine and consequently what ever he preached to the world was most certain and undoubted truth So that if we have clear evidence as to the truth of these passages concerning our Saviour we must likewise believe his doctrine which came attested with such pregnant evidences of a Divine commission which he had from God to the world No Prince can think he hath any reason to refuse audience to an Embassador when he finds his Credentials such as he may rely upon although himself doth not see the sealing of them much less reason have we to question the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel if we have sufficient evidence of the truth of the matters of fact concerning Christ in such a way as those things are capable of being proved The greatest evidence which can be given to a matter of fact is the attesting of it by those persons who were eye-witnesses of it This is the Foundation whereon the firmest assent is built as to any matter of fact for although we conceive we have reason to suspect the truth of a story as long as it is conveyed only in a general way by an uncertain fame and tradition yet when it comes to be attested by a sufficient number of credible persons who profess themselves the cye-witnesses of it it is accounted an unreasonable thing to distrust any longer the truth of it especially in these two cases 1. When the matter they bear witness to is a thing which they might easily and clearly perceive 2. When many witnesses exactly agree in the same Testimony 1. When the matter it self is of that nature that it may be fully perceived by those who saw it i. e. if it be a common object of sense And thus it certainly was as to the person and actions of Iesus Christ. For he was of the same nature with mankind and they had as great evidence that they conversed with Iesus Christ in the flesh as we can have that we converse one with another The miracles of Christ were real and visible miracles they could be no illusions of senses nor deceits of their eyes the man who was born blind and cured by our Saviour was known to have been born blind through all the Countrey and his cure was after as publike as his blindness before and acknowledged by the greatest enemies of Christ at the time of its being done When Christ raised up the dead man at Naim it was before much people and such persons in probability who were many of them present at his death But least there might be any suspition as to him that he was not really dead the case is plain and beyond all dispute in Lazarus who had been to the knowledge of all persons thereabouts dead four dayes here could be no deceit at all when the stone was rowled away and Lazarus came forth in the presence of them all And yet further the death and passion of our Saviour was a plain object of sense done in presence of his greatest adversaries The souldiers themselves were sufficient witnesses of his being really dead when they came to break his bones and spared him because they saw he was dead already At his resurrection the stone was rowled away from the Sepulchre and no body found therein although the Sepulchre was guarded by souldiers and the Disciples of Christ all so fearful that they were dispersed up and down in several places And that it was the same real body which he rose withall and no aëreall vehicle appears by Thomas his serupulosity and unbelief who would not believe unless â—e might put his hands into the hole of his sides and see
venture their lives upon the truth of what they writ concerning him as the Apostles did to attest the truth of what they preached concerning our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. The fidelity of the Apostles is evident in their manner of reporting the things which they deliver For if ever there may be any thing gathered from the manner of expression or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the particular temper and disposition of the person from whom it comes we may certainly read the greatest fidelity in the Apostles from the peculiar manner of their expressing themselves to the world Which they do 1. With the greatest impartiality not declaring only what was glorious and admirable to the world but what they knew would be accounted foolishness by it They who had sought only to have been admired for the rare discoveries which they brought to the world would be sure to conceal any thing which might be accounted ridiculous but the Apostles fixed themselves most on what was most contemptible in the eyes of the world and what they were most mocked and derided for that they delighted most in the preaching of which was the Cross of Christ. Paul was so much in Love with this which was a stumbling block to the Iews and foolishness to the Greeks that he valued the knowledge of nothing else in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and him crucified Nay he elsewhere saith God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ. What now should be the reason that they should rejoyce in that most which was most despicable to the world had not they seen far â—reater truth and excellency in it then in the most sublime speculations concerning God or the souls of men in the School of Plato or any other heathen Philosophers That all men should be bound in order to their salvation to believe in one who was crucified at Hierusalem was a strange doctrine to the unbelieving world but if the Apostles had but endeavoured to have suited their doctrine to the School of Plato what rare persons might they have been accounted among the Heathen Philosophers Had they only in general terms discoursed of the Benignity of the Divine nature and the manifestations of Divine goodness in the world and that in order to the bringing of the souls of men to a nearer participation of the Divine nature the perfect Idea of true goodness and the express image of the person of God and the resplendency of his glory had vailed himself in humane nature and had everywhere scattered such beams of light and goodness as warmed and invigorated the frozen spirits of men with higher sentiments of God and themselves and raised them up above the faeculency of this terrestrial matter to breath in a freer air and converse with more noble objects and by degrees to fit the souls of men for those more pure illapses of real goodness which might alwayes satisfie the souls desires and yet alwayes keep them up till the soul should be sunning its self to all eternity under the immediate beams of Light and Love And that after this Incarnate Deity had spread abroad the wings of his Love for a while upon this lower world till by his gentle heat and incubation he had quickned the more plyable world to some degree of a Divine life he then retreated himself back again into the superiour world and put off that vail by which he made himself known to those who are here confined to the prisons of their bodies Thus I say had the Apostles minded applause among the admired Philosophers of the Heathens how easie had it been for them to have made some considerable additions to their highest speculations and have left out any thing which might seem so mean and contemptible as the death of the Son of God! But this they were so far from that the main thing which they preached to the world was the vanity of humane wisdom without Christ and the necessity of all mens believing in that Iesus who was crucified at Hierusalem The Apostles indeed discover very much infinitely more then ever the most lofty Pl tonist could do concerning the goodness and Love of God to mankind but that wherein they manifested the Love of God to the world was that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And that herein was the Love of God manifested that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And that this was the greatest truth and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners They never dreamt of any divine goodness which should make men happy without Christ No it was their design to perswade the world that all the communications of Gods goodness to the world were wholly in and through Iesus Christ and it is impossible that any should think otherwise unless Plato knew more of the mind of God then our blessed Saviour and Plotinus then Saint Paul Can we think now that the Apostles should hazard the reputation of their own wits so much as they did to the world and be accounted bablers and fools and madmen for preaching the way of salvation to be only by a person crucified between two thieves at Hierusalem had they not been convinced not only of the truth but importance of it and that it concerned men as much to believe it as it did to avoid eternal misery Did Saint Paul preach ever the less the words of truth and soberness because he was told to his face that his Learning had made him mad But if he was besides himself it was for Christ and what wonder was it if the Love of Christ in the Apostle should make him willing to lose his reputation for him seeing Christ made himself of no reputation that he might be in a capacity to do us good We see the Apostles were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because they knew it was the power of God to salvation and therefore neither in their preaching or their writings would they omit any of those passages concerning our Saviours death which might be accounted the most dishonourable to his person Which is certainly as great an evidence of their sidelity as can be expected which makes Origen say that the Disciples of Christ writ all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of candour and love of truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not concealing from the world those passages of the life of Christ which would be accounted most foolish and ridiculous 2. With the greatest plainness and simplicity of speech Such whose design is to impose upon the minds of men with some cunningly devised fables love as much ambiguity as ever Apollo did in his most winding oracles of whom it is said Ambage nexâ Delphico mos est Dco Arcana tegere Servius tells us that Iupiter Ammon was therefore pictured with Rams-horns because his answers
who contend for the corruptions crept into the Christian Church who make use of the same pretences for them viz. that they were delivered down from the Fathers tantaque est auctoritas vetustatis ut inquirere in eam scelus esse dicatur who are we who will see further then Antiquity But it is no wonder if Antiquity be accompanied with dimness of sight and so it was undoubtedly as to the Pagan world and as to the Christian too when such a mixture of Heathenism came into it And the very same arguments by which the pleaders for Christianity did justifie the truth of their religion notwithstanding this pretended antiquity will with equal force hold for a reformation of such inveterate abuses which under a pretence of antiquity have crept into the Christian Church Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire saith Ambrose in his answer to Symmachus what shame is it to grow better Quid facies saith Lactantius majores ne potius an rationem sequeris Sirationem mavis discedere te necesse est ab institutis auctoritate majorum quoniam id solum rectum est quod ratio praescribit Sin autem â—ietas majores sequi suadet sateris igitur stultos illos esse qui excogitatis contra rationem religionibus servierint te ineptum qui id colas quod falsum esse conviceris Where reason and meer authority of forefathers stand in competition he is more a child then a man that knows not on which side to give his suffrage But with the greatest strength and clearest reason Arnobius speaks in this case Itaque cum nobis intenditis aversionem à religione priorum causam convenit ut inspiciat is non sactum nec quid reliquerimus opponere sed secuti quid simus potissimum contueri When you charge us saith he that we are revolted from the religion of our forefathers you ought not presently to condemn the fact but to examine the reasons of it neither ought you so much to look at what we have left as what it is we have embraced Nam simutare sententiam culpa est ulla vel crimen i veteribus institutis in alias res novas voluntatesque migrare criminatio ista vos spectat qui totics vitam consuetudinem que mutastis qui in mores alios atque alios ritus priorum condemnatione transistis If meer departing from the religion of our ancestors be the great sault all those who own themselves to be Christians were themselves guilty of it when they revolted from Heathenism If it be here said that the case is different because there was sufficient reason for it which there is not as to the corruptions of the Christian Church if so then all the dispute is taken off from the matter of fact or the revolt to the causes inducing to it and if the Protestant be not able as to the causes of our separation from Rome to manifest that they were sufficient let him then be triumphed over by the Romanist and not before I affert then and that with much assurance of mind that the principles of the Reformation are justifiable upon the same grounds of reason which the embracing Christianity was when men of Heathens became Christians and that the arguments made use of by the Romanists against our separation from them are such as would have justified a Pagan Philosopher in not embracing Christianity For if it be unlawful for any party of men to divide from others in a matter of religion which pretends antiquity and universality it had been unlawful for a Philosopher to have deserted Paganism as well as for a Protestâ—nt to depart from Rome For according to the principles of the Romanists the judgement in the cause of the separation and of the truth of religion lies in that party from which we depart if we do now but apply this to the old Roman Senate or Emperors in the case of Christian religion and dividing from Heathen worship we shall quickly see how easie a matter it will be to make Christianity its self a Schism and the doctrine of Christ the greatest here sie But as strong as those pretences were then or have been since the power of the doctrine of Christ hath been so great as to conquer them and thereby to manifest that it was of God when such potent prejudices were not able to withstand it Of which Antiquity is the first 2. The large and universal spread of Pagan religion when Christianity came into the world there was never so great Catholicism as in Heathen worship when the Apostles first appeared in the Gentile world Inde adeo per universa imperia provincias oppida videmus singulos sacrorum ritus gentiles babere Dcos colere municipes saith Caecilius in Minutius Felix The great charge against the Christians was Novellism that they brought in a strange and unheard of religion The common Question was Where was your religion before Iesus of Nazareth as it hath been since Where was your religion before Luther and the same answer which served then will stand unmovable now there where no other religion is in the Word of God For this was the weapon whereby the Primitive Christians defended themselves against the assaults of Paganism and the evidences they brought that the doctrine preached by them and contained in the Scriptures was originally from God were the only means of overthrowing Paganism notwithstanding its pretended universality 3. Settlement by Laws of Heathen worship This was so much pretended and pleaded for that as far as we can finde by the history of the Primitive Church the pretence on which the Christians suffered was sedition and opposing the established Laws The Christians were reckoned inter illicitas factiones as appears by Tertullian among unlawful corporations the Politicians and Statesmen were all for preserving the Laws they troubled not themselves much about any religion but only that which was settled by Law they sought to uphold because the acting contrary to it might bring some disturbance to the civil state There were several Laws which the Christians were then brought under and condemned for the breach of 1. The Law against hetaeriae or conventicles as they were pleased frequently to stile the meeting of Christians together thence the places where the Christians assembled for worship were commonly called Conventicula it a appellabant loca saith Heraldus ubi congregabantur Christiani oraturi verbi divini interpretationem accepturi ac sacras Synaxes habituri but Elmenhorstius more shortly Conventicula loca sunt ubi Christiani Congregati orare consucverunt The places where the Christians did meet and pray together were called Conventicles in Basiâ—ica Siciunini ubi ritus Christiani est conventiculum saith Ammianus Marccllinus cur immaniter conventicula dirui saith Arnobius qui universum populum cum ipso pariter conventiculo concremavit as Lactantius likewise speaks Now the reason of the name was
reason enough to reject the Laws of Moses and Christ because Celsus calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galen Christianity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were such doctrines which require faith and obedience without giving mens reason an account of the things commanded As though the authority of a Legislator sufficiently manifested were not enough to enforce a Law unless a sufficient account were given of the thing required to the purblind reason of every individual person acted by passions and private interests as to the justice and equity of it And so the primary obligation on mans part to faith and obedience must arise not from the evidence of Divine authority but of the thing it self which is revealed to the most partial judgement of every one to whom it is proposed Which those who know how short the stock of reason is at the best in men and how easily that which is is fashioned and moulded according to prâ—judices and interests already entertained will look upon only as a design to comply with the carnal desires of men in that thereby none shall be bound to go any further then this blind and corrupted guide shall lead them Now these being the terms on which the Gospel of Christ must have expected entertainment in the Gentile world how impossible lâ—ad it been ever to have sound any success among men had there not been sufficient evidence given by a power of miracles that however strange and incredible the doctrine might seem yet it was to be believed because there was sufficient means to convince men that it was of Divine revelation Neither were the matters of saith only contrary to the inclinations of the world but so were the precepts of life or those things in Christianity which concerned practice There are two things which are the main scope and design of Christianity in reference to mens lives to take them off from their sins and from the world and of all things these are they which mens hearts are so bewitched with Now the precepts of the Gospel are such which require the greatest purity of heart and life which call upon men to deny themselves and all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world that all that name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity that all true Christians must be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and must perfect holiness in the fear of God And the Gospel enforceth these precepts of holiness with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God on those who disobey them that the Lord Iesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ. That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness That no persons who live in the habitual practice of any known sin shall inherit the Kingdom of God That no man should deceive them with vain words for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience that men do but vainly flatter themselves when they seek to reconcile unholy lives with the hopes of future happiness for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And then in reference to the things of this present life which men busie themselves so much about the Gospel declares that they who love this world the love of the Father is not in them that the friendship of this world is enmity with God and whosoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy to God That Christians must not set their affections on earth but on things in heaven That the conversation of true Christians is in heaven That we ought not to lay up our treasure on earth but in heaven That we must not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Now the whole design of the doctrine of Christ being to perswade men to lead a holy and heavenly life while they are in this world and thereby to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light can we think so many men whose hearts were wedded to sin and the world could so suddenly be brought off from both without a divine power accompanying that doctrine which was preached to them And therefore the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ i. e. though the Gospel of Christ be the only true mysterie yet I do not by it as the Heathens are wont to do with their famous Eleusinian mysteries which were kept so secret by all the mystae and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but saith he I know no reason I have to be ashamed of any thing in the Gospel that I should labour its concealment to advance its veneration but the more publike the Gospel is the more it manifests its power for through it God is pleased mightily to work in order to the salvation both of Iew and Gentile And of all the success of the Gospel that upon the hearts and lives of men deserves the greatest consideration The great efficacy and power of the Gospel was abundantly seen in that great alteration which it wrought in all those who were the hearty imbracers of it The Philosophers did very frequently and deservedly complain of the great inefficacy of all their moral precepts upon the minds of men and that by all their instructions politiora non meliora ingenia fiunt men improved more in knowledge then goodness but now Christianity not only enforced duties on men with greater power and authority For the Scriptures do as Saint Austin speaks Non tanquam ex Philosophorum concertationibus strepere sed tanquam ex oraculis Dei nubibus intonare not make some obstreperous clamours like those tinkling Cymbals the Philosophers but awe the souls of men with the majesty of that God from whom they came Neither was it only a great and empty sound which was heard in the preaching of the Gospel but when God thundred therein he broke down the stately Cedars and shook the Wilderness and made the Hinds to Calve as it is said of Thunder called the voice of the Lord in Scripture he humbled the pride of men unsettled the Gentile world from its former foundations and wrought great alterations on all those who hearkened to it The whose design of the Gospel is couched in those words which Saint Paul tells us were spoken to him by Christ himself when he appointed him to be an Apostle to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
unavoidable on the Stoical Hypothesis of Gods being corporeal and confined to the world as his proper place And so much for this second Hypothesis concerning the Origine of the Universe which supposeth the eternity of matter as coexisting with God I come now to that which makes most noise in the world which is the Atomical or Epicurean Hypothesis but will appear to be as irrational as either of the foregoing as far as it concerns the giving an account of the Origine of the Universe For otherwise supposing a Deity which produced the world and put it into the order it is now in and supremely governs all things in the world that many of the Phaenomena of the Universe are far more intelligibly explained by matter and motion then by substantial forms and real qualities few free and unprejudiced minds do now scruple But because these little particles of matter may give a tolerable account of many appearances of nature that therefore there should be nothing else but matter and motion in the world and that the Origine of the Universe should be from no wiser principle then the casual concourse of these Atoms is one of the evidences of the proneness of mens minds to be intoxicated with those opinions they are once in love with When they are not content to allow an Hypothesis its due place and subserviency to God and providence but think these Atoms have no force at all in them unless they can extrude a Deity quite out of the world For it is most evident that it was not so much the truth as the serviceableness of this Hypothesis which hath given it entertainment among men of Atheistical spirits Epicurus himself in his Epistle to Pythocles urgeth that as a considerable circumstance in his opinion that he brought no God down upon the stage to put things in order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which his Paraphrast Lucretius hath thus rendered Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam Naturam rerum If this opinion then be true the history of the Creation quite falls to the ground on which account we are obliged more particularly to consider the reason of it The Hypothesis then of Epicurus is that before the world was brought into that form and order it is now in there was an infinite empty space in which were an innumerable company of solid particles or Atoms of different sizes and shapes which by their weight were in continual motion and that by the various occursions of these all the bodies of the Universe were framed into that order they now are in Which is fully expressed by Dionysius in Eusebius and very agreeably to the sense of Epicurus in his Epistles to Herodotus and Pythocles and to what Plutarch reports of the sense of Epicurus though he names him not if at least that book be his which Muretus denyes the words of Dionysius are these concerning the Epicureans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that according to this opinion all the account we have of the Origine of the world is from this general Rendes-vous of Atoms in this infinite space in which after many encounters and facings about they fell into their several troops and made up that ordered Battalia which now the world is the Scheme of It was not imprudently done of Epicurus to make the worlds infinite as well as his space and Atoms for by the same reason that his Atoms would make one world they might make a thousand and who would spare for worlds when he might make them so easily Lucretius gives us in so exact an account of the several courses the Atoms took up in disposing themselves into bodyes as though he had been Muster-Master-General at that great Rendes-vous for thus he speaks of his Atoms Quae quia multimodis multis mutata per omne Ex Infinito vexantur percita plagis Omne genus motus caetus experiundo Tandem deveniunt in taleis disposituras Qualibus haec rebus consistit summa creata And more particularly afterwards Sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum Ex infinito jam tempore percita plagis Ponderibusque suis consuërunt concita ferri Omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertentare Quaecunque inter se possunt congressa creare Ut non sit mirum si in taleis disposituras Deciderunt queque in taleis venere meatus Qualibus haec rerum â—enitur nunc summa novando Thus we see the substance of the Epicurean Hypothesis that there were an Infinite number of Atoms which by their frequent occursions did at last meet with those of the same nature with them and these being conjoyned together made up those bodyes which we see so that all the account we are able to give according to this Hypothesis of all the Phaenomena of the Universe is from the fortuitous concourse of the Atoms in the first forming of the world and the different contexture of them in bodies And this was delivered by the ancient Epicureans not with any doubt or hesitation but with the greatest confidence imaginable So Tully observes of Velleius the Epicurean beginning his discourse fidenter sane ut solent isti nihil tam verens quam ne dubitare de aliqua re videretur tanquam modo ex Deorum concilio ex Epicuri intermundiis descendisset Confidence was the peculiar genius of that sect which we shall see in them to be accompanied with very little reason For those two things which make any principles in Philosophy to be rejected this Atomical Hypothesis is unavoidably charged with and those are If the principles be taken up without sufficient ground in reason for them and if they cannot give any sufficient account of the Phaenomena of the world I shall therefore make it appear that this Hypothesis as to the Origine of the Universe is first meerly precarious and built on no sufficient grounds of reason Secondly That it cannot give any satisfactory account of the Origine of things 1. That it is a precarious Hypothesis and hath no evidence of reason on which it should be taken up and that will be proved by two things 1. It is such an Hypothesis as the Epicureans themselves could have no certainty of according to their own principles 2. That the main principles of the Hypothesis its self are repugnant to those Catholick Laws of nature which are observed in the Universe 1. The Epicureans according to their own principles could have no certainty of the truth of this Hypothesis And that 1. Because they could have no certain evidence of its truth 2. Because their way of proving it was insufficient 1. That they could have no certain evidence of the truth of it I prove from those criteria which Epicurus lays down as the only certain rules of judging the truth of things by and those were sense Anticipation and Passion Let sense be never so infallible a ruie of judgement yet it is impossible there should be any evidence to
the Greeks received from the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they put it into a better fashion i. e. they disguise it alter and change it as they please and put it into a Greek habit that it might never be suspected to have been a Forraigner Thence Tertullian speaks with a great deal of truth and freedom of such Philosophers who did ingenii sitim de prophetarum fonte irrigare as he expresseth it that quenched their thirst after knowledge with the waters of Iordan though they did not like Naaman cure the leproâ—ic of the head by washing in them for as Tertullian saith theâ— came only ex negotio curiositatis more to please the i tch oâ— their curiosity then to cure it And wherein they seemed most to agree with the Scriptures their difference was beyond their agreement Siquidem vera quaeque consonantia Prophetis aut aliunde commendant aut aliorsum subornant cum maxima injuria veritatis quam efficiunt aut adjuvari falsis aut patrocinari Whatever the Philosophers speak agreeable to the Scriptures either they do not own whence they had it or turn it quite another way whereby they have done the truth a great deal of injury by mixing it with their corruptions of it and making that little truth a plea for the rest of their errors Neither was this only among the ancient Philosophers but the Primitive Christians began to discern the underhand workings of such who sought to blend Philosophy and Christianity together for Tertullian himself takes great notice of such who did Veritatis dogmata ad Philosophicas sententias adulterare suborn Christianity to maintain Philosophy which makes him cry out Viderint qui Stoicum Platonicum Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt by which we see what tampering there was betimes rather to bring Christianity down to Philosophy rather then to make Philosophy truckle under the truth and simplicity of the Scriptures Whether Ammonius himself and some others of the School of Alexandria might be guilty in this kind is not here a place to enquire though it be too evident in the writings of some that they rather seek to accommodate the Scriptures to the Sentiments of the School of Plato then to reform that by the Scriptures but I say however it were with those who were Christians yet those who were not but only Philosophers made their great advantage by it For when they found what was reconcileable with the doctrine of Plato in the Scriptures done already to their hands by the endeavours chiefly of Ammonius and Origen they greedily embrace those improvements of their Philosophy which would tend so much to the credit of it and as contemptuously reject what they found irreconcileable with the dictates of their Philosophy Now what an unreasonable thing is it when what ever was noble and excellent in the Heathen Philosophy was derivative from 〈◊〉 Scriptures as the sacred Fountâ—in of it that the meeting with such things should in the least redound to the prejudice of the Scriptures from whence it was originally derived when on the other side it should be a great confirmation to our faith as to the Scriptures that they who were professed Philosophers and admirers only of reason did so readily embrace some of those grand Truths which are contained in the word of God For which we need no other instance then that before us concerning the Origine of evil the making out of which will tend to the clearing the last thing mentioned concerning it which was that the most material things in it are attested by the Heathens themselves And this honey which is gained out of the Lions mouth must needs tast sweeter then any other doth For it is a weak and groundless mistake on the other side which is the second which ariseth from meeting things consonant to the Scriptures in the writings of Philosophers presently to conclude from such things that they were Christians as it is said some have lately done in the behalf of Hierocles For there being such clear accounts given in Scripture of the grand difficulties and perplexities which the minds of men were troubled with when these came to the knowledge of such who were of Philosophick and inquisitive heads we cannot but think they would meet with acceptation among them especially if they might be made consistent with their former speculations Thus it was in our present case concerning the Origine of evil we have already beheld the lamentable perplexities the ancient Philosophers were in about it what Maeanders they were lost in for want of a clue to guide them through them now it pleased God after the coming of Christ in the flâ—shâ—o â—o declare to the world the only way for the recovery 〈◊〉 souls and their eternal salvation the news of which being spread so far that it soon got among the Philosophers could not but make them more inquisitive concerning the state and condition of their souls and when they had searched what the Philosophers had formerly discovered of it their curiosity would presently prompt them to see what account of things concerning the souls of 〈◊〉 delivered by the preachers of this New Doctrine B◠〈◊〉 they could not but presently understand that they declared all mens souls to be in a most degenerate and low condition by being so continually under the power of the most unreasonable and unruly passions that they were estranged from God and prone to fix on things very unsuitable to their nature as to all which their own inward sense and experience could but tell them that these things were notoriously true and therefore they enquire further how these things came to be so which they receive a full account of in Scripture that mans soul was at first created pure and holy and in perfect friendship with God that God dealt bountifully and favourably with man only expected obedience to his Laws that man being a free agent did abuse his liberty and disobeyed his Maker and thence came the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feathers of the soul whereby it soared up to heaven moulted away and the soul sunk below its self into a degenerate and apostate condition out of which it is impossible to be recovered without some extraordinary expression of Divine Favour Now what is there in all this account but what is hugely suitable to principles of reason and to the general experience of the world as to those things which were capable of being tryed by it And those Philosophers who were any thing ingenuâ—us and lovers of truth could not but confess the truth of those things which we are now speaking of viz. That mens souls are in a very degenerate condition That the most rational account of it is that man by the act of his own will brought himself into it and that in order to the happiness of mens souls there was a necessity of recovery out of this condition As to the degeneracy of the souls of men This