us as appear evidently sitted and suited to supply all the defects of our natural Knowledge and after an admirable manner harmonize with the rational Nature in which things from Above are so interwoven with things below and every way so proportioned to them as that Truths Supernatural which we cannot fully comprehend appear justified to us by Truths natural that we are perfectly judges of and between both there appears a wonderful concord If we find a Book written in God's own Name commanding the World upon that single account to bow before it and in a way peculiarly proper to his own Soveraignty and Greatness with a positive claim to his immediate Authority and the truth of this claim established to the World by a multitude of the greatest and most eminent Miracles at several times openly wrought that ever were extant and the Fact of which was never by any deny'd A Book the Doctrine whereof by the power and reputation of those Miracles it s own innate Worth and the Divine Assistance that accompanyed it without the least humane help nay against all Humane-Opposition all earthly Policy and Force withstanding it has gain'd so great an acceptance as we see â—his to have done subdued in its first enâ—rance that great Empire of Rome subâ—erted the whole Judaical Fabrick and â—as made both Heathenism and Judaism â—inaly fall before it If we find a Book that gives us the â—est and most satisfying account of the â—hole affair of this World and all the Vicissitudes of it and of God's providential Rule and Dispose of all Humane Affairs A Book in which the whole business of the World is fully and strangely epitomized and we see nothing happen or come to pass contradictive of but according to what is there written and of which we find there some general notice If we find a Book the Doctrine whereof totally subverts the whole interest of the Devil and all the corrupt interests of Men in a way far superior to what ever was or can rationally be supposed ever could be attempted in that kind by the wisest and best of men and introduces much nobler and elevated Notions oâ— Piety and Vertâ—e than the World werâ— any other way ever possessed of If we find a Book that has plainly anâ— directly foretold most of the great thing that have come to pass in all Ages thaâ— has many hundreds of years beforâ— some of them happened pronounced with an absolute prophetick certainty about thâ—m and has never been found tâ— mistake in a tittle though it has somâ—times descended so to Particulars as 〈◊〉 name even the Persons of men long before they were born cannot once be impeached for giving a wrong Divination about the least Circumstance relating either to Persons or Things If we find a Book that has been signally preserved from the greatest rage of many powerful Adversaries and from the most Violent and Potent Attempts for its total Suppression and Ruine of such who were in highest Authority and furnished with greatest advantages to effect it A Book that has scap'd all sorts of Contrivance against it and safely descended through the Channel of so many Ages and been to this day providentially secured and unmaimed and intirely delivered over to us If we find a Book that evidently in the judgment of all right Reason improves Mankind to the highest pitch in all worthy and excellent Attainments boâ—h Moral and Divine Brings the World into the best posture 't is capable of Makes men Wiser Better and Happier than they ever were or could themselves find out how to be If we find a Book that by means utterly unthought of and far out of all humane-reach and yet of a most holy and excellent Nature sweetly and safely even to our greatest admiration reconciles us to God Fills up that vast Gulph that was between Heaven and Earth and makes way for a free and perpetual intercourse between God and Man Exposes to the view of the World thereby a Beatitude infinitely transcending whatever the Wisdom of Man could contrive or invent which the rational Soul the more it considers still the more it adores and admires and in which to the utmost 't is delighted and satisfied In short If we find a Book that has all those things if we respect both the Matter of it and the Manner of its conveyance to us appurtenant to it that we can rationally expect should accompany a Revelation from Heaven and such a supernatural Law by which we may suppose God would enlighten and rule the World A Book that every way answers all the great ends of Revelation proposeth most suitable Remedies to all our natural Defects leaves not a Disease in Humane Nature uncured nor a Breach that mans fall hath occasioned un-made up If there be not one thing we can imagine God should reveal to us in order to our present or future Welfare about things visible or invisible about This World or the Next that we are not here told of If we have here such discoveries made of things supernatural and unseen as have evidently set bounds to the restless and inquisitive minds of Men about those Matters And such as we cannot reasonably judge could be the product of any humane thoughts nor of any thing lesse than the infinite and boundless Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD himself If we have found such a Book If the Bible be thus qualified What can be otherwise judged upon such Premises but that this Book is indeed that sacred Instrument wherein God has recorded his Sovereign Pleasure This is in truth that Revelation from Heaven the World in all Ages have so much expected and to which so many false pretensions have in all Ages been made Here is indeed contained that System of Laws supernatural by the publication whereof God has abounded in all the effects of his Bounty and even out-done the furthest Conceptions the World has at any time had of his Goodness How strangely unreasonable were it to derive such a Book from the highest degree of imposture How heterodox is it to all good sense to suppose that the worst and most pernitious delusion by which the World has been ever abused which we must needs reckon this Book to be if it be not from God should have in point of time the precedency of all true Religion and be of an antienter date than any divine Truth the World can pretend to Who that believes the supream Existence of God can imagine that the best documents in the judgment of all unprejudiced reason that ever mankind were disciplin'd by should have the Devil or the vilest of men for their Authors That such should contrive and publish a Doctrine that brings men to the best method of living That such should reduce mankind to the happyest and best condition and out do the Divine goodness in that particular Who can imagine that the Devil or any ill men in promoting the highest Treason against God counterfeting his Name and Authority and
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles nor before and 't is certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church though they had not been within their Canon which we are sure they were not and Philo or Josephus most diligent searchers of their Antiquities would have made some eminent mention of them in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books and therefore 't is not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant But 't is most probable that after the Apostle Jude had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecie of Enoch which Prophecie without doubt he came to the knowledge of either purely by Revelation which I rather believe or else by a Tradition the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in after-times to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses that were not to be found in his Books for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time that are not recorded in his Books St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews sayes that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law he took the blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled bâ—th the Book and all the People saying this is the Blood of the Testament c. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus So Stephens Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts tells us that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian that he himself has no where set down and by which we come to understand that before Moses went into the Land of Midian God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people which Moses himself has not any where told us I say 't is probable that some Hereticks in the Church most likely the Gnosticks who much cryed up those Spurious Writings to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books just as some others did under the names of Jaâ—nes and Jambres after St. Pauls mention of them as written by Enoch before the Flood which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves for those that were published under his name were stuft as St. Austin sayes with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels and such ridiculous relations of Gyants whose Fathers were Angels and no men that they are to be justly rejected as pâ—lpably counterfeit and fictitious Of the same mind is Jerom Chrysostom and Epiphanius and when Celsus alledged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproch to the Christians Origen in his fifth Book answers him by shewing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians then had of them For the second those Pillars of the Sons of Seth 't is beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge or that they should so do or that any Engravings upon them should be visible some thousands of years after especially upon one of Brick for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick and another of Stone and that of Stone they made on purpose to last if the other should decay how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guess and yet he sayes 't was that of Brick that then remained upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented which might be by many other representations and other ways then by Letters for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of mens thoughts one to another was extream early in the World though they wanted Alphabetical Letters Nor does Josephus say that He saw it it himself or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen but only in general that it was then in the Countrey of Syria where he left men of leisure to enquire after it The truth is there are so very many improbable and unlikely if not impossible Circumstances do attend this vain Story that 't is plain Josephus though in the general a Historian of deserved credit took it upon bare report from others some late Authors think and perhâ—ps not amiss from the fabulous relation of Manetho who sayes he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so for we sind many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust and fallen thereby into very great mistakes Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History That the Jews worshipped an Asses Head with the highest veneration then which nothing could be more untruly and upon less ground affirmed and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius for he sayes In the time of Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome who were continually making uproars being stirred up thereunto by Christ Then which there could not be an absurder mistake nor a greater falshood well uttered For the third The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord as a Book then extant his words are wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord what he didin the red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon First divers probable senses are given of the place that render it no Objection in this case The Geneva Translation not much differing from some others renders it thus Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord c. If so then 't is Prophetical and may relate to Joshuah who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after Junius reads the words thus Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae c. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord c. And so understands it not of any particular book but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the
Of the first peopling of America from whence it was first peopled or at what time little account can be expected nor can any Objection be reasonably made from thence in this Matter because of the perfect silence in all Antient Story of any such place and because of our total ignorance of it till of late but there is ground sufficient to believe that 't is of a much later Plantation than the other three parts of the World For there are not Records found amongst the People of that Countrey that exceed a thousand years and as most tell us from thence Not above eight hundred The exact and punctual account of this whole Matter we have from Josephus and Eusebâ—us heretofore and from many learned men since But especially from the most excellent Bochart who has herein far exceeded them all and whose most successful endeavours this way have not onely most evidently cleared the Truth of Sacred History in this particular but indeed the Whole of what Moses has wrote is very greatly justified thereby Secondly Those Prophetical Predictions of our Saviour in the New Testament concerning the miseries of the Jews their being led Captive into all Nations the Besieging of Jerusalem and such a Ruine of the Temple as that one stone should not be left upon another with many other Prophesies relating to that business have had such an eminent and notorious fulfilling in the times of Vespatian Trajan Adrian and since as greatly justifies the whole of the Gospel and much assures us of the truth of all that our Saviour has spoken What we find in Tacitus Hegysippus and other Heathen Writers but especially the Story of Josephus their own Historian has written of that which happened to the Jeus their City and Temple about forty years after the sufferings of Christ is so exactly corresponding to what he himself foretold and is set down in the 24th of St. Matthew that no instance can be given that any future events were ever so plainly and fully foretold and so punctually fulfilled in any Age Nor can any impartial man consider that strange Agreement there is in every Particular between what then happened and what our Saviour foretold so many years before without being greatly affected with it And how fully competent Josephus was to write that Story may be judged by what he himself sayes in his first Book against Appion I my self sayes he have composed a most true Story of those Wars and of every particular thing there done As well I might having been present in all those Affairs For I was Captain of the Galilaeanâ— amongst our Nation so long as any resistance could be made against the Romans And then it fell out that I was taken by the Romans And being Prisoner unto Titus and Vespatian they caused me to be an eye-witness of all things that pass't First In Bonds and Fetters And afterwards freed from them I was brought from Alexandria with Titus when he went to the Siege of Jerusalem So that nothing could then pass whereof I had not notice For beholding the Roman Army I committed all things to writing with all possible diligence My self did onely manage all Matters disclosed unto the Romans by such as yeelded themselves for that I only did perfectly understand them Lastly Being at Rome and having now leasure all businesses being past I used the help of some for the Greek Tongue And so I published a History of all that had happened in the aforesaid War Which History of mine is so true that I fear not to call Vespatian and Titus Emperors in those Wars to witness for them I first gave a Copy of that Book to them after to many noble Romans present in those Wars I sold also many of them to our own Nation to such as understood the Greek Language Amongst whom were Julius Archelaus Herod the Honest and the most worthy King Agrippa who do all testifie that my History containeth nothing but truth who would not have been silent if any thing either out of Ignorance or Flattery I had changed or omitted in any particular The City of Jerusalem and the Temple being about forty years after our Saviours time by Vespation and Titus totally ruined and demolished The Jews after that three times indeavoured to rebuild their Temple The first time was under the Emperor Adrian in the year after Christ 136. Which attempt had no other effect but the slaughter of fifty thousand of them with many other sad Desolations which we find set down at large by that noble Historian Dion Cassius Their second attempt was under Constantine which he soon quashed but not without great Expressions of his Displeasure against them cutting off their Ears and branding their Bodies and making most of them Slaves and Vagabonds Their last attempt to rebuild it was in the dayes of Julian when they were so far from being any way hindered that they were highly encouraged by Julian himself with Money and all Materials on purpose as Sozomon tells us to vilify the Christian Religion and confront our Saviours Prediction The Story of it we have from one that we are sure could have no design to befriend the Christians Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen-Historian and a Souldier at that time in Julians Army He tells us with what immoderate Expences and indefatigable Industry the Jews by the help of Julian set about it intending to make it more famous than ever And that to expedite the Work Julian appointed one Alyppius a Person of great quality in his Army to oversee it and assist in it And at last concludes his whole Relation with these words Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alyppius juvaretque Provinciae Rector Metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebis assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente cessavit incaeptum Am. Marcel lib. 23. When therefore this Alyppius set eagerly on the work being assisted by the Governour of that Province dreadful Balls of Fire bursting forth with often assaults near the Foundation made the place the Workmen being several times devoured with the flames inaccessible And after this manner the Element resisting as with some kind of destiny the design was given over This was that final stroke from Heaven that put a period to all endeavours of rebuilding that place and to all future attempts of restoring again the Jewish Church-state and Polity And how great an Evidence is it to the truth of the Gospel and the Whole of what our Saviour has spoken to sind all these Predictions against his great Opposers and Crucifiers so strangely and so exactly and in so visible and notorious a manner fulfilled And in truth that general prophetick Spirit we find throughout the Bible those manifold plain and direct Predictions 't is every where fill'd with of things future and to come tells us much of its Divinity and greatly assures us It could not be an effect
all the certain notions we have of another and a farther World and the great account of all invisible things and Secondly because 't is the highest Motive we have to all good living 't is from hence from the authority of this Book that we are chiefly obliged to all that is holy and good and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life nothing can seem more necessary then a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare we may rely upon this Book as that great and only Revelation by which God will inform rule and judge the world I have hereby attempted to make evident not only from its own excellent nature and composure and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanyed its first Publication and lasted till the Church was so far built that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down but also from many other considerations from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result And this task if sufficiently perform'd as 't will give answer to all reasonable doubts and cast a just contempt upon all prophane reproaches so it will also reflect much upon those who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other who by a twofold superfoetation that of endless Traditions and that of new and continued Revelations have rendred the whole Scriptures if not useless Yet as to their great end and design altogether deficient and imperfect My Lord I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible nor any way to secure my self against the just reproach of an ill performance the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You and that Candor and love to Truth you possess 'T is alone that great Honour and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship that Interests Your Name in this matter though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature Yet there is nothing more due from me then an open and publick profession that my self and what ever I do is devoted to Your Service I know my Lord into what hands I commit these Papers when I present them to You that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter and want not a due sense what the success must needs be I know also your remedying kindness and am enough secur'd thereby am in this case upon the same terms of relief that he was that discoursed before Caesar who thus address'd to him Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent humanitatem My Lord as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism So I promise my self some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief as I know no better Property can be convey'd to the World then a Rational Possession of God and his Word So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required To whom I owe all that is due to the most Generous and most lasting Friendship and shall ever be as much as I can be which is but what I ought to be My Lord Your Lordships most true Friend And most Humble Faithful Servant CHARLES WOLSELEY THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE there needs little to be said to prove it The instance were as hard to find as 't is unreasonable in it self to suppose that any man should at the same time reject the Bible as Fictitious and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion which is absurd to suppose of any Religion or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew and renounce the Olâ— Testament nor he a Mahumetan that disclaimâ— the Alchoran Because to deny the Authority of those Books is visibly to rase the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions Although the fact of Christs being in the World and many other things relating to the Christian Religion be attested to by other writings yet the Scriptures are the onely means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation and which alone contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion No considerable attempt has been at any time made to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other systeme of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation lay'd whereon to erect Christianity where the Bible is excluded For whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible by writing or tradition descended down to the World touching the Christian Religion has been either by its Friends or its Enemies For the Latter no mention is made in any Heathen Writer of any Christian Laws nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion farther then what we find in the Bible it self And so amounts to no more then a Cumulative help to its Credibility And 't is evident those of the Heathen who have at any time opposed the Christian Profession and disputed most against it have opposed it as contained there That Book being granted on all hands to comprise its Doctrine and to be the stated rule of that Religion For the former whatever has been by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion and gave their Assent to it conveyed down to us can never induce any other Rule of that Religion then the Bible For besides that all such Collateral traditions are in their own nature relative to the Bible dependant upon it and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it they have also come from the hands
are the reasonable bounds of all such future debates as are bottom'd upon them but ought not to be imposed when the principles themselves are in question nor upon such who make it their business to oppose them as erroneous and mistaken When two Mabumetans are in dispute the authority of the Alchoran is to them a proper Umpirage because a principle granted by both But when a Mahumetan disputes with a Christian the proof of the Alchoran it self must precede any proof he can make of Religion from thence because whatever is it self under question and doubt can never be a Rule to determine other controversies by Nor ought this the fact whereof is so verified to us to seem strange that men should often mistake and generally differ and divide upon all such acquired principles as they do that 't is hard if not impossible to find an instance wherein the whole World have been able universally to take one step together beyond those first and irrisistible institutes of Knowledge and those primary Elements of a rational Being 'T is no way strange to see what is laid as a foundation by one should seem an absolute nullity in the mind of another What one man resigns up himself to as his guide another should reject with contempt If we consider first the difficulty wherewith all acquired knowledg is attained and the various paths men tread towards it How hard it is to reduce things to a Harmony with the rational Nature With what labour and sweat of the mind we come to measure out things by the line of our Reason and to find out those proper Mediums of demonstration that lie in a direct line to the truth of any proposition And how natural is it to doubt and object to the utmost in all rational progression Secondly with what various abilities the World is capacitated for all intellectual attainments and how differently men do improve their knowing faculty First principles arise from the Truth of our Reason in its naked existence but all second Principles from the exercise and improvement of it How few be there that travel so far as their own Reason would guide them or suffer that noble faculty to do what it would do What unequal concerns have Mankind about Truth 'T is the Jewel and delight of some 'T is an absolute Drug to others Some men make the Talent of their Reason ten Talents oothers fold up their knowing faculty in the slumber of a drowzie sensuality The greatest part of the World sit down satisfied with what they do know not what they might know And choose a lazy enjoyment of ignorance and errour rather then an inquisitive possession of Truth Men are not only born of several Statures in the knowing part but they continually render themselves so by the various and different improvement of those abilities they possess Thirdly the faculty of our Reason it self renders all things capable of dispute and debate that are not bounded with visible contradiction to its own Being and are beyond the limits of those primary Laws it necessarily gives to it self and makes various determinations about all such disputable matters and very often where we may well suppose an equal ability on both sides men differ about the same thing The cause whereof must not be imputed to any innate defect in the rational Nature as if God had made us with a lame faculty for whoever denies the truth of that must needs retort the lie to himself because he has no other faculty to judge by but the true Reason of it lies collaterally either first From the difficulty relative to our Reason in the Objects 't is conversant about from whence may well be supposed to arise various and different Sentiments for all things are not in their own Nature capable of positive determinations we meet with few things without some difficulty but with very many things that greatly pose us with some things so much out of our reach that they exceed all bounds of comprehension are beyond the Verge of Problems and serve only to shew us the limits of a finite understanding Or Secondly from the want of such perfect information as is requisite to ground a compleat and perfect Judgment upon There being not a little share of uncertain guess and conjecture mingled with most of our Knowledge of things which nothing but experience can deliver us from Or Thirdly which is most general and an undeniable evidence of Mans fall From the Byass of some Interest or Concern whereby Men are engaged or some natural propensity and inclination they are born with that opposeth and undiscernedly prevails over the true and genuine issues of Reason inslaves them to appetite and sways the Judgment another way 'T was therefore a prudent observation that one made heretofore upon those various Sects that arose amongst the Philosophers in Graece that Qui fuerunt ingenio severo rigido moroso querulo aroganti ij Stoicismum suns amplecti qui vero fuerunt ingenio molli stadiosi tranquillitatis atij ij fuerunt Epicurei qui denique fuerunt ingenio civili modestoque liberali ij Peripateticorum Doctrinam sunt secuti And Aristotle in his Discourse of the Summum Bonum sayes Vnumquemque prout animo affectus est ita de Summâ— Rono judicare atque inde oriri quod alij Summum Bonum collecant in Divitiis alij in Honoribus alij in Voluptate 'T is from hence and from those many other circumstantial impediments we are liable to in all our rational determinations and not from the faculty of our Reason in it self considered that hath been derived that great variety of Judgment and Opinion whereby the World in all the Ages of it hath been divided Of this second sort of acquired and accidental Principles is Mens assent to and belief of the Scriptures as a Book penned by Divine Inspiration and being of extraordinary Mission from God 'T is not of those first born Principles of Reason from which we cannot dissent without an apparent absurdity and therefore is not within the compass of those first praerequisites to all debate and discourse and the standing boundaries of all Ratiocination but is of such a Nature as admits mens doubts quaeries and debates about it And the absolute positive belief of it is not to be imposed upon any man but all men reasoned and discoursed into an assent to it upon such grounds as are most suitable to such a subject and mens satisfaction about it Natural Religion is born with men and is connate with their Beings and must be supposed But all supernatural Religion is discoursed into men and makes its entrance that way Though it be true that in all Sciences there must be some Principles granted yet they ought to be no other nor need to be then such as are general and common to all Mankind and such as lie adequate to every mans Reason And not such as are only the property of one party and are peculiar
his summa Philosophorum dissentione certatur And those says he that do acknowledge the Being of the Gods have such various and different Opinions about them that 't were an extreme trouble to reckon them up For about the shape of the Gods their imployments and what they do and the places where they are there are endless dissentions amongst the Philosophers Now why did not he out of all the several Sentiments of the Philosophers Compose a true notion of his own unite their differences and rectifie their mistakes by one common Truth instead whereof we find him doing little else but repeating their various opinions which amount to no less in number then four or five and twenty and in Diogenes Laertius there is good store more and generally condemning them all as false and extravagant unworthy the names of their Authors otherwise famous and learned men and at last sits down finding his own inability for so impracticable a task and has left the World not much more informed then they were before in that point The Sum of his three Books of the Nature of the Gods is indeed a perfect Condemnation of the whole Pagan Religion for he sayes directly All their Gods were but Men and reckons up their Ages their Garments their Children their Ancestors their Alliances and plainly confesseth their Temples were their Tombs and their Sacrifices and Ceremonies representations of their Lives and the whole of their Religions Superstition and Vanity But when he came to speak of the Supreme Deity that made all things yea the Heathen gods themselves he openly declares his own Ignorance and says he can sooner admire then utter any thing and better declare what the Deity is not then what it is And concludes upon the whole Vtinam tam facile veram Religionem invenire possim quam falsam convincere I would I could as easily find out true religion as discover that which is false Himself Socrates and some others of the wisest of them saw far into the Impotency of their own Religion but I could never yet find that any of them arrived at any ability to compose a better Nor can any man in any Age be produced that without Revelation has been able to give the world aright or satisfying information about the Being of God and the Truth of Divine things It having been in fact according to what is observed by the most excellent Mornay in his discourse De veritate Relig. Christ Denique evolve quaecunque a Priscis mundi sapientibus To be short says he Amongst all the things which the Wise men of the World have written here and there of the Service of God ye may hap to find some one good saying in a hundred years and some one other in another hundred But when ye have gathered them all together as diligently as you can yet shall ye be able to make of them neither Rules nor Grounds nor scarcely good Problems So greatly is man by his corruption both blinded in things concerning God and helpless in things that concern his own welfare T is true that many points of the Christian Religion especially the three Grand Fundamentals of it The Being of God his Providence and Rule over the World and the Immortality of the Soules of men have been even through these Heathen Ages two ways acknowledged and justified First Implicitely and more Remotely by the general and most corrupt practice of the Ethnick-Religion What greater proof can there be of a God and that the World still thought there was something above them then their grossest Idolatry All Idolatry apparently taking its rise from the corruption of mens natural notion of the True God What meant their Imaginary Deities for every business and for every part of the World and their applications to them upon all occasions to seek their favour and appease their anger but that they supposed a Supreme Disposal of things and that the World was Ruled by a Divine Providence And what signified all their fictions about Heaven and Hell and their adoration of Daemons and the worship of dead mens Souls which they made to be Mediators to the Gods and variously called them Lemures Lares Manes Larvae some of which if they were the Souls of their friends they fancied stayed about their Houses and Dwellings for their protection others were more at Large some were good Daemons and above Others Infernal and Below as appears by that of the Poet. Vos O mihi Manes Este Boni quoniam superis Aversa voluntas Whence came all this but from an obscure confused notion of mens existence after this Life and a belief of the Souls Immortality In the second place more expressly and explicitly from the Judgment of some particular persons amongst them who have uttered here and there some fragments of Truth and have sometimes spoken in justification of these Main Points So Plato and others have spoken somewhat of One God Though it ought to be noted that the Being of One God was never generally and distinctly acknowledged in any Heathen Country nor was there ever a Law made in any Heathen State to establish the Being and Worship of one God Nay some have supposed that no particular Person did ever purely by Natural Light determine that there was but one God But that such who have spoken of it had it from a Tradition originated in Revelation So says a Learned Author in reproch of the Grecian and Romane Learning That setting aside what they learnt out of Egypt they could never by themselves determine whether there were many Gods or but One Cicero Plutarch and others have spoken fully about Providence and others of them have said much to justifie the souls Immortality so much has been acknowledged in the Heathen World that the sparks of Divine Truth though under much Rubbish have been there secretly kept alive and so much as does sufficiently assure us that the great Fundamentals of the Christian Profession are most Suitable to the Rational Nature do only Rectify its Depravations and have been some way witnessed unto in the darkest times And to that end we often make use of their Testimony But 't is not imaginable that God should leave the world without any further discovery of himself their chiefest good or any further direction toward an eternal happiness which is mans chiefest end then what we find the world without Revelation has attained to Nor can there be a stronger evidence of the necessity of some Revelation then the condition the world has been in without it The whole of the Heathen Divinity having been some way or other tainted and is reducible to one of these three heads either erroneous uncertain or imperfect Most of it erroneous much of it uncertain but all of it imperfect If we enquire how mankind came to be benighted as they have been in these things of greatest concernment How such a flood of Idolatry and Superstition came to overslow the Gentile-world Two things ought to be
perfect Attributes the terms of our pardon must come from God 'T is not in man to find out how God shall forgive him or to to Chalk out the Tracks of Divine Justice and Mercy toward himself nor will his guilt be removed nor his thoughts be at rest till he know Gods mind about it Nothing can assure us of Reconciliation with God but what is from Heaven appointed as the means of it No natural knowledg can give us any certain direction about it nor is it reasonable to believe it should If Humane Nature had no absolute security in it self of its first state how can we expect it should restore it self when once degenerated What did not remain perfect when it was so is much more unlikely to recover again out of Imperfection to be so Every man may know he is degenerated from what he ought to be and so may reasonably collect from what he once was but no man can reason himself into a ceâ—taâ—n way of Recovery The whole world have subscribed to their own Apostacy but could never agree upon any certain remedy How miserably have Mankind tired themselves and to how little purpose in finding out what would appease Divine Anger and compensate for their disobedience No man ever yet worsâ— ipped any God but he made some Offering to him in hopes that might indemnisie him and be taken in Lieu of his own punishment Men have at a Venture offered up all parts of the world in Sacrifice have tried all experiments victimis lavacris and by all other means their best guesses could suggest to them to obliterate their own Guilt and to procure D vâ—â—e favour but never were upon any suâ—er gâ—ound then their own vain fancies for acceptance Agaâ—hias tells us in his second Book of the Peâ—sian war that the Persians were wont to solemnize a great Holy-day once a year which they called The death of Vices in which as an eminent piece of Devotion they slew multitudes of Serpents all other sorts of wild Beasts and thereby thought they should Execute all their Corruptions safely bury their sins The Philosophers abounded with remedies foâ— this Epidemical Disease Some thought to cure the evil of the world in a Moral way some in a way Mathematical and some by Religious Ceremonies But alas The right way of doing it has lain hid from Ages and Generations till God himself made it known and revealed it from Heaven VVhat a trifle is the Blood of a Sheep or an Oxe to satisfie for an Offence against an Infinite Justice At how easie and cheap a rate might men Sin and God be satisfied And what a publick tolleration of evil were it if the Blood of Bulls and Goats might take away sin and the lives of unreasonable Creatures Commute for the sins of Men The consideration of all these things does directly Steer us upward and point us to a dependance upon Revelation to give us a clear distinct and satisfying Knowledge of God of our selves and of this whole World How man came to Rebel and Sin first to enter By what ways and means Indemnity may be obtained And upon what terms we may be again reconciled to God and accepted This precious discourse the design of which is to render it a reasonable supposal that there should be in the general some Divine Revelation some Laws Supernatural promulged to the world and that Mankind should not be wholly left to the conduct of Nature can be no way ungrateful to those who are already possessed with a due esteem of the Scriptures and do assent to their verity because 't is to re-inforce one of the greatâ—st supports to all Scripture-belief Nor will it seem impertinent to those who are any way ingenious in their doubts and enquiries about this matter because 't is naturally necessarily the first step that is to be taken in order to their satisfaction But may be very well offensive to such who shall design to themselves a disbelief of the Scriptures and make it their Province to weaken their Authority and render all proofs brought for them insufficient because it goes far towards an evident and apparent determination of the whole cause against them Does indeed petere jugulum of their chiefest pretences and virtuâ—lly breaks the very Back-bone of all Antiscriptural opposition for if there be such a thing as a Revelation mâ—de to the World as that which the goodness of God and the wants of men seem necessarily to call for If God have given to Mankind a Law supernatural Where is this Divine Law to be found 'T is but reasonable to suppose it somewhere or other upon Record This Book we call the Bible must needs be it and will certainly carry it against all Pretenders the natural dictates o right Reason being Judge What Book or Writing is there extant under Heaven that can with any tollerable colour counter plead the Bible upon this account A man must be horribly Hood-winkt in his inteâ—lectuals that does not evidently see 't is impar coâ—gressus between the Bible and all other Pretenders From what paâ—ts of the world will you fetch such a Supernatural Lâ—w by which we may suppose God to Govern Mankind one either fit for him to Give or for us to Receive according to that Natural Knowledge we have of him and of our selves and that Rational Judgment to which all Supernatural pretences ought to be subjected Where wâ—ll you find a Systeme of Divinity that makes known to us in a way suitable to our natural conceptions of him the most of God and of his Nature we are able to comprehend delivers us from all the intanglements of Humane Nature by ways and Methods so pâ—opoâ—tioned thereunto and discoveâ—s to us ceâ—taâ—n tracks to the highest happiness here and hereafter we are capable to enjoy Shall we go to the Laws of Lycurgus and Solon because they pretended to Revelation Can any man be so stupid Those Laws were chiefly Municipal and made no pretence to what we enquire after Shall we imagine the Books of the Sybills because they were thought to be filled with many Divine secrets contained such Revelation The greatest part if not the whole of them is long since perished out of the world which is proof sufficient they were none of those standing Laws by which God designed to Rule and Judge Mankind Some excellent Greek Verses there are indeed extant at this day which go under their Names but they are upon good grounds by the most learned supposed to be none of theirs And iâ— they were the Christian Religion and the Truths contained in the Bible are so clearly described and the Pagan Religion so directly and strongly confuted therein that the Scriptures can scarce have a greater Testimony given to their Divinity Shall we go to the inspired Entâ—usiasticâ—l Poâ—ts for this Revelation What a ridiculous foppery would that seem to one that has once conversed with the Bible And what a wild extravagant Religion should we
mouths of most men concerning those passages there expressed Paulus Fagius who seems to give the rightest account of it differs not much from this of Junius only reads it in the futuretense and supposes it to intend a future relation his words are Ideo dicetur est enim verbum Hebraicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 futuri temporis in commemoratione bellorum hoc est cum bella Deicommemorabuntur recensebuntur a posteris quae bella pro Israel in mari rubro gesscrit quae ad hos torrentes quasi dicat hi auo locitanquam memorabiles ab omni posteritate repetentur in quibus Deus pro Israel dimicavit ubi prodigia Coeleslia ostâ—nsa sunt that is In the relation that shall be hereafter of the Wars of the Lord there shall be a famous mention amongst all posterity of what God did for Israel in those two places wheresoever the Wars of the Lord are spoke of what God did in those two places shall have an eminent mention The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepher signifies properly any rehearsal or enarration recensionem aut enarrationem quamcunâ— recensionem scriptam but per accidens If we understand it not to relate to any Book but only to a relation Verbal as it seems most probably to do because Moses speaks only of a rehearsal in generals but not directly of a written rehearsal it reaches not this matter and if it do I see no good reason can be given why by that Book of the Wars of the Lord should not be meant either some succeeding Book part of the Bible or else that very Book of Numbers it self But Secondly which way soever this Text be taken it can never be reasonably urged to prove there were Letters or Books before Moses because 't is said to be a Book relating a Story of things done in Moses his own Time for those Wars called the Wars of the Lord commenced but at the peoples coming out of â—gypt under his conduct And therefore 't was impossible there should be a written story of them before Moses himself was extant To the last Objection I Answer 'T is true that the Egyptians were a Learned people probably the most learned the world then had The continued clearness of their Skye and the constant overslows of Nile naturally tending to render them learned in those two Noble Sciences of Astrology and Geometry yet there is not the least ground to believe they had any use of Alphabetical Letters before Moses his time or any other way to express or communicate their learning but what was Symbolical and Hycroglyphycal nor is there the least Record any where extant to evince the contrary Aristotle sayes The ancient way of the Egyptians writing was per Hiâ—roglyphycas literas saxis incisas and he adds Conceptus aâ—imalium scrâ—bunt uti occulata side legimus in lapidibus per figuras idem in omnibus Scientijs Artibusque sacientes quos locabant in Templis tanquam Paginas perlegendas talesque illis pro libris extant Tacitus tells us Primi per siguras Animaâ—ium Egypti sensus mentis efsingebant antiqâ—â—ssima Monumenta memoriae humanae impressa saxis cernuntur Diodorus Sicalus long before in the fourth part of his History has given us a large account of this Symbolical way of writing amongst the Egyptians and Ethiopians which was reduced to these three heads Imitativa Tropica Enigmatica nor do we hear a word of any other writing amongst them till Moses his time who in all probability first discovered to them that way of transferring their minds one to another by Alphabetical Letters And this Artapanus a most ancient Historian tells us who speaking of Moses sayes Vt quasi Deas ab Egyptijs coleretur propter Literarum inventionem Mercurium appellatum That he was reverenced by the Egyptians as a God and for his first inventing of Letters called Mercury The Antiquity of the Bible in point of fact being thus cleared 't is in the second place to be considered what Testimony to the Divinity of the Bible does in truth result from thence And herein we shall find the one very remarkbly leading us to the other First in the general 't is a thing not to be denied that a reverence to Antiquity seems to have been universal All men in all Ages seem to have risen up and payed respect to the Hoary Head of Antiquity and that upon these two grounds First What is most Ancient has undergone the greatest Trial Every man is ready to venerate what has endured the Test of many Generations and lasted through most Ages because nothing corrects mistakes like Experience not distinguishes falshood and truth like Time Time we say and truly say is Index as well as Edax rerum Secondly Every mans Reason tells him all Secundary truth must needs lie nearest to the Eternal truth and so be of greatest Antiquity Error of every kind is of a later Edition then truth an Apostacy from it and a Corruption of some prime Principles Though Error and falshood may be very Ancient yet Truth is still the Elder Brother and has this still to say to all its opposers Non fuit sic ab initio And therefore the farther we wade into Antiquity the nearer still we come to Truth In Religion most especially that Maxim prevails antiquitate nihil verius veritate nihil antiquius In the present case the Antiquity of the Bible carries in it a very signal proof of its Divinity That which is the most ancient Religion is like to be the Truest greatest antiquity in Religion is an eminent mark of greatest Truth and that upon these two very forcable considerations First 't is reasonable to believe that there has been an intercourse between God and Man since the beginning and a Supernatural inter course since mans first defection that Gods Revelations were as early as mans necessities That there was no time wherein man stood in need of Supernatural Instruction and help but that God affords it to him If the supposal of Revelation in the general be reasonable as I have proved at large it is the other will follow and we shall find good ground to believe that there has been a Revelation from God since there was first Reason for it and such a constitution as Supernatural Religion in order to mans happiness and recovery that bears an equal Date with his first apostacy to think otherwise were to deny what the notion of Gods goodness very openly affirms to us And this being so no Religion can be True that is not clothed with great antiquity And that Religion that is most ancient and can derive it self from the beginning must needs be most True The Bible therefore giving us Historically an account of Gods first intercourse with man and of the constant continuation of it in all Ages and being it self the first account that ever was given of Religion in such a Written way upon all accounts the most Ancient the world
reach exercise the World with the greatest Trials even Trials from an appearance of his Almighty power so long as he still affords a plainly Superiour Evidence to Truth and so Circumstantiates things that there is abundant ground of distinction To make this appear is of chiefest concern in discoursing of this matter how Gods Miracles can be an infallible Evidence if the Devil and Ill men be sometimes inabled for so it is to be understood for by no inherent power of their own can they do it to act also in a Supernatural and miraculous way for if a miracle by whomsoever wrought be not a sufficient proof of any Doctrine 't is wrought in confirmation of t will then be said the Testimony from miracles seems to to be much Invalidated and Mankind to be left at great uncertainty about it That God when he is pleased to establish Divine truth to the world by the power of miracles does make that Testimony unquestionable and clearly Distinguish the witness given by His miracles from any witness the Devil or his Instruments can give by any either seeming or real operations of that kind will very evidently appear these three ways First from the order of his proceeding Secondly from the manner of his proceeding and Thirdly from the maâ—ter about which he proceeds First God maks the miracles he works from Heaven an infallible Testimony by the order of his proceeding He primarily and in the first place before false Doctrine and worship can have any such pretence by the power of Miracles settles and fixes his own truth and makes that so setled a Rule to us to try all other Doctrines by God has been ever beforehand with the Devil and his Instruments in this kind Nor have they ever been suffered to attempt the World this way till truth was First so unquestionably setled that there was abundant ground to secure unbyassed and unprejudiced men from any seduction were the temptation to it never so great This was the case at first under the Old Testament God by most eminent and undeniable miracles from Heaven established the Doctrine and Worship published by Moses and thereby fixed that as the great Standard and Rule of all Religion before the Devil had ever attempted to impose any Systeme of his own upon the World in such a way and that being so setled aâ—ter-propâ—ecie was not to be judged of singly by a power of working Miracles God himself had directed the contrary but also by its coâ—foâ—mity to that established Rule and therefore if any Prophet arose though attended with a Miraculous power and indeavouâ—ed to introduce a Doctrine destructive to whâ—t was so already established and to withdraw them from the worship of that God to whom by Moses his Law they were Primarily subjected they were obliged not to hearken to him but to reject his Doctrine as a vile and wicked temptation And 't is of great remark and an eminent justification of Gods proceedings in this kind that the most that ever the Devil was suffered to do was at first in opposition to Moses when he by a power of miracles came to settle that Divine Law for never any false Prophet after could reach to do what the Magicians then did and God in that very way plainly and openly to satisfie the World for ever after in this matter determines the Cause against him And Moses so far out went the Magicians in a Miraculous way that they were forced to this confession This is the singer of God By which expression seems not to be meant that this particular work of turning Dust into Lice in which the Magicians faâ—led is an effect of a Power Divine and Supernatural and all that was done before both by Moâ—es and us which were works every whit as great was done by a power meeâ—ly natural But This is the singer of God that is To stop us that now we have tried to do the like we find we cannot that we should â—e able to go no â—â—â—ther that our power of working Miracles should fail us and be taken from us and Moses should be still able to proceed So under the New Testament the Gospel was first eminently established by uncoâ—â—ollable miracles as the great Standard and Rule of all suture Doctrines And acquaints us that there is no further Revelation to be expected before the wonders and Miracles of Seducers were extant And when God has by a miraculous power once unquestionably established his own truth all pretences to Miracles be they feigned or real they come too late Truth is in possession and by that all things are to be tried and whatever is found opposite to it is but reasonably to be reckoned as a Trial and a temptation only to prove us The Broad seal of Heaven is already solemnly and openly set And let the Devil bring what shews he can of the same impression they are still to be rejected And whatever the Devil has been at any time able to do of that kind has been but this second hand work and to seduce men from a truth beforehand unquestionably estabâ—lished and to which there was Reason sufficient whatever could be done to perswade to the contrary for all men to adhere And this made St. Austin when the Donatists much urged upon him in their justification a power they had of working Miracles to tell them The truth was that way fully setled before and we had warning enough not to be seduced from the Orthodox Doctrine of the Gospel by any such pretensions Secondly The manner of Gods proceeding in his working of Miracles to ascertain the World does sufficiently secure us against the danger of being seduced by Impostors that way and any Miracles they can produce if we consider First The grand occasions upon which God still works them Of how vast concernment was the rearing up of both Testaments and justifying the descent of Christ into Humane Nature Secondly The number of them How far have Divine Miracles out-gone all others in that kind Thirdly The Eminency of them Fourthly The Perspicuity of them to all sorts of men Fifthly Their performance without the least outward means wherein there might possibly lye a deceit Sixthly The long and lasting continuance of them In all these respects are Divine Miracles differenced from all Diabolical Actings that way which for the most part have been fictitious and discoverable so to be and when real comparatively but few and in no sort bearing any proportion to any of these Circumstances wherewith Divine Miracles have been openly accompanied And 't is also to be noted that very many of those Miracles we are told of amongst the Heathens admitting them true were not wrought to confirm or justifie their Religion but upon other occasions often for ends concealed and wrapt up in the Counsels of God which we know not of and sometimes for other ends then to establish their Religion visible as it seems to be in the case of Vespasian whom God had designed
is in it self directly opposite to the whole Corporation of Debauched and Evil men destructive to all corrupt Doctrines and Practices whatever and perfectly ruinous to the Interest of the Devil in this World of which there needs no other proof but an appeal to the Judgments of all sober minded men Never was there any Doctrine brought to light so Holy and so excellent A Doctrine that has visibly the highest tendency to those two great ends of all Religion the Honour of God and Mans present and future happiness No Instance can be given of any particular Duty enjoyned Destructive to mans true happiness but all perfective of it The strictest self-denial has a Recompence proposed to us of a hundred fold in things of a far more Noble and excellent Nature and most suitable in all such cases to a Rational choice The result of the whole is this Whenever Miracles are wrought to establish such a Doctrine as in the judgment of right Reason is likely to come from God we are upon the highest and most unquestâ—onable ground of Assurance that we can be Whenever a Miracle is wrought to establish a contrary Doctrine 't is the highest Trial But still God is pleased to order it so that we have ground sufficient to oppose and will sâ—â—nd it and â—â—â—kon in onely as such Whâ—â—â—ver consults thâ— writings of the Primiâ—iâ—e Châ—â—sâ—â—â—â— will and there were two things upon which they â—hâ—â—â—lâ— inâ—â—â—â—d and by the strâ—nâ—th whereâ—f the Châ—â—stian Religion made its sâ—â—st Enâ—â—aâ—ce and â—avelled thorough a great part of the Heathen world The Excelâ—â—ncy of its Doctrine and the Miracles wrought â—o confirm it And these two conjoined give â—s the mâ—st inâ—aâ—â—ible Assuâ—ance of Religion we are capable of in this World The Miraâ—â—es justify the Doctrine and the Doctrine reflects a Testimony back to the Miracles and in that Conjunction the proof is Invincible And so 't is in this case of the Bible For we can have no more then what we find here The Best Doctrine with the Highest Attestation Whoever warily considers our Saviours Reasonings with the Jews shall find him going upon this Ground For as he frequently justifies his Doctrine from his Miracles so he likewise often justifies his Doctrine to be in it self Divine Corresponding to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in direct pursuance of what Moses and the Prophets had taught And so makes the testimony of his Miracles unquestionable thereby For such a Doctrine accompanied with such miraculous Evidence must needs be from God and can admit of no Rational Opposition And therefore in discoursing this matter in hand neither ought to be insisted on neither the Doctrine nor the Miracles Distinctly and Separately from the other but Both urged in that excellent Conjunction in which they are handed down to us Thirdly If we look upon this Book in the Success and Effects of it since its Conneyance We have from thence still further evidences of its Divinity and more Rational perswasions to derive it from God as a Book of his own Composing and about which he has exercised a peculiar Care And that upon these two Grounds First That this Book though written at several times all so long since past and some of it before any other Books were extant has yet in its passage through so many Ages escaped all the dangers to which it has been exposed and is preserved intire to us to this day Secondly That this Rock and the Religion contained in it has made its Entrance into the world and gain'd an Acceptance amongst Mankind in such a way and by such Means as are Peculiar to it self and no other Religion can make a Pretence to In such a Way as when we rightly consider it 't will seem Absord and Ridiculous to all common Reason to suppose that the wickedest Counterâ—eit and the â—â—andest piece of Imposture about God and Religion should ever be able so to do Or indeâ—d that any Book of Religion should upon such Permes arrive at such a Reception but one that contain'd the Highest and most Evident Truths and had the great God for its Author For the first 'T is true that other Books very Ancient and written long ago as we have good ground to believe have descended Intire to this very Age. But herein the passage of the Bible through the chanel of so many Ages is Distinguished from all other Writings not only that 't is some of it much Elder then they and upon that account more liable to Loss and Decay but that no Book or Writing the world was ever possessed of has had that violent Opposition made against it nor such Designs formed for its Ruine and Extirpation as this has had Others have met with a quiet and peaceable passage This has been often beset with most Keen and Inveterate Enemies Besides that great hazard so much of the Bible was in as then was Extant in the days of Josiah when for ought appears by the Story there was but one Copy and that had been lost for sixty eight or sixty nine years and was hid either in the Rubbish or else in some secret part of the Walls of the Temple for it was found when the Temple came to be Repaired and in all probability was there hid during the wicked Reign of Manasseh by some malicious Idolaters with an intention utterly to extinguish it Which might easily have been done in a way that had made it Irrecoverable had not a Divine hand over ruled and secured it Besides this and some other Hazzards the Bible has scap'd of a like nature we read of two famous and most Implacable Enemies furnish'd with all Humane power that with all their might and skill have beset it Antiochus Epiphanes under the Old Testament and the Empâ—rour Dioclesian under the Nâ—w This Antiochus Epiphanes called likewise and much moâ—â— truely Epiâ—â—aâ—â—â— the Mad and the Furious was prophefied of and plainly foretolâ— by the Prophet David in the eighth and eleventh chapters of his prophecy He there calls him a King of fierce countâ—â—â—â—ce and says His heart should be against the hâ—ly Câ—venant and that he should have indignaâ—ion against the holy Covenant Which was the Law of God the Scriptures then Extant This Antiochus came in the times of the Maccaâ—ees and most cruelly destroyed and wasted Jerusalem and made it his grand business to ruine the Jews and utterly extinguish their whole Religion and Worship Dedicated their Temple to Jupiter Olympius Erected an Altar therein for the Worship of that â—â—â—l and in contempt of the Jews caused many Swine to be slain and offered up in sacâ—â—fiâ—e to him and as the surest way to pat a pâ—rfect â—â—nd to the Religion of that Place and People with utmost diligence made search after their Law and wheresoever he sound it iâ—â—â— diâ—tâ—ly Burnt and destroyed it and thâ—eatned â—â—st exquisite torments and Death to any that should dare to Conceal or Retain it Of which Josephas gives us the Relation
according to the Law of Moses which we cannot conceive after seventy years they could so exactly have done or would ever have attempted to have done it had not they had the Law with them while Esdras himself was yâ—tâ—n Babylon and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem we find in the 8th of Nehemiah the people were so far from wanting the Law or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him as is pretended that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of and which was notorious amongst them Fifthly 'T is no way probable that Esdras should so Re-pen the Bible because we find his own writings full of Caldee words as also the Prophecie of Daniel but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity is in pure Hebrew and 't is no way conceiveable but that if he had Re-penn'd the whole he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books and according to the Idiome that was then in use amongst the Jews either wholly in Caldee or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantick fable taken out of a Book sâ—ust with many vain and ridiculous follies and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit 〈◊〉 wee 'l depend upon such Evidence for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark in the sides of which the Law we know was placed were sâ—cured by the Prophet Jeremie and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt And if any such thing were though the Law be not particularly mentioned yet being always kept in the Ark â—â—s not to be doubted but Jeremie preserved it with the Ark and had an especial reference to the securing of it in what he then did This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented that at the return of the people out of Babylon the care of Esdras about the Bible and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled in which were present Haggai Zacharie Malachy Nehemias and Zerubbabel was very eminent and great and to this day we derive singular advantages from it For first with great diligence they made an exact seperation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration dictated by the Holy Ghost and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages and all other Writings whatsoever whether written by true Prophets or false for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent might and without doubt many of them did write diverse things without any immediate assistance or direction from God and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands no publick use being made of them Incorporated the whole into one intire Volumn an admirable work in the order we now have it which before was not possible to be for several Psalms several of the Prophecies and some other Books were written after the coming of the people into Babylon and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoyned in one intire Volumn more of them then the five Books of Moses the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a publick assembly to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark the peculiar Archive God had by his special command appointed for it the whole of the Old Testament so united they ranked under three Classes and divided into three parts which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it when he sayes All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Secondly Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great and most highly is it to be applauded in adding points to the Hebrew Letters to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue and facilitate the reading and Learning of it dividing the sacred Writings into Verses with many other things of that kind most probably first begun by them of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account The whole of their indeavours this way and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein was called the Massora which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text and to deliver the Old Testament safely and intirely over to us What a useful and most laborious enterprize this Massora was we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus Massora sayes he est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingeniosâ— inventa quâ— Versas Voces Literae ejus nâ—meratae omnisque ipsarum variet as notata suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est ut sic constans genuina ejus lectio conservetur ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur valide premuniatur The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews in which the Verses words and Letters are all numbred and all their variations particularly noted and set down in their proper places with a recital of the particular Verses that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved and for ever secured against all change or corruption And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massâ—ra however augmented by others in after Ages and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ouâ— Saviour as some have supposed Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews and thus concludes upon the whole Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse This is the common opinion amongst the Jews that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue Thirdly That Ezra and that great Synagogue to render the sacred Text more intelligible and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident did make some small additions and some verbal alterations in some places is greatly probable and it might easily be done but no Re-penning the Bible nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record nor to the credit of its Authority nor can the least Objection though many have indeavoured it be raised from hence to that purpose when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly and who were without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter In
these latter Ages in whole streams of Blood that ran from its Primitive Martyrs God pleasing to introduce the Gospel at first without any thing Humane to befriend it that we might be for ever ascertained of its Author Who but God himself by a Power from above can we reasonably imagine could have enabled a few Mean Ignorant and Contemptible men so to confront the whole World and in the Evening of it when other Religions had so long lasted and were so fast rooted to erect a Religion destructive to all the rest and to break through all the Opposition that the Religion of the Jews and Heathens the Philosophy and Learning of all the knowing parts of the World the Laws and force of the Roman-Empire in its greatest splendor and strength could form against it And what Doctrine but one in its own Nature Diâ—â—â—â— and attended with the visible effects 〈◊〉 Almighty Power to own and juâ—â—â—â—â— can we conceive could have 〈◊〉 the World so to bow before it How ridiculous does it appear to suppose a company of mean Impostors that had neither God nor Men besides themselves to befriend them nor any other Foundadation but a Design in the highest manner to cheat and abuse the World could have effected all this and that they should finally so prevail and impose the grossest Delusion imaginable upon Mankind against all such Opposition Had I no other consideration to induce me to believe the Bible but what ariseth from hence this one seems singly sufficient to me to justifie its Divinity against all reasonable suspition of Imposture and for ever to silence all the doubts that can be at any time made about it What greater assurance can we have that a Doctrine is Divine and comes from above then when we see it has ventured it self upon its own Divine Evidence against all Humane Opposition and singly by that prevailed and spread it self all the World over Neither Arms nor Councils neither the Policy of Julian nor the Sword of Dioclesian could put a stop to its progress Had God disowned the Gospel at first Nay had he not Eminently and Visibly witnessed to it from Heaven we cannot possibly imagine how it could have taken one step forward It had doubtless as it was then circumstanced been stifled in its first birth and buried in perpetual silence We find all the Religion of the Heathens has still grown up under the shadow of Humane Power and Authority and has still decayed when Humane props have been removed I challenge any man to shew me any other Religion that ever prevailed in the World without Humane help and that ever stood out the brunt of Persecution All other Religions but what have been founded upon the Bible have still fallen before the Power of the Sword 'T is only the Religion of the Jews and the Christians founded at first upon the Bible and the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine contain'd in it that has weather'd out all attempts for its eradication 'T is a marvelous evidence of that solemn and divine foundation upon which the Jewish Church and the Old Testament were at first established That notwithstanding all that the Jews have suffered and their very Being in a National way and their National Worship in which their Religion chiefly consisted be utterly extinguished yet still they retain their Profession submit to a Yoke of most burdensome Ceremonies remain dispersed in the World a Monument of Scripture-verity and so many standing Witnesses to the Truth of many eminent Predictions both in the Old and New Testament And thus from the success of this Book also since its first conveyance and all the circumstances that have attended the progress of it since its first publication have we as great an assurance as in such a Case we can well expect that God himself and no other is in truth the Author of it I come in the fourth and last place to consider this Book in it self in the Matter of it as at the present we find it and as it now lies before us In the doing of which I mean not to insist separately and abstractedly upon any Internal evidence that results from the matter of the Scripture it self but to take it as it ought to be in Conjunction with the former and all other Collateral proof 'T is neither Reasonable nor Warrantable to disjoyn the proof God has afforded us of his Word and lay the weight of its Justification upon any one single Evidence For when God commands us to believe and obey this Book as his Word and imposeth the highest penalty upon our not doing it he layes not the stress of his Command or the Penalty nor ought we upon any one particular sort of Evidence External or Internal but upon the whole intire proof he has made to us of it and all those means he has afforded for our Conviction and Satisfaction about it When we are upon a general proof of the Bible 't is not necessary to insist upon any Internal Evidence that results from the Bible it self as singly sufficient to prove it or enter into any debate whether it really be so or no because we have all the Cumulative advantage of an External justification And if all together be sufficient to prove the Bible to be what we that profess the Christian Religon take it to be 't is enough for our purpose And that the matter of the Bible it self with what ever Evidence will arise from thence is not to be abstractedly insisted on from other Collateral proof nor that any Collateral proof will prevail in this Case without there be also an Innate Evidence resulting from the matter of the Bible it self so that a Conjunction of the Evidence in both kinds is absolutely necessary to establish a general proof will be thus made to appear The Bible as hath been said consists of three parts Doctrinal Prophetical and Historical whatever Evidence we have from the Scripture it self to prove its own Divinity must needs chiefly arise from the Doctrinal part Because the Prophetical and Historical part can never be fully justified without Forraign proof we cannot know the History of the Bible to be certainly true from the Bible it self Nor can we sufficiently prove any Prophesies in any part of the Bible to have been actually fâ—llfilled because they are said in other places of that Book so to be For 't were to beg the Question and admit the Book to be true when we are debating whether it be so or no! This we may urge in proof of the Historical and Prophetical part from that Divine Evidence that comes from the Doctrinal that we find such History and such Prophesie in an admirable Conjunction with such a Doctrine subservient to it tending to the establishment of it and inviron'd with all probable Circumstances of being true both from the nature of the Prophesies and also from the excellent Manner of their fulfilling and from the rare Method of the History in
minds of men No man can well judge this an effect of any Humane Design nor can reasonably think that the private observation or experience of any particular men could have reached so far Providential Occurrences would soon have confuted any counterfeit pretence to such an universal account of the whole Affair of the World Nor could any but God himself be secure not to mistake in such a matter The more we contemplate this World in its various motions the more we consider the many intricacies and changes of it the more is the Bible still justified to us because we perceive the whole transaction of this World to be there strangely Epitomized We are not only told in the general what shall fall out that bad men shall often Prosper and good men Suffer that there is one even to the Righteous and the Wicked that no man shall be able to make a certain judgment of Gods Loving or Hating by the course of things here below but we are so far pointed to the Reasons and Ends of these things as much justifies Providence to us and greatly informs us about those Grounds upon which God proceeds in his Supream Rule here in order to his future judgment hereafter Nothing can befall a good man or an ill man or happen in any kind of which we are not told in the Bible and of the reason whereof we have not some general and satisfying account 'T is extreamly unreasonable to think that any other but God himself especially not the worst deceivers could have made such a compleat Model of his own Government and 't is no little justification of this Book that God visibly governs the World according to what is here delivered And those Laws must needs have all the rational probability to be Divine and come from the Supream Ruler above sutably to which all things evidently come about here below and to which the whole Revolution of this World in all times and ages and in all respects appears exactly corresponding Fifthly We find in this Book a full and ample provision for all the ills that have accompanied mans first Apostacy and adequate and proper Cures for all the Maladies of humane life And therefore 't is very likely to be a Divine preseription sent from above to heal and relieve the World Who but God himself can be reasonably supposed safely to disengage Man-kind from all the entanglements of their Lapsed and Apostate condition I appeal to every unprejudiced man whether this Book be not a general Store-house a Divine Treasury far beyond what the World besides can afford to supply all the wants of Humane Nature Not only more clearly and fully than was ever before revealing to us the greatest good pointing us to that true Summum bonum of a rational Being which Mankind in all Ages with so much ignorance and disagreement with themselves had been groping after and conducting us to the greatest happiness but applying suitable Remedies to every Distemper Where can any man under the sense of sin and the displeasure of God or under any other dejection of mind poverty or disgrace in the World sickness of body loss of friends or any sort of affliction comfort himself as he may here What a Sacrifice are we here told of for Sin We find all men in all Religions have still harped upon a Sacrifice The Sacrifices of living men were most Inhumane detested by the best of Heathens The sacrificing of Beasts though generally practis'd the wisest knew not what to make of and thought it strange that God should be Atoned by the fat of a Bruit How infinitely does the Sacrifice we are acquainted withal by the Gospel exceed all the World has thought of in that kind Of how amazing and yet of how satisfying a nature is it What Divine Antidotes are there provided in this Book from suitable Examples comforting Promises wise Directions heavenly Counsels to keep up a sinking Mind 'T is like that Wood where Jonathan came in his extremity and found Honey every where dropping and a taste of it revived his Spirits and renewed his Vigour And herein lies the strength of this Consideration The reality the excellent and proper nature of that relief and those Satisfactions that upon al occasions are here proposed to us They are no such deluding Trifles as men are cheated into by education and acquiess in only because they are bred up with a good Opinion of this Book But they are such things as are of intrinsick value such as are in themselves and in their own Nature most real most suitable to a rational Being in all such cases and justified to us from the Light of our own Reason and that innate Notion we have of a Deity The Voice of the Bible is If thou do well they own Conscience being judge thou shalt be accepted If not Sin lies at the door We find no resemblance here of the Heathen Superstitions nor of those Vanities wherewith other Religions through mens ignorance and the track of Education have besotted the World The terms of our Reconciliation with God and our happiness in this World and the next are such and so propounded to us as every mans own reason must needs acquiesce in and there is a self-evident satisfaction results from the performance of them It prevails much upon me this general provision I find here made to suite all mens conditions in all Times and Ages and the great worth and transcendent excellency of it And 't is a great account to us of that wonderful variety we find in this Book both for matter and expression What Depths and Shallows in both respects Sometimes the sublimest Notions clothed with the highest Expressions Sometimes the easiest plainest Truths imaginable Sometimes Divinity deck't with the richest Expressions of Oratory to delight and instruct the noblest and largest mind Sometimes brought down to the meanest Similitudes and expressed by things of the most common use amongst Man-kind to be grasped by the poorest understanding And yet a decency and majesty in all No part of Man-kind but find here a plentiful and suitable provision for every Condition Not an impotent impoverished mind but is here relieved nor a condition so mean but is cared for And this tells us much of the vanity of those who are apt to sit in judgment upon this Holy Book To find fault with some things as too Mysterious and with others as too mean To think many Stories Examples Directions Superfluous and others wholly Impertinent When such men can fathom the deep and large design of this Book are able fully to comprehend the sizes of all mens Capacities and the variety of all mens Conditions and can assure me that what one contemns or not understands may not prove of excellent and proper use to another I then will acknowledge They are every way fit to correct the Bible and leave them free to fit the World with a better Model Sixthly This Book appears so composed that all
Truths are visibly concenter'd in it Here is indeed a perfect Rendesvouz of all such Truths as were any where scattered and the World imperfectly has had and all such as they were in need to have All such natural Truths both of a Moral and Divine Nature as the Reason of the World does acknowledge and a full discovery of all such supernatural Truths as the minds of men naturally pursue and are inquisitive after Whatever is written in mans heart or upon the Works that God has made is here after an excellent manner Transscribed Justified and Improved And many defects of natural Knowledge supernaturally supplyed by a most suitable Revelation So that if we'lâ— judge of this Book either by what we certainly do know or by what we need and desire to know and expect should be revealed to us concerning God our selves and this whole World We shall find great reason to derive this Book from Above and subscribe to it as Divine For the First Never any Book contained such a System of natural Truth since the World began nor ever so far interpreted to us what truly is so And of this every mans own Reason becomes a proper and competent Judge Secondly Never any Book has told us so much nor gone so far to fix the restless minds of men about all such supernatural things as they are most inquisitive after 'T is here we have a certain account of God's Nature and the manner of his Existence how and when he created the World With what Designs and to what Ends he disposes and governs it Whence all our disorder first came How 't is to be cured Sin removed and Man reconciled to God! 'T is here we are certainly assured of the Resurrection of our Bodies the Immortality of our Souls and the condition of our future being for ever 'T is here we know all we can know and all we need to know both of this World and the next From no other but God himself could such a Beam of Light have broke forth so to enlighten the World Nor will it seem any way tolerable to an unprejudiced Judgment to father such a Book upon the highest principle of Falshood and derive it from the worst design that ever the World was defiled with Secondly I shall endeavour to shew that this Book so far as it relates to matters of Fact wherein an Etxernal justification is necessary is so far witnessed unto that there can be no room left for any reasonable doubt to be made about it First That there was such a man as Moses and such a People as the Jews in Egypt in those times which the Scripture mentions That Moses was their Leader and that he led them out of Egypt wrote their Story and gave Laws to them we have attested to us by the most Ancient Records of the Egyptians the Phenicians the Caldeans and the Grecians By Sanchomathon the famous Phenician Antiquary Berosus a Caldean Ptolomeus and Manetho Writers of the Egyptian-Chronicles The latter of whom Manetho speaks very particularly both of the Jews coming into Egypt and their departure thence And amongst the Grecian Writers by Artapanus Polemo Eupolemus Diodorus Siculus with many others as is at large proved by Josephus in his first Book against Appoin And one of these Artapanus is so large in his Relation of the Story of Moses that he sets down much of the business of his whole life and many of his Miracles his contesting with the Magicians before the King of Egypt his carrying the Jewâ— thorow the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them his dwelling with the Jews after in the Wilderness Who were there says he fed with a certain Snow that God rained from Heaven And at last describes particularly the very Person of Moses and sets down his Stature his Countenance and his Complexion Many of the same things are Recorded by Eupolemus Demetrius and others Numemus a Pythogorean-Philosopher whom we find quoted in Origens's fourth Book against Celsus tells us he had read the Life of Moses in many good Histories And relates many particulars of him as his being taken out of the Water his being bred up in the Court that he wrought many Miracles and that certain Magicians called Jannes and Jambres attempted to do the like No one Story amongst the Heathen of any Nation has been so witnessed unto by Writers Forraign to that Nation as the History of the Jews has been who from their greatest enemies have received a sufficient Testimony in point of Fact to the truth of Moses and what he wrote And indeed considering how great and eminent a Common-wealth was at first first established by the Writings of Moses and what a notorious and visible conâ—mâ—â—nce and succession there was of it ' Tiâ— Morally impossible that the business of Moses and his Writing in those times in matter of Fact should be fictitious and false Of so much of the History written by Moses as relates to things transacted before the Flood we cannot expect to find any exact and punctual account in a Traditional way Because of the great disadvantage of Oral Tradition especially by the confusion of Babel And yet 't is very evident that some considerable Remainders of the Ancient Story of the first World about the Creation the long lives of men in those first times and divers other things were preserved amongst the several Nations after the dispersion at Babel And we find many things relating thereto in Hermes Orpheus Homer Hesiond and the most Primitive Writers Of which Vossius Bochartus and many others have given a very satisfying account Concerning the Flood that there was such a Deluge nothing has been more universally credited And because the Tradition of it was That it befel in the prime time of the World and men were generally ignorant of the right account of times Therefore they applyed it still to that time they thought most ancient So the Thebans to the times of Ogyges and the Thessalians to the time of Deucalion which Floods of Ogyges and Deucalion were not two other distinct Floods as some have supposed but the same Flood of Noah applyed to those times and called by those Names which they thought of greatest Antiquity One sayes well What Nation has not believed it Even amongst the remotest Indians we find the Tradition of it has remained And what Author has not spoken of it Amongst the Egyptians Phenicians Grecians and Romans nothing more common And well may we suppose it should be so For Those who attempted the rearing of that Structure at Babel had probably a particular respect in what they did to the Flood that was past resolving to prevent the danger of another which sprang from their own Infidelity For God by his Promise to Noah had secured them against all fears of that kind and therefore had sufficient occasion wheresoever they came to preserve and continue the memory of it Berosus one of the most antient Writers after
Methods by which Mankind came since to be saved things beyond all natural kenn and which only served to reproch the wisest thoughts and to tell men how little they could discover of what they were most concerned to know Moses having told us more in two Pages then the whole World ever discovered by the utmost of all Humane search Nor has the world any way improved it self in this kind of Sience to this day However men by experience and industry have meliorated the condition of Humane Affairs in other things whatever advance they have made in Natural Theories or in any Mechanick contrivance whatever Rust of Errour or Ignorance that stuck to former Ages may be worne off by an improvement of Natural Speculation in this yet where the Scriptures are either not Known or Rejected they are at the same Loss in point of Divinity they are as Ignorant of the True God as ever And the Result of all Natural Theology without the help of some Revelation has been and still is no other then this That while men have been most busily contemplating the nature of an Infinite Being and contriving Ways to gain Acceptance with him they have Lost themselves in the Crowd of their own vain Imaginations Secondly Such have been the Principles and Practices of all Nations in all ages that it evidently appears The world men themselves have generally found and acknowledged a Necessity of Revelation and out of an experimental sense of their own Impotency without it have still lived in expectation of somewhat Supernatural to be Revealed from Above Mankind since the Fall have been still listening after some further discovery of God then what the Work of his hands does afford them and some more perspicuous Notices of his pleasure then what their own Natural Abilities could dictate to them as that which Gods goodness and his own excellent Nature seemed to promise to the World and mans natural Tendency to some Supernatural happiness as the great end of his being continually call'd for The Genius of the World has been so suited to the notion of Revelation and mens thoughts have been so constantly taken up with an Expectancy of some Divine Instruction that they have been still in danger to fall into all the extreams of deluding Enthusiasme Not only their Religion but whatever else they thought well off they were ready to Father it still upon Revelation Scarce was there a Mechanick Invention but they ascribed it to a Discovery made by the Gods Pythagoras when he had found out an excellent Demonstration in Geometry sacrificed a hundred Oxen in gratitude to the Gods who had favoured him with such a Discovery Whatever was in it self difficult or Excellent they imputed the Accomplishment of it to a Supernatural Power Homer the great Oracle of the Heathen Divinity not only ascribes to the gods the Invention of all abstruse matters and all the Heroical motions of the mind but referrs our Ordinary Cogitations to Divine Impulses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talis nempe mens est Terram incolentium hominum Qualem in dies indit pater hominumque Deumque And his Book is filled throughout with Enthusiastick Advertisements directed to Men from the Gods Cicero in the end of his 2. Book De Nat. Deor. is large in his expression this way Nec unquam Magnus vir sine aliquo Afflatu Divino Never was there any great Man sayes he without some Inspiration Not only were the Poets who seem to be the Divines of the Pagans and the Priests of their Mysteries all Inspired Men but not an eminent Physician or a Souldier was there among them nor a Man any way excellent but they derived his Abilities from some Supernatural Gift and thought his Qualities from Above Socrates that excellent person often says That virtue and Religion are not things to be learnt as Arts and Sciences are but to be had by inspiration being Divine and Heavenly gifts He avowed himself raised up by God to Philosophize and by his Precepts to Reforme the Athenian manners And when condemned to dye and sentenced to the Poisonous Cup Resolutely protested Though the Prison-dores should be opened to him with an injunction never more to Philosophize he would wholly refuse his Liberty upon those Termes and would chose to obey God rather then Men. We read not of an eminent Legislator in a Commonwealth but pretended he received his Laws from the gods Solon's Laws were said to come from Minerva Lycurgus derived his Laws from Jupiter And much more was their Religion and the Rites thereof still fathered upon some Deitie or other and handed down to the world with a Supernatural Stamp Numa Pompilius the first founder of the Romane Ceremonies declared he received them from the Goddess Egeria No Religion in any Nation but has made some pretence to Revelation That absurd Imposter Mahomet was wise enough to father his Medley Divinity and all the confused trash of his Alchoran upon Revelation Nothing else could have cheated so many into a belief of such a Religion but that they were first perswaded it came from Above and that Mahomet had it Revealed to him from Heaven The Heathen world were in Truth without any Revelation in Religious affairs that is They had no Divine Laws given them from Heaven to direct their Religious obedience Whether it pleased God to Reveal any particular matters at any time to any of them I dispute not But He gave his Statutes his Divine Laws to Israel and he did not deal so wit◠any Nation besides And yet nothing more general then the expectation of it and nothing more common then Pretensions to it This seems to have been a Catholick Maxime that the true knowledge of the Deity and the right way of serving him must be revealed from Above All the Nations of the Earth seem to have concenter'd in this belief that Divine Revelation and a Supernatural intercourse between God and Man was necessary for the present and future good of Mankind 'T is well expressed by the Learned Camero Omnium Gentium etiam Barbararum consensu receptum est ut homini bene sit praeter eam Rationem quam nimis magnifico superbo Titulo vitae Ducem vocant requiri Coelestem quandam Sapientiam inde Nata est Religio Ritus Cerimoniae quae sola Sanctitate se commendant Praelect de Verb. Dei 'T is a thing says he agreed to by the consent of all Nations yea the most Barbarous that in order to mans well being there should be a heavenly Wisdome to direct him besides the guide of his own Reason and from thence comes Religion c. 'T was from this General apprehension that the World came to be so often and so easily imposed upon by deluding pretensions to inspiration and the many gross Cheats of Enthusiasme the greatest Impostors still setting up for Enthusiasts 'T was upon this account that the Heathen parts of the World were so enslaved to their Oracles
and did so greedily embrace whatever they thought came from above The truth is there is in every man not besotted with sensuality and brutishly degenerated an earnest thirst after the knowledg of God and Supernatural things And there is as clear a Conviction upon every Reasonable man that without some further discovery from God himself then what this World and our own contemplations thereupon will afford us no satisfying account of those things can be attained Thirdly Man is a Creature designed by his own Faculties for a Converse with the Diety and by Natural Obligation Tends to an Intercourse with God To serve him acceptably and to pay the Homage due from us in such away as we may be fully ascertained is pleasing to him and will be rewarded by him is absolutely necessary to all humane welfare That is The greatest concern we have in this world is to be fully instructed about Divine Worship And this seems no way attainable without some Revelation That God is and that he is to be Served my Reason will tell me But What he is and after what Manner he Exists the knowledge whereof is indispensibly necessary in all our Approches to him as that without which we shall be sure to Debase his Excellency and to represent to our selves some vain Idea's and Fantasmes of our own imagination I must be taught from above And for the manner how he is to be served and what will be acceptable to him therein I must look upward and expect a full and compleat direction from thence Mankind seem una voce to have concenter'd in this as a thing most sit yea necessary that God should from Heaven reveal to us the way of his own Worship and Teach us the Methods of our Converse with Him Where can we find a Religion in any Nation not founded upon some Pretences to Revelation and established upon this Admission 'T were indeed a most irrational thing and a great Indignity offered to the Supreme Majesty to make Men their own Judges in that case and to suppose it left to the Arbitrary Determinations of Humane Discretion How God should be worshipped The consideration of the Wisdome and Sovereignty of God and our own Dependance upon him is singly sufficient to evince this Truth that we ought to be under a Law and a Stated Rule for the Manner of our Serving of him Without which we can never intitle the best of our Services to Obedience or upon any good Grounds be secured of Acceptance Not ought we to judge that any Worship ever found favour with God that had not the stamp of his own Command and was not by himself some way or other Appointed Though 't is fit to believe that God was well pleased with the Moral goodness of the Heathen world and any real conformity there was amongst them to that Natural Diâ—inity that is originally annexed to every mans Being and greatly displeased with the contrary and rewarded and punished them upon their Good and Ill behaviour in those things yet t is not to be doubted but that the whole of their own contrived Worship with all the Rites and Ceremonies of it was a thing to God most Odious and Detestable And of this we are well assured not only from the Reason of the thing considered in it self but from a very Authentick Determination that tells us The whole of that Worship was a Service performed to Devils Nor could any the best Intentions that any men ever yet had since the world began sufficiently excuse for Will-worship and Idolatry There are but two ways by which any worship can be aâ—pointed by God Either by a Law Natural given to us in our first Constitution or by some Revealed Laws since The Foundation of all Worship must be either in Nature or Institution The Point then to be proved will be this That God has not by any Natural Laws given to Mankind a sufficient direction about his Worship and that Intercourse between Himself and the World that respecting either his own Honour or mans Happiness is necessary to be maintained and all mankind naturally tend to But has left us to expect it in a Supernatural way That God by a Law Natural binds us to acknowledg his Being and has given us sufficient notices of it in General and binds us to acknowledg that there is an Honour and Worship due to his Being and has given us some General Innate directions about the performance of it I grant And has also obliged us to Live according to the Dictates of our Rational Nature which shews to us Good and Evil by that very Nature which becomes Obligatory to it self In these things our own Reason is our Law and according to that Law men without Revelation are Rewarded and Punished And so I doubt not but all the Heathen Nations were But the Laws of Nature the dictates of the best Reason are not intrusted with such a plenary direction about Worship as 't is necessary for us to have and we all tend to Nor can any man be a sufficient Law to himself in those things And that may be thus made to appear All Worship must either be confined to Words Thoughts and Bodily Gestures and simply Terminated there or else it must be extended to some further expressions of Service by an Appropriation of some other Mediums unto it First No part of the World have ever yet thought it a thing Reasonable that God should be no otherwise served then by Thoughts Gestures and Words Both the Principles and Practices of all Nations have in all times declared the contrary Nor has any Worship in any Place been established or such a constitution framed as that we call Religion without some other expressions of service and some other External Mediums appropriated to it And this seems to have arisen from two things First Men have never supposed their Words or their Thoughts or their Gestures to be alone a sufficient expression of that Homage they are naturally sensible they owe to the Greatness and Bounty of God for their own Beings and the Donation of this world which he has visibly bestowed upon Man in making the Whole in a subserviency to Him and giving him the plenary and quiet possession of it But they still thought themselves bound to a further expression of Gratitude and Subjection Secondly Mankind in every Age have applied to God under a sense of Sin and of Guilt contracted by it and upon that account have still adjudged it as necessary to make some further Offering to God for their sins and by some other Mediums then bare Thoughts and naked Expressions to apply to Him about them No man ever yet imagined such a service a sufficient Compensation for Sin but have still attempted a further Satisfaction to the Justice above and by some other ways have indeavoured to appease Divine Anger Now the Reason of the world does not issue it self into any positive Certainty about such things as it does about things