so near and yet so prodigious And when they had as it was an easie matter assured themselves of its truth and reality this could not but provoke them to an eager enquiry after the meaning of so strange a thing And when they were assured that the Miracle was wrought by the Followers of that Jesus who was lately crucified and that they declared themselves Eye witnesses of his Resurrection from the dead and withall professed that they were endued with this power of Miracles from Heaven onely for an undoubted evidence and confirmation of the truth of their Testimony they had not power to withstand the force of such a mighty and astonishing demonstration And it was this demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as Saint Paul styles it rather than the strength of their Arguments as cogent as they were that first baffled the unbelieving World into Christianity and forced in the assents of Men to the truth and Divine Authority of its Doctrine They did not put their Auditours to the trouble of examining the validity of their Testimony but prevented all enquiries by this infallible confirmation The evidence of their Miracles was such an irrefragable Argument of the truth of their Testimony as surmounted the power of all other demonstration And what rational Man would stay to expect any other proof of a Divine Testimony that has seen it unquestionably attested by a Divine Power Or who could doubt and dispute after he had seen Devils dispossest the Sick healed and the dead raised This was such an almighty attestation to their preaching that it upbraided away their Scruples and bore away their Understandings And by this means it was that the Gospel prevail'd so easily and so speedily over all the World Its first preachers converted whole Cities and Nations in a moment and founded new Churches upon one undeniable Miracle and nothing less considering all circumstances of things and all the disadvantages under which it laboured could so soon have propagated the Gospel over all the World And thus if we trace the Apostolical History we scarce find any thing transacted without a Miracle insomuch that the People at length familiarly resorted to them for the cure of all kind of Diseases Acts 5. 12. And this power was so vulgarly known at that time that Saint Paul insists upon it as the proof of his true Apostleship Rom. 15. 18 18. 2 Cor. 12. 12. which had been too absurd a thing to alledge to his Followers in confutation of his Enemies if it had been a meer Fiction for if it were they knew it to be so when he appeals to the Signs and Wonders he had already wrought among them and if he had wrought none they could not but convict him of falshood But though I have already proved the certainty of the Records of the New Testament and so might from thence rationally enough make out the truth of these Apostolical Miracles and though I have in part proved the sufficiency of the Tradition of the Church to attest both them and all things contained in them and shall anon more distinctly shew the undoubted and uninterrupted conveyance of it from the very Apostles themselves so that if they had not been true they could never have gain'd belief yet in this present Argument I will not build upon these or any other suppositions and indeed if I suppose them this Argument would be needless for once granting the Scriptures to be true and authentick Records of the Apostles actions to what purpose is it to go about to prove that they were endued with a power of Miracles when the Record alone is an undoubted proof of it And therefore I onely argue from the nature of the thing it self viz. That it is impossible the Christian Faith lying under all those disadvantages above represented could ever have been propagated with that speed and facility that it was all the World over any other way than by this power of working Miracles and on the contrary that supposing this evidence that they gave the World by their Miracles that then it was natural and almost necessary that they should meet with the success they did Here then lies the force of my present Argument that when it was impossible they should compass their design any other way and when it was natural if they took this course to succeed in it and when it is certain that they had such wonderfull success that is a manifest Argument that they were endued with such a power of Miracles as is reported of them And therefore I did not produce those Testimonies of Scripture but now alledged as proofs to justifie the truth of the Argument but onely as instances to exemplifie the practice of it v. g. how incredible it is that 3000 People when they heard the Apostles affirm at Whitsontide that the same Jesus whom they had seen so shamefully executed at Easter was risen from the Grave and ascended into Heaven should so immediately believe them upon their bare Report but when they beheld that miraculous effect of the Holy Ghost in them whereby such illiterate Persons were enabled to speak all manner of Languages that alone could not but satisfie them of the truth of their Testimony So that I argue not from the truth of the Record but from the nature of the thing it self which could not have been done any other way than as it is recorded to have been done I might here also confirm the truth of their Miracles by the confession of their greatest Enemies in that I do not find that ever any of them denied them to have been done but instead of that ascribe them to the power of Magick though how foolish that evasion is I shall shew when I come to consider their evasions to this Argument at present this very surmise is a plain confession of the reality of the thing it self and that goes a great way as to evidence when coming out of the mouth of an Adversary but this having suggested I shall not farther insist upon it § XXIV Onely there is one thing remaining that adds great force to the strength of this Argument viz. That this power was not meerly confined to the Apostolical Age but was continued down to the next Ages of the Church which if true it is an undeniable Evidence of the truth of the Apostolical Miracles in particular and of the Divinity of the Christian Religion in general And yet of the truth of these we have no one thing for which we have better Records It is unanimously attested by all Writers of those times and that in such a publick and extraordinary way as raises their Testimony up to certain demonstration for they do not barely report it but they upbraid it to all their Adversaries as a thing undeniable they challenge Emperours Proconsuls the whole Senate in their Apologies and publick Writings to convince them by experiment they urge it in their Disputes with learned Men and dare them to contradict it
affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he quite vanisht away at last he onely says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he went away and this though he would seem to affirm that it was after a wonderfull manner and no body knows how is a pitifull abatement to the bigness of his former expression vanishing away Though the truth is if he had stood to it it must unavoidably have proved it self a Lye for it is utterly incredible that so strange a thing as that should have been done in so great a presence as that and yet never any notice be taken of it But in the last place the Historian would fain bid at something of his Hero's appearing after Death yet he does it so faintly that in the conclusion of all it comes to nothing especialy when he tells us that the time of his Death was altogether unknown and that the uncertainty of it took in no less than the compass of thirty years and then they that were so utterly at a loss as to the time of his decease and that for so long a space were likely to give a very wise account of the certain time of any thing that he did after it But how or to whom did he appear Why to a young Man one of his Followers that doubted of the Immortality of the Soul for ten months together after his Death But how or where Why the young Man being tired with watching and praying to Apollonius that he would appear to him onely to satisfie him in this point one day fell into a dead sleep in the School where the young Men were performing their several Exercises and on the sudden starts up in a great fright and a great sweat crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe thee O Tyanaeus And being asked by his Companions the meaning of his transport Why says he do you not see Apollonius They answer him no but that they would be glad to give all the World that they could 'T is true says he for he onely appears to me and for my satisfaction and is invisible to all others and so tells them what he had said to him in his sleep concerning the state of Souls This poor account of a Dream and a Vision of an over-watched Boy is all that this great Story affords to vye with our Saviour's Resurrection And now upon review of this whole History it seems evident to me that this Man was so far from being endued with any extraordinary or Divine Power that he does not deserve the reputation of an ordinary Conjurer For though Huetius has taken some pains to prove him so yet he gives no evidence of it beside the Opinion of the common People and if that were enough to make a Conjurer there is no Man of an odd and a singular humour as Apollonius affected to be who is not so thought of by the common People And therefore when he was accused for it before Domitian the Emperour when he came to hear the cause slighted both him and his accusers and dismist him the Court for an idle and phantastick fellow And it is manifest from the whole series of his History that he was a very vain Man and affected to be thought something extraordinary and so wander'd all the World over in an odd Garb to be gazed at and admired and made himself considerable in that Age by Wit Impudence and Flattery of all which he had a very competent share But for his Wonder-working Faculty which he would needs pretend to he fetcht that as far off as the East Indies that is the farthest off as he thought from confutation And yet the Account that he has given of those parts is so grosly fabulous that that alone convicts his whole Life of imposture and impudence And this may suffice to make good this part of the demonstration of our Saviour's Divine Authority from the certain Evidence both of his own and his Apostles Miracles and to set it above the reach of all manner either of Objection or Competition § XXVIII But though the History of Jesus of Nazareth have this advantage of all others in that the Tradition whereby it has been conveyed down to us has proved the truth of its own Testimony by plain and undeniable Miracles yet if we set aside this peculiar Divine Attestation and consider the Tradition by it self as meerly Humane and deliver'd down in the ordinary course of things it has been so constant so catholick and so uninterrupted as to be its own demonstration For if there had been no such thing as the Story of Jesus of Nazareth in that Age there could never have been any such Tradition or if there were it was so early that if it had been false it must immediately have perished as a manifest Lye in that when it comes so near the very time in which the thing it self was acted nothing but undoubted Truth could ever have maintain'd its Authority For though it is easie at a distance to tell strange stories of the times of old as we find by those many idle and incredible Legends added to the History of the primitive Church in the after-after-ages of ignorance and superstition yet to raise a story so strange and remarkable as that of Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles without any ground or foundation for it nay against the certain knowledge of those who lived in the place where it was first broacht and to gain Proselytes to such a notorious Fiction is a thing not possible in the course of humane Affairs For to pass by all the other disadvantages that I have already represented that this Tradition must labour under if it rise not up to the very time that it pretends to especially that of its being a matter of Fact which must unavoidably have destroyed it if false that which I have already proposed and come now to prosecute seems as insuperable as any of the rest viz. That great numbers of learned and wise Men who lived in the Ages next and immediately after it should after the strictest enquiry concerning its truth not onely suffer themselves to be imposed upon by so late and palpable a Fiction but lay down their Lives in defence of it This is not credible unless they were fully assured of the undoubted certainty of the thing it self and their assurance alone is to us a sufficient demonstration of it But though that be enough yet I will undertake more viz. To give an account of the grounds and reasons of their Assurance by tracing up the certain Tradition of the thing it self to the very times of the Apostles and from them deriving it down to after-after-ages through the hands of wise learned and judicious Men and that as I take it will make a new and distinct demonstration of the infallible certainty of the Christian Faith Now this Tradition is conveyed two manner of ways either by a succession of Churches or of single Persons First by a succession of Churches and
and transactions of his Life were open and conspicuous to the World he laid not the scene of his actions in a dark unknown or undiscover'd corner of the Earth but he appear'd in one of the most eminent places of all Asia all his Works were perform'd amidst his Enemies and he chose the Jews the most jealous and the most prejudiced People in the World for the Eye-witnesses of his Miracles and the Companions of his Conversation But above all Jerusalem it self the most famous City at that time in that part of the World was the scene of his most publick Actions there it was that he was put to death in the presence not onely of that City but of the whole Nation there it was that he rose from the dead there it was that his Disciples first publisht his Resurrection and there it was that some of them wrought undeniable Miracles in proof of the Divinity of his Power and the Truth of their own Testimony And Origen has observed very well that the publick Death of Jesus in the sight of all the People of the Jews was design'd by the Divine Providence as an advantageous circumstance to demonstrate the truth of his Resurrection for if it had been private and not notorious to all the Nation though he had afterward risen from the dead as he did the obscurity of his Death might have been pleaded against the certainty of his Resurrection But beside the notoriety of the matter of Fact among the Jews the strange Stories that were reported of him in a little time fill'd the World with noise and wonder No Affair in that Age was more talked of than the Story of Jesus of Nazareth every body made enquiry into the circumstances of his Actions and they were exposed to the malice of the Jews and the curiosity of the Philosophers There was never Man born as Eusebius observes upon whose account the whole World was so much concern'd as upon that of Jesus of Nazareth Mankind being as it were at first divided concerning him so that the controversie is not improperly styled by Nicephorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the struggling and concussion of the World Now 't is a likely matter and worthy our belief that a few simple and illiterate persons should have the confidence but much more the ability to perswade the World into the belief of a Legend so palpable and so obnoxious to contradiction That they should be so impudent as to begin to publish the strange Story of his Life and stranger one of his Resurrection even in Jerusalem it self and amidst his most implacable Enemies where though it were so easie to discover the bold and manifest cheat if a cheat at all that yet it should pass without any contradiction of the matter of Fact and meet with such prodigious and unparallel'd entertainment in the Minds of so many thousands of its Inhabitants Certainly they must have been puissant and irresistible Arguments wherewith they could so briskly bear down and vanquish Jewish stubbornness Their prejudices were too strong to be overcome by any weaker proof than evident and undeniable demonstration and had they not brought some such thing along with them they might to as much purpose have preached to the Stones of the Temple as to the People of Jerusalem But that I say is the wonder that they should first publish this strange story in the very place where it was acted and yet if it were false not onely escape being convicted of Forgery which it was impossible they should upon supposition of its being false but force great numbers of Persons against their most stubborn prejudices to own and submit to the truth of their Relation and from that very place in a short time to propagate the belief of it all the World over This is the thing that I affirm not to be at all possible in the course of humane Affairs that a matter of Fact of such a nature and under these circumstances if really and indeed false should ever gain so great a belief of its being true I will grant that Mankind may be imposed upon in matters of meer Opinion as much as any Man can require but matter of Fact is of a quite different nature that depends not so much upon Mens Understandings as their Senses and the Senses of all Mankind are alike here is no difference between the learned and the unlearned And though a false Story may for a while be imposed upon the common People yet unless it appear to prove it self true with an evidence proportionable to its weight it either dyes and vanishes of its own accord or is convicted of Forgery by the more wise and judicious when they come to enquire into its grounds and pretences And yet this Story the more it was enquired into the more firmly it was believed and learned Men every where and of all persuasions when they came to examine into it could not bring their Minds to any issue concerning it till at length they were forced to resign up themselves to its full belief I have indeed heard some witty Gentlemen as our phantastick Age very much abounds with such shrew'd persons compare the first propagation of Christianity in those parts of the World with that of the late growth and spreading of the folly of Quakerism in England than which nothing could be more enormously surmised for setting aside a thousand other defects in the comparison it is notorious that that wild and enthusiastick Sect did not set up upon the pretence of a new Revelation but onely pretended to raise some foolish and fanatique conceits of their own upon supposition of the truth of an old one But if the leaders of that Rabble when they first appear'd about thirty years since at York and Bristol had pretended to have wrought in those great Cities such kind of Miracles as are recorded of our Saviour and his Apostles no Man can doubt but that they had been long since buried in contempt and oblivion And yet that is the case of Christianity that such a matter of Fact as that was gain'd such a firm belief in the place where it was first published and acted too and from thence all the World over onely by the undeniable evidence of its own Proofs and Miracles For the Men of that Age were every whit as cautious and incredulous as the Wits of ours and as I shall shew anon their Minds were prepossest with stronger prejudices of Atheism and Infidelity How then could this Story of Jesus prevail so effectually upon them but by the undeniable evidence of its truth and certainty and when it carried with it nothing in the World whereby it might bribe their belief nay when it labour'd under all other objections but onely evidence of Truth I will challenge any sober Man to frame any the least tolerable Hypothesis how it was so much as possible that it should prevail had not its truth been vouched by the most undoubted and
unquestionable proofs in the World § XX. This is the first invincible Impediment of Christianity supposing it had been false but whether true or false it labour'd under many other great disadvantages that it could never have surmounted but by the irresistible evidence and certainty of its truth And the first is its contrariety to the Vice and Wickedness of that Age in which it was first divulged The World being at that time as is evident from the Records that are left of it extreamly debaucht both in its Manners and Principles For Julius Caesar having violated all the Laws of his Countrey and overthrown the old Government that had always kept up a generous sense of Vertue and Integrity and by that means chiefly raised it self to that vast Greatness that afterwards so much exposed it to the attempts of ambitious Men. For though that spirit began to work in the time of Marius and passed down through all the great Men Cinna Sulla and Pompey all of them struggling for the sole Sovereignty of so vast an Empire the design was never compleatly compassed but by the boldness and activity of Julius Caesar. Now the success of the Caesarean Faction that were generally Atheists and Epicureans against the Patriots of the old State that were as generally eminent for Worth and Honour Vertue and Integrity and Zeal for the publick Good made the thriving Principles and Practices quickly come into Fashion and Reputation with the World And after the Death of Brutus we find no such thing as an ancient Roman but what he said in passion was seriously and universally embraced as a great truth That Vertue was nothing but an empty name So that if we survey the Roman History before and after the Usurpation of Caesar it does not look like the History of the same Nation the former abounding with the bravest examples of Gallantry and Magnanimity whereas in the latter we are generally entertain'd with no other politicks than Fraud and Treachery Even the admired wisedom of the great Augustus himself was no better than craft and dissimulation And though his Successour Tiberius be particularly remarqued for that Vice it was onely because he was not able to act his part so artificially as his Predecessour had done who dyed with that particular comfort to himself that he had so skilfully played the Comedy of humane Life and certainly of all Princes upon Record he had the most subtile faculty of appearing highly honest without any design of ever being so In short under his Reign all the Principles of Atheism and Impiety were prevalent in the Court of Rome that then prescribed Manners to the best part of the then known World neither were their Practices disagreeing to their Principles for as they cast off all restraints of Vertue and Modesty so they entirely devoted themselves to Luxury and Sensuality and studied nothing else than to emprove their bruitish Pleasures to the utmost extravagance of Enjoyment And as was the great Court of Rome so were all the other lesser Courts of their several Prefects and Governours And that not onely by imitation but by the natural baseness of the Men themselves Scarce any but the worst of Men that is Epicureans and Vilains by Principle being prefer'd by J. Caesar to Authority in the Empire though things grew much worse under the Tyranny of Mark Anthony a Man kneaded up of Lust and Malice and the onely reason why he was not more of each was because he was all both for he would never unless for the sake of his Lust quit his Cruelty nor ever unless to satisfie his Cruelty forsake his Lust and as himself was made up of all manner of Baseness so he would advance none to preferment but such as had recommended themselves to his good liking by their more than ordinary Wickedness And for that reason it was that Judaea and the parts about it were at that time more over-run with Vice and Debauchery than in any former Age in that Herod one of the vilest Men that ever lived had by the patronage of Mark Anthony obtain'd their Government and by a long Reign over them after his Patron 's Death under Augustus had familiarised all manner of the most licentious Wickedness to the People even so much that one half of the leading Men even among the Jews themselves that had been so famous through all Ages for their reverence to their Religion were no better than open and avowed Atheists Now how was it possible for such a Doctrine as Christianity that consists of Precepts of Chastity and Sobriety of Truth and Honesty of Kindness and Charity and of renouncing the Pleasures of this Life for the Rewards of another to make its way into such a wicked World as this Men of atheistical Principles are of all others the most stubborn and inflexible they scorn all manner of better Information and will not endure to enquire into the truth of any thing that might possibly undeceive them so that there is no way to overcome Persons so prejudiced and so conceited unless we can by the meer evidence of things force them into conviction And as for Men of luxurious Lives they have neither Mind nor Leisure to attend to any thing that may reclaim them It is Pain to them to think of parting with their Pleasures they will labour to preserve them upon any terms and as long as they are able to resist no information shall be able to fasten on them and therefore when the Christian Religion so suddenly reformed infinite numbers from all sorts of Vices it must have brought along with it a real Evidence equal to its pretended Authority for as it pretended to a Divine Commission by virtue whereof it required strict Obedience to all its Commands so it must have proved the reality of its Commission by such certain Evidence that it was not possible for the most refractory Persons to withstand its force and therefore when we find such multitudes so wonderfully prevail'd upon to quit their most beloved Lusts and Vices we have reason from thence onely to conclude that they were more than convinced of the undeniable truth of its pretences § XXI The next disadvantage of Christianity was its bold and open defiance to the establisht and inveterate Religions of the World For of all prejudices those of Religion are the strongest and the older they are the deeper root they take And therefore when its Enemies could plead the antiquity of many hundred years against it it could not but be a very difficult task to perswade them out of such an ancient Prescription It s meer Novelty was an Objection of no small force but when a new and upstart Religion would not be content with its own Authority but must disgrace all the settled Religions in the World and refuse its own settlement unless they may be utterly extirpated this could not but seem too sawcy a demand especially to Princes and great Men to require of them not onely
vanity of their Principles before we can hope to work them to any effectual Reformation And though I think it an imprudent thing to be disputing the Fundamentals of Religion to the common People if it could be avoided because it commonly rather weakens than confirms their Faith and makes them think that to be onely problematical which before they supposed to be unquestionable yet when they have raised the dispute among themselves and have by chance for they never judge of any thing upon due enquiry because they never make it run away with the wrong side of the Controversie they are to be reduced by better Information And that is the design of this following Treatise to demonstrate to them these two great fundamental Truths viz. The evident obligation of the Law of Nature and the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion which alone will scatter away all their little Principles and pretences of Scepticism and Infidelity and if it do not work so effectually upon them as to reduce them to a right sense yet it will at least destroy the rudeness and confidence of their Impiety and force them to be more decent and modest in their Wickedness by letting them see that what they supposed an high attainment in wisedom was the effect of extream ignorance and meer want of enquiry for there is nothing in the World so lamentably dull and silly as the Atheistical Philosophy And now when we have spoil'd their pedantry that was the onely thing that spoil'd them we have half reduced them by letting them see that it is not for them to be philosophising And that when all is done it would turn to a much better account as to their own design if instead of bewildring their fancies in the Leviathan they would learn the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar Tongue For after all their labour after philosophick knacks and curiosities they are certain to loose their vanity and instead of being admired for their learning as they design onely make themselves despised for their conceited folly An Ass will never become a Lion's Skin nor a Mechanick a Philosopher's Cloak And yet I must confess that I have scarce any hopes of reclaiming such of the multitude as are already tainted with this plague For I know by too much experience that there is but one thing in the World more inflexible than Ignorance steel'd and hardned with Wickedness And therefore my onely design is to step in between the dead and the living the infected and the sound and if it be possible to give some stop to the contagion or at least to keep the Disease from descending to Posterity For as for this unhappy Age it is so universally overspread with Vice and Wickedness that it is not reasonable to expect that the Principles of Vertue and Religion should ever find any just entertainment in it But certainly undebauched Posterity will judge more impartially and such I know is the power of Truth upon the minds of Men that if it can but gain Audience it will at last prevail upon all that are disengaged from Prejudice and disdain not to attend to the results of sober Reason And that is the aim of this ensuing Discourse that whenever Vertue shall begin to lift up its head and recover its right I may give some little assistance to its Restauration And both as a Clergyman do something towards promoting the Happiness of the Souls of Men and as an Englishman towards recovering the ancient Reputation of my native Country for Civility Justice and Integrity As for the Law of Nature which is the Argument of the First Part I must confess there has been much talk in the World about it but very little said The Civilians Canonists and School-men have attempted little more than to define it and in that they have fail'd too Even Grotius himself has so far mistaken it as to suppose it obligatory without the supposition of a Deity Puffendorf has indeed of late hapned upon its right definition in general but has neither described its particular Branches nor demonstrated any of the grounds and reasons of its Obligation And the Authour of the Book De Principiis Justi Decori once or twice started the right notion of it but quite lost it in the chace by quitting his own scent to follow Mr. Hobbs's cry Among the Ancients both Greeks and Romans I find as little perform'd seldom any thing more than meer Definitions and positive Assertions and at most some witty and fancifull reasonings in the Platonick Writers What was done by Tully in his Books De Republicâ where as he informs us in his Book De Legibus it was copiously treated of is not now to be known that excellent Treatise which himself valued much above all his other Writings being unfortunately perisht but by those fragments that are remaining of it I am apt to think that this Loss has been competently compensated by the learned and judicious Treatise of our Country-man Dr. Cumberland upon this Argument who has not onely hit upon the right Notion of the Law of Nature but has in a method heretofore proper onely to mathematicks demonstrated its obligation But his Discourse being every where interwoven with mathematical logical metaphysical and physiological terms and notions I meet with very few that have been able to master its sense and therefore I have taken his main notion alone stript of all accessional Ornaments of Learning and prosecuted the demonstration of it my own way in a familiar style and an easie method As for the proof of the whole matter it depends upon the supposition of an Authour of Nature for unless that be antecedently granted we cannot so much as proceed to enquire after the Law of Nature Because if he never contrived the Nature of Things it is evidently in vain to search for his design in the Contrivance And herein I have a very considerable Advantage of the learned Authour that I follow for he beginning at the Dispute of the Law of Nature was forced to presume upon the Supposition of its Authour which without any Presumption I demand and challenge For having first proved all those physical Ends and Designs that he has discover'd of his Providence in all parts of Nature if after that any moral Ends and Designs discover themselves in the same things it cannot be doubted but that they are the effects of the same Providence and that plainly connects the proof of one with the demonstration of the other Now as to the former I have run through all parts of Nature and all sects of Philosophers and shewn that no one thing in the World could ever have been as it is but by the ordering of Providence and that all their several Attempts to give any other account of the Nature of Things are intolerably childish and beyond all things ridiculous And this may be presumed without any breach of modesty because Nature it self is its own demonstration
the World both of the Sufficiency and Sincerity of the Witnesses Of their Sufficiency in that they were Eye-witnesses of his Miracles and Companions of his Conversation and were themselves sufficiently suspicious and incredulous and refused to be convinced till their distrustfull Minds were overborn by evidence of Fact Of their Sincerity not onely from the agreement of so great a number of honest and upright Men in the same Report but from their readiness to seal the truth of their Testimony with their Bloud And what greater Assurances was it possible for them to have of the truth of their Testimony than to be Eye-witnesses of what they reported And what greater Evidence is it possible for us to desire of the certainty of their Report than they have given us of their Fidelity So that here to withhold or deny our Assent is first a direct affront to the Faith and Reason of Mankind 't is to give the Lye to all the World and suppose none worthy of any Belief beside our selves For unless we will distrust the truth of all manner of Testimony and believe nothing but by the immediate information of our own Senses there is no remedy but we must of necessity quit all degrees of diffidence and suspicion in this Affair Secondly We must believe that Men endued with the first Principle of humane Nature love of Life should conspire to throw away their Lives onely to gain credit to an impudent Lye Thirdly We must either believe that Men endued with the Principles of common Sense would lose their Lives for a ridiculous Fable or that a company of Fools and Madmen could so easily perswade the World to believe such a wild Story meerly by virtue of their Report Lastly We must believe that Men who made it their onely employment to advance Truth and Vertue in the World should yet dye Martyrs to Falsehood and Villany and that when they layed down their Lives for the sake of Jesus they were not in good earnest Now laying all these things together and onely supposing that there was at that time such a Person as Jesus of Nazareth in the World I will appeal to the common Sense of Mankind whether 't is possible for any History or Report to come attested with more various more pregnant more unquestionable motives of Credibility than his Actions particularly his Resurrection as publisht to the World by his Apostles And thus having considered the evidence of their Testimony as given in by word of Mouth I come in the next place to consider their Testimony as recorded in their Writings and to shew into what wild Absurdities we must again run our selves if we will not believe the truth of the Scripture-history § VII First then We must believe either that the Gospels were written by those Persons whose Names they bear or that they were not If they were then we must believe that the things that they relate of their own knowledge were either true or false If true then we believe the truth of the Christian Faith If false then either for want of sufficient knowledge or sincerity Not for want of knowledge for two of the Evangelists Saint Matthew and Saint John were immediate Disciples and constant Companions of the Person whose History they wrote and so were present at his Works and Miracles and Eye-witnesses of his Resurrection Saint Mark and Saint Luke if they were not Disciples during our Saviour's abode upon the Earth they were intimate Associates with the chief Apostles that were So that if they wrote not from their own immediate knowledge yet however they wrote from the information of Eye-witnesses And as for the Acts of the Apostles written by Saint Luke Saint Luke himself was interested in the greatest part of if not all the History And so for the Epistles pretended to be written by the Apostles either they were or they were not if they were then their case is the same with that of the Gospel's that they had sufficient knowledge of the things they wrote of So plain is it that if those Persons wrote the Books of the New Testament who go for their Authours that we have no ground to suspect the truth and certainty of their Reports for want of sufficient knowledge and information And then as for their sincerity the case of their writing is the same with that of their preaching and so labours under all the foremention'd Difficulties and one more peculiar to it self viz. that when they had been so wicked as to contrive a wilfull Lye and so foolish as to publish it to all the World they should meet with no contradiction in so gross and manifest a Forgery These things were written in a very short time after they were done and therefore if they were false it is not possible that they should escape discovery or obtain any the least belief For example When Saint Luke reports that a Person born lame and known to all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem by his having beg'd daily for many years at the chief Gate of the Temple was cured by Saint Peter onely with invocating the Name of Jesus and that this Miracle was so very well known at Jerusalem that it immediately converted no less than five thousand Persons to the Christian Faith If all this had been a Fable the meer publication of it had provoked thousands of People nay the whole Nation of the Jews and especially the Citizens of Jerusalem to discover the falsehood and it could not but have met with so much Opposition as utterly and for ever to disgrace and destroy it self And so again When Saint Paul tells the Corinthians that our Saviour after his Resurrection was seen not onely by the Apostles and himself but by above five hundred Persons at once most of whom were then surviving If this had been a Lye it had been a very foolish and impudent one and too bold for any Man to vent that was not lost not onely to all modesty but all discretion and if any Man could have been so rash as to venture upon so lewd a falsehood it is impossible that he could ever have escaped the shame of discovery Especially when it was written to baffle some Fanatick Persons who denied that there was any such thing as a Resurrection for as all others would be eager to enquire into the truth of it for the satisfaction of their Curiosity so would those Men especially be concern'd to examine it more strictly if it were possible to confute their Adversary So that it is equally incredible that Saint Paul should be so weak as to vent so great a Lye that might be so easily contradicted and that when he had vented it he should be so lucky as to escape all manner of Contradiction from those who were concern'd to oppose him For if he had been convicted of falsehood in it all the Corinthians must immediately have turn'd back to their Infidelity and therefore when we find the Christian Faith prevailing every where
when they are quoted as such by those Persons that lived next and immediately after them and have passed from the very first Age through all Ages downward with an unquestionable Authority there is no possible account to be given how they should first come by it and then for ever after retain it unless they were for certain the Works of those Men whose names they bear Thus particularly Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Clemens of Rome a Familiar of Saint Paul by Ignatius by Policarp by Papias the Disciples of Saint John not to mention Justin Martyr Athenagoras Irenaeus and all the other Writers of the Age next after the Apostles Now if this be so Then first Either this Gospel was written in the Apostles time or it was not If not how could it be cited by those that were their Contemporaries Secondly The things reported in it were either true or false if true then so is the Gospel too if false then it had destroyed its own credit by publishing known falshoods For though it is easie to forge a Story acted in former times without discovery and contradiction yet to make a Forgery of so wonderfull a transaction as was the History of Jesus of Nazareth so near the time in which it was pretended to have been acted and that without controll or contradiction nay with full credit and undoubted Authority as appears by these Apostolical Mens unanimous Testimony is if any thing in the World absurd and incredible enough to make up another Article of Infidelity Thirdly Either this Book was written by Saint Matthew or it was not If it was then it was the Testimony of an eye Witness that converst with our Saviour both before and after his Resurrection If it was not then how could it be thrust upon him in his own Age and gain so unquestionable an Authority with those Men that conversed either with him or with his Companions And now if we gain the Authority of this one Gospel that alone is a sufficient proof of the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith in that the main Foundations of it are here recorded viz. The Life Death and Resurrection of our Saviour which being believed as they are here recorded are an infallible demonstration of his Divinity The same account I might give of almost all the other Books of the New Testament in that they were received from the beginning as the most unquestionable Records of the Apostles But that were onely to repeat the same Argument so many times over and therefore supposing the same ancient Testimony concerning them as we have concerning Saint Matthew I shall leave the Reader to apply the same Argument that I have urged concerning him Neither do I this onely to avoid needless Repetition but because it has been often done by other hands particularly by Eusebius of old and Huetius of late who have vouched every Book by it self from the Testimony of the earliest Antiquity And therefore as for the truth of the matter of Fact I had rather refer to them than transcribe them though that being supposed the Argument is of the same force in every one as it is in Saint Matthew's Gospel § IX It is true that some few Books were for a good time doubted of as the Epistle to the Hebrews the Second of Saint Peter the Second and Third of Saint John and the Apocalypse But then first Suppose their Authority was still questionable the Christian Faith can subsist very well without them by the remaining Authority of those that were never questioned And though they are very usefull and excellent Discourses yet have they little peculiar in them that is not to be found in the other Apostolical Writings And if we understand the matter aright though they are written by Divine Inspiration yet are they not of the Foundation of the Christian Faith but onely pious Discourses proceeding upon the supposition of it Being written occasionally either to exhort us to an effectual belief of those things that are recorded in the Gospels or to encourage us against Tryals and Persecutions or to allay Schisms and Contentions or to confute Errours and Heresies or to reform Abuses and Corruptions so that though they had never been written the Foundations of our Faith were before firmly laid in the History of our Saviour's Life Doctrine Passion and Resurrection And therefore the Authority of all the rest is at last resolved into that of the historical Books that is the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles which being supposed true they warrant both the Reason and Authority of the Apostolical Epistles that onely deduce those proper and natural Conclusions that flow from their Premises Nay farther 't is not primarily necessary to Christianity to believe that the Books of the New Testament were dictated by an infallible Spirit but it is sufficient that the historical Books are good and authentick Records of the Life of our Saviour and the design of his Errand into the World and that the Writings of the Apostles are pious Discourses consonant with and conducing to the Ends of Christianity The Foundation whereof seems to lie in this one thing that Jesus Christ was sent into the World for the Work he pretended to come about by Divine Commission For God having set several Hypotheses of Providence on work in the World to bring all things to their end and perfection at last design'd this as the most compleat model of all Vertue Goodness and Morality So that if the History of those things which Jesus both did and taught be truly recorded by the Evangelists that is a sufficient evidence of his own Divine Authority But as for his Historians that comes in upon another score in that we know that the Authours of all those Writings were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost but then that we know onely from the Writings themselves and therefore their Truth must be supposed antecedent to their Divine Authority and that being supposed our Saviour's Divine Authority is thereby proved and that being proved that alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Religion But secondly If those few Books were so long debated before they were admitted into the Canon that is an Argument of the great care and caution of the Church in its belief in that it would not lightly receive any Book till it was fully satisfied of its being Authentick and therefore its long doubtfulness and disputation about these Books clears it from all suspicion of rashness and credulity as to those that she always own'd with a full and unanimous Approbation Thirdly The Controversie concerning the disputed Books relates not so much to their Antiquity as their Authour and they are not brought in question because they were not written in the Apostolical Age but because it seemed uncertain by whom they were then written Thus the Epistle to the Hebrews some attribute to Saint Paul some to Saint Luke some to Barnabas some to Clemens but if it
were written by any of them it is not much material so it were written by some of them and that it was so is very evident from Clemens his Epistle who has borrowed divers passages out of it word for word And to the same purpose is the Controversie concerning the Revelations all allowing it to have been of Apostolical Antiquity onely some will have it to have been written by Saint John the Apostle others by Saint Mark sirnamed John others by Saint John call'd the Elder but whosoever it was that wrote it it was written in the Apostolical Age and that is enough Though it is moreover sufficiently attested that Saint John the Apostle was the Authour of it both by the Testimony of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus who lived very near the time of its writing Lastly Those that were at first doubted of were not afterwards rashly admitted into the Canon but were admitted upon carefull enquiry mature deliberation and unexceptionable Testimony For as they were at first own'd by some and disputed by others this became a matter of debate in the Church and that obliged them to make farther enquiry after the evidence of their Authority and by that means the whole Church was at last satisfied of that which at first onely a part of it was able to prove And this might come to pass after this manner the Apostles directed many of their Epistles to particular Churches so that it is possible that some of them might be known to some Churches and not to others who therefore doubting of them put those who asserted them to have been true Apostolical Writings to prove their Assertion and they it seems brought such evident proof of their Tradition as gain'd the consent of the whole Church to their Authority And this probably they did by producing the Originals written under the Apostles own hands and reserved in the Archives of the several Churches For that many such there were Tertullian informs us even in his time and to them refers the Men of his own Age for their full satisfaction § X. And therefore it is but a very slender Witticism of Mr. Hobbs in derogation of the Authority of the holy Scripture when he has acknowledg'd that the Writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an Age after Christ's Ascension and had all of them seen our Saviour or been his Disciples except Saint Paul and Saint Luke and consequently that whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the Apostles yet were they made canonical Scripture onely by the Authority of the Church that is the Council of Laodicea which first collected the Canon of the Scriptures and recommended them to us as the Writings of those Apostles and Disciples under whose Names they go hereby wittily intimating or rather broadly asserting that these Writings were not canonical Scripture till that Council that is till the year 364. But first Supposing that it is not the Authour but the Authority of the Church that makes a Book Canonical then were the Books of the New Testament made so long before the Council of Laodicea in that we find them enumerated in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compil'd by Clement as was vulgarly supposed yet were they the Decrees of Councils in the first and second Ages succeeding the Apostles So that upon this account they were stamp't Canonical almost as soon as they were written Secondly The Testimony of the Church neither is nor can be any more than a proof or an argument of the Original and Divine Authority of the canonical Books as any other Testimony is or may be Thus when we cite Clement of Rome Ignatius Policarp Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus yes and Celsus himself that lived either in or near the Apostles times as giving in Testimony to their Writings no Man can without very wilfull impertinence thence infer that it is they that give the Books their Divine Authority when it is so evident that they are onely made use of as competent Witnesses to attest that they were no forged Writings but were pen'd by those very Persons under whose Names they go and if they are then they themselves make good their own Authority For Authority is nothing else but the right or power of binding our Assent which unless it be done by the Authour himself it is impossible to be done by any other and all the Councils in the World can never give Divine Authority to any Book if it had it not before All their Office is to bear testimony to their Authenticalness and it is no inconsiderable Evidence of it when so many grave and learned Men of the first Ages of Christianity upon mature deliberation of the whole matter in Council declare that upon the strictest enquiry they are fully satisfied that those Books were written by those very Authours whose Names they bear But from hence to infer as the Leviathan does that their canonical Authority that is their being the Law of God depends entirely upon the Decree of the Church as if it could give or take it away at pleasure onely becomes Mr. Hobbs's Logick and Modesty and them it becomes equally for it is very hard to determine whether the Conclusion be more impudent or more impertinent § XI And now beside this direct demonstrative proof of the Apostolical Antiquity and Authority of the holy Scriptures which alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Institution there is another more remote way of proving the truth of the History insisted upon by learned Men that is by the concurrent Testimony of foreign Writers Jews or Heathens who lived in or about the same time but this Evidence is so weak in comparison of that which I have already produced that I shall not prosecute it as an Argument in my Cause but rather consider it as an Objection against it viz. That if the History of our Saviour were so known and notorious as is pretended how comes it to pass that so little notice is taken of it by any Authours but onely such as were his own Disciples There were many other excellent Writers especially Historians about that time so that if his Actions had been so great and remarkable as his Disciples tell us they were it is scarce credible that they should pass him over with so slender a regard and scarce any mention of him In answer to this I shall in the sequel of this Discourse give a satisfactory and rational account of the Infidelity both of Jews and Heathens notwithstanding Christianity brought along with it all that Evidence that we pretend it did But beside this I shall here shew that the best Writers of that time concur with and so confirm the main strokes of our Saviour's History and by consequence all the rest that is interwoven with them especially when what they write is purely to deliver matter of Fact without any design to serve the cause of Christianity For when all things
very easie and though there might be an hundred other ways of solving it that we cannot know at this distance yet I could not lightly pass it over because it is the onely material difference between Josephus and the Holy Scriptures For though he passes by some remarkable things that are there recorded yet in all other cases where he happens upon the same thing he makes the same Narration For the onely place beside in which he may seem to differ is in the Death of Herod Agrippa which he says hapned at the appearance of an Owl but Saint Luke by the invisible stroke of an Angel And that an Owl might then by chance appear is possible but that the meer sight of it should affect him after such a wonderfull manner is not credible notwithstanding a German Soothsayer had foretold that it should be the certain Omen of his Death That indeed might not a little disturb his Fancy but it could not naturally in a moment putrifie his Bowels into worms and rottenness But it is too manifest that Josephus through the whole course of his History too much endeavour'd to imitate the Greek and Roman Historians whose constant custom it was to ascribe all extraordinary Calamities to some portentous Omen Otherwise it is not conceivable that so strange and unheard of a misery should all on a suddain seise upon a Man in the height of all his Glory and in the very act of so great a Blasphemy without some miraculous and invisible Power So that there is scarce a greater Instance upon Record of an immediate Divine Infliction than in the miserable Death of this prophane Man And thus having cleared the Parallelism between Josephus and the Evangelists as to the most material passages of the Histories of their own times I now proceed to that particular passage of his concerning our blessed Saviour which is so full a Testimony of the Truth of the Gospel History that our learned Criticks think it too great for a Jew to give and for that reason principally suppose it to have been soisted into him in after times § XIII But upon what just grounds this surmise is built let us now consider and first let us set down the passage it self which is to this purport At this time lived Jesus a wise Man if yet it be lawfull to call him a Man for he wrought many wonderfull Works and instructed such as were willing to entertain the Truth and drew after him great numbers both of Jews and Gentiles This was Christ who being accused by the Princes of our Nation before Pilate and afterwards condemn'd to the Cross by him yet did not those who followed him from the beginning cease to love him for the ignominy of his Death For he appear'd unto them the third day after as the Divine Prophets had foretold the same and divers other wonderfull things of him and to this day the race of Christians as they are call'd after his name continue And now here first It is excellently observed by Huetius that it is very strange that so diligent a Writer as Josephus should never make the least mention of the History of so famous a Person as Jesus of Nazareth for if he has not done it here he has done it no where And yet whatever he was it is certain that under the Government of Pontius Pilate there was such a Man that pretended to be the Messias that drew great numbers of Disciples after him that instituted a new Sect of Religion that occasion'd great commotions in Judaea that was reported to have taught such peculiar Doctrines and to have done so many and so great Miracles And now after all this how is it credible that Josephus should never hear of so remarkable a Person or not think him worthy so much as to be taken notice of in his History For whatever Opinion he had of him whether good or bad it is not to be supposed that he could wholly omit to mention him in the History of that time especially when he has not omitted any of the false Pretenders to the Messiahship so that though he had thought him an Impostor he could not have wholly baulk't some mention of his History Nay when he gives so exact a description of John the Baptist and of Saint James whom to make the better known he describes by being the Brother of Jesus who is call'd the Christ how is it possible that he should never give any account of Christ himself So that how much soever it may appear incredible that Josephus should make any honourable mention of him it is much more so that he should make none at all And now when after this we come to weigh the Objections against this Testimony that have made so much noise and talk of late in the World they are so very trifling as scarce to deserve I am sure not to need any Answer For beside some Grammatical Observations in which the Criticks exercise an arbitrary Power and from which they make what determinations they please some for the Affirmative and some for the Negative the whole force of the Objection is resolved into this one Principle that Josephus in this Paragraph spoke his own sense and wrote not as an Historian but as a Confessour whereas it is evident from his own story that he was a Man of no very settled Principles according to the humour of the Age and of the Place that he lived in and so was no otherway concern'd in any Controversie than barely to deliver matter of Fact So that whereas he seems to assert that Jesus was the Christ they might as rationally conclude that Pontius Pilate believed him to be so too when he crucified him because he put this Title upon his Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews and when he was solicited by the chief Priests not to write the King of the Jews but that he said I am the King of the Jews he would not yield to their importunity but answer'd them peremptorily What I have written I have written From hence I say our learned Criticks might after their rate of drawing conclusions infer that Pontius Pilate seriously believed him to be the King of the Jews that is the Messias Whereas it is evident in it self that he onely used the common form of speech when he gave him that Title which he pretended to And of the same nature is that expression of Josephus when he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the Christ that is this was he that was call'd the Christ a Title so appropriated to him in common speech that it was familiarly given to him by his greatest Enemies And therefore we do not make use of this Testimony of Josephus as if we design'd to gain any credit or authority from his Opinion but onely to prove from it that there was such a transaction then on foot and that there was a party of Men in the World at that time who attested the truth of all
up both in the Records of that City and the Syrian Tongue to which Language the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers were altogether strangers and if they had not yet they might easily be ignorant of so remote a Register But that there were such Records we have all the Faith of Eusebius at stake who positively vouches it that he found them enrolled in the publick Registry of Edessa and faithfully translated them out of the Syrian into the Greek Tongue Not to mention Saint Ephraem who lived before the time of Saint Austin and was a Deacon in the City of Edessa who makes the same honourable mention of these Epistles with Eusebius though that is a pregnant Testimony by it self but much more so from its exact agreement with Eusebius his Relation but passing by that and much Aug. Ep. 263. more the Epistle of Darius to Saint Austin and of Theodorus Studita to Pope Paschal because it is possible they might rely wholly upon the Authority of Eusebius I shall lay the whole stress of the Testimony upon him alone whom we cannot suppose guilty of such a gross and meer forgery as to have framed the whole story onely out of his own Brain I will grant that he may sometimes seem partial and favourable to his own cause and be apt to make more of a Testimony than the Testimony it self will bear but that he should forge and falsie a publick Record and that in a matter of this weighty nature he has given us no reason to entertain so hard and unkind a suspicion of him For he is a stranger to Eusebius that knows him not to be as nice and curious in examining the credit of his Authorities as any the most critical Authours whatsoever and for this reason he has rejected many excellent passages that might have been very serviceable to his Cause meerly because of their doubtfull Antiquity allowing nothing as Authentick that he cannot vouch by the Testimony of ancient and contemporary Writers Now that such a Man should be guilty of such a gross and groundless Lye as this is past the ill-nature of Mankind to suspect Nay farther though some of our late Masters of Censure are very forward to observe the slips and mistakes of this great Man and charge them smartly upon him as if done out of meer design yet the whole matter being impartially weighed we have more reason to impute them to haste and inadvertency For though sometimes he may seem to emprove Testimonies yet does he as often lessen them which plainly shews that he trusted too much to his memory But still he is ever in the right as to the main of the Story and fails onely in circumstances and that chiefly of Chronology by confounding sometimes one Story with another but otherwise he tells no false Stories and onely makes some mistakes of memory upon true ones and as many of them to the disadvantage as to the advantage of his Cause as might be shewn if it were worth the while by comparing all particulars But for the present this is sufficiently exemplified in the very last passage that we insisted upon viz. The Testimony of Pilate concerning our Saviour in which the chief thing as it is set down by Tertullian is our Saviour's Miracles and yet it is left out by Eusebius when he transcribes the rest of the Testimony And though it is possible that he might follow the Greek Translatour of Tertullian yet however we see he is as easily drawn into a lessening as a magnifying mistake and it is much more likely that Eusebius should through haste clip the Translation than that the Translatour should clip the Original for he onely consulted the passage occasionally and so might in his hasty transcribing overlook a part of it but for the other who made that Translation his particular business it was not easie to overlook so material a passage In short Whatsoever faults Eusebius may be guilty of no Man can suspect him of meer Forgery without the forfeiture of his Ingenuity Neither in the last place is the date of the Record an inconsiderable circumstance to prove the Record it self for Eusebius tells us that at the bottom of it was subscribed These things were done the 340 th year Which though it has heretofore puzled learned Men is excellently clear'd by the Epocha of the Edessean Computation who began their Account from the first year of the 117 th Olympiad when Seleucus began his Reign in Asia now from that to the 202 d. Olympiad in which year being the 15 th of Tiberius our Saviour suffer'd is just 340. years So that Thaddaeus was dispatched to Edessa in the very same year in which our Saviour arose from the dead that great work it seems being once over he would no longer delay the good King's request These are all the foreign Testimonies that I think convenient to represent in this place though many more I shall be forced to observe when I come to give an account how it comes to pass that though our Saviour did those Miracles that are recorded of him and though there were all that evidence given of them that we pretend there was yet so great a part of the Men of that Age both Jews and Gentiles should live and dye in Infidelity § XVII Having hitherto demonstrated the impossibility of the falshood of the Apostles Testimony concerning the truth of Christianity from its contradiction to the first Instincts of humane Nature to all the principles of common Prudence and to their own design it self and from the undoubted certainty of their Records and from the concurrent Testimony of foreign Writers I now proceed to the next part of the Argument that supposing the Apostles Evangelists and first Disciples of Christ would have endeavour'd to impose upon the World with a palpable and unprofitable Lye against all the foremention'd contradictions to Nature to Sense and to Themselves to demonstrate the impossibility that they could ever have prevailed so effectually and so speedily as they did upon the Faith of Mankind And as many thousand Absurdities as there were in the former Supposition there are so many ten thousands in this for the inequality of the number of the Persons was not less the first Preachers of the Gospel being very sew in comparison of the vast multitudes of their first Converts And yet if Christianity were false all these must be guilty not onely of all that folly that we have represented in the case of the Apostles but much more in that they did not onely suffer themselves wilfully to be deceived into the belief of the strange Story of Jesus without sufficient evidence of its truth for if it had sufficient evidence then it was no Imposture if it had not then all that profest their belief of it were wilfully deceived i. e. They pretended to believe that to be a Divine Revelation though themselves knew that they had no sufficient ground or motive for so strange a belief
But beside this grand Absurdity of wilfully deceiving themselves to no purpose nay against all the foremention'd inconveniences they must be so far beside themselves that when they had abused themselves with a proofless Tale they should join their zcal to the first Impostors for propagating the Cheat to the manifest ruine of their Fortunes and hazard of their Lives and that such vast numbers of them should with such unheard of courage and constancy endure the most exquisite Pains and suffer all kinds of Death either without ever inquiring into the truth of the matter of Fact for which they suffer'd or suffering for it after that rate without any satisfactory Evidence of it Here in short we must believe that such a Doctrine as Christianity published in such a manner as it was should find such an universal entertainment in so short a time without any the least rational proof or evidence of its Divine Authority A Doctrine the truth whereof depended entirely upon a matter of Fact so that if it were false it could not then have escaped confutation and unless it were undoubtedly true could never have obtain'd any belief A Doctrine so unkind to the vicious customs and practices of the Age so contrary to the prejudices of Men and the establisht Religions of the World so unpleasing to Flesh and Bloud so hated and so full of danger That when this Doctrine was published by such Persons Men of mean Education void of Graft or Learning or Eloquence they should without any other help than barely telling a false Story perswade such vast numbers of Men to forsake the Religions in which they were educated and without any hope of profit nay with a certain prospect of all the miseries of Life yes and Death it self to embrace this new this despised this hated this persecuted Forgery Lastly That great numbers both of the most learned and wisest Men that lived in the Ages next and immediately after it should after the strictest enquiry concerning the truth of these things not onely suffer themselves to be imposed upon by so late and palpable a Fiction but hazard nay loose their Lives and Fortunes in its defence And yet this was the case of the primitive Converts as I come now to demonstrate by a review of particulars § XVIII Now as for the reality of the matter of Fact the speedy entertainment of Christianity in all parts of the World that is a thing so unanimously attested by all Writers that it is rather to be supposed than proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gospel of our Saviour like the Sun enlightned all the World at once and infinite multitudes of People both from Cities and Villages were by the Apostles preaching brought into the Church like Corn crowded into a Granary And they who had been long enslaved to the Superstition and Idolatry of their Ancestours were set at liberty by the preaching and miracles of the Disciples of Christ and renouncing that rout of false Gods that the merciless Daemons had introduced into the heathen World return'd to the worship of the onely one true God the great Creatour of all things So when Celsus objects the novelty of Christianity Origen answers that there lyes the wonder that in so short a time a new Doctrine should so strangely prevail over all the World conquer both Greeks and Barbarians the learned and unlearned all ranks and professions of Men and possess them with so firm a belief of its Divine Authority as to be ready to seal their Faith with their Bloud a thing that was never done for any Opinion in the World before And so Justin Martyr in his Conference with Trypho the Jew affirms that there is no part of Mankind Greeks or Barbarians nay not those wild and uncivilized People that were wont to live without Houses and Cities amongst whom Prayers and Supplications were not made to the Father and Creatour of all things in the name of the crucified Jesus It is an excellent passage of Clemens Alexandrinus to the same purpose at the end of his Sixth Book of Collections The Philosophers says he pleased the Greeks alone neither did every one please all Plato followed Socrates Xenocrates Plato Theophrastus Aristotle Cleanthes Zeno every Master had his own particular School and Scholars but our great Master's Philosophy was not confin'd as theirs was to their own Country within Judaea alone but spread it self over all parts of the habitable World and was entertain'd by whole Cities and Nations both of Greeks and Barbarians it bore away whole Families and Villages and no single Person could resist its force that would but give himself leave to hear its Wisedom insomuch that it gain'd over many of the Philosophers themselves And if any Magistrate did any where suppress the Grecian Philosophy it soon vanisht whereas our Institution from the first publishing of it has been every where persecuted by Kings and Emperours and Tyrants by Presects of Provinces by Commanders of Armies and which is more furious then all the rest by the Multitude These have join'd all their power and their malice utterly to extirpate our Religion but still it flourishes more and more and does not wither away as it must have done had it been a meer humane Invention but it stands invincible as the power of God that nothing can restrain or alter and this notwithstanding that it was foretold by the Founder of it that all its Followers must suffer Persecution And Tertullian assures the Senate of Rome that the Christians had fill'd all Places and all Offices that they were of strength enough to master the Roman Empire nay that so great were their numbers that if they would but agree to retire out of it the World would stand amazed at its own solitude And in his Book against the Jews he tells them that it enlarged its conquests beyond those of the Roman Empire that it subdued those places that were inaccessible to their Armies and reckons up multitudes of People from one end of the habitable World to the other that were converted to the Faith of the crucified Jesus And in the same manner does Arnobius challenge the unbelieving World Methinks says he this should not a little shock your unbelief to see the Authority of this despised name to prevail in all places in so short a time that no Nation is so utterly barbarous and lost to all civility whose manners have not been reform'd and polisht by this gentle Institution nay more than this it has master'd the great Wits the Oratours Criticks Lawyers Physicians and Philosophers and not onely so but all its Disciples are so serious and sincere in their profession that they will forgo all advantages of Life even Life it self rather than forsake the cross So that notwithstanding all your Laws and Interdicts your Threatnings and Executions your Hangmen and Dragg hooks and all your innumerable ways of torture they grow not onely more numerous but more
this way of conveyance is insisted upon by the Ancients themselves in justification of the Catholick Truth both against Hereticks and Insidels Thus the Apostolical Tradition says Irenaeus is spread all the World over and this every Man that pleases may find in every Church and we are able to reckon up all those that were appointed by the Apostles to be their Successours and Bishops in the Churches of Christ down to our own time But because it would be too tedious in such a Discourse as this to enumerate the Succession of all Churches I shall onely instance in those great ancient and famous Churches that were founded at Rome by those two glorious Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul hereby to shew the Tradition of that Faith that was preached by the Apostles to have been safely conveyed by the Succession of Bishops down to our own time And I choose to exemplifie this thing in this Church rather than any other because of its great preheminence and resort from all parts of the World upon which account its Tradition must needs be more publick and better known The blessed Apostles therefore having laid the Foundations of the Church delivered the oversight of it to Linus of whom Saint Paul makes mention in his Epistle to Timothy to him succeeds Anacletus then Clemens who familiarly conversed with the Apostles and had their Preaching still sounding in his Ears and their Tradition before his Eyes In whose time there hapned a great Schism in the Church of Corinth to allay which the Church of Rome directed an excellent Epistle to them in which she exhorts them to Peace and Unity rubs up their memory of the primitive Faith and sets before them the fresh Tradition of the Apostles themselves To him succeeds Evaristus to Evaristus Alexander and then Sixtus Telesphorus Higinus Pius Anicetus Soter and now Eleutherius in the twelfth place from the Apostles This is a clear and an accurate account of the Apostolical Succession of that Church so that it is impossible to understand how there should ever have been a Bishop in it unless we begin the Succession from the Apostles and then this is an undeniable proof of the certainty of their Tradition as in all other places so particularly in that great and populous City And this very Argument Epiphanius insists upon against the Carpocratians And let no Man wonder says he that I so accurately and carefully set down every single Person in the Succession because hereby the undoubted truth that has been from the beginning will evidently appear And the truth is granting the Succession it would be a pretty hard task to avoid the Tradition and yet against that there lies onely one poor exception viz. That some ancient Writers place Clement in the first place who here stands in the third but that to pass by many other conjectures and especially a very probable one of Epiphanius is clear'd by one that is more than probable and founded upon the Authority of the Ancients themselves that there were at first two Churches at Rome one of the Circumcision over which Saint Peter presided another of the Uncircumcision founded and govern'd by Saint Paul who as we reade in the last Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles left the obstinate Jews to preach to the Gentiles neither is this conjecture a little confirm'd by this very passage of Irenaeus who speaks not of the Church of Rome as a single Church but as two distinct and those eminent Churches from the beginning so that though Clement were immediate Successour in one of them yet he might be the third in the other in that surviving Linus and Cletus and the difference between Jew and Gentile being in a great measure worn away both Churches might naturally unite into one Body under his Jurisdiction Others object to mudd the succession that some Writers place both Cletus and Anacletus before Clemens as if they were distinct Persons But this is a mistake of later Writers who sometimes finding these different names in the Copies of the ancient Books concluded them different Persons but herein they go against the Authority of all the ancient Writers themselves and particularly of Eusebius whose account ought to be valued beyond all others because he collected the succession of Bishops out of the Archives and Diptychs of the Churches themselves to which he particularly refers in the succession of the Church of Jerusalem So that here is no real difficulty or labyrinth as to the succession and all that seems to be is onely occasion'd by an easie and obvious mistake of some later Writers against the more ancient and unquestionable Authority After the same manner does Tertullian triumph over the Hereticks by challenging them to prescribe for their Opinions from the beginning as the Catholicks were able to doe for theirs The truth says he will appear from its Antiquity that is true and delivered by the Lord himself that we find most ancient but that is foreign and false that was brought in afterwards and if they shall dare to pretend to the Apostolical Age let them produce the Originals of the Churches let them describe the succession of their Bishops and so derive it from the beginning as that the first Bishop should have succeeded to some Apostle or some Apostolical Man that conversed with the Apostles For in this way it is that the Apostolical Churches prove their Original as the Church of Smyrna will produce Policarp placed there by Saint John the Church of Rome Clement ordain'd by Saint Peter and so for all other Churches they shew you the Men that were settled in their Episcopal Office by the Apostles themselves and conveyed down their Doctrine to Posterity And again this is the onely Testimony of the truth its possession from the beginning and for this you that are concern'd to enquire more diligently after your Salvation may travel over the Apostolical Churches where the very seats in which the Apostles presided are still remaining where their own authentick Letters are still extant Do you live in or near to Achaia go to Corinth In Macedonia to Philippi or Thessalonica In Asia to Ephesus In Italy to Rome And this certainly as it was sufficient to prescribe to all the Innovations of the Hereticks so was it to demonstrate the undoubted truth and certainty of the Christian Religion when it was so clearly and so uninterruptedly deliver'd down from the first Founders of it And the truth is the succession of Bishops in the principal Churches was so accurately recorded by the Ancients that it had never been so much as call'd in question had not some Men been forced to it onely to justifie themselves in their departing from it it having been the custom of all but especially the most famous Churches to keep an exact Register of the Names and the Deaths of their Bishops which they call'd Diptychs and though it is objected that these Records are now lost and so are
same time and laid down their Lives out of that undoubted assurance they had of its truth and certainty We may now with much more reason doubt of what was done to his late Majesty in January 1648. than they could at that time of the Testimony of the Apostles concerning the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Neither did the current of this Tradition stop here in the Corinthian Church but as it came down from the first Witnesses so it descended in the same chanel to after-times for as the Apostolical Writings are own'd by this Epistle so is this Epistle by those who could not but be certain of its Authority especially Dionysius Bishop of that Church to whom it was written for as Saint Clement's Epistle was written not long after the time of the Apostles probably in the Reign of Domitian so was that of Dionysius written not at a greater distance from Saint Clemens for he flourished in the time of M. Aurelius and had full assurance of its being authentick from its having been constantly read in the Corinthian Church So that the Tradition of the Apostles Testimony was as certain in that Church in the time of that Emperour who began his Reign about the year 161. as it was in their own time so that if the Corinthians who lived in the time of Dionisius had been contemporary to the Apostles themselves they could not have had a more satisfactory and unquestionable information of the truth of those things that they preached than was given them from so clear and uninterrupted a Tradition for that being so entirely free from all manner of doubt and suspicion the distance of time made no alteration as to the certainty of the thing § XXX To the Testimony of this Apostolical Man we may joyn that of Ignatius Policarp Papias and Quadratus as having all conversed with the followers and familiars of our Saviour And first as for Ignatius he was educated under the Apostles themselves and by them constituted Bishop of the great City of Antioch where he sate many years and govern'd his charge with extraordinary zeal and prudence and at last with infinite courage and alacrity suffer'd Martyrdom for the Testimony of his Faith There have been great Controversies of late in the Christian World concerning his Epistles though with how little reason on their side that oppose them I have accounted elsewhere and though I shall by and by make use of their Authority and make it good too yet our present Argument is not concern'd in that dispute for whether these Epistles that at this time pass under his name be genuine or counterfeit it is certain that there was such a Man and that he wrote such Epistles and if so then he is another competent Witness of the truth of the Apostolical Testimony and his great sense of Immortality and earnest desire of Martyrdom shew his great assurance of our Saviour's Resurrection upon which they were founded so that he is another undoubted Witness of the Apostolical Tradition viz. That the Christian Faith descended from the Apostles and that they gave that proof of their Testimony that is recorded of them in the holy Scriptures And by his Testimony of the truth of all that Christianity pretends to is the Tradition of the Apostles connected with the certain History of after-times so as to leave no dark and unknown Interval wherein the Story pretended to have been formerly acted by the Apostles might have been first obtruded upon the World but on the contrary to make it undeniably evident that there could never have been any such Story had it not first descended from the Apostles But though this be enough to my purpose for attesting the truth of the Apostolical History by such a near and immediate Witness to make the Tradition of the Church certain and uninterrupted yet I will not wave that advantage that I have from this glorious Martyr's Epistles because they breathe so much the genuine spirit of the ancient Christianity especially as to the undoubted assurance of a future Immortality which shews what mighty satisfaction they had of the reality of the thing that they so firmly believed and so vehemently desired And as for the Epistles themselves they are so strongly and unanimously attested by the Records of the ancient Church that they had never been so much as question'd but for their resolute Opposition to some Mens Prejudices for they being resolved in their own Innovation of Church-government contrary to that of the Apostolical and primitive Constitution which these Epistles so zealously assert and that as establisht by the command of God and thereby made necessary to the peace of the Christian Church they had no way left but stubbornly I ought to have said impudently to reject their Authority But alas that is so admirably vouched as if the Providence of God had purposely design'd to secure their credit for ever And particularly in the first place by his Friend Policarp who sent a Copy of them to the Church of Philippi with a Letter of his own now Policarp's Epistle was never question'd nay it was for some hundred years after publickly read in the Churches of Asia how then is it possible to avoid so clear and certain a Testimony as this they have no other way but onely by saying that this particular passage was foisted in without any shadow of ground for the surmise nay contrary to the common sense of Mankind that an Epistle so universally known to the learned and the unlearned should be so easily corrupted and the corruption never taken notice of and when this counterfeit passage was thrust into it contrary to the faith of all the publick Books it should pass down uncontroul'd and unquestion'd to all after-ages Nay farther if it were forged it must have been before the time of Eusebius who gives an account of it and believes it genuine and yet himself affirms that it was at his time publickly read in Churches as Saint Jerome afterwards that it was in his now it is a very probable thing that Eusebius would be imposed upon by one private Copy contrary to the faith of all the publick Books or that he should impose the mistake upon all that followed him when the same Books were preserved in the same publick manner till the time of Saint Jerome But beside this they have another shift altogether as groundless and not less bold viz. That it is true that there had been such Epistles of Ignatius that Policarp speaks of but that a little before Eusebius his time the true ones were lost and a counterfeit Copy put upon the World which as it is nothing but meer conjecture for the sake of a desperate cause and void of all pretence of probability so it is incredible in it self and not possible in the course of humane Affairs that such a famous Writing of such an ancient and apostolical Bishop of such an eminent and glorious Martyr written at such a time at the
little agreement among themselves concerning the manner of the preparatory Fast before Easter and yet this variety being of long standing among them no Man thought himself obliged to impose his own particular conceit upon others in such an indifferent thing and last of all minds him of the prudence and moderation of his Predecessours especially Policarp and Anicetus who did not so much as go about to perswade one another to change the ancient custom of their Church And the effect of these Epistles from all places especially of this of Irenaeus probably was this that they diverted Victor from pursuing his design For we do not find that he ever actually excommunicated the Asian Churches but onely that he threatned it But whether he did or did not it is a worthy piece of ingenuity to charge the folly of one furious and intemperate Man upon the whole Church and that in spite of their own protestation against it And yet this is all the grossness and folly wherewith our Innovatours have made so much noise against them And thus having removed this poor Objection which I could not avoid because it has of late appear'd among us with so much huff and confidence I proceed to the remaining Witnesses of our primitive Tradition And here I cannot pass by Papias for though he were a Person of no great Learning or Judgment yet he was a Man of clear Honesty and Simplicity and living near the time of the Apostles themselves did not search after their Story in Books but made it his particular business to enquire of their familiar acquaintance after their Sayings and Customs If any came in my way says he that was a follower of the Apostles forthwith I enquired of him after the Sayings of the Ancients what Andrew what Peter what Philip what Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lords Disciples what Ariston and John the Elder distinguisht from John the Evangelist and out of the Catalogue of the Apostles Disciples of the Lord were wont to say for I did not think I could profit my self more by reading their Books than by the more lively report of those Persons who are still alive and heard their discourses This is a peculiar sort of Testimony given in to a matter of Fact by a Man plain and simple and yet curious and inquisitive who inform'd himself of the truth of the things so lately transacted not onely by reading the Narratives that were written of them but from the more lively information of such who received it from Eye-witnesses I will easily grant that he was as Eusebius describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Person of a small Judgment and by consequence of little Authority as to his Opinion especially of the Millennium of which yet himself was not the first Authour but was betrayed into it by the Tradition of the Jews who generally believed that their Messias should reign a thousand years upon Earth in all manner of greatness and glory and therefore it was no wonder if those who were converted from Judaism to Christianity brought this Opinion along with them onely understanding the Jews more gross and carnal Notion in a more refined and spiritual sense and this was the dispute in those early days against the Jewish Hereticks particularly Cerinthus who believed of our Saviour as they had of the Messias that they expected that he should come once more upon Earth and reign at Jerusalem in all manner of pomp and grandeur but be that as it will Papias was ever thought of as a Man of a downright and untainted Integrity and had both the advantage of conversing with those that conversed with the Apostles and the curiosity of recording all the Traditions which they delivered to him by word of mouth and lastly was satisfied in that way of information of the truth of all those things that were registred concerning Jesus and his Apostles To him ought to be ranked Quadratus who wrote an Apologetick to the Emperour Adrian in which he positively avers that many of the Persons cured by our Lord of their Diseases were alive in his time and Aristides a Christian Philosopher at Athens who at the same time presented a learned and eloquent Apology to the same Emperour in behalf of the same cause § XXXII This is the first file of Witnesses next and immediately after the Apostles though I might have reckoned the following rank into the same Catalogue because they are twisted with them as they are with one another for as these that I have already mentioned are not all precisely of the same Age yet being of Antiquity enough to be competent Witnesses of the Tradition of the Apostles may be join'd together into one complicated Testimony of it so their next Successours followed them by the same degrees as they followed one another for Succession is not conveyed down like a Chain by certain Links but like a Cord by the same continued interweaving every part being some part of the part above it And though the Ages of the Church are distinguisht by Centuries yet the Lives of Men are not and the beginning of the next series lived with some of the former as they lived with the first that lived with the Apostles so that there is no possibility of making an Interruption any where between the Chanel and the Fountain head whereever we find the Stream that alone will certainly lead us up to its own Original But this will appear more distinctly by the degrees of its Conveyance having therefore brought the Tradition down to the time of M. Aurelius that is a considerable time beyond that of Trajan to which time Scaliger and some others are pleased to complain of a defect of Records but with what reason we have in part already seen and shall now further discover by our following Witnesses who were not onely able to testifie of their own times but of the foregoing Ages Among whom Hegesippus deserves the first place not onely for his great antiquity but for his manner of writing as an Historian and so not concern'd meerly to give an account of the Affairs of his own Age but to make a diligent enquiry into the Records and Transactions of former times He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he styled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein he has in a plain and familiar style given an account of the Tradition of the Church and the most remarkable passages in it from our Lord's Death till his own time which was about or rather before the Reign of M. Aurelius for he says he came to Rome and stayed there till the time of Anicetus now Anicetus according to the latest computation succeeded in that See at the beginning of the Reign of Aurelius but according to the earlier account under Antoninus Pius so that it is probable that he was at Rome before Policarp And this description he has given of his Voyage that coming to Rome he
to their Vow But one of the Priests a Recabite says Hegesippus interposed to save James from the fury of the People But this says Scaliger could not be for the Recabites were of the Tribe of Judah and so uncapable of the Priesthood As if the Original constitution of either had been exactly observed at that time especially of the Priesthood when it is so well known that ever since the time of Herod the Great those Offices even of the High-Priesthood it self were entirely disposed of by their Governours who at pleasure put them in and out as they did any other Officers of State But they placed him says Hegesippus on the Pinacle of the Temple whither great numbers of the People went up to cast him down which says Scaliger they could not do because it was as Josephus tells us so very thick set with pointed Irons as to keep the Birds from setling upon it And so it is probable the greatest and highest Battlement of all was but it is very far from being in the least probable that James should be placed there to Preach to the People when it was impossible to be heard from so great an height or that he should not be dasht apieces when he was cast thence instead of falling alive upon his Knees as the Historian reports And therefore this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any covering or Battlement must have been some lower frame of building from which he might be most conveniently heard of the People Now as from these Objections says Scaliger we may learn what to think of this Hegesippus so say I from these Replies to them may we learn what to think of this Scaliger that upon such poor surmises as these will not stick to destroy and villifie the best and most Ancient Records of the Christian Church And now the credit of this Ancient Author being fully Vindicated it does not only make good his own Testimony but of all others that were Recorded in his History between our Saviour's time and his own and to mention no more his account of the Bishops of Jerusalem goes a great way For next to James the Just he informs us that Simeon the Son of Cleophas and Cousen German to our Lord succeeded in the Bishoprick and sat there till the Reign of Trajan under whom he suffered Martyrdom only for the old jealousie of Vespasian and Domitian of being of the Line of David and so a Rival to the Empire So that here the Tradition of the Church was conveyed down to that time by as short a Succession as we have already shewn it to have been in the Church of Corinth from St. Paul to Clement and from Clement to Dionysius and in the Asian Church from the Apostles by Policarp to Pothinus and Irenaeus § XXXIII Next to Hegesippus follows Justin Martyr though had not the other been an Historian he might as being somewhat his Senior have gone before him being converted to Christianity in the time of Adrian about the end of the First Century after our Saviour's Passion and within Eight years after addrest an excellent Apology to Antoninus Pius in behalf of the Christian Faith and afterwards a Second to M. Aurelius his Son and Successor He was a Person of Eminent Parts and Learning the most judicious Philosopher of his time that had Surveyed all the Tenets of the several Sects and studied all kinds of useful Learning for the settlement and satisfaction of his own mind and having passed through the Schools of the Stoicks the Peripateticks the Pythagoreans and the Platonists of which himself hath given a pleasant account in the beginning of his Dialogue with Trypho he was at last advised by an unknown Grave Old Man that met him in his retired Walks to consider the Christian Philosophy to which he had no sooner applyed himself but he found it the only certain and satisfactory Philosophy In short he was such a Proficient in all kinds of Learning that his own Writings make good Photius his Character of him that as he was admirably furnisht with all sorts of Reading and History so he was arrived to the Perfection both of the Christian and Heathen Philosophy and therefore immediately after his Conversion gave a Learned and Rational account of the Vanity of the Gentile Religion As afterwards in his Apologies and his other Writings he did of the certain truth and Divine Authority of the Christian Faith both from the undoubted Miracles that in his time were wrought for the demonstration of it and from the certain Proof of our Saviour's Resurrection and the uninterrupted conveyance of it down to his own time And the assurance of his Faith he frequently avows with the greatest freedom and courage of mind and at last Seal'd it with his Blood And though he foresaw and foretold it not from any Spirit of Prophesie that he pretended to in it but from the probable course and most natural event of things yet notwithstanding this he did not in the least slacken his Zeal for the Christian cause but went on with all assurance of mind in its defence till it brought him to the encounter of Death which he did not only meet with his Eyes open but with all Joy and Alacrity as being Arrived at the end of his hopes and the beginning of his happiness Next to Justin Martyr Irenaeus follows in order who lived much about or a little after the same time but of him I shall need to say the less because I have already shewn the certainty of the Tradition that he had of the things that he believed from Policarp and Pothinus and his acquaintance with other Apostolical men only some few Remarks remain to make up his perfect Character and make out his perfect knowledge and for this that excellent Epistle of his to Florinus deserves to be consider'd in the first place This Doctrine of thine O Florinus that I may frankly declare the truth savoureth not of the sincere Faith disagreeth from the Church and betrayeth such as listen to it into extream Impiety This Doctrine no not the Hereticks which were out of the Church durst ever Publish this Doctrine such as were Elders before us and Disciples of the Apostles never delivered unto thee I saw thee when I was yet a Youth with Policarp in the lesser Asia living Gorgeously in the Emperour's Palace and mightily buisying thy self to get into favour and credit with him For I remember better the things of old than latter affairs for the things we learn in our younger years sink deepest into our minds and grow together with us So that I particularly remember the very place where Policarp sate when he taught his going out and his coming in his course of life the figure and proportion of his Body the Sermons he made to the People the report he made of his Conversation with John and others which knew the Lord how he remembred their sayings and what he heard from their mouths concerning the Lord
would have all their mighty expectations fulfill'd in himself alone and yet disclaim'd all temporal Power and taught that the Kingdom of the Messias was not a Kingdom of this but another World so strange a disappointment as this could not but work in them a fierce and angry aversation both to his Person and to his Doctrine For by this very thing all their hopes of being deliver'd from the Roman Yoke were utterly defeated and yet that was the onely benefit that they expected from their Messias And therefore it is no wonder that they entertain'd him with so little kindness when by his pretence of being the Messias he not onely fail'd their expectations of himself but destroyed all their hopes for ever To all which may be added the extream Wickedness of the Jews at that time their manners being universally debaucht under the Reign of Herod and their chief Men tainted with Principles of Atheism and Irreligion but of that I have partly discoursed already and shall doe so again under the next Head when I come to treat of the Sect of the Sadducees and therefore at present I shall onely refer to Josephus his History of that time from whence it will appear that they were faln from all sense of common Humanity that they were more barbarous than Canibals or Banditi and that no History in the World can equal those Instances of Cruelty that were committed by the Jews among themselves at the Siege of Jerusalem Now such degenerate Brutes as these whose delight and trade it was to be cutting throats were very likely to give audience to the mercifull Institution of Jesus and leave off their former high-way practices to take up his Cross and follow him § XXXVI These are the most general and obvious Prejudices that might bar up the Minds of the Jews against the entertainment of Christianity notwithstanding all that Evidence that it brought along with it The more particular Prejudices are those that relate to the chief Factions and leading Sects among them that is the Sadducees and the Pharisees who beside the Prejudices common to them with all other Jews were blinded by some others peculiar to themselves And in truth these were the onely Enemies that opposed themselves to the Doctrine of Jesus for it was they that made use of the forementioned Prejudices of the People thereby to raise their rage and fury against him So that whatever opposition was made by them proceeded not directly from themselves but was set a work and managed by these Mens instigation and therefore if we would find out the true ground of the opposition that was made to the Christian Doctrine by the Jewish Nation we must discover the reasons motives and designs upon which these leading Men proceeded And they will appear so unjust and so unreasonable as that instead of reflecting any disparagement upon the cause they oppose its being opposed upon such accounts will it self be no small Evidence of its Truth and Goodness And first as for the Sadducees the case is plain that they were no better than rank and avowed Atheists For though they pretended to own some parts of the Jewish Religion yet that was onely to pass a complement upon the common People that would not in former times endure any such thing as open and downright Atheism But otherwise to what purpose is it to talk of any such thing as Religion whilst they deny the future state of the Souls of Men without which all pretences to Vertue and Piety are meer contradictions to themselves false braggs and empty talk And though Grotius will by no means suffer them to be reckoned with the herd of Epicurus in that they denied not the Providence of God in the Government of humane Affairs but onely confin'd its Rewards and Punishments to this present Life Which is the same Doctrine with the Epicureans in other words For they too allow of the present Rewards and Punishments ordinarily annexed to Vertue and Vice as well as these so that as to that point they stand upon equal terms But when they seem to be parted as they often are what then is to be done but that whatever becomes of Vertue or Duty both of them are alike concern'd to take care of their own present welfare So that Immortality being once cashier'd 't is after that Vanity and Nonsense to talk of any Obligations to Justice or Religion And yet this was not onely an Opinion entertain'd by the Sadducees but it was the fundamental Principle of their Sect. Upon this alone they esteem'd themselves wiser than all other Men and this was their great point of Controversie with the Pharisees so that when our Saviour so avowedly sided against them in it he was for that reason their Enemy and they obliged by it to endeavour his ruine Now at the time of his Appearance they were the most powerfull Faction in the Sanhedrin as appears not onely from the Scriptures but Josephus the High-priest himself and his Kindred being of that Sect. And it is very observable that they were much fiercer than the Pharisees in prosecuting the Apostles for attesting our Saviour's Resurrection and are therefore more particularly mention'd than the others Acts 4. 1. 5. 17. And the reason of their fierceness was because all their hopes were in this Life onely and therefore they were more carefull to preserve the peace and quiet of the World and therein their own and that made them the more zealous against all Innovations or Alterations in Religion for fear of publick disturbances And then beside if Jesus were risen from the dead there was an end of their Sect and they must yield the Victory to the Pharisees in the great point of Controversie between them So that for the very honour of their Sect they would not endure to hear of it and its very mention put them into choler and passion And by that alone did Saint Paul raise so great a dissension between the two Factions as to endanger a publick tumult in the Common-wealth Acts 23. 6 7. Now this Sect of Men being thus detein'd by this Principle they were not concern'd to enquire into the truth of any matter of Fact that might overthrow it But their custom was to jeer and flout at it as a ridiculous Story and when they came to argue with our Saviour about it they seem to have design'd rather to make themselves merry than to enter into any serious discourse with him Atheists are always proud and conceited People and scorn to make any enquiry after any thing that may convince them they confute all with the impossibility of the thing it self and when Men once think themselves secure of that it is in vain to tell them any story against it for without ever enquiring into its truth or credibility they are aforehand undoubtedly assured of its forgery And this was the particular case of the Sadducees their main Argument against a future state was the impossibility of the
the Tables of the Consuls yet they were very carefully preserved in those times and as easily consulted by any inquisitive Person as any other publick Record and were so by all learned Men who made it their business to enquire into them or to convey the account of them to after-ages and particularly Eusebius who as he made use of many other helps and had all the other advantages of information would not want this that was so easie and so satisfactory as himself particularly informs us concerning the succession of Jerusalem that he transcribed it out of their own Archives Though setting aside the information that he received thence the History of the succession is sufficiently preserved by other Writers That of Rome is already cleared that of Antioch is as clear onely some Men are willing to raise a dispute about the immediate Successour to the Apostles whether it were Euodius or Ignatius probably it might be both as it was at Rome but if Euodius were the first it is enough that his Successour Ignatius was an Apostolical Man and familiarly acquainted with the Apostles and that from him the succession runs clear and undisputed down to the Council of Nice to which Eustathius its then present Bishop was summon'd and as he was a Man of eminent learning so he bore a considerable sway in it As for Alexandria the succession runs so clear there that I do not find that the most sceptical Adversaries in this point dare so much as question it and indeed the succession of learned Men in that Church was so early and so uninterrupted that it was no more possible for them to be ignorant of the succession of their Bishops than it is for any learned Man now not to know the succession in the See of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth To these it were easie to add many more if it were not too tedious but though I do not meet with any reasonable suspicion of an interrupted succession in any eminent Church yet I shall instance onely in two that next to those already mention'd most deserve our notice that is the Churches of Corinth and Athens an account of whose succession we have from Dionysius a learned Man and Bishop of Corinth in the time of M. Antoninus as indeed we have of many other Churches in his Epistles to them as for his own Church it were a vain thing to demand a particular account of its succession when himself was so near the fountain head and has withall accidentally let us understand his knowledge of what was transacted there before his own time and particularly by his account of Saint Clement's Epistle As for the Church of Athens he expresly affirms that Dionysius the Areopagite was their first Bishop and after him mentions Publius and Quadratus so that it was not possible there should be any unknown interruption in so short an interval This may suffice for a brief specimen of the certain succession in the most eminent Churches from the Apostles and by consequence of their undoubted Tradition § XXIX The next part of the Argument is to prove its more particular conveyance down from the very time of the Apostles through the hands of a great many wise and learned Men And for this reason it was that Clemens Alexandrinus after he had passed through the Discipline of several Masters and several Sects acquiesced at last without any farther search in the Christian Institution because they that preserved the Tradition of this heavenly Doctrine received it immediately from Peter James and John and Paul the holy Apostles as a Son succeeds a Father and by the Providence of God have brought it down to us planting those seeds of Doctrine which they derived from their Ancestours and the Apostles And it is a very good reason and becoming the wisedom of that learned Man supposing the matter of Fact to be true and that it is is evident from the succession it self in that the first Witnesses of Christianity next to the Apostles familiarly conversed with the Apostles themselves or with Apostolical Men. As Saint Clemens Bishop of Rome who wrote an excellent Epistle to the Church of Corinth received with great veneration in the Christian Church valued next to the holy Scriptures and therefore read with them in several Churches but especially the Church of Corinth And as it was the most ancient next to the Apostolical Books so was it the most undoubted Writing of the Christian Church it was says Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received without controversie And it is cited by Dionysius Bishop of Corinth a short time after who affirms that it was then read in that Church every Lord's Day It is magnified by Irenaeus not onely for its own strength and piety but for the primitive Antiquity of its Authour who he says was conversant with the Apostles received his Christianity from them had their preaching still fresh in his memory and their customs and traditions in his eye as divers others there were then living that were taught by the Apostles themselves And Clemens Alexandrinus quoting this Epistle as he often does gives him the Title of Apostle for his primitive Antiquity But beside that it was unanimously attested by the Ancients it was never call'd in question by any of our modern Criticks who though they have taken infinite pains to destroy or impair as much as in them lay the credit of all the ancient monuments of the Church yet have passed this Epistle as undoubtedly genuine with an unanimous approbation Now this supposes the owning and the settlement of the Christian Religion in the World it asserts particularly the truth and certainty of our Saviour's Resurrection and beside several other Books of the New Testament quotes the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians in which the Apostle proves its undoubted certainty by the Testimony not onely of himself and the Apostles but of above five hundred Witnesses beside most whereof were then alive Beside this he tells us of the great labours and martyrdoms of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in asserting the Christian Faith and the great patience and constancy of vast numbers more for the same cause and this he speaks of as a thing present Let us says he consider the generous and worthy Examples of our own Age through emulation and envy the faithfull Pillars of the Church were persecuted even unto a most grievous Death Let us place before our Eyes our holy Apostles and so he proceeds to the acts and sufferings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Now how could this have been done at that time if Christianity had been a meer Fable or what more unquestionable Tradition can we have of its truth especially of the Resurrection when he quotes the Gospels in which it is recorded the Epistle of Saint Paul in which it is proved by such a number of Eye-witnesses the Testimony of the Apostles and innumerable others that lived at the