venture their lives upon the truth of what they writ concerning him as the Apostles did to attest the truth of what they preached concerning our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. The fidelity of the Apostles is evident in their manner of reporting the things which they deliver For if ever there may be any thing gathered from the manner of expression or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the particular temper and disposition of the person from whom it comes we may certainly read the greatest fidelity in the Apostles from the peculiar manner of their expressing themselves to the world Which they do 1. With the greatest impartiality not declaring only what was glorious and admirable to the world but what they knew would be accounted foolishness by it They who had sought only to have been admired for the rare discoveries which they brought to the world would be sure to conceal any thing which might be accounted ridiculous but the Apostles fixed themselves most on what was most contemptible in the eyes of the world and what they were most mocked and derided for that they delighted most in the preaching of which was the Cross of Christ. Paul was so much in Love with this which was a stumbling block to the Iews and foolishness to the Greeks that he valued the knowledge of nothing else in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and him crucified Nay he elsewhere saith God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ. What now should be the reason that they should rejoyce in that most which was most despicable to the world had not they seen far â—reater truth and excellency in it then in the most sublime speculations concerning God or the souls of men in the School of Plato or any other heathen Philosophers That all men should be bound in order to their salvation to believe in one who was crucified at Hierusalem was a strange doctrine to the unbelieving world but if the Apostles had but endeavoured to have suited their doctrine to the School of Plato what rare persons might they have been accounted among the Heathen Philosophers Had they only in general terms discoursed of the Benignity of the Divine nature and the manifestations of Divine goodness in the world and that in order to the bringing of the souls of men to a nearer participation of the Divine nature the perfect Idea of true goodness and the express image of the person of God and the resplendency of his glory had vailed himself in humane nature and had everywhere scattered such beams of light and goodness as warmed and invigorated the frozen spirits of men with higher sentiments of God and themselves and raised them up above the faeculency of this terrestrial matter to breath in a freer air and converse with more noble objects and by degrees to fit the souls of men for those more pure illapses of real goodness which might alwayes satisfie the souls desires and yet alwayes keep them up till the soul should be sunning its self to all eternity under the immediate beams of Light and Love And that after this Incarnate Deity had spread abroad the wings of his Love for a while upon this lower world till by his gentle heat and incubation he had quickned the more plyable world to some degree of a Divine life he then retreated himself back again into the superiour world and put off that vail by which he made himself known to those who are here confined to the prisons of their bodies Thus I say had the Apostles minded applause among the admired Philosophers of the Heathens how easie had it been for them to have made some considerable additions to their highest speculations and have left out any thing which might seem so mean and contemptible as the death of the Son of God! But this they were so far from that the main thing which they preached to the world was the vanity of humane wisdom without Christ and the necessity of all mens believing in that Iesus who was crucified at Hierusalem The Apostles indeed discover very much infinitely more then ever the most lofty Pl tonist could do concerning the goodness and Love of God to mankind but that wherein they manifested the Love of God to the world was that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And that herein was the Love of God manifested that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And that this was the greatest truth and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners They never dreamt of any divine goodness which should make men happy without Christ No it was their design to perswade the world that all the communications of Gods goodness to the world were wholly in and through Iesus Christ and it is impossible that any should think otherwise unless Plato knew more of the mind of God then our blessed Saviour and Plotinus then Saint Paul Can we think now that the Apostles should hazard the reputation of their own wits so much as they did to the world and be accounted bablers and fools and madmen for preaching the way of salvation to be only by a person crucified between two thieves at Hierusalem had they not been convinced not only of the truth but importance of it and that it concerned men as much to believe it as it did to avoid eternal misery Did Saint Paul preach ever the less the words of truth and soberness because he was told to his face that his Learning had made him mad But if he was besides himself it was for Christ and what wonder was it if the Love of Christ in the Apostle should make him willing to lose his reputation for him seeing Christ made himself of no reputation that he might be in a capacity to do us good We see the Apostles were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because they knew it was the power of God to salvation and therefore neither in their preaching or their writings would they omit any of those passages concerning our Saviours death which might be accounted the most dishonourable to his person Which is certainly as great an evidence of their sidelity as can be expected which makes Origen say that the Disciples of Christ writ all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of candour and love of truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not concealing from the world those passages of the life of Christ which would be accounted most foolish and ridiculous 2. With the greatest plainness and simplicity of speech Such whose design is to impose upon the minds of men with some cunningly devised fables love as much ambiguity as ever Apollo did in his most winding oracles of whom it is said Ambage nexâ Delphico mos est Dco Arcana tegere Servius tells us that Iupiter Ammon was therefore pictured with Rams-horns because his answers
had as many turnings and windings as they had But the horns which Moses was wont to be pictured with did only note light and perspicuity from the ambiguity of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes the sending forth of rayes of light like a horn and yet Moses himself was vailed in comparison of the openness and plainness of speech which was in the Apostles Impostors cast a mist of many dark and cloudy words before them but when they are once brought into the open light their vizard falls off and their deformity appears Such persons delight in soaring quite out of the apprehensions of those who follow them and never think themselves better recompenced for their pains then when they are most admired and least understood But never was Christianity more dishonoured then when men brought it from its native simplicity and plainness into a company of cloudy and insignificant expressions which are so far from making men better understand the truth of it that it was certainly the Devils design by such obscure terms to make way for a mysterie to be advanced but it was of iniquity and soon after we see the effect of it in another oracle set up at Rome instead of Delphos and all the pretence of it was the obscurity supposed in Scripture What! darkness come by the rising of the Sun Or is the Sun at last grown so beggarly that he is fain to borrow light of the earth Must the Sâ—ripture be beholding to the Church for its clearness and Christ himselâ— not speak intelligibly unless the Popâ— be his Interpreter Did Christ reveal to the world the Way to salvation and yet leave men to seâ—k which was it till a Guide never heard of in the Scripture come to direct them in the Way to it What strange witnesses were the Apostles if they did noâ— speak the truth with plainness How had men been to sâ—â—k as â—o the truth of Christianity if the Apostles had not declared the dâ—ctrine of the Gospel with all evidence and perspicuity Whom must we believe in this case the Apostles or the Roman oracle The Apostles they tell us they speak with all plainness of speech and for that end purposely lay aside all excâ—llency of words and humane wisdom that men might not be to seek for their mâ—aning in a matter of so great moment that the Gospel was hid to none but such as are lost and whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world that the doctrinâ— revealed by them is a light to direct us in our way to heaven and a rule to walk by and it is a strange property of light to be obscure and of a rule to be crooked But it is not only evident from the Apostles own affirmations that they laid aside all affected obscurity ambiguous expressions and Philosophical terms whereby the world might have been to seek for what they were to believe but it is likewise clear from the very nature of the doctrine they preached and the design of their preaching of it What need Rhetorick in plain truths or affected phrases in giving evidence How incongruous would obscure expressions have been to the design of saving souls by the foolishness of preaching For if they had industriously spoken in their preaching above the capacities of those they spake to they could never have converted a soul without a miracle for the ordinary way of conversion must be by the understanding and how could that work upon the understanding which was so much above it But saith the Apostle we preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Iesus sake If they had sought themselves or their own credit and reputation there might have been some reason that they should have used the way of the Sophists among the Greeks and by declamatory speeches to have inhanceed their esteem among the vâ—lgar But the Apostles disowned and rejected all these vulgar artifices of mean and low-spirited men they laid aside all those enticing words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the way of the Heathen Sophists and declared the Tâ—stimony of God with spiritual evidence they handled not the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commended themselves to every mans consâ—ience in the sight of God Now what could be so suiteable to such a design as the greatest plainness and faithfulness in what they spake We find in the testimony of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen speaks nothing that is spurious or counterfeit nothing savouring of the cunning craftiness of such as lie in wait to deceive and saith he it is impossible to think that men never bred up in the Sophistry of the Greâ—ks nor experienced in the Rhetorical insinuations used among them could ever be able so suddenly to perswade the world to embrace that which had been a figment of their own brains The truth is the Apostles speak like men very confident of the truth of what they speak and not like such who were fain to fetch in the help of all their Topicks to find out some probable arguments to make men believe that which it is probable they did not believe themselves which was most commonly the case of the great Orators among the Heathens We find no pedantick flourishes no slattering insinuations no affected cadencyes no such great care of the rising and falling of words in the several sentences which make up so great a part of that which was accounted eloquence in the Apostles times These things were too mean a prey for the spirits of the Apostles to quarry upon every thing in them was grave and serious every word had its due weight every sentence brim-full of spiritual matter their whole discourse most becoming the Majesty and Authority of that spirit which they spake by And therein was seen a great part of the infinite wisdom of God in the choice he made of the persons who were to propagate the Doctrine of Christ in the world that they were not such who by reason of their great repute and fame in the world might easily draw whole multitudes to imbrace their dictates but that there might not be the least foundation for an implicit faith they were of so mean rank and condition in the world that in all probability their names had never been hard of had not their doctrine made them famous To this purpose Origen excellently speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am of opinion saith he that Iesus did purposely make use of such preachers of his doctrine that there might be no place for suspicion that they came instructed with the arts of Sophistry but that it be clearly manifest to all that would consider it that there was nothing of design in those who discovered so much simplicity in their writings and that they had a more divine power which was more efficacious then the greatest volubility of expressions or ornaments of speech or the artifices which were used in the
their genuine followers they instead of the common and rude name of impostors gave them a more civil title of Philosophers and looked upon their doctrine as a sublimer kind of Philosophy non utique divinum negotium existimant sed mag is Philosophiae genus as Tertullian tells us because the Philosophers pretended so much to moral vertues which they saw the Christians so excellent in but as Tertullian there replies nomen hoc Philosophorum Daemonia non fugat The Devil was never afraid of a Philosophers beard nor were diseases cured by the touch of a Philosophick pallium There was something more Divine in Christians then in the grave Philosophers and that not only in reference to their lives and the Divine power which was seen in them but in reference to the truth and certainty of their doctrine it being a true character given of both by that same excellent writer in behalf of the Christians of his time Veritatem Philosophi quidem affâ—ctant possident autem Christiani what the Philosophers desired only the Christians enjoy which was Truth and as he elsewhere more fully speaks mimicè Philosophi affectant veritatem affectando corrum punt ut qui gloriam captant Christianieam necessariò appetunt integri praestant ut qui saluti suae curant Truth is the Philosophers mistress which by courting he vitiates and corrupts looking at nothing but his own glory but truth is the Christians Matron whose directions he observes and follows because he regards no glory but that to come And to let them further see what a difference there was between a Christian and a Philosopher he concludes that discourse with these words Quid adeo simile Philosophus Christianus Graeciae Discipulus et coeli famae negotiator et vitae verborum et factorum operator rerum aedificator et destructor amicus et inimicus erroris veritatis interpolator et integrator furator ejus et custos As much distance saith he as there is between Greece and Heaven between applause and eternal glory between words and things between building and destroying between truth and error between a plagiary and corrupter of truth and a preserver and advancer of it so much is there between a Philosopher and a Christian. The Heathens might suspect indeed some kind of affinity between the first Preachers of the Gospel and the antient Sophists of Greece because of their frequent going from place to place and pretending a kind of Enthusiasm as they did but as much difference as there is between a Knight Errant and Hercules between a Mountebank and Hippocrates that and much greater there is between a Greek Sophist and an Apostle Socrates in Plato's Euthydemus hath excellently discovered the vanity and futility of those persons under the persons of Euthydemus and Dionysodorus and so likewise in his Protagoras their intent was only like the retiaries in the Roman Spectacles to catch their adversaries in a net to intangle them with some captious question or other but how vastly different from this was the design of the Apostles who abhord those endless contentions which then were in the Heathen world and came to shew them that Truth which was revealed with an intent of making them better men We see the Apostles were not carried forth by any mean and vulgar motives neither did they drive on any private ends of their own all that they minded was the promoting of the doctrine which they preached Nay they accounted no hazards comparable with the advantage which the world enjoyed through the propagation of the Christian Religion This shewed a truly noble and generous spirit in them which would not be hindred from doing the world good though they found so bad entertainment from it yea they rejoyced in their greatest sufferings which they underwent in so good a cause wherein those Primitive Christians who were the genuine followers of the Apostles did so far imitate them that etiam damnati gratias agunt they gave the Iudges thanks that they thought them worthy to lose their lives in a cause which they had reason to triumph in though they died for it And when any of them were apprehended they discovered so little fear of punishment ut unum solummodo quod non ante suerint paeniteret that nothing troubled them so much as that they had been Christians no sooner as one of their number speaks And when the Heathens usually scoffed at them and called them Sarmentitii and Semaxii because they were burned upon the Cross one of them in the name of the rest answers hic est habitus victoriae nostrae haec palmata vestis tali curru triumphamus the Cross was only their triumphant chariot which carried them sooner to Heaven Now this courage and resolution of spirit which was seen in the first planters of Christianity in the world made all serious and inquisitive persons look more narrowly into those things which made men slight so much the common bug-bears of humane nature sufferings and death Quis enim non contemplatione ejus concutitur adrequirendum quid intus in re sit quis non ubi requisivit accedit ubi accessit patiexoptat These sufferings made men enquire this enquiry made them believe that belief made them as willing to suffer themselves as they had seen others do it before them Thus it appeared to be true in them 〈◊〉 qâ—â—que crudelitas illecebra magis est sectae plures â—fficimur quâ—â—ties metimur a vobis semen est sanguis Christianorum The cruelty of their â—nemies did but increase their number the harvest of their pretended justice was but the seed-time of Christianity and no seed was so fruitful as that which was steeped in the blood of Martyrs Thence Iustin Martyr ingenuously saith of himself that while he was a Platonick Philosopher he derided and scoffed at the Christians but when he considered their great courage and constancy in dying for their profession he could not think those could possibly be men wicked and voluptuous who when offers of life were made them would rather choose death then deny Christ. By which he found plainly that there was a higher spirit in Christianity then could be obtained by the sublime notions and speculations of Plato and that a poor ignorant Christian would do and suffer more for the sake of Christ then any of the Academy in defence of their master Plato Now since all men naturally abhor sufferings what is it which should so powerfully alter the nature and disposition of Christians above all other persons that they alone should seem in that to have forgot humanity that not only with patience but with joy they endured torments and abode the flames What! were they all pâ—ssessed with a far more then Stoical Apathy that no sense oâ— pain could work at all upon them or were they all besotted and infatuated persons that did not know what it was they underwent â—t is true some of the
was the great Seal of our Saviours being the Son of God therefore we find the Apostles so frequently attesting the truth of the resurrection of Christ and that themselves were eye-witnesses of it This Iesus saith Peter hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses And again And killed the Prince of life whom God hath raised up from the dead whereof we are witnesses and both Peter and Iohn to the Sanhedrin For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard And the whole Colledge of Apostles afterwards And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him In which words they give them that twofold rational evidence which did manifest the undoubted truth of what they spake for they delivered nothing but what themselves were witnesses of and withall was declared to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost in the miracles which were wrought by and upon believers Afterwards we read the sum oâ— the Apostles Preaching and the manner used by them to perswade men of the truth of it in the words of Peter to Cernâ—lius and his company How God annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Iews and in Hierusalem whom they stew and hanged on a tree Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he comâ—anded us to â—reach unto the people that it is be which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead By all which we see what care God was pleased to take for the satisfaction of the world in point of rational evidence as to the truth of the matters which were discovered concerning our Saviour Christ because he made choice of such persons to be the preachers and writers of these things who were the best abâ—e to satisfie the world about them viz. such as had been eye witnesses of them Now in order to the making it more fully evident what strength there was in this Testimony given by the Apostles to the miracles of Christ we shall more fully manifest the rational evidence which attended it in these following propositions Where the truth of a doctrine depends upon a matter of fact the truth of the doctrine is sufficiently manifested if the matter of fact be evidently proved in the highest way it is capable of Thus it is in reference to the doctrine of Christ for the truth of that is so interwoven with the truth of the story of Christ that if the relations concerning Christ be true his doctrine must needs be Divine and infallible For if it be undoubtedly true that there was such a person as Christ born at Bethlehem who did so many miracles and at last suffered the death of the Cross and after he had lain three dayes in the grave rose again from the dead what reason imaginable can I have to question but that the Testimony of this person was certainly Divine and consequently what ever he preached to the world was most certain and undoubted truth So that if we have clear evidence as to the truth of these passages concerning our Saviour we must likewise believe his doctrine which came attested with such pregnant evidences of a Divine commission which he had from God to the world No Prince can think he hath any reason to refuse audience to an Embassador when he finds his Credentials such as he may rely upon although himself doth not see the sealing of them much less reason have we to question the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel if we have sufficient evidence of the truth of the matters of fact concerning Christ in such a way as those things are capable of being proved The greatest evidence which can be given to a matter of fact is the attesting of it by those persons who were eye-witnesses of it This is the Foundation whereon the firmest assent is built as to any matter of fact for although we conceive we have reason to suspect the truth of a story as long as it is conveyed only in a general way by an uncertain fame and tradition yet when it comes to be attested by a sufficient number of credible persons who profess themselves the cye-witnesses of it it is accounted an unreasonable thing to distrust any longer the truth of it especially in these two cases 1. When the matter they bear witness to is a thing which they might easily and clearly perceive 2. When many witnesses exactly agree in the same Testimony 1. When the matter it self is of that nature that it may be fully perceived by those who saw it i. e. if it be a common object of sense And thus it certainly was as to the person and actions of Iesus Christ. For he was of the same nature with mankind and they had as great evidence that they conversed with Iesus Christ in the flesh as we can have that we converse one with another The miracles of Christ were real and visible miracles they could be no illusions of senses nor deceits of their eyes the man who was born blind and cured by our Saviour was known to have been born blind through all the Countrey and his cure was after as publike as his blindness before and acknowledged by the greatest enemies of Christ at the time of its being done When Christ raised up the dead man at Naim it was before much people and such persons in probability who were many of them present at his death But least there might be any suspition as to him that he was not really dead the case is plain and beyond all dispute in Lazarus who had been to the knowledge of all persons thereabouts dead four dayes here could be no deceit at all when the stone was rowled away and Lazarus came forth in the presence of them all And yet further the death and passion of our Saviour was a plain object of sense done in presence of his greatest adversaries The souldiers themselves were sufficient witnesses of his being really dead when they came to break his bones and spared him because they saw he was dead already At his resurrection the stone was rowled away from the Sepulchre and no body found therein although the Sepulchre was guarded by souldiers and the Disciples of Christ all so fearful that they were dispersed up and down in several places And that it was the same real body which he rose withall and no aëreall vehicle appears by Thomas his serupulosity and unbelief who would not believe unless â—e might put his hands into the hole of his sides and see
then these were Had there been any ground of suspicion concerning the design of Christ why could not the Iews prevail with Iudas to discover it as well as to betray his person Iudas had done but a good work if Christ had been such an impostor as the Iews blasphemously said he was what made Iudas then so little satisfied with his work that he grew weary of his life upon it and threw himself away in the most horrid despair No person certainly had been so fit to have been produced as a witness against Christ as Iudas who had been so long with him and had heard his speeches and observed his miracles but he had not patience enough to stay after that horrid fact to be a witness against him nay he was the greatest witness at that time for him when he who had betrayed him came to the Sanhedrim when consulting about his death and told them that he had sinned in betraying innocent blood What possible evidence could have been given more in behalf of our Saviour then that was when a person so covetous as to betray his Master for thirty pieces of silver was so weary of his bargain that he comes and throws back the money and declares the person innocent whom he had betrayed And this person too was such a one as knew our Saviour far better then any of the witnesses whom afterwards they suborned against him who yet contradicted each other and at last could produce nothing which in the judgement of the Heathen Governour could make him judge Christ worthy of death 3. The Apostles were freer from design then any counter-witness at that time could be we have already proved the Apostles could not possibly have any other motive to affirm what they did but full conviction of the truth of what they spake but now if any among the Iews at that time had asserted any thing contrary to the Apostles we have a clear account of it and what motive might induce them to it viz. the preserving of their honour and reputation with the people the upholding their traditions besides their open and declared enmity against Christ without any sufficient reason at all for it now who would believe the testimony of the Scribes and Pharisees who had so great authority among the people which they were like to lose if Christs doctrine were true before that of the Apostles who parted with all for the sake of Christ and ventured themselves wholly upon the truth of our Saviours doctrine 4. None ever did so much to attest the negative as the Apostles did to prove their fidelity as to the affirmative Had sufficient counter-witness been timely produced we cannot think the Apostles would have run so many continual hazards in Preaching the things which related to the person and actions of Christ. Did ever any lay down their lives to undeceive the world if the Apostles were guilty of abusing it 5. The number of such persons had been inconsiderable in comparison of those who were so fully perswaded of the truth of those things which concern our Saviour who were all ready as most of them did to seal the truth of them with their lives Whence should so many men grow so suddenly confident of the truth of such things which were contrary to their former perswasions interest education had they not been delivered in such a way that they were assured of the undoubted truth of them which brings me to the last proposition which is Matters of fact being first believed on the account of eye-witnesses and received with an universal and uncontrouled assent by all such persons who have thought themselves concerned in knowing the truth of them do yeild a sufficient foundation for a firm assent to be built upon I take it for granted that there is sufficient foundation for a firm assent where there can be no reason given to question the evidence which that there is not in this present case will appear from these following considerations 1. That the multitudes of those persons who did believe these things had liberty and opportunity to be satisfied of the truth of them before they believed them Therefore no reason or motive can be assigned on which they should be induced to believe these things but the undoubted evidence of truth which went along with them I confess in Mahumetisme a very great number of persons have for some centuries of years continued in the belief of the doctrine of Mahomet but then withall there is a sufficient account to be given of that viz. the power of the sword which keeps them in aw and strictly forbids all the followers of Mahomet to dispute their religion at all or compare it with any other Therefore I can no more wonder at this then I do to see so great a part of the world under the Tyranny of the greâ—t Turk Neither on the other side do I wonder that such a multitude of those professing Christianity should together with it believe a great number of erroneous doctrines and live in the practice of many gross superstitions because I consider what a strange prevalency education hath upon softer spirits and more easie intellectuals and what an aw an Inquisition bears upon timerous and irresolved persons But now when a great multitude of persons sober and inquisitive shall contrary to the principles of their education and without fear of any humane force which they beforehand see will persecute them and after diligent enquiry made into the grounds on which they believe for sake all their former perswasions and resolvedly adhere to the truth of the doctrine propounded to them though it cost them their lives if this give us not reason to think this doctrine true we must believe mankind to be the most miserable unhappy creatures in the world that will with so much resolution part with all advantages of this life for the sake of one to come if that be not undoubtedly certain and the doctrine proposing it infallibly true It is an observable circumstance in the propagation of Christian Religion that though God made choice at first of persons generally of mean rank and condition in the world to be Preachers of the Gospel God thereby making it appear that our faith did not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God and therefore chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong yet soon afâ—er the Gospel was preached abroad in the world we finde persons of great place and reputation of great parts and abilities engaged in the profession of the Christian faith In the History of the Acts we read of Sergius a Proconsul of Dionysius the Areopagite converted to the faith and in the following ages of the Church many persons of great esteem for their excellent learning and abilities such was Iustin Martyr one who before he became a Christian was conversant with all sects of Philosophers Stoicks Peripateticks Pythagoreans and at last was a professed Platonist till he
that when a Divine testimony is already confirmed by miracles undoubtedly Divine that new miracles should be wrought in the Church to assure us of the truth of it So Chrysostome fully expresseth himself concerning miracles speaking of the first ages of the Christian Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miracles were very useful then and not at all useful now for now we manifest the truth of what we speak from the Sacred Scriptures and the miracles wrought in confirmation of them Which that excellent author there fully manifests in a discourse on this subject why miracles were necessary in the beginning of the Christian Church and are not now To the same purpose St. Austin speaks where he discourseth of the truth of religion Accepimus majores nostros visibilia miracula secutos esse per quos id actum est ut necessaria non essent posteris because the world believed by the miracles which were wrought at the first preaching of the Gospel therefore miracles are no longer necessary For we cannot conceive how the world should be at first induced to believe without manifest and uncontrouled miracles For as Chrysostome speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the greatest miracle of all if the world should believe without miracles Which the Poet Dante 's hath well expressed in the twenty fourth Canto of Paradise For when the Apostle is there brought in asking the Poet upon what account he took the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God his answer is Probatio quae verum hoc mihi recludit Sunt opera quae secuta sunt ad quae Natura Non candefecit ferrum unquam aut percussit incudem i. e. the evidence of that is the Divine power of miracles which was in those who delivered these things to the world And when the Apostle catechiseth him further how he knew those miracles were such as they pretend to be viz. that they were true and Divine his answer is Si orbis terrae sese convertit ad Christianismum Inquiebam ego sine miraculis hoc unum Est tale ut reliqua non sint ejus cente sima pars i. e. If the world should be converted to the Christian faith without miracles this would be so great a miracle that others were not to be compared with it I conclude this then with that known saying of St. Austin Quisquis adhuc prodigia ut credat inquirit magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit He that seeks for miracles still to induce him to faith when the world is converted to the Christian faith he needs not seek for prodigies abroad he wants only a looking glass to discover one For as he goes on unde temporibus erudit is omne quod fieri non potest respuentibus sine ullis miraculis nimium mirabiliter incredibiliter credidit mundus whence came it to pass that in so learned and wary an age as that was which the Apostles preached in the world without miracles should be brought to believe things so strangely incredible as those were which Christ and his Apostles preached So that by this it appears that the intention of miracles was to confirm a Divine testimony to the world and to make that appear credible which otherwise would have seemed incredible but to what end now when this Divine testimony is believed in the world should miracles be continued among those who believe the doctrine to be Divine the miracles wrought for the confirmation of it to have been true and the Scriptures which contain both to be the undoubted Word of God To what purpose then the huge outery of miracles in the Roman Church is hard to conceive unless it be to make it appear how ambitions that Church is of being called by the name of him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved For had they received the Love of the Truth of the Gospel they would have believed it on the account of those miracles and signs and wonders which were wrought for the confirmation of it by Christ and his Apostles and not have gone about by their juglings and impostures in stead of bringing men to believe the Gospel to make them question the truth of the first miracles when they see so many counterfeits had we not great assurance the Apostles were men of other designs and interests then Popish Priests are and that there is not now any such necessity of miracles as there was then when a Divine testimony revealing the truth of Christian religion was confirmed by them Those miracles cannot be Divine which are done now for the confirmation of any thing contrary to that Divine testimony which is confirmed by uncontrouled Divine miracles The case is not the same now which was before the coming of Christ for then though the Law of Moses was confirmed by miracles yet though the doctrine of Christ did null the obligation of that Law the miracles of Christ were to be looked on as Divine because God did not intend the Ceremonial Law to be perpetual and there were many Prophesies which could not have their accomplishment but under a new state But now under the Gospel God hath declared this to be the last revelation of his mind and will to the world by his Son that now the Prophesies of the old Testament are accomplished and the Prophesies of the New respect only the various conditions of the Christian Church without any the least intimation of any further revelation of Gods mind and will to the world So that now the Scriptures are our adaequate rule of faith and that according to which we are to judge all pretenders to inspiration or miracles And according to this rule we are to proceed in any thing which is propounded to us to believe by any persons upon any pretences whatsoever Under the Law after the establishment of the Law its self by the miracles of Moses the rule of judging all pretenders to miracles was by the worship of the true God If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the Wonder come to pass whereof he spake to thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Whereby it is plain that after the true doctrine is confirmed by Divine miracles God may give the Devil or false Prophets power to work if not real miracles yet such as men cannot judge by the things themselves whether they be real or no and
will unto the true Prophets The grand question propounded how it may be known when predictions express Gods decrees and when only the series of causes For the first several rules laid down 1. When the prediction is confirmed by a present miracle 2. When the things foretold exceed the probability of second causes 3. When confirmed by Gods oath 4. When the blâ—ssings fore-told are purely spiritual Three rules for interpreting the Prophâ—cyes which respect the state of things under the Gâ—spel 5. When all circumstances are foretold 6. When many Prophets in several ages agree in the same predictions Predictions do not express Gods unalterable purposes when they only contain comminations of judgments or are predictions of temporal blâ—ssings The case of the Ninivites Hezekiah and others opened Of repentance in God what it implyes The jewish objâ—ctions â—bout predictions of temporal blâ—ssings answered In what cases miracles were expected from the Prophets when they were to confirm the truth of their religion Instanced in the Prophet at Bethel Elijah Elishah and of Moses himself Whose divine authority that it was proved by miracles is demonstrated against the modern Iews and their pretences answered p. 177 CHAP. VII The eternity of the Law of Moses discussed The second case wherein miracles may be expected when a Divine positive Law is to be repealed and another way of worship established in stead of it The possibility in general of a repeal of a Divine Law asserted the particular case of the Law of Moses disputed against the Iews the matter of that Law proved not to be immutably obligatory because the ceremonial precepts were required not for themselves but for some further end that proved from Maimonides his confession the precepts of the Ceremonial Law frequently dispensed with while the Law was in force Of the Passover of Hezekiah and several other instances It is not inconsistent with the wisdom of God to repeal such an established Law Abravanels arguments answered Of the perfection of the Law of Moses compared with the Gospel Whether God hath ever declared he would never repeal the Law of Moses Of adding to the precepts Of the expressions seeming to imply the perpetuity of the Law of Moses Reasons assigned why those expressions are used though perpetuity be not implyed The Law of Moses not built upon immutable reason because many particular precepts were founded upon particular occasions as the customs of the Zabii many ceremonial precepts thence deduced out of Maimonides and because such a state of things was foretold with which the observation of the Ceremonial Law would be inconsistent That largely discovered from the Prophecies of the old Testament CHAP. VIII General Hypotheses concerning the Truth of the Doctrine of Christ. The great prejudice against our Saviour among Iews and Heathens was the meaness of his appearance The difference of the miracles at the delivery of the Law and Gospel Some general Hypotheses to clear the subserviency of miracles to the Doctrine of Christ. 1. That where the truth of a doctrine depends not on evidence but authority the only way to prove the truth of the Doctrine is to prove the Testimony of the revealer to be infallible Things may be true which depend not on evidence of the things What that is and on what it depends The uncertainty of natural knowledge The existence of God the foundation of all certainty The certainty of matters of faith proved from the same principle Our knowledge of any thing supposeth something incomprehensible The certainty of faith as great as that of knowledge the grounds of it stronger The consistency of rational evidence with faith Yet objects of faith exceed reason the absurdities following the contrary opinion The uncertainty of that which is called reason Philosophical dictates no standard of reason Of transubstantiation and ubiquity c. why rejected as contrary to reason The foundation of faith in matters above reason Which is infallible Testimony that there are wayes to know which is infallible proved 2. Hypoth A Divine Testimony the most infallible The resolution of faith into Gods veracity as its formal object 3. Hypoth A Divine Testimony may be known though God speak not immediatly Of inspiration among the Iews and Divination among the Heathens 4. Hyp. The evidences of a Divine Testimony must be clear and certain Of the common motives of faith and the obligation to faith arising from them The original of Infidelity CHAP. IX The rational evidence of the Truth of Christian Religion from Miracles The possibility of miracles appears from God and providence the evidence of a Divine Testimony by them God alone can really alter the course of nature The Devils power of working miracles considered Of Simon Magus Apollonius The cures in the Temple of Aeseulapius at Rome c. God never works miracles but for some particular end The particular reasons of the miracles of Christ. The repealing the Law of Moses which had been setled by miracles Why Christ checked the Pharisees for demanding a sign when himself appeals to his miracles The power of Christs miracles on many who did not throughly believâ— Christs miracles made it evident that he was the Messias because the predictions were fulfilled in him Why John Baptist wrought no miracles Christs miracles necessary for the everthrow of the Devils Kingdom Of the Daemoniaeks and Lunaticks in the Gospel and in the Primitive Church The power of the name of Christ over them largely proved by several Testimonies The evidence thence of a Divine power in Christ. Of counterfeit dispossessions Of miracles wrought among Infidels Of the future state of the Church The necessity of the miracles of Christ as to the propagation of Christian Religion that proved from the condition of the publishers and the success of the Doctrine The Apostles knew the hazard of their imployment before they entred on it The boldness and resolution of the Apostles notwithstanding this compared with heathen Philosophers No motive could carry the Apostles through their imployment but the truth of their Doctrine not seeking the honour profit or pleasure of the world The Apostles evidence of the truth of their doctrine lay in being eye-witnesses of our Saviours miracles and resurrâ—ction That attested by themselves their sufficiency thence for preaching the Gospel Of the nature of the doctrine of the Gospel contrariety of it to natural inclinations Strange success of it notwithstanding it came not with humane power No Christian Emperour till the Gospel universally preached The weakness and simplicity of the instruments which preached the Gospel From all which the great evidence of the power of miracles is proved pag. 252 CHAP. X. The difference of true miracles from false The unreasonableness of rejecting the evidence from miracles because of impostures That there are certain rules of distinguishing true miracles from false and Divine from diabolical proved from Gods intention in giving a power of miracles and the providence of God in the world The inconvenience of taking
is in the work of Grace So that according to this opinion there must be immediate inspiration as to that act of faith whereby we believe any one to have been divinely inspired and consequently to that whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Secondly Doth not this make the fairest plea for mens unbelief For I demand Is it the duty of those who want that immediate illumination to believe or no If it be not their duty unbelief can be no sin to them if it be a duty it must be made known to be a duty and how can that be made known to them to be a duty when they want the only and necessary means of instruction in order to it Will God condemn them for that which it was impossible they should have unless God gave it them And how can they be left inexcuseable who want so much as rational inducements to faith for of these I now speak and not of efficacious perswasions of the mind when there are rational arguments for faith propounded But lastly I suppose the case will be cleared when we take notice what course God hath alwayes taken to give all rational satisfaction to the minds of men concerning the persons whom he hath imployed in either of the fore-mentioned cases First for those who have been imployed upon some special message and service for God he hath sent them forth sufficiently provided with manifestations of the Divine power whereby they acted As is most clear and evident in the present case of Moses Exodus 4. 1 2 3 4 5. where Moses puts the case to God which we are now debating of Supposing saith he that I should go to the Israelites and tell them God had appeared to me and sent me to deliver them and they should say God had not appeared unto me how should I satisfie them God doth not reject this objection of Moses as favouring of unbelief but presently shews him how he should satisfie them by causing a miracle before his face turning his rod into a Serpent and God gives this as the reason of it vers 5. That they may believe that the Lord God of their Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee It seems God himself thought this would be the most pregnant evidence of Gods appearing to him if he wrought miracles before their faces Nay lest they should think one single miracle was not sufficient God in the immediate following verses adjoyns two more which he should do in order to their satisfaction and further verse 21. God gave him a charge to do all those wonders before Pharoah which he had put into his hand And accordingly we find Pharoah presently demanding a miracle of Moses Exodus 7. 9. which accordingly Moses did in his presence though he might suppose Pharoahs demand not to proceed from desire of satisfaction but from some hopes that for want of it he might have rendred his credit suspected among the Israelites Indeed after God had delivered his people and had setled them in a way of serving him according to the Laws delivered by Moses which he had confirmed by unquestionable miracles among them we find a caution laid in by Moses himself against those which should pretend signs and wonders to draw them off from the Religion established by the Law of Moses And so likewise under the Gospel after that was established by the unparallel'd miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles we find frequent cautions against being deceived by those who came with pretences of doing great miracles But this is so far from infringing the credibility of such a Testimony which is confirmed by miracles that it yields a strong confirmation to the truth of what I now assert For the doctrine is supposed to be already established by miracles according to which we are to judge of the spirits of such pretenders Now it stands to the greatest reason that when a Religion is once established by uncontrouled miracles we should not hearken to every whiffling Conjurer that will pretend to do great feats to draw us off from the truth established In which case the surest way to discover the imposture is to compare his pretended miracles with those true and real ones which were done by Moses and Christ and the ground of it is because every person is no competent judge of the truth of a miracle for the Devil by his power and subtilty may easily deceive all such as will be led by the nose by him in expectation of some wonders to be done by him And therefore as long as we have no ground to question the oertainty of those miracles which were wrought by Christ or Moses I am bound to adhere to the doctrine established by those miracles and to make them my rule of judging all persons who shall pretend to work miracles Because 1. I do not know how far God may give men over to be deceived by lying wonders who will not receive the truth in the love of it i. e. those that think not the Christian Religion sufficiently confirmed by the miracles wrought at the first promulgation of it God in justice may permit the Devil to go further then otherwise he could and leave such persons to their own credulity to believe every imposture and illusion of their senses for true miracles 2. That doctrine which was confirmed by undoubted miracles hath assured us of the coming of lying wonders whereby many should be deceived Now this part of the doctrine of the Gospel is as certainly true as any of the rest for it was confirmed by the same miracles that the other was and besides that the very coming of such miracles is an evidence of the truth of it it falling out so exactly according to what was foretold so many hundred years since Now if this doctrine be true then am I certain the intent of these miracles is to deceive and that those are deceived who hearken to them and what reason then have I to believe them 3. To what end do these miracles serve Are they to confirm the truths contained in Scripture But what need they any confirmation now when we are assured by the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles that the doctrine by them preached came from God and so hath been received upon the credit of those miracles ever since Were these truths sufficiently proved to be from God before or no If not then all former ages have believed without sufficient ground for faith if they were then what ground can there be to confirm us in them now certainly God who never doth anything but for very great purposes will never alter the course of nature meerly for satisfaction of mens vain curiosities But it may be it will be said It was something not fully revealed in Scripture which is thus confirmed by miracles but where hath the Scripture told us that anything not fully revealed
writers speak so much of viz. of dreams and visions the inspirations of the Holy Spirit the gradus Mosaicus the external voyce c. Now in every one of these degrees the Prophet could go no further then his present revelation extended and therefore Aquinas determines that the understandings of the Prophets were instrumenta deficientia respectu principalis agentis i. e. that in prophetical illumination the mind of the Prophet was so moved by the Spirit of God as an instrument in the hand of an Artificer which bears no proportion with the skill of the workman And therefore the mind of a Prophet is moved sometimes only to apprehend the thing represented which they call instinctus divinus of which they say a Prophet may have no certainty whether it comes from God or no sometimes it is moved so far as to know certainly that this revelation is from God this they call lumen Propheticum sometimes a Prophet may be moved to speak those things which he fully understands so it was with most of the true Psophets but sometimes men may be moved to speak that which they understand not as is plain in Caiaphas and probable in Balaam Sometimes a thing was represented to the fancy of one without any possibility of understanding the meaning of those imaginary species as in Pharaohs and Nebnchadnezzars dreams and to another may be given the true judgement of those motions of fancy without the representation of the things to them as in Ioseph and Daniel Now in these and many other different impressions of this prophetical spirit the Prophets to whom the things were revealed could go no further then the degree of the revelation made to them did extend God did not always reveal to the Prophets the internal counsels and decrees of his own will but often only the method and series of his providence in the administration of things in the world Which is the ground of that three-fold distinction of Prophecy in the Schools into prophetia praedestinationis prophetia praescientiae and prophetia comminationis which is taken from the ordinary gloss upon Matth. 1. where they are thus explained the Prophecie of Predestination is when the event depends wholly upon Gods will without any respect to ours as the Prophecie of the Incarnation of Christ the Prophecie of Praescience is of such things as depend upon the liberty of mans will and the Prophecie of Commination only denotes Gods denunciations of heavy judgements against a people But Aquinas doth better reduce the two former to one and so the ground of the difference is to be fetched from the different ways whereby God knows things in the world which is either as they are in their causes and so they note the order and series of things in the world with the mutual respects and dependencies they have one upon another and this refers to Gods administration of things in the world or else God looks upon them as they are in themselves or according to his own positive determinations of them and now in this sense they are unalterable but in the other they are not but God may alter those respects of things when he pleaseth Now though this different manner of knowledge can never be conceived separate from one another in the Divine understanding yet in the revelation made to the mind of a Prophet they may be disjoyned from each other because God doth not always reveal things in the highest degree to the Prophets for no free agent doth always act as far as he can And therefore prophetical revelation is sometimes a representation of Gods internal decrees and then they always take effect and sometimes only the order of causes and effects and they may admit of an alteration and the prophecie nevertheless be true because then it referred only to the series of causes in the world according to which the events would follow if God himself did not interpose These things being thus premised we come to particular resolutions which must arise from the evidences that may be given when prophetical predictions did express Gods internal purpose and decree and when only the order of causes in the world for in these latter it is apparent that events might not answer predictions and yet the Prophet be a true Prophet which is a matter of greater difficulty viz. to find out the exact differences of these two till the event hath made it apparent which came from Gods unalterable purpose and which not But though it be a subject little spoken to either by Iewish or Christian Writers yet we are in hopes there may be some such clear notes of distinction discovered between them even à priori which may sufficiently clear Gods faithfulnes and the Prophets truth though the event be not always correspondent to the words of a prediction I begin then with the evidences that may be given when predictions do flow from internal purpose and decree Every prediction confirmed by a present miracle doth not express meerly the order of causes but the determinations of Gods will because there can be no sufficient reason given why the order of causes in nature should be altered to express the dependences of things on each other for herein a miracle would rather ten d to weaken then strengthen faith because the end of the miracle would be to confirm their faith as to events following upon their causes but now the medium used for that end seems to prove the contrary viz. that God can alter the series of causes when he pleases himself by working miracles and therein going contrary to the course of nature and therefore a miracle seems to be a very incongruous argument in this because its self is an evidence that may be which it comes to prove shall not be But when Prophets come to declare the internal purposes of the will of God concerning future contingencies no argument can be more suitable to demonstrate the truth of what is spoken then the working of a present miracle for this demonstrates to the senses of men that however unlikely the event may be to them which is foretold yet with God all things are possible and that it is very unlikely God would send such a messenger to declare a falshood whom he entrusted so great a power with as that of working miracles Thus it was in that remarkable prophecie concerning Iosias by the man of God at Bethel 260 years before his birth which though it were to come to pass so long after God confirmed it by a sign which was the renting of the altar and the pouring out of the ashes upon it and the withering of Jeroboams hand We cannot therefore in reason think that God would set so clear a seal to any deed which he did intend himself to cancel afterward Praedictions express Gods inward purpose when the things foretold do exceed all probabilities of second causes in which case those words of Tertullian seem very harsh credo quia
of the spirit upon the soul it cheerfully embraceth that Truth which is revealed and cordially yields up its self in obedience to it This is the Divine faith which the Scripture acquaints us with and not such a one as meerly believes the truth of a Divine Testimony and as to the production of this faith I acknowledge meer rational evidence to be insufficient because they proceed in 2â— very different ways the one is to satisfie mens minds of the truth of the doctrine the other is to bring them effectually to adhere unto it The asserting of the one therefore doth no more tend to destroy the other then the saying that a Telescope will help us to discover very much of the heavenly bodies doth imply that a blind man may see them if he makes but use of them Although therefore the natural man cannot savingly apprehend the things of God yet there may be so much rational evidence going along with Divine revelation that supposing reason to be pure and not corrupted and steeped in sense as now it is it would discover spiritual evidence to be the most real and convincing evidence Thus far we have proved that where there is any infallible Testimony there is sufficient rational evidence going along with it to make it appear that it is from God CHAP. IX The rational evidence of the truth of Christian Religion from Miracles The possibility of miracles appears from God and providence the evidence of a Divine Testimony by them God alone can really alter the course of nature The Devils power of working miracles considered Of Simon Magus Apollonius The cures in the Temple of Aesculapius at Rome c. God never works miracles but for some particular end The particular reasons of the miracles of Christ. The repealing the Law of Moses which had been setled by miracles Why Christ checked the Pharisees for demanding a sign when himself appeals to his miracles The power of Christs miracles on many who did not throughly believe Christs miracles made it evident that he was the Messias because the predictions were fulfilled in him Why John Baptist wrought no miracles Christs miracles necessary for the overthrow of the Devils Kingdom Of the Daemoniacks and Lunaticks in the Gospel and in the Primitivâ— Church The power of the name of Christ over them largely proved by several Testimonies The evidence thence of a Divine power in Christ. Of counterfeit dispossessions Of miracles wrought among Infidels Of the future state of the Church The necessity of the miracles of Christ as to the propagation of Christian Religion that proved from the condition of the publishers and the success of the Doctrine The Apostles knew the hazard of their imployment before they entred on it The boldness and resolution of the Apostles notwithstanding this compared with heathen Philosophers No motive could carry the Apostles through their imployment but the truth of their Doctrine not seeking the honour profit or pleasure of the world The Apostles evidence of the truth of their doctrine lay in being eye-witnesses of our Saviours miracles and resurrection That attested by themselves their sufficiency thence for preaching the Gospel Of the nature of the doctrine of the Gospel contrariety of it to natural inclinations Strange success of it notwithstanding it came not with humane power No Christian Emperour till the Gospel universally preached The weakness and simplicity of the instruments which preached the Gospel From all which the great evidence of the power of miracles is proved OF all rational evidences which tend to confirm the truth of a Divine Testimony there can be none greater then a power of working miracles for confirmation that the Testimony which is revealed is infallible The possibility of a power of miracles cannot be questiond by any who assert a Deity and a Providence for by the same power that things were either at first produced or are still conserved which is equivalent to the other the course of nature may be altered and things caused which are beyond the power of inferiour causes For though that be an immutable Law of nature as to Physical beings that every thing remains in the course and order wherein it was set at the Creation yet that only holds till the same power which set it in that order shall otherwise dispose of it granting then the possibility of miracles the subject of this Hypothesis is that a power of miracles is the clearest evidence of a Divine Testimony which will appear from these following considerations God alone can really alter the course of nature I speak not of such things which are apt only to raise admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their production which are thence called wonders much less of meer juggles and impostures whereby the eyes of men are deceived but I speak of such things as are in themselves either contrary to or above the course of nature i. e. that order which is established in the universe The Devil no question may and doth often deceive the world and may by the subtilty and agility of his nature perform such things as may amuse the minds of men and sometimes put them to it to find a difference between them and real miracles if they only make their sâ—nses judges of them And such kind of wonders though they are but spaâ—ingly done and with a kind of secrecy as though they were consulting with Catiline about the burning Rome yet the Devil would have some especially when Ignorance and Superstition are Ascendents to keep up his interest in the world Or else when he is like to be dispossessed and thrown out of all he then tryes his utmost to keep as many to him as may be thus when the Spirit of God appeared in the miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles and the Primitive Church he then conjured up all the infernal powers to do something parallel to keep possession of his Idolatrous Temples as long as he could Thus we find Simon Magus dogging the Apostles as it were at the heels that by his Magick he might stagger the faith of people concerning the miracles wrought by the Apostles after him Apollonius appeared upon the Stage but his wonders are such pittifull things compared with those wrought by Christ or his Apostles that it could be nothing but malice in Hierocles to mention him in competition with Christ. But those things which seem a great deal more considerable then either of these were the cure of a blind man by Vespasian in Egypt mentioned by Tacitus and Suetonius wherein there was a palpable imitation of our Saviours curing the blind man in the Gospel for the man told Vespasian restituturum oculos si inspuisset that he should receive his sight by his spittle so Spartianus tells us of a woman that was cured of her blindness by kissing the knees of the Emperour Adrian and Boxhornius hath produced an old Fable in the Temple of
the advancement of the flourishing condition of the Church is not meerly by outward pomp and grandeur and that the purity of the Church is not inconsistent with a state of outward difficulties which the experience oâ— the Primitive Church gives an irrefragable demonstration of Thus much may serve to shew the necessity of a power of miracles conjoyned with the Christian Doctrine to manifest the truth of it by overthrowing the Kingdom of that great Antichrist the Devil who had usurped so much Tyranny over the world The last reason why a power of miracles was so necessary for confirming the truth of the Gospel is because the Gospel was to be propagated over the world without any other rational evidence then was contained in the miracles wrought for the confirmation of it Now the admirable success which this doctrine found in the world considering all the circumstances of it doth make it clear what certainty there was that the miracles which were wrought were true and they were certain evidences that the doctrine attested by them was from God Now this will appear from these two things That no rational account can be given why the Apostles should undertake to publish such a doctrine unless they had been undoubtedly certain that the Doctrine was true and they had sufficient evidence to perswade others to beleeve it That no satisfactory account can be given considering the nature of the doctrine of Christ and the manner of its propagation why it should meet with so great acceptance in the world had there not been such convincing evidence as might fully perswade men of the truth of it I begin with the first from the publishers of this doctrine in the world All that I here require by way of a Postulatum or supposition are onlythese two things which no man right in his wits I suppose will deny 1. That men are so far rational agents that they will not set upon any work of moment and difficulty without sufficient grounds inducing them to it and by so much the greater the work is the more sure and stedfast had the grounds need to be which they proceed upon 2. That the Apostles or first Publishers of the Christian doctrine were not men distracted or bereft of their wits but acted by principles of common sense reason and understanding as other men in the world do Which if any one should be so far beside his wits as to question if he have but patience and understanding enough to read and consider those admirable writings of theirs which are conveyed to us by as certain uninterrupted a Tradition as any thing in the world hath been and by that time he will see cause to alter his judgement and to say that they are not mad but speak the words of the greatest truth and soberness These things supposed I now proceed to the proving of the thing in hand which will be done by these three things First That the Apostles could not but know how hâ—zardous an employment the preaching of the Gospel would be to them Secondly that no motive can be conceived sufficient for them to undertake such an employment but the infallible truth of the doctrine which they preached Thirdly that the greatest assurance they had themselves of the truth of their Doctrine was by being eye-witnesses of the miracles of Christ. First That the Apostles could not but understand the hazard of their employment notwithstanding which they cheerfully undertook it That men armed with no external power nor cried up for their wit and learning and carrying a doctrine with them so contraâ—y to the general inclinations of the world having nothing in it to recommend it to mankind but the Truth of it should go about to perswade the world to part with the Religion they owned and was setled by their laws and to embrace such a religion as called them off from all the things they loved in this world and to prepare themselves by mortification self-denial for another world is a thing to humane reason incredible unless we suppose them acted by a higher spirit then mankind is ordinarily acted by For what is there so desirable in continual reproaches contumelies what delight is there in racks and prisons what agreeableness in flames and martyrdoms to make men undergo some nay all of these rather then disown that doctrine which they came to publish Yet these did the Apostles cheerfully undergo in order to the conversion of the world to the truth of that doctrine which they delivered to it And not only so but though they did foresee them they were not discouraged from this undertaking by it I confess when men are upon hopes of profit and interest in the world engaged upon a design which they promise themselves impunity in having power on their side though afterwards things should fall out contrary to their expectation such persons may die in such a cause because they must and some may carry it out with more resolution partly through an innate fortitude of spirit heightened with the advantages of Religion or an Enthusiastick temper But it is hard to conceive that such persons would have undertaken so hazardous an employment if beforehand they had foreseen what they must have undergone for it But now the Apostles did foreknow that bonds and imprisonment nay death its self must be undergone in a violent manner for the sake of the doctrine which they preached yet not withstanding all this they go boldly and with resolution on with their work and give not over because of any hardships and persecutions they met withall One of the chiesest of them S. Peter and as forward as any in Preaching the Gospel had the very manner of his death foretold him by Christ himself before his Ascension yet soon after we find him preaching Christ in the midst of those who had crucified him and telling them to their faces the greatness of their sin in it and appealing to the miracles which Christ had done among them and bidding them repent and believe in him whom they had crucified if ever they would be saved And this he did not only among the people who gave their consent to the crucifying of Christ but soon after being conventedâ—ogether â—ogether with Iohn before the Court of Sanbedrin probably the very same which not long before had sentenced Christ to death for a miracle wrought by them with what incredible boldness doth he to their faces tell them of their murdering Christ and withall that there was no other way to salvation but by him whom they had crucified Be it known unto you all saith Peter to the Sanhedrin and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Iesus Christ whom ye have crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved What
an heroickfreedom of spirit appears in these words what magnanimity and courage was there now in that person who durst in the face of this Court tell them of their murder and that there was no salvation but by him whom they had crucified Well might they wonder at the boldness of the men who feared not the same death which they had so lately brought their Lord and Master to Neither was this singly the case of Peter and Iohn but all the rest of the Apostles undertook their work with the same resolution and preparation of Spirit to under go the greatest hardship in the world sor the sake of the truths they Preached And accordingly as far as Ecclesiastical history can ascertain us of it they did all but Iohn and that to make good the prediction of Christ suffer violent deaths by the hands of those who persecuted them meerly for their doctrine And which is most observable when Christ designed them first of all for this work he told them before hand of reproaches persecutions all manner of hardships nay of death its self which they must undergo for his sake All that he gave them by way of encouragement was that they could only kill the body and not the soul and therefore that they should fear him only who could destroy both body and soul in hell all the support they had was an expectation in another world and that animated them to go through all the hardships of this Where do we ever read of any such boldness and courage in the most knowing Philosâ—phers of the Heathens with what saintness and misgiving of mind doth Socrates speak in his famous discourse suppoâ—ed to be made by him before his death how uncertainly doth he speak of a state of immortality and yet in all probability Plato set it forth with all advantages imaginable Where do we finde that ever any of the great friends of Socrates who were present at his death as Phaedo Cebes Crito and Simmias durst enter the Areopagus and condemn them there for the murther of Socrates though this would be far short of what the Apostles did why were they not so charitable as to inform the world better of those grand truths of the being of God and immortality of souls if at least they were fully convinced of them themselves Why did not Plato at least speak out and tell the world the truth and not disguise his â—iscourses under feigned names the better to avoid accusation and the fate of Socrates how doth he mince his excellent matter and playes as it were at Bo-peep with his readers sometimes appearing and then pulling in his horns again It may not be an improbable conjecture that the death of Socrates was the foundation of the Academy I mean of that cautelous doctrine of withholding assent and being both pro and con sometimes of this side and sometimes of that for Socrates his death had made all his friends very fearful of being too dogmatical And Plato himself had too much riches and withall too much of a Courtier in him to hazard the dear prison of his soul viz. his body meerly for an aethereall vehicle He had rather let his soul flutter up and down in a terrestrial matter or the cage it was pâ—nt up in then hazard too violent an opening of it by the hands of the Areopagus And the great Roman Orator among the rest of Plato's sentiments had learnt this too for although in his discourses he hath many times sufficiently laid open the folly of the Heathen worship and Theology yet he knows how to bring himself off safe enough with the people and will be sure to be dogmatical only in this that nothing is to be innovated in the religion of a Common-wealth and that the customs of our Ancestors are inviolably to be observed Which principles had they been true as they were safe for the persons who spake them the Christian religion had never gained any entertainment in the world for where ever it came it met with this potent prejudice that it was looked on as an innovation and therefore was shrewdly suspected by the Governours of Common-wealths and the Preachers of it punished as factious and seditious persons which was all the pretext the wise Politicians of the world had for their cruel and inhumane persecutions of such multitudes of peaceable and innocent Christians Now when these things were foretold by the Apostles themselves before their going abroad so plainly that with the same saith they did believe the doctrine they Preached to be true they must believe that all these things should come to pass what courage and magnanimity of spirit was it in them thus to encounter dangers and as it were court the slames Nay and before the time was come that they must dye to seal the truth of their doctrine their whole life was a continual peregrination wherein they were as so many Iobs in pilgrimage encounterd with perills and dangers on every side of which one of the most painful and succesful S. Paul hath given in such a large inventory of his perils that the very reading of them were enough to undo a poor Epicurean Philosopher and at once to spoil him of the two pillars of his happiness the quietness of his mind and ease of his body Thus we see what a hazardous imployment that was which the Apostles went upon and that it was such as they very well understood the diâ—â—iculty of before they set upon it Secondly We cannot find out any rational motive which could carry them through so hazardous an employment but the full convictions of their minds of the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine which they delivered We find before that no vulgar motives in the world could carry them upon that design which they went upon Could they be led by ambition and vain glory who met with such reproaches where ever they went and not only persecutions of the tongue but the sharper ones of the hands too we never read of any but the Primitive Christians who were ambitious of being Martyrs and thought long till they were in the flames which made Arrius Antoninus being Proconsul of Asia when Christians in multitudes beset his tribunal and thronged in to be condemned say to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O miserable people had not ye wayes enough to end your lives at hâ—me but ye must croud for an execution This was a higher ambition by far then any of those mancipia gloriae those Chamaeleons that lived on the breath of applause the Heathen Philosophers ever reached to who were as Tertullian expresseth it homines gloriae eloquentiae solius libidinosi unsatiable thirsters after the honour and eloquence of the world but the Spirit of a Christian did soare too high to quarry on so mean a prâ—y When the more sober heathens had taken a stricter notice of the carriages and lives of the Preachers of the Gospel and all
more blind and wilfull Heathens derided them as such but who were the more infatuated let any sober person judge they who slighted and rejected a doctrine of so great concernment which came attested with so much resolution and courage in the professors of it or they who were so far perswaded of the truth of it that they would rather die than deny it dicimus palam dicimus et vobis torquentibus lacerati et cruenti vociferamur Deum colimus per Christum They were not ashamed to believe in the blood of Christ even when their own blood ran down besore their eyes and confess Christ with their mouths when their bodies were upon the rack Certainly then there were some very powerfull and convincing arguments which buoyed up the spirits of true Christians in that deluge of sufferings which they were to swim through it must be a strong and well grounded faith which would hold out under so great tryals and they could not be to seek for the most perswasive motives to faith who were so ready to give an account to others of the hope that was in them and to perswade all other persons to the embracing of it With what face and confidence otherwise could they perswade men to embrace a doctrine so dangerous as that was had there not been motives sufficient to bear up against the weight of susferings and arguments perswasive to convince them of the undoubted certainty of that doctrine which they encouraged them to believe Now that which appears to have been the main ground of satisfaction to the Primitive Christians as to the truth and certainty of the doctrine of Christ was this that the doctrine of the Gospel was at first delivered to the world by those persons who were themselves eye-witnesses of all the miracles which our Saviour wrought in confirmation of the truth of what he spake They were such persons who had been themselves present not only to hear most of our Saviours admirable discourses when he was in the world but to see all those glorious things which were done by him to make it appear that he was immediately sent from God Let us now appeal to our own faculties and examine a little what rational evidence could possibly be desired that the doctrine of the Gospel was true which God did not afford to the world What could the persons who were the auditors of our Saviour desire more as an evidence that he came from God then his doing such things which were certainly above any created power either humane or Diabolical and therefore must needs be Divine What could other persons desire more who were not present at the doing of these miracles but that the report of them should be conveyed to them in an undoubted manner by those persons who were eye-witnesses of them and made it appear to the world they were far from any intention of deceiving it Now this makes the Apostles themselves in their own writings though they were divinely inspired appeal to the rational evidence of the truth of the things in that they were delivered by them who were eye-witnesses of them There St. Peter speaks thus to the dispersed Iews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty The power and coming of Christ which the Apostle speaks of was not as some improbably conceive either his general coming to judgement upon the world or his particular coming upon the Nation of the Iews but by an Hendyades by his power and coming is meant his powerful appearance in the world whereby he mightily discovered himself to be the Son of God Now this saith the Apostle was no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not like the Heathen Mythology concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Gods among them which were so frequently believed among them that Dionysins Halycarnassaeus condemns the Epicureans because they did deride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearances of their Gods in the world now saith the Apostle assure your selves this is no such appearance of a God on earth as that among the Heathens was for saith he we our selves who declare these things were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we fully understood this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this great mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh for we saw his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great majesty which attended him in all which he spake or did we saw all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great things of God which were manifest in him all those mirâ—culous operations which were wrought by him Therefore as this was a great confirmation of the faith of the Apostles themselves that they saw all these things so we see it was of great concernment to the world in order to their belief that the Gospel was no cunningly devised fable in that it was delivered by such who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-witnesses of what they declared To the same purpose St. Iohn speaks ad conciliandam fidem to make it appear how true what they delivered was in the entrance of his Epistle That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you We see what great force and weight the Apostle layes upon this that they delivered nothing but what they had seen and heard as they heard the doctrine of Christ so they saw the miracles which he wrought in confirmation of it St. Luke likewise in the beginning of his Gospel declares that he intended to write nothing but what he had perfect understanding of from such persons who had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-witnesses and instruments themselves in part of what was written for that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those things which were written he saith were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things which are abundantly proved to be true for being matters of â—act there could be no stronger proof of them then by such who were eye-witnesses of what they spake And this we find the Apostles themselves very cautious about in the choice of a new Apostle in the room of Iudas Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken from us must one be ordained to be a witness of his resurrection For because Christ was mightily declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead as that which
in his hands the â—rint of the nails now our Saviour condeseending so far as to satisfie the incredulity of Thomas hath made it thereby evident that the body which our Saviour rose from the grave with was the same individual body which before was crucified and buried in the Sepulchre And we sind all the Apostles together upon our Saviours appearance to them after his resurrection so far from being credulous in embracing a phantasm instead of Christ that they suspâ—cted that it was either a meer phantasm or an evil spirit which appeared among them upon which it is said they were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a spirit Which our Saviour could not beat them off from but by appealing to the judgement of their senses Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have and afterwards more fully to convince them he did eat in the midst of them Now the more suspitious and incâ—edulous the Apostles themselves at first were the greater evidence is it how far they were from any design of abusing the world in what they after preached unto it and what strong conviction there was in the thing its self which was able to satisfie such scrupulous and suspicious persons 2. When many witnesses concurr in the same Testimony Nothing can disparage more the truth of a testimony then the counter witness of such who were present at the same actions but when all the witnesses fully agree not only in the substance but in all material circumstances of the story what ground or reason can there be to suspect a forgery or design in it especially when the persons cannot by any fears or threatnings be brought to vary from each other in it Thus it is in our present case we find no real dissent at all mentioned either as to the birth miracles life death or resurrection of Iesus Christ all the witnesses attest the same things though writing in different places and upon different occasions no alteration in any circumstance of the story out of any design of pleasing or gratifying any persons by it Most of our Saviours miracles not only his Apostles but the people and his very enemies were witnesses of whose posterity to this day dare not deny the truth of such strange works which were wrought by him And for his resurrection it would be very strange that five hundred persons should all agree in the same thing and that no torments or death could bring any of them to deny the truth of it had there not been the greatest certainty in it There can be no reason to suspect such a testimony which is given by eye-witnesses but either from questiâ—ning their knowledge of the things they speak of or their fiâ—elity in reporting them Now there is not the least ground to doubt either of these in reference to those persons who gave testimony to the world concerning the person and actions of our blessed Saviour For first They were such as were intimately conversant both with the person and actions of Iesus Christ whom he had chosen and trained up for that very end that they might be sufficiently qualified to acquaint the world with the truth of things concerning himself after his resurrection from the dead And accordingly they followed him up and down wheresoever he went they were with him in his solitudes and retirements and had thereby occasion to observe all his actions and to take notice of the unspotted innocency of his life Some of his Disciples were with him in his transfiguration others in his agony and bloody sweat they heard the expressions which came from his mouth in all which he discovered a wonderful submission to the will of God and a great readiness of mind to suffer for the good of the world Now therefore the first thing cannot at all be questioned their means of knowing the truth of what they spake Neither secondly is there any reasâ—n to suspect their fidelity in reporting what they knew For 1. The truth of this doctrine wrought so far upon them that they parted with all their worldly subsistence for the sake of it Although their riches were not great yet their way of subsistence in the world was necessary they left their houses their wives and children and all for Christ and that not to gain any higher preferments in this world which had they done it would have rendred their design suspicious to the curious and inquisitive world but they let go at least a quiet and easie life for one most troublesom and dangerous So that it is not how much they parted withall but how freely they did it and with what chearfulness they underwent disgraces persecutions nay death its self for the sake of the Gospel Now can it be imagined that ever men were so prodigal of their ease and lives as to throw both of them away upon a thing which themselves were not fully assured of the truth of It had been the highest folly imaginable to have deceived themselves in a thing of so great moment to them as the truth of the doctrine which they preached was because all their hopes and happiness depended upon the truth of that doctrine which they preached And as Tertullian observes non fas est ulli de suâ religione mentiri for saith he he that sayes he worships any thing be sides what he doth he denyes what he doth worship and transfers his worship upon another and thereby doth not worship that which he thus denyes Besides what probability is there men should lye for the sake of that Religion which tells them that those which do so shall not receive the reward which is promised to those who cordially adhere unto it Nay they declared themselves to be the most miserable of all persons if their hopes were only in this present life Can we now think that any who had the common reason of men would part with all the contentments of this world and expose themselves to continual hazards and at last undergo death its self for the sake of something which was meerly the fiction of their own brains What should make them so sedulous and industrious in preaching such things that they could say necessity was laid upon them yea wo was unto them if they preached not the Gospel when yet they saw so many woes attending them in the preaching of it had there not been some more powerful attractive in the beauty and excellency of the doctrine which they preached then any could be in the ease and tranquillity of this present world Thus we see the fidâ—lity of the Apostles manifested in such a way as no other witnesses were ever yet willing to hazard theirs And therefore Origen deservedly condemns Celsus of a ridiculous impertinency when he would parallel the relations of Herodotus and Pindarus concerning Aristeus Proconnesius with those of the Apostles concerning Christ For faith he did either of those two
Grecian compositions 3. The Apostles delivered their doctrine with the greatest openness and freedom of spirit they did not give out one thing to the world and another to their private Disciples but with great freedom and boldness declared their doctrine in the most publick places and before their greatest enemies They knew they were looked on as deceivers by the world but yet they knew themselves to be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the usual requital good men have from the world that they are looked on as the greatest deceivers of it if it be so with others they have much less cause to wonder at it when even he who by one Prophet is stiled the desire of Nations is by another said to be despised and rejected of men and when Christ was in the world he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deceiver no wonder then if his Disciples were accounted such although they manifested their veracity by their open carriage and free speaking to the faces of their greatest adversaries The Apostles neither feared the Iews skill in their Law nor the wisdom and subtilty of the Greeks Saint Paul preacheth Christ openly among the Iews in their Synagogues and among the Athenians he encounters the Epicureans and Stoicks and preacheth to them Iesus and the resurrection If the Apostles had any thing of deceivers in them as to the things they related concerning Christ they would not certainly have spoken with so much confidence concerning Christ in the presence of those who had been his murderers but we see they appealed to themselves as to the miracles which he had wrought among them and for his resurrection they were ready to lay down their lives in giving testimony to the truth of it That his body was gone was evident that the Apostles should take it away was impossible considering what a guard of souldiers they had set upon it and how timerous and fearful the Apostles were that they fled upon Christs being apprehended Now what could it be could make such fearful persons afterwards so couragious and resolute as they were had there not been some more then ordinary power to convince and encourage them 4. The Apostles deliver their Testimony with the greatest particularity as to all circumstances They do not change or alter any of them upon different examinations before several persons they all agree in the greatest constancy to themselves and uniformity with each other As to matters of indifferency we find the Apostles very yielding and condescending but as to any thing which concerned their testimony most constant and resolved Had the Gospel been some cunningly contrived fancy it had been impossible but so many different persons in such different places and under such different conditions would have varyed as to some material circumstance of it Or else they would have been so wise as to have delivered it in general terms without insisting much on such particular circumstances which if they had been false might have been very easily disproved but with what particular enumeration of circumstances do the Apostles preach Christ to the world Peter tells the Iews that it was Iesus of Nazareth whom he preached and lest they should think it was not the same person who rose again with great boldness and freedom of spirit he saith to them Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Yea that same individual person who was conversant in the world and dyed upon the Cross is now become a Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins If there had been any ground of suspition as to these things who had been so able to disprove them or so ready to do it as those persons who had crucified him For we cannot conceive but those who had a hand in his death would endeavour by all possible means to disprove his resurrection from the dead For what a case were they like to be in if those things which the Apostles so confidently preached were true If Christ had all power now in his hands and there were salvation in no other name but only in his whom they had crucified they were like to be in a most desperate condition therefore if any men can be supposed inquisitive after the truth of these circumstances no doubt these were and if they could have found the least flaw in their testimony the world would soon have ringed of it and the Iews who were then so much dispersed abroad would have divulged it into all parts the Apostles would have been told of it as they preached Christ in the Synagogues And can we in any reason think but those Iews who persecuted Paul as he preached in the Synagogues of Asia and afterwards impeached him so openly at Ierusalem would there enquire into all the circumstances concerning Christ and all the other Iews would write to their Friends at Ierusalem to be fully informed of those strange things which were told them openly in all places in their Synagogues by men of their own Nation and language concerning one Iesus who was crucified and rose again from the dead Had there been now any so much as plausible pretext that any of these circumstances were not true can we think but that a people so unmeasureably given to their own wayes and traditions would in all places have vented any thing that might have tended to the disparagement of Christ and his Apostles But we see malice its self could not find any flaw in the Apostles testimony for if it had we should certainly have heard of it either from the Iews or from the great opposers of Christianity among the Heathens who pretended to be curious and inquisitive persons such as Celsus Iulian Hierocles and Porphyrie were What reason can we have then in the least to suspect such a Testimony which passed so uncontrouled in that time when it was alone capable of being disproved and mens interest and design would put them so much upon it The strength of which will appear from the next proposition which is No Testimony ought to be taken against a matter of fact thus attested but from such persons who had greater knowledge of the things attested and manifest greater fidelity in reporting them It is easie to make it appear that supposing any persons at that time had contradicted the Testimony of the Apostles concerning our Saviour yet there had been no reason in the world to have hearkned to their Testimony in opposition to that of the Apostles and that on these accounts 1. The Apostles witnessed the Affirmative which is more capable of being attested then any negative can be 2. The Apostles were more conversant with Christ then any other persons were because they were chosen for that very end by him to be constantly with him could any therefore be more capable of knowing the truth of all particulars concerning Christ
eorum qui eam non putamus in manibus esse plumbatis The accusation for treason lay in their refusing to supplicate the Idols for the Emperors welfare 2. Because they would not swear by the Emperors Genius Thence Saturnius said to the Martyr Tantum jura per genium Caesaris nostri if he would but swear by the Genius of Caesar he should be saved Yet though they refused to swear by the Emperours genius they did not refuse to testifie their Allegiance and to swear by the Emperors safety Sed juramus saith Tertullian Sicut non per genios Caesarum it ae per salutem corum quae est augustior omnibus geniis 3. Because they would not worship the Emperours as Gods which was then grown a common custom Non enim Deum Imperatorem dicam vel quia mentirinescio vel quia illum deridere non audeo vel quia necipse se Deum volet dici si homo sit as the same Author speaks Nay the primitive Christians were very scrupulous of calling the Emperours Dominus hoc enim Dei est cognomen because the name Lord was an attribute of Gods and applied as his name to him in Scripture The reason of this Scrupulosity was not from any question they made of the Soveraignty of Princes or their obligation to obedience to them which they are very free in the acknowledgement of but from a jealousie and just suspicion that something of Divine honour might be implyed in it when the adoration of Princes was grown a custom Therefore Tertullian to prevent misunderstandings saith Dicam plane Imperatorem Dominum sed more Communi sed quando non cogor ut Dominum Dei vice dicam They refused not the name in a common sense but as it implyed Divine honour 4. Because they would not observe the publick festivals of the Emperors in the way that others did which it seems were observed with abundance of looseness and debauchery by all sorts of persons and as Tertullian smartly sayes malorum morum licentia piet as erit occasio luxuriae religio deputabitur Debauchery is accounted a piece of loyalty and intemperance a part of religion Which made the Christians rather hazard the reputation of their loyalty then bear a part in so much rudeness as was then used and thence they abhorred all the solemn spectacles of the Romans nihil est nobis saith the same author dictu visu auditu cum insania Circi cum impudicitia Theatri cum atrocitate arenae cum Xysti vanitate They had nothing to do either with the madness of the Cirque or the immodesty of the Theatre or the cruelty of the Amphitheatre or the vanity of the publick wrestlings We see then what a hard Province the Christians had when so many Laws were laid as birdlime in their way to catch them that it was impossible for them to profess themselves Christians and not run into a Praemunire by their Laws And therefore it cannot be conceived that many out of affectation of novelty should then declare themselves Christians when so great hazards were run upon the professing of it Few soft-spirited men and lovers of their own ease but would have found some fine distinctions and nice evasions to have reconciled themselves to the publick Laws by such things which the Primitive Christians so unaenimously refused when tending to prophaness or Idolatry And from this discourse we cannot but conclude with the Apostle Paul that the weapons whereby the Apâ—stles and Primitive Christians encountered the Heathen world were not fleshly or weak but exceeding strong and powerfull in that they obtained so great a conquest over the imaginations and carnal reasonings of men which were their strong holds they secured themselves in as to make them readily to forsake their Heathen worship and become chearful servants to Christ. Thus we see the power of the doctrine of Christ which prevailed over the principles of education though backt with pretended antiquity universality and establishment by civil Laws But this will further appear if we consider that not only the matters of faith were contrary to the principles of education but because many of them seemed incredible to mens natural reason that we cannot think persons would be over forward to believe such things Every one being so ready to take any advantage against a religion which did so little flatter corrupt nature either as to its power or capacity in so much that those who preached this doctrine declared openly to the world that such persons who would judge of the Christian doctrine by such principles which meer natural reason did proceed upon such one I suppose it is whom the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that owned nothing but natural reason whereby to judge of Divine truths could not entertain matters of faith or of Divine revelation because such things would seem but folly to him that owned no higher principle then Philosophy or that did not believe any Divine inspiration neither can such a one know them because a Divine revelation is the only way to come to a through understanding of them and a person who doth not believe such a Divine revelation it is impossible he should be a competent judge of the truth of the doctrine of Christ. So that the only ground of receiving the doctrine of the Gospel is upon a Divine revelation that God himself by his Son and his Apostles hath revealed these deep mysteries to the world on which account it is we are bound to receive them although they go beyond our reach and comprehension But we see generally in the Heathen world how few of those did believe the doctrine of Christ in comparison who were the great admirers of the Philosophy and way of learning which was then cryed up the reason was because Christianity not only contained far deeper mysteries then any they were acquainted with but delivered them in such a way of authority commanding them to believe the doctrine they preached on the account of the Divine authority of the revealers of it Such a way of proposal of doctrines to the world the Philosophy of the Greeks was unacquainted with which on that account they derided as not being suited to the exact method which their sciences proceeded in No doubt had the Apostles come among the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of pomp and ostentation and had fed mens curiositiâ—s with vain and unnecessary speculations they might have had as many followers among the Greeks for their sakes as Christ had among the Iews for the sake of the loaves But the matters of the Gospel being more of inward worth and moment then of outward pomp and shew the vain and empty Greeks presently finde a quarrel with the manner of proposing them that they came not in a way of clear demonstrâ—tion but stood so much upon faith as soon as it were delivered Thence Celsus and Galen think they have
reason enough to reject the Laws of Moses and Christ because Celsus calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galen Christianity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were such doctrines which require faith and obedience without giving mens reason an account of the things commanded As though the authority of a Legislator sufficiently manifested were not enough to enforce a Law unless a sufficient account were given of the thing required to the purblind reason of every individual person acted by passions and private interests as to the justice and equity of it And so the primary obligation on mans part to faith and obedience must arise not from the evidence of Divine authority but of the thing it self which is revealed to the most partial judgement of every one to whom it is proposed Which those who know how short the stock of reason is at the best in men and how easily that which is is fashioned and moulded according to prâ—judices and interests already entertained will look upon only as a design to comply with the carnal desires of men in that thereby none shall be bound to go any further then this blind and corrupted guide shall lead them Now these being the terms on which the Gospel of Christ must have expected entertainment in the Gentile world how impossible lâ—ad it been ever to have sound any success among men had there not been sufficient evidence given by a power of miracles that however strange and incredible the doctrine might seem yet it was to be believed because there was sufficient means to convince men that it was of Divine revelation Neither were the matters of saith only contrary to the inclinations of the world but so were the precepts of life or those things in Christianity which concerned practice There are two things which are the main scope and design of Christianity in reference to mens lives to take them off from their sins and from the world and of all things these are they which mens hearts are so bewitched with Now the precepts of the Gospel are such which require the greatest purity of heart and life which call upon men to deny themselves and all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world that all that name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity that all true Christians must be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and must perfect holiness in the fear of God And the Gospel enforceth these precepts of holiness with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God on those who disobey them that the Lord Iesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ. That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness That no persons who live in the habitual practice of any known sin shall inherit the Kingdom of God That no man should deceive them with vain words for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience that men do but vainly flatter themselves when they seek to reconcile unholy lives with the hopes of future happiness for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And then in reference to the things of this present life which men busie themselves so much about the Gospel declares that they who love this world the love of the Father is not in them that the friendship of this world is enmity with God and whosoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy to God That Christians must not set their affections on earth but on things in heaven That the conversation of true Christians is in heaven That we ought not to lay up our treasure on earth but in heaven That we must not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Now the whole design of the doctrine of Christ being to perswade men to lead a holy and heavenly life while they are in this world and thereby to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light can we think so many men whose hearts were wedded to sin and the world could so suddenly be brought off from both without a divine power accompanying that doctrine which was preached to them And therefore the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ i. e. though the Gospel of Christ be the only true mysterie yet I do not by it as the Heathens are wont to do with their famous Eleusinian mysteries which were kept so secret by all the mystae and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but saith he I know no reason I have to be ashamed of any thing in the Gospel that I should labour its concealment to advance its veneration but the more publike the Gospel is the more it manifests its power for through it God is pleased mightily to work in order to the salvation both of Iew and Gentile And of all the success of the Gospel that upon the hearts and lives of men deserves the greatest consideration The great efficacy and power of the Gospel was abundantly seen in that great alteration which it wrought in all those who were the hearty imbracers of it The Philosophers did very frequently and deservedly complain of the great inefficacy of all their moral precepts upon the minds of men and that by all their instructions politiora non meliora ingenia fiunt men improved more in knowledge then goodness but now Christianity not only enforced duties on men with greater power and authority For the Scriptures do as Saint Austin speaks Non tanquam ex Philosophorum concertationibus strepere sed tanquam ex oraculis Dei nubibus intonare not make some obstreperous clamours like those tinkling Cymbals the Philosophers but awe the souls of men with the majesty of that God from whom they came Neither was it only a great and empty sound which was heard in the preaching of the Gospel but when God thundred therein he broke down the stately Cedars and shook the Wilderness and made the Hinds to Calve as it is said of Thunder called the voice of the Lord in Scripture he humbled the pride of men unsettled the Gentile world from its former foundations and wrought great alterations on all those who hearkened to it The whose design of the Gospel is couched in those words which Saint Paul tells us were spoken to him by Christ himself when he appointed him to be an Apostle to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
seek for satisfaction as ever for granting that a Divine power is seen in one and not in the other he must needs be still dissatisfied unless it can be made evident to him that such things are from Divine power and others cannot be Now the main distinction being placed here in the natures of the things abstractly considered and not as they bear any evidence to our understandings in stead of resolving doubts it increaseth more for as for instance in the case of the Magicians rods turning into scrpents as well as Moses his what satisfaction could this yeild to any spectator to tell him that in the one there was a Divine power and not in the other unless it were made appear by some evidence from the thing that the one was a meer imposture and the other a real alteration in the thing it self I take it then for granted that no general discourses concerning the formal difference of miracles and wonders considered in themselves can afford any rational satisfaction to an inquisitive mind that which alone is able to give it must be something which may be discerned by any judicious and considerative person And that God never gives to any a power of miracles but he gives some such ground of satisfaction concerning them will appear upon these two considerations 1. From Gods intention in giving to any this power of doing miracles We have largely made it manifest that the end of true miracles is to be a confirmation to the world of the Divine commission of the persons who have it and that the testimony is Divine which is confirmed by it Now if there be no way to know when miracles are true or false this power is to no purpose at all for men are as much to seek for satisfaction as if there had been no such things at all Therefore if men are bound to believe a Divine testimony and to rely on the miracles wrought by the persons bringing it as an evidence of it they must have some assurance that these miracles could not come from any but a Divine power 2. From the providence of God in the world which if we own we cannot imagine that God should permit the Devil whose only design is to ruine mankind to abuse the credulity of the world so far as to have his lying wonders pass uncontrouled which they must do if nothing can be found out as a certain difference between such things as are only of Diabolical and such as are of Divine power If then it may be discovered that there is a malignant spirit which acts in the world and doth produce strange things either we must impute all strange things to him which must be to attribute to him an infinite power or else that there is a being infinitely perfect which crosseth this malignant spirit in his designs and if so we cannot imagine he should suffer him to usurpe so much tyranny over the minds of men as to make those things pass in the more sober and inquisitive part of the world for Divine miracles which were only counterfeits and impostures If then the providence of God be so deeply engaged in the discovering the designs of Satan there must be some means of this discovery and that means can be supposed to be no other in this case but some rational and satisfactory evidence whereby we may know when strange and miraculous things are done by Satan to deceive men and when by a Divine power to confirm a Divine testimony But how is it possible say some that miracles should be any ground on which to believe a testimony Divine when Christ himself hath told us that there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect and the Apostle tells us that the coming of Antichrist will be with all power and signs and lying wonders How then can we fix on miracles as an evidence of Divine testimony when we see they are common to good and bad men and may seal indifferently either truth or falshood To this I reply 1. Men are guilty of doing no small disservice to the doctrine of Christ when upon such weak and frivolous pretences they give so great an advantage to infidelity as to call in question the validity of that which yeilded so ample a testimony to the truth of Christian religion For if once the rational grounds on which we believe the doctrine of Christ to be true and Divine be taken away and the whole evidence of the truth of it be laid on things not only derided by men of Atheistical spirits but in themselves such as cannot be discerned or judged of by any but themselves upon what grounds can we proceed to convince an unbeliever that the doctrine which we believe is true If they tell him that as light and fire manifest themselves so doth the doctrine of the Scriâ—ture to those who believe it It will be soon replyed that self-evidence in a matter of faith can imply nothing but either a firm perswasion of the mind concerning the thing propounded or else that there are such clear evidences in the thing it self that none who freely use their reason can deny it the first can be no argument to any other person any further then the authority of the person who declares it to have such self-evidence to him doth extend its self over the mind of the other and to ones self it seems a strange way of arguing I believe the Scriptures because they are true and they are true because I believe them for self-evidence implyes so much if by it be meant the perswasion of the mind that the thing is true but if by self-evidence be further meant such clear evidence in the matter propounded that all who do consider it must believe it I then further enquire whether this evidence doth lie in the nâ—ked proposal of the things to the understanding and if so then every one who assents to this proposition that the whole is greater then the part must likewise assent to this that the Scripture is the Word of God or whether doth the evidence lie not in the naked proposal but in the efficacy of the Spirit of God on the minds of those to whom it is propounded Then 1. The self-evidence is taken off from the written Word which was the object and removed to a quite different thing which is the efficient cause 2. Whether then any persons who want this efficacious operation of the Spirit of God are or can be bound to believe the Scripture to be Gods Word If they are bound the duty must be propounded in such a way as may be sufficient to convince them that it is their duty but if all the evidence of the truth of the Scripture lie on this testimony of the Spirit then such as want this can have none at all But if â—astly by this self-evidence be meant
the Greeks received from the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they put it into a better fashion i. e. they disguise it alter and change it as they please and put it into a Greek habit that it might never be suspected to have been a Forraigner Thence Tertullian speaks with a great deal of truth and freedom of such Philosophers who did ingenii sitim de prophetarum fonte irrigare as he expresseth it that quenched their thirst after knowledge with the waters of Iordan though they did not like Naaman cure the leproâ—ic of the head by washing in them for as Tertullian saith theâ— came only ex negotio curiositatis more to please the i tch oâ— their curiosity then to cure it And wherein they seemed most to agree with the Scriptures their difference was beyond their agreement Siquidem vera quaeque consonantia Prophetis aut aliunde commendant aut aliorsum subornant cum maxima injuria veritatis quam efficiunt aut adjuvari falsis aut patrocinari Whatever the Philosophers speak agreeable to the Scriptures either they do not own whence they had it or turn it quite another way whereby they have done the truth a great deal of injury by mixing it with their corruptions of it and making that little truth a plea for the rest of their errors Neither was this only among the ancient Philosophers but the Primitive Christians began to discern the underhand workings of such who sought to blend Philosophy and Christianity together for Tertullian himself takes great notice of such who did Veritatis dogmata ad Philosophicas sententias adulterare suborn Christianity to maintain Philosophy which makes him cry out Viderint qui Stoicum Platonicum Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt by which we see what tampering there was betimes rather to bring Christianity down to Philosophy rather then to make Philosophy truckle under the truth and simplicity of the Scriptures Whether Ammonius himself and some others of the School of Alexandria might be guilty in this kind is not here a place to enquire though it be too evident in the writings of some that they rather seek to accommodate the Scriptures to the Sentiments of the School of Plato then to reform that by the Scriptures but I say however it were with those who were Christians yet those who were not but only Philosophers made their great advantage by it For when they found what was reconcileable with the doctrine of Plato in the Scriptures done already to their hands by the endeavours chiefly of Ammonius and Origen they greedily embrace those improvements of their Philosophy which would tend so much to the credit of it and as contemptuously reject what they found irreconcileable with the dictates of their Philosophy Now what an unreasonable thing is it when what ever was noble and excellent in the Heathen Philosophy was derivative from 〈◊〉 Scriptures as the sacred Fountâ—in of it that the meeting with such things should in the least redound to the prejudice of the Scriptures from whence it was originally derived when on the other side it should be a great confirmation to our faith as to the Scriptures that they who were professed Philosophers and admirers only of reason did so readily embrace some of those grand Truths which are contained in the word of God For which we need no other instance then that before us concerning the Origine of evil the making out of which will tend to the clearing the last thing mentioned concerning it which was that the most material things in it are attested by the Heathens themselves And this honey which is gained out of the Lions mouth must needs tast sweeter then any other doth For it is a weak and groundless mistake on the other side which is the second which ariseth from meeting things consonant to the Scriptures in the writings of Philosophers presently to conclude from such things that they were Christians as it is said some have lately done in the behalf of Hierocles For there being such clear accounts given in Scripture of the grand difficulties and perplexities which the minds of men were troubled with when these came to the knowledge of such who were of Philosophick and inquisitive heads we cannot but think they would meet with acceptation among them especially if they might be made consistent with their former speculations Thus it was in our present case concerning the Origine of evil we have already beheld the lamentable perplexities the ancient Philosophers were in about it what Maeanders they were lost in for want of a clue to guide them through them now it pleased God after the coming of Christ in the flâ—shâ—o â—o declare to the world the only way for the recovery 〈◊〉 souls and their eternal salvation the news of which being spread so far that it soon got among the Philosophers could not but make them more inquisitive concerning the state and condition of their souls and when they had searched what the Philosophers had formerly discovered of it their curiosity would presently prompt them to see what account of things concerning the souls of 〈◊〉 delivered by the preachers of this New Doctrine B◠〈◊〉 they could not but presently understand that they declared all mens souls to be in a most degenerate and low condition by being so continually under the power of the most unreasonable and unruly passions that they were estranged from God and prone to fix on things very unsuitable to their nature as to all which their own inward sense and experience could but tell them that these things were notoriously true and therefore they enquire further how these things came to be so which they receive a full account of in Scripture that mans soul was at first created pure and holy and in perfect friendship with God that God dealt bountifully and favourably with man only expected obedience to his Laws that man being a free agent did abuse his liberty and disobeyed his Maker and thence came the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feathers of the soul whereby it soared up to heaven moulted away and the soul sunk below its self into a degenerate and apostate condition out of which it is impossible to be recovered without some extraordinary expression of Divine Favour Now what is there in all this account but what is hugely suitable to principles of reason and to the general experience of the world as to those things which were capable of being tryed by it And those Philosophers who were any thing ingenuâ—us and lovers of truth could not but confess the truth of those things which we are now speaking of viz. That mens souls are in a very degenerate condition That the most rational account of it is that man by the act of his own will brought himself into it and that in order to the happiness of mens souls there was a necessity of recovery out of this condition As to the degeneracy of the souls of men This
of that God who reveals it whose authority extends over the soul and conscience of man in its most secret and hidden recesses 3. In a pure and unmixed manner in all other writings how good soever we have a great mixture of dross and gold together here is nothing but pure gold Diamonds without flaws Suns without spots The most current coynes of the world have their alloyes of baser mettals there is no such mixture in divine Truths as they all come from the same Author so they all have the same purity There is a Urim and Thumim upon the whole Scripture light and perfection in every part of it In the Philosophers we may meet it may be with some scattered fragments of purer mettal amidst abundance of dross and impure oare here we have whole wedges of gold the same vein of purity and holiness running through the whole book of Scriptures Hence it is called the form of sound words here have been no hucksters to corrupt and mix their own inventions with Divine Truths 4 In an uniform and agreeable manner This I grant is not sufficient of its self to prove the Scriptures to be Divine because all men do not contradict themselves in their writings but yet here are some peculiar circumstances to be considered in the agreeableness of the parts of Scripture to each other which are not to be found in meer humane writings 1. That this doctrine was delivered by persons who lived in different ages and times from each other Usually one age corrects anothers faults and we are apt to pitty the ignorance of our predecessors when it may be our posterity may think us as ignorant as we do them But in the sacred Scripture we read not one age condemning another we find light still increasing in the series of times in Scripture but no reflections in any time upon the ignorance or weakness of the precedent the dimmest light was sufficient for its age and was a step to further discovery Quintilian gives it as the reason of the great uncertainty of Grammar rules quia non analogia demissa coelo formam loquendi dedit that which he wanted as to Grammar we have as to Divine Truths they are delivered from heaven and therefore are alwayes uniform and agreeable to each other 2. By persons of different interests in the world God made choice of men of all ranks to be enditers of his oracles to make it appear it was no matter of State policy or particular interest which was contained in his word which persons of such different interests could not have agreed in as they do We have Moses David Solomon persons of royal rank and quality and can it be any mean thing which these think it their glory to be penners of We have Isaiah Daniel and other persons of the highest education and accomplishments and can it be any trivial thing which these imploy themselves in We have Amos other Prophets in the old Testament and the Apostles in the New of the meaner sort of men in the world yet all these joyn in consort together when God tunes their spirits all agree in the same strain of divine truths and give light and harmony to each other 3. By persons in different places and conditions some in prosperity in their own country some under banishment and adversity yet all agreeing in the same substance of doctrine of which no alteration we see was made either for the flattery of those in power or for avoiding miseries and calamities And under all the different dispensations before under and after the Law though the management of things was different yet the doctrine and design was for substance the same in all All the different dispensations agree in the same common principles of religion the same ground of acceptance with God and obligation to duty was common to all though the peculiar instances wherein God was served might be different according to the ages of growth in the Church of God So that this great uniformity considered in these circumstances is an argument that these things came originally from the same Spirit though conveyed through different instruments to the knowledge of the world 5. In a perswasive and convincing manner and that these wayes 1. Bringing divine truths down to our capacity cloathing spiritual matter in familiar expressions and similitudes that so they might have the easier admission into our minds 2. Propounding things as our interest which are our duty thence God so frequently in Scripture recommends our dutyes to us under all those motives which are wont to have the greatest force on the minds of men and annexeth gracious promises to our performance of them and those of the most weighty and concerning things Of grace favour protection deliverance audience of prayers and eternal happiness and is these will not prevail with men what motives will 3. Courting us to obedience when he might not only command us to obey but punish presently for disobedience Hence are all those most pathetical and affectionate strains we read in Scripture O that there were such a heart within them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments alwayes that it might go well with them and with their children after them Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye dye O hâ—use of Israel How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zâ—boim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings and ye would not What Majesty and yet what sweetness and condescension is there in these expressions What obstinacy and rebellion is it in men for them to stand out against God when he thus comes down from his throne of Majesty and wooes rebellious sinners to return unto him that they may be pardoned Such a matchless and unparalleld strain of Rhâ—torick is there in the Scripture far above the art and insinuations of the most admired Orators Thus we see the peculiar excellency of the manner wherein the matters contained in Scripture are revealed to us thus we have considered the excellency of the Scripture as it is a discovery of Gods mind to the world The Scriptures may be considered as a rule of life or as a Law of God which is given for the Government of the lives of men and therein the excellency of it lies in the nature of the dutyes and the encouragements to the practice of them 1. In the nature of the dutyes required which are most becoming God to require most reasonable for us to perform 1. Most becoming God to require as they are most suitable and agreeable to the Divine nature the imitation of which in our actions is the