Education And accordingly we find the Event was For we have no absolute certainty that any One Philosopher of Note embrac'd the Christian Faith till it had been for many Years Preach'd and disseminated and had taken deep root in the World The Casual Cessation of Oracles as 't is call'd about the Time of Promulging the Gospel was not casual but directly caus'd by that Promulgation and we own had men understood it to be so then and imputed this Cessation to its True Principle it would have been very Effectual to have brought in the Heathen World to the acknowledgment of Christ. But we deny that they did at all understand or allow it to be so And for a plain Proof of this we referr our selves to That discourse in Plutarch about the Cessation of Oracles where among many Reasons which that Learned Man assigns for it This of the coming of Christ is not mention'd or hinted at Thô He gives Such an account of things there that a Christian would easily prove from what He relates that it was really the coming of Christ that effected it Lastly Neither can any probable account of this matter be drawn from the Charitable Distribution of their Goods which the sirst Christians made For supposing This might tempt some of the Poorer sort yet surely They that were Easie in their Circumstances and had wherewithall to sustain themselves did not come in upon This Motive It will not be said I hope that They who made this Distribution of their Goods which will be found have been a very great and considerable number came in to partake of it But then neither could the Hopes of this be any Great Temptation even to the Poorer sort since there was Something in the Christian Religion ten times more apt to frighten them than This was to allure them the strict Rules of Honesty and Temperance they were bound to live by and the great Calamities and Persecutions they were sure to undergoe I do not deny after all but that Every One of These Causes might in a natural way contribute somewhat either to the planting or spreading of the Gospel But I think it is Evident from the short Hints I have suggested to You that All of them together were not able to do the thousandth part of That Work which is allotted them And therefore to resolve this Great Event into a mere Conspiracy of second Causes as 't is call'd without any regard to the first is an absurd and a senseless attempt and onely shews us how very strong an Inclination and Biass there must be in Some minds towards Infidelity when they can bring themselves to espouse it upon so very Slight Grounds A man that should see an Acorn put into the Ground and perceive in a Few weeks or months an Oak shoot up from it to a prodigious height and spread its Branches to an amazing extent so as even to cover the whole Field where it grew might as well say there was a strange Conspiracy of Natural Causes an extraordinary degree of warmth moysture and so forth which concurr'd to produce this effect as affirm that the Vast Progress of the Gospel was owing to such petty Principles as Some men endeavour to persuade themselves it was But it must be granted them that their Thoughts are of a piece and that This particular Tenet falls in with Their Systeme For their account of the New Creation by Jesus Christ is much like That they give of the Old one It was a Lucky Hit of concurring Causes that propagated Christianity And it was a Lucky Hit also in the several motions of innumerable Atoms that at first made the World And 't is the same Lucky Hit that still preserves and governs it too And They who assert the Last of these Opinions may consistently enough be supposed to entertain the former too But surely no other Creature but an Atheist by Complexion can ever take up with such pittiful Accounts of things Well then The Christian Religion from small and weak beginnings spread itself farr and wide after a sudden and strange manner and this it did against all probability and contrary to all the Rules of success that all other Rising Opinions have ever set up with It had no One of those great Advantages some of which recommend every new Sect that stands and prevails and as for all other Lesser Helps and Assistances toward its increase which the Wit of Man can assign they are apparently too weak to sustain the weight that is lay'd on them It remains therefore that This wondrous Effect sprang undoubtedly from the immediate Influence of the First Cause actuating after an Extraordinary manner the Industry and blessing the Endeavours of the Apostles stirring up the Minds of Men to attend to and disposing Their Hearts to imbrace the Truths of the Gospel in a word accompanying all they said and did with mighty Signs and Wonders with the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power FINIS Advertisement PRinted for Tho. Bennet A Sermon on Praise an Thanksgiving before the Queen at White-Hall ' May 29. 1692. The Power of Charity to cover sin A Sermon before the Governours of Bridewell and Bethlehem August 16. 1694. Both by the same Author
contrary to the Establish'd Rites and Religions of all Countrys and in all Ages of the World They set out from Jerusalem with This Design they disperse themselves through all the quarters of the Earth they succeed every where and in a very short time prevail with great Multitudes in every Nation and Kingdom to submit to the Laws and to own the Religion of Jesus Now I say here was no manner of proportion between the Cause and its Effect between the Work that was wrought and the Instruments that wrought it and therefore it must needs have been that a Divine Invisible Power went along with 'em in every step and miraculously bless'd their Endeavors Which Truth that we may be fully convinc'd of I shall consider more particularly What naturally speaking are the best Advantages for a New Opinion to set up with and under what Circumstances it is most likely to prevail and I shall shew that the Christian Religion was utterly destitute of Every One of these Advantages and yet nevertheless did prevail Now there are Four Things that chiefly conduce to the spreading of any New Doctrine and do most remarkably make way for its reception in the World As First If the Principles of it be suited to the Lusts the Interests and Wishes of Those among whom it is to be propagated Secondly If it be supported and countenanced by Men of Power and Authority of great Name and Note if it be either forcibly obtruded upon men by those who have Dominion over 'em or more indirectly advanc'd by Art and Management and the Methods of worldly Prudence Thirdly If it be first brought into the World in dark and barbarous Ages when Men are either too Rude and Illiterate to be Able to weigh And to dispute the Truth of it or too much sunk in Sloth and Vice to be Willing to do it Or Fourthly If it be not proposed to men all At Once but be insinuated into 'em by Degrees Secretly and Insensibly As to the First of these it is certain that nothing recommends a new Doctrine so much or bids so fair for its Universal Reception as its falling in with the corrupt Desires and Inclinations the Passions and Prejudices of Men. For Men are without difficulty brought to believe an Opinion true which they wish true beforehand And This was the way in which that cunning Impostor Mahomet set up for a new Prophet He made his Doctrine as relishing and palatable as he could contriv'd it on purpose so as it might gratifie Men's Lusts and Appetites and especially that it might comply with the loose and wanton Manners of the East where he first erected his Standard And Thus also ever since has Libertinism of all kinds promoted its Interest and increased its Party Heterodox Opinions have grown up and thriven in prejudice to true Religion and sound Morality because there was Something in 'em that flattered either our Vanity our Lust or our Pride and fell in with a darling Inclination And This was that single Art to which Mr. Hobbs ow'd all his Reputation and his Followers it was not his Philosophy and his boasted Reason that drew Men in but the skill he had in fitting his Principles to Men's Constitutions and Tempers He knew what would take and be lik'd and he express'd it after a taking manner and no wonder then if it were greedily entertain'd To talk against receiv'd Opinions and in behalf of some belov'd Vices and Frailties to dress up his Discourse in all the natural Beauties of Language and to give it beside the air of Demonstration This he knew to be a sure way of making the Men of Wit and Pleasure of his side and This therefore he followed with application and success like one of the Children of This Generation thar are wiser in Their way than the Children of Light But now when Christianity first appear'd did it take This way of spreading its interests No! but quite contrary it proposed naked and simple Truths without any regard to what was Agreeable and Pleasing It held forth High and Unconceivable mysteries which the Pride of Man would make him apt to Suspect because he could not Comprehend and it preach'd up Harsh and Ungrateful Doctrines which did Violence to Mens Natures and which it was Death to them to think of entertaining And yet I say under This great Disadvantage it made its way and prosper'd But Secondly It is another great Advantage to a rising Opinion if it be espous'd by Men of Authority Repute and Parts that may either force its reception by Dint of Power or bring it about by Arts of Management and Contrivance And Thus the Prophet of the East also hew'd out his way by the power of the Sword took advantage from the divisions and weakness of Christendom to arm a Savage Multitude and make large inroads into it and then having brought into subjection the Bodies of Men first had no hard task afterwards to inslave their Souls And Thus was it that the Papal Usurpations often prevail'd the Bishops of Rome got Zealous Princes into their Interests and made them blindly obedient to the Holy See and then by Their help forc'd their Decrees upon whole unwilling Provinces and Kingdoms And as Some of their Encroachments Thus got footing so many Others we know were brought in at first and have been supported ever since by the highest and most refind Arts of Policy That See has never wanted from the very moment that it first set up its pretences a number of skilful Managers that have continually pleaded its Cause and carried on its Interests with all the Dexterity and Address that Human Wit is capable of It has ever had the warmest I had almost said the wisest heads and most willing hands ready to engage in its Service and no wonder therefore if its Delusions have spread so far and wide and infected such Numbers It was much the Same Case with the Broachers of Heresie in the Antient Church They were generally Leading Men of some Figure and Repute in the World of great Wit and Subtlety and by the help of These they were able to raise a Dust and to make a Noise and to create a Party to themselves But now when Christianity set out how weak and defenceless was it how Artless and undesigning How utterly unsupported either by the Secular Arm or Secular Wisdom I send you said our Saviour to his Apostles like Sheep among Wolves And accordingly they went forth in the Spirit of Simplicity of Humility and Meekness Arm'd only with Truth and Innocence a good Cause and an equal Resolution The Weapons of their Warfare were not Carnal but Spiritual The Messengers of these Glad Tydings were so far from having a Name in the World that They were Contemtible Were scorn'd as Jews by the Rest of Mankind and as the meanest and lowest of Jews by the Jews themselves They left their Nets and their Hooks which probably were the Onely things they understood
Evidently assure us that the Preaching of the Apostles was in the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as if we had heard them speaking with Strange Tongues seen them Healing the Blind and Lame and Reviving the Dead Which Truth that we may be yet Further confirm'd in let us consider as I propos'd in the Third Place what Shifts the Enemies of the Gospel make use of to evade the force of This Argument This then is the utmost that Any of them pretend to say 'T is true they will own Christianity multiply'd very fast and This Increase of it was in some sense Miraculous That is it was wonderful as every Unusual Thing is to those who do not know or consider the Causes of it But to a man they say that will dare to go out of the Common road and to think for himself it will appear that there were at That Time natural Causes a foot sufficient to produce this Effect without needing a Recourse to something Divine and Supernatural The Apostles indeed were Twelve plain Illiterate Men that had not in Themselves force or skill enough to bring about Such an Event but Their Natural Inability was supply'd by a Lucky Confluence of Other Causes and by several Accidental Advantages that mightily help'd on the Work As for Example The Sufferings of those poor bigotted Creatures the Martyrs made mighty impressions upon Men especially upon Those of the same Rank with the Sufferers the Common people who never fail to take the side of the Oppress'd and to think that Cause good let it be what it will for the Profession of which Men are us'dill Then the Purity of the Christian Morals was a mighty Argument to bring in the Men of Probity and Vertue into the Interests of the Gospel And so Also was the Analogy of some of its Mystical Truths to the Doctrines of Plato then in great esteem and vogue a very good Bait to the Men of Philosophy and Learning The Distribution of Goods which the first Christians made and their Living together in Common was a good Reason for many mens embracing That Truth which they were sure would maintain them The Casual Cessation of Oracles was immediately turn'd to the advantage of the Christian Religiou as if That had procur'd it And the destruction of the Jewish State contributed greatly to the encrease of the Christian Numbers because it seem'd to have been foretold by Christ and therefore luckily coming to pass about that time rais'd an high Opinion in Men of his Person and Doctrine and made them willing to think that the Christian Estabishment now newly set up was design'd by God to come into the Room of the Jewish one which then hapned to be pull'd down And thus say they several Extraordinary and Accidental Advantages conspiring to advance the Growth of Christianity it grew indeed mightily and prevail'd as a little River will swell high and spread itself wide and run far if a great many other Streams should at once happen to empty themselves into it and These second Causes they think had of themselves force enough without our having recourse to a first to solve the appearance But now in opposition to this that These Causes assign'd were utterly insufficient to produce the Event for which they are assign'd a short Review of them I think and the time will allow of but a short one will easily satisfie us The Blood of the Martyrs was indeed according to that well known saying the Seed of the Church But how Not surely by alluring Men to the Profession of Christianity at the Time when those Martyrs suffer'd for certainly nothing was more apt to frighten and discourage men from professing the Gospel then to find they should be persecuted for it But the meaning of that saying is that the Sufferings and Torments which the first Christians underwent so willingly and so bravely were a strong Evidence of the Truth of that Doctrine which could inspire its followers with so much Courage Constancy and Resolution and dispos'd men mightily to embrace the Religion of Christ afterwards in better and more quiet Times But before This Motive could have any great force and influence the Gospel had allready spread and settled itself every where and therefore nothing can well be accounted for on This Head but the Accession that was made to Christianity after it was sufficiently establish'd and This had confessedly nothing extraordinary in it and is not the Thing which we are at present Enquiring after The same Answer serves to that Other pretended account of this Increase from the Destruction of the Jewish State It did indeed add to the Numbers of Christian Converts when it hapned but it hapned not till near forty Years after the Death of Christ and by That time Christianity was strong enough of itself and needed no Aids And then even at that time thô Several Jews promoted the Interests of the Gospel by owning the Faith yet the Obstinate Part of them that stood out did it abundantly more harm then the Complying Ones did it good For They were not satisfy'd in rejecting Christianity themselves but made it their business to render it odious suspected and contemptible to the Heathens also in all the Corners of the Earth to which they were driven The Purity of the Christian Morals and the answerable Lives of Christian Converts was indeed what would be apt to make men admire and value the Doctrine of Christ but by no means to come under the Yoke of it For thô most Men have an Esteem for strict Rules and strict Livers yet few care to practise the one or to Imitate the other And nothing I think could be contriv'd so effectual next to the former wise Motive from the Sufferings of the Martyrs to deterr men from Christianity as to tell them that when they took it upon them they must renounce their dearest Appetites and Passions and deny their very Selves And I desire the Men who raise these Objections against the Divinity of the Gospel to tell us fairly whether if They had liv'd at that time they think They should have come in upon This Principle I am sure they would not because it is This Principle alone that they must part with their Satisfactions and Pleasures if they do that keeps them out of it now Therefore neither can This be any Sufficient reason for the sudden and wide Growth of Christianity The Analogy of some mystical Truths of Christianity to the Doctrine of Plato is a yet a weaker plea. For This Motive is Calculated to touch but very few onely the Philosophers of the Academic School And with Those it could have no Great weight surely or at least not enough to over ballance that Scorn and Contempt which upon other accounts they had of the Christian Religion and its Promulgers of That for its short Unphilosophical way of proposing its Truths without Demonstration and Reasoning and of Those for their Ignorance and the Meanness of their
to come into a New World which they knew nothing of and to Preach a New Gospel with which all Men were unacquainted and yet still I say under These disadvantages also the Word of God mightily grew and prevail'd A Third Help towards planting a Doctrine it has been said to be if it be brought into the World in Dark and Barbarous Times when Men are either too Rude and Illiterate to be Able to weigh and to dispute the Truth of it or too much sunk in Sloth and Vice to be Willing to do it And This again cannot but put us in mind of the Romish Superstitions For it is plain that They took That Time of settling and spreading their Empire that of all Times since the coming of Christ was the most Ignorant and the least Inquisitive when Men were Vicious Lazy Dispirited Fearful and Credulous when gross Darkness sat upon the Face of the West when the Irruptions of the Goths and Vandals had destroy'd all the Old Learning as well as the Old Buildings and left nothing but Ignorance and Barbarity behind them Then in that Night as the Parable speaks did the Cunning Enemy come and sow his Tares when there was no body at Work or Awake to observe him And when he had sown them how could it otherwise be but that they should grow up together with the Corn and Flourish But did the Gospel take these advantages of Mens Credulity and Supineness No it took all ways of being Try'd and Examin'd to the uttermost It alarm'd the World a good while Before hand and gave fair Warning of its approach by plain Signs and Predictions and if the Prophecies of the Old Testament will not be admitted as Proofs in this case sure Tacitus and Virgil may be heard the First of which lays it down as a known Truth that there was about the Time of our Saviour a strong Tradition thrô all the East of a certain mighty Prince that was Then and There expected to arise and to govern the World and the Latter out of the Sibylline Verses transcrib'd Such an Account of things as did evidently and could only belong to the Days of the Gospel and the Reign of the Meffiah But That which is most Remarkable on This Head is that God pitch'd upon That particular Age to manifest his Gospel in when Good Sense and Learning and Wit were at the highest When the Roman Empire was in its full Glory and together with it all the Arts and Sciences flourish'd When the World was in profound Peace and at Liberty to examine the Truth of an Opinion that set up with Such pretences Then did the Glorious Light of the Gospel shine forth and challenge all the Curiosity the Subtilty and Spite of Men to inquire into it and sift it The Doctrines of Christianity shew'd themselves bare fac'd to all the Wits and Sages of both Rome and Athens and defy'd their Doubts and their Reasonings And yet under These discouraging Circumstances also it took root downwards and brought forth fruit upwards speedily and abundantly The fourth Help towards establishing any New Doctrine is if it be not propos'd to Men All at Once but insinuated into them only by insensible Steps and Degrees and This method has often made room for the belief of the most Monstrous Doctrines and the entertaintment of the Wildest Absurdities Witness once more several Articles in the Roman Catholic Faith which had they been offer'd to the minds of Men at once in their full Latitude had been refus'd with indignation and horror but being propos'd by piecemeal as it were were admitted before Men were aware every first step into Error smoothing the way towards a second and so onward till the passage was widen'd enough for a good lusty Contradiction to enter in at it But far from this Artificial Method of winning belief was the Religion of Jesus At its first coming abroad it offer'd itelf to the View of Men at full Length and in all its proportions No Moral Precept was reserv'd for a more Convenient Time no Doctrine no Great Fundamental Doctrine was disguis'd or conceal'd The Message it brought it deliver'd plainly and openly at once the most unwelcome Practical Truths a long with Those already Receiv'd the Sublimest Points of Faith together with the most Easie and Allow'd Ones The Primitive Apostles did not like those Later ones the Fathers of the Mission of China Preach up first a Glorify'd and then a Crucify'd Saviour but bore the Scandal of the Cross wheresoever and to whomsoever they open'd the Doctrines of it The slaying of Jesus and his being hanged on a Tree is mention'd in the very first Sermons of S. Peter This humanely speaking was an Unlikely way of gaining Proselytes and yet in spite of This Unlikelyhood Thus were innumerable Proselytes gain'd Let us lay together what has been said The Gospel of Christ at its Earliest appearance had all the Probabilities in the World against its Success for it was possest scarce of any One of those advantages which do most signally recommend a new Doctrine and make it thrive It had no Complying Tenets to sooth Mens Appetites and Passions but was all Harsh and Austere It had no encouragement no protection from the Civil Power no Force nor Cunning to uphold it no Men of Eminence and Esteem to engage on its side The Age in which it chose to discover it self was the most discerning and enlightned the most curious and inquisitive of perhaps any that ever was before it or has been since it and therefore it did not impose at unawares upon a rude and ignorant Generation Finally its Promulgers deliver'd it not out by Parcels as is the way of Cunning and Designing Men but offer'd the Whole of it to be all together examin'd and compar'd And yet with All These Clogs and Incumbrances upon it it sprang forth and made its way into the World by a swift and incredible Progress And from hence therefore I inferr that a Divine Power and Vertue must needs have gone along with it to Supply what was Wanting to it upon Other accounts and that its Increase cannot be esteem'd of any otherwise than as Supernatural and Miraculous So that were we acquainted with nothing more concerning the Apostles but what we have in the Four Evangelists were the Book of their Acts lost and together with it all manner of account of the wondrous Effusion of the Holy Spirit upon them at the day of Pentecost and of the mighty Signs and Wonders which they afterwards perform'd in Vertue of that Unction I say were we in the Dark to all these Matters of Fact which plainly shew the Christian Religion to have been propagated by Miracle yet could no Considering Man however deny but that their must have been somewhat Miraculous in it Such an Increase from Such beginnings Such a wonderful Revolution brought about by Such weak and disproportion'd Instruments is itself a Miracle and the greatest of Miracles and does as