that Reason which is obliged to own such Notions as do abound with equal if not greater Difficulties And certainly if Mathematicks will afford its Demonstrations pro and con if Matters obvious to sense do oft confound the Vnderstanding it is not to be hoped it should wade thorough the Abyss of infinite perfections and not be overwhelmed and lost 2. Consider whether you have not greater reason to believe these Doctrines then to disbelieve them From what is here discoursed in the introduction it is clear we have as many reasons to assert a Providence as we have reasons to believe that any signal Demonstrations of Gods power have been made by any acts of Judgment or of Mercy in any Parts or Ages of the World or that his Wisdome was engaged in any Revelations Oracles Predictions Dreams or Visions supernatural or in the Production of the World and in the exquisite Contrivance of any Portion of it We have as many reasons to believe a Providence as we have to assert that any good or evill Angels do exist or ever did appear or interest themselves in any actions of Mankind And yet our reasons which evince the truth of Christian Faith are far more numerous and cogent Let then the Atheist view and ponder what we have here produced in confirmation of these Truths and then consider whether his motives to renounce Christianity and to reject a Providence be more numerous and more convincing then what this Treatise offers to establish them If not he must have greater Reason to assert then to disown them and so his Infidelitie must be the worst of Follies Lastly Consider whether he that rejects the Christian Faith must not be forced to believe what 's more incredible then any Mystery contained in it For he must believe that Christ and his Disciples and the Christians of the three first Ages did endeavour to confirm the world in the belief of what they knew to be a lie and consequently that all the Primitive Professors who did so court the Flames and were so wearie of this present life were yet the vilest Atheists as not believing there was any God to punish this their pernicious lye Or secondly that they were all beside themselves that they had lost the principles of preservation and Self Love which Nature hath so deeply planted in the very Brutes and that they made it their designe to ruine and destroy their Souls and Bodys their Friends and their Relations to abandon all the Pleasures of this Life and to expose themselves to all the Miseries that can be incident to humane Nature without any motive but the love of Miserie And yet he must believe that they who did so little understand the common Principles of humane Nature were able to enrich the World with the best Notions of a Deity and of a future State and the best precepts of Moralitie that humane Nature ever was acquainted with And that these Fools had wit enough to propagate their Doctrine and to obtain belief throughout the World maugre all opposition that all the powers of men and Devils could make against them Or 2ly he must believe these Atheists chose to quit their Lives and suffer all the miseries they underwent only to beat down Atheisme and to establish that Religion which bears the Greatest Opposition to all the Naturall results of Atheisme He must believe that what is written in the Books of Scripture and the Apologies of all the Christians and that all that they pretended and appealed to in every corner of the World were but prodigious impudent untruths and that the World was universally induced to Worship a condemned Malefactor as God Blessed for evermore and to embrace the Doctrine of the Cross with all its Disadvantages without a seeming Miracle Or 2ly he must believe that they had no assistance in the Propagation of the Faith besides those arts of Magick in which both Jew and Gentile were more expert then they and which Apostates who were very numerous and frequent learned and ingenious were equally acquainted with and yet that never any of them did attempt to imitate or to disclose their Art or that the world when thus convinced of the Delusion would notwithstanding universally embrace and chuse to suffer for what they knew to be confirmed only by those Magical Collusions which they saw daily practised by Jew and Heathen and in which they were instructed by those very Christians who did so signally condemn those Arts as Devilish and threaten everlasting Misery to all that used them He must believe that all the Records of any signal Judgement which ever did befall the Enemies and Blasphemers of the Christian Faith or any portion of it or of any Mercies Preservations Gifts or Assistances vouchsafed to them in any age or places of the Christian World are void of Truth in every particular He must believe an hundred matters of like nature which this Treatise will suggest And therefore Reader I intreat you to peruse it with that care and diligence which matters of this moment do require and then I hope it may be instrumentall to convince you of and confirm you in the Truth of Christian Faith which is the hearty desire of Your Servant in the Defence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ DANIEL WHITBIE The Contents of the Chapters CHAP. I. WHAT Endeavours have been made to stop the growth of Atheism and Irreligion by asserting an All-wise presiding Power visible in the production of the World What seemeth further necessary to be alledged against the Atheist An Essay towards the eviction of a Providence 1. From the existence of evil Spirits 2. From many signal demonstrations of Gods Power 3. Of his Judgements upon rebellious Sinners And 4. of his power and mercy in preservation of his servants and his miraculous answers to their Prayers 5. From Revelations and Predictions of things contingent in their various Circumstances 6. From Apparitions of good and evil Angels 7. From Dreams and Visions supernatural 8. From things performed by pretenders to Miracles Magicians Witches Oracles Philosophers which could not be effected naturally c. The confirmation of the Christian Faith by what hath been delivered 1. by evincing that Providence hath been engaged for the establishment of some particular Religion in the World 2. That that particular Religion is no other then the Christian Faith pag. 1 2. CHAP. II. That common Prudence would not suffer the Apostles to pretend such things in their Historical Relations of the Life of Christ and in their Epistles to the Churches newly converted as must infallibly disgrace their Testimony and make them appear guilty of Delusion 2. That the Miracles recorded in those Historical Narrations and Epistles if true are a convincing evidence that some superior Power did assist the Workers of them 3. That Christ and his Disciples had no assistance from good or evil Angels to impose upon the World p. 55. CHAP. III. Sect. I. Proleg 4. That Christ and his Apostles did
believe it nothing besides this power of working Miracles but death and miseries at present which their experience proved to be true I say it is prodigious to think that He and his Disciples should with no other charmes worke such a lasting Faith in all the wisest part of men that neither time nor vice though most concerned to do so should ever be able to deface it And yet what 's so prodigiously incredible must be certain truth or else the Resurrection must be so THE CONCLUSION SHEWING that if what hath been delivered should be only probable yet the Christian Faith must in all reason be embraced as being 1. the safest way and 2ly the greatest instrument of present Happines A recapitulation of the whole with a practical reflection upon what hath been discoursed IF what hath been delivered do not seem to any to carry a convincing evidence let it but passe for probable and that which proves the Christian Faith more likely to be true than false and this will be sufficient plea for the profession of it For were it supposed only such it must in reason be embraced as being the securest way and the best instrument of present happiness And 1 CHRISTIANITY is the best help to present happines because it gives the highest motives to contentment in our present state the strongest comforts and supports against those evils we can fear or suffer the best preservatives and remedies against the terrors of an evil conscience the most effectual remedies against those passions and corrupt affections which impair our health and which disturb our peace and quiet It gives the fairest hopes and promises and so the greatest motives unto love and kindnes as is exceeding evident from Scripture and from what we have discoursed in the 10th Chap. of this Book 2. That Christianity is also the securest way hath been already proved and is invincibly concluded from what Arnobius saith of it See the Preface in illo periculi nihil est si quod dicitur imminere cassum fiat vacuum in hoc damnum est maximum id est salutis amissio si cum tempus advenerit aperiatur non fuisse mendacium Besides all other waies of Worship which stand in competition with it are so absurd or surely antiquated as not to bear the least degree of Evidence compared to the Evidence of Christian Faith and therefore we may rest assured that if there be a Providence it cannot be offended with us for preferring this before them But God may justly be incensed against us for not embracing of the Christian Faith though the Inducements so to do were only probable because we prosecute the most important Actions and Affaires of humane life upon the like Inducements We goe to sea only in hopes of a good Voyage and a safe returne and have recourse to the Physician only in hopes of a recovery and therefore cannot be excused if we neglect to do what we have like or greater reason to believe is both the will of God and that which doth conduce to our eternal happines especially considering that Christianity doth promise greater measures of Conviction and degrees of Evidence to such as do obey its Precepts assuring us that he who doth the Will of Christ shall know the Doctrine whether it be of God or not § 2. IF then it be but probable that Christ and his Disciples were endowed with any Power of working Miracles in confirmation of the Christian Faith that any of them healed diseases cast out devils raised the Dead and whilst they constantly pretended to these things for many generations and in all places of the World and did avouch them with their dearest blood were not the worst of fools and knaves or most deluded persons Or if it be but probable that such Men could never leave unto the world the best and the sublimest Revelations such as outdid the Laws of wisest Nations and all the Precepts of Philosophy such as best serve the present and eternal Interests of Man such as are most consistent with the common Principles of Reason and yet too hard for reason to invent If it be probable that they could never by the bare Assertion of the Resurrection of a condemned malefactor confirmed only by a lye prevail upon the world to owne him for their God to desert all other ways of Worship and to run the greatest risks at present only in expectation of some future Blessing which he had promised in another life If it be probable that such a world of men would never suffer fiery tryals and sundry kinds of death become the scorne and the Ofscouring of the world only to propagate that lye which scarce afforded a temptation so to do If it be probable that any real Judgments were inflicted upon the Enemies of the Christian Faith or upon such as did prevaricate in the profession of it or that the Church and chiefly the Apostles had power to inflict such Judgments and did not terrify their converts vith vain words If it be probable that any Revelations have been ever made in favour of the Christian Cause 1. Cor. 14. 29 30 31 32. and that S. Paul in his Epistles to the Church of Corinth doth not give directions about things of nought and confidently tell them that ever one had a Revelation when no man did enjoy it If it be probable that any Dreams or Visions have been vouchsafed to them or any tokens of divine Assistance under sufferings of wonderful deliverance from them of confusion to their Adversaries If it be probable that the predictions of the Messiah of the Jews were perfectly accomplish'd in our JESUS and that things particularly foretold by him viz. his Death and Resurrection the large and speedy Propagation of the Christian Faith the Miracles of his Disciples the destruction of the Jewish nation however most incredible were most assuredly fulfill'd or that that gift of Prophesie to which so many thousand soules pretended throughout divers centuryes was really vouchsafed to any one of them If it be probable that any of them spake with Tongues and the Apostle did not charge the Church of Corinth with the too frequent exercise of a gift with which they never were acquainted If it be probable that the whole Sect of Christians for three hundred years were neither wicked Impostors nor yet deluded Persons If it be probable that they had no assistance from good or evil Angels to delude the World and yet did things which could not be effected without the aid of some supernaturall Powers If it be probable that both their Gospels and Epistles were indited in that Age they lived in and sent to those Persons to whome they are inscribed and if it be improbable that whilst so many were alive that could attest the truth or falsehood of their story it should though a prodigious and bare-faced lye obtain to be the Rule of Faith I say if all these things are probable then must Christianity
not Sow and Plant and trade only in hopes of an encrease and should not then the hopes and probabilities of infinite eternal Happiness provided for the pious Christian engage us to obey Gods Precepts and to resist all those Temptations which flesh and blood suggests against them If thus to seek the false uncertain Mammon be the great Wisdome of the world can it be Folly to pursue with equal diligence and vigour but with better Hopes the true lasting Riches If then it be but probable that all the world throughout all Ages did not embrace the Doctrine of a Providence without some plausible Inducement so to do If all the primitive Martyrs and Confessors did not suffer for the Name of Christ and all succeeding Generations did not embrace or continue in the Profession of the Faith of Christ without all reason motive or even probable inducement If any of those probabilities we have amass'd together in the close of this Discourse deserve to be esteemed such or any of those Arguments which in this Treatise we have urged be probable then must the Folly of the Atheist be exceeding great and clear beyond exception 3. It must be Folly to renounce that Faith which hath been Generally owned by men of strongest Parts and most discerning Judgments in very many Nations and through many Generations and which delivers matters of so great Moment and Concern that our eternal Happiness or Misery depends upon them till we have used the Greatest diligence to search into the Reasons which induced them to believe it true Let then the Atheist say what he hath done to satisfie his judgment in this great Concern whether he ever did peruse the writings and Apologies of Antient Fathers or the most eminent Divines who have discoursed upon this Subject to the Satisfaction of the knowing World Whether he ever did consult with Persons of the best abilities propound his scruples and consider of the Answers given before he ventured to scoff at and renounce his Faith If not this is sufficient to convince him of the greatest Folly in the World If any that pretends to have used all this diligence and all these Endeavours continue still to question and suspect the truth of Christian Faith and of the Doctrine of a Providence let me intreat him to consider 1. Whether those motives which induce him to renounce a Providence or Christian Faith will not compel him to renounce those things of which he hath the evidence of Sense and Reason to convince him if so we have as great assurance of the falshood of those motives as Sence and Reason can afford If then you do reject a Providence because you are not able to conceive Gods Omnipresence or any other Attribute on which this Providence depends if you renounce the Mysteries of Christian Faith because you cannot apprehend them have you not equal reason to reject the Notions of Infinite unbounded space of an Eternal Flux of Time or an Indivisible Eternity which yet your reason must acknowledge Must you not question the Existence of the Souls of Men and Brutes as being not sufficient to conceive that Spirits if confined to points can performe any of those actions which we ascribe to them or that they can diffuse themselves through Bodies receive impressions from them or make impressions on them or that meer matter should perceive reflect and reason or have any sense of pain and pleasure Lastly must not this Principle oblige you to Question the Existence of all material Compounds For who is able to conceive that Indivisibles can be united or that a Grain of Sand can be for ever divisible and have as many parts as the whole World If you do question or dispute the truth of any Miracle Revelation or Prediction because you are not able to perceive the manner how it was or may be done this will oblige you to denie the Ebb and Flowing of the Sea till you are able to acquaint us with the true Causes of it and to distrust that ever you were born because you never can explain the manner of your own production For as thou knowest not the way of the wind nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all things Eccl. 11.5 If you are tempted to disown these Revelations because you are not able to conceive Gods Ends and Reasons in them Why he who hath proclaimed Himself the God of Mercy should threaten an eternal punishment to finite transitory Sins why he should leave the World so long in Darkness and the like Might not a Subject on the like account reject the precepts of his Soveraign because not able to perceive the Wisdome of them or the necessity of all the Sanctions he annexeth to them Is it not certain that if there be a God he must be infinite in his perfections and so incomprehensible and then his Wisdome must exceedingly transcend the reach of finite Apprehensions the Secrets of it must be double to that which doth appear to us and there must be such depths both in his Judgments and his Acts of Mercy as we can never fathome So that unless the Notion of an Infinite and all-wise Being includes a contradiction in the Terms we cannot doubt but that he may reveal what we can never apprehend Besides we cannot understand the Beauty or Wisdome of Divine Transactions but we must be acquainted with the Ends and Motives the Tendence and result of all he doth for otherwise what seems absurd to us may admirably comply with the Designes of Providence what seems confused in the Beginning may conclude in Order and the Greatest Beauty Since then we do not know the minde of God since we are not acquainted with the Designes and Purpose nor are we able to look forward to the Results of Providence it is sure we cannot pass a Judgement on the Wisdome of them If you are tempted to disown the Christian Faith because you are not able to reconcile it to your shallow reason and infirm Conceptions This will oblige you to denie the Being Propagation the Swiftness or Continuation of all Motion it being certain we are not able to give an Answer to all the Arguments produced against the different degrees of Swiftness or the Continuation or the very Being of it or to conceive how Motion can be propagated It is acknowledged that an immediate plain indisputable Contradiction cannot be matter of our Faith or of a Revelation from the God of truth But seeing it is also evident that all matters infinitely great as infinite Duration Power Space and infinitely little as the indivisible parts of Space Time do as much bafle and confound our understandings as do the Attributes of God and do abound with difficulties as stubborn and unweildy as any Revelations of the Gospel do afford it must be rashness to reject these Revelations as inconsistent with the Dictates and Apprehensions of
of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received Opinions which destroyed Morality This proved from their Mistakes and Errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of Love and Charity to their Neighbor And 2ly Touching the Laws of Chastity Justice and of Truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reform the World but the Professors of it The wickedness of their Lives The accounts and reasons of it The result of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith p. 296. CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection Prolegomena in order to the demonstration of the Resurrection of our Lord. 1. That the Apostles did presently attest the thing 2. That this attestation could not be a bare-faced and notorious lye Arg. 1. From the Testimony Arg. 2. From these three Considerations 1. That our Saviours Body did not continue in the Sepulchre when they proclaimed him risen 2. That his Disciples did not conveigh his Body thence Nor 3. was that done by any other Persons who had no relation to Christ and no affection for him Arg. 3. From the Consideration of the Persons testifying p. 387. The Conclusion Shewing That if what hath been deliver'd should be only probable yet the Christian Faith must in all reason be embraced as being 1. the safest way and 2ly the greatest Instrument of present Happiness A recapitulation of the whole with a Practical Reflection upon what hath been discoursed p. 306. CHAP. I. The Contents WHAT Endeavours have been made to stop the Growth of Atheisme and Irreligion by asserting an all wise presiding Power visible in the production of the World What seemeth further necessary to be alledged against the Atheist An essay towards the eviction of a Providence 1 From the existence of evil spirits 2 From many signall demonstrations of Gods power 3 of his Judgments upon Rebellious sinners and 4 of his power and Mercy in preservation of his servants and his miraculous Answers to their prayers 5 From revelations and predictions of things contingent in their various circumstances 6 From apparitions of good and evil Angels 7 From dreams and visions supernatural 8 From things performed by pretenders to miracles Magicians Witches Oracles philosophers which could not be effected naturally c. The confirmation of the Christian faith by what hath been delivered 1 by evincing that Providence hath been engaged for the establishment of some particular Religion in the world 2 that that particular Religion is no other then the Christian faith § 1. VVHAT Artifices have been used of late to baffle all Religion to undermine the pillars and foundations of it how bold and impudent the instruments of Satan are how free to vent how industrious to infuse their poyson into every soul how unhappily disposed the greater part of Mankind is by reason of the vile Affections and brutish Lusts which reign in them to suck in this hellish Vomit t is needless to informe the Reader He must have shut his Eyes who doth not see and stopt his Ears who doth not hear the sad but just complaints of the encrease of Atheism and Irreligion in the Christian world § 2. TO stop the Growth of this pernicious Evil some have endeavour'd to assert the Being of a God not from the Metaphysical foundations which the Scholes have laid but from the Phaenomena of Nature which carry with them a greater Evidence of some presiding Wisdome over-ruling Power which being undeniably concluded from what they have discoursed on this Subject it remains only to evince that this presiding Wisdome in the Creation of the World had a peculiar eye unto the Welfare of Mankind and doth at present watch over that noble part of his Creation gives indications of his Will Pleasure as far as is conducing to our Welfare and Motives to obey that Will since he that cometh unto God must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him For if we suppose that from the beginning of the world there were established such Laws of Action as doe necessitate the operations and productions which shew the Wisdome of their Great Contriver though we should also doubt whether he ever did or doth at present interest himself in the concernments of Men and the free motions of their Wills and should conceave with modern Theists wee are too inconsiderable to be the matter of his care and Providence we should sufficiently comply with the intent and vigor of those Arguments I shall not venture to supply what 's lacking to those late attempts by any large discourse on the mysterious Theme of Providence which others have improved beyond what I am able to perform but only hint such things which in conjunction seem to make it highly rational to own the thing and which I do not find so fully nor I think so convincingly proposed in other Writers on this Subject § 3. AND 1. If there be any evil Spirits which maligne the Welfare of Mankind then there must be a Providence For were there no superior Power that did curb and over awe them and by so doing shew his care of Man they would according to their inclinations either inflict upon Mankind at present the sorest and most dreadful Evils which could be incident to humane Nature this being the design and drift of hatred to plague and to confound its object or if Mens souls be subject unto future Miseries more Great and lasting then any they can suffer in this present life it would be the endeavour of these Spirits to reduce the world to such compliance with their humors and full submission to their wills as would assuredly subject them to those future Miseries or ruine those who should refuse obedience to them Now the Existence of these evil Spirits may be concluded from their Operations For if the Heathen Oracles did e're foretell what it was not in the power of man to see of which their Authors give us very many instances If any seeming miracles were ever wrought for the establishment of Heathenism or any other way of Worship not allowed by God which even Christians do confess vid. Chap. 9. sect 1. and Scripture doth acknowledg If any persons ever were possessed by the devil If they have ever spoken languages they understood not told things of which he only could informe them or have receav'd assistance or temptations from him to destroy themselves if ever he appear'd to any of his Proselytes in the dark corners of the World or the assemblies of those persons that are devoted to his service we must then own his Being in the World and his design to ruine us at present or to enslave us to his worship in order to our future Ruine Now only to transcribe the Histories and Records of these things would be the work of many volumes they being attested by many Myriads of all Ages and of all Countries of the World confessed by those who have engaged in the Worship of the Devil
State and their denial of all future punishments and from their false conceptions of the rise and fatality of Sin That these opinions are destructive to the service of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received opinions which destroyed morality This proved from their mistakes and errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of love charity to their neighbour And secondly touching the laws of Chastity Justice and of truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reforme the world but the Professors of it The wickedness of their lives The accounts and reasons of it Theresult of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith § 1. BUT that which is the Crown of all and indeed potissima demonstratio a most convincing evidence of the Assistance of the holy Spirit towards the propagation of the Gospel is the excellency of the Christian precepts and the subservience they bear not only to our future but to our present welfare § 2. IT were endless to insist upon the incredible Power of Christianity when cordially embraced to sheath the Sword beat it into plow-shares to still contentions and bind the hand to its good behaviour to prevent all waies of being cruel to our neighbours life or prejudicial to his estate and Fortunes or injurious to his name or honour by taking up or venting a reproach against him or by discovering those Errors and infirmities which Charity doth bind us to conceal It were infinite to recount those liberal provisions it hath made for Love and Charity pity and compassion and whatsoever may indear my Brother to me and draw forth all my powers to assist him It gives the truly generous and publick Spirit it commands every man to seek his Brothers weal and shew him all that kindness which he could expect or beg when under like necessity It bids us burn when others are afflicted and weep with those that weep That is it bids us be as forward to relieve them under all their pressures and afflictions as if their afflictions were our own Now what can further be required to our present happiness than the security of what a present we enjoy from any hand of violence and the assurance of our Brothers help towards the enjoyment of the thing we want Nor is it less conducive to the publick good Christianity gives such a relish of sublimer Bliss as disintangleth the more noble Soul from all the trivial concernes of earth It tells us that the freindship of this world is enmity to God that he who beares affection to these earthly things is but pretender to the love of heaven It inspires into us that contentmēt which allayes the hell torment of an inordinate still gaping appetite It transformes the man into humility and meekness and so prevents the tumult disturbance of the haughty Spirit It enforceth peace upon us by the strongest motives and threatneth an eternal flame to the Incendiary It moulds the Soul into a simple honest and sincere deportment and interdicts those flattering Addresses which belye the thoughts and Conscience of the Speaker and more then this it cannot do in order to our publick welfare since that can never suffer but from unjust and treacherous factious and turbulent proud worldly or rapacious Spirits § 3. CHRISTIANITY is a Religion highly perfective of humane nature and such as best comports with the concernments of our Souls and most advanceth its most noble faculties It gives the best discoveries of the Divine existence and of Providence and of that obedience and homage which we owe unto a Deity and of those attributes which are the only grounds and most prevailing motives to it viz. The Truth and Freedome the Justice Power Goodness the Wisdome Unity and Omnipresence of a Deity all which must be entirely owned as the foundations of reall Piety It presents us with such admirable discoveries of Wisdome Justice Goodness Mercy and Compassion in the contrivance and procurement of Pardon and Salvation to us by the death of Christ as Judaisme could never boast It holds forth the clearest light to guide our darke and purblind Reason into the paths of vertue and to secure us from the splitting rocks of Vice It gives the best and largest Comment upon those duties of the moral Law which are so imperfectly and so obscurely hinted by the light of nature and so much questioned and disputed by the Gentile World as wee shall see hereafter It discovers to us those impediments which would retard and clog us in the performance of our duty that so we may avoid them It makes the evil thought as guilty as the evil action and calls as much for purity of heart and freedome from every vile affection as from those actions that doe issue from them It setleth the floating soul on the firm Basis of divine veracity and for the Heathens faint surmises and the Jews darker shaddowes of good things to come it gives the Christians lively hopes and full assurances of Faith It tenders the holy Spirit as an earnest of our future bliss and assures us if we doe the will of heaven we shall know what is so In fine the knowledge of a future endless bliss and misery is the result of Gospel revelation which upon all these grounds doth best provide for the information of our understanding in what it is concern'd to know in order to our future happiness to wit the being of a God and our engagement to adore and serve him what will procure his Favour and will provoke his Indignation and what concernes we have sincerely to avoide the one and to pursue the other § 4. NEXT it presents the Will with the most soveraigne motives and engagements unto duty and bindes that on us with most powerful cords of Love and the amazing mercies of our God and Saviour The obligations of repeated vows and Covenants especially of those of Baptisme and the Sacred Eucharist the convictions of our conscience the laws and Sanctions of that Majesty who strikes an awe upon it and the example of our Saviours which doth at once prescribe to our obedience and provoke us to it It pains forth sin to us in its own dress attended with the dangers of present and a dreadful expectation of eternal miseries and those enhanced by all the aggravations which love and mercy conscience and duty the light of reason and religion the experience of our selves and others can afford it It presents Goodness to us in its fairest and most tempting aspects assures us that the ways of God are Good honourable safe and easie and full of comfort and present satisfaction to the Soul It courts the affections with the most admirable delights that heaven can tender it surrounds us with the pleasures of a virtuous life the joys of charity the comforts of an upright conscience the smiles of heaven and its concernment for the good man's welfare here and happiness hereafter such happiness as far exceeds what we are able
ΑΟΓΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ OR An Endeavour to evince The Certainty of CHRISTIAN FAITH In Generall And of the Resurrection of Christ in Particular By Daniel Whitbie Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop of Sarum And Fellow of Trin. Coll. OXON Printed at the THEATER in OXFORD And are to Sold by GEORGE WEST Ann. Dom. MDCLXXI Imprimatur PET. MEWS Vice-Cancel Oxon. April 8. 1671. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop Of Sarum My very Good Lord MY last came to tell your Lordship I had a great Ambition to be related unto so much Worth and Goodness this to declare unto the world how happy that Relation makes me and what my Obligations are unto your Lordship to whose Instructions and Example Discourse and Counsil next to the Divine Benediction I owe those small Improvements which I have hitherto attain'd and from whose Favours and Protection I derive the Comforts the Satisfactions of my Life and the Encouragements of all my Labours But had I no such motives to induce yet Equity Prudence would oblige me to lay this Essay at your Lordships feet Whose Works sufficiently inform us You are as powerfully convincing and happily succesful in your divine Attempts against those Great Leviathans and proud Goliahs who have defy'd the Armies of the living God as in those Matters which alone admit of perfect Demonstration Your Lordship hath secured that Scripture to us on which our Hopes and Happiness depend and all our Arguments do bottome and rendred Infidelity as base and scandalous as it is hurtfull to the Soul by adding this unto the Sinfulness and Danger of it that it must be now embraced and continued in against the highest Reason most clear Conviction to the contrary And now my Lord what can the man do that cometh after You even that which hath been done already He therefore best consults his Credit in this cause who writes after your Lordships Copy as being not so vain to imagine that he can do better he fights securely who marcheth under your Lordships Banner against this Host of Philistins and becomes Armour-bearer to such a Jonathan without whose happy Conduct it would be difficult to keep an even Passage betwixt the Bozez and the Seneh the two sharp Rocks of Atheisme and Superstition 1. Sam. 14.4 Besides your Life and Conversation as well as your Endeavours from the Press and from the Pulpit declare unto the World Your Lordship hath the warmest Zeal and the most passionate Affection and Concern for Piety and doth so vigorously consult so tenderly regard and so industriously promote its Interests that all attempts of such a nature though not so happy in Expressions nor so exactly managed as the Concern and Moment of this Cause requires may yet presume upon your Lordships Favour and Acceptance even when they dread and deprecate and find themselves unable to sustaine the Sharpness of your Judgment and may hope though Your more piercing Eye discovers many Spots ill Features and undue Proportions in so rude a Draught Your great Affection to the Subject may draw the Veil before them However I have great Experience that my Lord is Gratious even to the meanest and the least deserving and that his Goodness is like his other Virtues advanced unto to the highest Measures and therefore will extend it self unto Your LORDSHIPS Most Obedient and HUMBLY DEVOTED Servant Daniel Whitbie The Preface to the Reader Courteous Reader A Dissolute ungodly Life being as well the cause as the result of Atheism we cannot wonder that it should improve so fast or think it needless to prevent its Growth in such an Age of Wickedness as this in which we live wherein men dayly offer such Affronts to Heaven that it concerns them there should be no God to punish them and live so great a contradiction to Christianity that it becomes their Interest to prove it false and then their Interest perverts their Judgments and they are easily perswaded to believe what they are so concerned to wish and they find so needfull to procure an undisturbed progress in the ways of Sin and to quiet all the Clamors of a Guilty Conscience And since these Sons of Belial do so industriously promote the Devils Kingdome since they have wholly given up themselves to vile Affections and freely do indulge to all the Pleasures of a sinfull appetite it is no wonder that their Eyes are blinded by the Prince of darkness and that they are led captive by him at his will It is but just that God should send among them strong Delusions that they all may be damned who believe not the Truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness And indeed the Generality of Atheists are such raw shallow trifling things and so unable to judge of serious Matters that we cannot reasonably impute their Infidelity to any thing they can object against Christianity and therefore must ascribe it to those impetuous and headstrong Lusts which bear the greatest Opposition to it And yet had they but leasure to consider did not their Lusts both busy and pervert that little Reason they have left they might perceive it was not want of Motives or of sufficient Reason to believe which did betray them to their Infidelity but want of Wisdome to consider of the Motives tendred and that to live the Atheist is to act in contradiction to the avowed Principles of Humane Nature and the known Rules of Reason For 1. Who knows not that in matters of the highest Moment that way must be the best which is the safest Since then Christianity affords the highest Comforts in Calamities and gives the noblest Pleasures and the most powerfull Inducements to be just and upright kind and helpfull to our brother suppose it were a cunningly devised Fable what could we suffer by the practise of it in a Christian Commonwealth Whereas should it prove true our Infidelity must rob us of the highest Blessings and everlastingly subject us to the worst of Miseries 2. Such a Perswasion as will make men circumspect and earnest to avoid a lesser danger ought with more reason to prevail upon them to decline a greater Such a perswasion as will sharpen mens Desires after and quicken their Endeavors for the obtaining of a lesser Good ought with more reason to engage them with an equal vigor in the pursuit of a greater yea an infinite good For since the apprehension of Good or Evil is the sole motive to make us undertake or decline any Action the greater that Good or Evil is the stronger motive it must be Now do not many Millions in the world foregoe their present Ease and Pleasure encounter Difficulties adventure upon Dangers and undergoe most toilsome Labours in hopes and expectations of some finite temporal Advantage of which they cannot have assurance Do they not oft abstain from what they passionately love only for fear of danger which possibly might not ensue upon the Satisfaction of their Appetite Do they
Pleasure and so assures us of the dispensations of his Providence And of this nature was that Dream of Pharaoh which foreshew'd him the seven Years of Plenty and of Famine according to Josephs's Interpretation Gen. 41. Where note 1. The vast Plenty for seven Years such as was never known in Aegypt the most fertile of all Countries 2. The rise of Joseph to be a chief Minister of State on the Experiment of the Truth of his Interpretation 3. The building of such vast Store-houses as could contain sufficient Corn for feeding of the Land of Aegypt and all the Neighboring Nations throughout the seven Years of Famine And 4. The admission of Jacob and of all his Family into Aegypt and the planting of them in the Land of Goshen 5. The altering of the Tenures of the Estates in Aegypt for hereupon every Mans Land except the Priests became the Kings and paid the fifth part of its Income to him Now since a matter of this moment must be recorded to Posterity and preserved in their Traditions unto future Generations as we find this was and since the Memory and motive of their repair to Aegypt the Exaltation of an Alien the Tribute of their Lands and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artap apud Euseb l. 9. c. 23. Exemption of their Priests could not so quickly be forgotten it remains that both the Jews Aegyptians and Strangers which joyned themselves to Moses must be assured of its truth § 10. LASTLY If any Hereticks if any 41 Gnosticks,42 Carpocratians,43 Marcionists or Saturnilians 44 Menandrians 45 Montanists 45 Eunomians Arians 47 Priscillianists 48 Donatists if any 49 Finland Lapland or Tartarian Witches if any of the Persian or Chalde an Magi vid. Stanly Phil. Chald. or the 59 Aegyptian Sorcerers whose names and their contest with Moses are still preserved in Heathen Story If a 51 Zoroaster or Hostanes if any wise Philosopher a 52 Pythagoras or a 53 Socrates if any Sect of Men as Brachmans or Druids or of Women whether the Pythonissae or the like If lastly vid. ch 9. Apollonius Apuleius Simon Magus any false 54 Prophetess or Prophet ever did what could not be effected without the help of some Superior Power as we have cause to believe both by the reputation they obtained the Records of those things both in prophane and Sacred Story and the Experience and Traditions of all Times and Places this gives us full assurance of the concern of Satan to oppose some Truth and some Religion in the World and so of Gods concernment to establish it In a word if but * Quin etiam hoc non dubitans dixerim si unum aliquid ita sit praedictum praesensumque ut cum evenerit ita cadat ut praedictum sit neque in eo quicquam casu ant for tuito fact um esse appareat esse certe divinationem idque esse omnibus confitendum Cic. Divin l. 1. p. 106. one real and undoubted Instance of these things hath been afforded to the World it doth conclude a Providence And surely then these many Myriads of Examples of each kind which Histories of every Age and Country will afford from Persons living in those Times of which they write must give in such Conviction as the greatest Sceptick shall not be able to controul And having made good the Doctrine of an All-ruling Providence it will be easie to advance unto the Confirmation of the Christian Faith by these Gradations § 11. 1. THAT this Providence hath been engaged for the Establishment of some particular Revelation and Religion in the World and hath as signally opposed some others which have pretended to those Names and consequently doth not esteem them all indifferent This is the natural Result almost of all these Instances we have produced in confirmation of a Providence they being such as visibly declared Gods Approbation of the Faith of Jew or Christian in opposition to the Heathen Deities and to their Modes of Worship § 12. AND secondly That no particular Revelation to which the adverse Parties have pretended can stand in Competition with the Christian Faith or give in equal Demonstrations of its Truth and Derivation from a Deity it being certain that of these Instances produced to evince a Providence none are so powerfully convincing as those that do assert the Christian Faith the Experience of Gods Mercies Protections and Assistances vouchsafed to the Professors of it as also of his Judgements on their Adversaries and the Engagement of his Power in Confirmation of this Doctrine being more numerous and evident and more unquestionably true Adde to this That seeing Moses and the Prophets by their evident Predictions of a Messiah that should come attended with those very Circumstances and should perform and undergoe all that Christ did and suffered do confirm the truth of Christian Faith it will follow that these Instances fore-mentioned which do ascertain the Veracity of those Prophets and Gods Concernment for the Laws delivered by them must also give in full Conviction to the Truth of our Messiah and his Doctrine And secondly It is evident that all these Forms of Worship which stand in Competition with it are either most apparently repugnant both to the Wisdom Purity and Goodness of a Deity or such as carry with them no Conviction of their Truth and Goodness nothing which speaks them worthy of the Concernment of the God of Heaven For that those Modes of Worship which had obtained in the Heathen World were vile and filthy ridiculous and brutish and most repugnant to those Conceptions of a Deity which Nature hath implanted in us will be so evident from what we shall discover of them that he who runs may read it As for Mahometism that having no internal Evidence which may convince us of its Truth no Purity and Goodness in its Precepts and no Subservience unto the Welfare of Mankind at present or to his Happiness hereafter beyond what Scripture doth afford us but Promises and Precepts more Carnal and Judaical and Stories more extravagant and idle then the wildest Fables vid. Cantucuz Orat in Mahum sect 23. and being such a Doctrine as never did pretend to Miracles except some petty Trifles pretended to be done by Mahomet it cannot lay upon us any Obligations to believe its Truth and therefore we may rest assured Azora 3.14 17 30 71. that God hath no Concernment that we should believe it That the Religion of the Jews is antiquated that it hath pass'd the Period to which it was appointed to continue is most apparent from the completion of those Prophesies which did relate unto the promised Messias of which we shall discourse hereafter from the Destruction of the Temple to which their Worship was confined and from those heavy Judgments they have laboured under above 1600 yeares without any intermission Their wandrings in the Wilderness were only for the space of forty years their Captivity but seventy although their Whoredomes and Idolatries and
that for such which they believed not to be so they being Men whose Holy Lives as well as Sufferings made a full proof of their exact Integrity If neither they could universally conspire to effect this thing nor can it be suspected that Providence should suffer them to do a thing so contrary to its great design of love unto Mankind If lastly it is morally impossible that since the second Century those Writings should be either forged or accidentally corrupted in matters of concern and moment they must remain sufficient Records of the Christian Faith Corol. Hence it follows That those Writings must be the very Works of those Apostles and Evangelists whose Names they bear since no Man could pretend they were so had they not really been such but they must put a cheat upon the World and substitute their own Inventions for the Word of God Indeed they have been handed down for such by a more general Tradition and of a firmer Credit then any of those Books of Virgil Cicero or Martial which we indisputably own as theirs For it was a Tradition of the whole 12 Christian World which owned and cited and received them for such from the Apostles days as is apparent from the Epistles of St Clement Barnabas Ignatius Polycarp the Works of Irenaeus and Justin Martyr whil'st others which pretended to the same Original were universally rejected by them Besides they did attest them so to be by many Sufferings which they had no Temptation to endure besides the truth of their Assertion and many Wonders to confirm their Testimony It was a Tradition which concern'd things of the highest moment and which it was their greatest Interest to be well assured of they being the sole ground and matter of their support at present under the sharpest Tryals and of their future hopes and therefore Writings they were concern'd to get and hear and read and keep Books written to whole Churches Nations yea the whole 13 World of Christians who could not have received them easily had the Apostles by whom they were at first converted given no Intimations of them Books of the greatest opposition against the Superstition both of Jews and of Gentiles and which denounced against them the greatest Plagues and Judgments such as obliged them to search as much as it was possible into the Truth of what they said And yet these Books were not denyed to be the very Works of those Apostles and Evangelists whose Names they bare Books which no cheat could be concern'd to forge nor could obtain that belief which was not due to them without the greatest Forgery Books which could not be spread abroad as they were in the Apostles Names whil'st they were living unless the Apostles had Endited them nor be esteemed as if they were the greatest Charter of the Christian Faith and the Apostles be so forgetful of them as not to let those Persons know it for whose sake they were written Books which pretended to a Commission from the Holy Jesus to leave a rule of Life and Doctrine to Mankind which was intrusted in the Hands of none but the Apostles and Evangelists all others still pretending to deliver what they received from them Lastly They being written partly to confirm and to ascertain to us the story of Christs Birth Life Passion Resurrection and partly to engage us to believe partly to put an end to Contentions and rectifie those Errors which had crept into the Church in the Apostles days and which did need a speedy Reformation partly to justifie themselves against false Brethren and to assert the Truth of their Apostleship and partly to preserve their Proselytes from such as did pervert the Faith and partly to instruct them how to bear up in Fiery Tryals and to support the Soul under those Miserie 's the Christians suffered and therefore on those Grounds which did require their quick dispatch on that Errand and to those Churches unto which they did intend them it is evident the Apostles must intend that early notice should be given of them and so accordingly commit them to their new-born Proselytes and Babes in Christ and so the Records of our Saviour his Life Death Resurrection Miracles must be divulged throughout Iudea whil'st the far greater part of Men were able to disprove them if they had been false ANNOTATIONS On the 4th Chapter 1. TErtullian tels us Percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae authenticae earum literae recitantur sonantes vocem repraesentantes uniuscujusque 2 Collected and consigned by S. John Veteres narrant Johannem Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum rogatu Germanum Scripturae Canoncm constituisse Euseb 3 Those many wavering Spirits nutant enim plurimi maximè qui literarum aliquid attigerunt Lact. l. 5. c. 1. 4 Those Hereticks who upon other motives did renounce the greater part of the New Test Cerinthus allowed only the Gospel of S. Mark Valentinus only that of S. John Iren. l. 3. c. 11. Marcion onely that of Luke Tertul. cont Marcio c. 4. Epiph. Haeres 42. Iren. l. 3. c. 11. the Ebionites rejected all the Epistles of S. Paul and embraced only the Gospel of the Nazarites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Cels p. 274. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 27. vid. Valesium in locum Ejusdem farinae erant Severiani Tatiani ex quibus conflati sunt Encratitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euscb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 27. Hieron catal script Eccl. in Tatiano De Encratitis vid. Theod. haeret fab l. 1. 5 Soe universally acknowledged and consented to Euseb calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 25. 6 Soe generally dispersed for even the passage of S. Irenaeus which tells us of some barbarous Nations Qui fidem crediderunt sine literis sine charta sine atramento scriptam habentes in cordibus suis salutem doth shew plainly that other places not deemed Barbarous enjoy'd them as also doth the question following Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem scripturas reliquissent nobis 7 Multiplyed into divers versions Cum enim fides Christiana ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus recepta est nec sine scriptur is esse potest Ecclesia probabile est à primis nascentis Ecclesiae incunabilis harum versionum originem accersendam esse Walton Proleg in Bib. Polygl Of the innumerable latine versions that were extant in S. Augustine's daies we have one styled by S. Jerom. in Esaiam c. 14 49. Communis vulgata and by S. Gregory Epist ad Leandrum Vetus probabile est inquit Waltonus ipsam ab ipsis Ecclesiae primordiis in usu fuisse cum Ecclesia Latina sine verfione Latina esse non potuit eamque Ecclesia Romana in communi usu reciperet Of the Syriack version he speakes thus Ab Apostolicis viris factam concedo quod praeter generalem Ecclesiarum Orientalium traditionem cui multum in hoc loco tribuendum cum nulla
in the Church for divers Centuries The confirmation of this second Argument The result of these Particulars FOURTHLY Arg. 4 Those Miracles which Christ and his Apostles wrought in confirmation of the Christian Faith are a most signal Demonstration of its truth and certainty as will appear if we consider 1. The Design on which our Saviour came into the World For it was requisite that he who came to baffle and pull down the Devils Kingdom should shew his Power over those evil Spirits which upheld it Needful it was that he who taught the World to slight and to detest those Heathen Deities which had so long obtained in the World and had confirmed it in their service by seeming Miracles vid. Not. in cap. 9. num 5 6 7 8. Predictions gifts of Healing and the like should by more powerful works convince the World he was more worthy of their Adoration And it was also requisite that he who gave it out that he came down from God to manifest the will of heaven to the world should by unquestionable signs of Gods assistance prove the truth of his Commission from him And lastly It was requisite that he who came to null that Law of Moses which was established or by the Jews conceived to be established by many Miracles should give a greater proof of his Commission from the God of Heaven then were the Miracles of Moses Secondly This will be farther evident if we consider that the Jews expected great and many Miracles from their Messiah They tell us Midrash Coheleth in Eccles 1.11 that the Miracles of Moses should not be remembred by reason of those greater Miracles which their Messiah should perform That the signs of the Messiah should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance vid. Raymund Pugfid p. 610. whereas the signs of the departure out of Aegypt compared with them should be only accidents And this their Expectation was grounded upon these Predictions of their Prophets that their Messiah should make the blinde to see the deaf to hear Isaiah 35.6 the dumb to speak the lame to walk Thirdly The Jews and Heathens did in effect confess that sutably to these Predictions of the Prophets and to the expectation of the Jews they did work Miracles For to ascribe them to 1 Shem Hamporash or to the Arts of 2 Magick as Jews and Heathens did is to confess that they were done by Christ since nothing but the evidence of Fact could tempt his most malitious Enemies to use such slight Evasions and to confess as did the Pharisees and the Chief Priests that Christ did Miracles so many and so powerful that if he had been let alone Joh. 11.48 all men would have believed on him The wiser Heathens as 3 Celsus 4 Porphyry 5 Hierocles and 6 Julian confess'd the thing 7 Pilate who lived upon the place where his Disciples tell us that all his Miracles were done and who passed Sentence on him gave such a large account to Tiberius both of the Wonders of his Life and Death and Resurrection as made the Emperor 8 propose him to the Senate as one fit to be admitted among the Roman Gods And this account the Christians frequently appealed to and sent the Romans to their own Archives to be convinced of its truth Others conclude that he did his Wonders by that Art of Magick which he had learn'd from the 9 Aegyptians vid. Annot in cap. 9.1 and think it is sufficient to oppose against him an 10 Apollonius or an Apuleius as Men of equal Fame for working Wonders which had the truth of what the Christian Records do affirm concerning them been questionable they could have had no reason and no temptation to have done it being sufficient for their purpose to have questioned or disproved what was delivered by those Records But fourthly His Apostles do affirm his Miracles were very many and done in many places They tell us that he compassed all a Matt. 4.24 18.16 9.35 Galilee and all the cities and villages of Iudea preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing all diseases and all sicknesses among the people He b Mat. 12.15 15.30 19.2 healed many that were sick of divers maladies All the diseased throughout Syria Great multitudes yea all that could be c Luke 4.40 brought unto him He d Mark 1.34 cast out many devils and e Matt. 8.16 healed all that were possessed of the devil And then they adde that there were many other f John 20.30 signs which Iesus did which were not written by them From which compendious Repetition of them we may well infer his Miracles were more than they were able to recount particularly or more than they thought needful so to do Fifthly The same Apostles tell us they were mighty deeds for he rebuked the winds and g quell'd the ragings of the sea and h Matt. 8.26 14.25 walked upon it He i Mark 6.42 satisfied 5000 with two loaves and with five little fishes he gave sight unto the blinde and life unto the dead he cast out devils and knew the secrets of the heart He wrought his Miracles by inconsiderable means Matt. 8.3 16. Mark 8.7 13. Joh. 4.50 for he cast out the evil spirits and healed diseases with a word or by such means as were as insufficient by any natural Virtue to produce the Cure He raised the dead only by touching of the Bier on which they lay Luke 7.14 15 16. 18.54 John 11.43 45. or taking of them by the hand His word made Lazarus come forth though bound with Grave-cloathes and his Word made the Fig-tree wither Lastly The Wonders of his Death were as remarkable as were the Actions of his Life For then the Heavens were over-spread with darkness Matt. 27.49 52. the Temple vail was rent the Earth trembled the Rocks rent the Graves opened many dead Bodies did arise and shew themselves to many living in the holy City which when the People saw some of them being forced by remorse of Conscience Luke 23.47 smote upon their breasts and said of Christ Truly this was the Son of God this was a just and upright man and so notorious were these things that Heathens have recorded them But sixthly His Apostles tell us That he performed these things in publick and in the presence of the Pharisees Luke 5.17 6.17 18.19 Matt. 14.35 36. and Doctors of the Law of every Town of Galilee Judea and Jerusalem and from the Sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon which came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases That he did nothing privately but in the Synagogues Temples John 18.20 21. where his Accusers were still present And seventhly they affirm That these his Miracles had most remarkable Effects upon the Hearers and Spectators even the most perverse and spiteful of them Both Pharisees and Lawyers throughout Judea Jerusalem Luke 5.17 26. and Galilee when their
pull the greatest prejudice on their cause to blast their Growing hopes and frustrate their bold adventure by an undue concealment of what their Masters promise and predictions had made so necessary to be divulged But § 2. 2ly I premise that common prudence would not suffer the Disciples of this JESUS to pretend such things in confirmation of their testimony which must infallibly render it the scorn and hatred of the world Wherefore they could not possibly pretend such things were newly acted on a publick stage and in the face of their professed adversaries which owed their being only to their phancies and of which their story gave the first account unto the world For men to certify to all Jerusalem that lately there was such a man as JESUS known throughout all Judea to be mighty both in words and deeds Luc. 24.19 Matt. 20.18 19. Mark 10.33 34. Mar. 8.31 Matt. 27.63 v. 66. one who did publickly foretell unto the Scribes Pharises the place and manner of his death the time and glorious issues of his resurrectiō and to averre that this prediction was notorious to his mortall enemies and the contrivers of his sufferings and made them industrious to secure his body watch the motions of his friends and carefully provide against what ever the most subtile malice could invent to gull their senses and put a cheat upon them 3ly To pretend the earth did quake and tremble and the watch grow pale and that dead bodys did arise and shew themselves to many which a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Messias resuscitabit dormientes in pulvere Midrash Tillin f. 42. 1. Justi quos suscitabit Deus è mortuis in diebus Messiae Gloss in Bab 102. Sanhed f. 92. Non tantum ex libris Mosaïcis verum etiam Propheticis constat resurrectionem mortuorum conjunctam fore adventui Messiae Manasse Ben Israël de Resur l. 3. c. 2. Vide Cochum in duos Tit. Talmud p. 317. resurrectiō was a thing expected by the Jewes upon the advent of their Shilo I say to testify all this unto those persons who could as readily confute as they relate it yea whose interest it was to confute it was the most certaine way to ruine and confound their testimony had it been found a lye and consequently assures us that it must be true These things premised our Arguments will naturally result from a due estimate of these particulars The testimony and the persons testifying § 3. FOR 1. it was a relation in it self incredible whose fundamentall article contained the ignominious and accursed death of the beloved Son of God and the miraculous resurrection of a man condemned for blasphemy A thing which they might easily foresee could gain no reputation to them but of fools and madmen especially considering it found so little credit in that City where it was pretended to be done It was 2ly a testimony which did acquit this Jesus from all the calumnies and false aspersions of the Jew pronounced their greatest Rabbies an evill brood of vipers hypocrites Matt. 3.7 Matth. 16.3 ch 23. Matt. 23.17.33 Matt. 12.39 Matt. 23.33 Act. 4.11.12 Matt. 28.18 Matt. 24. Maro 13. Luc 19. fools and blind serpents and vipers a wicked and adulterous generation a divelish damned crew nay their whole Nation Guilty of the most horrid crime that could be charged upon man even the murther of the Lord of life and which assured them there was no salvation to be hoped but from that very person whom they had taken and by wicked hands had crucifyed and slaine and that all power both in heaven and earth was given to him which told them also that he would shortly come and execute the most dreadfull vengeance on their Nation which ever yet befel mankind that he would cancell their Laws bury their temple in its own ruines and cut them off from being any more a people 3ly It was a testimony delivered at such a season when all the Jews seem'd to be crouded into one Metropolis and their dispersions recollected for t' was the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2700000 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 17. Passeover and so that time when all stood bound to worship at Jerusalem Deut. 16.5.6 and when the Messias was become the universall matter of their expectation and therefore such a testimony as must be throughly sifted both by the Jew who were it true must be the greatest sinner and after a few days the greatest sufferer and by the Gentile for whom it did pretend the greatest kindness and undoubtedly would have been suppress'd had not the evidence of truth upheld it since 4ly This testimony avouched a thing no sooner done than certified to the world and the same Theatre which saw it acted heard it as soon proclaimed to the face of the professed adversaries of Christ Earthquakes and apparitions of dead men the consternations of the watch and their confessions thereupon the testimony of five hundred men eye witnesses of his ascension and many of them living when St Paul indited his Epistle to the Church of Corinth were all produced in evidence of the fact and therefore means of information could not be wanting in this case to those that sought them For can we think those Jews who persecuted Paul whilst preaching in the Synagogues of Asia and afterwards impeached him at Jerusalem would not enquire into the truth of this his confident report among them or that St Paul should be so wholly void of reason as to divulge a lye so palpable in such a place where there were Jews abundant to evince its falshood and in an Epistle to be read in all the Churches of the World And yet this testimony so incredible in it self so contradicted by the Jew so punctual and yet so various in its circumstances so fresh in its delivery which underwent so critical and severe a scrutiny I say this testimony found a reception more incredible than it self For the bare relation of it converted thousands which nothing but the insuperable force of truth and the more pierceing influence of Heaven could so miraculously have effected § 4. OUR second demonstration of the Resurrection of our Saviour will arise from three conclusions First that our Saviours body was removed from the Grave For its continuance there must surely have discovered the falsehood of this bold assertion and made all other ways of confirmation of it not only needless but absurd whilst by an ocular demonstration any one might have perceived the truth and discovered the impudent folly of all those who durst affirm that it was risen from the dead 2ly The disciples of our Saviour cannot be justly charg'd with its conveiance from the Sepulcher for besides the no advantage nay the assurance of the worst of miseries which could attend the promulgation of this doctrine they dream'd of a Messiah who should sway the Scepter and subdue the Nations under them and when they found it
otherwise their hopes lay buried in his Grave and expired together with him After such manifold experience of their Masters power to assist them by an Almighty hand after their solemne protestations made to own him in the sharpest tryals they shamefully deserted him and at first assault betook themselves to their heeles their Prolocutor renounced him and seconded his denyal with an oath they barr'd their dores and hid their heads dreading every thing they heard or saw And can it be imagined that persons so extreamly timerous should hazard their lives to rescue his dead body from the Grave who after all obligement both of faith and duty did so little to preserve him from it against a watch so vigilant and zealously concerned to prevent the mischiefs of a second and therefore more pernitious error After commands so strict peremptory to secure the Sepulcher in vain must they attempt to rifle it which if any say they did whilest the watchmen slept how came they privy to it what credit can their word deserve if whilst they waked what could induce those watchmen to make lyes their refuge and wilfully permit the cheat Besides it is a timerous trade to play the thief much more to rob the Grave of its Inhabitants and they might well expect that vengeance should arrest them in a fact designed to delude the world and to entitle God unto the worst of villanies and hence not only their respect unto their Master but their own safety must have taught them to dispatch their business and not to spend their time in the uncasing of his body and rowling up the Napkins that were about his head and to do things of such needless curiosities But 3ly more incredible it is that persons unconcerned for this Jesus should run so great an hazard or be concerned to remove his body thence or that the Apostles should bottom all their hopes on such a tottering foundation trust to the fidelitie of those men who in this very busines in which their silence could alone befriend them were the worst of cheats T is lastly most incredible that persons of this temper should still go on to stifle and conceal the matter and not be tempted by the pleasure of the thing the service they might do to their Religion the hopes of a considerable reward or by the hatred of a cheat so Gross and palpable to manifest the shame and infamy of those that forged it Besides how could his own Disciples hope by mighty signs and wonders by Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit great numerous to give in evidence unto his Resurrection which they confidently pretended had he been still reserved under the power of death and only by their own or others art reoved from his Sepulcher How is it that they never thought within themselves he could not save himself and whence shall we expect Salvation He could not by his Miracles of power and Goodness prevail upon one Nation to believe his Doctrine and can we though destitute of all that power which resided in him think to reduce the world into obedience or to impart the Holy Ghost to others when we our selves have the Spirit of delusion only Nay might not the example of Theudas Judas and many others both of their own and other Nations all whose endeavours although their hopes and their abilities were greater and their undertaking less proved unsuccesful and ended in the ruine of those bold adventurers be sufficient to deter them from such bold attempts Lo here a testimony which gives the Greatest evidence to it self and yet asserted by such men who neitheir would deceive nor were deceived in this particular and consequenty whose attestation could be no deceit Which that it may appear with greater evidence Consider first That they pretended to many and infallible convictions of the Truth to frequent apparitions of this Jesus attended with some signal circumstance to evidence their truth unto them and gae it out that they conversed with him fourty daies saw many Miracles done by him received instructions from his mouth to feed his Sheep to teach all Nations and Baptize them Yea that they were endowed with power from him to confirm the testimony by mighty signes and wonders and for the truth of this they frequently appeal'd unto their adversaries and the experience of those who did embrace their Doctrines in all which confident appeals and attestations requiring little more then eyes and ears to certifie the truth unto them t is equally incredible they should deceive or be deceived Did they give credit to this Jesus they must conclude him risen according to his own prediction and therefore could not be deceivers in asserting it Did they conclude him an Impostor what motives could they have to publish him the Saviour of the World who after he had call'd them to leave all and follow him and made such ample Promises unto them of Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel left them so sadly in the lurch exposed unto shame and infamy Did they give credit to the Sacred Oracles and reverence the Law of Moses why did they not dread those Judgements which God proclaimed against the false and lying Prophet if they did not believe it why were they so concerned for the Truth of the predictions of the Law concerning the Messias as to assert them with the loss both of the freedome and safety of their lives Should we ascribe the cheat unto the powers of imagination since they pretended to be eye witnesses of the Resurrection and to deliver nothing but what they saw and heard is it not strange to think that Phancy should create a person to them frequently appearing preaching and instructing giveing out commissions administring of holy Ordinances and the like that it should draw them out unto the mount of Olives after an aery Phantasm and then present it carryed up into Heaven In short they were certain his body was not privately conveyed away by their endeavours and that this only was pretended to disgrace their testimony and what could farther be required to assure both them and us that they were not deceived To Conclude If this relation were untrue either they were beside their senses when they did believe or besides their wits when they affirm'd it and did endeavour to confirm what they did not believe with loss of life and fortunes and if so what shall we say to the world of Christians that maugre all temptations to the contrary did stedfastly believe these men who had so little reason to believe themselves It is prodigious to think that a poor ignorant young man of meanest birth and breeding of a most hateful Nation and hated by that Nation to the death because pretending that he was a Prophet sent from God and after this his death only avouched to be so by twelve Fishermen pretending with loud boasts of miracles false as God is true to testifie his Resurrection though a greater falshood and promising to all that would
was impossible for them to conspire in so great a Juggle their Enemies were every day more awakened to oppose them more vigilant to search and pry into their Arts and more concern'd to quell the growing Faction their Miracles more frequently repeated and before greater Multitudes and lastly were continued through divers Ages all which may assure us that they were no Deceivers For to reflect a little upon what hath been discoursed 'T is first A Miracle of Impudence and Folly that any one should begin this Cheat with all these Disadvantages and without hopes of Benefit much more that Illiterate Unreflecting and Mechanick Souls should do so And secondly 'T is more miraculous that after all their Sufferings they should continue to promote it without the least regret of Conscience for so great a Villany and without the least Concernment for their Freedom from such Cruel Torments Thirdly Much more That a Lye thus managed by such mean and contemptible Persons of a most hateful Nation and Religion should prevail upon one single Person much more upon a City a Nation yea a World of Men to ruine both Themselves and Families their Souls and Bodies to promote it Fourthly That it should prevail so wonderfully without the help of humane Power or any thing to tempt affection nay in despite of all that Eloquence and Power and Interest could do unto the contrary 5ly That they should prevail by known Hypocrisie and lyes and feigning a Commission from the God of heaven and a Great kindness to those very men they thus helped forward to their ruine and only taught to be as very Hypocrites and base Impostors as themselves 6ly That they should all conspire to transmit the falshood by the same Method but with Greater Efficacy unto succeeding Generations 7ly Yet more incredible it is that they who went out from them 1 Joh. 2.19.1 Tim. 1.19 Act. 20.30 Cypr. Ep. 52. ad Antm. sec 7.8.9.1 Cor. 5.5.1 Tim. 1. â—0 and renounced the Gospel so made Shipwrack both of Feith and Consciencee those many Hereticks that spake perverse things to draw many Disciples after them and to pervert the simple those Libellatici and Thurificati and Traditores who were so hated and so infamous amongst them those many that were delivered up to Satan or underwent severest pennance should none of them be tempted to disclose the cheat or by that art which from the Christians they had learned to confront that Testimony which by these Miracles they gave unto their Doctrine but that the heathen should be forced for want of such confessions and assistances to urge some a See Aot in e. 8. s 2. silly women to confess them Guilty of those Villanies from which more sober a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tryph. apud Just pag. 227. Jews and b Plin. Ep. l. 10. ad Trajanum Ep. 97. Heathens did acquit them T is lastly most incredible their most malicious Enemies the inquisitive and learned Grecian and the Zealous Jew who sent their chiefest Rabbies into each corner of the World to publish and proclaime the Christians Atheists and Guilty of most Gross impiety durst not accuse them of fraud or falshood in what their Story had delivered c Justin Dial. cum Tryph. p. 234. for it doth not appeare by any records of the Jews that this so necessary and so effectual a Method to disgrace the Christian faith was once attempted by the most able Doctors of their law In fine ought it not to be matter of our admiration that men so vigilant malitious and powerful as the Heathen were though they had frequent opportunities in the first three hundred years and though they were so much concern'd and so desirous to do it should not be able to find out the fraud which they declare the Christians exercised in any one particular or to out do and counterplot their Magick or to bear up against its power but should suffer them to trample over their supposed Gods and force them to confess unto their very faces they were devils to stop the mouthes of their Magicians Inchanters and Southsayers their Oracles and famous Tripods and so to challenge them as Arnobius doth 2 Potestis aliquem monstrare ex omnibus Magis qui unquam fuere per secula consimile aliquid Christo millesima ex parte qui fecerit l. 1. p. 25. Where is the man that can pretendunto the 1000th part of what Christ did but that the most able and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 testatur Orig. adv Celsum p. 368. admired Philosophers should be seduced to believe and suffer as the Christians did and the b Tum paenè omnes Christum Deum sub legis observatione colebant Sulpit. Hist Sac. l. 2. c. 45. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 5. Vid. Epiphanium Euseb Chron. ad An. 125. most zealous Jews rather bring in their Judaisme and mix it with Christianiy as did the Ebionites the Nazarites then to question or deny the truth of it § 8. SHOULD it be here objected that the assurance which we have that the Apostles did pretend such things on which our Arguments do bottom depends upon the truth of Sc. Story of which no evidence is Given I Answer That our Arguments depend partly upon such postulata as carry with them a convincing evidence and partly on the supposition of such actions done of which we have the best assurance that matters of that nature can afford Our postulata are these 1. That Christ professed to be the King or Messiah of the Jews and consequently both to do and suffer what was expected from and prophesied of their Messiah and had it not been so what expectations could he have of being so esteemed or what could tempt the writers of his life and actions to be so frequent in the mention of things to which he never did pretend what could induce the Primitive Professors to insist so much upon those Arguments what motives could he have to suffer or pretend such things as were expected from Shilo Secondly That the Disciples of this Jesus were what Jew and Gentile still objected to them and they themselves confess'd poor ignorant despised Persons Thirdly That these Disciples could not be taught to carry on their Masters design if it were a Delusion but they must know their Master to be a vile Impostor and must despair of all that Happiness and that Assistance which he promised and that the like must be asserted of all those who did endeavor to promote the Christian Faith by Arts received from them Fourthly That things being thus supposed they could not but know that all which He and his Disciples did pretend was gross Hypocrisie Fifthly That Persons having all the Reasons to renounce Christ which both their present and eternal Interest their love of Truth and of their Countries safety Credit and Religion could suggest unto them but not one Motive to avouch his Doctrine would not continue so
to do much less could they prevail upon the World to imitate that Phrensie which was so greatly opposite to all the Principles of Ingenuity and Reason Truth and Interest But secondly That we have just assurance that the Primitive Professors of Christianity did pretend these things will be evinced from these Considerations For First 'T is evident from their Apologies and Writings in the first Ages of the Church that throughout all the World the Christians did for divers Centuries appeal to the Predictions of our Lord and his Apostles and to the Gifts and powerful Operations of the Holy Ghost they daily exercised and to the speedy Propagation of the Gospel through the then known World as to the most convincing Evidences of the Truth of Christian Faith which consident Appeal assures us That those things were matters of unquestionable Truth And 2ly It is likewise evident they held that riches were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beatior in hoc itinere vivendi qui paupertate se sublevat non sub divitiarum onere suspirat Minut. p. 40. vid. Lact. l. 7. c. 1. Cypr. de lapsis f. 219. Hieron in Jonam c. 3. unprofitable a b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beatior in hoc itinere vivendi qui paupertate se sublevat non sub divitiarum onere suspirat Minut. p. 40. vid. Lact. l. 7. c. 1. Cypr. de lapsis f. 219. Hieron in Jonam c. 3. burthen temptation a great c Virtutis via non capit magna onera portantes hanc tenere non potest nisi qui fuerit expeditus nudus Nam isti locupletes multis ingentibus Sarcinis onerati per viam mortis incedunt Lact. l. 7. c. 1. l. 5. c. 15. p. 505. impediment to their eternal weal and that they thought it sufficient to have Meat Drink and Clothing and their Duty not to cover more and thereupon declined d Peregrinis mercibus delectabitur qni nec lucrum sciat appetere cui sufficit victus Lact. l. 5. c. 17. p. 510. Tertul. de Idol c. 7. Arnob. p. 71. Merchandise and all those Callings which might tempt them to it that e Quia animo animaque miscemur nihil de rei communicatione dubitamus omnia apud nos indiscreta sunt praeter uxores Tert. Ap. c. 39. Aug. de Civ D. l. 5. c. 18. Tom. 10. Serm. 27. de verbis Domini Arnob. p. 152. Charity made their Enjoyments common not onely to their Christian Brother but their f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julian Apost Epist ad Arsacium vid. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 9. c. 8. Heathen Enemy that they refused the g Nobis ab omni gloriae dignitatis ardore frigentibus nulla est necessitas coetus Tert. Ap. c. 38. Minut. p. 35. Honors and Preferments of the World and were so far from an ambitious pursuit of Glory that they religiously declined it that they were wont to slight the h Vos vero suspensi interim atque solliciti honestis voluptatibus abstinetis non spectacula visitis non pompis interestis Convivia publica sine vobis Cecil apud Minut p. 12. Tert. Apol. c. 38. sect 2. Pleasures of the World and by their readiness to dye made it i Non igitur quaestus commodi gratia religionem istam commenti sunt quippe qui praeceptis reipsa eam vitam secuti sunt quae voluptatibus caret omnia quae habentur in bonis spernit qui non tantum pro fide mortem subierint sed etiam morituros se scierint praedixerint Lact. l. 5. c. 3. appear how little they did relish all the Sweets and Satisfactions of this present Life that they abstained from the most Lawful Pleasures refused to k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Laod. c. 53. p. 23. v. Elmen in Arnob. p. 90. Dance and gratifie the Flesh with Feastings but rather chose by solemn l De Icjuniis Christianorum solennibus v. Minut. p. 8. p. 13. Tert. Ap. c. 4. sect 2. Cōment in utrosque Fastings to subdue it That this they did and held themselves obliged to do in order to their future Bliss and in compliance with the Christian Precepts we have abundant Evidence from all the Writings and Apologies of Christian Fathers and consequently we have the best assurance that they were not acted by any of those Principles in the Propagation of the Christian Faith In a word their m Eccepars vestrum major melior egetis algetis opere fame laboratis Deuspatitur dissimulat non vult aut non potest opitulari suis Cecil apud Minut. Poverty and their contempt of Worldly Pleasures and Grandure their daily n Vid. Annot. in cap. 8. num 31. Persecutions and seeming Derelictions were the great matters of the Heathens Scandal it was this they daily did object unto them and reproach them with § 9. Corol. NOW hence it follows that what they have delivered to the World touching the appearance of Angels and what they did and spake Secondly That what they do relate of Christs Predictions of his Death the Persons from whom he suffered viz. the Scribes and Pharisees the Elders and chief Priests the Disciple that betrayed Him to them the manner of His Death and the deportment of the Gentiles towards Him the flight fear and scandal of His own Disciples though promising the contrary the three Denyals of St. Peter the Predictions of His Death and the continuation of the Life of His beloved Apostle Thirdly That what they tell us of his acquaintance with the Thoughts Conceptions and Imaginations of his own Disciples and of those Jews with whom he did converse their secret murmurs and desires to ask him Questions the reasonings and disputings of their Hearts the secret Councils vile Surmisings the treacherous Intentions and the mental Blasphemies of the malicious Jew or whatsoever of like nature they have left on Record were delivered bona fide and with a full Conviction of the Truth of what was thus asserted by them CHAP. III. SECT II. The Contents THat Christ and his Disciples could not be deceived in their pretensions to the things they spake of Proleg 5. and presumed they did and yet prevail upon the World to own and to assert their Doctrine THAT Christ and his Disciples could not be deceived in their pretensions to the things they spake off Proleg 5. and presumed they did and yet prevail upon the more knowing part of the World to credit and assert their Doctrine under the greatest disadvantages 1. Our Saviour could not be deceived if his pretensions to be the Saviour of the World and to accomplish what was foretold of the Messiah were not false and if they were this must infallibly destroy his Credit waith his Friends supposing what we have already proved that they were not wilfully Deceivers and give his Enemies too