Liberty of a free Agent and would have made his Faith to have been no Virtue And what then can he expect but that since he would not be convinced by the great Moral Evidence that was tender'd to him of the truth of the Doctrines of the Gospel he should feel a sensible and experimental conviction of the truth and reality of the Threats of it Fourthly It now only remains that I shut up all with one Word of Practical application If he that does not believe the Gospel has no cloke for his Infidelity what cloke can we that do believe it but not obey it have for our disobedience What does it profit if a Man say he has Faith and has not Works will Faith save him a dead Faith without any Vital acts flowing from it No our Master has told us 't is to no purpose to call him Lord Lord to give up our names to him and profess our selves his Disciples unless we do the things which he commands us And this command we have very particularly in charge from him that he that loves God loves his Brother also Vain is that Faith that doth not work by love and false that pretended love to God that is not attended with a love to our Brother The Christian institution is singular in the injunction of Charity No other institution ever understood it in so comprehensive a meaning both as to the objects and exercise of it ever commanded it so strictly persuaded so Pathetically or proposed such glorious rewards to it The objects of Christian Charity are as large as all Mankind not only Relations and Friends but Strangers and Enemies The Exercise of it is to reach as far as our Brethrens wants and our own Abilities will go even to the laying down of our lives upon some Occasions for them The Commands that enjoin it are most frequent and emphatical in this Chapter verse 12. This is my Commandment says our Lord that ye love one another and v. 17. These things I command you that ye love one another and in 13 cap. v. 34. A new commandment give I unto you and that such as shall be the distinguishing Badge of your Profession by which all Men shall know that you are my Disciples that you have love one to another The Considerations by which this is pressed upon us are most moving viz. the Infinite love of Christ to us who will look upon the kindness we shew to our poor Brethren as done to himself the near Relation we stand in to one another not only as being made of one Flesh but as having been Baptized into one Body and so more strictly ally'd as being members of the same mystical Body which ought to have the same Sympathy and Fellow feeling with one another as the members of the Body Natural have The excellency of this Grace in that 't is preferable to Faith and Hope the very bond of perfectness the fulfilling of the Law and that it shall cover a multitude of Sins Lastly The Eternal Glories of Heaven are promised to the due performance of it St. Matt. 25. where our Saviour and Judge describes the procedure of the last Judgment as if the only thing he should then come to enquire into were our Obedience or Disobedience to this Royal Law In short Charity is so Essential to Christianity that an irrational Man is not a greater Contradiction than an uncharitable Christian The first Christians were so sensible of this that they would scarce call ought of the things they possess'd their own They thought their Poor Brethren had as good a Title to what they could spare as they themselves had to the rest of their Estates and they so ordered matters that those who had a great deal and those who had nothing were like the Israelites that gathered much or little Manna the former had nothing over and the latter had no lack Indeed there never was any Society of Christians that did not think they ought to distinguish themselves from Persons of any other Denomination by abounding in this Grace Even the worst Society that of Rome is not deficient in the exercise of it towards the Bodies of those of their own Communion tho' 't is to be fear'd the merit of that Charity will be over-ballanced by their want of it towards both the Bodies and Souls of those that differ from them But I need not take occasion by the forwardness of Papists to prove the sincerity of your Love since we have in this City so many Noble instances of Publick Charities since the Reformation to provoke your Emulation Some of which when I reflect upon methinks I see some faint resemblances such as Poor imperfect Creatures can make of the Lord himself going about doing good See him expressing his tenderness to little Children in that Pious care that is taken of Poor Orphans in the Hospital that bears his Name See him restoring use of Limbs to the Lame sight to the Blind healing the maim'd and curing all manner of Diseases in that variety of Charitable Cures that are perform'd in the Hospitals of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas See him making a Whip of small Cords and scourging the transgressors in those Just Corrections that are exercised upon the vicious in Bridewel See him restoring the Lunaticks to their right Minds in those excellent methods that are used with Poor distracted Wretches in Bethlem But I shall possess you with a Juster notion of these Great Charities by reading to you The true report c. You see here at once both noble examples of Charity to excite your imitation and very worthy and pressing occasions for the exercise of it Will you Pardon me if I mention one other kind of Charity the bare naming of which will I think be sufficient to recommend it to the encouragement of all well-disposed Persons I mean building Work-Houses and providing a stock to set the Poor to Work I mention this with the more assurance because I find it is a way you are going into and have already made some progress in it And were it carryed on with unanimity and resolution to bring it to perfection and managed as I am confident it will be in this City with Care and Prudence and a single Eye to the publick good 't would certainly turn to a very excellent account 'T would not only be a great Charity to the Poor to their Souls as well as Bodies to keep them from Begging and Thieving and put them in an honest way of getting their living but to employ those that are now the burdens and pests of the Kingdom in Working up our Manufactures would be a Publick Benefaction And now my Brethren since Charity is so Special and Eminent a Duty of that Religion which our Lord taught and confirm'd to us since all his true Followers have ever lookt upon and practised it as the distinguishing Character of their Profession let us having such glorious Patterns before our Eyes to encourage us and
ascribed to the Apostles the counterfeit Gospels and Epistles prove that there were such Men as the Apostles that they were Authors that there were true Gospels and Epistles for if there had never been such Men if they had not written if there had been no true Gospels and Epistles we should never have heard of Spurious Works under their Names there would have been no such counterfeit Gospels and Epistles Thirdly It may be said farther to the prejudice of our Books that some of those which we do now receive were for some time Question'd by Christians But those Question'd Books contain'd nothing different from what was contain'd in those that were never doubted of And what can be the just inference from hence but that Christians were not easie credulous Persons in these matters but examined the Books well and would be thoroughly convinced of the truth of them before they would receive them But to silence this Cavil a Person whose Authority I suppose will pass with our Deists who was one of the violentest Enemies to Christianity and Master of more Wit than his modern Followers Julian the Apostate Emperor I mean owns those Books to be the Writings of the Evangelists and of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul which the Christians read under their names Cyril Contr. Julian p. 327. Fourthly It may be objected against the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that the World has been much abused with accounts of false Miracles Nay that Christians they that pretend to be the only Society of Christians have received many Miracles as strange for quality as those of Christ's and with equal Faith some of which they themselves have since own'd to be false and from hence it may be argued to the prejudice of Christ's Miracles that if the Credulity of some later Ages has been thus imposed upon by cunning and designing Men why may not the same or like Artifices have prevail'd in the first Christian times But this Objection will be easily answered by observing these differences between the Miracles of our Saviour and the pretended ones of the Church of Rome The Romish Miracles have either no Witnesses or such as are made choice of for their known weakness or partiality none of them was ever attested by any Authors of known repute whereas those of Christ were wrought in the face of the World and that a Knowing and Learned World that resisted the Conviction to the utmost but were forced by the Power of it to submit And of this we have such assurance that no matter of Fact was ever so attested to succeeding Ages Again the Romish Miracles were not done as signs to those that believe not but to those that already believed not before Sceptical Infidels or obstinate Hereticks but before Proselytes already made and prepared for the strong delusion that had put out their own Eyes and renounced their own reason and senses and resigned themselves intirely to be governed by those of their designing Leaders and such indeed might very easily be imposed upon But the case was very different with our Saviour's Miracles where Men came with their Eyes as wide open as prejudice and interest could make them to examine Facts which they would not have had to be true and yet could not withstand the Evidence but were forced to acknowledge the truth of them and many of them that came with these prejudices were nevertheless by the Conviction of these Miracles brought over from a Religion they had suckt in with their Milk that was supported by the suffrages of the Wise and the Power and Countenance of the Great to a New Religion laught at by the one and Persecuted by the other This was truly the case of the Christian Religion at its first coming into the World it appear'd with all the disadvantages imaginable was proposed by the meanest and most contemptible Instruments was opposed and ridiculed by the Learned of the Age was threatned and most severely persecuted by the Emperors and Potentates And what Allurements did this Religion offer to draw Men through all these difficulties to it Was there Honour or Reputation to be got by owning it No alas Our Saviour told his Disciples ye shall be hated of all Men for my Name sake They were call'd a Sect that is every where spoke against They were counted as the Dung and off-scouring of the World Did it propose Riches or Wealth No Blessed are the Poor but wo unto you Rich sell what thou hast and give alms and how hardly shall a Rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Did it offer ease and Pleasures No In the World ye shall have Tribulation ye shall be persecuted and driven from this City to that brought and accused before Kings and Governors And whoever kills you will think he does God service Alas this Religion lay'd no other Baits to allure Men to it if it were not true but Persecution Poverty Imprisonment and Death The conditions of Discipleship proposed by our Lord are If any Man will be my Disciple let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me He must hate his dear Relations his dear Possessions and his dearer Life too Now certainly here was nothing in all this that could Prepossess Men in favour of this Religion or dispose them to be easily wrought upon by the methods used for its Propagation without a just enquiry into the truth and validity of them that could make men despise all the difficulties that opposed them and willingly run through all the dangers that threatned them into it without being fully satisfyed that God did really bear witness to it by signs and wonders and mighty works In short when the Christian Religion first appear'd in the World the Teachers of it used none of those methods of Policy Force or Flattery which Impostors make use of to inveigle or affright men into it rather all things conspired to discourage and affright them from it The only Motive was this that it was the way now proposed by God to attain Eternal Life and the great Evidences and Demonstrations of this were the Miracles wrought and appeal'd to by the Author and first Planters of it which were openly done in the face of the Sun and sight of Men who had liberty to examine them as nicely as they pleased And it cannot be doubted by any one that considers their prejudice of Education in a former Religion more agreeable to Flesh and Blood the Severities of this new one and the Dangers from without which attended the embracers of it but that as these things made them very curious inquirers into the Truth of it so that Truth was very apparent when so many thousands of all Ages Sexes and Conditions ran thro' Fire and Sword Deaths of all kinds into this New Religion How speedy and vast a Progress it made in the times of the Apostles their Acts and Epistles to the several Churche founded by them will inform us and profane
A SERMON Preach'd before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor THE ALDERMEN AND Governours of the several Hospitals of the City of LONDON At St. Bridget's Church On Easter-Monday 1700. By the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of OXFORD LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. JOHN xv 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had Sin but now have they no Cloke for their Sin JOHN xv 23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also JOHN xv 24. If I had not done among them the Works which none other Man did they had not had Sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father THE Churches Observation of Easter at this time calls for a Discourse upon our Lord's Resurrection Respect to the particular Occasion of the meeting of this Honourable Assembly would direct me to the subject of Charity I am sorry to add that the bold and daring attempts that are at this Day made upon our Religion in general necessarily require something to be said upon so Publick an Occasion in Vindication of it I hope I may in some measure Answer all these Obligations by attempting to prove the truth of our Religion as from other Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of it so chiefly from our Saviour's Resurrection by which he was declared to be the Son of God with Power and by endeavouring in my Application to perswade you to Evidence to your selves and the World the sincerity of your Faith in this Religion by a Practice conformable to the Holy Laws of it and particularly to that which in the Extent wherein it is injoin'd us by our Religion is peculiar to it that of Charity There is so close a Connection betwixt the Christian Religion and Charity that he that asserts the Christian Religion is one of the best Advocates for Charity and he that truly practises Charity one of the best Pleaders for the Christian Religion In the Verses of my Text and those immediately preceding our Lord is arming his Apostles against two great discouragements they were like to meet with in the discharge of their Office viz. A violent Persecution of their Persons and a mighty Opposition to their Doctrine Of both these he tells them he had had his share and considering the Relation they stood in to him that they were his Servants and he their Lord they could not think it strange if they should not be better treated than he had been These things therefore they ought to expect and prepare for and for their support under them he adds All these things will they do unto you for my Names sake all the Persecutions Reproaches and Despiteful usage that shall befall you will be upon my score who surely have deserved from you and am able abundantly to make up to you whatever you can suffer upon my account And for the Opposition which Wicked Men will make to the Doctrines you are to Preach let not that affright you for I having so plainly proposed it to the World as a Doctrine that came from God and so evidently demonstrated it to be so that they cannot Plead ignorance or want of Conviction their Infidelity who shall oppose it will be without excuse and their rejecting of it interpreted by God to be a Malicious resisting and Contemning of me and him too If I had not come c. What our Lord supposed would be the condition of his Religion and the Preachers of it then is too plainly the case of both at this time 'T is pretty hard that after near 1700 Years Prescription the Title of the Christian Religion to Truth should be call'd into Question But so it is Arguments are urged for Natural Religion in Opposition to any Reveal'd one the rise and progress of the Christian in particular is ascribed to Policy and Design in some and to Credulity and a disposition to hearken to any Impostor in others the Holy Author of it is treated with those Insolencies and Blasphemies which it could not but be as uneasie to you to hear as to me to repeat them To give only one instance his riding into Jerusalem is impiously represented under the light Expression of making his Cavalcade upon his Asinego Orac. of Reas P. 165. And these horrible Blasphemies have been not only once impudently Printed and Publish'd to the World under the Pompous Titles of Oracles of Reason in the Life time of the Author but since the death of that unhappy Man Reprinted with other of his Wretched Works and an Epistle before them placing the Author in Heaven and giving his Works the Characters of sacred Monuments Truths of too great importance to be slightly run-over of too great Beauty not to hold our Eyes sometime on them And these by the way are some of the Excellent fruits of that Liberty of the Press for which that Author was so Zealous an Advocate Just Vindication of Learning and the Liberty of the Press After this Treatment of our Lord no usage of us his Ministers can be surprising if they have called the Master of the House Belzebub what must they of the Houshold expect We cannot wonder at their charging us with Hypocrisie and Deceit Self-Interest and Worldly Designs and what not Nay so far as all these reproaches affect us only we can I hope not only patiently endure but even rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Christ to bear his reproach and to fill up what is behind of his Sufferings And in Obedience to his Command and Conformity to his example forgive and pray for those that thus Despitefully use us Father forgive them I wish we could add They know not what they do But so far as these contumelies affect our Master and his Religion and they are wounded through us as most certainly an affront offer'd to an Ambassador as such does not rest in him but reaches the Prince that gave him his Character and as certainly they that are endeavouring to bring a contempt upon the Priest's Office and render it useless are aiming at our Religion for if they can destroy the Priesthood as some speak their intentions pretty plainly the Discipline and Ordinances of Christ cannot be administred and if our Publick Ordinances were once laid aside 't would not be possible long to keep up a Face of Religion upon these views we may be allow'd to be Jealous of the Honour of our Master and his Institutions and shall not surely be thought to carry our Resentments too far by making that return to their Insolencies and Blasphemies which the Archangel made to one of old famous for his Oracles the Lord Rebuke them and by opposing to their impotent attempts to render our Religion suspected those irrafragable Arguments for the Truth of it which must prevail wherever Reason is permitted to be judge So far am I from affronting Reason Preface to
Orac. Reas that Sovereign Guide as 't is call'd or from infringing its liberty of directing even in the choice of a Religion that I do very freely acknowledge that a Religion which cannot be Reasonably accounted for is not fit for a Rational Creature to own nor worth his keeping I speak of a Religion in gross a Man ought to know upon what grounds he takes it up before he professes one and to be able to give better Reasons for it than because it is the Religion of the Country wherein he lives or that wherein he was educated He that embraces a Religion without any or any good Reason is likely enough to part with it upon as easie Terms He that owns one meerly because it is profest in the Country wherein he lives must change one as often as he does the other He that Pleads Education urges an Argument common to all Religions and since all cannot be true an Argument that may be equally used for all must needs be Bad. A Man should therefore well examine the force of those Motives that are offer'd to him to perswade him to be of this or that Religion and not give himself 〈◊〉 to any but that which is proved to be the true one by such Arguments as agree to that and to no other and such as will be of weight with him in all times and places and sufficient to prevail with a prudent and considering Man to adventure so great a stake thereupon as the Everlasting condition of his Immortal Soul and such Arguments for the Christian Religion has our Saviour furnished us with in the Words of my Text. If says he I had not come and spoke unto them i. e. If I had not come according to the Ancient Predictions and appear'd publickly in the World as a Prophet sent by God and Preach'd a Doctrine as from him so Pure and Holy that it plainly carry'd his Image and Superscription upon it They had not had Sin i. e. they might have had the Plea of Ignorance but now they have no Cloke for their Sin i. e. no pretence no colour of an excuse to cover their incredulity And If I had not done among them the Works which none other Man did i. e. if I had not justifyed my Mission Authority and Doctrine to be from God by Working such Miracles for the proof of them which no Man could do without a Divine assistance their rejecting of me and my Doctrine might have been more Pardonable But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father's i. e. they have seen him his Power in those Works which I have wrought in his Name and their rejecting my Doctrine for the confirmation whereof he so plainly appear'd is a Malicious opposing not of me only but of the Father himself So that from hence I might take occasion to insist upon two Arguments for the proof of the Christian Religion one taken from those internal Marks of Divinity which appear in it the Holiness and Purity of what our Saviour spake or taught the other from those External evidences which we have of its Truth in the Miraculous Works which were wrought for the attestation of it But the first of these though it be an excellent and forcible Argument for our Religion with unbyassed Pious and well disposed Minds yet it will hardly have its due weight with such Adversaries as we have to deal with nay in truth it is rather I fear the true ground of their opposition to it for to apply what one of their great Masters has said of Reason to Religion if Religion be against a Man a Man will be against Religion I shall therefore at this time confine my self to the second Argument which is taken from those Works which were wrought for the proof of our Religion and particularly that signal one the raising of the Holy Author of it from the Dead In order to the more regular proceeding I must state the Question with the Deist and lay down some demands so reasonable that he shall be ashamed to deny them The dispute is not between Natural and Reveal'd Religion for both one and the other are from God who cannot differ from himself but the question is between us and the Deists as they call themselves whether God has left Men as to the way of Worshiping and Serving him to the light of Nature only to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those common Notices of Good and Evil which are naturally implanted in their Hearts or whether he has made any farther discovery of his Will by the Ministry of any that he has sent into the World for that end and particularly by Jesus Christ I assert the latter part of the Question and to make way for my Argument lay down First That God can if he Pleases make known or discover a Religion to Men by an External Revelation Natural Religion and Reveal'd Religion are not so properly opposed but that Natural Religion is a Reveal'd Religion but it is Reveal'd by an Internal way of Proposal whereas that which we especially mean by Reveal'd Religion is discover'd by an External way of Proposal Now they that contend that God has discovered a Religion by an Internal way of Proposal cannot deny but that he may if he will discover one by an External way by raising up and impowering fit instruments for that Purpose one of these does no more imply a Contradiction than the other nor is more repugnant to any of the Divine perfections and God can do whatever implies not a Contradiction Secondly That if it appear that such Testimony has been given to an External Revelation as none but God could give such Works wrought and appeal'd to for the proof of the Truth and Divinity thereof which could not be effected without a Divine Assistance This is an undeniable evidence that God has made such a Revelation For if God has put forth his Power to attest that a Revelation came from him either what is so attested is true or God who is essential Truth has given his Testimony and Seal to a lie Thirdly That those who have the clearest and best evidence that such Divine Testimony has been given to the Truth and Divinity of an External Revelation that a thing of that Nature is capable of and such as supposing it true they could not have had better have all the reason that can be to submit to it and if they do not have no Cloke for their Sin no Plea for their Infidelity for they resist the utmost Conviction that can be had These things being premised I will go on in this Method 1. I will shew that those Works which we say were wrought for the proof of the Christian Religion especially the resurrection of Christ from the Dead were such as could not have been effected by any Power less than Divine 2. I will prove that we have the best evidence that such Works were wrought for that purpose that the matter is
Authors Tacitus Suetonius and the younger Pliny tell us how considerable a Figure the Christians made in the World within less than half a Century of the Apostles times But by the end of the next Age they were spread all over the Roman Empire as Tertullian in his Apology directed to the Roman Magistrates tells them And though this mighty Progress of it Only made the Enemies thereof complain that the City of Rome was environ'd on all sides with the Enemies of the Gods that the Christians were spread all over the Empire that the Provinces were full of them and that there were Persons among them of the greatest Quality and Dignity yet they ought as that farther remarks to have made this Inference from it for undoubtedly it is a just one that a Religion which notwithstanding all those disadvantages above mention'd drew all the Roman World after it must needs have something in it Excellent and Divine Fifthly After all that is said the Deist still thinks himself very prudent and cautious that he is on the safer side and if he errs he errs not like a Fool but secundum verbum after enquiry and if he be sincere in his principles he can when dying appeal to God Te deus bone quaesivi per omnia Orac. of Reas P. 92. I suppose it will be allow'd me that they who have the greatest Evidence that they are in the right and run the least risque if they should be mistaken act upon the most rational and prudent grounds and are on the safer side Let us then join issue here The Evidence we have for our Religion is this We say God himself has given Testimony to it and we are sure that his Testimony is true That God has given Testimony to it by Miracles wrought for the confirmation of it we prove by the best Evidence a matter of this Nature is capable of We produce a whole Cloud of Witnesses who relate these Facts upon their knowledge who could have no interest to serve by prevaricating who ventur'd their All upon the truth of them who seal'd their Testimony with their Bloud And this is convey'd down to us in such a manner that if it be false it is not possible for us to be sure that any thing which we did not see is true also supported with variety of Collateral Proofs Records and Writings of the Enemies as well as Friends of the Christian Religion so that to disbelieve them is not Scepticism but Madness Now what proof does or can the Deist urge against us Why he must protest against a matter of Fact he must suppose all our Scriptures and all the Ancient Fathers writings wherein they are quoted to be Forgeries and those of Jews and Heathens who have wrote against them to be so too Or else that all these have been corrupted by the unanimous consent of all Christians among whom they were dispersed over the World who all agreed to deliver in their Books not any denying so to do or owning or complaining of it and received them again so interpolated and yet still ventured their Salvation upon the truth of them Or he must suppose that a great number of honest and undesigning Men would not only lye for lying sake but rather than not impose it upon the World would dye Martyrs to a lye and that multitudes of Persons of all Conditions swallow'd these lyes either without Examination tho' they were matters of the highest Importance to them or else after that upon Examination they had found them to be so And yet so obstinately believed them that they staked Body and Soul quitted their Estates Liberties Lives all their enjoyments in this World and ventur'd upon them all their hopes in the next So that I think the matter is pretty clear on the Christians side as to point of Evidence As to Danger if the Christian runs any hazard it must be because his Religion is deficient in something necessary to be believed or practised in order to Salvation or it imposes some things upon his belief or practice inconsistent with it As to the former I do assert that there are no Doctrines in Natural Religion relating to Faith or Practice to God our Neighbour or our selves to the duties we owe to each or the obligations we lie under to discharge those duties but what are more clearly explain'd the duties enjoin'd in a more extensive meaning and enforced by more Powerful sanctions in the Christian than in the Natural Religion As to the other the Articles of Faith and positive Institutions peculiar to Christianity I do affirm that we are not obliged to believe any thing that is unworthy of God repugnant to any principle of right Reason or that can have any ill influence upon our lives nor are we obliged to do any thing that tends to the dishonour of God to the withdrawing of our service from him or making us slack in the performance of our duty to him But contrarywise the Doctrines and Institutions of the Christian Religion are all as I could shew if I had time calculated for the uniting of our Souls to God the exciting of our fear and reverence the inflaming of our Love the stricter tying us to and quick'ning us in our obedience to him And certainly Doctrines and Practises not only so innocent but of so good a tendency especially when we have such Grounds to believe them proposed and commanded by God as a prudent and considering Man will judge Rational will although we could be supposed to be out in this belief yet be lookt upon as at least very pardonable errors by our gracious God But if the Deist be mistaken and that Religion which he rejects and is the object of his laughter and scorn should prove True at last what a miserable condition must he be in I grant a Religion 's condemning all those that do not comply with it is no sure Argument of the truth of it but the Truth of it being supposed it is a very good proof of the Danger they are in that reject it Now the Proposals of the Gospel are set forth as the utmost effects and struggle of the Divine Compassion the last tenders of Mercy to Mankind We are there told that for those who neglect that great Salvation there is no escape nothing remains more but a fearful expectation of fiery indignation The tenor of it is he that believes shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damn'd nay it declares that the Judgment of those who refuse it after it has been proposed to them shall be heavier than if there had never been any such offer made to them And what has the Infidel to Plead by which he can hope to mitigate his Crime or his Punishment Why only that he had not other or more Evidence for the truth of the Gospel's Revelations than the matter would bear that God did not use such irresistible means for his Conviction as are not consistent with the