worought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine The Confession of the False Gods when they were adjur'd by Christians p. 401. CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions The Theology of the Heathens absurd p. 403. Their Religious Worship wicked and impious p. 405. Humane Sacrifices customary in all Heathen Nations p. 406. No Body of Laws nor Rules of Good Life proposed by their Oracles p. 402. But Idolatry and Wickedness approved and recommended by them ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens The Heathen Philosophy very defective and erroneous p. 411. Whatever there is of Excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation p. 423. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and as excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation p. 429 CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion p. 436. CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion p. 439 CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral p. 441 CHAP. IX Of Mahomet That he was Lustful Proud and Cruel appears from the Alcoran it self p. 443 PART IV. CHAP. I. THat there is as great Certainty of the Truth of the Christian Religion as there is of the Being of God p. 447 CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith The Scriptures considered 1. As Historically true 2. As to their Doctrine which concerns Eternal Salvation p. 451 452. From both these Considerations it follows that they are infallibly True p. 455. In many cases there is as much cause to believe what we know from others as what we see and experience our selves p. 456. And thus it is in the present case concerning the Resolution of Faith p. 460. The Evidence of Sense and of Humane Testimony in this case compared p. 462. The Certainty of both ultimately resolved into the Divine Veracity c. ibid. An Objection from Joh. xx 29. answered p. 467. The Truth of the Christian Religion evident even to a Demonstration p. 470 Newly Publish'd CHristian Thoughts for every Day in the Month with Reflections upon the most Important Truths of the Gospel To which is added Prayers for every Morning and Evening Price 1 s. A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism By Thomas Bray D. D. The Third Edition Price 5 s. Very proper to be read in Families A Minister's Counsel to the Youth of his Parish when Arrived to Years of Discretion Recommended to the Societies in and about London By Francis Bragge Vicar of Hitchin Hertfordshire Price 2 s. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK I. PART I. IN Discoursing of the Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion I shall use this Method I. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation II. I shall enquire into the Way and Manner by which this Revelation may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World III. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God and the Nature and Design of a Divine Revelation it follows That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Divine Revelation IV. That no other Books or Doctrines whatsoever can be of Divine Revelation V. I shall from hence give a Resolution of our Faith by shewing That we have the same Evidence for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that we have for the Being of God himself because it follows from the Notion of a God both that there must of necessity be some Divine Revelation and that the Scriptures are that Divine Revelation VI. Having done this I shall in the last Place endeavour to clear such Points as are commonly thought most liable to Exception in the Christian Religion and shall propose some Considerations which may serve to remove such Objections and obviate such Cavils as are usually rais'd against the Holy Scriptures CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows that there must be some Divine Revelation IN the first Place I shall shew how Reasonable and Necessary it is to suppose That God should Reveal himself to Mankind And I shall insist the rather upon this because it is not usually so much consider'd in this Controversie as it ought to be for if it were it certainly would go very far towards the proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures since if it be once made appear that there must be some Divine Revelation it would be no hard Matter to prove that the Scriptures are that Revelation For if it be prov'd that there must be some Revealed Religion there is no other which can bear any Competition with that contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament My first Business therefore shall be to shew from the Consideration of the Attributes of God and of the Nature and State of Mankind that in all Reason we cannot but believe that there is some Revealed Religion in the World There is nothing more evident to Natural Reason than that there must be some Beginning some first Principle of Being from whence all other Beings proceed And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that that wonderful Variety of Beings in the Heavens and Earth and Seas which all the Wisdom of Man is not able in any Measure to understand or throughly to search into should yet be produc'd and continu'd for so many Thousand Years together without any Wisdom or Contrivance that an unaccountable Concourse of Atoms which could never build the least House or Cottage should yet build and sustain the wonderful Fabrick of the whole World that when the very Lines in a Globe or Sphere cannot be made without Art the World it self which that is but an imperfect Imitation of should be made without it and that less Skill should be requir'd to the forming of a Man than is necessary to the making of his Picture that Chance should be the Cause of all the Order and Fortune of all the Constancy and Regularity in the Nature of Things and that the very Faculties of Reason and Understanding in all Mankind should have their Original from that which had no Sense or Knowledge but was meer Ignorance and Stupidity This is so far from being Reason and Philosophy that it is down-right Folly and Contradiction From a Being therefore of infinite Perfection must proceed all things that are besides with all their Perfections and Excellencies and among others the Virtues and Excellencies of Wisdom Justice Mercy and Truth must be deriv'd from him as the Author of all the Perfections of which the Creatures are capable And it is absurd to imagine that the Creator and Governor of the World who is infinitely more Just more Wise and Good and Holy than any Creature can be will not at last reward the Good and punish the Wicked For Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right
Antiquity as Tully assures us but the Antients gave no reasons to prove it by they only received it by Tradition Plato was the first who attempted to prove it by Argument for though Pherecydes Syrus and Pythagoras had asserted it yet they acquiesced in Tradition by which they had received it from the Eastern Nations but Plato as it is generally supposed conversing with the Jews in Egypt or at his coming into Italy being there acquainted (c) Tull. Tusc Qu. lib. i. with the Doctrine of the Souls immortality amongst other notions of the Pythagoreans began to argue upon it but not being able to make it fully out has only shewn how far reason could proceed upon those grounds which were then known in the world from Revelation Seneca (d) Epist 54.102 tho he sometimes asserts the immortality of the Soul yet at other times doubts of it and even denies that the Soul has any subsistence in a separate State And yet this Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul which the greatest of the Heathen Philosophers could not certainly prove from reason was firmly believed even amongst (e) Grot. de verit lib. i. Anot. Barbarians (f) Consuc lib. iii. Part. 4. p. 36. Confucius the famous Chinese Philosopher profest himself not the Author but the Relater only of the Doctrine which he taught as he had received it delivered down from all Antiquity and (g) Arist Metaph. lib. xii c. 8. Aristotle has declared that the Ancients left many Traditions which their Posterity had corrupted but from the remains of those Traditiwe know that they were originally derived from Revelation The first of the Philosophers that taught the immortality of the Soul was (h) Tull. Tusc Qu. lib. i. Pherecydes and he left his Writings to Thales from whence he had the notion that all things were produced from water Pythagoras was a Scholar of Pherecydes and Pythagoras Plato and Aristotle conversed with the Learned Jews (i) Plat. Phaed. Socrates disputed of a future State from Tradition and (k) Plat. Phileb profest that he always followed the Tradition which had descended from Antiquity and that he was at a loss whenever that failed him (l) Plat. Timae And this Tradition could not have its Rise from the Greeks who were confest to understand little or nothing of Antiquity The notions in Philosophy of the latter Heathens were much improved by Ammonius a Christian and a Teacher of Philosophy at Alexandria And we find that upon the propagation of the Gospel Moral Philosophy in a few years attained to greater perfection than ever it had done before as we may see in the works of Seneca Epictetus Plutarch M. Antoninus Maximus Tyrius and others We may therefore reasonably conclude that the Precepts and Rules of Morality which Philosophers all along taught had their original from Revelation rather than from the strength and sagacity of their own reason because they err in things no less obvious to natural reason and it appears that they had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Scriptures and that they spared no pains either by reading or conversation in their own or in foreign Countries in their search and enquiries after truth III. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation For 1. The rules of Philosophy lie scattered up and down in large and learned works mixt with many wrong and absurd notions and therefore must be in great measure useless how certain and excellent soever they may be in themselves they can be no rule of Life to us No perfect rule of Manners is to be found in any one Author and if it were possible to compile such a rule out of them all yet what man is able to collect them (m) Lact. de vit Beat c. 7. Lanctantius is of opinion that if all the truths dispersed up and down among the several Sects of Philosophers could be collected together into one System they would make up a Body of Philosophy agreeable to the Christian Doctrine but then he concludes it to be impossible for any man to make such a collection without a supernatural Assistance And if there were no other reason for it but this it is no wonder that we find (n) Tull. de Orat. lib. i. the XII Tables preferred before all the Writings of the Philosophers If there be nothing so absurd as Tully says but the Philosophers have taught it then it is necessary that men should not be left to the uncertainties and absurdities of Philosophy for tho some few of them might be free from such extravagancies yet their Notions were no Rule or Standard to the rest and the best were not without many great Errors 2. The Rules of Philosophy were no better than good Advice and carried no Authority with them to oblige men in Conscience they had not the force of a Law and failing in this necessary point whatever their intrinsick worth had been they never could have had that effect upon the Lives of men which Revealed Religion has Vertue was propounded by Philosophers rather as a matter of Honor and Decency than of strict Duty those were esteemed and admired indeed that observed it but such as did not only wanted that commendation Some Philosophers spoke great and excellent things but they past rather for wise sayings than for Laws of Nature their own Reputation which was greater or less with different sorts of men was the only Authority they had it might be prudence to do as they taught but there appeared no absolute necessity for it They commonly represented Vertue as very lovely with many very great and powerful charms and all that were of another mind did not know a true Beauty and that was an intolerable disgrace the Sanction of Rewards and Punishments in the next Life was little insisted upon by them They recommended Vertue for it's own sake not as it is enjoyed by God and will be rewarded by him and the contrary punished and those who could not soar to their Heights were rather the worse than the better for such Doctrines which they looked upon as the impracticable speculations of some who had a mind to speak great things And they often spoke the Truth indeed which they had from Tradition or from the excellency of their own Wit and Genius but they were not able to make it out by any such Principles as are wont to influence and govern humane Actions Accordingly we find that as the several Sects of Philosophy suited to the Tempers and Humors of particular men so far they prevailed and no farther The curious and inquisitive betook themselves to the Academicks the soft and effeminate to the Epicureans and the Morose to the Stoicks men applyed themselves to what ever opinion they liked best and found most agreeable to their Nature and Disposition Thus a severe and haughty Gravity made up the
But thus much in this place shall suffice all particulars having been largely insisted upon in their proper places And since as sure as there is a God there must be a Revealed Religion if any Man will dispute the Truth of the Christian Religion let him instance in any other Religion that can make a better Plea and has more certainty that it came from God let him produce any other Religion that has more visible Characters of Divinity in it and we will not scruple to be of it but if it be impossible for him to shew any such as has been proved then he ought to be of this since there must be some Revealed Religion and if that Religion which has more evidence for it than any other Religion can be pretended to have and all that it could be requisite for it to have supposing it true and which it is therefore impossible to discover to be false if it were so If this Religion be not true God must be wanting to Mankind in what concerns their eternal Interest and Happiness he must be wanting to himself and to his own Attributes of Goodness Justice and Truth And therefore he that upon a due examination of all the Reasons and Motives to it will not be a Christian can be no better than an Atheist if he discern the consequence of things and will hold to his own Principles for there can be no Medium if we rightly consider the Nature of God and of the Christian Religion but as sure as there is a God and nothing can be more certain the Gospel was revealed by him CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith HAving proved the Truth and Certainty of our Religion I shall in the last place upon these Principles give a Resolution of our Faith which is a subject that has caused such unnecessary and unhappy Disputes amongst Christians in these latter Ages for in the Primitive Times this was no matter of Controversie as indeed it could not then and ought not now to be 1. Considering the Scriptures only as an History containing the Actions and Doctrines of Moses and the Prophets and of our Saviour and his Apostles we have the greatest humane Testimony that can be of men who had all the opportunities of knowing the truth of those Miracles c. which gave Evidence and Authority to the Doctrines as Revealed from God and who could have no Interest to deceive others but exposed themselves to all manner of dangers and infamy and torments by bearing Testimony to the Truth of what is contained in the Scriptures whereas Impostures are wont to be invented not to incur such sufferings but to avoid them or to obtain the advantages and pleasures of this world And so this Testimony amounts to a moral certainty or as it is properly enough called by some to a moral infallibility because it implies a moral impossibility of our being deceived by it such a certainty it is as that nothing with any reason can be objected against it We can have as little reason to doubt that Christ and his Apostles did and suffered and taught what the Scriptures relate of them in Jerusalem Antioch c. as that there ever were such places in the world nay we have that much better attested than this for many men have died in Testimony of the Truth of it II. This Testimony being considered with respect to the nature of the thing testified as it concerns eternal Salvation which is of the greatest concernment to all mankind it appears that Gods Veracity and Goodness are engaged that we should not be deceived inevitably in a matter of this consequence So that this Moral Infallibility becomes hereby Absolute Infallibility and that which was before but Humane Faith becomes Divine being grounded not upon Humane Testimony but upon the Divine Attributes which do attest and confirm that Humane Testimony and so Divine Testimony is the ultimate ground why I believe the will of God to be delivered in the Scriptures it is no particular revealed Testimony indeed but that which is equivalent to it viz. the constant Attestation of God by his Providence For it is repugnant to the very notion of a God to let men be deceived without any possible help or remedy in a matter of such importance And so we have the ground of our Faith absolutely Infallible because it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God doth confirm this Humane Testimony by his own III. The Argument then proceeds thus If the Scriptures were false it would be impossible to discover them to be so and it is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of Almighty God to suffer a deceit of this nature to pass upon mankind without any possibility of a discovery therefore it follows that they are not false Here is 1. The object or thing to be believed viz. that the Revelation delivered to us in the Scripture is from God 2. The Motive or Evidence to induce our Belief viz. Humane Testimony 3. A confirmation of that Testimony or the Formal Principle and Reason of our Belief viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth The object therefore or thing believed is the same to us that it was to those who saw the miracles by which the Scriptures stand confirmed viz. the revealed Will of God and the Ground and Foundation of our Belief is the same that theirs was viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth whereby we are assured that God would not suffer Miracles to be wrought in his own Name according to Prophecies formerly delivered and with all other circumstances of credibility only to confirm a Lye The only difference then between the resolution of Faith in us and in the Christians who were Converted by the Apostles themselves is this that tho we believe the same things and upon the same grounds and reasons with them yet we have not the same immediate motives or evidence to induce our Belief or to satisfie us in these reasons and convince us that the Revealed Will of God contained in the Scriptures is to be believed upon these grounds that is to satisfie and convince us that the belief of the Scriptures being the Word of God is finally resolved into the Authority of God himself and is as well certified to us as his Divine Attributes can render it For they were assured of this from what their own senses received but we have our assurance of it from the Testimony of others The Question therefore will be whether the motives and arguments for this Belief in us or the means whereby we become assured that the Revealed Will of God is contained in the Scriptures be not as sufficient to produce a Divine Faith in us and to establish our Faith upon the Divine Authority as the motives and arguments which those had who lived with the Apostles and saw their Miracles could be to produce that Faith in them which resolved it self into the Divine Authority And this enquiry will depend upon these two things 1. Whether
and such Prophecies delivered as give to the Scriptures the full evidence and authority of a Divine Revelation If therefore it be enquired why we believe the Scriptures to be the word of God the Answer is upon the account of the Miracles and Prophecies which concurring with all other circumstance requisite in a Revelation confirm the Truth of them If it be asked how we know that these Prophecies and Miracles are true and effectual and not feigned or insufficient I answer because we have them so related and attested that considered barely as matter of Fact they have all the credibility that any matter of Fact is capable of and therefore may as safely be relied upon as any thing which we do our selves see or hear If it be further urged that for all this I may be deceived since all men are fallible and no man is infallibly assured that there is such a place as Rome who never saw it though no man neither can any more doubt of it than he can doubt whether there be such a place as London who lives in it I acknowledge that there is a bare possibility of being deceived in all humane evidence but yet I deny that we can possibly be deceived in this case because though the evidence it self be humane yet the things which it concerns are of that Nature that God would never suffer the World to be thus long imposed upon in them without all possibility of finding out the Truth So that here we resolve our Faith into the Divine Authority by reason of the same Miracles by reason whereof the Eye witnesses of them did resolve theirs into it but they believed these Miracles as seen by themselves and we believed them as seen and witnessed by others but both they and we believe them as the works of God himself It might have been alledged if we had seen those Miracles that we might possibly be decived and so indeed we might if we could not have securely relyed upon Gods Truth and Goodness that they were designed by him to confirm the Doctrine for the sake of which they were wrought and we may with equal security rely upon the same Truth and Goodness for the certainty of the History of them as we could have done for the sufficiency of them to the purpose for which they were wrought tho they had been performed in our sight since it is as impossible to find out any deceit in the account given of them as it would have been for us to find any in the Miracles themselves at the time of their performance Humane Testimony is the conveyance and the means of delivering the Truths contained in the Holy Scriptures down to us and we who could neither see the Miracles nor hear the Doctrines at the first hand have at this distance of time the truth of them ascertained by a continued successive Testimony till we arrive at such as were immediate witnesses of them Now those that saw and heard all things which are delivered to us in the Scriptures could not esteem their sences infallible but they notwithstanding believed our Saviour and his Disciples to be so of whom yet their senses only could give them means of assurance that they were infallible They knew their senses might deceive them or that they might be mistaken concerning the objects of sence but nevertheless they believed that our Saviour and the Apostles could not deceive them upon this only ground that their sences or their reason by deduction from sence told them so There was not one man of them perhaps but had often observed his senses misrepresent objects to him and yet in this case upon the sole Testimony of their senses they grounded an infallible Faith because though their sences had misrepresented objects yet it was in a wrong medium at an undue distance or by reason of some indisposition of the sense it self and still their sences or rather their reason by the help of their sences discovered that their sences had led them into mistakes But in the present case when the Object was placed in open and frequent view to the greatest advantage when it was publick and exposed to multitudes when all agreed in the same opinion concerning it and when the matter was of infinite importance here they had reason to conclude that the God who framed their Sences would not suffer them to be so hurtful to them as they must needs have been if they had been deceived by them In like manner in the Testimony which descends to us from former Ages we see with other mens eyes and hear with other mens ears and though the Testimony of others may often fail us and is subject to a double inconveniency through the incapacity and unfaithfulness of witnesses yet as in the former case so here when all circumstances are weighed and considered and after the utmost tryal no reason can be found to with-hold our assent but all things stand undisproved and no just scruple appears but only a bare possibility of being deceived and this arising not from any defect but that of humane nature it self here Gods Goodness and his Truth must needs interpose to take away that only impediment which otherwise must unavoidably hinder any thing from ever being known to be infallible The only certainty which we can have that our sences are true is this That God will not suffer them to be deceived where the disposition of the medium and distance of the Object and all other circumstances are rightly qualified because that would be inconsistent with his Attributes of Justice Goodness and Truth but it would be inconsistant with these Attributes not upon the account of our Bodies for they would be provided for as well though our sences were deluded we should see and hear and taste just as we do now though we were never so much deceived in these sensations therefore the Truth and Goodness and Justice of God are engaged not to suffer us to be deceived in respect to our Souls not in regard to our Bodies and if we have no certainty that our sences do not deceive us but because God would not suffer such a cheat to be put upon us as we are intelligent and rational Beings we have the same and much greater reason to conclude that he would not suffer us to lye under such a delusion in reference to our eternal Interest If God would not suffer our minds unavoidably to lye under a temporal delusion of no great consequence have we not much more reason to conclude that he would not suffer us unavoidably to be deceived by any means whatsoever in reference to our eternal Interest For in this case to be deceived is to be destroyed and to suffer it is a thousand times worse than if he should suffer all Mankind at once not only to be deceived by their sences but to be poisoned by that deceit and therefore the special Providence and particular care of God must be concerned to prevent it
others it seems probable that the highest degree of Excommunication among the Jews being styled Shammatha which is the same with Maran Atha Sham signifying Lord as †Vid. Grot. Ham. ad 1 Cor. xvi 22. Maran also doth in the Syriac and other Languages and Atha signifying cometh Atha might either Ignorantly or Maliciously be mistaken for Athon which signifies an Ass And it is likely that this Calumny might be first raised by some Body who had been Excommunicated and turned Apostate It would be a very wrong inference from what has been said to conclude that there is no certainty in the Greek and Latin and other Heathen Historians For the Circumstances of the Relation and the Consent of divers Authors may put most parts of History past doubt But it ought to be considered that those which have been mentioned are exceptions to which the Sacred Historians are by no means liable they do not charge one another with Falshood nothing can be discovered of Partiality in their Writings but they tell the most disgraceful Truths of their Ancestors and of themselves and the History it self has so many publick Circumstances that they clear it beyond all suspicion of Deceit If the Names of some Men be omitted upon particular occasions in the Scriptures we find them mentioned there upon others And there is evident Reason that the Names of infamous Men should in some Cases be omitted and should not be inserted in Genealogies and enrolled in the Registers of Honour But when the Memory of Persons and Actions is totally supprest this must extreamly abate the Credit of any History The Jews are the only People in the World that have had their Antiquities by an uninterrupted Tradition delivered down and preserved in an Authentick Book unanimously asserted by the whole Nation in all Ages which they have never changed nor altered but have in great numbers sacrificed their Lives in Testimony of it If the Heathens in divers things contradict the History of the Jews they contradict one another as much in the Accounts of their own Antiquities and what they relate of the Jews is upon uncertain and contrary Reports If they conceal what concerns the Jews it was their Custom to stifle that which did not please them The Histories as well as the Religion of most other Nations were kept secret and not communicated to the People no Book of History among them was ever put into the hands of a whole Nation with a strict Charge to every one to read and study it as the Books of Moses were when the Principal and most Memorable things related were within the knowledge and Memory of all that read them The Jews were under a necessity of preserving their Genealogies with all imaginable Care and Exactness if they would make good the Claim and Title to their Inheritances so that the meanest among them could with the greatest certainty derive his Line from Adam whereas the Persian Kings as we learn from (r) Herod lib. vii c. 11. Herodotus could boast but of a short Descent and the Kings and Emperours of the Romans and of other Nations to advance their Pedigrees were forced to have recourse to fabulous Reports And the Heathen Accounts of the Original not only of particular Families but of the several Nations of the World are acknowledged to be Fabulous or at the best but very uncertain by the most accurate Historians The Account of the Prophecies and Miracles contained in the Scriptures was impossible to be mistaken at first and it has been transmitted with all the certainty that any History is capable of to Posterity And the Writers of the Old and New Testament all agree in the Account of the Creation of the Deluge of Abraham and the other Patriarchs of the Bondage of the Israelites in Aegypt their Miraculous Deliverance from thence and their Journying into the Land of Canaan they all frequently assert suppose or imply the Truth of these things there is a continued Series and Line of Truth observable throughout the whole Scriptures But among Heathen Writers it is otherwise they contradict one another in Matters of any considerable Antiquity if they agree in some material Passages it is commonly with much variation in the Circumstances and with great Uncertainty and Doubtfulness and the things in which they most agree are such as have been taken from the Scriptures which compose a Book that if it were but for the Antiquity and Learning of it is the most valuable of any Book in the World and nothing but Vice and Ignorance and that which is the worst sort of Ignorance a Pretence to Learning could make it so much despised II. If the Histories of Heathen Nations be so little to be relied upon their Philosophy will appear to be worthy of no more Regard which for any thing of Truth and Usefulness there is to be found in it depends so much upon Historical Traditions That Poetry is the most antient way of Writing is not only asserted by Heathen Authors but may with great probability be made out from the Scripture it self Poets were the Chief upholders of the Religion and the Philosophy in use among the Heathens both these were at the first taught in short Maxims which that they might be the better received and the more easily retain'd in Memory were put into Verse without any farther Ornament than just what was necessary to give a clear and full Expression to their Notions and Precepts (s) Xenoph. Conviv Memorab lib. 1. Socrates and the Philosophers of his time had a value for the Verses of Theognis and those which go under the Name of Pythagoras are at least as antient as (t) Apuâ— A Gell. lib. vi c. 2. Chrysippus who alleg'd their Authority Solon himself wrote Elegies whereof some Remains are still preserv'd This gave the Poets a mighty Reputation and we find not only Solon but others of them quoted and appeal'd to by Demosthenes and Aeschines in the Courts of Judicature as well as by Philosophers in their Discourses But the Poets for the more delightful Entertainment of the People not only indulged themselves in that antient and useful way of Instruction by Fables for he (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Plâ—et was hardly esteem'd a Poet who had been the Authors of none but they became the Promoters of all manner of Superstitions and Idolatrous Worship the Oracles were delivered in Verse every Poet wrote something in Honour of the false Gods and (w) Plat. â—b Socrates himself during his Imprisonment made a Hymn in praise of Apollo By which means the Original Notions of Religion and Vertue were so obscured and corrupted that it was impossible in any Humane way to provide a sufficient Remedy Plato complain'd of the Fictions of Poets but when he set himself to recover Men to a true Sense and Notion of things by the help of some antient Traditions which he had met withal he fell into very absurd and sinful
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
VII Of the Obscurity of some Places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophesies HEre it must in the first place be remembred that it has been a common and true observation that all Authors are rather perplex'd and obscured than explained by a multitude of Commentators and this is so true of no Book as of the Scriptures for as none has had so many Glosses and Comments put upon it by men of all Ages and Nations so most of them endeavour to find out some new Explication or to serve a Cause and maintain some particular opinions by their Expositions So that it is a wonder that any part of the Scriptures should be clear after Volumes have been written I may truly say upon every Text rather than that difficulties should be found in them But at the same time it must be acknowledged that we find it declared in the Scriptures themselves that there are places of difficulty in them which makes it but so much the more unreasonable that this should be urged as an objection against them For what is acknowledged and profest must be suppos'd to be with a design and for some good reason and the reason and design ought to be inquired into before this be used as an objection St Peter speaking of Christ's coming to Judgment says that St Paul in his Epistles had delivered some things hard to be understood and St Paul himself intimates that there had been mistakes concerning what he had written in this matter 2 Thess ii 1 2 3. St Peter on this occasion says that it so happened not only to St Paul's Epistles but to other Books of the Scriptures thro the ignorance and rashness of unlearned and unstable men 2 Pet. iii. 16. And it happens more especially in those places of Scripture which are concerning things of this nature or contain whatever Prophecies of things to come Therefore I shall I. give an account how it comes to pass that there are things hard to be understood in the Scriptures in general II. I shall in particular consider the obscurity of Prophecies and shall prove the certainty of the Types made use of by the Prophets and shew that there is great force and evidence in the Arguments brought from them III. I shall prove that the obscurity of some places of the Scriptures is no prejudice to the Authority of them nor to the end and design of them I. I shall give an account in general how it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood 1. Some Doctrines which it mightily concerns us to be acquainted withal could not be delivered in so plain a manner but that they must needs have great difficulties in them as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Resurrection and of the Joys of Heaven and of the Torments of Hell There are several things which we are capable of knowing and which are necessary to be known of which yet we cannot have so perfect and absolute a knowledge but that something of them will still remain unknown to us As there is no object more visible or better known to us than the Sun is but to calculate the dimensions and the distance of the Sun from us to know how its light is communicated and suddenly spread over the face of the Earth are things of great difficulty and can never perhaps be fully accounted for In like manner what the Scriptures deliver to us concerning the Nature of God and the state of the World to come must needs have difficulties in it tho we are never so well assured that there is a God and a future state because these are things above our understandings we may perfectly understand that there are such things but can have no full and clear conception of all that may be fit to be delivered to us concerning them Nothing can be made plainer to us than we are capable of knowing it or than the Nature of it and the portion our Faculties bear to it will allow God being incomprehensible whatever is delivered concerning him can never be without all difficulty and whilst we are in this world we can never understand the state of the next so fully as we shall do hereafter And these are difficulties which must be unless the Nature of the things or our own Nature were different from what it is Nevertheless the greatest Mysteries in the Christian Religion so far as they are revealed and so far as they are required to be known by us contain no inexplicable difficulties but if we will needs know more of the Mysteries of Religion than is revealed and more than is required to be known no wonder if we meet with difficulties What is meaut for instance by the Doctrine of the Trinity is capable of being very well understood as the opposers of this Doctrine must own unless they will confess that they oppose they know not what He that says a thing is not true knows what it is which he pretends not to be true if he understands what he says The thing then is known tho there be difficulties in the explication but the explication concerns the manner of existence not the truth of it For that may certainly be and we may certainly know it to be which yet we know not how it should be And the Doctrine itself only is revealed as necessary to be believed not any particular explication of it And if it can be proved that this is the Doctrine of Scripture and it be plain to be understood what is meant by this Doctrine as it is delivered in Scripture this shews the plainness of the Christian Religion in all things necessary to Salvation tho divers things relating to this Doctrine be difficult to be explained because the Doctrine is plainly enough and intelligibly delivered so far as it is required to be understood and believed Several Arts and Sciences which are very difficult and abstruse in the Theory are easy in the Practice and a man may very well unsterstand what the Theorem itself is which is to be proved tho he be altogether uncapable of understanding the proof of it Now what God says is as certain as any demonstration can be and what he has plainly delivered is plain as well as certain and it is never the less certain or plain because we cannot make out the proof of it nor are able to understand how it can be It is sufficient that the Scriptures are plain in this Doctrine so far as we are concerned to know it it is not necessary that the Doctrine itself should be plain in all the controversies which may be raised about it when we know the meaning we must take Gods word for the Truth of it The manner of the distinction of Persons and the Unity of Essence in the Godhead is not required to be believed but the Thing and we know the Thing to be so because God himself has said it tho
bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
and of seducing and Apostate Spirits without any sufficient Means afforded them to undeceive and rescue themselves Can we suppose that God of Infinite Majesty and Power and who is a Jealous God and will not give his Honour to another should suffer the World to be guilty of Idolatry to make themselves Gods of Wood and Stone Nay to offer their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils and to commit all manner of Wickedness in the Worship of their False Gods and make Murther and Adultery and the worst of Vices not only their Practice but their Religion Can we imagine that the True God would behold all this for so many Ages among so many People and yet not concern himself to put a stop to so much Wickedness and to vindicate his own Honour and restore the Sense and Practice of Vertue upon Earth I shall in due place prove at large That Mankind have in all Ages had the greatest necessity for a Revelation to direct and reform them and That the Philosophers themselves taught abominably wicked Doctrines who yet were the best Teachers and Instructors of the Heathen World And we have no true Notion of God if we do not believe him to be a God of Infinite Power and Knowledge and Holiness and Mercy and Truth and yet we may as well believe there is no God at all as imagine that the God of Infinite Knowledge should take no notice of what is done here below that Infinite Power should suffer it self to be affronted and despised without requiring any Satisfaction that Infinite Holiness should behold the whole World lie in Wickedness and find out no way to remedy it and that Superstition and Idolatry and all the Tyranny of Sin and Satan for so long a time should enslave and torment the Bodies and Souls of Men and there should be no Compassion in Infinite Mercy nor any Care over an erroneous and deluded World in the God of Truth Would a wise and good Father see his Children run on in all manner of Folly and Extravagancy and take no care to reclaim them nor give them any Advice but leave them wholly to themselves to pursue their own Ruine And if this be unworthy to suppose of Natural Parents how much more unreasonable is it to imagine this of God himself whom we cannot but represent to our selves with all the Compassions of the tenderest Father or Mother without the Weakness and Infirmities that accompany them in Humane Parents How unreasonable is it to entertain such a Thought of Almighty God infinite in Goodness and Mercy as to suspect that he would suffer Mankind to make themselves as miserable as they can both in this World and the next without putting a Stop to so fatal a Course of Sin and Misery or interposing any thing for their Direction to shew them the Way to escape Destruction and to obtain Happiness The Fall of our First Parents is known to us only by Revelation and therefore is not to be taken into Consideration when we argue upon the meer Principles of Reason But I consider Mankind as we find it in Fact setting aside the Advantages of Revelation Wicked and abandoned to Wickedness in the Snares of the Devil taken captive by him at his will unable to work out their own Salvation lost and undone without Power or Strength without any Help or Remedy And in this State of the World however it came to pass is there no Reason to believe that infinite Goodness should take some Course and not disregard all Mankind lying in this Condition The great Argument of the Scoffers of the last Days St. Peter tells us would be this That all things go on in their constant Course and that God doth not meddle or concern himself with them Where is the Promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the Creation 2 Pet. iii. 4. And if no Promise had ever been made they would have had some Reason in their Arguing For that which rendred the Heathen without Excuse was That they did not make use of the Natural Knowledge that they had of God to lead them to the Knowledge of his Revealed Will which they had frequent Opportunity of becoming acquainted withal and had many Memorials of it amongst them in every Nation but they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge And this is the Force of St. Paul's Argument Act. xvii Rom. i. unless this latter Chapter were to be understood as Dr. Hammond interprets it of the Gnostick Hereticks That the Gentiles ought not to pervert and stifle those Natural Notions which God had implanted in their Minds but from the Law of Nature to proceed to find out the Written Law and for this Reason the Bounds of the Habitation of other Nations were determin'd and appointed by God according to the Number of the Children of Israel that they might seek the Lord and might be able to find and discover the True Religion and Way of Worship among that People to whom he had reveal'd himself Deut. xxxii 8. Act. xvii 26 27. They might have been less vicious than they were without the Knowledge of a Revelation and therein they were inexcusable that though they could not free themselves from the Power of Sin yet they might not have given themselves so wholly up to it as to become excluded from the Grace and Salvation to be obtained by the Revealed Will of God And when God has revealed himself all who will not use the Means and by a due Improvement of their Reason endeavour from Natural Religion to arrive at Revealed become inexcusable for their Negligence and Contempt of God and the Abuse of those Talents and Endowments which God has bestowed upon them For when God has once given Men warning and directed them in the way of Salvation and they will not regard it they must be wilfully ignorant if they will not consider that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day and it is Argument of his Patience and Long-suffering that he doth not bring speedy Vengeance upon a disobedient and rebellious World The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night Now this is very well consistent and exceedingly agreeable with all the Divine Perfections that he should give Men Warning of the Evil and Danger of Sin and afterwards leave them to their own Choice whether they will be Righteous and Happy or Wicked and Miserable and then that he should not take the first Opportunity to punish them nor lay hold of any Advantage against them but give them time for second Thoughts and space for Consideration and Repentance but if they abuse so much Patience and Loving-kindness that he should at last come
Principles of Natural Reason and Religion But when Miracles were perform'd which both for the End and Design of them as well as for the Manner and Circumstances of their Performance had all the Credibility that any Miracle could have if it were really wrought by God's immediate Power to confirm a Revelation if these Miracles have been foretold by Prophecies as on the other side the Prophecies were fulfill'd by the Miracles if they were done publickly before all sorts of Men and that often and by many Men successively for divers Ages together and all agreed in the same Doctrine and Design if neither the Miracles themselves nor the Doctrines which are attested by them can be discover'd to have any Deceit or Defect in them but be most excellent and divine and most worthy of God in such a Case we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Miracles and of the Religion which they were wrought to establish that we can have for the Being of God himself For if these Miracles and this Religion be not from God we must suppose either that God cannot or that he will not so reveal himself by Miracle to the World as to distinguish his own Revelation from Impostures Both which Suppositions are contrary to the Divine Attributes contrary to God's Omnipotence because he can do all things and therefore can exceed the Power of all finite Beings and contrary to his Honour and Wisdom and Goodness because these require both that he should reveal himself to the World and that he should do it by Miracles in such a manner as to make it evident which is his Revelation But if he both can and will put such a Distinction between False Miracles and True as that Men shall not except it be by their own Fault be seduc'd by false Miracles then that Religion which is confirm'd by Miracles concerning which nothing can be discover'd to be either impious or false must be the true Religion For we have seen that there must be some Reveal'd Religion and that this Religion must be reveal'd by Miracle and we have the Goodness and Truth and Justice of God engag'd that we should not be impos'd upon by false Miracles without being able to discern the Imposture And therefore that Religion which both by its Miracles and Doctrine and Worship appears to be Divine and could not be prov'd to be false if it were so must certainly be true because the Goodness and Honour of God is concern'd that Mankind in a Matter of this Consequence should not be deceiv'd without their own Fault or Neglect by Impostures vented under his own Name and Authority Upon which account the Sin against the Holy Ghost in ascribing the Miracles wrought by Christ to Belzebub was so heinous above all other Crimes this being to reject the utmost Means that can be us'd for Man's Salvation and in Effect to deny the Attributes and very Being of God The Summ of this Argument is That though Miracles are a most fit and proper Means to prove the Truth of Religion yet they are not only to be consider'd alone but in Conjunction with other Proofs and that they must necessarily be true Miracles or Miracles wrought to establish the true Religion when the Religion upon the account whereof they are wrought cannot be discover'd to be false either by any Defect in the Miracles or by any other Means but has all the Marks and Characters of Truth Because God would not suffer the Evidence of Miracles and all other Proofs to concur to the Confirmation of a false Religion beyond all Possibility of discovering it to be so 3. How Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World It is reasonable to suppose that Divine Revelations should be committed to Writing that they might be preserv'd for the Benefit of Mankind and deliver'd down to Posterity and that a more than ordinary Providence should be concern'd in their Preservation For whatever has been said by some of the Advantage of Oral Tradition for the Conveyance of Doctrines beyond that of Writing is so notoriously fanciful and strain'd that it deserves no serious Answer For till Men shall think it safest to make Wills and bequeath and purchase Estates by Word of Mouth rather than by Instruments in Writing it is in vain to deny that this is the best and securest way of Conveyance that can be taken So the common Sense of Mankind declares and so the Experience of the World finds it to be in things which Men take all possible Care about and it is too manifest and much to be lamented that Men are more sollicitous about things Temporal than about Eternal which affords too evident a Confutation of all the Pretences of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition upon this Ground That the Subject Matter of it are things upon which the Eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind depends Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever Isa xxx 8. 4. It is requisite that a Divine Revelation should be of great Antiquity Because upon the same Grounds that we cannot think that God would not at all Reveal himself to Mankind we cannot suppose that he would suffer the World to continue long under a State of Corruption and Ignorance without taking some Care to remedy it by putting Men into a Capacity of knowing and practising the Duties of Vertue and Religion 5. Another requisite of a Divine Revelation is that it should be fully promulg'd and publish'd to the World for the general Good and Benefit of Mankind that it may attain the Ends for which a Revelation must be design'd THE Reasonableness and Certainty OF THE Christian Religion PART II. FROM what has been already Discours'd it appears That these Things are requisite in a Divine Revelation I. Antiquity II. Promulgation III. A sufficient Evidence by Prophecies and Miracles in Proof of its Authority IV. The Doctrines deliver'd by Divine Revelation must be Righteous and Holy consistent with the Divine Attributes and suitable to their Condition to whom it is made and every way such as may answer the Design of a Revelation CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures AS it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God would not so wholly neglect Mankind as to take no Care to discover and reveal his Will and Commandments to the World so when there was so great a Necessity of Divine Revelation in order to the Happiness of Mankind both in this World and the next it is not to be believed that he would defer it so long before he made known his Will as till the Date of the first Antiquities amongst the Heathen It cannot be deny'd that some Books of the Seripture are much the Ancientest Books of Religion in the World for it were in vain to pretend that the Works in this kind or indeed in any other of any Heathen Author can be compar'd with
Composition of Cato it had been hard for him to avoid the being a Stoick and he might probably have founded that Sect if it had not been known in the World before The Philosophers had no Authority to promise rewards or to threaten punishments upon the observation or neglect of their Precepts and therefore every man was at his liberty to chuse or to reject what they taught and divers of them were sensible of this unavoidable defect in all humane Doctrines and therefore pretended to Revelation There is no inconvenience therefore in supposing that many of the Precepts contained in the Proverbs and other Books of Scripture might be known without a Revelation for there is notwithstanding very good Reason why they should be inserted into the Scripture Because the Scriptures have the Authority of a Divine Law and are to be looked upon not as a System of Ethicks or a Collection of Moral Precepts but as a Body of Laws given out upon Divers occasions and as Rules of Instruction which at the same time both shew us our Duty and command our Obedience It is not expected that Kings in their Laws shouid argue more profoundly than other men do but they should command more effectually than others can teach they do not dispute but pronounce and dictate what their subjects must take notice of at their peril And it is no diminution to a Princes Authority to command the most known and obvious things though it may be a fault in the subject to need such commands And God in his word did not design to furnish us with a Treatise of Philosophy to gratify our curiosity with strange and new notions and make us profound Scholars but to speak to the necessities of men and put them in mind of known Duties to appeal to their own Consciences and to enforce those notions of Good and Evil which natural reason perhaps might suggest to them by the authority of a revealed Religion and a Divine Law established upon Rewards and Punishments 3. Though the Philosophers were able to discern something more than other men yet they durst not openly declare what they knew but were over-born with the errors and vices the Times and Countries in which they lived even to the Commission of Idolatry and the worst of vices and therefore their Doctrines whatever they were could do but little good towards the reformation of the World I shall not enquire into the Reports concerning Socrates and Plato Seneca and Cato himself but only observe that Socrates who was the only Martyr among the Philosophers for the truth yet when he comes to die speaks with no assurance of a Future State and ordered a Cock to be sacrificed to Aesoulapius which can hardly be reconciled to that Doctrine for for which he is supposed to die And after his Death how did his Friends and Disciples behave themselves Did they openly and courageously vindicate his innocence and teach the Doctrine for which he suffered Did they not use all means to conceal and dissemble it But Mankind stood in need of a perfect example of Virtue and of such instructors as should both teach and practise the Doctrines of it at their utmost peril and of a succession of such Men as should bear Testimony to their Doctrine both by the Miracles wrought during their Lives and by the constancy of their Deaths 4. As the Heathen Philosophy wanted the Authority of a Law and the example of those who taught it so it wanted principal Motives to recommend the practice of it to the Lives of Men. The Philosophers teach nothing of the exceeding Love of God towards us of his desire of our happiness and his readiness to assist and conduct us in the ways of Virtue They owned no such thing as Divine Grace and Assistance towards the attainment of Vertue and the perseverance in it (o) Tull. de Nat. Dâ—or lib. iii. Virtutem autem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit nimirum recte propter virtutem enim jure laudamur in virtute recte gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum a Deo non a nobis haberemus nam quis quod bonus vir esset gratias Diis egit unquam Jovemque optimum maximum ob eas res appellant non quod justos temperatos sapientes efficiat sed quod salvos incolumes opulentos copiosos This occasioned those (p) Sen Epist 53. insolent Boasts of the Stoicks equaling themselves to the Gods and sometimes even preferring themselves before them because they had difficulties to encounter which made their conquests of vice and their improvements in virtue more glorious than they supposed the like excellencies to be in their Gods who were good by the necessity of their own Nature Wherefore tho the Rules of Philosophy had been never so perfect yet they must needs be ineffectual being so difficult to find out and so unactive and dead when they were discovered without that Authority and Life and Energy that may be had from Divine Revelation which there was a necessity for not only to supply the imperfections and correct the errors of Philosophy but to enforce the Doctrines of it tho they had been never so true and perfect CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion THE Novelty of the Mahometan Religion in respect both of the Old and New Testament is past all dispute And this Religion notwithstanding all its sensual allurement owes its Propagation solely to the â—ower of the Sword For though the Alcoran has been translated into most of the Languages in use amongst Christians yet it has never been known to make any Proselytes but by force of Arms. At first this Religion had many circumstances for its advantage which might in humane probability gain it success in the world It was begun in Rebellion and in a final Revolt from the Emperor Heraclius and besides this popular and seducing Temptation of Licence and Violence Mahomet added the enticements of Lust and Sensuality he forbad Men indeed some things but such as he could easily see they would part with for the free and unbounded enjoyment of others then he pretended to sound his Doctrine on the Authority of Moses and of Christ saying that Christ had promised to send him all which made his Religion find the more easy entertainment amongst both Jews and Christians 'T was but like the Heresy of the Gnosticks at the first and not altogether so gross and this must needs encline all of Seditious and lewd principles to come in to him being glad of such a colour for their wickedness and it had the advantage of Power and Force to make it more lasting than other such Blasphemies have been Christ on the contrary forbad Resistance of the supreme Power upon any terms whatsoever he asserted the Authority of Moses but so as to abolish the ceremonial part of the Law which was what the Jews were most fond of so that this very thing made the Jews
the most implacable enemies of Christianity and brought Christians into contempt among the Heathen for nothing could make the Gospel of less account in their esteem than to deduce its Authority from the Books of the â—ews who soon after the Crucifixion of Christ became vile and contemptible in the eyes of all the World It can be no great wonder to see men drawn into those vices under the pretence of Religion which no Laws nor Punishments can restrain them from but for a Religion that forbids all vice under the severest penalties to prevail in a vicious world is truly miraculous Besides it is Death by the Law of Mahomet to contradict the Alcoran men are forbid all disputation and discourse about Religion they are charged to believe none but Mahometans and to look upon all others as unworthy of all manner of conversation So that the Sword in the hands of furious and ignorant Zealots is the only way by which that Religion was designed to be propagated But nothwithstanding all these compliances with the Lusts and Passions of men if we take in all Ages since the Incarnation of Christ the Christian Religion not to mention the Jewish has had a much larger propagation than ever Mahometanism has had and has at all times been taught in more parts of the world and even amongst Mahometans themselves And the Alcoran it self asserting the Divine Authority and Mission both of Moses and Christ serves in some measure to propagate the Faith of the Old and New Testament so far I mean as to give an advantage and opportunity for men to make enquiry into them and become acquainted with them CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion MAhometanism is grounded neither upon Prophecies nor Miracles Mahomet indeed calls himself Prophet very solemnly but we have but this one instance of his Prophetick Spirit (a) Alcoran c. 66. When the Prophet went to visit one of his Wives God revealed to him what she desired to say to him he approved one part and rejected the other when he told his Wife what was in her will to speak to him she demanded of him who had revealed it to him He that knoweth all things hath revealed it to me that ye may be converted your hearts are inclined to do what is forbidden if ye act any thing against the Prophet know that God is his Protector Here is not one circumstance to make the story credible Mahomet pretended to no Miracles but when he has raised that objection as he often doth that the world would not believe in him unless they saw some Miracle he answers (b) Meor c. 13. I am not sent but to Preach the Word of God Tho afterwards he mentions that ridiculous story of the Moons being divided in these words (c) Ib. c. 54. The Day of Judgment approacheth the Moon was divided into two parts nevertheless Infidels believe not Miracles when they see them they say that this is Magick they lye and follow but their Passion but all is written Here is no proof nor any pretence to it but only a confident assertion of a thing ridiculous And yet unless we will believe this Prophecy and this Miracle there is nothing in the whole Alcoran either of Miracle or Prophecy to give it any Authority except that must be accounted one which he so often boasts of viz. It s wonderful Doctrine and Eloquence for (d) Ib. c. x xi xvi he challenges all the world to produce any thing like it protesting (e) C. vii that he could neither write nor read and therefore must needs have it by Revelation And he introduceth God swearing to the Truth of it almost in every Chapter and this is all he offers in answer to the suspicions which he so frequently suggests men then had of his being an Impostor CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral I. THE Alcoran is false as when it makes (a) Ib. c. xix the Virgin Mary Sister to Aaron when it asserts that (b) Ib. c. iv Christ was not Crucified but one like him in Contradiction to the Testimony of Jews Christians and Heathens and that Christ (c) Ib. c. lxi Prophesied of him by Name without the least proof or ground for it but against all the evidence that can be to the contrary II. The Alcoran contains things absurd and ridiculous as in that story of the sleepers (d) C. xviii the Infidels say they were five and that their Dog was the sixth they sâ—eak by opinion but the true Believers affirm them to be seven and their Dog to be the eighth And (e) Ib. c. xxvii in the story of Solomon's Army composed of Men Devils and Birds of the Queen of the Pismires and Solomon's discourse with the Bird called the Whoop who brought him tydings of the Queen of Sheba III. The Doctrines of the Alcoran are impious and immoral Mahomet makes all the Angels worship Adam in several parts of his Alcoran and his sensual Paradice is well known and his allowance of many Wives but perhaps his injustice is not so generally taken notice of (f) Ib. c. iv xxiii in permitting the professors of his Religion to take away their Slaves Wives from them The Law of Mahomet proceeds from a savage and cruel spirit obliging those that embrace it to destroy all that are not of it however the Mahometans have not always acted according to the cruelty of their Religion humane Nature not being always able to act so much contrary to it self But this is Mahomet's Doctrine (g) Ib. c. iii. God loveth not the unjust he forgiveth sins to those that believe and extirpate Infidels (h) Ib. c. iv If they forsake it the Law of God pretended to be set down in the Alcoran kill them where you find them Be not negligent to pursue the Infidels And this the (i) Tavern Voyage de Ind. lib. iii. c. 24. Faquirs at their return from Mecha are very mindful of with a furious zeal killing all they can that they meet who are not Mahometans till they are killed themselves and then they are reputed Saints and Prayers are made at their Graves Such is the Alcoran as we now have it and yet it is not now as it was at first written by Mahomet (k) Sandys Trav. lib. i. p. 54. many alterations have been made in it by inserting some things and striking out others and taking some of the absurdities away Mahomet the Second particularly is said to have made great alterations and additions (l) Ricauts Hist of the Ottom Empire lib. ii c. 10. But the Persians the followers of Haly charge Abu-Beker Omar and Ozman whom the Turks follow with falsifying the Alcoran CHAP. IX Of Mahomet AFter this account of Mahomet's Alcoran there will be no need to say much of his Person the general Doctrines of the Alcoran shew him to have been lustful proud fierce and cruel
If we have nothing to object but the imperfection of human nature we may rely upon God that this shall never mislead us in a matter of such consequence whether the imperfection be in our own sences or in the Testimony of others In short the Miracles related in the Scriptures will as effectually prove a Divine Revelation to us as they could to those that saw them but the difference is that they believed their sences and we believe them and all things considered we have as much reason to believe upon their evidence as they could have to believe upon the evidence of their sences Let us consider History as a medium by which these Miracles become known to us and compare this medium with that of Sight If a man would be sceptical he might doubt whether any medium of Sight be so fitly disposed as to represent objects in their due proportion and proper shape he might suspect that any Miracles which he could see were false or wrought only to amuse and deceive him and there would be no way to satisfy such an one but by telling him that this is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of God So in this other medium of History which to us supplies the want of that of Sight a man may doubt of any matter of Fact if he Pleases notwithstanding the most credible evidence but in a matter of this nature where our Eternal Salvation is concerned we may be sure God will not suffer Mankind to be deceived without all possibility of discovering the deceit The circumstances have all the marks of credibility in them and therefore if they be duely attended to cannot but be believed and the Doctrine which they are brought in evidence of being propounded to be believed under pain of Damnation require that they should be attended to and considered and that which is in its circumstances most credible and in its matter is supposed necessary to Salvation must be certainly true unless God could oblige us to believe a Lye For not to believe things credible when attended to and known to be such is to humane nature impossible and not to attend to things proposed as from God of necessity to Salvation is a very heinous Crime against God and to think that God will suffer me to be deceived in what I am obliged in Honour and obedience to him to believe upon his Authority is to think he can oblige me to believe a Lye But it may be objected if this be so how comes it to pass that they are prâ—nounced blessed who have not seen and yet have believed John xx 29. Which seems to denote that a peculiar Blessing belongs to them because they believe upon less evidence I answer that they are there pronounced Blessed who had so well considered the nature and circumstances of things the Prophecies concerning the Messias and what our Saviour had delivered of himself as to believe his Resurrection upon the report of others not because others might not have as sufficient Grounds for their Belief as those who saw him after his Resurrection but the evidence of sense is more plain and convincing to the generality of men though Reason proceeds at least upon as sure and as undeniable Principles A demonstration when it is rightly performed is as certain as the self evident Principles upon which it proceeds though it be so far removed from them that every one cannot discern the connexion Demonstrations may be far from being easie and obvious but are oftentimes we know very difficult and intricate which yet when they are once made out are as certain as sense it self The Blessing is pronounced to him who believes not upon less evidence But upon that which at first seems to be less which is less observable and less obvious to our consideration but not less certain when it is duly considered For which reason our Saviour after he had wrought many Miracles that were effectually attested by sufficient witnesses required Faith in those who came to be healed of him because the Testimony of others was the means which in Ages to come was to be the motive of Faith in Christians and he thereby signified to us that there may be as good Grounds for Faith upon the report of others as we could have from our own sences and generally those who came in unbelief went away no better satisfied Wherefore it is said that in his own Country because of their unbelief he could do no mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick Folk and healed them Mark vi 5. He could not do his mighty works because they would be ineffectual and would be lost upon them and he could do nothing Insignificant or in vain if they would reject what had been so fully witnessed to them they would not believe whatever Miracles they should see him do It is very remarkable that amidst all his Miracles our Saviour directs his Followers to Moses and the Prophets and appeals to the Scriptures for the Authority of his very Miracles and that even after his Resurrection he instructs his Disciples who saw and discoursed with him out of the Scriptures to confirm them in the truth of it Luke xxiv 26 27. He requires the Jews to give no greater credit to his own Miracles than that which he implies they already gave to the wrirings of Moses so as firmly and stedfastly to believe that he came from God And we having all the helps and advantages which the Jews had to create in them a Belief of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and many more and greater Motives if it be possible to believe these of the New must therefore have sufficient means to excite in us that Faith which our Saviour required of those who saw his Works and heard his Doctrine which certainly was a Divine Faith and all the Faith which if it be accompanied with sincere and impartial obedience is required in order to Salvation Upon the whole matter I conclude that the Truth of the Christian Religion is evident even to a Demonstration for it is as Demonstrable that there is a God as it is that I my self am or that there is any thing else in the World because nothing could be made without a Maker or created without a Creator and it is as Demonstrable that this God being the Author of all the perfections in men must himself be infinitely perfect that he is infinitely Wise and Just and Holy and Good and that according to these Attributes he could not suffer a false Religion to be imposed upon the world in his own Name with such manifest Tokens of credibility that no man can possibly disprove it but every one is obliged to believe it FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by R. Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard Newly Published A Treatise of Medicines containing an Account of their Chymical Principles the Experiments made upon them their Various Preparations and Vertues and the
or other preserv'd than that they are able to make it out It was the Custom of the Aegyptians to omit the mâ—ntion of these Persons of whom they haâ— any â—islike or who had made themselves oâ—ioâ—s to them Thus in the xxth Dynasty of their Kings there is a total Vacancy for the spacâ— of clxxviii Years which the Learned Mr. Greaves with great Probability Supplies with the Names of those Kings who built the Pyramides two whereof Cheops and Chephren as (m) Herod lib. 2. c. 128. Herodotus says the Aegyptians out of Hatred to them would not so much as name but called the Pyramides which they had erected the Pyramides of Philition a Shepherd who in those days fed his Cattle there The which Hatred says (n) 〈…〉 â—â—idoâ—raph Mr. Greaves occasioned by their Oppressious as Diodorus also mentions might cause Manethos to omit the rest especiaâ—â— Sabachus an Aethiopian and an Vsurper But whatever account is to be given of the Aegyptian History in that particular this makes the History of that Nation in general very uncertain and may afford a sufâ—â—erent Reason why the Jews are either omitted or 〈◊〉 by Heathen Historians who had what they relate of them from the Aegyptians and the Hebrews neither liv'd with the Aegyptians nor left them upon such Terms as to have their Story faithfully told by a Nation who would suffer nothing to pass down to Posterity if they could help it that was displeasing to them when it happened but if any thing were so Notorious as not to be capable of being wholly stifled they would be sure to vary and deface it with false Circumstances in the Reports which they gave out concerning it And here I must once more complain of Mr. Blount who as if he had been an Aegyptian Historian that had an implacable Hatred of our Religion professing to translate that place of Tacitus which concerns the Original of the Jews cuts his Translation short and goes no fâ—rther than the Vilifying and false part of the Account which Tacitus gives for his Character of their Religion and the Relation of what Pompey discovered upon his Entrance into the Temple is omitted And besides that which he has translated is far from being exact but as I observed before that in speaking of the Ark he had made Sir Thomas Brown say that will not appear feasible which the Learned Knight had said will appear feasible so he has dealt no better with Tacitus making him likewise deny what he had affirmed Tacitus (o) Tâ—â—â— Hist lib. v. says Hi ritus quoquo modo inducti Antiquitate defenduntur These Rites by what means soever introduced are defended by their Antiquity which (p) Oâ—â—â— of Reason p. 13â— Mr. Blount translates thus But by what means soever they have been introduced they have no Antiquity for their Patronization This is to use the History of Tacitus as ill as he doth that of the Bible and much worse than Tacitus himself has done the Jews For if it be rightly understood what Tacitus has written of the Jews proves a very remarkable Vindication of their Religion He says indeed that they consecrated the Image of an Ass but he says it only as a Report which he confutes afterwards himself by acknowledging that Pompey when he entred into the Temple found no Image in it and giving an Account of their Religion he says Aegyptij pelraque Animalia effigiesque compositas venerantur Judaei mente sold unumque 〈◊〉 intelligunt Profanos qui Deum imagines mortalibus materiis in species Hominum effingunt Summum illud aeternum neque mutabile neque interiturum Igitur nulla simulachra Vrbibâ—s suis nedum Templis sunt Which is so contrary to what this Historian writes before in these words Effigiem animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depâ—lerunt penetâ—ali sacravere that some have charged him with contradicting himself but it is evident that the Story of their Worshiping an Ass is related as a Tradition which is afterwards sufficiently confuted by his own Account of their Doctrine and Worship and by what Pompey found Nullà nitus Deum Effigie vacuam sedem inania Arcana Whatever his Design was and however his obscure way of writing has made him to be misunderstood there can hardly be any thing said more for the Truth and Honour of the Jewish Religion than what Tacitus has delivered of it And if any one will compare that which Tully hath said in the same (q) Pro Flacco Oration of the Greeks and of the Jews he must conclude that what is spoken against the Jews is rather to their Commendation than to their Disgrace Tully there declares the Greeks to be of no Credit nor Esteem but unfaithful and of the worst Reputation even to a Proverb in their Testimonies and Oaths He is careful not to involve the Athenians and Lacedaemonians in the common Scandal who appeared for his Client and gives a high Character of the Massilians and would seem to confine his Discourse to the Asiatick Greeks by whose own Confession he says the People of Phrygia Mysia Caria and Lydia were proverbially Infamous When he has exprest this Contempt of the Greeks he falls next upon the Jews But what has he to say of them He calls their Religion a barbarous Superstition and Jerusalem a Suspicious and Railing City and he pronounces the Jewish Religion to be unsuitable to the Splendor and Gravity and the Customs of the Romans he insinuates that they were a People not well affected to the Roman State and urges the Conquest of them by Pompey as an Argument against the Truth of their Religion When so very Learned an Orator had nothing but these common Topicks of Slander to charge them withal tho' it was for the Interest of his Câ—use to speak the worst he knew of them what could be a greater Justification of the Jews and their Religion One of the Accusations laid against Flaccus whose Defence Tully had undertaken was that Summs of Gold having been wont to be sent out of Italy and out of all the Roman Provinces to the Temple at Jerusalem Flaccus had forbidden any to be exported from Asia Here it concern'd Tully to expose the Worship of the Jews and to vindicate the Prohibition relating to it but he who never spoke little upon any Subject that could afford a Scope for his Eloquence says so little here to the dispraise of the Jews and their Religion that the Commendation of another had been less to their Honour It is observable that Tully mentions nothing of their Worshiping an Ass which was so groundless and foolish a Slander that it is hard to imagine what could give occasion to it and perhaps no better Account of it can be assigned than that the Enemies of their Religion were resolved to fasten the worst and most ridiculous Falshood they could upon it But if it may be permitted me to add a Conjecture to those which have been made by
has been very great III. It (w) â—emed Hist of China part â— c. 13. was the opinion of a converted Mandarine That those who had any occasion to hear the Law of God or to read the Books which treat of it and did not judge it to be true wanted Brains and were void of Vnderstanding And it might well be thought incredible if we did not find it true in Experience that when Christianity has gained so much upon Heathens and (x) Ricaulâ— Hist of the Ottoman â—mp lib. 2. c. 11.12 Turks have become its Proselytes and Martyrs even in Constantinople it self it should notwithstanding grow into Contempt among profess'd Christians who dispute every Article of the Faith into which they were Baptized and every Commandment which they have undertaken and solemnly vowed to obey But do they not prove what they pretend As little of that as may be but they say it and say it often and confidently and perhaps sometimes wittily and this must pass for Proof But do Men love or will they endure to be talk'd or jested out of any thing that is dear to them but their Souls Let the Wit be what they please or can fancy it to be certainly they must be much too fond of it who can be contented to lose not only their best Friend but Heaven it self for a Jest which perhaps after all would be little taken notice of on another Subject and has nothing to recommend it but Profaneness and that alone which should make it abhorr'd causeth it to be admired As there is nothing so bad but some may pretend to speak for it as a Panegyrick has been written upon Busiris and another upon Nero so nothing is so excellent but it may be spoken against and if no Right or Title must be allowed as true or certain which may be questioned or disputed it is hard to say what any Man can have that he may call his own But let it be consider'd that there is little Learning or Judgment required in advancing or maintaining new and strange Doctrines and in rejecting the old Things may be so plain as for that very Reason to be hard to prove because there is nothing plainer to prove them by a bold denial of the truth of our Senses and Faculties may seem to promise something of more than ordinary subtilty though there be no more in it than this that he who resolves to deny the very grounds and foundations of all Reasoning has taken effectual care not to be confuted It is a mistake to think that it is easiest to speak upon a common Subject a Man indeed can never want something to say upon such a Subject but he is prevented in what he should say it is known before-hand and expected from him The nicest thing of all is to enforce and improve known Arguments and to give new Life and a better Genius as it were to that which has been said a thousand times before It is usually easiest to discourse on the wrong side of a Question because there never is so little scope for Fancy and Invention as when a Man is confined to strict Truth Error will admit of all Extravagancies but Truth is a severe and uniform thing and there are those whom any Extravagancy almost will please for the novelty of it There may be some Art required to make a known Story delightful in the relating but News is commonly welcome tho' it be never so ill told and the most beautiful and useful Creatures are little regarded when the worst of Monsters are the more gazed at the more they be deformed Let those who make such a noise with their Singularity but change the Subject and try how it will succeed with them they will soon find the difference and perceive that they will cease to be in vogue when they have no longer the vanity and ill nature and vices of Men on their side It is with our Minds in this respect as it is with our Bodies when once they are well supplied with all that is necessary or convenient they begin to loath wholesome Food and to seek out for varieties of Luxury and are fond of any thing that may please them to their hurt It is thus in every Art and Science especially in such as all Men think themselves more or less concern'd to know Men first were contented to speak so as to be understood and to express their meaning plainly and naturally with Truth and Simplicity to one another afterwards speaking became an Art and at last in the best and most elegant Languages it degenerated into nothing but Affectation and all the ridiculousness of a false Eloquence The same thing happened in Philosophy the Scepticks carried this innovating humour to the utmost Extravagancy for the Primitive Traditions being obscured and corrupted and every Succession of Philosophers striving to set up for themselves and to outgo each other they had brought it to that pass that Tully who knew as well as any Man says that nothing can be more absurd than what some of the Philosophers held but the Author of the Leviathan proceeds farther and observes that (x) Leviath part 1. c. 5. no Living Creature is subject to the Privilege of Absurdity but Man only and of Men those are of all most subject to it that profess Philosophy And if we will not believe him upon his word he has given us his Example for it few Men I think having written more extravagant things than he has done in every part of Philosophy if Religion were set aside he would never have escaped among the Philosophers and Mathematicians of any Age he disputed the Principles of Geometry as well as the Foundations of all Religion and both with a like Success He calls Absurdity the Privilege of Mankind a strange Privilege which he has made the most of But since with a little time the Novelty and Varnish of his odd Opinions are worn off they are not now that I have perceived so much regarded but have been forced to give way to other Notions which are as Bad and have nothing more to recommend them but that they are of a later Date and a newer Fashion There is little Reason why any one should value himself for talking against received Doctrins and persuading others to what they are already but too much inclin'd But to rescue Antient and despised Truths and bring them into Reputation to convince the Judgments and gain the Affections of Men to make the same Truths always please and always appear with a new and amiable Lustre this is indeed a difficult Task For a Man to cultivate the Principles of Vertue and improve the Growth of it to make every subject which he treats of to become the better for him and to thrive and flourish under his Hands is an Argument of true Learning and substantial Knowledge but there is no Skill required to make the weeds of Vice grow apace all the Art is in destroying them and
it is a sign of a little Mind when one is able to distinguish himself only by Singularity by an odd Dress or a new Mode when his Wit borders upon Madness and Prophaneness and his Learning is all out of the way Many who are neither Heterodox in Religion nor fond of being singular in any thing else have shewn an extraordinary Sagacity and a surprising variety of excellent Learning upon Subjects which are unusual and in themselves but little considerable And I will not deny but that some of the Men of Singularity have no Worse Design than to gratify a little Vanity and to appear like some body in the Commonwealth of Learning as if Learning were a mere Trifle a very Play-thing to be employ'd to no serious and useful Purpose but would serve only to give men occasion to talk and to be talk'd of This is call'd Pedantry and I know not why that should go under a better Name which is of a worse Nature and join the Trifling of Pedantry to the Mischief of Irreligion If this Sort of Men would but busie themselves no worse than Tiberius did when he examined who was the Mother of Hecuba what Name Achilles went by whilst he hid himself in Womans Apparel and what Songs those were which the Sirens were wont to sing those indeed are profound Enquiries and so worthy of them that it were pity they should be disturb'd in such ingenious Disquisitions But if Men will be for removing Foundations and rejecting established Doctrines and denying the Principles of Religion it is fit they should be told that there is neither Wisdom nor Learning in this and those who are acted themselves by a Spirit of Contradiction have the least Reason of any Men to take it amiss to be contradicted tho' it be in never so plain a manner In short it is possible that some may be well Skill'd in Tricks and Artifices who know little of the substantial and useful Part of the Law and it is certain that many who talk boldly of the highest Points of Religion are ignorant even of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. There surely can be little need for any Man to have recourse to Error and Extravagancy for the exercise and improvement of his Faculties they must be strange Faculties to want such Improvement Truth it self is infinite tho' always uniform and consistent in every part and will afford room enough for the free use of Reason in examining and considering the Nature of things in stating particular Cases by general Rules in the Study of Antiquity and in explaining particular Texts of Scriptures according to the Analogy of Faith and the Tenour of sound Doctrine And it may justly be look'd upon as a Defect of Judgment and good Sense or be suspected which is much worse of want of Sincerity and a good Conscience when Men can find nothing by which they may recommend themselves to the World but by setting up for Novelties in Religion For what Man of an honest Meaning and of sufficient Abilities and strength of Parts to proceed securely in direct and approved Paths would run out of the way by Cunning and Artifice to steal a despicable Reputation which another would be asham'd of and of which the best thing that can be said is that as it is never worth the having so it is never lasting After the Reception and Establishment of the Gospel for so many Ages we are call'd upon to prove the Grounds and Principles of our Religion all over again and we will never decline a thing so easy to be done But the Modern Infidels have changed the State of the Question The Truth of the Miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples was never deny'd by the Adversaries of Christianity of old this was not disputed by Celsus Porphyrie Hierocles and Julian the Apostate if some of them did upon any occasion insinuate the contrary that was so malicious and groundless a Calumny that they were neither able to insist upon any Proof of it nor to reconcile it to what they themselves had elsewhere said The Matter of Fact was acknowledged by the antient Jews and has been confest by their Posterity they could not contradict the Miracles but denied the Consequence of them tho' the Men we have to deal withal to make clear work with much Confidence but with as much Ignorance deny both Let them know then that they are in part confuted by the Enemies of our Religion and it were strange if its Friends should fail in the other Part. IV. I have here endeavoured to do some Right to our Religion and to satisfy all such as are willing to be satisfied in the most difficult Points of it And tho' I have discoursed at large upon the Subjects of which I treat and not in the usual Method of Objection and Answer yet I have always had my eye upon the Objections which I have known that I could think at material But to bring in Objections at every Turn in plain Discourses such as these were design'd to be as far as the Matter would permit might have been of no good Consequence A man may very well be guided in the right Road without having all the wrong and dangerous Paths describ'd to him and he may be directed how to recover or preserve his Health without being presented with a Catalogue of Diseases he may get safe to his Journeys end without knowing all the Bogs and Precipices by which he might have miscarried and in order to be well there is no need that he should be acquainted how many ways there are of being sick I have heard of some that read Objections without the Answers as lately a shameless Writer has produced the Objections of Celsus and Faustus against the Canon of Scripture without takeing Notice of the Answers given by Origen and St. Austin from whom he had them And tho' both the Objections and Answers should be read yet Objections are commonly in few Words and are often remembred when the Answers are forgotten And indeed tho' I were never so Expert at it I have no Ambition to try my strength in tying a knot that I may shew my Skill in unloosing it But to provide against all exceptions as much as it is possible I have proved at large that if all Objections could not be answered this would be no sufficient Reason to reject or question the Authority of our Religion I cannot say I must confess that I have been able or have been much sollicitous to obviate all the Cavils which may have been started many have been given up and others seem never to have been seriously urged An Author who had more Learning it seems than Judgment to spare wrote a Book to prove that there were Men before Adam but this was rejected by Judicious Men as a very absurd and Ridiculous Conceit particularly by Grotius as the Author complains who yet afterwards retracted it himself Some notwithstanding are so fond of any
own thoughts in a way much more free and unconfin'd than in this Life as they have more knowledge in a separate state so they must have fitter means to communicate it And since the happiness of Heaven consists in the Vision of God that is in the communications of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness God certainly can as well act upon the minds of Men in this mortal state tho we be less capable of receiving or observing the influences of his Spirit Since finite Spirits can act one upon another it is reasonable to believe that the Spirit of God the God of the Spirits of all flesh doth move and work upon the Spirits of Men that he enlightens their understandings and inclines their Wills by a secret Power and Influence in the methods of his ordinary Grace And he can likewise act upon the Wills and the understandings of some men with a clearer and more powerful Light and Force than he is pleased to do upon others in such a manner as to render them infallible in receiving and delivering his Pleasure and Commandments to the World He can so reveal himself to them by the Operations of his Holy Spirit as that they shall be infallibly assur'd of what is revealed to them and as infallibly assure others of it Which kind of Revelation is styl'd Inspiration because God doth not only move and actuate the minds of such men but vouchsafes to 'em the extraordinary Communications of his Spirit the Spirit then more especially may be liken'd to the Winds to which it is compared in Scripture for by strong convictions and forcible but gracious Impressious he breaths upon their Souls and infuses his Divine Truths into them But upon those to whom God did thus reveal himself by inward light and knowledge he did moreover bestow a power of giving external evidence by miraculous works that their pretences were real and that what they spoke was not of them but was reveal'd to them from God This inspiration the Apostles profest to have both in their Preaching and Writings and this evidence they gave of it In speaking of the Inspiration by which the Scriptures were written I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended II. I shall from thence make such inferences as may afford a sufficient answer to the objections alledged upon this subject I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended And here we must consider both the Matter and the Words of Scripture The Matter is either concerning things reveal'd and which could not be known but by Revelation or it is something which was the object of Sense and Matter of Fact as when the Apostles testify that our Saviour was crucify'd and rose again or lastly it is matter of Reason as discourses upon Moral subjects and inferences made from things reveal'd or from matter of Fact God who is a Spirit can speak as intelligibly to the spirits and minds of Men as Men can speak to the ear and in things which could not be known but by Revelation the notions were suggested and infused into the minds of the Apostles and Prophets by the Holy Ghost but they might be left to put them into their ow 〈◊〉 * Praeterea scito unumquemque Prophetam pecuâ—iare quid habere ea lingua eaque loquendi ratione quae ipsi est familiaris consueta ipsum impelli à Prophetia sua ad loquendum ei qui intelligit ipsum Maimon More Nevoch Part 2. c. 29. Words being so directed in the use of them as to give infallibly the sense and full importance of the Revelation In matters of Fact their Memories were according to our Saviours promise assisted and confirm'd In matters of Discourse or Reasoning either from their own natural Notions or from things Reveal'd or from matters of Fact their understandings were enlightned and their Judgments strengthned And still in all cases their natural Faculties were so supported and guided both in their Notions and Words as that nothing should come into their Writings but what is infallibly true They had always the use of their Faculties tho under the infallible Direction and Conduct of the Holy Ghost and in things that were the proper objects of their faculties the Holy Ghost might only support and guide them as in matters of sense and natural Reason and Memory and in their Words and Style to express all these But in things of an higher Nature which were above their faculties and which they could have no knowledge of but from Revelation the things themselves were infused tho the words in most cases might be their own but they were preserv'd from error in the use of them by that Spirit who was to guide them into all Truth For tho the several Writers of the Scriptures might be allowed to use their own Words and Style yet it was under the infallible guidance and influence of the Spirit as when a man is left to the use of his own Hand or manner of Writing but is directed in the Sense and Orthography by one who dictates to him or assists him with his help where it is needful Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 The Holy Ghost saith by the Psalmist to day if ye will hear his Voice Hebr. 3.7 David saith of himself the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23.2 And God is said to speak by the hand of Moses his servant and by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Prophet 1 Kings 8.53.14.18 By which it appears that he used the Prophets as his Instruments in revealing his Will For as Miracles were by the immediate power of God though wrought by the hands of men so the Revelations were of God though spoken or written by the Prophets and Apostles But though God used them as his Instruments yet not as mechanical but as rational Instruments and as in working their Miracles they were not always necessarily determined to the place or to the persons on whom they were wrought but in general were guided to work them when they were proper and seasonable and the Actions by which they wrought them were their own though the power that accompanied them was of God so in their Doctrines they might be permitted to use their own Words and Phrases and to be guided by prudential Motives as to time and place and persons with a directive power only over them to speak and write nothing but infallible truth upon such occasions and in such circumstances as might answer the end of their Mission with which they were entrusted God promised Moses when he sent him to Pharaoh that he would be with his mouth and with Aaron's mouth and would
first the whole Design and Contrivance and Method and Stile of it not to criticize upon some difficult Parts of it without any regard had to the rest This is the Method used by all who would criticize with Judgment upon any Author And some Passages of Scripture are explained to our hands to be a Key as it were and a Direction to us in the Explication of others Thus whereas in one place it is said that Jesus baptized in another it is said that he baptized not and the former place is expalined to be meant not of Baptism performed by Himself but by his Disciples who baptized in his Name Joh. iii. 22. iv 1 2. III. It is reasonable to observe whether the Objections be not such as do suppose Mistakes which a Man who could write such a Discourse as they are imagined to be found in could not run into For if they be of this Nature this very Consideration is enough to take off the force of the Objection against the Authority of any Book and we must conclude that the Objections are capable of being answered and that the Mistake lies not in the Book it self but in the Readers who without sufficient Skill or Attention pass a rash Judgment upon it For by all the Rules of Reasoning an Objection may imply too much as well as prove too little to be of any force And the common Rules of Candor and Equity would prevent many Objections which are wont to be made against the Scriptures For if we will but suppose the writers of the Scriptures to have been Men of any tolerable Sense even without Inspiration they could never have committed such mistakes as some would fasten upon them We read Exod. xxxiii 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a Man speaketh unto his Friend yet Vers 20. the Lord answers Moses who had besought God to shew him his Glory Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live Would it not be impudent Trifling to pretend any Contradiction in these two Verses when they are easily understood in a consistent Sense and no Man of any Judgment can be supposed to write Contradictions and lay them so near together When it is said Act. ix 7. that the Men who journeyed with St. Paul heard a Voice but saw no man and Act. xxii 9. that they heard not the Voice of him that spake to St. Paul besides the Explications which are known and obvious to reconcile these Texts those who who will not be at the Pains to consult Expositors or to consider the Importance of the Words may be pleased to observe that St. Luke was a Man bred to Learning and this History of the Acts of the Apostles shews him to have been at least a prudent and wise Man and therefore he could never have written so palpable a Contradiction as the Objection must suppose in so small a Compass concerning one of the most remarkable Things in his whole History relating to a Person with whom he constantly travelled and convers'd I appeal to any Man whether if he had met with two such Passages which seem to contradict each other in Thucidides or Xenophon or even in the very worst Historian he would not be enclined rather to seek out for some way of reconciling them than to suspect that he could so soon forget what he had written so little a while before in an Account of a Thing of that Nature Of the same kind is that Difference which is between the Genealogy of Christ in St. Matthew and that in St. Luke For there is no doubt but the Genealogies of the Jews were then and long after extant in the Publick Registers (x) Ab exordio Adam usque ad extremum Zorobabel omnium generationes ita memoriter velociterque precur runt ut eos suum putes referre nomen Hieron in Tit. iii. 9. they could repeat them by heart with as much readiness as they could their own Names and to insert a wrong Genealogy had been to give up all the Arguments that could be alledg'd for our Saviour's being the Christ Nothing could be more destructive to their Cause than for the Evangelists to produce a false Pedigree when the True one might be so easily produced by any who had a mind to disprove them The Merits of their Cause wholly depended upon the Proof of Christ's Descent from Abraham and David and therefore whatever Difficulties there may now be thought to be in this Twofold Genealogy it was certainly acknowledged by those of that Age and beyond all Dispute or else it would never have been produced by the Evangelists or had for ever ruined their Cause if they had produced it Some Crimes are too great to charge upon Men of any Credit or Reputation and some Errors are so notorious that no Man of common Prudence can be supposed to commit them And therefore when we find an Author rational and consistent in other parts of a Discourse the ordinary Ingenuity and Condor of Mankind will hinder us from supposing him to commit gross and palpable mistakes and it is great disingenuity and folly to shew the less Respect to any Author because he is at least believed to have written by Inspiration or to deny him the Respect due to a Man because God has enabled him to write Infallible Truth IV. If any Contradictions be framed or forced from the various Readings the difficulties in Chronology or whatever elsé of this Nature is to be found in the Disputes of Criticks they prove no more against the Authority of the Scriptures than they do against the Authority of all other Books in the World unless it could be shewn that these Difficulties could not happen in a Book written by Divine Inspiration but that it must be first written in such a manner as to afford no occasion for Disputes and that it must be ever after so preserved by a constant Miracle that it may be subject to none of the Accidents and Casualties to which all other Books are liable On the contrary it can never be proved that God might not permit Books written by Inspiration to be obnoxious to any such Casualties as are not prejudicial to the End and Design of a Revelation But if the necessary points of Doctrine be preserved entire and the Evidence of Matters of Fact be sufficient to prove the Truth of the Miracles and Prophecies in Confirmation of that Doctrine all lesser Matters may be lest to the same contingencies which befall all other Books in the World That the Evidence is very clear and full in Proof both of the Prophecies and Miracles which demonstrate to us the Divine Authority of the Scriptures has been already shewn and if no more could be produced than has by me been brought to prove their Authority yet unless this can be proved to be insufficient from some mistakes or defects in it no such Objections can invalidate it Because no Man can prove that God
unbelief the evil Spirit was cast out of his Son Mark ix 23.24 The End and Design of Christ's Miracles required that those who were Cured by him should believe in him For they were wrought with a design to convince Men that he was the Son of God and that he was come not so much to Cure their Bodies as to save their Souls and he forgave their Sins at the same time that he healed them of their Diseases Mark ii 5. And since Faith is so necessary a Doctrine of the Gospel it was as requisite that Christ should teach this as any other Doctrine But how could he do it more properly and more effectually than by requiring Faith in those who came to be healed If they would partake of his Mercy they must qualifie themselves for it by believing that he was the great Prophet and Messias who was then so much expected and of whom it was foretold that he should make the Blind to see and the Lame to walk and the Deaf to hear c. Luke vii 22. Isa xxxv 5. And unless their Bodily Cure did conduce to the Cure of their Souls by Faith and Repentance it would be but ill bestowed upon them and therefore with great Reason might be denied them And upon this Account we find our Blessed Saviour both requiring Faith in some and rewarding it in others to whom his miraculous Power was extended Luke viii 48. xviii 42. And St. Paul perceiving that the Cripple at Lystra had Faith to be healed immediately healed him without being ask'd to do it Acts xiv 9. 2. Faith in the Miracles of Christ is required of Men in all Ages of the World though Miracles are ceased and if this be Reasonable now it could not but be fitting then that those who came to Christ should believe in him for the sake of the Miracles which they had been certified that he had done upon others For Miracles when they are fully attested are as sufficient a Ground of Faith as if we had seen them done and to manifest that they are so our Saviour might require Belief in his former Miracles of those who expected any Advantage from such as they desired him to do If they would give no Credit to the Miracles which were so notorious and so abundantly testified by Multitudes who saw them done how should others believe in Times to come when no more Miracles should be wrought for the Conviction of Unbelievers Might no Man be required to believe unless he saw the Miracles himself Then how should the the Church subsist in future Ages when Miracles would be no longer wrought but were for great Reasons to be with-held We must now believe upon the Account of the Miracles which were then done and why therefore should they not be required to believe upon the Account of them who lived at the very Time and in the same Country where they were wrought though they had never seen them Our Saviour in these Instances might introduce that Method and establish the Evidence and Certainty of those Means and Motives whereby Faith was to be produced in Men of all succeeding Ages and might hereby signifie and declare that he requires the same Faith of us from the Testimony of others that he would do if we had seen and experienced his miraculous Power our selves CHAP. XXIX Of the Ceasing of Prophecies and Miracles PRophecies are generally of more Concernment and afford greater Evidence and Conviction in future Ages than when they were first delivered For it is not the Delivery but the Accomplishment of Prophecies which gives Evidence to the Truth of any Doctrin The Events of Things in the Accomplishment of Prophecies are a standing Argument to all Ages and the length of Time adds to its Force and Efficacy and therefore when all that God saw requisite to be foretold is deliver'd to us in the Scriptures there can no longer be any need of New Prophecies which would be of less Authority than the ancient ones inasmuch as their Antiquity is the thing chiefly to be regarded in Prophecies For if to foretel Things to come be an Argument of a Divine Prescience the longer Things are foretold before they come to pass the better must the Argument needs be He therefore that requires New Prophecies to confirm the Old little considers the Nature of Prophecies and wherein the Evidence and Use of them lies but in great Wisdom and Caution will give no Credit to the best Evidence unless there were something less evident to prove it by The chief Enquiry then seems to be concerning the Cessation of Miracles but from what has been elsewhere said the Reason may appear why the miraculous Power which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost was not to be of perpetual continuance in the Church but was to cease in future Ages For the Cause and End of the Gift of Miracles bestowed upon the Apostles was to make them capable of being Witnesses to Christ and when the Gospel of Christ was sufficiently testified there could be no longer need of such a Power which was given to enable Men to bear Testimony to it For what is once effectually proved by sufficient Witnesses is for ever proved and needs no after Evidence if this Proof be preserved and transmitted down to Posterity The Power of Miracles continued till the Gospel had been Preached not only in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria but unto the utmost Parts of the Earth which was the declared Intention of our Saviour in bestowing it Acts i. 8. And when the Gospel had stood at the Tryals and conquered all the Opposition that could be made against it by Jews and Heathens and Apostates themselves when Miracles had been wrought for several Ages before all sorts of Men upon all Occasions and had extorted a Confession from the Devils themselves of the Divine Power by which they were wrought when the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists in which these Miracles are Recorded had been dispersed in all Nations and Languages so that it was impossible that the Memory of them should be lost whence once the Gospel was thus divulged and attested to the World it could not be necessary that this miraculous Power should be any longer continued Because this is the only Reason and Design why Miracles should be wrought to awaken Mens Attention and prepare them for the Reception of the Doctrin which is revealed and convince them of the Truth of it If then it be enquired Why the miraculous Gifts which were at first bestow'd upon the Church were not continued to it in all succeeding Ages The plain Answer is Because this Power was bestowed for the Establishment of the Christian Religion in the World by convincing Men of its Truth and Authority and therefore when a sufficient Evidence had been given in all Parts of the World of the Divine Authority of that Religion upon the Account whereof these Gifts were bestowed the Reason for the bestowing
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an
caused the Christians in their Apologies to press earnestly for a fair and impartial Hearing of their Cause beseeching their Enemies that they would not be so injurious to the Truth and to themselves as to despise and condemn what they did not understand They were desirous to undergo any Tryal if they might but be admitted to be heard 6. Yet many who did not actually become Christians had more favourable and just Thoughts of the Christian Religion (l) Ael Lamprid. in Alex. Severo Alexander Severus had the Effigies of Christ in his Chappel and had designed to erect a Temple for the Worship of him and to insert his Name among the Heathen Gods As it is reported that Adrian likewise with the same Intention had commanded Temples to be built without Images in all Cities but was dissuaded by some who consulted the Oracles about it which gave out that all Men would then become Christians and the other Temples would soon be forsaken This which is related concerning Adrian has been by some supposed to be a mistake because the Fathers say nothing of it But Ael Lampridius or rather Spartianus who mentions it being a Heathen might perhaps have it from the Gentiles for it was only in Adrian's Intention to set up the Worship of Christ which might be unknown by the Christians of his time the design being laid aside upon consulting the Oracles It was certainly reported in the Historian's time as he declares and yet this Objection lies as well against the Report as against the Reality of the thing For it is strange that a Report of this nature should be mentioned by no Christian Writer though there had been no Truth in it (m) Euseb Hist lib VII c. 11 Aemilianus the Prefect of Egypt asked Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria when he was brought before him why if he whom the Christians Worshipped be God they could not Worship him with the other Gods Many admired the Doctrin and were convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion who could not free themselves from the Prejudices of their Education they would have been willing to have it taken in among others but could not bring themselves to relinquish all their old Religions for it The Calumnies raised against the Christians had caused the popular Odium and Rage against them but they were Vindicated by (n) Plin. lib. X. Epist 97. Just Mar. Apol. 2. Eus Hist lib. IV. c. 8 9 13. Pliny in an Epistle to Trajan by Serenius Granianu◠Proconsul of Asia in his Epistle to Adrian by Adrian himself in his Rescript by Antoninus Pius in his Epistle to the Common Council or the Community of the Estates of Asia though some ascribe this Epistle to M. Antoninus not to mention his Epistle to the Senate of Rome (o) Just Martyr Dial. Trypho the Jew likewise frees them from the Crimes commonly laid against them and owns the Excellency of their Precepts contained in the Gospel And it is observable that those Crimes which had been wont to be objected against the Christians by their former Adversaries were not mentioned by Julian in Discourses written to oppose them who (p) Epist 49. Fragm Epist p. 305. elsewhere speaks of them in such a manner and so much to their commendation as shews the mighty force of Truth which could extort it from him But the Fear and Shame of Men hindred divers from embracing the Christian Religion who had a truer Notion of Things than to approve of their own (q) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. VI. c. 11. Seneca exposed the Heathen Worship and express'd himself with bitterness against the the Jews but being able to find nothing to blame in the Christian Religion nor daring to commend it for fear of giving Offence to the Heathens he made no mention of it at all These and such as these were the Occasions of the Unbelief of the Jews and Gentiles Though it must be confessed that there is nothing more difficult to be accounted for than the Notions and Actions of Men it is as hard to give an Account how (r) Senec. de Ira. lib. I. c. 25. Plut. in Lycurg Seneca and Plutarch should allow of the Murdering or Starving of poor Infants as they certainly did as why they were not Christians No Phaenomena in Nature can be more variable and uncertain in their Causes than the Opinions and Practices of Men which differ according to their Tempers and Capacities and Circumstances it is sufficient if we can find out any probable Solution and have several to offer which might take place according to several Cases But the Writings of such as opposed the Christian Religion were very slight and frivolous containing a Confession for the most part of the principal Matters of Fact upon which our Faith is established and raising only some weak Cavils which never came up to the main Cause or undertook to disprove the Truth of the Miracles and Prophecies upon which it is founded They could not deny the Miracles upon which our Religion is established and then let any Man judge what Reasons they could have for their Infidelity And indeed the prevaling of the Christian Religion under all manner of Disadvantages as to Humane Means shewed that the Adversaries of it had little to say against it For they must be but poor Arguments which could not dissuade Men from becoming Christians when they must incurr all the Dangers and Sufferings of this World to be so The Books of the first Heathen Writers against the Christian Religion are frequently cited by St. Jerom and St. Austin and other Authors of their Time as commonly known and probably they were extant long after So that their Arguments were baffled and destroyed long before the Books themselves and they had Time and Opportunity enough to do all the Mischief that they were capable of And their Writings are not yet so far lost but that we still know their Principal Arguments which the Christian Writers have not concealed but have given them their full Force and commonly in their own Words Origen was so careful to omit nothing considerable which Celsus had alleged that he was often forced to make Apologies for mentioning the same things over again rather then he would seem to let any things pass which was Material that his Adversary had said without taking Notice of it (s) Ambr. lib. 2. Epist 11. Aug. Epist 43. And some Pieces are preserved entire as the Petition of Symmachus among the Epistles of St. Ambrose and the Epistle of Maximus Madaurensis among those of St. Austin The Arguments of Julian are set down at large by St. Cyril and we Learn from (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Spanhem in Julian oper Praefat St. Chrisostom that the Books of the Philosophers against the Christian Religion were neglected and despised by the Gentiles themselves and were scarce to be found but among the Christians before the Edict of Theodosius Junior to prohibit them There
by Exhortations and Encouragements on the one hand and Admonititions and Threatnings on the other But to force Men to be of one Mind and one Profession would be to lay aside these Terms and to render the Motives and Arguments which Religion proposeth useless and to have no Regard to the Rewards and Punishments by which it is enjoyned There can be no more Reason that God should constrain Men to have right Notions of Religion than that he should force them to obey those Notions and put them in Practice or that he should restrain Men from Heresies and Schisms that is from such Sins as more directly and immediately concern Religion rather than from any other Sins But there is great Reason why it should not be so because this would make Religion it self useless and insignificant by taking away the Grounds and Foundations of all Religions and by destroying the Liberty of Mankind which is necessary in all Acts of Religion For he that Acts by Necessity cannot Act by the Principles of Religion which advises and commands Men to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good Differences in Religion could not be prevented without over-ruling all the Passions and hindering all the Vices of Men and without frustrating the Commands and Precepts and contradicting the Design and Institution of Religion and it is not to be expected that rather than suffer Differences in Religion God should so check and restrain Men as not to leave them at Liberty to Act upon the Principles of Religion but upon mere Force and Necessity If Men be permitted to Err and to Sin they will Err and Sin in Matters relating to Religion as well as in others and to debar Men unavoidably from Sin and Error would be to proceed in such a manner as is inconsistent with the Motives and Arguments both of Reason and Religion and to offer Violence not only to human Nature but to the Wisdom and Counsel of God in his Dispensations for the Salvation of Mankind It is the Wisdom of God not to force Men upon doing Good but to bring Good out of Evil and if Men will resolve to commit Sin and will not be prevailed upon by all that God has said and done to withdraw them from it then to make their worst Actions instrumental to his own Glory and to the Salvation of other Men. And there is this good effect from the most pernicious Heresies and Schisms That those which are approved may be made manifest by them that the Sincerity of the good Christian may appear and that the Disguise may be taken off from Hypocrites that they may be no longer able to seduce Men by a shew of Godliness It is a just Judgment of God upon unrepenting Sinners to let them fall from one Wickedness to another and not come into his Righteousness to punish secret Sins by suffering Men to run into publick and notorious Crimes whereby they discover and expose themselves to the World Thus it was in the case of those Hereticks of whom St. Paul speaks They profest that they knew God but in Works they denied him being abominable and disobedient and to every good Work reprobate Tit. i. 16. And giving a full and lamentable Description of this sort of Men in conclusion he says But they shall proceed no farther for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men 2 Tim. iii. 9. They were permitted to come to such horrid and frightful degrees of Wickedness and Blasphemy as that all Men who meant well would be sure to avoid them and to depart from them and of those who joined themselves with such Men and went over to them St. John declares They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us 1 John ii 19. And when these and such like Heresies break loose and disturb the Peace of the Church this makes all sincere Christians more careful and diligent to hold fast the form of sound Words and earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Men are apt to be too careless and unconcerned about Religion when they meet with no Opposition But when the Faith is denied and the Terms of Salvation are disputed against this will stir up and actuate a mighty Zeal in all who have any regard for the Honour of God and the Salvation of Men. From whence it comes to pass that most Heresies have been of no long continuance but appear and shew themselves are disproved become odious and after a while are hardly known but from the Books of such as confuted them and those Points of Doctrin which were contradicted become so much the better established and the more firmly believed for the future Heresies are but the Tryals of Religion as Dangers are of Courage it stands to the Honour and Evidence of Truth to be exercised and encompassed with Errors which fall before it and are able to do it no hurt So that Differences in Religion are suffered by Almighty God as all other Sins are because it is the design of Religion not to compel Men but to persuade and exhort them and to permit them to be guilty of all manner of Sin whilst it offers the most prevailing Arguments and Motives against it and to be guilty of Schisms and Heresies amongst the rest And these are Temptations and Tryals to good Men and often serve as Judgments upon the wicked to punish one Wickedness with another and expose them to the World for Hypocrites and Impostors And they serve to confirm the Articles of our Faith which hereby become the more throughly examined and the more fully explained And these are sufficient Reasons why God should not by his Almighty Power hinder those Differences in Religion which must of necessity happen by the Sins and Folly Men unless he should miraculously and irresistibly interpose to prevent them III. These Differences how great and how many soever they may be even the worst of Schisms and Heresies are no Prejudice to the Truth and Certainty of Religion Religion is our Direction our Way to Heaven and Happiness but will any Man say that because there are many wrong ways therefore there is none right This is beneath the Discretion of every ordinary Traveller who if the way be difficult resolves to use the more Care and Diligence in finding it out but never concludes with himself that there is no such way and no such place as that which he intends to go For a Man to argue from the multitude of Heresies and Schisms against the Truth of Religion is as if he would prove that because there are so many Curve Lines therefore there can be none Right when for this very Reason we must conclude that there is such a thing as streightness or else there could be nothing crooked for we can have no Notion of one without the
character of a Book of the Scriptures The modern Jews in like manner never dared to pretend to new Books of Revelation but have constantly adhered to the old And what inducement could the Jews have to receive these Books into their Canon of which it consists rather than the Apocryphal Books but the evidence of their Divine Authority which is a thing more especially remarkable in some Books Why should they receive certain Books under the Names of Solomon Esther Daniel and Ezra but not admit into the Canon others going under the same names but because of the difference in their Authority Why should they receive the Books of those whom their fore-fathers had slain and those very Books for which they slew them but upon the clearest evidence It is certain they could be possest with no prejudice in their favour but with very many against the Books of such Authors To give another instance The Book of Ruth contains the affairs and transactions of a particular Family of no great consequence as one might imagine at first view and yet it has been preserved with as much â—are and as constantly received as the rest There is little reason upon human considerations why a relation concerning that Family should be inserted into the Canon of Scripture rather than one concerning any other But the lineage of the Messias is set forth in it and that was a sufficient reason why it should be inserted and therefore by the Divine Wisdom and Providence neither the emulation and envy of other Families nor any other cause or accident hindred its reception and preservation amongst the other inspired Books And in that History there is an account not very honourable for David's Family in deriving his descent from Phares of Thamar and shewing that his Great Grandmother was a Moabitess the Moabites being a people who had an indelible mark of intamy sixt upon them by the Law of Moses Dentr xxiii 3. II. As the Pentateuch was ever acknowledged by the People of Israel after their separation from the Tribe Judah so if they rejected the writings of the Prophets it must have been because all or most of them were written by Prophets who were of the two Tribes and all the Prophets of Israel owning the Temple of Jerasalem to be the true place of Worship the Isâ—aelites and Samaritans must have great prejudices against them upon that account and it cannot be expected that they should receive the Books of any of the Prophets in the same manner as they did those of Moses The Books of Samuel David and Solomon had less regard paid to them upon Reasons of State by the Tribes who followed the Revolt of Jeroboam yet when * Antiqu. Orient Eccl. pist 1. Joseph Scaliger sent to the Samaritans for the Canticles of the Book of Psalms in their Language as well as for the Book of the Law and of Joshua they promised to send him them And it is proved sufficiently by Dr †Hebr. Talmud exercit on Joh. iv 25. Lightfoot that neither the Samaritans nor the Sadducees rejected the Books of the Old Testament tho they did not admit the rest into the same veneration and authority with the Books of Moses nor read them in their Synagogues This is also proved by F. Simon * Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 1. c. 16. 29. Disquisit Crit c. 12. both of the Sadducees and the Karaei and †Epist 70. inter Antiqu Eccl. Orient Morinus likewise proves it of the Karaei who are generally taken for Sadducees F. Simon maintains the contrary and that they have wrong done them in being charged with the opinions of the Sadducces However this is not material to our present purpose since he shews that both the Sadducees and the Karaei or Caraites and all the Jews besides received the entire Volume of the Scriptures without any contradiction * Praefat. de Lipmanno Hackspan likewise has shewed that the Sadducees denied not the Authority of the Books of the Prophets III Concerning the Books whereof we we find mention made in the Old Testament either 1. They are not different from those which are now in the Canon but the same Books under divers Names Or 2. They were not written by Inspiration tho written by Prophets For we are not to suppose that the Prophets were inspired in every thing that they wrote any more than in all they spoke And this shews the care and integrity of the Jews in compiling their Canon that they would not take into it all the Writings even of the Prophets themselves but only such as they knew to be written by them as Prophets that is by Inspiration the Prophets themselves no doubt making a distinction as we find St Paul did between what they had written by the Spirit of God and that in which they had not his immediate and extraordinary direction and infallible assistance Or 3. They might not be written by Prophets For the office of Recorder or Remembrancer or Writer of Chronicles as it is explained in the Margin is mentioned as â—n office of great Honour and Trust and was distinct from that of the Prophets 2 Sam. viii â—6 2 Kings xviii 18. 2 Chron. xxxiv 8. Isaiah xxxvi 3 22. Besides the Hebrews called every small Writing a Book Thus Deut. xxiv 1. â—hat which we render a Bill of Divorcement â—s in the Original a Book of Divorcement the word being the same which Josh x. 13. and 〈◊〉 Sam. i. 18. is translated the Book of Jasher â—o Matt. xix 7. and Mark x. 4. it is in the Greek a Book of Divorcement the word is the same which the Septuagint had used it indeed may signifie a little Book but it often signifies a Book without that distinction and so it is rendered 2 Tim. iv 13. David's Letter to Joab is a Book in the Hebrew and in the Greek 2 Sam. xi 14 15. and Lettets are stiled Books by * Herod lib. 1. c. 124. lib. 6. c. 4. Herodotus Or 4. Tho it should be granted that some Books which were written by Inspiration are now lost it is no absurdity to suppose that God should suffer Writings to be lost thro the fault and negligence of men which were dictated by his Spirit Several things might by the Prophets be delivered by Revelation to the persons whom they concerned which were never committed to writing and others which were written but which were not necessary to the ends of Revelation in general but rather concerned particular times and places and the substance whereof as far as the world in general is concerned is to be found in the other Scriptures might by the carelesness of men never come to the sight and knowledge of Posterity And here I shall observe that the Books of Prophecy have always the Names of the Authors exprest and commonly they are often repeated in the Books themselves but in the Historical Books there was not the same reason for it because in matters