genius and temper of their disciples and followers it 's plain that there never was any thing more open and sincere for such was the ingenuous simplicity of the Primitive Christians that they thought it a disparagement to be put to their Oaths thinking it sufficient for every good man to give this assurance of his truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak truly and when they were most severely examined by their bloudy persecutors concerning their faith they never either denied or concealed it counting it a most impious thing to dissemble the truth and though when they were questioned they could easily have either denied or evaded it yet they scorned to live upon such base terms to be beholden to their hypocrisie for their lives yea so conspicuous was their Honesty to all the World that the Heathen themselves were forced to acknowledge it For so Pliny in the account which he gave the Emperor Trajan of the Christians tells him That after the strictest enquiry he could make of them even of those who had renounced Christianity he found this to be the greatest fault they were guilty of that they used harmlesly to meet to worship Christ and at those meetings to bind themselves by a Sacrament that they would not do any wickedness that they would not steal nor Rob nor commit Adultery ner falsify their words nor with-hold any thing wherewith they had been intrusted where ever it were required at their hands Such was the temper of the immediate Disciples of the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection and is it likely that the Scholars would have proved so honest had they not been taught by the Example as well as by the Doctrine of their Masters For to be sure had the Apostles been dishonest their immediate Disciples must needs have known something of it and being acquainted with it they would doubtless have resolved either not to continue their disciples any longer or else to have imitated them in all their secret Cheats and Knaveries and so from the Masters to the Disciples dishonesty would have been propagated from one generation to another but since the contrary happened it 's plain that the first Propagators were men of very honest and sincere minds which will yet further appear if we consider thirdly the manner of their Testimony which they delivered with the greatest plainness and simplicity of speech the greatest freedom and assurance of Spirit and the greatest particularity as to all its circumstances they never went about to involve their sense in ambiguous words or to recommend it to the World in a pompous stile in pedantick flourishes or flattering insinuations which is the way of all Impostors but as men that were well assured of the truth of what they said they exposed it to the World in the most naked and simple expressions and so left it to recommend it self they did not whisper their Testimony in corners as if they were either affraid or ashamed to produce it in the open light but with the greatest confidence and assurance they published it in the midst of Ierusalem yea and before the Sanhedrin it self where if it had been false 't was impossible but it should be detected and whereas 't is the way of Impostors to reserve themselves in generals knowing that should they descend to particulars 't would be hard for them to avoid discovery or contradiction the Apostles did not only report a general story of Christs Resurrection but related it with all its most minute and particular circumstances nor did they Change or alter any one of them upon different examinations before different Examiners but still persisted with the greatest constancy to themselves and harmony with each other so that if ever there might be any thing gathered of the temper of persons from the particular manner of their discourses we may certainly discern the greatest fidelity in the Apostles in the manner of their expressing themselves to the World. But then in the fourth and last place the credit which they found among those who were the best able to satisfie themselves whether they were honest or no is a further evidence of their fidelity for had they been men of known honesty it is not to be imagined that they could ever have obtained so much credit in a place where they were so intimately known and among persons with whom they every day conversed with the greatest openness and freedom especially considering how contrary their Testimony was to the genius and interest of those who gave credit to them many of whose hands had been imbrewed in the blood of our Saviour by which they were obliged in their own vindication so far as in them lay to disprove the story of his Resurrection because if that proved true it proved them guilty of the most monstrous impiety that ever was acted viz. the murder of the Son of God. And is it likely that the Murderers of our Saviour would ever have believed the story of his Resurrection which was so clear an evidence of his innocency and their own guilt had they had any reason to suspect the veracity of those that attested it and yet in despite of themselves great numbers of them were forced to believe it although as soon as they did so they were pricked at the heart with the sense of their horrid impiety and forced to cry out in a bitter Agony of Conscience Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved and as for those of them who had no hand in his murder to be sure they were greatly prejudiced against the belief of his Resurrection because upon that depended the truth of his Doctrine which plainly contradicted a great part of that Religion in which they had been educated and of which they were infinitly zealous and therefore to be sure they would never have given credit to it had they not had undeniable evidence of the truth and integrity of those that testified it especially when it was so easie for them to satisfie themselves about it For 't is not imaginable they would ever have entertained so ungrateful a story but upon the most strict enquiry into the credit of its relators and if upon enquiry they had found the least flaw either in them or in their testimony if they could have convicted them of any dishonest practices for the time past or catched them tripping or contradicting one another in what they testified at present they would soon have made the World ring of it and the Iews who were dispersed through all the neighbouring Nations would have divulged to all the World their fraudulent practices and posted them up where ever they came for infamous Knaves and Lyars which must have infallibly blasted the credit of their testimony and caused it to have been hissed out of the World for a fulsom Imposture Wherefore since no such thing ever happened but contrariwise the credit of their report of Christs Resurrection did in despite of all the wit and malice of its opposers
resolved right or wrong not to believe it So that this way of Christs proving his Doctrine by his Miracles and particularly by his Resurrection being the best and most proper if we will not believe it upon this evidence we are incurable Infidels whom no reason in the World can convince or persuade II. This evidence of Miracles is the most certain and infallible Medium to prove the truth of any pretence to Revelation For if God give a man power to do Miracles in token that what he says is true he thereby sets his own Seal to the truth of it and if we are satisfied that the Miracle was wrought by the Power of God and yet will not believe the Doctrine it seals we do in effect give the lye to God himself for a real Miracle wrought to confirm a Doctrine gives as great a certainty of the truth of that Doctrine as we can have of the truth of God which is the foundation of all the certainty in the World because if once it be granted that God may work a Miracle to attest a lye we can have no security of his truth but for all that we know every thing that he saith or doth may be an Imposture and if so for all we know he may have deceived our faculties too and then there is nothing can be certain to us The Miracles of Christ therefore and especially this of his Resurrection gives us as great a certainty of the truth of his Doctrine as we can have of any thing For that he was raised by the power of God is evident because he was really dead his heart was pierced and the vital bonds were broken which rendered him utterly incapable to raise himself and supposing that there be some Agent in Nature besides God that was powerful enough to raise him yet we are sure the Devil would not do it because as was shewn before he must thereby do a thing infinitely contrary to his own temper and apparently destructive to his Interest and Kingdom nor would any holy Angel have done it without a special command and Commission from God which is the same thing as if God himself had done it immediately So that it 's plain Christ's Resurrection must be effected either by the immediate Will or by the immediate Power of God and whether it was one way or t'other 't was a most certain evidence of the truth of his Doctrine because it cannot be imagined that the God of truth would either way have raised him from the dead had he been an Impostor since in so doing he must have taken the most effectual course to impose a Cheat upon mankind For whilst he was alive he promised to rise again the third day and gave this as the great Sign to the World whereby they should know that he came from God upon the hearing of which all unprejudiced minds especially considering the nature of his Doctrine had abundant reason to conclude thus with themselves If this Man make good his word we can no longer doubt but that he was sent from God for to be sure he cannot rise unless God raise him and it can never enter into our thoughts that the God of truth will raise him on purpose to delude and deceive us When therefore he was actually risen they could not without being guilty of the most unreasonable obstinacy make any farther scruple of his truth and veracity There was about six hundred years ago a certain Iew called El David who gave out that he was Christ and drew a great many Proselytes after him upon which he was apprehended and brought before an Arabian Prince who asked him what Miracle he could do to convince him that he was not an Impostor to which he answered Sir Cut off my Head and in a little time you shall see me alive again which he said to prevent some greater torments which he feared would be inflicted on him for deluding the People Whereupon the Prince replied A greater sign than this thou canst not give and therefore if after I have beheaded thee thou recoverest to life again both I and all my People and all the World sure will acknowledge thee to be a Messenger from God and presently he commanded him to be beheaded and there was an end of the Cheat and so there would doubtless have been of the Christian Religion if Jesus had not been raised from the dead for he said just as this El David did Kill me if you please and when you have done so you shall see I will live again and upon this I stake all the credit of my Doctrine And therefore since it came to pass according to his word we have all the Reason in the World to resolve with that Arabian Prince to believe and acknowledg him to be sent from God. For if there be a God that loves sincerity and truth as we are sure there is we are equally sure he will not conspire with an Impostor to cheat and delude the World and yet this he must have done had Jesus been a deceiver when he fulfilled this miraculous sign of his Resurrection upon which he suspended all the credit of his Doctrine So that now we have the same certainty of the truth of our faith as we have of the truth of our knowledg for the truth of our knowledg supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer us to be deceived in those things which we clearly apprehend and the truth of our faith supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer him to deceive us in such things as he hath given us sufficient reason to believe for he who gives me a sufficient reason to induce me to believe a false Proposition is guilty of seducing me into a false belief and therefore since God in raising Christ from the dead hath given us a sufficient Argument to induce us to believe that he sent him it necessarily follows either that he did send him or that he is guilty of deceiving and abusing us III. This evidence of Miracles is the plainest and most popular to confirm a Revelation If the Principles of revealed Religion were to be proved by natural Reason and Philosophy the Arguments of it would be too thin and subtile for vulgar capacities and men would never be fit to be Catechized into their Religion till they had been trained up in the Schools and there instructed in the intrigues of Logick and Discourse for the generality of men are capable of no other notices of things but what are immediately impressed upon them by the objects of sense nor have they skill enough so exactly to compare simple terms as to connect them into true Propositions and from these to deduce their true and natural Consequences These are things that require far more leisure and skill than Mens Education and Affairs will ordinarily afford them so that had there not been some plainer and easier way found out to prove the truth of Christianity
of Christ's Ministers for the preaching that Gospel to the World which he had taught them and of the Way and Method of their procedure in it in despite of all those oppositions they met with And as for the Epistles they are partly Comments and Enlargements on our Saviour's Actions and Discourses and partly Decisions of such Controversies as arose among them according to the Analogie of that Faith which our Saviour had before declared and revealed but in all these Writings there is no one Article of Faith but what was before declared and defined in the Sermons and Discourses of our Saviour And then as for the Primitive Writers who lived in or near the Apostolical Age and upon that account had much greater advantages of understanding the truths of Christianity than we who live at this remote distance they are at best but genuine Commentators on that Doctrine which our Saviour first taught and his Apostles afterwards more fully explained to the World but as for declaring any new Doctrines or defining new Articles of Faith that is an upstart invasion of Christ's Prophetick Office which they never so much as pretended to So that the Prophecy of our Saviour is the Fountain from whence all Christian truth is derived as containing in it a compleat and entire Sum of God's Will and Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind II. As he taught the whole Will of God so he proved that what he taught was the Will of God by sundry miraculous operations which are the great evidences by which God always demonstrated the truth of his divine revelations and which of all others are the most popular easie and convincing proofs that can be given of them For as for the Prophets themselves they might be very well assured that their Enthusiasms were divine by the vehement impressions they made on their minds which were such as did as fully satisfie them that they were from God as the strokes of the Sun beams on our eyes do us that it is day at Noon but no other man could be satisfied that what they spoke was by divine inspiration without either being divinely inspired himself or confirmed by them in the belief of it by some miraculous sign of the Divine Power which latter was the way by which the Prophets of Old did ordinarily confirm their Doctrines when they delivered any thing new to the World. And accordingly though our Saviour had all along sufficiently confirmed his Doctrines to the Iews by the Authorities of the Old Testament yet this confirmation of his Miracles he more particularly insists on and appeals to thus Iohn 10.25 The works saith he that I do in my Father's name they testifie of me And again vers 37 38. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the works and herein he places the inexcusable sin of their unbelief that they persisted in it notwithstanding he had done among them the works which none other man did John 15.24 And indeed well he might considering the miraculous powers he exerted among them for how often did he even before their eyes subpoena in whatsoever was in Heaven or Earth or Sea to give their testimony to his Doctrine he made the Angels minister to him and the Devils tremble and fly before him and the Plants and Animals the Winds and Seas obeyed him and Health and Sickness and Life and Death and the Grave did by their obedience to his Word bear witness to the truth of his Doctrine By his powerful voice he shook the Heavens and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Followers he tore the Rocks and opened the Graves and at his command the bodies of his Saints arose and which was more miraculous than all he raised himself the third day after his Crucifixion and having finished his Course upon Earth ascended Triumphantly into Heaven in the view of a numerous assembly of Spectators All which were such illustrious demonstrations of his being inspired by God as nothing but an incurable infidelity could ever be able to withstand But whâ—t proper arguments these Miracles of his weâ—e to convince men and what evidence there is oâ— the truth and reality of them will be shewn at lâ—rge hereafter and therefore it will be needlâ—ss at present to insist any farther on this particular III. Therefore as a Prophet he gave us a perfect Example of Obedience to that which he had declared and proved to be his Father 's Will. He did not only reveal his Father's Will to mens Ear 's in his excellent Sermons and Discourses but he also set it forth before their Eyes in the glorious Example of his Actions For what he taught in Words he exemplified in Deeds and his Conversation was a lively Picture of his Doctrine wherein all that Humility and Self-denial that Temperance and Iustice that Charity and Heavenly-mindedness thâ—t invincible Constancy of Mind and generous Contempt of the World which he taught Mankind were drawn to the life and expressed in their fairest colours and proportions So that what he taught in Words he taught over again in Actions and explained his Rules still by his own Example for his Conversation was all along a most genuine Comment and Paraphrase on his Religion by casting their eyes on which those who did not fully understand the sence of his Precepts by his Words might very easily expound it by his Actions For there is no doubt but a good Example doth far more effectually instruct than good Precepts because it doth not only express the same vertues that the Precepts enjoyn but also expresses them with much more grace and Emphasis For whereas Precepts and Discourses of Vertue are only the dead Pictures and artificial Landskips and Descriptions of it a vertuous Example is Vertue it self informed and animated alive and in motion exerting and exhibiting it self in all its natural Charms and Graces And therefore as we know a man much better when we see himself alive and in action than when we only see his Picture so we understand Vertue much better when we see it living and acting in a good Example than when we only behold it described and pictured in vertuous Precepts and Discourse So that by giving us a compleat and perfect Example of Piety and Vertue the blessed Jesus hath far more effectually instructed us in our duty than by all those heavenly Sermons which he preached to the World because his whole life was nothing else but a continued series of living and moving Vertue or rather it was nothing but Piety and Vertue acting their several parts in their own proper Forms and exhibiting themselves to the Eyes of men in all their natural Graces And as the Holiness of his life did most effectually instruct men in their duty so it could not but very much confirm them in the truth of his Doctrine for it is certain if his Doctrine were false it was not a simple Error but a downright
Females and Proselytes and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles as not being at all offensive to them as Circumcision was it being one of their own Religious Ceremonies and much less painful in its own nature But though this was of a quite different nature from Circumcision yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room and to serve its religious ends and purposes viz. to transact and seal and ratifie the new Covenant between God and us For in Baptism the Party Baptized makes a solemn Vow and Profession by himself or his Sponsor of fidelity and Allegiance to God through Jesus Christ and hence Baptism is called the answer or promise of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 For in the Apostolick Age as Origâ—n tells us in Num. Homil. 5. there were certain questions proposed by the Minister to the Person to be Baptized which St. Cyprian calls Interrogatio Baptismi the Interrogation of Baptism Now the questions proposed were first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou renounce the Devil To which the Party answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do renounce then he was asked again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dost thou consent to resign thy self to Christ To which he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do consent and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention was that in all Probability which the Apostle here calls the answer of a good Conscience and if so it is certain that these words do imply our formal Covenanting with God in Baptism Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection where it is plain that those Phrases buried with Christ and risen with Christ are only the sense and signification of that Eastern custom in Baptism viz. of Plunging the Baptized person under water and raising him up again which being Sacramental actions must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy and the significancy of them the Apostle here plainly tells us wholly refers to the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's Death and Burial and the raising up again to his Resurrection The true import therefore of these Baptismal actions must be First a solemn profession of our belief that as we are buried under water and raised up again so Christ died and was buried and raised up from the dead which being the principal Articles of Christianity do include all the rest Secondly They also import a solemn engagement of the Party baptized to die to and endeavour utterly to extinguish all his sinful lusts and affections even as Christ died and was buried and to rise from the spiritual death of sin into newness of life even as Christ rose from his natural death to live for ever Since therefore in their Baptism they did by the same actions signifie their belief of the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with their own resolution of dying to sin and rising to righteousness they might very well be said to dye with Christ in those actions to be buried with Christ and to rise with Christ since what is represented as done together is representatively done together and it is usual in Sacraments to call the representing signs by the names of the things which they represent For so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover and the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper the Body and Bloud of Christ and for the same reason the plunging under water and raising up again in Baptism is here called dying with Christ and rising with Christ because in the same actions Christ's natural Death and Resurrection and our spiritual Death and Resurrection are represented together The meaning therefore of the above cited passage is plainly this You cannot be ignorant that when you were baptized into Jesus Christ you made a solemn Profession that you would conform your selves to his Death in dying to sin even as he died for it so that in your Baptismal immersion you were representatively buried with him that so as Christ was raised from the dead so you in conformity thereto might live a new regenerate life for if we conform to his Death in dying to sin as we promised to do in our immersion we shall be sure to conform to his Resurrection also in living to Righteousness as we promised to do in our rising out of the water again By which it is evident that Baptism is on our part a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the conditions of the New Covenant And indeed the very phrase Baptized into Iesus Christ can import no less than a solemn resignation of our selves to Christ in Baptism For so the phrase Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 plainly denotes the Jews giving up themselves to him to be governed by him as the Minister of God. And accordingly the Apostle tells us that so many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and putting on Christ is opposed by the Apostle to making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 and therefore must necessarily denote an ingagement of our selves to a strict observance of the Laws of Christian purity or which is the same thing a promise or stipulation on our part of universal obedience to his Laws By all which it is evident that in this solemnity of Baptism we put our selves under Christ as our Head and Covenant with him to be ruled by him in our Faith and Manners And as in this Ceremony of Initiation we strike Covenant with him so doth he with us For in this sacred Action the Minister is the authorized Proxy of Jesus Christ and therefore his giving the holy Sign is Christ's own action and doth to all intents and purposes as much oblige him as if he did it in his own Person For since Christ is not upon Earth and so cannot transact the New Covenant with us in his own Person it is necessary he should do it by Authorized Proxies impowered by himself to do it in his Name which Proxies being thus Authorized by him do as effectually oblige him by those federal Rites which they perform in his Name as if he himself had performed them in his own Person For he doth what they do by his Authority and is as effectually obliged by what he doth by them mediately as by what he doth by himself immediately For thus his Commission runs by which he Authorized them and their Successors to the end of the World Go teach all Nations baptizing
the Tabernacle where he fixed his abode between the Cherubins and from whence he frequently displayed himself before the whole Congregation in the beams of that visible Glory which he there assumed as the Symbol of his special presence and by thus doing he took a most wise and effectual course not only to raise and excite their devotion but also to restrain and confine it within its proper bounds and limits for while men are under the government of sense there is nothing hath that prevalence with them to excite their affections and fix their thoughts as material Phantasms so that God by exhibiting to them a visible presence of himself and thereby impressing their imaginations with a material Phantasm of his presence and Glory did at once both spur their affections and bridle their fancies from roving into wild similitudes of him and thereby take an effectual course to prevent the worshiping him by those outward Images which they exemplified from the similitudes which they framed of him in their own fancies and having this visible glory to entertain their fancies they had the less temptation from their sense to hunt after sensible similitudes and representations of him that outward Shechinah which they sometimes saw being a sufficient help to raise up their groveling minds and carnal affections to the contemplation and worship of his invisible glory and that that outward visible glory in which he appeared to them was intended for this purpose seems plainly implied in Deut. 4.12 where Moses tells them that when God spake to them out of the midst of the fire they heard the voice of the words but saw no similitude and so again ver 15. from whence he infers Take ye therefore good heed unto your selves left ye corrupt your selves and make ye a graven Image the similitude of any figure the likeness of Male or Female c. ver 16.17 where by their seeing no similitude is not meant that they saw nothing for God himself had promised Moses that the third day he would come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai Exod. 19.11 and therefore in all probability they saw the fire or visible glory in which he descended for it is expresly said they saw it afterwards Exod. 24.17 but this fire shining without any determinate form or shape they might very well be said to see no similitude for by similitude it is evident he means a determinate shape ver 16. where he bids them beware of making the similitude of any figure so that the People saw God only in an unfigured flame or visible glory that was cast into no determinate shape though within that it is probable as was shewn before God appeared to Moses and the seventy Elders in a glorious humane shape And this it seems God deemed a sufficient help to inable them to fix their thoughts on and determine their worship to himself and therefore he strictly charges them to content themselves with this and not let their fancies rove as they were too prone to do after formed similitudes and Images of him lest those Images should create in their minds false and opprobrious notions of him and cause them to imagine the immense Godhead as the Heathen did to be like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art and mans device Acts 17.29 Thus men being degenerated into a life of sense and thereby rendered extremely propence to Idolatry to worship God by Images and thereupon to form blasphemous notions of him as if he were such a one in himself as those Images represented him God was pleased to exhibit to them a sensible presence of himself that thereby he might the more effectually excite their awe and reverence and at the same time restrain their imaginations from debauching their minds with unbecoming similitudes of his infinite Being and Perfections And for the same reason that God under the Old Law appeared to the Iews in a visible glory he afterwards appeared to this lower World and doth still continue to appear to the upper personally united to a humane body and soul for so S. Iohn represents Christs assuming of humane nature who before he assumed it was that God who appeared to the Iews from their Tabernacle in that Shechinah of visible Glory to be only a removing out of one Tabernacle into another out of the Tabernacle of the Law into the Tabernacle of humane nature John 1.14 The word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and truth where instead of he dwelt among us in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. he Tabernacled or dwelt as in the Tabernacle among us he removed his abode out of the old Tabernacle and took a new Habitation in humane nature for that this is the Apostles meaning is evident from what follows and we beheld his Glory which plainly refers to that Glorious Light or flaming substance called the Glory of the Lord in which of old he was wont to display himself before the Congregation of Israel from between the Cherubins and in this very Glory S. Iohn says he beheld him viz. at his Baptism and Transfiguration at both which times he was seen by them shining in the very same Glory wherein of old he was wont to shine out of the Old Tabernacle and therefore it is added that this Glory wherein S. Iohn beheld him was the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father i. e. it was the very same Glory with that wherein the only begotten was heretofore wont to display himself from the Tabernacle of Moses so that the meaning of the words seems at least to be this He dwelt among us in our nature just as heretofore he did in the Mosaick Tabernacle and in this Tabernacle of our Nature we Twice beheld him shining forth with the same Glory wherein he was wont to shine out of that Old Tabernacle from between the Cherubins Since therefore Christ dwelt in our nature in the same manner and therein appeared in the same visible Glory that he formerly did in the Old Tabernacle there is no doubt but he did it for the same ends and purposes and therefore since one of the ends of his dwelling in that Tabernacle was to restrain men from running into Idolatry there is no doubt but among others he intended this end also in assuming our natures than which there can be no visible appearance in nature more proper to excite our sluggish and to determine our roving devotions upon him for since in this life of sense which we now lead we need a sensible presence of God to raise up our minds and affections to him in what presence could he have appeared to us more proper for this end than that of our own nature a presence which is not confused like that of the Old Tabernacle which was only a mixture of shapeless lights and shadows but distinct and determinate
his own Fables or that the Author of the Seven Champions should have laid down his life in the defence of S. George's killing the Dragon would not all the World have concluded them incurably distracted But as for the Apostles their excellent Writings are a sufficient demonstration that they were men of very sound intellectuals and therefore tho we should suppose them to be so wicked as to love lying for its own sake we cannot suppose them to be so mad as to love it better than their own lives as they must necessarily do if their Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection were false But supposing that one or two of them should have proved so frantick yet it is incredible that so many hundreds of men and women should all agree together at the same time in the same mad project viz. to throw away their lives for no other purpose but only to cheat and abuse the World and that no one of them should be induced by all the hopes and fears that were set before them to confess and discover the mad conspiracy When they began to report the Story they could not but foresee the consequence of it viz. that they must either recant it and thereby proclaim themselves Impostors to the World or else lay down their lives for it So that had they known it to be false it would have been a Prodigy of Impudence in them and Folly together not only without hope of benefit but within prospect of a certain ruin to have divulged a known lye to the World and under the severest Persecutions to have persisted in it without the least regret of Conscience or concernment for their own ease and safety There never was the like instance among men and I dare say there never will be so long as men love themselves and continue in their Wits and to imagine that of the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection of which there is no parallel example among mankind is an Argument that we have much more inclination than reason to be Infidels This therefore is plain that the Witnesses of Christs Resurrection gave as great a pledge of the truth of their Testimony as it was possible for mortal men to do and if those men may not be believed who attest a thing upon certain knowledge and seal it with their blood there is no credit can be given to any human Testimony because a mans life is the greatest security that he can possibly give for his honesty VI. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the Witnesses do give some certain sign and token that what they testifie is true and this the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection did For in token that what they said was true they themselves wrought sundry Miracles in his name for so we read of the Apostles that they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following Mar. 16.20 and that with great power i. e. miraculous works the Apostles gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Acts 4.33 and also at Iconium the Lord gave Testimony to the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 14.3 And the same was done by S. Stephen at Ierusasalem Acts 6.8 and by S. Philip at Samaria Acts 8.6 7. and by S. Paul at Ephesus Acts 19.11 And S. Paul assures us That from Ierusalem and round about unto Illyricum the Gospel had been preached by him with mighty signs and wonders and by the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.19 all which things being recorded in an Age wherein if they had been false they might easily have been disproved it had been the wildest project in the world for the Apostles to have pretended to them had they not been notoriously true for they must needs think that all the World being prejudiced against them would be sure to keep a very strict and watchful eye on them and that if upon the severest enquiry they were at any time taken tripping in this their pretence of working Miracles their fraud will soon ring through all the World which must unavoidably prejudice their Cause a thousand times more than all the Miracles they pretended to could advance it and for men that had the eyes of all the World upon them falsly to pretend to work such innumerable Miracles as they did and this not in corners but in publick view and to name the places where they wrought them and where they knew there were thousands that could and would certainly detect and disprove them would have been the most prodigious instance of impudence and folly together that ever was acted by men in their Wits But so notoriously true was the matter of Fact that their most inveterate Enemies amongst both Jews and Gentiles have not the confidence to deny it although indeed they attributed it even as the Jews did our Saviours Miracles to the power of Magick for so in their Talmud Tractat de Idol c. 1. the Jews celebrate S. Iames the Apostle as eminent for the gift of Miracles by whom the Nephew of Rab. Samuel being bit of a Serpent would not be cured because every Disciple of Jesus was wont to heal in his name And Lib. Sabbat Ierosol they tell us of a Son of Rab. Iose who having swallowed Poyson was cured by a Christian in the name of Jesus And as for the Heathen Iulian himself he confesses that S. Paul did very wonderful things for he says that he was the greatest and most expert Magician that ever was vid. Cyril Alex. lib. 3. and the same he pronounces of S. Peter also id lib. 9. So also Celsus frequently charges the Christians with doing their mighty works by the power of some Demon adding a fiction of his own viz. that they had received from Christ certain Magical Books by which they were instructed to perform all their Miracles vid. Origen cont Cels. p. 302. and several other places which is a plain confession that such Miracles were commonly performed by Christians But that they did not perform them by any confederacy with evil Spirits as these bad men affirm is evident because one of their greatest and most common Miracles was dispossessing these evil Spirits of mens Bodies and their own Temples and Oracles For the truth of which they often provoke their Adversaries in their Writings and Apologies to come and make experiment of it Thus S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Demetrian Proconsul of Africa O that thou wouldst but hear and see when the Devils whom thou worshipest are adjured and tortured by us and with the spiritual Rods and Torments of our Words are ejected out of the Bodies they possess when howling and roaring in a human voice they confess the Iudgment to come Do but come and see whether these things we say are not true And a little after If thou wilt come saith he thou shalt see those whom thou worshipest for Gods stand
than this it had been a Religion fit only for the Schools of Philosophers and the Vulgar who are not capable of close and strict discourse and have neither time nor skill enough to trace the footsteps of truth through all the intricacies of reasoning and discourse must have been damned to eternal infidelity and this without doubt was one main reason why the Moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence upon the People because the Arguments by which its Principles were proved and demonstrated were too fine and subtile for vulgar apprehensions insomuch that there were but few in comparison that could comprehend the strength and force of them and in all probability as little effect would Christianity have found in the World had it not been proved and demonstrated by such evidence as is adapted to all capacities As for instance the immortality of the Soul is one great Principle of the Christian Religion but now had we no other way of proving this Principle than by Philosophical Arguments how impossible would it have been to convince the Vulgar of the truth of it For first we must have proved that the Soul is immaterial by shewing that its operations such as Free-will and Reflection are incompetent with Matter from hence we must have inferred that it is immortal by shewing that what is immaterial hath no quantitative extension and consequently is incapable of division and corruption Now I beseech you what Iargon what unintelligible Gibberish would this appear to vulgar understandings What an insignificant noise would such fine Speculations make in the ears of an honest Plowman But now the miraculous Resurrection of our Saviour is so plain and intelligible a proof of it that every man may apprehend the force of it that hath the free use of his own faculties for it is but arguing thus and the thing is clearly proved Christ told the World whilst he was alive that the Soul is immortal and that there are everlasting habitations of weal or woe prepared for her in another World and in token that what he said was true he promised that the third day after his death he would rise again which he could never have verified had not God given him power to do it and to be sure God would never have given him this power had not his saying been true wherefore since God did impower him to rise again it is plain that he thereby approved the truth of his saying and justified his Doctrine to the World. This is such a plain and intelligible way of arguing that the shallowest minds may easily apprehend the force of it wherefore since God designed Christianity to be a Religion as well for the Vulgar as for the more refined and elevated understandings it was highly reasonable that the way of proving its Principles should be plain and intelligible to all capacities of men IV. And lastly This evidence of Miracles is the most short and compendious way of proving the truth of Revelation One reason why the moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence on the Vulgar was because their way of proving the Principles of it was so long and tedious for they were fain to prove them by parcels and when they had convinced their Auditors of the truth of one Proposition they proceeded to another and so they were fain to prove them all singly and apart by distinct and different arguments which was so tedious a way that the vulgar had not leisure enough to attend to so great a variety of reasonings nor yet capacity enough to retain them but he that works a real Miracle in token that such a Doctrine is true proves it all at once and needs not trouble himself to demonstrate one Proposition after another for by giving a miraculous sign of the truth of such a Doctrine God doth openly approve every Proposition contained in it because it cannot be supposed that the God of truth would approve any Doctrine in the gross if any part or Proposition of it had been false since in so doing he must necessarily have abused our understandings and wittingly betrayed us into a false belief which to affirm of God is equally absurd and blasphemous When therefore God raised our Saviour from the dead he did by that one Act openly avow the truth of his whole Doctrine and proclaim to all the World that every Article in it is as true as truth it self So that now we need not trouble our selves to hunt out for several Arguments to prove the several Articles of our Faith for this one Argument serves instead of all that God by sundry Miracles and particularly by raising Jesus from the dead hath given Testimony that the Doctrine which he taught is a true revelation of his Mind and Will to the World. And thus you see what a clear and excellent evidence Christs Miracles and especially his Resurrection is of the truth of his Doctrine No wonder therefore that the Apostle doth so much prefer it above all other evidence as we find he doth 1 Cor. 2.4 For saith he my speech and my teaching was not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of spirit and of power that is I did not go about to convince ye with Rhetorical Harangues or fine Philosophical Reasonings but I clearly demonstrated the truth of what I preached by the Miracles which through the power of the Divine Spirit I wrought amongst you So that whether we consider the certainty of Christs Miracles but especially of his Resurrection or the powerful evidence which they give to his Doctrine I doubt not but upon an impartial view of the whole it will appear that we have all the reason in the world firmly to assent to the truth of Christianity and consequently to this Article which comprehends it all that Iesus Christ is the Mediator between God and Man. FINIS NOTES Page 35. Line 18. a FOr thus Tertullian hunc i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno determinat factitorem qui cuncta in dispositione formaverit eundemque fatum vocari Deum animum Iovis Apologet. 36 Pam. i. e. this Word Zeno declares to be the Maker of the World who formed all things in a due temper and is called Fate and God and the Soul of Iupiter And the Ancient Orpheus calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the divine Word and immortal King Câ—em Strom. l. 5. p. 60 So also Numenius the Pythagorean as he is quoted by S. Cyril cont Iul. lib. 8. calls the Father the First and the Word the Second God. So also Plotinus Enn. 5. l. 5. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of this divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. and this nature is God a second God and as for the Jews it is evident from the Septuagint and Philo and the Chaldee Paraphrase that by the Word they meant a divine