to the Simplicity of the Gospel and to the universal Design of it For they are equally adapted to awaken the Attention and command the Assent of Men of all Conditions and Capacities they are obvious to the most Ignorant and may satisfie the wisest and confute or silence the Cavils of the most Captious or Contentious And this is what all the World ever expected That God should Reveal himself to Men by working somewhat above the Course of Nature All Mankind have believ'd that this is the way of Intercourse between Heaven and Earth and therefore there never was any of the false Religions but it was pretended to have been confirm'd by something miraculous We may appeal to the Sense of all Nations for the Authority of Miracles to attest the Truth of Religion For whenever any thing happen'd extraordinary they always imagin'd something supernatural in it they expected that Miracles should be wrought for the Proof of any thing that had but the Name of Religion and no false Religion could have gain'd Belief and Credit in any Age or Nation but under the Pretence of them The only Difficulty therefore will be to know how to distinguish True Miracles from False or those which have been wrought for the Confirmation of the True Religion from such as have been done or are pretended to have been done in Behalf of False Religions But here it must be observ'd That it is not necessary in this Controversie that we should be able to determine what the Power of Spirits is or how far it extends and what Works can proceed only from the immediate Power of God It is sufficient that we know that God precides over all that Good Spirits act in constant Subjection and Obedience to him that Evil Spirits act for Evil Ends that Good Spirits will not impose upon Men and that he will not suffer the Evil to do it under any Pretence of his own Authority without affording Means to discover the Delusion And the Question here is not concerning any strange Work whereof God is not alledged to be the Author but concerning such as are wrought with a profess'd Design to establish Religion in his Name Suppose then that there have been many Wonders wrought in the World which exceed all Humane Power and which yet we know not to what other Power to ascribe This makes no Difficulty in the present Case because here not only the Works themselves but the Design and Tendency of them is to be consider'd For Instance Whether the Miracles reported to have been done by Vespasian were true or false by a Divine or a Diabolical Power they are of no Consequence to us he establish'd no new Doctrine and pretended to no Divine Authority but doubted the Possibility of his working them And supposing them true and by a Divine Power the most that can be said of them is that as God mention'd Cyrus by Name to be the Deliverer of the Jews so he might by Miracle signalize this Prince who was to destroy them But the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles were wrought with this declar'd Purpose and Design That they were to give Evidence to the Religion which they were sent from God to introduce as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind Having premis'd this I must resume what was before observ'd concerning the Means by which false Prophecies might be detected It has been already prov'd from the Notion of a God that there must be some Divine Revelation and it has been shewn That Prophecies and Miracles are the most fit and proper way of Revelation and that way which Men have ever expected to receive Revelations by If then there have been False Prophecies and Miracles they must be suppos'd to have been either before or at the same time or after those Prophecies and Miracles by which the True Religion was deliver'd if before or at the same time then the same Divine Wisdom and Goodness which obliges God to reveal his Will to Mankind must oblige him to take care that the Impostures of those false Prophecies and Miracles by some Means might have been discover'd But there is great Reason to believe that true Revelations should be first made to Men before God would suffer them to be tempted with false ones and if the false were after the true Revelations then the true Revelations themselves are that by which we ought to judge of all others But to speak more particularly of Miracles which are the present Subject It is inconsistent with the Infinite Truth and Honour and Goodness and Mercy of God to suffer Man to be deluded by false Miracles wrought under a Pretence of his own Authority without any possibility of discovering the Imposture And therefore if we should suppose there had past any time before the Discovery of his Will to Mankind he could not suffer Men but through their own Fault to be impos'd upon by such Miracles but either by the false and wicked Doctrines which they were brought to promote and establish as Idolatry Uncleanness Murders c. or by some other Token of Imposture they might have been undeceiv'd and both in the Old and New Testament God has given us Warning against false Miracles Deut. xiii 1. Mat. xxiv 24. Gal. i. 8. so that we may be assur'd that we are to give no Credit to any Miracle that can be wrought to confirm any other Doctrine than what we find in the Scriptures and if we can but be certify'd that they were true Miracles which gave Testimony and Evidence to them we need concern our selves about no other And the Miracles by which the Scriptures are confirm'd and authoriz'd must be true because there is no precedent Divine Revelation which they contradict nor any immoral or false Doctrine which they deliver nor any thing else contain'd in them whereby they can be prov'd to be false And in this Case that which all the Wit and Understanding of Men cannot prove to be false must be true or else God would suffer his own Name and Authority to be usurp'd and abus'd and Mankind to be impos'd upon in a thing of infinite Consequence without any Possibility of discovering the Imposture which it is contrary to the Divine Attributes for him to permit but either by the Works themselves or by the End and Design of them or by some Means or other the Honour and Wisdom and Mercy of God is concern'd to detect all such Impostures If Miracles be wrought to introduce the Worship of other Gods besides him whom Reason as well as Scripture assures us to be the only True God if they be done to seduce Men to immoral Doctrines and Practices if they be perform'd to contradict the Religion already confirm'd by Miracles in which nothing of this Nature could possibly be discover'd if never so astonishing Miracles be wrought for such ill Designs as these they are not to be regarded but rejected with that Constancy which becomes a Man who will act according to the
Marcellin b. xxiii c. 1. Heathen Historian who was then living and wrote the History of those times and has shewn himself in no respect over favourable to the Christians but was a Soldier under Julian and had no inclination to say any thing that might seem to diminish his Character The Judgments also which befell several of the greatest Persecutors of the Christian Religion were so miraculous and so terrible as to extort a confession from some of them of God's Justice in their Punishment and to force them to re-call their persecuting Edicts and change them for others in favour of Christianity (h) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 17. ix c. 10. Lactant de Mortib Persecut c. xxxiv 49. The Edicts of Maximianus and Maximin to this purpose are to be seen in Eusebius and (i) Hieron in Hab. c. iii. the Judgment upon Julian was so sudden and so remarkable that some of the Heathen cavilled that the God of the Christians had not shewn that Mercy and forbearance which they reported of him in it And when the Power of Miracles which came down on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles and was continued in the Church after them thus manifested it self in opposition to the pretences both of the Jews and Heathens in such a manner as must provoke them to make all the discoveries they possibly could concerning it when it thus triumphed over all the Gods of the Heathens whilst its poor and persecuted Professors were under the feet of the Heathen Emperors and lay continually exposed to their cruelties and at the peril of their Lives proffered in publick Apologies by a miraculous Power or as the Apostle speaks by the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit to prove their own Religion true and theirs salse and its cruelest Persecutors were by miraculous Judgments forced to become its Protectors this was all that could be desired towards the fulfilling the Promise of our Saviour to his Apostles that they should become his Witnesses to all Nations But III. The Gospel could not have been thus propagated unless this Power of the Holy Ghost had been still further manifest by the courage and resolution and patience of the Apostles under their sufferings Our Saviour tells them that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them to become witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria these were the places where our Saviour himself had wrought his Miracles and where he had been hated and persecuted and at last crucified and there is reason to believe that the Apostles went not from Jerusalem and the parts adjacent (k) Euseb Hist lib. â— o. 18. till twelve years after his Ascention and when they had testified his Resurrection and Preached his Gospel to the Jews their work was not yet an end but they were to be his Witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the Earth and even thither several of them went fearing no dangers and being discouraged at no sufferings There is a natural boldness and courage in some men by which they are often carried both to do and to endure a great deal more than others but it was not so with the Apostles they were naturally very timorous and faint hearted they all forsook their Master and fled when he was first apprehended and then were very backward to believe his Resurrection and when they and the rest of the Disciples were convinced of it they did not preach is to others but after he had been seen of them forty days and discoursed with them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God they still had mistaken notions and expectations concerning it when they therefore were come together they asked of him saying â—ord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel And when Christ was taken up from them into Heaven they stood gazing up after him not knowing what to think of it till two Angels admonished them that it was in vain for them to stand looking thus any longer and after his Ascention they staid ten days before they ventured to publish any thing of what had come to pass till on the day of Pentecost in a visible and audible manner the Holy Ghost descended upon them and quite changed their temper and of the most timorous made them the most couragious and resolute inspiring them with a Divine Vigor and presence of mind For of all their Miracles few seem to have been more wonderful than that firmness and constancy of mind which men so low and mean and abject and before so fearful as the Apostles were now shewed upon all occasions When our Saviour spoke to these his poor Disciples and commanded them to go and teach all Nations Matt. xxviii 19. it was such a command as no King nor Law-giver ever presumed to give in the height of all his Power and Greatness and when God himself sent Moses to the Children of Israel only Moses feared the success and would fain have declined the Message And how might the Disciples have replyed to our Saviour how shall we Preach to the Romans and dispute with the Graecians and discourse with the most remote and barbarous Nations who have been bred up in the knowledge only of our own Native Tongue How can we compel all Nations to forsake the worship of the Gods of their several Countries and to observe all things whatsoever we are commanded to teach them With what force of Eloquence are we fitted for such a design What hope can we have to succeed in an attempt to set up Laws in opposition to the Laws established for so many Ages in behalf of their own Gods What strength can we have to overcome such difficulties and to accomplish such an Enterprize But they made no objections our Saviour had conversed with them forty days after his Resurrection and now tells them that all Power is given unto him in Heaven and in Earth and he commands them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me Acts i. 4. And when the Holy Ghost was come they were endued by him with a courage and resolution almost as wonderful as the Miracles they wrought to perperform the great work which lay before them they were not in the least daunted at any dangers or torments or deaths but went on courageously in their Duty by the power and assistance of the Holy Ghost by whom they were enabled to bring the world to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ They opposed themselves to all the assaults of Men and Devils Nothing could now discourage them who before were so timorous and unbelieving the coming of the Holy Ghost down upon them wrought a mighty change in them who were to work as great an alteration in all the world besides St. Peter standing with the Eleven lift up his voice he spoke with wonderful Resolution and the rest stood by to bear witness to
the Truth of what he said They stood now undaunted by to testify that their Master was again alive who had forsaken him as soon as he was apprehended and he that before so shamefully denied him thrice being startled and affrighted at the Question of the High Priest's Maid now speaks aloud in a vast concourse of people with so much stedfastness that this alone was a sufficient evidence of the truth of what he delivered They were not in the least concerned at the mockery and abuses that were put upon them the Spirit had descended on them and raised them above such mean and foolish apprehensions they were now full of the Holy Ghost and no worldly thoughts could move them they acted with the force and vigor of the Wind and Fire in which the Holy Ghost came upon them and with as much unconcernedness as if they had had no difficulties to encounter the world they very well knew and found was against them but they had the assurance of his help who had overcome the world They were pressed on every side with want and disgrace and all manner of hardships some mocked and reviled them others tormented them the rage the tumults the conspiracies of whole Cities and Countries broke loose upon them all the malice and contrivance of Men and Devils was joined against them and yet with what freedom doth St. Peter speak Ye men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves also know him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and fore knowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up whereof we all are witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Acts ii 22 23 24 32 33. And in the third Chapter The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers hath glorified his Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go But ye denied the Holy one and the just and desired a murtherer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised from the dead whereof we are witnesses Acts iii. 13 14 15. And before the Council O ye Rulers of the People and Elders of Israel if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole This is the stone which was set at nought by you Builders which is become the head of the corner neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Acts iv 8 c. And again The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Act. v. 30 c. With what freedom and authority doth he now speak how unlike is he now to the man he was before when he thrice denyed his Master whilst alive And what could make such an alteration in him after his Masters death but a supernatural Power What could cause him thus frequently and earnestly to make an open confession of him in the midst of the people and before their Council if he had not known him to be risen from the dead and had not done all his Miracles by vertue of that Power which was bestowed upon him and the rest of the Apostles after Christ's Ascension And the same constancy and greatness of mind appeared in St. Stephen and the rest of the Disciples which yet was accompanied with equal humility and meekness Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts iv 19 20. You may do your pleasure but we must do our duty Nothing of fury and violence nor of wildness and extravagancy but a constant composedness and gravity and a rational sober zeal appeared in all their behaviour They told a plain truth and then wrought Miracles to confirm it and afterwards suffered any torments rather than they would renounce it or defist from Preaching it Though they could cure all Diseases and dispossess Devils and raise men from the dead or take away their Lives with a word speaking as in the case of Ananias and Saphira yet they were not exempted from sufferings because we must then have wanted one great argument for the confirmation of our Faith And the Gospel was to be founded upon principles of Love and Goodness not of Fear and Astonishment and there is something in the sufferings of good men which is apt mightily to work upon the affections and upon any seeds of good nature in us and therefore when by their Miracles they had raised the admiration of the Beholders and convinced them of the Power by which they were wrought their patience under sufferings not only confirmed them in the truth of Religion but laid the foundations of a Religious Life in gaining upon the inclinations and affections and in calming the spirits and preparing them by so great examples of patience to endure all the calamities incident to men Who is there that is not more affected with the meek and humble courage and invincible patience of the Apostles than with all the great Acts of the mighty conquerours and destroyers of Mankind A few poor unarmed defenceless men stand before armed Multitudes and speak with as much Authority as if all the Power of the world were in their hands and indeed all power was in their hands in as much as he assisted and inspired them who is above all They speak to Multitudes with as much freedom as to one man and to all Nations with as much ease as to one people And the same Holy Spirit who descended upon the rest of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost descended upon St. Paul at his conversion and gave that great Apostle so much confidence and resolution so much patience and zeal under his sufferings which were so severe and terrible that we can scarce read them with so little horror as he underwent them Thus did the Holy Ghost fit and prepare the Apostles to be witnesses to Christ by inspiring them with all that courage and
patience which was necessary for men that were to declare an ungrateful and despised truth amongst those who would think themselves so much concerned to oppose and suppress it If they had wrought no Miracles their courage and resolution might have pass'd for a groundless confidence and if they had not had the courage to stand so resolutely to the truth of what they delivered their Miracles themselves might have become suspected but acting by a Divine Power and being supported in all their sufferings by a supernatural constancy and greatness of Mind and being so suddenly changed and raised above themselves in all they did or suffered and working the same change in others they gave all the evidence and certainty of the truth of the Doctrines they taught that it was possible for men to give And as a power of working Miracles was derived from the Apostles down upon their Disciples so was the spirit of meekness and patience under afflictions communicated to them And it is observable that God was pleased not to raise up any Christian Emperor till above three hundred years after Christ that he might shew that the Religion which came from heaven could need no human aid nor be suppress'd by any human force and that he might recommend the great vertues of meekness and patience to the world by the examples men as eminent for these as for the Miracles they wrought and might instruct mankind in a suffering Religion For to assure the world of the truth of it he would not grant it protection from Christian Emperors till most of the Empire was become Christian and Christianity had diffused it self into all the known parts of the Earth For before the last Persecution begun by Dioclesian (l) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 1. the Church flourished as much and had the favour of the Court and of great men in as high a degree almost as under Constantine himself till their Prosperity caused their sins and these brought Persecution But at last the persecuting Emperors were forced by a divine power manifested in miraculous diseases inflicted on them to restore the Christians to their former liberty in their worship of God that so it might appear to all the world that the Christian Religion needed no Patronage of men for God would compel its worst Enemies to become its Protectors when he saw it fitting And (m) Sozom lib. v. c. 16. when Julian made it his great aim and business to restore Paganism again in the world he saw to his grief how ineffectual all his endeavours proved he observed that the Christian Religion still retained a general esteem and approbation and that the Wives and Children and Servants of his own Priests themselves were most of them Christians If any one then upon a serious consideration of all circumstances can withstand the conviction of so great evidence I would only ask him whether he believes any History or relation of matters of fact which he never saw and desire him to shew what degrees of certainty he can discern in any of them which are are not to be found here and besides to consider that if in a vicious and subtile Age a Doctrine so contrary to flesh and blood by so weak and incompetent means could obtain so universally amongst men of all Tempers and Professions and Interests in all Nations of the world against so violent opposition without the help of Miracles this is as great a Miracle as can be conceived either therefore the Christian Religion was propagated by Miracles or it was not if it was then the Miracles by which it was propagated prove it to be from God if it was not propagated by Miracles the Propagation it self is a Miracle and sufficient to prove it to be from him CHAP. XVII Of the Writingâ— of the Apostles and Evangelists IT is justly esteemed a sufficient reason for the credibility of any History if it be written by men of Integrity men who have no suspicion upon them of dishonesty and have no Temptation to deceive and who relate nothing but of their own Times and within their own knowledge though the Authors never suffered any loss nor run any hazard in asserting what they deliver But the History of Christ has this further advantage that many of the most considerable things in it were done in the sight of his enemies and that which is an History to future Ages was rather an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not The History of our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension as it hath been proved was attested by his Apostles to the faces of his very Crucifiers and they all remained upon the place where what they witnessed had been done for several years afterwards declaring and preaching to all people the things which they had seen and heard And soon after his Ascension when all the proceedings against him were fresh in memory they committed the same to writing in Greek which was the most common language and generally known at that time St. Matthew who first penned his Gospel is said to have written it in Hebrew or Syriack tho it was soon after translated into Greek so that whover of the Jews did not understand the Greek tongue might read the Gospel in their own Language Not long after the other Gospels were penned and they were all in a short time dispersed into the several parts of the world and translated into all Languages It is particularly related (a) Eâ—iphan Haerâ—â— Ebion that St. John's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles were soon translated into the Hebrew tongue The Evangelists give such an account both of the Birth and Death of our Saviour as must suppose them recorded at Rome For there the censual Tables were kept where by St. Luke's account the name of our Saviour must have been registered and his Death and Resurrection were so remarkable as they relate them that according to the custom used in the Government of the Roman Provinces the Emperor must have a relation sent him of them and as I have shewn both Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal to the Roman Records for the truth both of the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour The memory of the Massacre of the Infants by Herod is preserved to us by a saying of Augustus concerning Herod upon it (b) Macrob Saturnal lib. ii c. 4. which is mentioned in Macrobius a Heathen Author For Augustus was told that among others Herod had caused his own child to be slain which whether true or no gave occasion to the Emperor to make this observation that it was better to be Herod's Swine than his Son Tacitus mentions our Saviour's suffering under Pontius Pilate and Tertullian in his (c) Tertul. Apol. c. 21. Apology tells the Heathens that the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun which was at Christ's Death stood upon Record in their own Registers whether it were for the strangeness of the thing it being contrary to the course
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
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
afterwards attended him Deut. i. 38. and at his first entrance upon the Government God gave to him the same Divine Attestation that had before been given to Moses in their Passage through the Red-Sea And the Lord said unto Joshua This day will I begin to magnifie thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses so I will be with thee Jos iii. 7. And for a certain Demonstration that the living God was among them and would give them Victory over the Seven Nations and Possession of their Land the Priests did by God's Appointment bear the Ark before the People and as soon as their Feet were dipt in the brim of the water in the time of Harvest when the River Jordan is at the highest and overflows all its Banks the Waters divided themselves those above stood on one side in heaps and those below were cut off and sailed the Priests standing with the Ark in the midst of the River upon dry-ground till all the People were passed over and until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua Josh iv 10. Now it is an undoubted Tradition among the Jews (u) Lightsâ— Chorograph Centur. c. 48. p. 46. That the Tents of the Israelites in the Wilderness contained a Square of Twelve Miles and that the Host took up the same space whilst they passed Jordan However this is certain that they kept at the distance of about Two thousand Cubits from the Ark when it stood in the midst of Jordan Josh iii. 4. so that the Waters must be withdrawn for many Miles in the passage of the whole Army over the River if they passed it in a Regular March and in such Order of Battle as to be able to oppose the Enemy or if they marched in a narrower Body they must be so much the longer in their passage which way soever it were it was a very great and manifest Miracle The People being all gone over and every thing performed which God had commanded the Priests with the Ark came out of the channel of the River where they had all this while stood and as soon as their feet were lift up unto the dry land beyond the Waters which stood then on an heap and did not flow down as at other times they resumed their course and returned to their place and flowed over all the banks as they did before Josh iv 8. And as a Memorial of this Miracle to all Posterity Twelve Stones were set up in the midst of Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood ver 8 9. and Twelve Stones more were taken out of Jordan whilst it was dry by Twelve Men chosen out of the People one out of every Tribe and were pitched in Gilgal ver 20. Thus did the Lord magnifie Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life v. 14. Here was a Miracle wrought in the most remarkable manner which the whole People were Witnesses to and effectual care was taken to keep up the Remembrance of it The Waters of Jordan were cut off for the passage of the Children of Israel into Canaan as the Waters of the Red-Sea had been divided to procure their escape out of Aegypt and such an Experiment was not to have been made twice if it had not been a true Miracle They were no sooner come into the promised Land but all the Males were Circumcised that Rite having been omitted in the Wilderness and were thereby disabled for War which had been a strange Policy for the Invaders of a Country to wound themselves and render themselves unfit for fight as soon as they arrived in the Coasts of the Enemy if the Canaanites had not been restrained by a miraculous Awe and Power from setting upon them as the Sons of Jacob did upon the Shechemites Gen. xxxiv before they were recovered of their soreness after Circumcision The Walls of Jericho were thrown down only by marching round it seven Days and blowing with Trumpets and this was accompanied with a Prophecy That whosoever should attempt to re-build Jericho should lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest son should he set up the gates of it Josh vi 26. which was fulfilled in the Reign of Ahab when Hiel the Beth-elite lost his eldest Son Abiram upon his laying the Foundation of it and his youngest Son Segub upon his setting up the Gates 1 King xvi 34. These Miracles and the standing still of the Sun and Moon whilst the Israelites pursued and vanquished their Enemies and the prodigious Hail-stones cast down from Heaven which slew more of them than the Sword could do and a continued course of Victories never interrupted but for Achan's Offence struck such a mighty terror into the Canaanites that some of them sought out ways to make their peace with the Israelites by submission and others fled into foreign Countries And to shew that they conquered by a Miraculous and Divine Power not by any carnal Force or Strength Joshua by God's Command destroyed the Horses and the Chariots that he took from the Enemy Josh xi 9. which had been a strange Action in Humane Policy but by such unlikely means he subdued one and thirty Kings of the Canaanites chap. xii and then divided the Land not yet conquered amongst the Tribes of Israel being as certain of it as if they had it already in possession chap. xiii 2 7. Joshua after so many Victories and so many Miracles when the Land of Canaan came to be divided among the Children of Israel took no more for his own Inheritance than they were willing to spare him after the Land had been divided among the Tribes ch xix 49. and at last as Moses had done he appeals to their own Experience and to their very Senses for the Truth of all the Wonders and Deliverances and the mighty Works which God had wrought amongst them chap. xxiv After the Death of Joshua God raised up Judges out of several Families and Tribes with an immediate and extraordintry Commission to govern and protect his People so that there could be no private Ends or politick Designs carry'd on under the pretence of a Divine Commission But upon their Disobedience and Idolatries they were from time to time punished with Slaughter and Captivity and upon their Repentance were as constantly delivered Judges being purposely raised up to be Conquerors and Deliverers and never failing of success But besides these who were impowered by God upon extraordinary Occasions they had other Judges or Chief Magistrates to administer Justice and to preside over the Publick Affairs for the welfare of the People such were Eli and Samuel Eli was a great Example how much Fondness and Natural Affection may prevail over good and wise Men but he was more afflicted to hear that
c. 18. lib. v. c. 7. Quadratus had this gift of Prophecy and it continued in the Church to the time of Justin Martyr and of Irenaeus II. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles were according to an express promise of Christ to them that after his Ascension they should do even greater Works than he had done himself John xiv 12. that is they should do works that would be more eminent and observable in the eyes of the World though not more excellent and divine for nothing could be greater in that sense than to raise a man from the dead Which promise was fulfilled to them at the Feast of Pentecost when men from all parts of the world were made witnesses to it For they were commanded by our Saviour not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for this promise and he assured them that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days after his being taken up from them into Heaven and that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them and should be witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Acts i. 4 5 8. And this miraculous power was visibly bestowed not only upon the Apostles themselves but upon the (c) Monstrabatur locus ubi super centum viginti credentium animas spiritus sanctus descendisset Hieron Epitaph Paulae vid. Dr. Light exercit on Act. ii 1. p. 643. hundred and twenty mentioned Acts i. 15. I have already shewn that the Apostles were effectually qualified to be witnesses of what they delivered concerning Christ and that they could neither be deceived themselves in it nor could propose any advantage to themselves by deceiving others and that if they had designed any deceit they alledged such circumstances as made it impossible for them to have past undiscovered All which will be exceedingly confirmed by considering the miraculous Gifts which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost according to this promise of our Saviour I shall therefore shew how the Apostles were enabled by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to become witnesses to Christ 1. By the Miracles which they wrought themselves 2. By that power which was conveyed by them to others of working Miracles 3. By their supernatural Resolution Courage and Patience under their sufferings I. The Apostles were enabled to become witnesses to Christ by the Miracles which they wrought themselves This power of Miracles qualified them most effectually to be witnesses of the Resurrection and Ascention and other Articles of our Faith for they could neither deceive nor be deceived in these miraculous Gifts which were bestowed upon them to be an assurance to themselves and an evidence to others that it was the Cause of God in which they were engaged and his truth which they delivered They could not be deceived them selves undoubtedly in a thing of this nature they could not be ignorant whether they were real Miracles which they wrought or not they must needs know whether their own pretences were true or false and whether they could speak the Languages and do the Wonders which the world believed them to do and speak and they could not but know by what power and means they were enabled to perform all their miraculous Works And these works were of that nature and done in that manner that they could impose upon no man by them they could not make men believe that they spoke all kinds of Languages if they did not speak them nor that they cured all sorts of Diseases if they had not cured them nothing is more easy than for a man to know a Language that he understands when he hears it or than for men that were sick to know that they are recovered when they feel themselves well And the manner oâ— their performing these Miracles was the most publick and notorious in respect of the time and place and the persons on whom they were wrought Our Saviour had been crucified at the Feast of the Passover in the sight of the Jews and Proselytes who were met together from all parts of the World at that Solemnity and but fifty days after at the next solemn Festival of the Jews in the very same City where he had been Crucified in the presence of multitudes of people of all Nations and Languages which came to keep the Feast of Pentecost the Apostles declared to them in all their several Tongues that this same Jesus was by the Almighty Power of God raised from the dead and that they were impowered by him to speak all those Languages The Apostles were at the same time taken notice of to be Gallileans men of low Birth and of new Education St. John in particular was known to the High Priest himself and the rest were all known to many that heard them their Parentage and place of Abode and manner of Life might easily be enquired into for they were no strangers nor in a far Country and from all these it appeared that it was impossible that they should be capable of speaking any of these Languages but by inspiration and to speak all Languages is a thing which no man ever could hope to arrive at by study or conversation though he should make it the whole business of his Life and therefore this could least of all be suspected of men of mean Employments and who got their Livelihood by their daily labour and industry The Miracles which the Apostles wrought were likewise in the most publick places of the City and in the most publick manner upon persons who had been most remarkable and generally taken notice of for their Infirmities St. Peter by pronouncing only these words In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk cured a man of above forty years of Age who was known to have been lame from his Birth and was carried and laid daily at one of the Gates of the Temple where there was wont to be the greatest resort of people to ask an Alms of them that entred into the Temple and this man being immediately cured went with St. Peter and St. John into the Temple and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that it was he which sat for Alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple Acts iii. 9 10. And the Rulers of the Jews enquired into the matter and upon examination when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus and beholding the man which was healed standing with them they could say nothing against it but confessed among themselves that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it Acts iv 13 14 16. By this and other evident and publick Miracles the miraculous Power of the Apostles
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
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
ii 13. And it is not only threatned that the Wicked shall suffer eternal Punishment but it is likewise expresly foretold that the wicked shall be sentenced to everlasting fire at the Day of Judgment and that they shall go away into everlasting Punishment Matth. xxv 41 46. To leave no room for hopes of any End or Abatement of the Punishment we have our Saviour's express Declaration that the Sentence shall be past according to the Threatning and that the everlasting Punishment which is threatned shall be certainly executed upon the wicked Our Judge has beforehand declar'd what Sentence he will pass the Terms whereof are therefore as unalterable as if it were already pronounc'd He has declared that the Punishments of the wicked as well as the Rewards of the righteous shall be eternal as directly and possitively as he has said any thing else relating to the last Judgment or concerning any other part of his Gospel and we have as little reason to imagine that his express and repeated Affirmation is capable of a reserved Meaning in this particular as in any other matter whatsoever Some of the Benefits and Advantages which are consequent to the Punishments of this World are precedent to those of the next Here Men are punished for their own Amendment or for the Advantage and Security of others or for both In the next World the actual inflicting of Punishments is not for these ends but they were threatned for these and they must be inflicted when they have been once threatned and declared by God who cannot lye It is for the Repentance of Sinners and for the Benefit of Good Men in preserving them in the ways of Vertue and securing them from the Pride and Malice of the Wicked that Hell should be threatned but because it is the final and eternal State of the Wicked it cannot be for their Amendment after the Execution of its Torments upon them and Good Men being once out of the Power of Temptations and placed beyond the Malice of the Wicked can no longer have any Protection or Advantage from the Punishments dehounced against impenitent Sinners but whether the Advantages arising from Punishments be before or after the inflicting of Punishments there is the same necessity for the appointing and consequently for the inflicting them viz. The Good of Mankind in keeping Men from Sin and leaving those without excuse who will not be restrained from it and work out their own Salvation But another end of Punishment is that Satisfaction for the violation of the Laws may be made to the supreme Authority which is despised and affronted by it And the vindication of God's Honour and Authority and of his Truth and Holiness in his Hatred and Detestation of Sin and his indignation against Sinners is manifested by the actual Punishments of the Damned and it would be an Argument of the contrary to all this if they were threatned and not inflicted And the Number of Persons to be thus Punished doth not alter the Case but only shews that many are concerned in it and if the case be the same the Justice must be the same too tho' the Persons be never so many upon whom it is executed That which is Just towards one or Merciful towards one is Just or Merciful towards never so many Thousands For Justice and Mercy consist in the Nature of things not in the greater or lesser Number of Persons to whom they are extended And tho' Multitudes of Criminals are apt to move compassion in Men yet this proceeds partly from the Sympathy and Frailty of Human Nature which is mightily swayed by Number and Multitude to do either Good or Evil partly from the Nature of Human Affairs For to destroy Multitudes would depopulate Cities and Countries and would be an Affliction to Multitudes of Innocent Persons their Friends and Relations But it is not so in the present Case there will be no want of Numbers in Heaven and the Righteous shall be Everlastingly happy and shall perceive no diminution of their Happiness by reason of the Damnation of such as were never so dear to them in this World And Mercy and Pity is not a Passion in God as it is in Men but a Perfection it is the highstest Reason and Equity and therefore tho' the Misery of Sinners be never so severe and the number of the Miserable never so great yet when the Equity and reasonableness of the case doth not require it there is nothing to move God for their Relief because he acts by the standing Rules of Reason and Wisdom not by any Fondness and Weakness of Passion 2. I come now to shew the Mercy of God in his inflicting Eternal Torments upon Sinners Strict Justice has a severe Aspect and it may seem hard for frail Man to abide the Sentence that he may in strictness of Justice deserve But from the Justice of God it is natural for us to appeal to his Mercy and thither he allows us to appeal but not so as to expect that he should be so merciful as not to be just or should forget that he is the Supreme Governour of the World whilst he extends his Mercy to the Offending and Criminal part of it Punishment is necessary to all Government and God as Governour of the World must inflict Punishments and what these are to be it belongs to his Sovereign Wisdom to appoint And Eternal Torments were appointed for the Punishment of Sin not only out of a very just but even out of a gracious Design because nothing less than the Threatnings of them would keep Men from Sin and from that Misery which is the unavoidable consequence of it and so bring them to Heaven It is an Antient and true Observation which (c) Chrysad Stagir lib. 1. Tom 6. Sav. Edit St. Chrysostom has made that there is Mercy even in the threats of Eternal Vengeance because nothing less could have brought many Men to Heaven For there is no doubt to be made but many will be there who shall have cause to thank God for this as the thing which first opened their Eyes and moved them to Repentance and thereby brought them to Bliss and Glory And the same Mercy was extended to those that Perish and would not make the same use of it which if they had done they had never perished Tho' Heaven and Hell (d) Chrys ad â—op Antioch de Sâ—â—tuis Hom. 7. says St. Chrysostom be contrary to each other yet they both aim at the same end the Salvation of Mankind the Joys of Heaven invite Men to it and the Fear of Hell forces those to Heaven who otherwise would be regardless of their own Happiness God has used the most proper and prevailing Means to convince Sinners of their Danger and to perswade them to escape it and obtain Salvation We have everlasting Rewards and everlasting Punishments proposed to our Choice We are exhorted with the greatest Earnestness and mov'd and assisted with the continual Influences
to make known his Name and Truth among the Gentiles In the time of Moses this People it self was uncapable of that pure and Spiritual Worship which the Messiah was to appoint and stood in need of a Ceremonial Law and Service to restrain them from Idolatry and to preserve the sense and remembrance of the Promises and Laws deliver'd to Adam and Noah And this Ritual Service was unworthy that the Messiah should come purposely to appoint it who was indeed himself the principal thing signified and typified by it and the Types and Figures of himself could not be Instituted by himself in Person for then they would have been insignificant and there could have been no use or occasion for them But the most Excellent and Divine Institution was reserv'd for his Appointment to which all the rest was but preparatory The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made Gal. iii. 19. After the Revelation of God's Will and Commandments had thro' the great neglect and wickedness of Mankind become ineffectual God sent all his Servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them an expression setting forth his great care and watchfulness over his People for their good yet they hearkned not unto him nor enclin'd their ear but hardned their neck Jer. vii 25 26. To Cure this strange stubbornness and their proneness to Idolatry God sent this People into Captivity for Seventy years which wrought so thorough a Reformation in them that they were never afterwards given to Idolatry but endur'd all extremities of Torments rather than they would be brought to any compliance with the Heathen Worship and therefore there could be no longer such necessity that the Ceremonial Law should be continu'd to them to keep them from the Worship of Idols But in other respects their Provocations were still very great And as the Lord in the Parable first sent his Servants and last of all his Son saying they will reverence my Son and thereby left those wicked Men without excuse and manifested the Justice of his Vengeance upon the Murtherers of his own Son So God first sent his Prophets and when the Jews who had been train'd in the knowledge and worship of him and were to conveigh it to other Nations would not be reclaim'd by them but revil'd and destroy'd them and then set up their own Traditions in opposition to their Doctrines he sends his Beloved Son before he would utterly take away their City and Nation and effected that by the death of his Son whom they Crucified which the experience of so many Ages had shewn could be effected no other way God reveal'd himself at sundry times and in divers manners and in his Infinite Wisdom proportioned the ways and measure of his Revelations to the capacities and the necessities of the several Ages in which they were made till at last he hath spoken unto us by his Son Heb. i. 1 2. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. iv 3 4. 2. The Reception of Christ and his Gospel in the World would have been much more difficult if so many Prophets in so many several Ages had not foretold his coming Our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him appeal to Moses and the Prophets for the truth of their Doctrine this was the great Argument which they us'd to the Jews in Confirmation even of their Miracles themselves they prov'd that the Prophets had foretold that Christ should come at that very time when he came and that he should work those Miracles which he wrought and should empower his Disciples to do the like his Death and Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost were all Prophesied of and Prophecies thus foretelling the Miracles and Miracles fullfilling the Prophecies and both mutually confirming and supporting each other afforded all the Evidence that could be given for Prophecies and Miracles are all the ways by which God can be supposed to reveal himself to Mankind And therefore thousands of the Jews were convinc'd out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ and were Converted to the Christian Faith And the Prophecies concerning the Messiah are still an unanswerable Argument in vindication of our Religion which Argument we must have wanted if our blessed Saviour had come so much sooner as not to have been Prophesied of so many Ages beforehand And those who reject the Gospel now would have thought they had had much more Reason on their side than they can now pretend to have for there had then been so much less means for their Conviction So that the coming of our Saviour was deferr'd to give the greater Evidence and the fuller conviction of his being the Christ It would have been hard to believe that the Son of God should come into the World with little or no notice given of it beforehand and few or no Prophets sent to foretell his coming and prepare his way But when he had been so long before Prophesy'd of even from the beginning of the World thro' the several Ages of it when there had been a general expectation of the Messiah to be born and the Time and Place and Tribe and Family and Person of whom he was to be born by degrees and at several times had been foretold when Mens hopes and desires to see him were thus from Age to Age awakened and alarmed this was a Solemnity worthy to introduce and attend the Son of God into the World and a Method which would prove a standing Evidence of his being come into it 3. The time of Christ's coming may depend upon things which we are uncapable of knowing For it may depend upon the duration of the World and it is impossible for any Man to know how long that shall be The Scripture speaks of the times of the Gospel under the Phrase of the last Days but this is to be understood in relation not to the continuance of the World but to the Christian Dispensation which is the last means of Salvation that God will vouchsase to Mankind and with regard to the Jewish Church and Government which was just then at an end as I shall shew in the next Chapter Now if the World may continue as long under the dispensation of the Gospel as it had done before it and no Man can tell but it may we shall find little cause to wonder that Christ was not sooner born into the World For we find that the Faith and Zeal of Christians decays as we are at a farther distance of time from the Incarnation of our Saviour and the first propagation of his Gospel and the length of the time it self proves a temptation to some to disbelieve it for men are apt to give less credit to what happened long ago and to think themselves less concern'd in it
Life have been the Soul must be United to the self same Body so disposed and qualified to affect the Soul as it was in this Life only with Infinitely greater more exquisite and more lasting Degree of Pain or of Joy and Satisfaction yet without any mixture of gross and sensual Pleasures in the Righteous but only such as are suitable to Spiritual Bodies And this Disposition of Body depends upon the Vertuous or Vicious Actions and Habits of Men here for a Body by Vicious Practices and Customs prone to raging and furious Passions insatiable Appetites and tormenting Inclinations and Desires without any thing to gratifie or asswage them must have quite another effect upon a Soul than a Body subdued to the mild and calm and obedient Temper of Religion and Vertue And tho' God could by his Almighty power form another Body to that Frame and Disposition which the Body of any particular Man was in when his Soul departed out of it yet it doth not seem agreeable to the Divine Goodness and purity by his immediate power to frame a New Body to the depraved Temper and Inclinations of a Vicious Man And we are so little acquainted with the Union of the Soul and Body that for ought we know a Soul can be United only to its proper Body The Truth is we know nothing of these Matters but from the Scriptures all besides is only Conjecture But the Doctrine of the Scriptures is probable even to our Reason tho' indeed it ought to over-rule Reason especially in things which are so obscure and so little understood by us God has declared that he will raise these Bodies to Life again at the Day of Judgment and whatever we may think of it to him all things are alike easie it is as easie for him to do as to say it CHAP. XXVI Of the Reasons why Christ did not shew himself to all the People of the Jews after his Resurrection ST Peter speaking of Christ's Resurrection says him God raised up the third Day and shewed him openly not to all the People but unto Witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the Dead Acts x. 40 41. After his Resurrection he was shewn openly but not to all the People he was seen in a plain and open manner yet not so publickly as to make all the People Witnesses of his Resurrection The Will and good Pleasure of God is a sufficient Reason to us of all his Actions especially in Acts of Mercy For it would be a strange Return made but to a Man for any Favour received to be captious and quarrelsome about the manner of his bestowing it instead of being grateful to him for it But besides this General Reason which ought to be of Force with us in all Cases there are Reasons peculiar to the present Case whereby we may be able to give an Account of it even according to our own Apprehensions of things I. There are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of Christ's Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the dead II. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards Mankind for him to do it III. Great Numbers of the Jews were given over to hardness of heart and would not have believed tho' they had seen Christ after his Resurrection IV. If they had Believed their Conversion had not been a greater proof of the Truth of his Resurrection than their Unbelief has been V. The Power of his Resurrection manifested in the Miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles was as great a Proof of his Resurrection as the Personal Appearance of our Saviour himself could have been 1. There are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of his Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the Dead Christ after his Resurrection was to act according to the Majesty of the Divine Nature not according to the Infirmities and Condescension of the Humane the time of his Conversing with Men was at an end at his Death and then another method and manner of Dispensation was to begin he was then to Converse only with his particular Friends and Favourites to satisfie them of his Resurrection and to instruct and enable them both by their Doctrine and Miracles to satisfie others It could not be suitable to the Dignity of his Majesty which he had assumed after his Resurrection to submit himself to the Censures of his Enemies he had suffered enough from them already in the State of his Humiliation and must he never be above the Suspicion and Scrutiny of their Malice Shall not his Resurrection free him from it When they saw him hanging upon the Cross they cried out with upbraiding and insolent Scorn that they would believe in him if he would come down from thence but neither did they deserve such a Miracle to be wrought at their Pleasure who thus called for it nor was it suitable to the Divine Dispensation that it should be wrought It was neither fitting that he should save himself from Death nor that he should appear to them after he was risen from the Dead He was to Die for our Redemption and as we had wanted the Argument from his Resurrection for the Truth of our Religion if he had come down from the Cross so if he had appeared to all the Jews we had wanted other Evidence which as I shall shew at least amounts to all the Proof which that could have given In the State of his Humiliation our Saviour was pleased to suffer himself to be exposed to the contradiction of Sinners and to all their Affronts and Injuries but when this their Hour and the Power of Darkness was once past they were to see him no more but with confusion of Face and terrour of Mind yet his Mercy was still the same towards them one of the greatest Persecutors was converted by a Voice from Heaven the Son of Man speaking to him from thence that he might be the happy Instrument in the Conversion of others and a Pattern to them of the long suffering of Christ 1 Tim. i. 16. But his manifestation of himself to St. Paul at his Conversion was with dreadful Awe and Majesty not in that mild and gracious Glory in which he was seen by St. Stephen and it is reserved for those who persecuted and pierced him to look upon him with Consternation and Anguish at the Last Day Rev. i. 7. 2. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards Mankind for Christ to be shown openly to all the People God might work such astonishing Miracles and strike such Terrors into the Minds of Men as to make it impossible for any one to doubt of his Existence or of the Truth of his Word but he doth not all which he can do but what he in his Wisdom sees fit to be done he doth not use all the
immediate Influence of the Divine Power but in Miracles this Power manifests its self in an extraordinary manner above and contrary to the Established Laws or Rules which God has in all other cases prescribed for the producing Effects II. Men would fancy to themselves some kind of Scheme or other and would frame some Notions and Conceits to give an Account of Miracles or they would imagin them to return of Course at certain Periods or upon some Accidents if they saw them frequently done or perhaps they would suppose them to proceed from some Defect in the Nature of Things which could not always keep its course but made many Deviations from it But when Miracles were wrought only in some Ages for peculiar Reasons this shews that they were done by an immediate Divine Power with a particular Design which could be no other than the Confirmation of Religion since they ceased both under the Law and the Gospel when both were fully declared and confirmed III. A perpetual Power of Miracles in all Ages would give occasion to continual Impostures which would confound and distract Mens minds and would make the true Mircles themselves suspected We see now that the Dreams of every Enthusiast and the Pretences of every Impostor are apt to startle weak minds tho' we have so much Reason not to expect Miracles or Revelations But if we were in constant expectation of True Miracles the False would be much more likely to mislead many and to make others reject the Belief of any Miracles at all If Prophecies and Miracles had been frequent in the Jewish Church to the coming of our Saviour his Prophecies and wonderful Works had not so well distinguished and manifested him to be the Christ But when after so long an Intermission they were again revived in him this shewed him to be the great Prophet and Messias who was expected And it is very observable that as Miracles had been discontinued for a long time among the Jews so St. John Baptist who was more than a Prophet and one of the greatest of all the Men that had been before him yet wrought no Miracles that he might be the better distinguished from the Messias and that there might arise no doubt in the Minds of any which of them was the Christ And when our Saviour had been acknowledged to be the Christ in all Parts of the World it was fit that Miracles should cease to preserve the Authority due to the Miracles wrought by himself and his Disciples it being more for the Honour of Christ that the Miracles wrought in his Name should cease when his Religion had been fully Established than that Men should be tempted to doubt who was the true Christ and which was the true Religion upon the account of false Miracles wrought in opposition to the True IV. Another Reason why the Gift of Miracles has been with-held in latter Ages may be this because since there has been a general depravation of Manners among Christians it would have proved a great occasion of Pride and Vain-Glory to those who had possest it as we find it was to some even in the times of the Apostles 1 Cor. xii xiv And our Saviour saw it requisite to give Caution to his Disciples Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your Names are written in Heaven Luke x. 20. It must be an eminent and truly Primitive Piety that could bear the having of such Gifts with an humble and Christian Temper of Mind V. It is an Observation of (f) Advan of Lâ—arn l. iii. c. 2. my Lord Bacon's That there was never Miracle wrought by God to Convert an Atheist because the Light of Nature might have led him to confess a God But Miracles are designed to Convert Idolaters and the Superstitious who have acknowledged a Deity but erred in his Adoration 〈…〉 Light of Nature extends to declare the 〈◊〉 and true Worship of God For the same Reason when once the true Religion is confirmed in such a manner as to have the same Evidence for it which there is for the Existence of God himself Miracles are no more to be expected to convert an Infidel than to convert an Atheist Among Men of Learning and Reason there ought to be no more doubt of the Truth of the Gospel than of the Being of a God and they without the help of Miracles may instruct others (g) De Procur Indor Salute Lib. ii c. 9. Acosta enquiring into the Cause why Miracles are not wrought by the present Missionaries for the Conversion of Heathen Nations as they were by the Christians of the Primitive Ages gives this as one Reason because the Christians at first were ignorant Men and the Gentiles learned but now on the contrary all the Learning in the World is employ'd for the Defence of the Gospel and there is nothing but Ignorance to oppose it and there can be no need of farther Miracles in behalf of so good a Cause when it is in the Hands of such able Advocates against so weak Adversaries However though there be no such change as was wont formerly to be wrought in the visible Course of Nature in Confirmation of our Religion yet there is still a Divine Power evident among Christians living in Heathen Countries For the Devil who tyrannizeth over the Heathens has no Power over Christians dwelling among them of which the Indians have taken great Notice and have (h) Lerii Histor Navig in Brasil c. 16. declared the Christians happy in being freed from the Tortures of Wicked Spirits by which they find themselves often seized on the sudden in a terrible manner and stand in perpetual fear of them (i) Capt. Knoxe 's Hist of Ceylon Part iii. c. 4. Christians they do acknowledge have a Prerogative above themselves and not to be under the Power of these Infernal Spirits It is so generally related by Travellers of all Professions both Protestants and Papists that the Devil exercises a manifest Tyranny over the Heathens but is able to do nothing to the Christians abiding amongst them that this cannot be denied to be a plain Argument of a Divine Power discovering it self in Confirmation of the Christian Religion though not by such Miracles as were formerly wrought because there is no longer any need of them CHAP. XXX Of the Causes why the Jews and Gentiles rejected Christ notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by Him and his Apostles THough the Christian Religion be most certain in it self yet there is a Supernatural Grace required to make us throughly and effectually convinced of the certainty of it No Man can come to me says our Saviour except the Father which hath sent me draw him and this is declared to be the Reason of the Infidelity of such as were offended at his Doctrin and departed from him But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
and who should betray him and he said Therefore said I unto you that no Man can come unto me except it be given unto him of my Father John vi 64 65. So that the Belief of the Gospel is stiled a Divine Faith not only in respect of its Object but of its efficient Cause In attaining to the Knowledge of the Truth of Religion we must proceed upon the same Principles of Reason by which we proceed in attaining to the Knowledge of any other Truth But Reason when it comes up to the Evidence even of Demonstration though it satisfies the Understanding yet doth not necessarily gain that firm and lasting Assent of the Will which is required in Faith but when the thing proved to be true is unacceptable against the Inclinations of the Will and against the former Opinions and Persuasions of the Understanding the present Convictions of the Understanding are soon stifled and overpowered by the prevailing Force of the Will and Affections which carry the Mind off to other and contrary Objects which it has been wont to think of and believe Thus it was in the Academicks and Scepticks they could not but have the same sense of Mathematical Demonstrations and other clear Truths which the rest of Mankind have whilst they thought of them and attended strictly to them But by a constant Practice to amuse themselves with Subtilties they had wrought themselves to a Persuasion that nothing could be certainly known to be true and this general and habitual Opinion soon stifled the Evidence of any particular Truth which could be represented never so clearly to their Minds To as many therefore as lay under long and violent Prejudices by reason of their former Opinions and of their Pride and Vanity in contending for them or by reason of any of those Lusts which are so contrary to the Purity of the Gospel to such an extraordinary and miraculous Power of Grace was necessary to establish them in the Faith or else though they believed for the present at the sight of some Miracle yet this was no lasting or well-grounded Faith John ii 23 24. And that Grace which was necessary to their Faith was denied to some for their Sins that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Heart and be converted John xii 40. So that Men of great Learning and worldly Wisdom might still continue Unbelievers and not submit to all the Evidence of the Gospel because the Doctrin of the Gospel being so contrary to their Habitual Thoughts and Inclinations there was something necessary to convert the Will and Affections and to subdue the former Habits which had been rooted in their Minds by frequent Acts and length of Time and which were too strong for any Convictions of the Understanding that consisted but in transient Acts and were soon lost and vanished through the prevailing contrary Habits both of the Understanding and Will and Affections And therefore Faith must necessarily be an effect of Grace as well as of Reason and where because of former Sins and Provocations this Grace was not vouchsafed there could be no Faith though there might be some transient Convictions of Mind some faint Glimmerings which were soon damped and extinguished being overpowered by former contrary Persuasions And for the same Reason those who had less Wisdom and Knowledge but were not under the Power of Habitual Lusts and Passions and therefore were more easily persuaded to any thing of the Truth whereof they were once convinced were likewise the more easily converted The Causes why the Word became unfruitful and so little prevailed with many Men are in the Parable of the Sower declared to be either inconsiderate Negligence and Ignorance and the Advantage taken from thence by Satan or want of Constancy in Times of Tribulations and Persecutions or the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things Matth. xiii 18. Mark iv 9. It was next to an impossibility for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God or to become a Christian They were not Natural so much as Moral Accomplishments not so much Parts and Learning as an honest and humble Mind which were the requisite Qualifications for Men to become Christians Because as God the more freely bestowed his Grace upon Men thus qualified so they were the better disposed to be wrought upon by it whereas others though they wanted a greater measure of Grace yet had less vouchsafed to them For God resisteth the Proud but giveth Grace to the Humble Thus much in the General I now proceed to give a particular Account of the Causes of the Unbelief both of the Jews and Gentiles I. Since there is so great Evidence that our Saviour is the true Christ it may seem a wonderful and almost an incredible thing that the Jews should so generally reject him notwithstanding all the Means and Opportunities which they had above other Nations of being converted But 1. The Jews and Proselytes were converted in vast Numbers Besides the Shepherds Simon and Anna the Prophetess acknowledged and adored our Saviour in his Infancy as the true Messias Luke ii 25 36. and it is probably (k) Buxtorf de Abbrev. Hebr. supposed that this was Rabban Simeon the Son of Hillel and Father of Gamaliel The Title of Rabban was the highest of all Titles signifying a Prince rather than a Doctor or Teacher as Rabbi doth and there were but Seven of the Posterity of Hillel who were dignified with it Nicodemus Joseph of Arimathea and many others of Note and Eminency received the Christian Faith About Three Thousand were converted at one time Acts ii 41. Great Numbers were converted not only of the People but of the Priests also Acts vi 7. All that dwelt at Lydda and Saron Acts ix 35. Many of the Jews and Religious Proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas Acts xiii 43. At Iconium a great multitude of the Jews believed Acts xiv 1. Crispus Chief Ruler of the Synagogue believed on the Lord with all his House Acts xviii 8. And Sosâ—henes another Chief Ruler of the Synagogue Acts xviii 19. 1 Cor. i. 1. Apollos an eloquent Man and mighty in the Scriptures was a Christian Acts xviii 24. Many Thousands or Myriads in the Greek Acts xxi 20. And the number of them which were sealed was an Hundred and forty and four thousand of all the Tribes of the Children of Israel Rev. vii 4. The People were generally well-disposed to receive the Gospel and when the Chief Priests and Rulers would have Persecuted our Saviour and his Apostles they were often forced to desist for fear of the People And if the Apostles did not depart (l) Euseb Hist lib. V. c. 18. from Jerusalem in the space of Twelve Years as there is Reason to believe the number of Converts in all that time must needs be extreamly great The Church of Jerusalem flourished exceedingly from the Beginning and the Bishops of that City were of
Means which some Men may conceit he might use but leaves Men without excuse and then requires their Faith and Obedience at their peril To imagine that Christ should have appeared promiscuously unto all is as unreasonable as to suppose that God should communicate himself to all alike or that he should have spoken from Heaven to Men without the Message and Ministry of his Prophets For when Christ was risen from the Dead he was no longer to act like a Mortal Man but as in his Glorified State as our Lord and King and as God in our Humane Nature now no longer subject to any of its Imperfections and therefore he was no more to come himself to the People as he had done in the State of his Humiliation but to send his Apostles and Disciples among them as he had before his Incarnation sent the Prophets 3. Great Numbers of the Jews were given up to hardness of heart and would not have believed tho' they had seen Christ after his Resurrection Those who when they had seen our Saviour's Miracles had vilified them and blasphemed the Holy Ghost by whom they were wrought had their hearts hardned that seeing they might see and not perceive and be converted And of this Number the Chief Priests and Elders must be supposed to be who hired the Soliders to Contradict and Stifle the Belief of his Resurrection with a false Story of their own Invention The Chief Priests before had Consulted to put Lazarus to Death when he was undeniably known to have been raised from the Grave John xii 10. So far were they from being brought to a Belief in Christ by the sight of Lazarus that they fully verified that Saying that there are some who will not believe tho one rose from the Dead Lazarus was shewn openly to all the People and lived among them for many years after he had been restored to Life again when he had been Dead four Days and they would not believe tho' they saw and conversed with him but were the more enraged at it Christ himself therefore after his Resurrection did not vouchsafe them his presence but used other means which were more proper 4. If the Jews had believed in Christ their Conversion had not been a greater Proof of the Truth of his Resurrection than their Unbelief has been Their stubbornness and hardness of heart was foretold by the Prophets with their Dispersion and the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Propagation of the Gospel according to the Prediction likewise of the Prophets in so Miraculous a manner not only at a distance but in Judea and in Jerusalem itself notwithstanding all the Opposition which the Jews could make gave as great a Testimony to it as their Favour and Protection could have done And therefore it was just with God rather to leave them to the hardness of their own hearts than to use such further Methods with them as were unsuitable to the Divine Dispensation in the Mystery of our Redemption and would either have only hardned them to a greater Degree or at least would not have proved more effectual towards the Manifestation of the Truth of the Gospel 5. The Power of Christ's Resurrection manifested in the Miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles was as great a proof of his Resurrection as the Personal Appearance of our Saviour himself could have been Our Saviour shewed himself to Witnesses chosen before of God to be Witnesses of all things which he did both in the Land of the Jews and in Jerusalem Acts x. 39 41. these Men knew his Life and Doctrine they had been Instructed by him and had forsaken all for him and according to his Promise were endued with Power from on high to enable them to testifie to the whole World that they had not only seen him but had often Conversed with him after he rose from the Dead And one of their Chief Qualifications was that they were but a few poor and ignorant Men without Force or Policy without any Art or Contrivance they could tell a plain Truth but could neither feign nor dissemble if they had been more in Number the Conversion of the World had been so much the less Miraculous and they were not chosen out of the Scribes and Elders who had been used to Artifices and Falshood but had them all along their Enemies and opposed to their Craft and Power an honest simplicity of Mind that neither knew what belonged to Deceit nor feared any in so good a Cause nor were they in the least discouraged to see their own and all other Nations against them God had chosen the Foolish things of the World to confound the Wise and God had chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things which are mighty 1 Cor. i. 27. These Men under all Necessities and Persecutions and Dangers and Torments both Living and Dying Witnessed that they had seen Christ alive after he had been Crucified and tho' they were but very few in Comparison of their Enemies yet considered as Witnesses they were many for he was seen by above five hundred at once which is a vast number in any matter of Evidence and if so many Men be not a sufficient Testimony no number of Men could have been That which is demonstrated but in one way is as certain as if it were demonstrable in never so many Methods and he who sees a thing plainly with his two Eyes may be as sure of it as if he had never so many Eyes to see it withal It is written in the Law of Moses that the Testimony of two Men is true or Credible and to be relied upon for Truth John viii 17. and it is the Law and Practice of all Nations to content themselves with a small number of sufficient Witnesses in proof of the most important Affairs And if these Witnesses chosen before of God spoke and acted and suffered as no Men would or could have done if they had not been well assured of what they testified and assisted from above in preaching the Gospel the Truth of the Resurrection of Christ is as infallibly delivered to us by their Testimony as it could have been by the Testimony of never so many more for all that never so many others could have done would have been but the same thing over again which these Men certified by many infallible Proofs and what is once infallibly proved is as certain as if all the World should agree in declaring it It is not the number of Witnesses but the Character and Qualifications of the Persons and the Evidence it self in its full force and circumstances which are chiefly to be regarded in Matters of this Nature If but a few Men can make it sufficiently appear as the Apostles did by undeniable Miracles that what they say is true and that God himself confirms the Truth of it they then appeal to every Man 's own Senses before whom they work their Miracles and make every one that sees them a
Witness to the Truth of their Doctrine God himself bears Witness to it and the Jews might have said in this as they did in a very different Case What need we any further Witnesses for we our selves have heard of their own mouths in the Miraculous Gift of Tongues or seen it with our own Eyes in the many wonderful Works which were continually wrought in the most publick manner in Testimony of the Resurrection of Christ Our Blessed Saviour therefore gave as full proof of his Resurrection as if he had appear'd in the Temple or in the midst of Jerusalem to the whole People of the Jews For this had not been more effectual to the Conversion of most of them nor more sufficient to evidence the Truth of the Gospel than his Appearance to his Disciples was and if the Jews had unanimously believed it could not have contributed more to convince Men of the Truth of the Resurrection than their Unbelief has done he sent his Apostles with a Miraculous Power as convincing as his own Appearance could have been and all things considered the Jews afford us as full Evidence in behalf of the Gospel by opposing it as they could have done by their compliance with it And since we have sufficient Testimony to resolve our Faith into the Divine Veracity the certainty is the same whether the Witnesses be more or fewer because it depends upon the veracity of God which is always the same whatever the means be by which our Faith is resolved into it CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remain'd upon Earth after his Resurrection and of the manner of his Ascension OUR Blessed Saviour had certified his Disciples of his Resurrection in such a manner as to give them many infallible Proofs of it or else it is impossible for any thing to be infallibly proved and that which is chiefly to be considered in this matter is that he was seen by them not once but often not for a short time or at a hasty Interview but for forty days together and then he performed the common Actions of Humane Life he did eat and drink with them and discoursed with them of the things relating to his Kingdom To whom also he shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts i. 3. That which I here design is to make some Observations upon the Conversation that our Saviour had with his Disciples during the Forty days between his Resurrection and his Ascension and upon the manner of his leaving them when he ascended into Heaven 2. The Scriptures acquaint us that our Saviour was seen of his Disciples Forty Days or that he vouchsafed them his presence the greatest part of that time which he remained upon Earth after his Resurrection But in what manner all that time was spent with them we are no where told which is no wonder if we consider how much of his former Life is concealed from us In the Scriptures which are written for our Instruction and in the plainest and sincerest manner in the World to inform us of all things necessary to our Salvation we have nothing taken notice of for Ostentation nor for Ornament but many things omitted in the Life of Christ which are thought needful in Humane Authors to make up a compleat History We have no more mentioned of his Parentage than was necessary to make it evident that he was descended from David and born of a Virgin as the Prophets had foretold of him When he was born we read that the Shepherds and the Wise-Men came to Worship him that he was Circumcised that he was brought to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and that he was carried into Aegypt to avoid Herod's Cruelty and hereby known Prophecies were fulfilled Afterwards he was brought to Nazareth upon the death of Herod and from that time we read no more of him 'till the twelfth Year of his Age when he Disputed with the Doctors in the Temple And then we are told that he went down to Nazareth and was subject to his Mother and to Joseph and in general Terms that he encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man as it was before said of him that he grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with Wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Luke ii 40 52. The next time we read any thing of him is when he was about Thirty years of Age and came to John to be Baptized Thus not only during his Infancy and Childhood there is little related of our Blessed Saviour but his riper years are passed over in Silence in all which time we may be sure that there was no Speech or Action of so Divine a Person but what well deserved the observation of all that knew him and was more worthy of mention in History than all the Renowned Adventures and Exploits or than the Wise or Witty Sayings which adorn the Lives of the Greatest among the Sons of Men. But Modesty Humility and a Contempt of the praise of Men were some of the great and useful Doctrines in which he came to instruct Mankind and he could not do this more effectually than by his own Example in leading a mean and obscure Life little known or taken notice of in the World 'till two or three years before he was to leave it by a Cruel and Infamous Death He did not chuse to spend his time in places of publick Resort and Converse and when he Disputed in the Temple yet nothing of the particulars is mentioned This obscure and unknown Person was to rebuke and comptroll the Pride and Vanity of the Popular Scribes and Pharisees And after he had appeared in the World very much of his Life was spent in privacy and retirement not many of his Discourses are delivered down to us and the greatest part of his Actions are omitted For if they had been all written and described in their several Circumstances many Volumes must have been taken up in the Narrative of them insomuch that St. John supposes that even the World itself could not have contained the Books that should have been written Joh. xxi 25. that is as we might express it in our Language he did a world of things more than these which are related of him and in the same sense of the Word St. James says that the Tongue is a world of Iniquity Jam. iii. 6. The meaning of St. John is that hardly any words could express how many other things were done by our Saviour besides those which he had set down Christ might have employed some accurate Historian to compose the Annals of his whole Life with the greatest exactness imaginable but he was pleased to be represented to the World very imperfestly by such as knew nothing of what belonged to the writing History any farther than to be able to tell the strict and necessary Truth The