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The Grounds of Christianity, or the Reasons upon which men embrace Christian Religion in the gross, all of it together.
[Sect. 1] IN lieu of the many grounds (or several branches, and improve∣ments of the same one complicated ground) which * 1.1 other men have very rationally enlarged on, This present discourse (which desires not to expatiate, nor to suppose the Reader to have renoun∣ced
his Christianity wholly) shal confine it self to these two heads: First, the Testimony on which Christianity is built: Secondly, The advantages that those, which embrace it, shall reap by it. The first will render the belief rationall, and conclude it impious to doubt of it. The second will render the belief gainful, and conclude it most uncharitable to our selves, yea, and unsafe, and treacherous not to adhere to it. The first will pronounce it, with the Apostle, a faithful saying; the second, worthy of all accepta∣tion. The first will reconcile it to our brains, the second to our hearts: The first will give it possession of our understandings; the second will ravish our wills with the beauty and luster of it.
[Sect. 2] The Testimony on which we beleive Christianity, i. e. on which we beleive that Christ was sent from God, to reveal his Fathers will unto us, and to be beleived in all that he delivered to the World, (which, when it is beleived, it necessarily follows, that all and every part of Christian Religion is infallibly true, and capable of no farther doubting) is the most important, and con∣vincing of beleif, or faith, which can be imagined.
[Sect. 3] For if the Apostle had not said it, it is yet in it self most evi∣dent to common sense, That Faith commeth by hearing, i. e. that I cannot believe any thing to be true on any better, nay on any other ground, but onely that I hear it thus affirmed: And as the affirmation is, such is the belief: If the affirmation be from a fallible person, from a meer man, the belief must be a fallible belief, but if the person affirming be infallible, then is the beliefe in∣fallible also.
[Sect. 4] That infallible affirmer is but one, viz. God, of whose nature it is, to be veracious, to be able to do any thing, but to lie, which was also affirmed by Christ out of the Principles of com∣mon nature. Let God be true, and every man a lier, i. e. though no infallibility of testimony can be attributed to any meer man, yet whatsoever is testified by God, doth certainly deserve to be fully credited.
[Sect. 5] And therefore if God shall testifie the truth of any thing, there can be no farther scruple or possibility of doubting, or sus∣pecting the truth of what is so testified, then there is actuall doubt, whether the God of Heaven be God, or whether the God of truth,
be the father of lies: which as it is a degree above the denying of Christ, and above the infidelity either of the Jew, or Maheme∣tane, or even of Heathenism it self, in that notion, wherein it signifies the a 1.2 acknowledgment of more gods then one, (for all that have adoted any deity, have acknowledged that God, or gods to b 1.3 speak nothing but truth) so is the pretending to it peculiar to very few since the beginning of the World. There being not many that appear in story to have affirmed that there is no God at all, and those not able to perswade others, that they did believe themselves when they so af∣firmed.
[Sect. 6] Now this affirmation or testisication of God, that Christ was sent from him, to declare his will to us, &c. (upon which being once supposed, the truth of all Christian Religion truly so called, is immediately and infallibly founded) hath more then one way been authentically interposed. Such are the many repeated testimonies of the Prophets in the Old Testament (which finding a perfect completion in Christ, and none but Christ, do amount to a divine testimony.) Such was the coming of the Angel to Mary the Mother of Christ, and to Elizabeth the Mother of Iohn Baptist, in the New Testament; as also the Star which lighted the wise men of the East unto him. (and of which the * 1.4 Hea∣thens themselves have affirmed, not onely that it was an especial Star, that never before appeared in the Heaven, but also that it had a portentous significancy, pointing at the descent of a venerable God, for the sal∣vation of men, and the good of Mortals) So again that of the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles, which are another kinde of Gods speaking to us in men, and upon Earth (particularly that of raising the dead) and are by the Apostles styled, what in reason they are, demonstrations, Acts 2. 22. and testi∣fications of God himselfe, Heb. 2. 4. But above all his own Resurrection out of the Grave, after he had been Crucified by them. God by thus raising him is said (most truly according to the dictates of rea∣son) to have a 1.5 given to all men Faith, i. e. an argument of full conviction, that he was what he pretended to be, and so
to g 1.6 set him out as the person to be believed on, h 1.7 being powerfully and determinately pointed out, by that great act, to be the Son of God. But because all of these would much lengthen this discourse above the designed proportion, and because each of them are largely insisted on by others, and because no testimony is ordi∣narily deemed more Authentick, then that of audible voice, I shall therefore choose principally to insist on that one ordinary way of Gods testifying to men, known to the Jews by the title of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the daughter of voice, or of thunder, i. e. a revelation from Heaven, delivered in (or coming out of the midst of) thun∣der, which, say the Jews, was the speciall way of Gods revealing himself under the second Temple.
[Sect. 7] And by this God three times gave testimony to Christ. First, im∣mediately after his Baptism, Behold, the Heavens were opened to him, i. e. visibly and miraculously parted asunder, and he, i. e. John that baptized him, saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove, and com∣ing upon him, i. e. descending, as a Dove descends upon any thing, visibly hovering, & lightning on them, And behold, a voice out of the Heavens saying, i. e. as the Heavens parted asunder, a clap of thun∣der came out, and with it a voice delivering these words, This is my beloved Sonne, in whom I am well pleased, i. e. this is my Son, whom I have sent, his comming to the world, and his undertaking is perfectly agreeable to, and hath its original wholly from my wil: From which testimony of Gods, it is consequent, That what∣soever he teaches, comes from God, and is to be embraced, as that which is perfectly his Will, and Law. And it is observable that in one of the old prophecies of the Messiah, where it is fore-told, that Gods Spirit should descend upon him, it is affirmed almost in the very words, which were here said to come out of the thun∣der, that this was Gods beloved, in whom his soul (i. e. he) was well pleased.
[Sect. 8] So again a second time, in the presence of three sober men (which was the number, by which the weightiest matters were authentically testified) Peter, and James, and John, be∣ing all with him in a mountain, Behold, a lightsom cloud over∣shadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: Hear him. Giving an unquestioned authority to all, that should ever come from him after.
[Sect. 9] Thirdly, At a time, not long before his death, when he was a praying to his Father, to glorifie his Name, A voice came frō Hea∣ven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorifie it again. And of them that stood by, some said that it thundred, others, that it was an Angel that spake to him: From both which, it is easily concluded, That God, whether by, or without the Ministery of an Angel, was heard to speak to him out of the Thunder.
[Sect. 10] What was thus done personally to Christ, was with some small variation promised, (and so by John Baptist first foretold) that it should be performed (after his departure) to his Apostles, or Disciples, who were to preach his Doctrine, and what they knew of him, after his going out of this world; and accordingly, in the very manner which was fore-told, it came to pass, as all other things foretold by him, did punctually follow. For as they were all together; there was suddenly a noise from Heaven, as of a violent wind, and filled the whole house where they sate. And so this (styled the i 1.8 Baptizing them with the Holy Ghost, i. e. Receiving them with a far higher Ceremony then that of Baptism, viz. with a shining glorious descent of the Spirit of God upon them) did at once give them their Commission from Heaven, and was a testimony of God himself, That what they should teach from Christ, was the very doctrine, which God required to be embraced by the World.
[Sect. 11] And of this sort there was yet farther one most eminent pas∣sage. A known and eminent Jew, one Saul, who by his Sect (a Pharisee) and by his extraordinary warmth, and zeal to the Jewish Law, in opposition to Christianity, had interessed himself profestly in the persecuting of it, had a principall hand in the put∣ting St. Stephen to death (as appears by the witnesses, laying their garments at his feet, Acts 7. 58.) and was engaged in a most vehe∣ment, bloody designe against the Christians in Damascus, and ha∣ving gotten Letters of Commission from the High Priest to that purpose, Acts 9. 1. was now very rageful upon his way thither; This man thus breathing out threatnings, and slaughters against the Church, and as he was close to Damascus, his journeys end, on a sudden a light from Heaven shone about him, like lightning flashing about his ears; and falling to the ground, by that means he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? In words so convincingly delivered, that he knew assuredly, that it was God, that by an Angel thus appeared, and spake to him; and thereupon he gave answer immediately, Who art thou Lord? The voice replyed, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, with the addition of other words, which struck him into such a horror, that immediately trembling, and in agony of Passion, He said, Lord what wilt thou have me to do? And was again an∣swered, what he shold do, Go unto the City, and there he should receive particular Directions. Which accordingly happened, and this person became immediately a prime Apostle, or Preacher of Christianity. This thing was not done privately, but every cir∣cumstance of the story was publickly known at that time; his Letters from the High Priest were known to the Sanhedrin; and before he came to Damascus, the news of them was come thither, so far, that Ananias a Christian there, that in a vision from God was bid to go to him in such a house, made this ob∣jection against obeying the command, That this was the man, that had done so much mischief, and was now come with such a Commission to apprehend all that profest the worship of Christ in that place. And besides, there was company with him on the way, when the prodigy befel him, and all they heard the voice, and saw no body, Vers. 7. 'Tis true indeed, that in one relation of that passage, Acts 22. 9. it is said, That they heard not the voice. But that (as all other seeming contradictions of the Scripture) is easily salved by observing, that the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Hebrew, which signifies a voice, signifies thunder also, as Hebr. 12. 26. Whose voice, i. e. Thunder shaketh the earth, and so very often. And so where it is said, That they heard the voice, the sense is, That they heard the thunder, which was joyned with the lightning that flasht about him; and when it is said, They heard not the voice, it is exprest in the place, what is meant by it, They heard not the voice of him that spake to him, i. e. The voice of Christ immediately appearing from Heaven, and calling unto him, Saul, Saul, &c. but onely saw the lightning, and heard the thunder: but what was said to him, he onely heard that was concerned in it, but by the effects, his answers, and consequent change, they easily discerned that also, though they heard it not. This story did this man alwaies avow as a notorious Truth, whensoever he
was called in question by Jews or Romans, for Preaching Christ; and there was never any question made of the truth of it: And this went for his Commission to be an Apostle of Christ; and he never sought for any other: And after doing more service in the Church, then all the rest of Christs own (regularly chosen, and designed) Apostles, he at last laid down his life for the testimony of that Truth, which before this he had so sharply persecuted.
[Sect. 12] This is not all yet; for at the beginning of the diffusion of the Gospel to the Gentile World, and for the declaring of Gods Will in that particular, there was not onely a vision to Cornelius, and an extasie, and an audible voyce from Heaven to Saint Peter, in these words, Arise Peter, kill and eat, (the obscurity of which words, and of the representation, to which they belonged, was presently interpreted by the effect.) But beyond both these, it follows, That at the Preaching of Peter to Cornelius, and the rest of his company of Gentile believers, the Holy Ghost fell on all that heard the Word, i. e. probably came down upon them in some way of visible appearance, (the like a 1.9 as before had befaln the Apostles,) or if not so, yet in such manner, as evidenced it self by giving them power of speak∣ing strange languages, and other gifts, and graces, sitting them for several conditions in the Church: And this was seen by the Jews, that were very far from being inclinable to believe such a thing of Gentiles, and being convinced by the evidence, b 1.10 were astonished at it, rapt with admiration at the strangeness, but no way doubting the truth of it: And it so fell out, that Peter afterwards being called in question by other Jews, for what he had then done in Preaching to Gentiles, (which they thought utterly unlawful) by this relation of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon those Gentiles, c 1.11 he satisfied them; which sure he could not have done, if there had remained any doubt of the truth of it. And the same fell out again to the Ephesian Disciples, and the truth that it did so, was evidenced, by their speaking all strange languages (which they had never learned) and prophecying. Two gifts, which were so constant consequents of that coming of the Holy Ghost on any, that they testified it convincingly to those, that had no evidence of the fact.
[Sect. 13] The propriety of this descent to this turn, and to that other grand one of giving Commissions (and authorizing, and so testifying the truth of all that should be taught by them, on whom the Spirit thus descended) may perhaps be better understood, by remem∣bring the customs appointed by God among the Jews. Those that were, among them, called to be Prophets out of their Schools, were assumed, and consecrated to it by anointing, (a ceremony of ad∣vancing to some eminent office; and therefore the Chaldee Para∣phrase for unction, reads ordinarily 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 advancement.) Now for many yeers, before this coming of Christ, Prophecy had failed among the Jews: Under the second Temple, say they, there was no Oyl, nor any a 1.12 way of Revelation, save only that of the voice from Heaven. Now therefore when God was thus pleased to send His Son, to reveal his compleat Will unto the World, and from him to continue the same, by his Apostles, and others after him; in stead of that solemn Cere∣mony of Ʋnction, is this visible descent of the Holy Ghost on him, and on them, in a shining fiery cloud, and with it these words of consecration to Christ, This is my Beloved Son, &c. and in lieu of that voice, the gift of Tongues, to the Apostles, and others. This was foretold by one of the Jewish Prophets long before, That the Lord should anoint him to Preach, and that the Spirit of the Lord should be upon him, i. e. that he should be anointed, i. e. or∣dained to this office of Preaching Gods Will, not by material oyl, but spiritual unction, by the real descent of the Spirit of God up∣on him. And accordingly one of his Disciples, Saint John, being to confute a sort of Antichristian Hereticks of his time, which denied Christ to be come really in the flesh, useth no other Argument (to fortifie them, to whom he writes) but onely the mention of this Testimony from Heaven, this descent on Christ and the Apostles, and others, who had instructed them in Christianity; which he vails under the title of the Ʋnction, viz. that unction vulgarly known among them by that name; the unction from the holy One, as he calls it, i. e. from God in Heaven, * 1.13 by which (as by their Teachers it had been communicated to
them) they knew all things (i. e. were sure that the Doctrine they had been taught, was true) and needed not to be taught by any, i. e. wanted no more Arguments to confirm this truth unto them: That unction, as he farther addes, teaching them of all, i. e. giving them sufficient instructions in that matter, and in all other such fundamental truthes of the Christian Doctrine, testified to them by those who had been thus anointed immediately from Heaven, authorised to teach them Truth: This same again, as far as con∣cerned Christ, is by another a 1.14 Evangelical writer joyned with his working of Miracles, and called Gods anointing him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, (as in b 1.15 another place Gods anointing him, alone) which is directly the same with that other phrase used by Saint Paul, the c 1.16 demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, the descent of the Spirit, and working of Miracles: The two things, which he urged to the Jews or Heathens, wheresoever he preach∣ed, (as things, which he was sure, they could no more contradict, then demonstrations themselves, there being so many then alive, that could witness the truth of them.) In which respect, he after tells them, of Gods having confirmed them into Christ, and an∣ointed and sealed them, all in the same sense, to signifie Gods having afforded them these convincing testimonies of the truth of Christi∣anity, preached to them by those, on whom the Holy Ghost had descended and who wrought Miracles among them.
[Sect. 14] That this was a very competent confirmation of the Doctrine of Christ, may yet farther appear by considering, first the persons to whom this was to be done, the then Church of God, the people of the Jews, which were acquainted with his voices, and his Pro∣phets, and his Oeconomies formerly among them: Secondly, the matter that was thus to be confirmed, no greater change, then to which this way of attestation may in reason be deemed abun∣dantly proportionable. For the things to be beleived, onely the real completion of some things, which had been before foretold, and the revealing some truths, which had been more obscurely represented in the Old Testament; and then those, how high and mysterious soever, yet being clearly revealed by Christ, and the A∣postles in the New, and the explicit belief of them, no further re∣quired of any, then in proportion to the degree of the revelation of them, the revealing of them must be looked on, as the satisfy∣ing
of an appetite, a desire of more knowledg (which is naturally in all men, and is sharpened by the having received some imperfect rayes of it) and consequently should not in reason be expected to be attested with such a pomp of signes, and prodigies, as impo∣sitions of tasks, and exactings of obediences are wont to be. Then for the things to be done in Christianity, the duties and observan∣ces; It is again considerable, that the change in that respect was not such, as would denominate it a new Religion, but onely the re∣forming and perfecting that which was before received among the Jews, and the making it more tolerable and easie to be received by other parts of the (Gentile) World. The worship of the one true God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, (contrary to the false worships of the many gods, and idols of the Heathens, and to all the unnatural lusts attending them) had been sufficiently testified to the Nation of the Jews, by many voices from Heaven, and undeniable attestations of God himself (and indeed to other Nations by the fearful, miraculous judgments, shewn in Egypt, and on the Cana∣anites, under the conduct of Moses, and Joshuah, &c.) and by Gods continual residing among that people, and his attesting that by the Ʋrim and Thummim. by the several Prophets sent by him, and the other ways of revelations. And to those that granted all this, it was foretold (so often that no Jew doubted of it) that there should come days of Reformation, that there should come a Messias. This was long ago promised through all passages of their story; to Adam under the title of the Seed of the woman; to Sem, that God should dwell or pitch his tabernacle in the Tents of Sem, take flesh upon him in his family; to Abraham, to Judah, to David, and all along through the writings of their Prophets: Concerning this Messias, their carnal hearts had pre-conceived some mistakes, as that he should be a glorious King here, and make them again, (after their being subdued by the Romans) a most victorious, glorious people on Earth, and this, howsoever they demean'd themselves, onely by the priviledg of having A∣braham (to whom great promises were made) to their father. At last this Messias (otherwise described by their Prophets, as one that should come in a mean and lowly manner, no way desireable to the eye of the world, Isa. 53.) comes just as he had been fore-told, a forerunner being sent before him, on purpose to prepare
his way, to dispossess them of their fond perswasions of their ab∣solute election (by having Abraham to their father) and pointing him out particularly as the Son of God, the Messias that was now to be received (as he had been so greedily, and so long expected) by them. This forerunner, that thus foretold, and after pointed him out, was (as they, that crucified Christ, confess) by all the * 1.17 Jews taken for a Prophet. And moreover to this testimony of this acknowledged Prophet, comes in the addition of the miracu∣lous descent of the holy Spirit, and the voice from Heaven, and all that hath been mentioned consequent to that. And to those, among whom this had always been acknowledged an authentick way of attesting Gods will, nothing could be more required but this; Christ then (or God himself in humane nature, assumed of a virgin, and born after a supernatural manner) when he came to thirty yeers old (the age of a Doctor among that people) sets to this business, which it was foretold he should perform, tells them how the former law was to be reformed, (and especially their former lives, from external observances to internall purities) and how to be filled up, and perfected in some particulars; and then lightly changes some ceremonies customary among them, and accommodates them to present use, removes the wall of di∣vision, which had been between them, and all the rest of the world, shews them, that that was meant onely to keep them from imitating the Heathens sins, and now that there was more need that Heathens, and they should love one another, and joyn to reform both their lives, and practice Christian virtues, then keep that supercilious distance from one another; and in a word, he brings the whole matter to such a model, as all other men, but the Jews, like extremely better, then that which was be∣fore among them, and consequently, come in, in sholes, at the preaching of it: And the Jews, that doe not so, acknow∣ledg the onely reason why they do not, to be their zeal to their law of outward performances, and the perswasion of their absolute election, that is, in effect, that they had no other quar∣rel to him, but onely that he did not teach the doctrines that they liked, and were before imbued with, which if he had, he had by that very means done contrary to the prophecies by them allowed of, which foretold he should work a reformation.
Upon these unreasonable terms, they crucifie him: And by their doing so, more wonderful attestations yet are given to all this. In his very death the Sun is miraculously eclipsed▪ at a time of the Moon, when by nature it was absolutely impossible, and so far against all rules of Astronomy, that learned men in other places took notice of it to be a violence done to nature, which must sig∣nifie some great matter. Then a prodigy befalls the Temple, and that a very significant one. Then the bodies of many dead men a∣rise and go to Jerusalem, and are seen by many. But above all, he himself riseth from the dead, and Angels again are sent to give no∣tice of it: And those that at his death had feared themselves de∣luded (as adversity is a great temptation, and by Christ himself, foretold to be so) are every one of them confirmed by seeing, touch∣ing, talking with him: And what is seen, and testified by them, was seen also by five hundred persons at once, which lived many years to attest the truth to all that doubted it; And at length (which was the must immediate testification of the truth of all the former) he is bodily and visibly taken up into Heaven, before their eyes.
[Sect. 15] When that was done, there was but one imaginable method behinde, that, according as he had promised, while he was upon Earth, he should, being himself departed, send the Paraclet, which by descending visibly upon the Apostles, and by enduing them with the gift of doing Miracles, and of speaking of all Languages, which they were known never to have learnt, should enable them to convince the World, by the testimony of Christs Resurre∣ction, and Ascention, and destroying of Satan by his death (the most improbable means of working victories) that he was the Messias foretold, that Seed of the Woman, that should break the Serpents head. On strength of this, they which so lately doubted, now cheerfully lay down their lives, in testifying of all these truths: And those Jews that did not yet believe on him, were according to his distinct predictions, many times repeated, (they, their Temple, in which they trusted, their City, their whole Nation, and infinite multitudes of them, wheresoever they were found) most stupendiously destroyed by the Roman Eagles or Legions. All this (thus hastily put together, so as necessarily to omit many weighty circumstances under every head) is sure
prodigy enough to attest, and authorize no greater a change, then the clearer Revelation of some obscurer truths, the confutation of some false Doctrines, and the Reformation of some ceremonies, and the perfecting and heightning of some Laws less perfect before, and the instituting of a few useful ceremonies in stead of many burthensome ones, can be thought to amount to.
[Sect. 16] This first gound of beleiving Christianity being thus menti∣oned, is not capable of any dispute from any reasonable man, unless from him which shall question, whether this be not fabulous in the relation, i. e. whether first there were ever indeed heard such voi∣ces, or secondly, whether they were not delusions of the hearers, or at least the voice of some other, and not of God. And to him that shall make the former scruple, I shall be able to give as sa∣tisfactory an answer, as is possible to be given, of a matter of this nature, of any the lightest or weightiest consequence: To a matter of this nature, I say, i. e. of a matter of fact, (for such it must needs be, that such a voice was heard from Heaven) and that fact past so many hundred yeers ago: For first, that fact was of necessity to be confined to some determinate time and place, to be done somewhere, and why not in Judaea, where it is said to be done? to be seen by some particular men, and by them of ne∣cessity (if it were to be known) to be attested to others; nay, if it had been done so as to be heard, and seen by the whole World then living, (though that this should point out that one person Jesus, would not be well reconcileable with that, because his body could not be in every place) yet could not the next Age come to know this, but must be forced to make use of the attestation of men of that Age to reveal it to them, and so proceed by the very way that now is allowed us, that of faith or beleiving. For secondlly, should there at this hour come the like voice from Heaven, in the hearing of any the most creditable honest men of this Age, what way would be expected to convince the Ages to come (who should not be present to hear it) of the truth of this, but by the constant affirmation of those, who are now ear-witnesses of it, and by their committing all this to writing now, so that all that should now live, and suspect, or beleive it a forgery, might be able to exa∣mine and discover the truth of it; especially, if to that they should joyn the doing of the greatest Miracles, which coming onely
from God, cannot be conceived to be by him allowed to assist the bringing a lie into the World.
[Sect. 17] Beyond such testimony of eye, or ear-witnesses thus publickly and authoritatively protested, and conveighed to posterity, there is no rational evidence imaginable, for those that lived not in that age; nor doe men at any time exact or require any more authentick proofe of matters of fact, or ground of believing any thing. For as to the voice of God again from Heaven, (which alone can pretend to be above this) this is not at all commodious to this turn; for this were for God to multiply prodigies, impro∣perly and unseasonably, 'tis sure unnecessarily, and to all that were not present, this would be again as questionable as the former.
[Sect. 18] For the testifying an high important truth, which cannot otherwise be known, God hath been pleased thus personally to in∣terpose his own power, and authority, and to speak from Heaven, yea, and to repeat that again and again, that there may no matter of doubt remain concerning it: But when that hath been thus done by God sufficiently, then are there sufficient humane means to convey the truth or history of this fact to other men, viz. the testimony of those, that saw or heard it. And as it were ridicu∣lous to suppose, or expect from God, that he should testifie from Heaven, that such men did hear that former voice from Heaven, so the same Law of God, and Nature, which forbids lying, as sinful, forbids also incredulity, as irrational, when a thing is by unsuspected witnesses, upon certain knowledg, with so many im∣provements and advantages, thus sufficiently testified: And if God upon mans several incredulities, should be still obliged to give witness to his truths by his own voice, then should he cut off that rule for beleif, which in all other things (agreeably to the dictates of reasonable nature) he hath made standing among men. And in this case to require any higher testimony, were the same incon∣venient absurdity, as not to beleive any thing upon any other ground, then that of sight (which is indeed to mistake knowledg for beleif, or evidence for adherence, and must necessarily leave nothing of virtue rewardable in that Faith, which is so violently and unavoidably produced) or to expect a voice from Heaven to give me daily assurance of all the passages, or relations of history,
and not to beleive that there was such a man as Alexander, or Caesar, or William the Conqueror, or Elizabeth the late (but before our birth) Queen of this Kingdom, unless some voice of God from Heaven attest it to me.
[Sect. 19] They that cannot beleive at any cheaper rate, then of a new minuitly prodigy from Heaven, for every act of beleiving a pro∣digy from Heaven, or (more plainly) they that will not beleive any thing, but what they know, must be fed also as well as taught by miracle, or else must be obliged to abstinence (greater then any man inflicts upon himself) by continuing constant to that princi∣ple. For no man hath demonstration, or infallibility, or evidence, for his safety in any bit of meat, that he eats, or the firmness of any floor he stands on; it being always possible, that what doth most nourish, and sustain, might by some poysonous mixture, smite and destroy; that the roof that covers, and protects, might mi∣nuitly overwhelm and bury us; yet are we not such Hypochondriacks in these matters of daily use, (and in them that are▪ it is interpre∣ted an eminent defect, or decay of reason, and not an higher pitch of it) as to deprive our selves of the benefit of food and raymen, upon consideration of these remote possible dangers, nor to fear all things but what we know infallibly.
[Sect. 20] And if it shall be said that eating is necessary for the preser∣vation of life, and that that consideration makes it reasonable to trust on those grounds, because by distrusting, we should subject our selves to a certainly of that, whereof the other is at most but an hazard; I answer, First, that this instance was produced onely to shew, that we think it reasonable, without fear, or doubt, to relie on some things, for which we have no demonstration, or knowledg of the impossibility of the contrary, and that is still proved by this instance, though it be granted, that eating is neces∣sary; because if the necessity of eating were the cause that made men venture that hazard, they should never venture it, till they were necessarily to starve without it; and when they did so, they should do it with continual doubt, and fear of the possible danger; neither of which are thought rational, nor practised by conside∣ring men. And secondly, the interpretation of [being fed] in the instance, was [the whole course of men in feeding] which is not the proportioning of food to the necessities of life, or the Lessian
or Cornarian diet, but the free manner of feeding among men, such as wa parallel'd to the standing on a floor, that might possibly fall, that is, being in an upper room; which being not at all necessary to life, and withall possible in nature that it shall minuitly be our death, is yet made use of among all Wise men, with as much confidence, and fearlesness, as it is expected of us, that we should beleive the Gospel.
[Sect. 21] This may be enlarged to the severall businesses of the World, wherein all men act most confidently; to that of Trafficking, and Trading, and all kindes of Merchandizing, which are really mixt with not improbable hazards; the whole life of the husband∣man, is a continual example of those, that think fit to adhere, and beleive, and act accordingly, without having received any demon∣stration. And none of all these are ever counted irrational, even by those who have fixed no thoughts beyond this life, and the thriving, and prospering in it, and who consequently are to lose their chief, and onely good, if it should miscarry, and who in all things of that nature are generally as rational, and wary, and hard to beleive without securities, as the wisest men in the World.
[Sect. 22] And if we will in the business in hand (the beleiving of the Apostles relations concerning those Testimonies given Christ from Heaven, wherein we have infinitely stronger grounds, to build our Faith on, securities, and convictions incomparably more pregnant and vehement) allow it reasonable for us to do that once, which in all other things we do confidently every minuit of our lives, viz. beleive, what we have all reason to beleive, without exacting of evidence or demonstration, there will be no more re∣quired of us in this matter.
[Sect. 23] That this is directly the case in hand, and over and above this, that the testifying of the Gospel hath all imaginable advantages, wil appear by a bare application of the particulars.
[Sect. 24] The voices from Heaven concerning Christ, are testified by the joynt-concurrence of all that were present at them, no one finding any cause of scruple, or interposing any doubt concerning them. Those very persons with the addition of many more, are allowed the favor of seeing him after his Resurrection, of using all the most infallible means of securing themselves and others
of the reality of this. Being thus assured, they make it the business of their whole lives after to communicate it to others, some in writings, all in preaching through all parts of the World, (whither they travelled on purpose to propagate this truth) agreeing in the whole matter of story, and in every circum∣stance of it. The truth of what they say, they again back with Miracles on one side, with completion of predictions, both of the Prophets of old concerning Christ, and of Christ, concerning them, and the succeeding Ages, (especially that concerning his speedy coming in vengeance against his crucifiers) on the other side: Both, Testimonies of God, to authorize their testimonies. In propagating this doctrine, as they use not strength, or force, which hath been the engine by which all other Religions have received their growth, so they never endevour to disturb States or Go∣vernments, for (or by) the planting this Doctrine, but always Preach subjection to the powers, which are any where established, and without all resistance, Profess (and by their actions demon∣strate) themselves obliged to suffer, whatsoever their lawfull Magistrates inflict on them, and contend only with their prayers to God, that they may live quietly and peaceably under them, ha∣ving still their cross in their hands, and many times on their shoulders, to follow Christ. And if this were not sufficient to pre∣vent, or to satisfie the jealousies of Heathen Princes, yet, upon that very account, it is the greater testimony of the truth of their Doctrine, when they that propagate it, are so far from design∣ing any temporal advantages to themselves, which might bribe them to the deposing an untruth, that they actually part with their very lives; and consequently with all capacity of those possible advantages, and acquire nothing but reproches, and torments and death it self; and all this without any other imaginable reward, or payment, in commutation, or reparation for all this, save only the future expectation of that, for which they yet had no farther assu∣rance, then the truth of that, which they thus confest; nay yet far∣ther, when they have given this costly testimony to this truth, God again bears testimony to them, and by Miracles wrought at their Monuments, being dead, they yet speak.
[Sect. 24] That all this is thus true, is again it self testified, not onely by records still extant under their hands, who wrote the Gospels,
and the Acts, and by footsteps and remainders of all others preach∣ing, wheresoever they taught, but also by the like consent of the whole Church, i. e. whole multitudes of that age, wherein this is pretended to be written and taught, who being convinced with the truth of what we now enquire after, readily gave up their names to the belief of it, and to the consequent confession of Christ, though the doing it, did in like manner cost them very dear, the parting with their espoused customs of livings, whether among the Jewish, or Gentile world, their pleasures, their worldly wealth, and oft-times their lives also.
[Sect. 26] Beyond all this, the success which attended it, had so much of strangeness in it (viz. that from such mean and simple be∣ginnings and instruments, without any kind of power, or earthly authority to back it, without one sword ever drawn in defence of it, Christianity should soon obtain such a victory over the heart of men, in so great a part of the world) that nothing but truth, which hath that over-ruling force in it, can be deemed to have been its Champion.
[Sect. 27] Lastly, that these are the writings, those the tradition of those eye-witnesses, whose they pretend to be, and that they were by such sholes, such multitudes of men of all Nations believed then, and that belief signed by the blood of many, by the hazards and adventures of most, by the profest non-resistance of all, this is as fully testified to us, as any matter of fact can be supposed to be, by the concurrent testimonies of all of that age, which say any thing of it, and by a generall successive attestation of all in∣tervening ages, since that time, (the authority of * 1.18 those wri∣tings being never contested by any) i. e. by the same means of probation, upon which we believe those things, which we least doubt of, and against which men cannot feigne any sound, or shew of proof, save onely that testimonies are not demonstrati∣ons; which exception will in like manner be in a like or far greater force against all other things, which we believe most con∣fidently.
[Sect. 28] I am not willing to leave any possible scruple unsatisfied in this matter, and therefore I shall proceed to that other bolder ob∣jection still behind, That that which is pretended to be the voice of God, may not have been such, but some delusion of the hearers, or at least the voice of some other, and not of God, as the de∣vil in the oracle delivered himself by voice; and therefore though it be confest, that if this voice were Gods, it is infallibly credit∣able, yet there will need some certain way of discrimination, to assure it was his. To this I answer, That the person whose ob∣jection this may be supposed to be, is either a bare Theist, that acknowledges a God, but not the God of Israel; or else he that acknowledges what the Jew did, the truth of the Old Testament: I shall reply somewhat to each of these.
[Sect. 29] To the former, That if this way of objecting would be of force, there could be no way for God to reveal himself to man, Veracity would be an empty attribute of God, of no signification to us; For it is not imaginable that there should any greater assurance of Gods speaking to men, then by the Heavens open∣ing, and from thence the Spirit of God descending visibly, and lighting on one, and out of the clouds a voice delivered; what∣soever else can be imagined or named will not be above this. And if all the ways that God can use, be not able to give assurance, that it is God that speaks, what are we the neer for knowing that God cannot lie, as long as there is supposed for us no way to know, what at any time he saith? nay, to what use (as to this particular) is his omnipotence, if he cannot reveal himself to us in such a way, that may be reasonable for us to believe to be his, and not some deceivers voice? Nay, in this, God shall not be able to doe so much, as any ordinary man; for he can so reveal him∣self, or speak, as no man that is present, and doth not stop his ears, shall be able to doubt of his speaking.
[Sect. 30] To the second sort of objecters, I answer, That the objection will lose all its seeming force, if it be remembred; that although now among us, voices from Heaven, are not heard, and (therefore we are not at this distance so competent judges of the clearness or certainty, that such, when they were, were not delusions, and accordingly the assent required of us of this age, is but proportio∣nable to the grounds of belief, which we enjoy) yet among that
people of the Jewes, this was very ordinary. Gods Law was given to Moses in that manner, and God lead that people by a pillar of cloud, and fire, which was answerable to this: And in after times under the second Temple, they confess this the onely way of Gods revealing himself to them. And therefore in this very matter it was allowed, and pleaded by some prime men of that people, that if the Spirit, or an Angel had spoken to Paul, the re∣sisting him would be a fighting against God: And thereupon, Acts 23. 9. they confessed, that they found no harm in him; that God had thus spoken to him, those men then thought probable, but did not avow the knowing it certainly, having no present evi∣dence of the fact, save onely the affirmation of Paul himself at that time. But had they had evidence of the fact, by being pre∣sent at it, (as they that testifie the voice to Christ, were eye and ear-witnesses of it) they would not then have thought reasonable to make any farther question, whether that, which they call the voice of the Spirit, or an Angel, were such or no, and being such, whether the resisting what was spoken by it, were the fighting against God. For the testifying therefore of the truth of such pretended facts; and indeed to leave no place for rational doubt in this matter, there is yet a farther answer, That the power of miracles, and the gifts of tongues that attended these voices, and descents of the Holy Ghost from Heaven, were irrefragable testi∣monies, and evidences of the reality of them, and could not be the immediate effects of delusions, being such as could not be wrought by the power of the devil, nor ever were pretended the effects of his oracular responses.
[Sect. 31] Many other ways of discrimination there are, by which the voices of the devil, or delusions magical might be distinguished from Divine, as that of concordance with predictions, acknow∣ledged to have come from God; and such was the voice that was delivered at the descent of the Spirit upon Christ, the same that was foretold by the Prophet, and by him joyned with the mention of the descent of Gods Spirit upon him. And to the same belongs also the completion of the so many other things in him, which had certainly been foretold of the Messias, which Concordance with Divine truth, is most diametrically contrary to delusion. And besides, of the miracles which he did, most were to dispossess,
and cast out divels, (to restore health, as they brought diseases) who consequently look on him as (and proclaim him) their enemy; and although this may be thought to be done by them for some greater advantage (as the Devil may suffer one charm to counter-work another,) yet could they not here be thought to have used those endevours to raise Christ into that power of destroying them, or to assist their utmost, to give him an authority in the world. Indeed the whole doctrine of Christ was so di∣rectly contrary to that, which had been maintained by the Oracles, that it cannot be imagined to proceed from that principle, to which they pretend. And the story is approved by Plutarch (and the effect hath made it not improbable, that there was some truth in it) that about Christs time, a voice was heard on the Sea, that the great God Pan was dead, and an huge bellowing, and roaring, as of infernal mourners, following it; and that this was probably the cause, acknowledgedly the forerunner of the Devils silence, and never speaking in the Oracles any more.
[Sect. 32] As for the manner of the Devils giving his Responses in the Oracle, it is confest by all, that then lived, and knew them, that they were delivered constantly by a man, who was seen, when he did it, and was called the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, one that spake under the Oracle, out of the caverns of the Earth, (by the vapor of which Plutarch conceived him inspired, and so turned Enthusiast) which is a far different thing from a voice (no man being seen) which came in a clap of thunder, with a bright shining cloud from Hea∣ven. This may reasonably satisfie the importunity of that ob∣jection also.
[Sect. 33] And so much for the first part of the ground of our Faith in gross, the testimony on which it is built, which being an infallible word, derived and conveyed to us by the most creditable means, and which we have no temptation from Reason to doubt of, may sure be concluded a rationall ground of belief.
H. Grotius, and Phil. Mor∣ney du Pleisse, &c.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
Est quoque alia vencra∣bilior & sanctior historia, que perhibet ortu stellae cu∣jusdam insolitae non mor∣bos morésque prae untiatos, sed desiensum Dei venera∣bilis ad humanae servati∣onis (without question 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Greek, though that be not extant) rerumque mor∣ialium gratiam, quam à Chal∣dais observatam suisse testan∣tur, qui Deum super natum mor eribus venerati sunt. Calci∣dius in Plat. Timaeum, p. 219.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Acts 17. 31.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 1 Pet. 1. 21.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Rom. 1. 4.
Acts 1. 5.
Acts 10. 44. See Acts 15. 8. & 11. 15. &. 17.
Vers. 45.
Acts 11. 15. & 18 Acts 19. 6.
Gradus Revelationis Divinae quatuor, Nesuah prophetia per visio∣nem, & spectra. Ruach Hacadosh, afflatus Spiritus Sancti, qui erat sinc istis, ut in David, &c. Urim & Tummim in pectorali judicii (splēde∣scentia pectoralis, seu Hoschen prae∣nuntians Judaeis victoriam, quod cessavit splendescere. An. 200. an∣tequam ego scriberem, inquit Jo∣sephus, cum Deus irasceretur ob transgressiones Legum, vid. Suid. in voce Ephod) & Bath Col. i. e. vox coelitus audita, & haec ultima erat sub templo secundo, &c. vid. P. Fagi∣um in Targum Pentat. Exod.
1 John 2.
Acts 10. 38.
Acts 4. 27.
Cor. 2. 4.
Matth. 21. 26.
Among the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the confest wri∣tings of Scrip∣tures, attested by all, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 contradicted by any, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The four Gospels are first to be placed, and then the story of the Acts of the Apostles.