Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

RULE 2. A Conscience that is at first, and in its own nature probable, may be made certain by accumulation of many probabilities operating the same perswa∣sion.

EVery probable argument hath in it something of perswasion and proof,* 1.1 and although it cannot produce evidence and intire conviction to a wise and a discerning spirit, yet it can effect all that it ought; and although, if the Will list, or if passions rule, the understanding shall be made stubborn against it, and reject it easily; yet if nothing be put in barre against it, it may bring a man to adhere to it beyond the evidence. But in some cases there are a whole army of little people, heaps of probable inducements which the understanding amas∣ses together, and from every side gathers all that can give light and motion to

the article in question, it draws auxiliaries from every thing, fights with every weapon, and by all means pursues the victory; it joyns line to line, and pre∣cept to precept, reason to reason, and reason to authority; the sayings of wise men with the proverbs of the people; consent of talkers, and the arguings of disputers; the nature of the thing, and the reasonableness of its expectations; the capacities and possibilities of men, and of accidents; the purposes and de∣signs, the usefulness, and rewards; and by what all agents are and ought to be moved; customes are mingled with laws, and decencies with consideration of profit; the understanding considers the present state and heap of circumstan∣ces, and by prudence weighs every thing in its own ballance; it considers the consequent of the opinion it intends to establish, and well weighs the inconve∣nience of the contrary. But from the obscurity and insufficiency of these par∣ticulars, there cannot come a perfect light; if a little black be mingled with white, the product must have something of every influence that can be com∣municated from its principle, or material constitution; and ten thousand mil∣lions of uncertains cannot make one certain.

In this case the understanding comes not to any certainty by the energy of the motives and direct arguments of probability,* 1.2 or by the first effort and impresses of their strength, but by a particular reflexion which it makes upon the heap, and by a secondary discoursing extracted from the whole, as being therefore convinced, because it beleeves it to be impossible that so many consi∣derations, that no way conspire either in matter or design, should agree in the production of a lie. It is not likely that so many beams of light should issue from the chambers of heaven for no other reason but to lead us into a preci∣pice. Probable arguments and prudential motives are the great hinges of hu∣mane actions, for as a Pope once said, It is but a little wit that governs the world; and the uncertainty of arguments is the great cause of contingency in events; but as uncertain as most counsels are, yet all the great transactions of the affairs of the world are resolved on and acted by them; by suspicions and fears and probable apprehensions infinite evils are prevented; and it is not therefore likely to be an error by which so perpetually so many good things are procured and effected. For it were a disparagement to the wise providence of God, and a lessening the rare Oeconomy of the Divine Government that he should permit almost all the world, and all reiglements, the varieties of event, and all the changes of Kingdomes, and all counsels and deliberations, to be conducted by moral demonstrations, and to be under the power of proba∣bilities, and yet that these should be deceitful and false. Neither is it to be imagined that God should permit wise men, and good, men that on purpose place their reason in indifference, that abate of their heats and quench their own extravagant fires, men that wipe away all clouds and mists from their eyes, that they may see clearly, men that search as they ought to do, for things that they are bound to finde, things that they are commanded to search, and upon which even all their interests depends, and yet inquiring after the end whither they are directed, and by what means it is to be acquired that these men should be inevitably abused by their own reason, by the best reason they have; and that when concerning the thing which cannot be demonstrated by proper and physical arguments, yet we are to enter into a perswasion so great, that for the verification of it men must venture their lives and their souls; I say, if this kinde of proof be not sufficient to effect all this, and sufficiently to assure such men, and competently to affirm and strengthen such resolutions, salvation and damnation must be by chance, or, which is worse, it must be impossible to

be well, but when it cannot choose to be otherwise; and this I say is not to be imagined that God wil or does permit, since all these entercourses so much con∣cern Gods glory and our eternal interest. The main events of heaven and hell doe in some regards depend, as to us, upon our faith, whose objects are repre∣sented with such lights from God and right reason as are sufficient to perswade, not to demonstrate; they are such which leave something to us of choice and love, and every proposition of Scripture though it be as sure, yet it is not so evident as the principles of Geometry; and the Spirit of God effects his pur∣poses with an influence as soft and placid as the warmth of the Sun, while a physical demonstration blows hard and high as the Northwind; indeed a man must use rudeness if he does not quit his garment at so loud a call, but we are more willing to part with it when the Sun gently requires us: so is a moral de∣monstration, it is so humane, so perswasive, so complying with the nature and infirmities of man, with the actions of his life and his manner of operation, that it seems to have been created on purpose for the needs and uses of man in this life, for vertue and for hopes, for faith and for charity, to make us to beleeve by love, and to love by beleeving, for in heaven they that see and love, cannot choose but love, and see, and comprehend; for it is a reward and fils all their fa∣culties, and is not possessed by us, but it self possesses us; In this world where we are to doe something our selves, though all by the grace of God, that which we doe of our selves is nothing else but to work as we our selves can, which indeed happens to be in propositions, as it is in the love of God, this cannot fail us, but we may fail of it, and so are the sentences of Religion, infallible in themselves, but we may be deceived, while by a fallible way we proceed to in∣fallible notices, for nothing else could indear our labour and our love, our search and our obedience; and therefore this must be sufficient and acceptable, if we doe what we can: But then this also will secure our confidence, and in the noises of Christendome when disputing fellows say their brother is damned for not beleeving them, we need not to regard any such noises, if we proceed prudently as we can, and honestly as we ought, probable motives of our un∣derstanding are our sufficient conduct, and then we have this warrant, Brethren, if our hearts condemne us not, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 3. 21. then have we peace towards God. And God would never have inspired his Church with prudence, or made any such vertue, if the things which were put under the conduct of it, that is, probabilities, were not instrumental to the service of God, and to the verification of all its just and proper productions.

Probable arguments are like little starres,* 1.3 every one of which will be use∣less as to our conduct and enlightening, but when they are tyed together by order and vicinity, by the finger of God and the hand of an Angel, they make a Constellation, and are not onely powerful in their influence, but like a bright Angel to guide and to enlighten our way. And although the light is not great as the light of the Sun or Moon, yet Mariners sail by their conduct; and though with trepidation and some danger, yet very regularly they enter into the ha∣ven. This heap of probable inducements, is not of power as a Mathematical and Physical demonstration, which is in discourse as the Sun is in heaven, but it makes a Milky and a white path, visible enough to walk securely.

And next to these tapers of effective reason,* 1.4 drawn from the nature and from the events, and the accidents and the expectations and experiences of things, stands the grandeur of a long and united authority: The understand∣ing thus reasoning, That it is not credible that this thing should have escaped

the wiser heads of all the great personages in the world, who stood at the chairs of Princes, or sate in the Rulers chair, and should onely appear to two or three bold, illiterate, or vicious persons, ruled by lusts, and overruled by evil habits; but in this we have the same security and the same confidence that timorous persons have in the dark; they are pleased and can see what is and what is not, if there be a candle, but in the dark they are less fearful if they be in company.

This way of arguing some are pleased to call a moral demonstration,* 1.5 not that it can make a proposition clear and bright, and quit from clouds and ob∣scurity, as a natural demonstration can, for I may in this case use Aristotles say∣ing, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Things of this nature may be very true, but are not very evident; but it can produce the same effect, that is, it can lead into truth, not with as much brightness, but with as much certainty and infal∣libility in the event of things. For a man may as prosperously and certainly arrive at his journeys end though but conducted by him that went the way but once before him, as if he had a straight path walled in on both sides; so may we finde truth as certainly by probabilities, as by demonstrations: we are not so sure that we finde it, but it is oftentimes as surely found. And if the heap arrive at that which we call a moral demonstration, it is as certain that no mo∣ral demonstration can be opposed against it, as that no natural demonstration can be brought in contradiction to a natural. For the understanding cannot call any thing a moral demonstration, till by considering the particulars on both sides, the reasonableness of one, and the unreasonableness of the other, with a cold sent, and liberty of spirit, and an unbyassed Will, it hath passed the sentence for the truth; and since in this case all the opposition is between strength and power on one side, and weakness and pretence on the other, it is impossible that the opposite parts should be demonstrations or seem so to the same man. And this appears by this also, that some propositions which are onely proved by a conjugation of probable inducements, have yet obtained as certain and as regular events as a natural demonstration, and are beleeved equal∣ly, constantly, and perpetually by all wise men, and the understanding does regu∣larly receive the same impression, and give the same assent, and for ever draws forth the same conclusions when it is not abused with differing prejudices and preoccupations, when its liberty and powers are not infeebled with customes, examples and contrary breeding, while it is not brib'd by interest, or hurried away by passion.

Of this I shall choose to give one instance,* 1.6 which as it is of the greatest con∣cernment in the world in it self, so the gay impieties and bold wits of the world who are witty against none more then God and Gods wisdome, have made it now to be but too seasonable, and that is, that the Religion of Jesus Christ, or The Christian Religion is from God; concerning which I will not now pretend to bring in all the particulars whereby each part of it can be verified, but by heaping together such heads of probabilities which are or may be the cause of an infinite perswasion, and this I had rather choose to doe for these reasons:

1.* 1.7 Because many men excellently learned have already discoursed largely of the truth of Christianity, and approved by a direct and close congression with other Religions, by examination of the contrary pretences, refutation of their arguments, answering their objections, and have by direct force so farre prevailed, that all the reason of the world appears to stand on the Christian side: and for me to doe it now, as there is no just occasion mini∣stred

by this argument, so neither can it be useful and necessary.

2. In that way of arguing,* 1.8 every man that is an adversary can answer one argument, and some can reprove many, and none can prevail singly to posses all the understanding, and to fill all the corners of consideration, but in a mo∣ral demonstration that can be supplied.

3.* 1.9 In the other way an adversary supposes himself to prevail when he can answer the arguments singly, and the discourses in that method are like the servants sent singly to gather fruits of the Husbandmen, they killed them as fast as they came, and a man may kill a whole Kingdome over, if the opponents come by single persons; but a moral demonstration is like an Army which can lose single persons and yet prevail, but yet cannot be beaten unless it be bea∣ten all.

4.* 1.10 The few little things that Atheistical persons prate against the holy Jesus and his most excellent Religion, are infinitely outweighed by the multi∣tude and variety of things to be said for it; and let the others stand (as if they meet with persons that cannot answer them) yet they are sure this greater ought to prevail, because it possesses all the corners of reason, and meets with every instance, and complies with the manner of a man, and is fitted to the nature of things, and complies with the Will, and perswades the understand∣ing, and is a guard against the tricks of Sophisters, and does not onely effect its purpose by direct influence, but is secured by reflexion upon it self, and does more by its indirect strength, and by a back blow, then by its first operations; and therefore,

This instance and this way of argument may be of more use to those per∣sons who cannot so dispute,* 1.11 but that they are apt to be abused by little things, by talkings and imperfect arguings; it may be a defensative against trifling objections, and the impious pratings of the nequam ingeniosi the witty fools, while the men are armed by love and prudence and wise securities to stand with confidence and piety against talkings and intrigues of danger; for by this way best, Wisdome is justified of all her children.

An instance of Moral demonstration, or a conjugation of probabilities, pro∣ving that the Religion of Jesus Christ is from God.

THis discourse of all the disputables in the world,* 1.12 shall require the fewest things to be granted; even nothing but what was evident, even nothing but the very subject of the Question, viz. That there was such a man as Jesus Christ, that he pretended such things and taught such doctrines: for he that will prove these things to be from God, must be allowed that they were from something or other. But this postulate I doe not ask for need, but for orders sake and Art; for what the histories of that Age reported as a publick affair, as one of the most eminent transactions of the world, that which made so much noise, which caused so many changes, which occasioned so many warres, which divided so many hearts, which altered so many families, which procured so many deaths, which obtained so many Laws in favour, and suffered so many Re∣scripts in the disfavour of its self; that which was not done in a corner, but was 33. years and more in acting; which caused so many Sects, and was op∣posed by so much Art, and so much power that it might not grow, which fil∣led the world with noise, which effected such great changes in the bodies of men by curing the diseased, and smiting the contumacious or the hypocrites, which drew so many eyes, and fill'd so many tongues, and imployed so many

pens, and was the care and the question of the whole world at that time, and immediately after; that which was consigned by publick acts and records of Courts, which was in the Books of friends and enemies, which came accom∣panied and remarked with eclipses and stars and prodigies of heaven and earth, that which the Jews even in spite and against their wills confessed, and which the witty adversaries intending to overthrow, could never so much as challenge of want of truth in the matter of fact and story; that which they who are in∣finitely concerned that it should not be beleeved, or more, that it had never been, doe yet onely labour to make to appear not to have been Divine: Cer∣tainly, this thing is so certain that it was, that the defenders of it need not ac∣count it a kindness to have it presupposed; for never was any story in the world that had so many degrees of credibility, as the story of the person, life and death of Jesus Christ: And if he had not been a true Prophet, yet that he was in the world, and said and did such things cannot be denied; for even concer∣ning Mahomet we make no question but he was in the world, and led a great part of mankinde after him, and what was less proved we infinitely beleeve; and what all men say, and no man denies, and was notorious in it self, of this we may make further inquiries whether it was all that which it pretended, for that it did make pretences and was in the world, needs no more probation.

But now whether Jesus Christ was sent from God and delivered the Will of God,* 1.13 we are to take accounts from all the things of the world which were on him, or about him, or from him. Consider first his person: he was foretold by all the Prophets: He, I say, for that appears by the event, and the corre∣spondencies of their sayings to his person: he was described by infallible cha∣racterisms which did fit him, and did never fit any but him; for when he was born, then was the fulness of time, and the Messias was expected at the time when Jesus did appear, which gave occasion to many of the godly then to wait for him, and to hope to live till the time of his revelation: and they did so, and with a spirit of Prophecie which their own nation did confess and honour, glorified God at the revelation: and the most excellent and devout persons that were conspicuous for their piety did then rejoyce in him, and confess him; and the expectation of him at that time was so publick and famous, that it gave occasion to divers Impostors to abuse the credulity of the people in pretending to be the Messias; but not onely the predictions of the time, and the perfect Synchronisms did point him out, but at his birth a strange starre ap∣peared, which guided certain Levantine Princes and Sages to the inquiry after him; a strange starre which had an irregular place and an irregular motion, that came by design, and acted by counsel, the counsel of the Almighty Guide, it moved from place to place, till it stood just over the house where the Babe did sleep; a starre of which the Heathen knew much, who knew nothing of him; a starre which Chalcidius affirmed to have signified the descent of God for the salvation of man; a starre that guided the wise Chaldees to worship him with gifts (as the same disciple of Plato does affirm, and) as the holy Scriptures deliver; and this starre could be no secret; It troubled all the Country; It put Herod upon strange arts of security for his Kingdome, it effected a sad tra∣gedy accidentally, for it occasioned the death of all the little Babes in the City, and voisinage of Bethlehem: But the birth of this young child which was thus glorified by a starre, was also signified by an Angel, and was effected by the holy Spirit of God, in a manner which was in it self supernatural; a Virgin was his Mother, and God was his Father, and his beginning was miraculous; and this matter of his birth of a Virgin was proved to an interested and jealous

person, even to Joseph the supposed father of Jesus, it was affirmed publickly by all his family, and by all his disciples, and published in the middest of all his enemies, who by no artifice could reprove it, a matter so famous, that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jesus to be the Messias, by the force of a Prophecie in Isaiah [A Virgin shall conceive a Son] they who obstinately re∣fused to admit him, did not deny the matter of fact, but denied that it was so meant by the Prophet, which if it were true, can onely prove that Jesus was more excellent then was foretold by the Prophets, but that there was nothing less in him then was to be in the Messias; it was a matter so famous that the Arabian Physicians who can affirm no such things of their Mahomet, and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the holy Jesus, endevour to elevate and lessen the thing, by saying, It is not wholly beyond the force of na∣ture, that a Virgin should conceive, so that it was on all hands undeni∣able, that the Mother of Jesus was a Virgin, a Mother without a Man. This is that Jesus at whose presence before he was born, a babe in his mo∣thers belly also did leap for joy, who was also a person extraordinary himself, conceived in his mothers old age, after a long barrenness, signified by an Angel in the Temple, to his father officiating his Priestly Office, who was also struck dumb for his not present beleeving: all the people saw it, and all his kindred were witnesses of his restitution, and he was named by the Angel, and his Of∣fice declared to be the fore-runner of the holy Jesus; and this also was fore∣told by one of the old Prophets; for the whole story of this Divine person is a chain of providence and wonder, every link of which is a verification of a Prophecie, and all of it is that thing which from Adam to the birth of Jesus was pointed at and hinted by all the Prophets, whose words in him passed per∣fectly into the event. This is that Jesus who as he was born without a Father, so he was learned without a Master, he was a Man without age, a Doctor in a Childs garment, disputing in the Sanctuary at 12. years old. He was a sojour∣ner in Egypt, because the poor Babe born of an indigent Mother was a formi∣dable rival to a potent King, and this fear could not come from the design of the infant, but must needs arise from the illustriousness of the birth, and the Prophecies of the child, and the sayings of the learned, and the journey of the Wise men, and the decrees of God; this journey and the return were both ma∣naged by the conduct of an Angel and a Divine dream, for to the Son of God all the Angels did rejoyce to minister. This blessed Person made thus excel∣lent by his Father, and glorious by miraculous consignations, and illustrious by the ministery of heavenly spirits, and proclaimed to Mary and to Joseph by two Angels, to the Shepherds by a multitude of the heavenly Host, to the Wise men by a Prophecie and by a Star, to the Jews by the Shepherds, to the Gen∣tiles by the three Wise men, to Herod by the Doctors of the Law, and to himself perfectly known by the inchasing his humane nature in the bosome and heart of God, and by the fulness of the Spirit of God, was yet pleased for 30. years together to live an humble, a laborious, a chast and a devout, a regular and an even, a wise and an exemplar, a pious and an obscure life, without com∣plaint, without sin, without design of fame, or grandeur of spirit, till the time came that the clefts of the rock were to open, and the Diamond give its lustre, and be worn in the Diademes of Kings, and then this person was wholly admi∣rable; for he was ushered into the world by the voice of a loud Crier in the wilderness, a person austere and wise, of a strange life, full of holiness and full of hardness, and a great Preacher of righteousness, a man beleeved by all the people that he came from God, one who in his own nation gathered disciples publickly, and (which amongst them was a great matter) he was the Doctor

of a new institution, and baptized all the Country, yet this man so great, so rever'd, so followed, so listned to by King and people, by Doctors and by ideots, by Pharisees and Sadduces, this man Preached Jesus to the people, poin∣ted out the Lamb of God, told that he must increase, and himself from all that fame must retire to give him place; he received him to baptism after having with duty and modesty declared his own unworthiness to give, but rather a worthiness to receive baptism from the holy hands of Jesus; but at the so∣lemnity God sent down the holy Spirit upon his holy Son, and by a voice from heaven, a voice of thunder (and God was in that voice) declared that this was his Son, and that he was delighted in him. This voyce from heaven was such, so evident, so certain a conviction of what it did intend to prove, so known and accepted as the way of Divine revelation under the second Temple, that at that time every man that desired a sign honestly, would have been satisfied with such a voyce; it being the testimony by which God made all extraordinaries to be credible to his people from the days of Ezra, to the death of the Nation; and that there was such a voice, not onely then, but di∣vers times after, was as certain, and made as evident as things of that nature can ordinarily be made. For it being a matter of fact, cannot be supposed in∣finite, but limited to time and place, heard by a certain number of persons, and was as a clap of thunder upon ordinary accounts, which could be heard but by those who were within the sphere of its own activity; and reported by those to others, who are to give testimony as testimonies are required, which are cre∣dible under the test of two or three disinterested, honest, and true men, and though this was done in the presence of more, and oftner then once, yet it was a divine testimony but at first, but is to be conveyed by the means of men; and as God thundred from heaven at the giving of the Law, though that he did so, we have notice onely from the Books of Moses received from the Jewish Nation; so he did in the days of the Baptist, and so he did to Peter, James, and John, and so he did in the presence of the Pharisees and many of the common people; and as it is not to be supposed that all these would joyn their divided interests, for and against themselves for the verification of a lye, so if they would have done it, they could not have done it without reproof of their own parties, who would have been glad by the discovery onely to disgrace the whole story; but if the report of honest and just men so reputed, may be questioned for matter of fact, or may not be accounted sufficient to make faith when there is no pretence of men to the contrary, besides that we can have no story transmitted to us, no records kept, no acts of Courts, no narratives of the days of old, no traditions of our Fathers; so there could not be left in nature any usual instrument whereby God could after the manner of men de∣clare his own will to us, but either we should never know the will of heaven upon earth, or it must be that God must not onely tell it once but always, and not onely always to some men, but always to all men; and then as there would be no use of history, or the honesty of men, and their faithfulness in telling any act of God in declaration of his will, so there would be perpetual necessity of miracles, and we could not serve God directly with our understanding, for there would be no such thing as faith, that is, of assent without conviction of understanding, and we could not please God with beleeving, because there would be in it nothing of the will, nothing of love and choyce; and that faith which is, would be like that of Thomas, to beleeve what we see or hear, and God should not at all govern upon earth unless he did continually come him∣self: for thus, all Government, all Teachers, all Apostles, all Messengers would be needless, because they could not shew to the eye what they told to the ears

of men; And it might as well be disbeleeved in all Courts and by all Prin∣ces, that this was not the letter of a Prince, or the act of a man, or the wri∣ting of his hand, and so all humane entercourse must cease, and all senses but the eye be useless as to this affair, or else to the ear all voyces must be stran∣gers but the principal, if I say, no reports shall make faith: But it is certain, that when these voyces were sent from heaven and heard upon earth they pre∣vailed amongst many that heard them not, and disciples were multiplied upon such accounts, or else it must be that none that did hear them could be belee∣ved by any of their friends and neighbours; for if they were, the voyce was as effective at the reflex and rebound as in the direct emission, and could pre∣vail with them that beleeved their brother or their friend, as certainly as with them that beleeved their own ears and eyes.

I need not speak of the vast numbers of miracles which he wrought;* 1.14 mi∣racles which were not more demonstrations of his power then of his mercy; for they had nothing of pompousness and ostentation, but infinitely of cha∣rity and mercy, and that permanent and lasting and often: he opened the eyes of the blinde, he made the crooked straight, he made the weak strong, he cured fevers with the touch of his hand, and an issue of blood with the hem of his garment, and sore eyes with the spittle of his mouth and the clay of the earth; he multiplied the loaves and fishes, he raised the dead to life, a young maiden, the widows son of Naim, and Lazarus, and cast out Devils by the word of his mouth, which he could never doe but by the power of God. For Satan does not cast out Satan, nor a house fight against it self, if it means to stand long, and the Devil could not help Jesus, because the holy Jesus taught men virtue, called them from the worshipping Devils, taught them to resist the Devil, to lay aside all those abominable idolatries by which the Devil doth rule in the hearts of men: he taught men to love God, to fly from temptations to sin, to hate and avoid all those things of which the Devil is guilty, for Christianity forbids pride, envy, malice, lying, and yet affirms that the Devil is proud, en∣vious, malicious, and the Father of lies; and therefore where ever Christianity prevails, the Devil is not worshipped, and therefore he that can think that a man without the power of God could overturn the Devils principles, cross his designs, weaken his strengths, baffle him in his policies, befool him and turn him out of possession, & make him open his own mouth against himself as he did often, and confess himself conquered by Jesus and tormented, as the Oracle did to Augustus Caesar, and the Devil to Jesus himself, he I say, that thinks a meer man can doe this, knows not the weaknesses of a man, nor the power of an Angel; but he that thinks this could be done by compact, and by consent of the Devil, must think him to be an Intelligence without understanding, a power without force, a fool and a sot to assist a power against himself, and to persecute the power he did assist, to stirre up the world to destroy the Christi∣ans, whose Master and Lord he did assist to destroy himself; and when we read that Porphyrius an Heathen,* 1.15 a professed enemy to Christianity, did say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that since Jesus was wor∣shipped, the gods could help no man, that is, the gods which they worship∣ped; the poor baffled enervated Daemons: He must either think that the De∣vils are as foolish as they are weak, or else that they did nothing towards this declination of their power; and therefore that they suffer it by a power higher then themselves, that is, by the power of God in the hand of Je∣sus.

But besides that God gave testimony from heaven concerning him;* 1.16 he

also gave this testimony of himself to have come from God, because that he did Gods will; for he that is a good man and lives by the Laws of God and of his Nation, a life innocent and simple, prudent and wise, holy and spotless, un∣reproved and unsuspected, he is certainly by all wise men said in a good sense to be the son of God, but he who does well and speaks well, and calls all men to glorify and serve God, and serves no ends but of holiness and charity, of wisdome of hearts and reformat on of manners, this man carries great au∣thority in his sayings, and ought to prevail with good men in good things, for good ends, which is all that is here required. But his nature was so sweet, his manners so humble, his words so wise and composed, his comportment so grave and winning, his answers so seasonable, his questions so deep, his re∣proof so severe and charitable, his pity so great and merciful, his preachings so full of reason and holiness, of weight and authority, his conversation so useful and beneficent, his poverty great but his alms frequen••, his family so holy and religious, his and their imployment so profitable, his meekness so incomparable, his passions without difference, save onely where zeal or pity carried him on to worthy and apt expressions a person that never laughed, but often wept in a sense of the calamities of others; he loved every man and hated no man, he gave counsel to the doubtful, and instructed the igno∣rant, he bound up the broken hearts, and strengthened the feeble knees, he releeved the poor, and converted the sinners, he despised none that came to him for releef, and as for those that did not he went to them; he took all occasions of mercy that were offered him, and went abroad for more; he spent his days in Preaching and healing, and his nights in Prayers and con∣versation with God, he was obedient to Laws and subject to Princes, though he was the Prince of Judaea in right of his Mother, and of all the world in right of his Father; the people followed him, but he made no conventions, and when they were made. he suffered no tumults, when they would have made him a King he withdrew himself, when he knew they would put him to death he offered himself; he knew mens hearts, and conversed secretly, and gave answer to their thoughts and prevented their questions: he would work a miracle rather then give offence, and yet suffer every offence rather then see God his Father dishonoured, he exactly kept the Law of Moses, to which he came to put a period, and yet chose to signify his purpose onely by doing acts of mercy upon their Sabbath, doing nothing which they could call a breach of a Commandement, but healing sick people, a charity which them∣selves would doe to beasts, and yet they were angry at him for doing it to their brethren: In all his life, and in all his conversation with his Nation, he was innocent as an Angel of light, and when by the greatness of his worth, and the severity of his doctrine, and the charity of his miracles, and the noises of the people, and his immense fame in all that part of the world, and the mul∣titude of his disciples and the authority of his Sermons, and his free reproof of their hypocrisy, and his discovery of their false doctrines and weak tradi∣tions, he had branded the reputation of the vicious rulers of the people, and they resolved to put him to death, they who had the biggest malice in the world, and the weakest accusations were forced to supply their want of ar∣ticles against him by making truth to be his fault; and his office to be his cr••me, and his open con••ession of what was asked him to be his article of condemna∣tion, and yet after all this they could not perswade the competent Judge to condemne him, or to finde him guilty of any fault, and therefore they were forced to threaten him with Caesars name, against whom then they would pre∣tend him to be an enemy, though in their charge they neither proved, nor in∣deed

laid it against him, and yet to whatsoever they objected he made no re∣turn, but his silence and his innocence were remarkable and evident, without labour and reply, and needed no more argument then the Sun needs an advo∣cate to prove that he is the brightest starre in the firmament.

Well,* 1.17 so it was, they crucified him, and when they did they did as much put out the eye of heaven as destroy the Son of God; for when with an in∣comparable sweetness, and a patience exemplar to all ages of sufferers, he en∣dured affronts, examinations, scorns, insolencies of rude ungentle Tradesmen, cruel whippings, injurious, unjust and unreasonable usages from those whom he obliged by all the arts of endearment and offers of the biggest kindness, at last he went to death as to the work which God appointed him that he might be∣come the worlds sacrifice, and the great example of holiness, and the instance of representing by what way the world was to be made happy [even by sufferings and so entring into heaven] that he might (I say) become the Savi∣our of his Enemies, and the elder Brother to his friends, and the Lord of Glory, and the fountain of its emanation. Then it was that God gave new testimonies from heaven; The Sun was eclipsed all the while he was upon the Cross, and yet the Moon was in the full; that is, he lost his light, not because any thing in nature did invest him, but because the God of nature (as a Hea∣then at that very time confessed, who yet saw nothing of this sad iniquity) did suffer. The rocks did rend, the ve••l of the Temple divided of it self and opened the inclosures, and disparked the Sanctuary, and made it pervious to the Gentiles eye; the dead arose, and appeared in Jerusalem to their friends, the Centurion and divers of the people smote their hearts, and were by these strange indications convinced that he was the Son of God. His garments were parted, and lots cast upon his inward coat, they gave him vinegar and gall to drink, they brake not a bone of him, but they pierced his side with a spear, looking upon him whom they had pierced; according to the Prophe∣cies of him, which were so clear and descended to minutes and circumstances of his passion, that there was nothing left by which they could doubt whether this were he or no who was to come into the world: But after all this, that all might be finally verified and no scruple left, after three days burial, a great stone being rolled to the face of the grave, and the stone sealed, and a guard of Souldiers placed about it, he arose from the grave, and for forty days together conversed with his followers and Disciples, and beyond all suspicion was seen of 500. Brethren at once, which is a number too great to give their consent and testimony to a lye, and it being so publickly and confidently affirmed at the very time it was done, and for ever after urged by all Chri∣stians, used as the most mighty demonstration, proclaimed, preached, talked of, even upbraided to the gainsayers, affirmed by eye-witnesses, perswa∣ded to the kinred and friends and the relatives and companions of all those 500. persons who were eye-witnesses, it is infinitely removed from a reason∣able suspicion; and at the end of those days was taken up into heaven in the sight of many of them, as Elias was in the presence of Elisha.

Now he of whom all these things are true,* 1.18 must needs be more then a meer man, and that they were true was affirmed by very many eye-witnesses, men who were innocent, plain men, men that had no bad ends to serve, men that looked for no preferment by the thing in this life; men to whom their Master told they were to expect not Crowns and Scepters, not praise of men or wealthy possessions, not power and ease, but a voluntary casting away care

and attendance upon secular affairs that they might attend their Ministery; po∣verty and prisons, trouble and vexation persecution and labour, whippings and banishment, bonds and death, and for a reward they must stay till a good day came, but that was not to be at all in this world; and when the day of restitution and recompence should come, they should never know till it came, but upon the hope of this and the faith of Jesus, and the word of God so taught, so consigned, they must rely wholly and for ever. Now let it be con∣sidered. how could matters of fact be proved better? and how could this be anything, but such as to rely upon matters of fact? what greater certainty can we have of any thing that was ever done which we saw not, or heard not, but by the report of wise and honest persons? especially since they were such whose life and breeding was so far from ambition and pompousness that as they could not naturally and reasonably hope for any great number of Proselytes, so the same that could be hop'd for amongst them, as it must be a matter of their own procuring, and consequently uncertain, so it must needs be very in∣considerable, not fit to outweigh the danger and the loss, nor yet at all va∣luable by them whose education and pretences were against it? These we have plentifully. But if these men are numerous and united, it is more. Then we have more; For so many did affirm these things which they saw and heard, that thousands of people were convinced of the truth of them: But then if these men offer their oath, it is yet more, but yet not so much as we have, for they sealed those things with their blood; they gave their life for a testimony; and what reward can any man expect, if he gives his life for a lye? who shall make him recompence, or what can tempt him to doe it knowing∣ly? but after all, it is to be remembred, that as God hates lying, so he hates in∣credulity; as we must not beleeve a lye, so neither stop up our eyes and ears against truth; and what we doe every minute of our lives in matters of little and of great concernment, if we refuse to doe in our Religion which yet is to be conducted as other humane affairs are, by humane instruments and argu∣ments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing, it is an obstinacy that is as contrary to humane reason as it is to Divine faith.

These things relate to the person of the holy Jesus,* 1.19 and prove sufficiently that it was extraordinary, that it was divine, that God was with him, that his power wrought in him; and therefore that it was his will which Jesus taught, and God signed. But then if nothing of all this had been, yet even the do∣ctrine it self proves it self Divine and to come from God.

For it is a Doctrine perfective of humane nature,* 1.20 that teaches us to love God and to love one another, to hurt no man, and to doe good to every man, it propines to us the noblest, the highest, and the bravest pleasures of the world; the joys of charity, the rest of innocence, the peace of quiet spirits, the wealth of beneficence, and forbids us onely to be beasts and to be Devils, it allows all that God and nature intended, and onely restrains the excrescencies of na∣ture, and forbids us to take pleasure in that which is the onely entertainment of Devils, in murders and revenges, malice and spiteful words and actions; it permits corporal pleasures where they can best minister to health and socie∣ties, to conservation of families and honour of Communities, it teaches men to keep their words that themselves may be secured in all their just interests, and to doe good to others that good may be done to them; it forbids biting one another that we may not be devoured by one another; and commands obedience to superiours, that we may not be ruined in confusions; it com∣bines

Governments, and confirms all good Laws, and makes peace, and op∣poses and prevents warres where they are not just, and where they are not necessary. It is a Religion that is life and spirit, not consisting in ceremonies and external amusements, but in the services of the heart, and the real fruit of lips and hands, that is, of good words and good deeds, it bids us to doe that to God which is agreeable to his excellencies, that is, worship him with the best thing we have, and make all things else minister to it; it bids us doe that to our neighbour, by which he may be better: it is the perfection of the natural Law, and agreeable to our natural necessities, and promotes our natural ends and designs: it does not destroy reason, but instructs it in very many things, and complies with it in all, it hath in it both heat and light, and is not more effectual then it is beauteous; it promises every thing that we can desire, and yet promises nothing but what it does effect; it proclaims warie against all vices, and generally does command every vertue; it teaches us with ease to mortify those affections which reason durst scarce reprove, because she hath not strength enough to conquer, and it does create in us those vertues which rea∣son of her self never knew, and after they are known, could never approve suf∣ficiently: it is a doctrine in which nothing is superfluous or burdensome, nor yet is there any thing wanting which can procure happiness to mankinde, or by which God can be glorified: and if wisdome, and mercy, and justice, and sim∣plicity, and holiness, and purity, and meekness, and contentedness, and charity, be images of God and rays of Divinity, then that Doctrine in which all these shine so gloriously, and in which nothing else is ingredient must needs be from God; and that all this is true in the Doctrine of Jesus needs no other proba∣tion but the reading the words.

For that the words of Jesus are contained in the Gospels,* 1.21 that is, in the writings of them, who were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of the actions and Sermons of Jesus, is not at all to be doubted; for in every sect we beleeve their own records of Doctrine and institution; for it is madness to suppose the Christians to pretend to be servants of the Laws of Jesus, and yet to make a Law of their own which he made not: no man doubts but that the Alcoran is the Law of Mahomet, that the old Testament contains the Religion of the Jews; and the authority of these Books is proved by all the arguments of the Religion, for all the arguments perswading to the Religion are intended to prove no other then is contained in those Books; and these having been for 1500. years and more, received absolutely by all Christian assemblies, if any man shall offer to make a question of their authority, he must declare his rea∣sons, for the disciples of the Religion have sufficient presumption, security and possession, till they can be reasonably disturb'd; but that now they can never be is infinitely certain, because we have a long, immemorial, universal tradition that these Books were written in those times, by those men whose Names they bear, they were accepted by all Churches at the very first no∣tice, except some few of the later, which were first received by some Chur∣ches, and then consented to by all, they were acknowledged by the same, and by the next age for genuine, their authority published, their words cited, ap∣peals made to them in all questions of Religion, because it was known and confessed that they wrote nothing but that they knew, so that they were not deceived; and to say they would lie must be made to appear by something ex∣trinsecal to this inquiry, and was never so much as plausibly pretended by any Adversaries, and it being a matter of another mans will, must be declared by actions, or not at all. But besides the men that wrote them were to be belee∣ved because they did Miracles, they wrote Prophecies, which are verified by

the event, persons were cured at their Sepulchres, a thing so famous that it was confessed even by the enemies of the Religion: and after all, that which the world ought to rely upon, is the wisdome and the providence and the goodness of God; all which it concerned to take care that the Religion, which himself so adorned and proved by miracles and mighty signs, should not be lost, nor any false writings be obtruded in stead of true, lest without our fault the will of God become impossible to be obeyed. But to return to the thing: All those excellent things which singly did make famous so many sects of Philosophers, and remarked so many Princes of their sects, all them united, and many more which their eyes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dark and dim could not see, are heaped together in this systeme of wisdome and holiness. Here are plain precepts full of deepest mystery; here are the measures of ho∣liness and approaches to God describ'd; obedience and conformity, mortifi∣cation of the body, and elevations of the spirit, abstractions from earth, and Arts of society and union with heaven, degrees of excellencies, and tendences to perfection, imitations of God, and conversations with him; these are the heights and descents, upon the plain grounds of natural reason, and natural re∣ligion, for there is nothing commanded but what our reason by nature ought to choose, and yet nothing of natural reason taught but what is heightned and made more perfect by the Spirit of God; and when there is any thing in the Religion, that is against flesh and blood, it is onely when flesh and blood is against us, and against reason, when flesh and blood either would hinder us from great felicity, or bring us into great misery: To conclude, it is such a Law, that nothing can hinder men to receive and entertain, but a pertinacious baseness and love to vice, and none can receive it but those who resolve to be good and excellent; and if the holy Jesus had come into the world with less splendor of power and mighty demonstrations, yet even the excellency of what he taught, makes him alone fit to be the Master of the world.

But then let us consider what this excellent person did effect,* 1.22 and with what instruments he brought so great things to pass. He was to put a period to the Rites of Moses, and the Religion of the Temple; of which the Jews were zealous even unto pertinacy; to reform the manner of all mankinde, to confound the wisdome of the Greeks, to break in peeces the power of the De∣vil, to destroy the worship of all false Gods, to pull down their Oracles, and change their Laws, and by principles wise and holy to reform the false discour∣ses of the world. But see what was to be taught, A Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is the Christian Arithmetick, Three are one and one are three, so Lucian in his Philopatris, or some other derides the Chri∣stian Doctrine; See their Philosophy, Ex nihilo nihil fit. No: Ex nihilo omnia, all things are made of nothing; and a Man-God and a God-Man, the same per∣son finite and infinite, born in time, and yet from all eternity the Son of God, but yet born of a Woman, and she a Maid, but yet a Mother; resurrection of the dead, reunion of soul and body; this was part of the Christian Physicks or their natural Philosophy. But then certainly their moral was easy and de∣licious. It is so indeed, but not to flesh and blood, whose appetites it pre∣tends to regulate or to destroy, to restrain or else to mortify: fasting and pe∣nance, and humility, loving our enemies, restitution of injuries, and self-denial, and taking up the Cross, and losing all our goods, and giving our life for Jesus: As the other was hard to beleeve, so this is as hard to doe. But for whom and un∣der whose conduct was all this to be beleeved, and all this to be done, and all this to be suffered? surely for some glorious and mighty Prince, whose

splendor as far outshines the Romane Empire as the jewels of Cleopatra out∣shined the swadling clothes of the Babe at Bethlehem. No it was not so nei∣ther. For all this was for Jesus whom his followers preached; a poor Babe born in a stable, the son of a Carpenter, cradled in a cratch, swadled in poor clouts; it was for him whom they indeed call'd a God, but yet whom all the world knew, and they themselves said, was whip'd at a post, nailed to a Cross; he fell under the malice of the Jews his Countrymen, and the power of his Romane Lords, a cheap and a pitiful sacrifice without beauty and without splendor. The design is great, but does not yet seem possible; But therefore let us see what instruments the Holy Jesus chose to effect these so mighty chan∣ges, to perswade so many propositions, to endear so great sufferings, to over∣come so great enemies, to master so many impossibilities which this Doctrine and this Law from this Master were sure to meet withall.

Here,* 1.23 here it is that the Divinity of the power is proclaimed. When a man goes to warre he raises as great an Army as he can to out-number his Ene∣my, but when God fights, three hundred men that lap like a dogge are suffi∣cient; nay one word can dissolve the greatest army. He that means to effect any thing must have means of his own proportionable, and if they be not, he must fail, or derive them from the mighty. See then with what instruments the holy Jesus sets upon this great reformation of the world. Twelve men of obscure and poor birth, of contemptible Trades and quality, without lear∣ning, without breeding; these men were sent into the midst of a knowing and wise world to dispute with the most famous Philosophers of Greece, to out-wit all the learning of Athens, to out-preach all the Roman Orators; to introduce into a newly setled Empire, which would be impatient of novelties and change, such a change as must destroy all their Temples, or remove thence all their gods: against which change all the zeal of the world, and all the passions, and all the seeming pretences which they could make, must needs be violently opposed a change that introduced new Laws, and caused them to reverse the old, to change that Religion under which their Fathers long did prosper, and under which the Romane Empire obtained so great a grandeur, for a Religion which in appearance was silly and humble, meek and peaceable, not apt indeed to doe harm, but exposing men to all the harm in the world, abating their cou∣rage, bl••nting their swords, teaching peace and unactiveness, and making the Souldiers arms in a manner useless, and untying their military girdle; a Reli∣gion which contradicted their reasons of State, and erected new Judicatories, and made the Romane Courts to be silent and without causes; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful (but in a time when riches were ado∣red, & ambition esteemed the greatest nobleness, and pleasure thought to be the chiefest good) it brought no peculiar blessing to the rich or mighty, unless they would become poor and humble in some reall sense or other; a Religion that would change the face of things, and would also pierce into the secrets of the soul, and unravel all the intrigues of hearts, and reform all evil manners, and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel: that such a Religion in such a time, preached by such mean persons, should triumph over the Philosophy of the world, and the arguments of the subtle, and the Sermons of the eloquent, and the power of Princes, and the interest of States, and the inclinations of nature, and the blindness of zeal, and the force of custome, and the pleasures of sin, and the busie Arts of the Devil, that is, against wit, and power, and money, and Religion, and wilfulness, and fame, and Empire, which are all the things in the world that can make a thing impossible; this I say could not be by the

proper force of such instruments; for no man can 〈…〉〈…〉 palm, nor govern wise Empires with Diagrams. It were impudence to send a footman to command Caesar to lay down his arms, to d••sband h••s legions and throw himself into Tyber, or keep a Tavern nex•• to Pompeys Theatre; but if a sober man shall stand alone unarm'd, undefended, or unprovided, and shall tell that he will make the Sun stand still, or remove a mountain, or reduce Xerxes his Army to the scantling of a single Troop, he that beleeves he will and can doe this, must beleeve he does it by a higher power thee he can yet perceive, and so it was in the present transaction. For that the holy Jesus made invisible powers to doe him visible honours, that his Apostles hunted the Dae∣mons from their Tripods, their Navels, their Dens, their hollow Pipes, their Temples, and their Altars, that he made the Oracles silent, as Lucian, Porphyrie, Celsus, and other Heathens confess; that against the order of new things, which let them be never so profitable or good doe yet suffer reproach and cannot pre∣vail unless they commence in a time of advantage and favour, yet that this should flourish like the Palm by pressure, grow glorious by opposition, thrive by persecution, and was demonstrated by objections, argues a higher cause then the immediate instrument; now how this higher cause did intervene is vi∣sible and notorious: The Apostles were not learned, but the holy Jesus pro∣mised that he would send down wisdome from above, from the Father of spi∣rits; they had no power, but they should be invested with power from on high they were ignorant and timorous, but he would make them learned and confident, and so he did: he promised that in a few days he would send the holy Ghost upon them, and he did so, after ten days they felt and saw glorious im∣mission from heaven, lights of movable fire sitting upon their heads, and that light did illuminate their hearts, and the mighty rushing winde inspired them with a power of speaking divers languages, and brought to their remembrances all that Jesus did and taught, and made them wise to conduct souls, and bold to venture, and prudent to advise, and powerful to doe miracles, and w••••y to convince gainsayers, and hugely instructed in the Scriptures, and gave them the spirit of Government, and the spirit of Prophecy. This thing was so pub∣lick that at the first notice of it three thousand souls were converted on that very day, at the very time when it was done; for it was certainly a visible de∣monstration of an invisible power, that ignorant persons who were never taught, should in an instant speak all the Languages of the Romane Empire; and indeed this thing was so necessary to be so, and so certain that it was so, so publick and so evident, and so reasonable, and so useful, that it is not easy to say whether it was the indication of a greater power, or a greater wisdome; and now the means was proportionable enough to the biggest end; without learning they could not confute the learned world; but therefore God be∣came their Teacher: without power they could not break the Devils violence, but therefore God gave them power; without courage they could not contest against all the violence of the Jews and Gentiles; but therefore God was their strength and gave them fortitude; without great caution and providence they could not avoid the traps of crafty Persecutors, but therefore God gave them caution, and made them provident, and as Besaleel and Aholiab received the spirit of God, the spirit of understanding to enable them to work excellently in the Tabernacle, so had the Apostles to make them wise for the work of God and the Ministeries of this Diviner Tabernacle, which God pitched, not man. Immediately upon this, the Apostles to make a fulness of demonstra∣tion and an undeniable conviction gave the spirit to others also, to Jews and Gentiles and to the men of Samaria, and they spake with Tongues and prophe∣sied,

then they preached to all Nations, and endured all persecutions, and cu∣red all diseases, and raised the dead to life, and were brought before Tribu∣nals, and confessed the Name of Jesus, and convinced the blasphemous Jews out of their own Prophets, and not onely prevailed upon women and weak men, but even upon the bravest and wisest. All the disciples of John the Ba∣ptist, the Nazarens and Ebionites, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Sergius the President, Dionysius an Athenian Judge, and Polycarpus, Justinus and Irenaus, Athenagoras and Origen, Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria, who could not be such fools as upon a matter not certainly true but probably false, to unravel their former principles, and to change their liberty for a Prison, wealth for poverty, honour for disreputation, life for death, if by such exchange they had not been secured of truth and holiness and the will of God.

But above all these was Saul,* 1.24 a bold and a witty, a zealous and learned young man, who going with Letters to persecute the Christians of Damascus, was by a light from heaven called from his furious march, reproved by Gods Angel for persecuting the cause of Jesus, was sent to the City, baptized by a Christian Minister, instructed and sent abroad, and he became the prodigy of the world for learning and zeal, for preaching and writing, for labour and sufference, for government and wisdome; he was admitted to see the holy Jesus after the Lord was taken into heaven, he was taken up into Paradise, he conversed with Angels, he saw unspeakable rayes of glory, and besides that himself said it, who had no reason to lie, who would get nothing by it here but a conjugation of troubles, and who should get nothing by it hereafter if it were false; besides this I say, that he did all those acts of zeal and obedience for the promotion of the Religion does demonstrate he had reason extraordi∣nary for so sudden a change, so strange a labour, so frequent and incompa∣rable sufferings: and therefore as he did and suffered so much upon such glo∣rious motives, so he spared not to publish it to all the world, he spake it to Kings and Princes, he told it to the envious Jews; he had partners of his jour∣ney who were witnesses of the miraculous accident, and in his publication he urged the notoriousness of the fact, as a thing not feigned, not private, but done at noon day under the Test of competent persons, and it was a thing that proved it self, for it was effective of a present, a great, and a permanent change.

But now it is no new wonder but a pursuance of the same conjugation of great and Divine things,* 1.25 that the Fame and Religion of Jesus was with so incredible a swiftness scattered over the face of the habitable world, from one end of the earth unto the other; it filled all Asia immediately, it passed pre∣sently to Europe, and to the furthest Africans, and all the way it went it told nothing but an holy and an humble story, that he who came to bring it into the world, died an ignominious death, and yet this death did not take away their courage, but added much: for they could not fear death for that Master, whom they knew to have for their sakes suffered death, and came to life again. But now infinite numbers of persons of all sexes, and all ages, and all Coun∣tries came in to the Holy Crucifix, and he that was crucified in the reign of Ti∣berius, was in the time of Nero, even in Rome it self, and in Nero's family by many persons esteem'd for a God; and it was upon publick record that he was so ac∣knowledged; and this was by a Christian, Justin Martyr, urged to the Senate, and to the Emperours themselves, who if it had been otherwise could easily have confuted the bold allegation of the Christian, who yet did die for that Jesus who was so speedily reputed for a God; the Cross was worn upon brests,

printed in the air, drawn upon fore-heads, carried on banners, put upon crowns Imperial; and yet the Christians were sought for to punishments, and exquisite punishments sought forth for them; their goods were confiscate, their names o••ious, prisons were their houses, and so many kinds of tortures invented for them that Domitius Ulpianus hath spent seven Books in describing the variety of tortures the poor Christian was put to at his first appearing▪ and yet in despite of all this, and ten thousand other objections and impossibilities, whatsoever was for them made the Religion grow, and whatsoever was against them made it grow; if they had peace, the Religion was prosperous, if they had persecution, it was still prosperous: if Princes favoured them the world came in because the Christians lived holily; if Princes were incensed, the world came in because the Christians died bravely. They sought for death with gree∣diness, they desired to be grinded in the teeth of Lions, and with joy they be∣held the wheels and the bended trees, the racks and the gibbets, the fires and the burning irons, which were like the chair of Elias to them, instruments to carry them to heaven, into the bosome of their beloved Jesus.

Who would not acknowledge the Divinity of this person,* 1.26 and the excel∣lency of this institution, that should see infants to weary the hands of Hangmen for the testimony of Jesus? and wise men preach this doctrine for no other visible reward, but shame and death, poverty and banishment? and Hangmen converted by the blood of Martyrs springing upon their faces which their im∣pious hands and cords have strained through their flesh? who would not have confessed the honour of Jesus, when he should see miracles done at the Tombs of Martyrs, and Devils tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus, and the world running to the honour of the poor Nazaren, and Kings and Queens kissing the feet of the poor servants of Jesus? Could a Jew Fisherman and a Publican effect all this for the son of a poor Maiden of Judaea? can we sup∣pose all the world, or so great a part of mankinde can consent by chance, or suffer such changes for nothing? or for any thing less then this? The son of the poor Maiden was the son of God, and the Fishermen spake by a Divine spirit, and they catched the world with holiness and miracles, with wisdome and power bigger then the strength of all the Roman Legions. And what can be added to all this, but this thing alone to prove the Divinity of Jesus? He is a God, or at least is taught by God who can foretel future contingencies; and so did the holy Jesus, and so did his Disciples.

Our blessed Lord while he was alive foretold that after his death his Reli∣gion should flourish more then when he was alive:* 1.27 He foretold Persecutions to his Disciples; he foretold the mission of the holy Ghost to be in a very few days after his Ascension, which within ten days came to pass; he prophe∣sied that the fact of Mary Magdalen in anointing the head and feet of her Lord, should be publick and known as the Gospel it self, and spoken of in the same place; he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of its approach, and that it should be by Warre, and particularly after the manner of Pro∣phets symbolically, nam'd the Nation should doe it; pointing out the Roman Eagles, he foretold his death, and the manner of it, and plainly before-hand published his Resurrection, and told them it should be the sign to that genera∣tion, viz. the great argument to prove him to be the Christ, he prophesied that there should arise false Christs after him, and it came to pass to the extreme great calamity of the Nation; and lastly, he foretold that his beloved Disciple S. John should tarry upon the earth till his coming again, that is, to his coming

to Judgement upon Jerusalem; and that his Religion should be preached to the Gentiles, that it should be scattered over all the world, and be received by all Nations, that it should stay upon the face of the earth till his last coming to judge all the world, and that the gates of hell should not be able to prevail against his Church; which Prophecie is made good thus long, till this day, and is as a continual argument to justify the Divinity of the Author: The continuance of the Religion helps to continue it, for it proves that it came from God, who fore old that it should continue; and therefore it must continue because it came from God, and therefore it came from God because it does and shall for ever continue according to the word of the holy Jesus.

But after our blessed Lord was entred into glory,* 1.28 the disciples also were Pro∣phets; Agabus foretold the dearth that was to be in the Romane Empire in the days of Claudius Caesar, and that S. Paul should be bound at Jerusalem; S. Paul foretold the entring in of Hereticks into Asia after his departure; and he and S. Peter and S. Jude and generally the rest of the Apostles had two great predi∣ctions, which they used not onely as a verification of the doctrine of Jesus, but as a means to strengthen the hearts of the Disciples who were so broken with persecution: The one was, that there should arise a Sect of vile men who should be enemies to Religion and Government, and cause a great Apostacy, which happened notoriously in the Sect of the Gnosticks, which those three Apostles and S. John notoriously and plainly doe describe: And the other was, that although the Jewish Nation did m••ghtily oppose the Religion, it should be but for a while, for they should be destroyed in a short time, and their Nation made extremely miserable; but for the Christians, if they would fly from Jerusalem and goe to Pella, there should not a hair of their head perish: the verification of this Prophecie the Christians extremely long'd for and wondred it staid so long, and began to be troubled at the delay, and suspected all was not well, when the great proof of their Religion was not verified; and while they were in thoughts of heart concerning it, the sad Catalysis did come, and swept away 1100000. of the Nation and from that day forward the Na∣tion was broken in peeces with intolerable calamities, they are scattered over the face of the earth, and are a vagabond Nation, but yet like oyle in a vessel of wine, broken into bubbles but kept in their own circles, and they shall ne∣ver be an united people till they are servants of the holy Jesus; but shall remain without Priest or Temple, without Altar or Sacrifice, without City or Coun∣try, without the land of Promise, or the promise of a blessing, till our Jesus is their high Priest and the Shepherd to gather them into his fold: And this very thing is a mighty demonstration against the Jews by their own Prophets, for when Isaiah and Jeremiah, and Malachi had Prophesied the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, and the change of the old Law, and the introduction of a new by the Messias, that this was he, was therefore certain, because he taught the world a new Law and presently after the publication of this, the old was abrogate, and not onely went into desuetude, but into a total abolition among all the world; and for those of the remnant of the scattered Jews who obstinately blaspheme, the Law is become impossible to them, and they placed in such circumstances that they need not dispute concerning its obligation; for it being external and corporal, ritual and at last made also local, when the circumstances are impossible, the Law that was wholly ceremonial and circumstantial must needs pass away, and when they have lost their Priest∣hood, they cannot retain the Law, as no man takes care to have his beard sha∣ved when his head is off.

And it is a wonder to consider how the anger of God is gone out upon that miserable people,* 1.29 and that so great a blindness is fallen upon them, it being evident and notorious, that the old Testament was nothing but a shadow and umbrage of the new, that the Prophecies of that are plainly ver••fied in this; that all the predictions of the Messias are most undeniably accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ, so that they cannot with any plausibleness or co∣lour be turned any other way, and be applied to any other person, although the Jews make illiterate allegations, and prodigious dreams, by which they have fool'd themselves for 1600. years together, and still hope without reason, and are confident without revelation, and pursue a shadow while they quit the glorious ••ody; while in the mean time the Christian prays for his conversion, and is at rest in the truth of Jesus, and hath certain unexpressible confidencies and internal lights, clarities of the holy Spirit of God, and loves to the holy Jesus produc'd in his soul, that he will die when he cannot dispute, and is sa∣tisfied and he knows not how, and is sure by comforts, and comforted by the excellency of his beleef, which speaks nothing but holiness, and light and rea∣son, and peace and satisfactions infinite, because he is sure that all the world can be happy if they would live by the Religion of Jesus, and that neither societies of men nor single persons can have felicity but by this, and that there∣fore God who so decrees to make men happy, hath also decreed that it shall for ever be upon the face of the earth, till the earth it self shall be no more. Amen.

Now if against this vast heap of things any man shall but confront the pretences of any other Religion,* 1.30 and see how they fail both of reason and holi∣ness, of wonder and Divinity, how they enter by force, and are kept up by humane interests, how ignorant and unholy, how unlearned and pitiful are their pretences, the darknesses of these must adde great eminency to the brightness of that. For the Jews Religion which came from heaven is therefore not now to be practised, because it did come from heaven, and was to expire into the Christian, it being nothing but the image of this perfection; and the Jews needed no other argument but this, that God hath made theirs impossible now to be done, for he that ties to Ceremonies and outward usages, Temples and Altars, Sacrifices and Priests, troublesome and expensive rites and figures of future signification, means that there should be an abode and fixt dwel∣ling, for these are not to be done by an ambulatory people; and therefore since God hath scattered the people into atomes and crumbs of society, with∣out Temple or Priest, without Sacrifice or Altar, without Urim or Thummim, without Prophet or Vision, even communicating with them no way but by ordinary providence, it is but too evident, that God hath nothing to doe with them in the matter of that Religion, but that it is expired, and no way obli∣gatory to them or pleasing to him which is become impossible to be acted; whereas the Christian Religion is as eternal as the soul of a man, and can no more cease then our spirits can die, and can worship upon mountains and caves, in fields and Churches, in peace and warre, in solitude and society, in persecu∣tion and in Sun-shine, by night and by day, and be solemnized by Clergy and Laity in the essential parts of it, and is the perfection of the soul, and the highest reason of man, and the glorification of God.

But for the Heathen religions it is evidently to be seen,* 1.31 that they are no∣thing but an abuse of the natural inclination which all men have to worship a God, whom because they know not, they guess at in the dark; for that they know there is and ought to be something that hath the care and providence of

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their affairs. But the body of their Religion is nothing but little arts of Go∣vernments, and stratagems of Princes and devices to secure the Government of new Usurpers, or to make obedience to the Laws sure, by being sacred, and to make the yoke that was not natural, pleasant by something that is. But yet for the whole body of it who sees not that their worshippings could not be sacred, because they were done by something that is impure, they appeased their gods with adul••eries and impure mixtures, by such things which Cato was ashamed to see, by gluttonous eatings of flesh, and impious drinkings, and they did litare in humano sanguine, they sacrificed men and women and children to their D••mons, as is notorious in the rites of Bacchus Omesta amongst the Greeks, and of Jupiter, to whom a Greek and a Greekess, a Galatian and a Galatess were yearly offered; in the answers of the Oracles to Calchas as appears in Ho∣mer and Virgil; who sees not that crimes were warranted by the example of their immortal gods, and that what did dishonour themselves, they sang to the honour of their gods, whom they affirmed to be passionate and proud, jealous and revengefull, amorous and lustfull, fearfull and im∣patient, drunken and sleepy, weary and wounded, that the Religions were made lasting by policy and force, by ignorance, and the force of cu∣stome, by the preferring an inveterate error, and loving of a quiet and prosperous evil, by the arguments of pleasure, and the correspondencies of sensuality, by the fraud of Oracles, and the patronage of vices, and because they feared every change as an Earthquake, as supposing overturnings of their old error to be the eversion of their well established Governments: and it had been ordinarily impossible that ever Christianity should have entred, if the na∣ture and excellency of it had not been such as to enter like rain into a fleece of wooll, or the Sun into a window without noise or violence, without emo∣tion and disordering the political constitution, without causing trouble to any man but what his own ignorance or peevishness was pleased to spin out of his own bowels, but did establish Governments, secure obedience, made the Laws firm, and the persons of Princes to be sacred; it did not oppose force by force, nor strike Princes for Justice; it defended it self against enemies by patience, and overcame them by kindness, it was the great instrument of God to demonstrate his power in our weaknesses, and to doe good to Man∣kinde by the imitation of his excellent goodness.

Lastly,* 1.32 he that considers concerning the Religion and person of Maho∣met, that he was a vicious person, lustful and tyrannical, that he propounded incredible and ridiculous propositions to his Disciples, that it entred by the sword, by blood and violence, by murder and robbery, that it propounds sen∣sual rewards and allures to compliance by bribing our basest lusts, that it con∣serves it self by the same means it entred; that it is unlearned and foolish, against reason, and the discourses of all wise men, that it did no miracles and made false Prophecies: in short, that in the person that founded it, in the ar∣ticle it perswades in the manner of prevailing, in the reward it offers it is un∣holy and foolish and rude; it must needs appear to be void of all pretence, and that no man of reason can ever be fairly perswaded by arguments, that it is the daughter of God and came down from heaven. Since therefore there is so nothing to be said for any other Religion, and so very much for Christia∣nity, every one of whose pretences can be proved as well as the things them∣selves doe require, and as all the world expects such things should be proved; it follows that the holy Jesus is the Son of God, that his Religion is com∣manded by God, and is that way by which he will be worshipped and honou∣red,

and that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved, but onely by the name of the Lord Jesus. He that puts his soul upon this cannot pe∣rish neither can he be reproved who hath so much reason and argument 〈◊〉〈◊〉 his Religion. Sit anima mea cum Christianis; I pray God my soul may be n••••∣bred amongst the Christians.

THIS 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I have here brought as an instance of moral demonstration, not onely to doe honour to my dearest Lord, by speaking true and great things of his Name, and indevouring to advance and esta••••lish his Kingdom••, but to represent in order to the first in••ention, that a heap of probabilities may in some cases make a sure Conscience; for as Ciecro says, Probable id est, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 habet in se quandam similitudinem, sive id falsum est, sive verum. For 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is not in the thing properly, for every thing is true or false in it self, and even false things may have the face and the likeness of truth, and cozen even w••se persons. It was said of Bias in Diogenes Laertius, Orator summus & 〈◊〉〈◊〉, sed in bonam causam dicendi vim omnem exercuit, he could speak excell••ntly, but then he spake best when he had an ill cause. This Lactantius 〈…〉〈…〉 malitiam, a cunning and an eloquent malice. But then as falshood many put on the face of truth, so may truth also look like it self; and indeed every truth that men preach in Religions is at least probable, that is, there is so much to be said for it, that wise and good men may be perswaded into every truth; an•• the cause that it is onely probable is by reason of our want of knowledge of things; but if it so happen that there is much to be said for the truth, and little or nothing against it, then it is a moral demonstration, that is, it ought to per∣swade firmly, and upon it we may rest confidently.

This onely I am to admonish, that our assent in these cases is not to be greater then the force of the premises,* 1.33 and therefore the Church of Rome offering to prove all her Religion as it distinguishes from the other divisions of Christians, onely by some prudential motives, or probable inducements, and yet requiring that all her disciples should beleeve it with Divine and infallible faith, as certainly as we beleeve a Mathematical demonstration, does unjustly require brick where she gives no straw, and builds a tower upon a bu••rush, and confesses that her interest is stronger then her argument, and that where by direct proof she cannot prevail, she by little arts would affright the understan∣ding. For to give a perfect assent to probable inducements can neither be rea∣sonable nor possible for considering persons, unless these conditions be in it.

The Requisites or Conditions of a Moral demonstration for the assu∣ring our Conscience.

1.* 1.34 That the thing be the most probable to us in our present condition: For there are summities and principalities of probation proportionable to the ages and capacities of men and women. A little thing determines a weak person; and children beleeve infinitely whatsoever is told to them by their Parents or Tutors, because they have nothing to contest against it. For in all probable discourses, there is an allay and abatement of perswasion by the opposition of argument to argument, but they who have nothing to oppose, and have no reason to suspect, must give themselves up wholly to it; and then every thing that comes is equally the highest, because it fully and finally must prevail. But then that which prevails in infancy seems childish and ridiculous

in our youth and then we are concluded by some pretences and pretty ••span, ••which for want of experience we think very well of; and we can then doe no more; that is a demonstration to us, which must deter∣mine us, and these little things must then doe it, because somthing must be done, and we must doe it as wisely as we may, but no man is bound to be wiser then he can. As the thing seems, either in its ownlight or in our position, so we are to g••ve our assent unto it.

2.* 1.35 A heap of probable in lucements ought to prevail, as being then a moral demonstration when the thing is not capable of a natural; for then probabilities ought to prevail, when they are the best argument we have. For if any man shall argue thus; It is not probable that God would leave his Church without sufficient means to end controversies, and since a living in∣••••llible Judge is the most effective to this purpose, it is therefore to be presu∣med and relied upon that God hath done so. This argument ought not to prevail as a moral demonstration; for though there are some semblances and appearances of reason in it, Nihil enim est tam incredibile quod non dicendo fiat probabile, said Cicero in his Paradoxes, there is nothing so incredible, but some∣thing may be said for it, and a witty man may make it plausible, yet there are certainties against it. For God hath said expresly, that every man is a liar, and therefore we are commanded to call no man Master upon earth, and the nature of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is weak, and his understanding trifling, and every thing abuses him, and every man that is wise sees his own ignorance, and he that is not wise is easily deceived, and they who have pretended to be infallible have spoken pi∣••iful things, and fallen into strange errors, and cannot be guarded from shame without a whole legion of artifices and distinctions, and therefore it is certain that no man is infallible; and where the contrary is certain, the probable pre∣te••ce is but a fallacy and an art of illusion.

3.* 1.36 There can be no moral demonstration against the word of God, or di∣vi••e revelation. He that should flatter himself with thinking the pains of hell sh••l••not be eternal, because it is not agreeable to the goodness of God to in∣flict a never ceasing pain for a sudden and transient pleasure, and that there can be no proportion between finite and infinite, and yet God who is the foun∣••••n of justice will observe proportions; (or if there could be ten thousand more little things said to perswade a sinning man into confidences of an end of tor∣ment) ye•• he would finde himself dece••ved, for all would be light when put into the ballance against these words of our blessed Saviour [Where the worm never dies, and the fire never goeth out.]

4.* 1.37 Where there is great probability on both sides, there neither of them can pretend to be a moral demonstration, or directly to secure the conscience: For contradictions can never be demonstrated; and if one says true, the other is a fair pretender, but a foul deceiver; and therefore in this case the conscience is to be secured indirectly and collaterally by the diligence of search, the ho∣nesty of its intention, the heartiness of its assent, the infirmity of the searcher, and the unavoidableness of his mistake.

5.* 1.38 The certainty of a moral demonstration must rely upon some certain rule, to which as to a centre, all the little and great probabilities like the lines of a circumference must turn; and when there is nothing in the matter of the question, then the conscience hath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 one great axiom to rely upon, and that is, that God is just, and God is good, and requires no greater probation then he hath en••bled us to finde.

6.* 1.39 In probable inducements, God requires onely such an assent as can be effective of our duty and obedience, such a one as we will rely upon to real events, such as Merchants have when they venture their goods to Sea upon reasonable hopes of becoming rich, or Armies fight battles in hope of vi∣ctory, relying upon the strength they have as probable to prevail; and if any article of our Religion be so proved to us as that we will reduce it to pra∣ctice, own all its consequences, live according to it, and in the pursuance of it hope for Gods mercy and acceptance, it is an assent as great as the thing will bear, and yet as much as our duty will require; for in these cases no man is wise but he whose ears and heart is open to hear the instructions of any man who is wiser and better then himself.

7.* 1.40 Rules of prudence are never to be accepted against a rule of Logick, or Reason, and strict discourses. I remember that Bellarmine going to prove Purgatory from the words of our blessed Saviour, It shall not be forgiven him in this world, nor in the world to come; argues thus, If this shall not be forgiven in the world to come, then it implies that some sins are there forgiven, and therefore there is a Purgatory; because in heaven there are no sins, and in hell there are none forgiven. This (says he) concludes not by the rule of Lo∣gicians, but it does by the rule of prudence. Now this to all wise men must needs appear to be an egregious prevarication even of common sense; for if the rules of Logick be true, then it is not prudence, but imprudence that con∣tradicts them, unless it be prudence to tell or to beleeve a lye. For the use of prudence is to draw from conjectures a safe and a wise conclusion when there are no certain rules to guide us. But against the certain rule it is folly that de∣clares, not prudence; and besides that this conjecture of Bellarmine is wholly against the design of Christ, who intended there onely to say, that the sin against the holy Ghost should never be pardoned; it fails also in the main inquiry, for although there are no sins in heaven, and in hell none are forgi∣ven, yet at the day of Judgement all the sins of the penitent shall be forgiven and acquitted with a blessed sentence: but besides this, the manner of expres∣sion is such as may with prudence be expounded, and yet to no such purpose as he dreams. For if I should say, Aristobulus was taken away, that neither in this life, nor after his death, his eyes might see the destruction of the Temple, does it follow by the rule of prudence, therefore some people can see in their grave, or in the state of separation with their bodily eyes? But as to the main inquiry, what is to be the measure of prudence? For some confident people think themselves very prudent, and that they say well and wisely, when others wiser then they know they talk like fools, and because no established reason can be contradicted by a prudent conjecture, it is certain that this pru∣dence of Bellarmine was a hard shift to get an argument for nothing, and that no prudential motives are to be valued because any man cals them so, but be∣cause they doe rely upon some sure foundation, and draw obscure lines from a resolved truth. For it is not a prudential motive, unless it can finally rest upon reason, or revelation, or experience, or something that is not contradi∣cted by any thing surer then it self.

Notes

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