ERRATAS  
PAge 8. Line 1. deal ●, p. 13. l. 14. for their r. the. p. 20. l. 10. for his, r. it's, p. 22. l. 26. for or, r. and, p. 47. l. 18. for product r. conduct, p. 47. l. 27, in the beginning add the word when, p. 56. l. 2. for whole r. upheld, p: 66. l. 14. deal Common Sentiment, p. 144. l. 14. in the beginning, add the World, p. 170, l. 11. for when, r. where, p. 174 l. 11. after expectance, add off, p. 189. l. 19 for may r. many, p. 205. l. 10. after thirty, add years, p. 206. l. 1●. for Elysian r: Elisinia●, p▪ 207. l. 12. for mend sius r. men▪ disius, p. 224. l. 16. for affords r. afforded, p. 258. l. 12. for words r: word, p. 259. l. 6. r. an, after in, p. 390. l. 24. for saniores r. seniores, p. 419. l. 26. for a, r a●, p. 494. l. 21. for providential r. prudential, p. 407. It 6. for by, r. be.   

S. Scrípturam Divinitùs esse revelatam, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, exploratò firmat iste Elenchus Prodeat è Typographiâ.  
Humph. London.   

THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Beleif.  
A DISCOURSE Giving some account of those RATIONAL GROUNDS upon which the BIBLE is received as the WORD of GOD.  
Written by Sir CHARLES WOLSELEY Bar t.  
LONDON, Printed by T.R. & N.T. for Nathaniel Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery lane near Fleetstreet, 1672.   

To the Earl of ANGLESEY.  
My Lord,  
BEsides the common enemies to all these Paperadventures, Those who suppose they can do much better; and such who are not pleased they have not done so well: from a twofold sort of Men I expect a severe reflection upon this undertaking; chief from those who make it their business to reject all Religion in gross as a thing no where Existing but in the Minds of sequacious and fearful Men, and deride all attempts made towards its rational justification: And also from them, who suppose things of this nature, privileged from all dispute or debate, things not to be proved but admitted, that all endeavours of this kind, are but an open arraignment of such Fundamentals as ought not to be questioned, a disservice done to the cause of Religion thereby, and at best in themselves but useless and impertinent.  
The following discourse (My Lord,) as it is in its nature no way condited to the gust of any such men on either hand; so I must needs acknowledge myself to be best pleased with whatever is least so: The first are an absurd Generation, that by an empty profane sort of discourse, which themselves call Wit, would fain Hector us out of the wisest and best part of the world, make that the scorn of this Age, which hath been the most valued and most revereneed in all others; And whenever reduced to any sober and rational contest, have no other relief from the shame of their own folly, than what they find in those naked shelters of ignorance and confidence: Irreligion 'tis true in its practice hath been still the companion of every Age, but its open and public defence seems the peculiar of this; 'Tis but of late that men come to defend ill living, and secure themselves against their own guilt, by an open defiance to all the great maxims of Piety and Virtue; 'Tis but of late the world hath been told, That the notion of a Spirit implies a contradiction; That the Bible is no where in force as a Law Divine, but where by Laws civil and municipal 'tis made so to be; That Religion is nothing else but a fear of invisible powers feigned in the Mind, and fancied from tales publicly allowed; These and most of the bad Principles of this Age are of no earlier a date than one very ill Book, are indeed but the spawn of the Leviathan: The other are a sort of easy and credulous men, that derive their Religion no higher than Education & Custom, have taken up their greatest concerns upon trust, and whensoever encountered but by any small artificer in the Sceptics, are sure to be sufficiently baffled, Themselves and Religion exposed to the utmost contempt; And upon all such attacks, they either go off wounded with a secret dislike of their own Profession, or oblige themselves to a stubborn and brutish sort of drudgery, to believe that for which they find they are able to give no good reason: Would such dull men once be at leisure from doing nothing; would they once be persuaded to make but a sally into the exercise of their own Reason, 'twere no hard task to convince them, that nothing proves more fatal to the public good of Religion, than this stupid sort of credulity; 'Tis from hence, and from that weak impotent defence of the most eminent Truths, that results naturally from it, that men's profane Triumphs have been chief erected; 'Tis from hence that we hear of so many, so easily, and so often seduced; And 'tis those Ages when Men fell off and retired from the rational proof of Religion, and sunk into implicit Belief, and ignorant Devotion, from whence we may date most of the great ills of Idolatry and Superstition, and from whence all those devout fooleries, which have since so cumbered the world, had their chiefest and first rise: As the whole of Religion is declared to be a reasonable Service, and can be no other, so all the Principles of it in order to it's so being, must upon rational grounds necessarily be established, what ever Belief is built upon the credit of any Revelation, aught to be ultimately resolved into a rational proof of that Revelation as such, and what ever appears to us upon those terms so to be, whatever can be sufficiently proved to be revealed to us from God, from the Sovereign Power of its Author, puts in but a reasonable claim to our assent, though the matter of it in some things exceed the bounds of a humane capacity; And herein it is the Socinians (who had they confined themselves to a rational proof that all we believe is revealed, had been of very good use to the Church) have greatly miscarried, and when they would need subject all the matter of Revelation to a rational comprehension, fell much short of that credit ought to be given to all that God reveals, fell foul upon those two Fundamentals of our Religion, the Union of the two Natures, and that of the Trinity, and indeed have come much short of that Reverence all Nations have paid to their Gods, who by all their Mysteries still have professed to believe some things upon the score of Divine Credit, which by their own Reason they could not fully comprehend.  
Were not the lose Principles, My Lord, of this degenerate Age, about the most Essential parts of Religion, somewhat more than a sufficient Apology, for whatever is done this way; yet me thinks we can never inculcate too much, even unto the best men upon this Subject, and that upon these two Grounds; First, because 'tis from this Book, we derive all the certain notions we have of another, and a farther World, and the great account of all invisible things; and Secondly because 'tis the highest Motive we have to all good living; 'tis from hence, from the authority of this Book, that we are chief obliged to all that is holy and good, and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life, when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see, and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life, nothing can seem more necessary than a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both.  
That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare, we may rely upon this Book, as that great and only Revelation, by which God will inform, rule, and judge the world; I have hereby attempted to make evident, not only from its own excellent nature and composure, and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanied its first Publication, and lasted till the Church was so far built, that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down; but also from many other considerations, from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result: And this task if sufficiently performed as 'twill give answer to all reasonable doubts, and cast a just contempt upon all profane reproaches; so it will also reflect much upon those,, who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God, yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof, declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended; and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand, and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other, who by a twofold superfoetation, that of endless Traditions, and that of new and continued Revelations, have rendered the whole Scriptures, if not useless, Yet as to their great end and design, altogether deficient and imperfect.  
My Lord, I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible, nor any way to secure myself against the just reproach of an ill performance; the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State; and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You, and that Candour and love to Truth you possess; 'Tis alone that great Honour, and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship, that Interests Your Name in this matter, though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature, Yet there is nothing more due from me, than an open and public profession that myself, and what ever I do, is devoted to Your Service. I know my Lord, into what hands I commit these Papers, when I present them to You, that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view, will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers; I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter, and want not a due sense what the, success must needs be: I know also your remedying kindness, and am enough secured thereby, am in this case upon the same terms of relief, that he was that discoursed before Caesar, who thus addressed to him, Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere, magnitudinem tuam ignorant, qui non audent, humanitatem; My Lord, as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism; So I promise myself some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief, as I know no better Property can be conveyed to the World, than a Rational Possession of God and his Word; So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required, To whom I own all that is due to the most Generous, and most lasting Friendship, and shall ever be as much as I can be, which is but what I ought to be,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's most true Friend, And, most Humble & Faithful Servant, CHARLES WOLSELEY.   

THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief.  
THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE, there needs little to be said to prove it. The instance were as hard to find, as 'tis unreasonable in itself to suppose, that any man should, at the same time, reject the Bible as Fictitious, and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True. For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion (which is absurd to suppose of any Religion) or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew, and renounce the Ol● Testament, nor he a Mahometan that disclaims the Koran. Because, to deny the Authority of those Books, is, visibly to raze the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions. Although the fact of Christ's being in the World, and many other things relating to the Christian Religion, be attested to by other writings; yet the Scriptures are the only means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation, and which alone, contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion. No considerable attempt has been, at any time made, to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible, to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws, to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles; or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines, from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other system of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book?  
Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation laid, whereon to erect Christianity, where the Bible is excluded. For, whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible, by writing or tradition, descended down to the World, touching the Christian Religion, has been either by its Friends, or its Enemies. For the Latter, no mention is made in any Heathen Writer, of any Christian Laws, nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion, farther than what we find in the Bible itself: And so amounts to no more than a Cumulative help to its Credibility. And 'tis evident, those of the Heathen who have, at any time, opposed the Christian Profession, and disputed most against it, have opposed it as contained there. That Book being granted, on all hands, to comprise its Doctrine, and to be the stated rule of that Religion. For the former, whatever has been, by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion, and gave their Assent to it, conveyed down to us, can never induce any other Rule of that Religion than the Bible. For, besides that all such Collateral traditions are, in their own nature, relative to the Bible, dependant upon it, and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it; they have also come from the hands of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages, to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion. So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established. And if it be dis-believed in tha● there can be then no good reason to receiv● any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance▪ To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible, is to become a perfect Problem. No such man can produce an● Laws or Rules of his Religion, nor give an● account wherein they are contained, or b● whom or by what Church (with an exclusion of the Bible) they have been at any tim● Received.  
Nor can any man rationally make a Partial rejection of the Bible, and retain a Christian Profession from thence, in a Limited sens● of his own. For a man to say, he receive the Bible, as he receives other credible writings, as a book generally True, and written by men that meant honestly and well, but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it, nor submits to it as such, is to say a thing extremely incongruous to all good sense, and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity. For, the Bible comes to us with a claim o● God's Authority attending it, speaks to us in his Name, is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement, proposeth itself as written by Divine Inspiration, and Immediate Direction from God, admits of no Composition for its Reception. In such a case, there can be no Middle-way, but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such, or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable. It is in nothing to be credited, if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be. For there cannot be a more vile and pernicious falsehood imposed upon the world, then to counterfeit a Divine Law, and to pretend that to come from Heaven, and to be sent us from God, which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premises that the Scriptures were not written, in every part of them, by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost, when they themselves tell us that they were so, must needs descend to this conclusion, that they then contain the most impudent falsehood, and were composed by the worst designers against mankind.  
The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related, and standing in so near a conjunction as they do: The being of the one having so necessary a dependence upon the Truth and Authority of the other, 'Twill be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority, and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired, and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform, Rule, and Judge the World.  
He that undertakes this Province, and designs to himself such a service, is obliged, First, To consider with whom he is like to encounter! And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to. This being admitted (which it ought to be) that no man can, with any good Reason, close with the Christian Religion, and at the same time Renounce the Bible. That Maxim of St. Austin being undeniable, that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus. There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can, at any time, be generally Attact, and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion. First, Such who wholly deny the being of God (and consequently of all Religion, for God and Religion are Relatives) such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession. Secondly, Such who admit the Being of God, and a supreme and first cause, but deny his providence, and believe he is no way concered about the World, nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it. Thirdly, Such who admit the Being of God, and the existence of Religion, and providence, but reject the Christian Religion, as not True, and embrace some other in opposition to it.  
Of those firstborn Monsters of Mankind, that Anomalous offspring who deny the Being of God, whose principles contain in them the utmost dregs of all humane Apostasy, and are of all others, the most wild and absurd, for, as Cicero says, Deos esse, ita perspicuum est, ut is qui negat, vix eum sanae mentis existimem. The Being of the Gods is so evident, that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it. A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject; and therefore I have already contested with such, and dispatched all my concerns with them, in order to this matter, and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation, of whom it may most truly be said, They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion, but indeed they are Hosts Humani generis, The common enemies of all mankind: Who, by denying a Supreme Being above, demolish the great support of all well-being here below. Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens, in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of ●speculative Irreligion upon the World; and therefore Cotta tells us, in Cicero, that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism, De Diis neque ut sint, neque ut non sint, habeo dicere, Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus, Librique ejus in concione combusti. And he adds, Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos, quip cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset.  
For those secundary Enemies to the Bible, and together with that of all Religion, such who admit the Being of God, but deny all Providence, and Divine Rule over the World; such who out of shame, disown the grand principle of Atheism, but yet, by this Method, secure all the effects of it to themselves. Of those a preliminary consideration on aught to be had. A previous confutation of such principles, being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand. For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to endeavour to prove any Book to be Divine, and a Law given forth from God, if there be no such Law any where in Being; which we are sure there never can be, if God no way concerns himself with what men do, nor exercises any Dominion at all over them? 'Tis plain, such principles do, uno ictu, dispatch all Religion out of the World, put a perfect period to all Divinity, and render it a thing very absurd, to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine. To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat. Deor. Sin autem Dii (says he) neque possunt nos juvare, nec volunt, nec curant omnino, nec quid agamus animadvertunt, nec est quod ab his ad hominum vitam permanare possit, Quid est quod ullos Diis immortalibus Cultus, Honours, Praeces, adhibeamus? If the Gods be no way concerned about us, to what end should we worship or serve them? And Cotta in the same book tells Velleius, That Epicurus, by making God careless of the affairs of men, Sustulerit omnem funditus Religionem: Has utterly subverted all Religion. Quid est enim cur Deos ab hominibus colendos dicas, cum Dii non modo hominibus non consulant, sed omnino nihil curent, nihil agant? The same Justin Martyr observed in the beginning of his Dialogue with Tryphon, speaking to him of the opinion of those Philosophers who denied the Doctrine of Providence. Says he, Hoc vero ad quem illi referant finem intelligere disicile non est; Nam hoc efficit securitas atque libertas loquendi, & eos qui haec docent sectandi, & quod volunt agendi, & dicendi impunitas. Neque paenam aliam metuens, neque bonum quodque sperans a Deo.  
That men by a denial of Providence, do only publish another Edition of Atheism is evident enough. 'Tis in itself equally destructive to all Virtue and Religion, and lies in no less opposition to all true reasoning, to say the highest Being no way concerns himself with what men do here below, as to say there is no such Being at all. That there is such a being, and that this Being is a punisher of evil doers, and a Rewarder of them that do well, is the great Topick from whence all Religion, and all good Manners are derived. If God regard not what Men do, they are no more obliged in their actions then if there were no God at all: And 'tis not more unreasonable to deny that God Is, then to admit him to be, and then deny those things that must necessarily belong to such an Existence.  
That the fixed belief of God's Rule over the world accompanied the notion of his Being, amongst the best and wisest of the Heathen, will appear obvious, if we consult the writings of Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Simplitius, and many others of them. Balbus in Tully thus gins his Speech. Omnino dividunt nostri totam istam de Diis immortalibus questionem, in parts quatour. Primum docent esse Deos, deinde quales sint, tum Mundum ab his Administrari, postremo eos consulere rebus humanis. Those of our opinion always divide the question about the Gods into four parts; First, we teach that the Gods are: Then how they exist! Then, that the World is governed by them: And lastly, that they take the care of humane affairs. And Tully in his second Book de Legib. tells us, Persuasum hoc sit a principio hominibus Dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores Deos, eaque quae gerantur eorum geriditione atque numine. Men have believed this from the beginning that the Gods governed the World, and that all things were under their Dominion and Rule. Epicurus, who first assaulted the Doctrine of Providence, and by a denial of that found a way to transform the notion of God, so far as it concerns men, into a mere nullity, would needs suppose it a thing below the greatness of God to take any notice of humane affairs, or concern himself with what men did here. And therefore Cotta tells Velleius in Cicero, speaking of him, In illis selectis ejus brevibusque sententiis quas appellatis, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hac ut opinor prior sententia est, Quod Beatum & Immortal est, id nee babet nec exhibet cuiquam negotium. This was one of his chiefest Aphorisms, that the Blessed and Immortal Being had no employment himself, nor occasioned any trouble to others, which appeared a thing so absurd in itself, and so Heterodox to all true Philosophy, that the best Moralists sharply rebuked his folly, thought this opinion of his to be Turpis & indigna, base and unworthy, and refused him the Honour to be styled a Philosopher, who would be so unworthy to suppose that sloth and stupidity in the Deity, which every worthy and good man thought beneath himself. Aristotle (though no very good Divine, nor very Orthodox asserter of Providence, yet) so loathed this absurd fiction of Epicurus, and a total denial of Providence, that he speaks of it with this keen reflection: says he, Diversity of questions requires diversity of answers; Some ask whether Fire be hot! These must be answered by being made to touch it. Some ask whether their Parents are to be honoured! These are not to be discoursed with but rebuked. Others ask whether there be any Providence that Rules the world, and refuse to believe it without apparent demonstrations! Such men (says he) should be answered by a Whip, rather than by a Philosopher.  
How extreme unreasonable the denial of Providence and Gods universal Rule over the world is, how unsuitable and opposite to those conceptions of him our own Reasons dictate to us! will soon appear, if we view over those fond speculations men have pleased themselves with about this matter.  
Some have confined providence to the Heavens, and limited it to what is above us. Will needs Imagine that God regards nothing beyond the Sphere of the Heavens, and that his Dominion reacheth no farther than the Heavenly Bodies; those they acknowledge, are under a Divine disposure. God settles (they grant) the Stars in their courses, and orders all the●● Celestial Bodies; but has no concern at all for any thing here below, nor regards what happens on this side the Clouds. This folly is sufficiently confuted, when we consider how evident it is that the Motions and Influences of the Heavens are all designed for the use and benefit of Mankind, and the good of all sublunary things, and are still guided with a constant and suitable tendency thereunto. Now, how unreasonable is it to suppose, That God should provide and dispose means in order to an end, and yet have no regard to the end itself! That God should govern the Heavens in order to the good of this lower world, and yet be no way at all concerned about it! And that man (for whose sake chief all things above, as well as below appear to be made and disposed) should be less regarded than those things made subservient to his use!  
Others have Imagined that Providence is exercised about Universals, but not about Singulars; that God takes care of Generals, but nor of particulars. This Justin Mart. in his discourse with Tryphon, tells him, was the opinion of some Philosophers in Graece. Saith he, Illi etiam nobis persuadere moliuntur Universitatis quidem hujus ac generum specierumque ipsarum curam gerere Deum, mei autem, atque tui & unius cujusque singillatim non itidem. They will needs persuade us that God hath a general care of the whole, but not a distinct care of you, and I, and of every particular part. The vanity of which will soon appear, if we consent to this undeniable truth, that all generals result out of particulars, and consist of them. The Species of Mankind subsists in the Individuals and Particulars, comprehended under it: And therefore God cannot be said to take care of Mankind, nor his Providence to extend to it in general, unless it do so in particulars, and his care reach to every Individual man. Abstract the Genus of any sort of Creatures from the Species and particulars, of which it necessarily consists, and 'tis nothing. When we place Providence so upon Generals, as to abstract it from particulars, we make it a nullity; nor can there be Providence exercised over Generals, without a distinst care of particulars; because those generals do necessarily include each particular. This is excellently proved by Plato in his discourse de Legib. That the whole of nothing can subsist, without a distinct care of all the particular parts, and therefore infers; 'tis no way fit to be credited, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that God who is so wise and excellent a Being, should neglect to precide over any part of the World, and not take an universal care of the whole; and Cicero in his first Book de Divinatione, upon the same ground concludes thus, Deorum Providentia Mundus administratur, ijdemque consulunt rebus Humanis, neque solum universis, verum etiam singulis. The Gods govern the world, and take care of humane affairs, and not only of universals, but also of singulars.  
A third sort there have been, that will have Divine Providence reach no farther than Men that say, 'tis conversant, circa Homines, non circa Bestias, that God descends not to the care of other Creatures beneath man, nor busies himself with those inferior parts of the world. This Doctrine seems to have been first set on foot by some of the Jews, from whom 'tis probable Pythagoras learned it, and became the teacher of it in Graece; for so we find it in Hierocles. And it has been too much countenanced since by St. Jerome, in in his Exposition of the Prophecy of Habakkuk.  
That God by his Providence, after a various manner, Rules over the several parts of the world, and guides and disposes them according to the Nature of their Being's, and that proper end to which he first designed them, is not to be denied. But that any parts of the world (those beings beneath the nature of Man) are not under the conduct of Providence, is a position evidently untrue; for if we consider Providence as it relates to preservation, the entire Fabric of the world, in the whole of it, cannot be continued without a preservation of every part. If we consider Providence as it relates to Rule and Dominion, there can be nothing more plain, then that all Irrational Creatures are so under the Sovereignty and Dominion of Providence; because they are all guided in whatsoever they do to some particular end, and all in general to one common End. Now to move or act towards some end, is the peculiar property of an intelligent Being. And therefore when we see Creatures void of Intelligence, constantly and regularly moving and acting toward some end, and all to a common end: 'Tis plain they are guided by some superior Intelligence that has a supreme conduct of their Being; which can be no other than that we call God in his Providence.  
But the grand and total subverter of the Doctrine of Providence is Epicurus, with Lucretius, Pliny, and others that have in this point embraced his sentiments. They wholly deny all Providence whatsoever: Suppose it a thing beneath the supreme Being to take any notice of humane affairs; Imagine the world wholly left to itself, and that God is retired above, having not the least employment himself, nor at all regarding what others do.  
To what just contempt, and to how palpable a confutation Epicurus and his followers, and all deniers of Providence, expose themselves by the vanity and folly of such an opinion, will, with great ease, be made to appear to every impartial understanding. If God exercise no Dominion over the world, nor take any care of its preservation, if there be no such thing as Providence in either kind, it must either be because he cannot, or because he will not. To say the first, is to deny what men say before, when they admit (which the Epicureans do) the existence of an Infinite Being. 'Tis a gross contradiction to say God cannot rule the world, and yet to say he is Infinite. (And 'tis plain, Infiniteness is inseparably annexed to his Being) If there be such a being that was before all, and infinitely above all, there can be no reasonable doubt of his power and ability, to rule and command all, and where ever his making and first framing of all is acknowledged there cannot be any; for there can be no subjection in itself so natural and so necessary as in what is made, to him that made it; nor any Dominion so absolute or so certain as in the first framer of all things. To say that God cannot Rule the world, is, in effect, to say, there is no God that made the world: for the admission of the one, naturally infers the possibility of the other. 'Tis much easier to suppose God's Dominion over it now, than his Creation of it at first; and he that denies a possibility of the former, can upon no good ground suppose the latter. Secondly, to say that God will not, that is, though he could Rule and order the world, yet out of choice he refuseth do it, and hath designedly withdrawn himself from all the concerns of it, is an affirmation highly unreasonable; and that upon many accounts.  
First, This is plainly to suppose (if we admit Creation) that God made the world to no purpose at all, beyond its bare existence, and without any designed end to himself by it, future to its simple Being: for Providence is nothing but the preserving and guiding of all things existing, to a common end. 'Tis to suppose a world capable of many noble and excellent ends, when made, without proposing any end at all to himself by it. The meanest Composers in the smallest matters are never guilty of such an absurdity! 'Twere strange to Imagine the highest Wisdom, and the perfection of it should (in that act of making the World) fall beneath the exercise of every common discretion. No man attempts any thing without a prospect of some end: If God have laid by all thoughts of the world, and concerns himself no more about it then as if no such thing as the World were at all in being (which by the Epicurean Doctrine he does) What end can we conceive God to have in the first making of it? Nay, 'tis not only unreasonable to suppose that God infinitely wise, should make the World without proposing any end, but without proposing the highest and utmost end to himself the World is capable of. If any man say, that God in making the World, had no other end but the making of it, and that the bare act of making it was his end; he says that which is extremely absurd, and that upon these two Grounds. First, The bare act of Gods making the World could never be his end; because the World itself, when made, barely considered, only as made, and in his simple existence could not be his end; and if so, than the act of making it could not be his end, because all the rational End of making must lie in the Thing made. Whoever makes, without respect to the thing made by him, makes without respect to the true End of making, which cannot be supposed of the workmanship of God. Now; that the simple being of the World (abstractedly considered from all use and exercise of it) could not be Gods only end when he first made it, is evident from hence, that no being, quà a being, can be Gods ultimate end but his own being. All other created beings contain God's end in their existency, as they relate in that existency to a dependence upon him, a subserviency and subjection to him: Not simply as they are beings, separately considered from the dependency and use of their beings. And therefore, in the denial of Providence, and Gods being any way concerned in humane affairs, the Epicuraeans will be forded to confess God made the World without proposing any End at all to himself by it, unless it were its bare existence, which separate from a subordination to him, and a dependence upon him (all which purely relate to the notion of Providence) is impossible to be his end in any being but his own. Secondly, all such as say God had no end in making the World but the making of it, must needs upon their own supposition acknowledge, that end ceased when the World was once made. And then we must Imagine, God, by his Wisdom and Power to frame such a structure as this world is, and yet design it to no use nor end at all, when it should be existing, and that so great variety of such excellent beings, capable of such noble Ends, should be made by him, with such a capacity, without any farther determination or future design about them; and that God has continued this World, or at least suffered it to continue, ever since it was first existing, without any regard at all to it, or any end designed to himself by it, all which is most ridiculous to conceive, that infinite Wisdom and power should stand by, and have no share at all in such an affair as the continual revolution of this World.  
Secondly, By saying that God refuseth either to govern or care for the World, that (being blessed and happy in himself) he looks no farther than the enjoyment of his own blessedness within himself; we deny the necessary effects and emanations of that goodness which we must needs ascribe to him. 'Tis a true and a general Axiom of all subordinate good (and much more of the highest good) Bonum est sui Diffusivum, that's comprehended in its Definition. Who can believe that infinite goodness should not delight in communicating good? and should deny to care for others? This principle lies secured in every worthy Breast here below, and shall we shut it out of Heaven? shall we believe God to be of a contrary Nature to what we ourselves think best? that were highly to divorce ourselves from the notion of him as our Creator; can any man reasonably believe it consisting with God's goodness to make a World that he knew would be subject to so much trouble and sorrow as this is, and resolve to be no way concerned about it? What impotency and want does this World give us a prospect of! or whether does it naturally tend for supply, but to infinite goodness? 'Twere a most high indignity offered to the Divine bounty to suppose God so to withdraw himself; and 'tis no less a wrong done to mankind, to exclude them from the Rule and protection of such a being as that we ascribe to God, wherein they must needs be most happy and best secured. 'Tis to forbid the most necessary actings of the supreme being, and deny to ourselves the greatest comfort of our own beings. We see in all things created a natural care to preserve their offspring, and a constant oversight of what Nature has charged them withal; And from whence should this excellent genius, both in rational and irrational creatures, be derived, but from the first framer and composer of all things? And can we suppose less in Him than he hath given to us? Can we, with any good reason, put that upon God which would be the greatest reproach to ourselves? Which is, not to take care of what belongs to us, and what we are but the Secondary Authors of? When we see every Creature, by the Law of its being, obliged to the care of its proper and peculiar part, 'twere a most unworthy and unnatural conception to think the great God did not take care of the whole.  
Thirdly, In denying Providence, we deny the necessary effects of the highest Justice: nay, of any Justice. Indeed, we charge perfect Justice with the greatest Injustice. Were it not so, if God should refuse to punish the vile practices of men toward himself and toward each other? To suffer them to blaspheme Him in Heaven, and to commit all outrages upon Earth, and take no notice at all of it? When, by the infinity of his knowledge, he cannot be ignorant of it, and by the infinity of his power, he cannot be unable to punish it? And were it not high Injustice, should we suppose no reward for the Righteous, nor regard of them? Nor any recompense for all the Virtuous Religious actions we see performed amongst Mankind? Who is able so unworthily to conceive of God? What madness is it to acknowledge the perfection of all those excellent Attributes we can conceive off to be in God, and yet suppose an exercise of them beneath what we find amongst Men! To deny that to Him which we daily experience and applaud in every virtuous and good Man! What good Man, in Authority, would refuse to punish an offender, or reward a Worthy action? And yet, if we believe Epicurus, we must imagine God to sit still in Heaven, and take no notice at all either of that Good or Evil which is daily practised amongst Mankind. This Doctrine of Epicurus does, in truth, transform the notion of God into a mere Idol. 'Tis in effect to say God has eyes, but sees not: He has Hands, but works not: He is in Heaven, able to do what he will, but his will is to do just nothing. God, as he is the Supreme Maker of all, so he is thereby necessarily the Supreme Lord and Ruler over all. The right of Supreme Magistracy is inseparable to his being, as containing the highest Power and Authority both Legislative and Executive. All Dominion, whether Natural or Political, is derived from him as the Head of it, and He himself is the Supreme Magistrate over the whole, and can not otherwise stand related to the World. We can no other way rightly conceive of God's Power and Authority but as Magistratical, nor look upon him in any other notion then as our chief and supreme Ruler; and so are to take no measure of His proceed from the actings of private persons, but are to suppose God so to deal with the World as the supreme dispenser of Justice, and placed in the highest Seat of Magistratical Authority. And if this be true (as most demonstrably 'tis so) how contrary is Epicurus his Doctrine to a right apprehension of God and how inconsistent with it! How inseparably is providence annexed to all true Conceptions of him! And what a poor account does Epicurus give us of God without it? What a Magistrate does he render the most supreme Magistrate? One that neither relieves the oppressed, punishes the guilty, rewards the well-doer, nor indeed takes any notice of what his Subjects either do or say. 'Tis in short, impossible to separate supreme Magistracy from God; His being supposeth it; 'tis evidently proved virtually and essentially to belong to him, from an induction of all particulars relative to it. And if so, 'tis extremely unreasonable not to suppose from his hand, the most complete and perfect exercise of all Magistratical Authority that we are any way able to conceive of.  
Fourthly, To suppose that God declines the exercise of all Empire and Rule over the world, is to suppose him to decline the most essential property of his own being, and the noblest exercise of any being. First, the most essential property of his own being. 'Tis as essential to God to Rule as to Be. God's existence, we say, is a necessary existence; He cannot but be; which implies a necessary superiority. That which cannot but, be, cannot but be above all. For, whatever has a power superior to it, has a possibility not to be. And that which cannot but be above all, cannot but Rule over all. Because, the very being of superiority lies in the exercise of Dominion, and cannot be upheld without it. To fancy the existence of infinite Power without exercise, is to frame an Idol in in our own imaginations, and to fancy what is in itself impossible to be. Infinite Power to Rule, implies infinite Actual Rule. We can never separate between infinite Power and infinite Dominion. The being of the one necessarily implies the other. Whatever is in God is actually in him. God has not only virtually an infinite power, but an infinite power in Act. Infinite power must needs be in continual Act, and cannot be otherwise, because Infinite. And therefore all things must needs be in subjection to it. We are so to conceive of all God's Attributes as things not only in Potentia, but in Facto esse. God's infinite Wisdom is not only an ability to be wise, but an infinite Act and Exertion of wisdom. So his infinite knowledge is not only an infinite capacity of knowing, and ability to know, but an infinite actual knowledge of all things, excluding an ignorance of anything. 'Twere to annex imperfection to God's Attributes to say, they are not in exercise; Power, in its exercise, implies Dominion. 'Tis from defect where 'tis not so exerted. And therefore, from infinite Power in which there can be no defect, must needs arise infinite Dominion. 'Twas a childish conceit of Epicurus to think that infinite Power could be set by, and not be in continual operation, or that any thing could move, act, or exist, without a necessary subjection to infinite Power. Should the world rule itself, and be under no subjection, God's Power would cease to be, what it can never but be, which is, infinite in its Supremacy. Should any one thing be done in the World and not come under the exercise of God's supreme and Sovereign Rule, his Power would cease to be Infinite, because not actually above all: Which it can never be unless it actually Rule over all.  
Besides, Were it a supposition capable of admission, or such a thing as could pretend to a possibility, that infinite power could be set by, and exist without exercise, who could embrace so gross an absurdity as to believe that God should thus determine with himself, that the best use that could be made of infinite Power, were, to make no use at all of it! And so, having at first made the World by his wisdom and Power, should leave it perfectly to its own Chanceable revolutions, without any farther effect or communication of either.  
Secondly, We suppose God (in declining the Rule of the World) to decline the noblest exercise of any being. We can think of nothing more excellent than Rule and Dominion to employ the largest mind, and dispense the compleatest virtues. And is it reasonable to divest the highest Power of it? To have Power, and to use it for the good of others, is that we most applaud amongst men. Those best faculties we have (by which we can only conceive of God's excellent nature) their Perfection lies in Communication. He that Rules well, does the best thing we can frame an idea of. And therefore the Rule of the World is the most excellent thing we can ascribe to God. Cicero, in his 2 Book De Nat. Deor. speaks fully to this. Nihil est (says he) praeclarius mundi administratione Deorum, Igitur Consilio administratur mundus: Nihil est praestantius Deo; Ab eo igitur necesse est mundum regi. Those of the best endowments we think the fittest for Empire. And the more excellent any soul is, the more enlarged and vigorous in action it is. And shall we suppose God not to Rule in Heaven? Shall we think him very vain that should tell us? We then make the best Use of all humane abilities, when we least employ them! Because the great and natural end of all ability for action, is action: And yet shall we suppose that God lays by the exercise of all his Infinite attributes, and wholly retires himself in Heaven? Who is able (without assaulting his own Reason) to admit such conception of that excellent being we ascribe to God, and father that upon him which would make up the Character of a very ill man.  
But to render the absurdity of this Doctrine more evident to every impartial man, let me ask the Epicureans this question; If God doth not rule the World, and that darling Axiom of Epicurus be true, that Quod eternum beatumque sit nec habere ipsum negotii quidquam, nec exhibere alteri. How comes God to give Laws to the World? to admit the one, and still to affirm the other were ridiculous; for they are inseparable Relatives. All Laws necessarily relate to Rule and Dominion, on the one hand, and obedience and subjection on the other hand. That God has planted a natural Law in every man's Being, relating to his own Superiority and man's Subjection, is in truth past all rational denial. Whence comes that inherent distinction of good and evil every man is born with? and which nothing humane can either alter or abrogate? but with reference to God's authority over him? What is that we call Conscience in every man, but God's vicegerent here below, and the Vicar-general of his supreme Rule over the World? Epicurus perceiving that if he once admitted any such thing as that we call the Law of Nature, or an inherent distinction of good and evil in Men, Providence (from thence) would necessarily be implied, positively denies it; saying there is no such thing as the Law of Nature, nor any thing of that kind; and maintains this Hypothesis, that there is nothing in the naked Essence of things that discriminates them; but that all difference of things comes from Custom and Positive Law. First, I must needs say that Epicurus by this Doctrine; renders himself unworthy of all debate and discourse, because he denies common experience, and what every man may know to be true from his own breast, without farther information. And there needs no other demonstration than an appeal to all impartial Reason in the Case. Aristotle says (and upon good grounds) that no dispute ought to be admitted against experience; because, if I once bring that into question I disclaim all ground of certainty. And therefore amongst all wise men, things of common experience are still excluded and set aside from all debate and dispute. How great stress soever the Epicureans lay upon this Principle (and they lay very great upon it) both from the Reason of things in themselves considered, and from common experience, 'tis proved to be equally false and pernicious. The Law of Nature I call the dictates of right Reason, showing good or evil to be in some things by their agreement or disagreement with the rational Nature, and so consequently, to be commanded and forbidden by the Author of Nature, God himself. The truth of this definition will appear very evident; for first, a Natural Law must needs be seated in the Rational faculty, as being the superior part of man. Nothing can truly or properly be said to be a Rule or a Law to a Rational Being, arising from itself, but the genuine dictates of Reason. Secondly, whatsoever my Reason tells me is in itself good (by its agreement to that judgement my Reason makes of what is so) I must needs think that agreeable to the Nature of God, and must needs think myself under obligation to it from God. Under obligation to it I must be, because of mine own judgement about it; and that Judgement must needs oblige me as a Law given to me from God; because 'twas he made me with a faculty so judging, and is in truth himself the author of this Judgement by creating the faculty that necessarily makes it. Whatever Judgement God makes a man with, must needs be a Law from God given to him, and he can never departed from it without offending him that was the Author of it, and placed it within him as a Rule of his Being. Whatever judgement God made me with, concerning myself and all other things, is his Judgement: And what is God's Judgement is a Law to me, and I can never oppose it without sin, being in mine own existence, made with a necessary subjection unto him. Now I say, that by the Judgement of the Rational faculty, and the dictates of right Reason, Mankind necessarily make such a distinction of things; that is, they determine some actions and some things to be in themselves intrinsically good, and others intrinsically evil, from the Nature of the things themselves, as they stand related to the Rational Judgement, abstracted from all collateral considerations whatever. And there is no reason to be given of that, more than of the faculty of Reason itself, that Man is created by God with a faculty so judging. He that denies the being of this natural Law, must obliterate the judgement of Reason, by which every man becomes a necessary and unrepealable Law to himself in his opinion of things: 'Tis effect to deny a man to be Rational, to make all things alike to him, as to the good or evil of them; because the faculty we call Reason exists in every man with such an innate distinction. No man (using his Reason) can think falsehood and truth equally good in themselves. Justice and injustice, Mercy and Cruelty are distinguished by the fundamental constitution of our beings, and can never be equal competitors to a Rational approbation. A man may well say, that the determinations that men make upon the plainest demonstrations depend not upon the intrinsic certainty of the Rational faculty, as to say, their determinations about good and evil do not so. For the one lie, every jot, as connate to the Judgement of the Rational faculty as the other. A corrupt vicious man has the Judgement of all unblassed Reason against him, as much as a false conclusion in Mathematics: And a Virtuous man for him, as much as the most evident demonstrable Truth. No man (of untainted intellectuals) can equally esteem a Religious Socrates, and a profane Caligula, and a sensual Sardanapalus, and a virtuous Cato. Many things appear to us in themselves intrinsically good, and so oblige us from the dictates of Reason, and those primary statutes of Nature, and no positive Law can alter or supersede the Obligation. That Children should obey their Parents, and not Parents the Children, has no indifferency in it; nor can the Obligation be removed or inverted by any Custom or positive Law, that the Deity should be venerated is a Statute of Nature. Epicurus himself confesseth we are to venerate the Deity for its excellency. But upon what ground I would know? If upon the ground of our natural light, and an Obligation arising from the innate dictates of Reason, he must then admit the Laws of Nature; and, by so doing, 'tis certain he destroys his own Doctrine, and will be forced to acknowledge a Providence. If barely upon positive Law, he falls under this horrible absurdity, to make it at the pleasure of Men (for so are all things that depend merely upon positive Law) whether the Deity shall be so venerated or no. If the being of a Deity, and the excellency of such a being, be established by natural light, I am sure the Veneration of him is so too; and if it be not so established, but made to be indifferent to believe whether there be such being or no, Men may then by their own pleasure make and unmake their Gods, as they do their Pictures and Statues. When we are told we must venerate the Deity for its excellency, we are told that which is true; but as Epicurus did circumstantiate this Doctrine, 'twas not like to produce much Religion; for, at the same time; he denies the being of all natural Laws, and makes all things in themselves, indifferent, and also denies all Providence, and any future Estate after this l●fe, by which all rewards and punishments are excluded; so that the Epicurean Religion is in the very foundation of it wholly Precarious, and depends upon the pleasure of men, or else destructive to itself and its own Principles. The Deity is to be venerated for its excellency (says the Epicureans) that is, if Men please to make Laws it shall be so; for otherwise, 'tis, in itself indifferent. If they say, 'tis not indifferent, but that we are obliged so to do by a natural determination of Reason; that's an acknowledging of the Law of Nature, and therein an admission of Providence. To say the Deity must be venerated, and at the same time to say that all actions and things are in themselves indifferent is plainly to say, there are no stated rules for this veneration, farther than positive Laws make them, and that a man may practise any thing, the very worst of things (supposing positive Laws not to forbid them) and yet be a Religious venerator of the Deity; the admission of which is loathsome to all Mankind. To say that a Man must venerate the Deity, and yet to annex no reward to the doing of it, nor any punishment to the not doing of it, here nor hereafter, is to prepare men to be Religious by telling them before hand, if they be so, it shall be no whit the better for them, and if they be not so, it shall not be one jot the worse. This notion of Epicurus (which yet is the whole of his Divinity) so circumstantiated, seems to me so weak an attempt toward any thing of Religion, that I rather think of him as Cicero does, That he was a man perfectly without any Religion, and had no belief of a Deity at all. For so says he of him, in the end of his first Book De Nat. Dear. Verius est igitur illud nimirum quod familiaris omnium nostrum Posidonius disseruit. In libro quinto De natura Deorum. Nullos esse Deos Epicuro videri: quaeque is de Diis immortalibus dixerit invidiae detestandae gratia dixisse.  
Two things (of which the whole world, in all ages, have had experience) do evidently discover the falsehood of this position, that all things are in themselves alike to mankind, till custom and positive Law make a difference. First, We find men passing a judgement upon themselves in the Closet of their own breasts, accusing and excusing themselves about matters no way connizable and no way determined by any positive Law, but merely guided herein by the unavoidable evidence that their own Reason gives in concerning the good or evil of things. In all times and ages this Truth hath been established. For as Cicero says truly, Time wears out errors of opinion, but confirms all Natural truths. Every man's own reason carries an innate condemnation in it to some things as evil, and an approbation of others as good, and this no way founded in Customs or Laws of times or places, but in the very faculty of Reason itself and is neither Created nor can be Abrogated by any thing humane. For, as Philo say well, Lex mentiri nescia est recta ratio, quae Lex non ab hoc aut ab illo mortali mortalis, non in Chartis aut Columnis exanimis exanima, sed corrumpi nescia, quip ab immortali natura insculpta in immortali intellectu. If there were no Laws but positive, and what had their rise among men, were men under no obligation to the natural Light of their own beings; How can we conceive rational creatures to make a Conscience to themselves about things no way determined by any such positive Laws? What men's Laws reach not, no man can be reasonably thought to be concerned in Conscience about, if there be no Superior Law of God; because, where there is no Law there can be no offence, and so no foundation of Gild. Nor is it conceivable that custom can be the foundation of such Conscience in men, and of that different Judgement they make to themselves of things, from whence that Conscience ariseth; because the principle upon which men go in these natural determinations are generally the same and agreed to by all. And 'tis highly unreasonable to suppose the whole World should every where agree in a custom of judging things to be otherwise then indeed they be, and subject themselves in their own breasts to such an eroneous Judgement, and that the constant determination of the public reason of the world, that some things are in themselves good and others are in themselves evil, was at first founded in a mistake, and that that mistake became customary and universal. This is a thing that carries the utmost of improbability in it, and is in effect, to say mankind is not reasonable, and to put the Fool upon the whole World. Besides, the determinations of our Reason about the good or evil of things, are at the present justified to us to be pure, and abstracted from all bias, either from custom or from positive Laws, from the nature of the things themselves and the most genuine judgement of Reason itself in its judging of them. And he that will say that we are no way certain but that our best judgement about good and evil may be, for aught we know, grounded upon custom & so mistaken, may as well say that all other judgement is so too: And so in effect say, we are no way sure but that all the reason of the world's nothing else but a great customary mistake  
Secondly, There are natural Laws, by which things are in themselves differenced, proved to be previous to all positive Laws; Because all positive Laws appear plainly to have their rise from those primary Laws of Nature, and to suppose them. The common principles of Nature's Laws have been the common principles of all positive Laws every where. How different soever positive Laws have been amongst themselves in other things, yet the Grand Maxims of Nature founded upon that innate distinction of good and evil men are born withal have been universally admitted by all Legislators. General effects, we say, must have general causes. And that general consent we find in all positive Laws to such natural Maxims, does evidently declare such Maxims to be the Universal sentiments of mankind, and those original Laws annexed to the beings of men in their first frame and constitution, by which things in themselves are primarily discriminated antecedently to all positive Laws, and from whence all positive Laws have their subsequent rise.  
Should this Epicurean doctrine be admitted, That all things are originally and in their own nature alike, till differenced by positive Law or Custom, three things would evidently result from it; The first ruinous to all policy, The second to all Religion, And the third destructive to both. First, No Man that thought all things originally indifferent, and the whole world and all the actions of it, as to good or evil, to be Rasa tabula, could ever be obliged farther than force or his own interest prevailed upon him. For if all things be originally in themselves indifferent, and have neither good nor ill in them, 'twas then indifferent whether there should be any Lawmakers, or any Laws made. Authority itself is indifferent; and if that be itself indifferent, and have neither  good nor evil in it, my obedience must needs be indifferent too. For if it be indifferent whether there should be any such thing as civil authority, or no, and civil Authority have no real internal good or ill annexed to it, it must needs be indifferent (as to matter of inward Conscience) whether I should obey it or no. If all things be in themselves indifferent, 'tis impossible for men, by positive Laws, to make any thing otherwise; because the power by which those positive Laws are made, is, in its nature, indifferent too, and has neither essential good nor ill belonging to it. And if so, it must needs be indifferent to me, whether I obey it or not. For, the things they command or forbidden are, in their own nature, indifferent, and the power commanding is, itself, indifferent, as to its own Being, whether it should so command or no! For although a thing in itself and all its circumstances wholly indifferent ceaseth to be so to me, when commanded or forbid by a positive Law, because of the conscience I ought to have of the authority commanding or forbidding, as having an intrinsical good in it, to which I am positively obliged, and as a thing in its own nature obligatory to me, yet, were that Authority wholly indifferent in itself, in its being, whether it should be or no, and had no essential good or ill in its constitution, it must needs be indifferent to me whether I should obey it or not! There can never be any good or ill in obedience or disobedience, where there is a perfect indifferency in the being of that Power that requires it. Secondly, If all things were, to mankind, in themselves alike and indifferent, and there were no such original distinction of good and evil make in the rational nature, 'twere impossible ever to frame any amiable or excellent Idea of God. 'Twere all one whatever we thought of him; We might as well think him cruel and unjust, as merciful and just. For, we have no other way to frame an Idea of God, but from that distinction of good and evil we make in our own breasts. When the Epicureans tell us We must venerate the Deity for its excellency, What excellency is it we can ascribe to God? and from whence can we derive the notion of any such thing? If, to our own reasons, all things are alike, and there is no innate distinction of good and evil in the rational nature, this maxim of the Epicureans does, in truth, put a total end to all well-doing, and to all well-thinking, and does utterly extinguish all Religion amongst Mankind. The Noblest and best ground of all Religion is good thoughts of God, arising from an amiable apprehension of him in our minds. Without this, 'tis impossible to be truly Religious. And this is utterly impossible ever to be made, (but upon gross Delusion and mistake) if no one thing be, in the true judgement of men, better than another, but all things, as to their good and evil in themselves, equal and indifferent. 'Tis that distinction founded in the rational nature between good and bad, and an ability arising from thence to frame to itself an Idea of excellency and perfection, that is the ground of all right conceptions of God. And indeed, by finding things distinguished in our own rational nature, we come to know they are eternally distinguished in God's Nature: Because he himself is the Author of our rational nature. And 'tis not reasonable to conceive he should create a nature contrary to his own. And so we know there is not only a Reason in our own Breasts why some things are good, and some things are evil, but there is an eternal Reason in the nature of God why they are so! What I think good, I must necessarily think agreeable to God. And what I think evil, I must needs judge contrary to him; or else I do not answer the original notion my reason gives me of his being. And so, by the distinction I sinned made of things in mine own rational Nature, I come to know there is the same Eternal distinstinction in God's Nature, and so an unalterable Obligation arising from thence; because my Reason tells me, God's nature must be agreeable to what I think most excellent by the judgement of that faculty God has made me withal. And of this I am as well assured as I am of Gods being; for the same faculty that tells me God Is, tells me also his Nature must needs be agreeable to what my reason tells me is in itself Holy and Good, and directly opposite to whatever it tells me is in itself Evil. Thirdly, were it Custom and Positive Laws that did only constitute the difference of Actions and Things, that difference must needs be regulated thereby. And 'twill then unavoidably follow that Custom and Positive Laws might possibly invert the whole frame of things, and that universal opinion of Good and Evil the World is now possessed with; that is Honesty, Truth and Virtue might come to be in the place of Wickedness, Falsehood and Vice. And those we now think the Best Actions, reckoned the Worst, and the Worst adjudged to be the Best. The very mention whereof would be as Nauseous, as the practice of it would prove Ruinous to humane Nature. And every man carries about him, in his own Reason such an innate abhorrency of it as renders it utterly impossible, upon any terms, ever to be.  
It would be also a task too hard for the wisest Epicurean to give any rational account how the World (without a Divine disposal, and the admission of Providence) should be continued in that orderly frame we see it! never any such thing as the order of the world fell out by chance. 'Twere absurd to suppose it, how all things (even some contrary to their own Nature and proper tendency) should be made so subservient as they are to a common end. 'Tis not possible for a rational Eye to view over the general Oeconomy of the world, arising from the regular motion of each particular, and exclude the influence of Divine Wisdom from it. If we look up, of how admirable consideration is the constant course of the Heavens, and the suitable influences of the Heavenly Bodies to the good of things here below! though the motion by the Equator only had been more simple and direct, yet we see they have also an Obliqne motion, whereby, with more variety, they dispense their favours to the World. The motions of the Stars Eccentrick and Epiciclike, as the best observers of them find, not only declare the virtue of their own Materials, but plainly point to us the regulation of a superior Agent, which seeing how far they are from the reach of all humane power, can be no other but the Divine Being. If we look downward, we find the Sea and the Waters a standing Monument of Providence. The Sea kept within Bounds, and not suffered to exceed them, restrained from the natural tendency of its own Being; which 'tis plain no humane power could effect. Aristotle in his Book of Wonders, owns himself a Convert to Providence, upon the single consideration that the Land was not drowned in the Waters, and the Earth overwhelmed with the Sea, which without a Divine Power must needs be. Strabo observes the same necessity of Providence from the position of the Waters, which (says he) if you respect only their Quality, and suppose them left to themselves, must needs take place between the Earth and the Air, when as now we behold them confined to one proper Channel, and interfused in the Earth, so far as to make it more fruitful and useful, nay, we find the Water as Grotius observes in subserviency to the good of the whole against its own Nature, sometimes moving upwards, being so composed as to sustain itself in such motion, by a continued Cohaesion of parts. Wheresoever we cast our Eyes, the whole of the World, in all the parts of it, does evidently own itself to the manage and product of a wise and excellent Providence, all things moving towards particular Ends, and all those particular Ends issuing themselves into one Common End. To move to an End is the plain effect of an Intelligent Being; And therefore, when we see Creatures without intelligence still moving both to particular and general Ends, 'tis plain they are directed by some intelligence. And we see Creatures Rational, and that have Intelligence moving and acting to Ends superior to their own intelligence, and which themselves knew not of nor intended, and yet their actings and motions towards them regular; 'tis plain they are conducted by a higher Intelligence. And this in both cases, can be no other but the highest Intelligence, who at once comprehends all Ends and all Means tending to those Ends; which is God himself.  
'Tis likewise an irrefragable proof of Providence, that many things have come to pass in this World that have been evidently supernatural, and beyond all humane ability to effect; which could never have been, if God be so withdrawn from the World as to be no way an actor in it. What will the Epicureans say to all the Miracles that have at any time been wrought? and to such things as have come to pass beyond all product of Nature? to deny the fact of such things, and to say they have not been, is at once to impeach all humane Testimony, and to discard the credit of all History. If we admit them, we must needs confess they are the effect of God's supreme power, and the evident Works of his hands in a providential way; and if so, we shall soon dispatch with Epicurus, and spoil his fictitious retirement of God in the Heavens, and bring down the Divine Majesty to an open converse with Mankind, and indeed undeniably establish both his care of, and his supreme Rule over this whole World.  
Two things there are upon which Epicurus at first, Lucretius, Pliny, and all the Epicucureans since, have chief justified their denial of Providence, and Gods supreme Rule over the World. First, (say they) 'tis a thing beneath the excellent Being of God, for him to concern himself with the affairs of this inseriour world, and to take notice of every little passage here below; nor can he (as Pliny says) be supposed (without great disorder to himself, and being withdrawn from his own delight and content) to perform the charge tam multiplicis & tristis Ministerij: Of so multiplicious and ungrateful a function. Secondly, (say they) the posture of things in this World is such, good men often suffering, and bad men prospering: wickedness succeeding, and Virtue miscarrying; 'tis so often been malis & male bonis, that we cannot believe this World to be governed from above, and that all the affairs of it should be under the conduct of such perfect and excellent attributes as those we ascribe to God.  
The first is soon answered, 'Tis an absurd diminution of infiniteness, and inconsistent with it, to limit or distinguish its comprehension, God hath an infinite Comprehension, and cannot but know all things together, or else his Knowledge were not infinite. Nor can there be any distinction made in the manner of his comprehension; great things and small things are all alike, and upon even terms, as to his comprehension and Knowledge of them. Nothing can be above him or below him in any such respect: 'Tis foolish to say any thing is too mean for God to take Cognizance of; because an universal Cognizance of all things, past, present, and to come, is included and necessarily implied in the infinity of his Knowledge, So far the mistake is plain and visible; nothing can possibly happen, of which we can say God takes no notice: But supposing all things that come to pass are known to him, yet (say the Epicureans) 'tis not fit to conceive, he any way concerns himself about them, or that he will so far trouble or discompose himself, as to undertake the Rule and Regulation of them; which lazy, slothful dream of Epicurus, above all his other Hypotheses, has exposed him to the just contempt of all sober and intelligent men; 'tis so gross and unworthy a conception of the supreme Being, and so great an indignity offered unto him, and most evidently contrary to all those notious that result from the true exercise of our Reasons about him, and that will easily appear several ways.  
First, I acknowledge there are some things God cannot do, God cannot deny himself, nor do any thing against the Nature of his own Being, That results from the perfection of his Being, and is included in the necessity of it: But to say that whatsoever God can do; that is, can do, as being no way contrary to his Being to do, and so has a possibility, he may do (I speak not of the bare Imaginary supposition of what God can do in respect of his unlimited power; for so we may conceive he may destroy the World in a Moment; but his power cannot be actually so exerted; that's but a vain santasm, unless it be correspondent to his Justice, his Mercy, and his other excellent attributes) but to say, whatever God can do in such a sense; that is, whatever is not inconsistent with his Being to do, and so may be done by him, he cannot do without trouble to himself, and disorder to his own excellent Nature, is to deny the essentiality of his Being: The inseparable and essential property of Gods Being is perfection. Now if he cannot perfectly act whatever he can act, he is not essentially perfect, but has a possibility of imperfection annexed to his Being. To say God could govern this World if he pleased, 'twere no way contradictory to his Being to do it; but yet if he should do it, it would trouble and discompose him, is to deny his perfection, and plainly admit him capable of imperfection, which is directly opposite to all true notions of his Being; 'tis to suppose, God cannot perfectly do whatever can be done by him, and to suppose perfection not to accompany the utmost possibility of his acting, which is to deny his perfection, and consequently the most inseparable property of his Being. Nor can any man say, the Government of this World, in itself considered, can have any contrariety in it to Gods Being; because Government in its Own Nature must needs be most suitable to his Being, and 'tis the certain way to bring the whole World into perfect conformity to him. And to say, 'tis contrary to his Being; because it would be a trouble to him, is plainly to say, 'tis contrary to his Being; because his Being is imperfect.  
Secondly, This is to measure out Infiniteness (which can have no measure) by Finiteness. 'Tis in short, to measure out God to ourselves by our own Line; and when we acknowledge his Being to be complete in all Infinite perfections, to measure out the actings of those perfections by our own greatest imperfections; and what can be more vain and less reasonable, then to carry up those distinctions we make in our own Actings, to the Actings of God, whom we acknowledge infinite and perfect, when those distinctions arise, visibly from our own imperfection in Acting. 'Tis the limited extent of our own Being's that makes us reckon things above us, and below us; no such distinction can be made where there is infiniteness of Knowledge, and infiniteness of power. All things are under an even consideration to such infinite Attributes; and 'tis because of our own great imperfections that labour and trouble attends us in what we do: and shall we suppose God capable of that, in the exerting of his infinite and perfect Attributes? 'Twas most unlike a Philosopher to say, God would not govern the World, nor take any care of it; because it would trouble him so to do. 'Twas plainly in other terms, to utter this contradiction, God, who is infinitely perfect, would not govern the World, because he is imperfect. Epicurus, by this Divinity of his, deserves to be reckoned with such of the prolane and fabulous Poets, who usually ascribed the Infirmities (nay, the debaucheries) of the Worst Men to the Best of their Gods, and transferred the highest notions they had of their Gods to very ill men; and amongst such Cicero ranks him, and concludes against his Divinity with this very good position. Nihil est quod Deus efficere non potest, & ullo sine labour.  
Thirdly, If the happiness of the Deity lies in a total retreat to his own perfections, and the concerns of the world would be a trouble to him. If that be a sufficient Reason against all Providence, 'tis much more so against all Creation, and whoever upon that account does with Epicurus deny God's providential Rule and Dominion, is engaged to embrace the whole of his other Doctrines against Creation: for would it trouble and discompose the Deity to Rule the World now, it must needs do so to make it before. It that Reason be good against Providence now, 'twas good against Creation at first; either God acted against the grand Principle of his own felicity then, or else 'tis consistent with his Providence now. Besides that, 'tis Childish to think God would make any thing too high o● too low for his own Dominion; or that he should Create a World that would be a trouble to himself to Govern: Nor can we imagine that any thing God thought fit at first to make, and be himself the Author of, should ever be unworthy of his care, or beneath his Regulation. 'Twere to impeach his wisdom in making, or his Goodness in not regarding what himself at first produced. God must needs know also from everlasting all the ensuing Consequences of what he at the first made. He saw, uno intui●u, whatever would happen and come to pass. And 'tis no way supposable that God (with such afore-sight and infinite Comprehension of all things) should make such a World, the future Effects and Consequences whereof should be unworthy his notice, or unfit for him to dispose, or a trouble to him to regard. Or indeed, that any thing should ever come to pass, from what God first gave an Existence to, that should not naturally and necessarily fall under his Regulation, and be most suitable to his Dominion, and the ex●●tion of his own excellent Attributes, and be, at last, overruled by him to some wise and excellent End.  
The other Objection made against Providence, from the various successes all humane Actions are accompanied with; sometimes the worst Actions, and the worst Men prospering, and the best miscarrying, is that which the greatest opposers of Providence have still most applauded themselves in. And so far it prevailed with some Philosophers heretofore, that although they admitted of Providence in all natural things, supposing they could not be 〈◊〉 without it, yet they much doubted, if not wholly denied it, in all things Moral and Political. 'Tis from hence, no doubt, that the greatest Atheism in the world hath arisen. Men have taken occasion from hence not only to dispute the notion of Providence, but to question the Being of God himself; thinking them (as indeed they are) inseparable Relatives; and not only upon a general consideration of the various and uncertain disposal of things; but Men have also taken up Pikes against Providence and Religion upon particular occasions; because their own Interests were not gratified thereby. Hence it was that Diagoras first set up for an Atheist; because the Gods did not immediately strike a perjured Person dead in the place, as he desired. Hence it was that Cato (though a Stoical asserter of Providence before) when he saw the Affairs of the Roman State decay under the conduct of Pompey, whom he esteemed a Patriot of his Country, and wished well to, and beheld Caesar prospering in his attempts to what he thought a tyranny, he falls soul upon Providence, and professed, that he saw a fallacious instability in the Government of the Gods: That Pompey was ever successful when he did no good with his victories, but never prospered when he implied his Armies for the freedom of his Country. Hence it was that Cotta in Tully makes so great an Harangue against Providence. That the two Scipio's and so many good Patriots had miscarried, and in particular, that his Uncle Rutilius was banished, and his friend Drusus slain. But setting aside all those particular occasions, and private Interests, upon which men have been driven to a disgust of the notion of Providence, (which yet have been, and still are very many and frequent) The general course of the World is visibly such as gives a real Ground to this Objection: And therefore a distinct and particular Answer ought to be given to it.  
As God, in making the World has left us undeniable Evidence, that he himself is the Author of it, but yet has left us without an Answer to many questions men may ask about it, and made it very suitable to our reason to think we should be so left, and to suppose a sinite capacity not fully able to comprehend the product of Infinite Wisdom and Power, so in his Rule over the World we have undeniably Evidence that he does Rule; but in the manner of his doing it we see many passages that far outgo our comprehension, If any man say, that in God's first make of the World we acquiesce singly in his Sovereignty, nor need we go farther therein than the bare act of his Will; but in his Rule of the World 'tis not so; there we expect the visible effects of his Justice, suitable to those natural Laws he has given to us, and that capacity of judging between just and unjust, by which we ascend upward, and come to be ascertained, that there is a supreme and perfect Justice in God. I answer, 'tis true that God's Will was the great Reason, at first, of the make of the world; but yet we must look upon his Will as the Effect of his wisdom, and it cannot be otherwise; God could not will to make any thing that would not be Wisely made, when it was made, nor can we suppose he should. And yet 'twere as reasonable to deny Gods make of the World; because I cannot see the visible Effects of his Wisdom in every part of it, as to deny his Rule of the World; because in every passage of it his Justice is not visible to me. All the Philosophers heretofore agreed to this, as a general Truth, that Nature produced nothing in vain: And yet never any nor all of them could give a distinct account of the Reason and Use of every particular. If there be sufficient ground to assure me, that God made the World in the general, 'tis absurd to question the Wisdom or the Reason of any Particular. So if there be Evidence sufficient to establish Gods general Providence over the whole, his Justice in Particulars is thereby necessarily implied. The being of Providence in general is not only proved upon such rational grounds as every unprejudiced man must needs acquiesce in, but in many things we are experimentally convinced of the Being of it, from the Effects of it. He that denies the existence of Providence, can admit but of two ways, by which any thing can be supposed to come to pass; either from the Moral determinations of Men and their Actings thereupon, or else from some purely Natural Cause. Now 'tis evident that many things have and do come to pass in a visible judicial way, which have not their rise from any humane Judgement, nor can, with any good Reason, be derived from any natural operation, and can be ascribed to nothing else but God's supreme Judgement. Virtue and Religion have been often rewarded, and wickedness brought to a due punishment, before men's Eyes in this World, by ways unthought of and undesigned by any, and out of the reach of all humane Authority, and in such a manner as no man, impartially judging, can possibly imagine to come to pass by a merely casual conjunction of natural Causes, but must needs acknowledge an effect of Divine Justice therein. And of this we are informed by the Records of all Ages; and no one Age passeth without some experience of it.  
This objection (how great soever it may seem to be) will be sufficiently removed in every candid opinion, if two things be made appear. First, That there is good ground upon which to establish the belief of a providence in general, which hath been proved already. And Secondly, that a satisfactory account may be given how the present course of the world and this providence may very well consist together. And this latter may be done by the consideration of two things; First, our own great Incapacity to judge of the whole of providence, or of very many parts of it. And secondly, the rational supposition of a Future State. The first ought to make us cautious not to impeach providence hastily, nor to deny it when we cannot fully comprehend it. The second ought fully and finally to satisfy us in all such cases where we see God's providence and his justice are not in this world reconcileable. For the first, How reasonable is it to conceive that the ways and methods of God in his providence should not be fully grasped by our comprehension, when he is so much above us in those excellent attributes by which they are contrived and brought about. The Rule of the world and the harmony of providence in conducting all things to a common end, is an effect of the same infinity by which the world was at first produced. 'Tis unreasonable for us, when God Rules, to expect an exact and perfect Knowledge of all his proceed. No humane abilities can create a competent Judge of the whole, or of very many particular parts of God's providential Rule over the World, and that for these three Reasons. First, God knows the Aims, Ends and Intentions of all Men in what they do; he sees the inside as well as the outside of the whole World, and proceeds according to the compleatness and entire Circumstances of every Action. This we are no way capable of, and so, in many passages of his Providence, no fit Judges of his proceed. 'Tis a great piece of folly to judge of Conclusions, when we are uncertain of the Premises; and to call in question God's determinations, when we know not the grounds of them. Secondly, God has designs to accomplish and bring about in this World, of which we are totally ignorant, and 'tis very unwise to find fault with what God does, and be angry that we cannot comprehend it when we know nothing of those Ends 'tis designed to. 'Twas weakly done of Cato, and a great defection from his discretion, to fall foul upon Providence; because he could not find out a Reason why Caesar had the conquest of Pompey, when he must needs be ignorant of that future Monarchy (and all the Consequences of it) God designed to set up in Rome, upon the foundation of his Successes. We see often, by a subsequent course of Providence, great Reason for that of which we could give no account at first. The future Events of good men's sufferings often reveal to us a sufficient Reason for it, and reconcile men's opinions to the Wisdom and Justice of Providence. The impunity of ill Men in the worst Actions becomes sometimes very intelligible to us even in this World, by the after disposal of things. This we have excellently discoursed of in Plutarch's incomparable Treatise De sera Numinis vindicta. Had the famous Constantine suffered what was due to the eminent sins of his Youth, what a loss had the World had of the Virtues of his riper years? and as Plutarch tells the Athenians, if Themistocles had been punished as the enormities of his Youth deserved, and Miltiades for his rebellion in Chersonesus, where had been (says he) those great Victories, those two afterwards obtained in the Plains of Marathon on the Coasts of Arlesia? and at the River Eurimedon? The truth is, in all humane Judgement we are bounded by particulars. Individual actions are the Grounds upon which Men proceed. Nor can they look forward to know what any will be hereafter. But God has the whole of every Man before him, and has not only respect to the All of every Action, but to the All of every Man, in the whole of of his Actings from the First to the Last. Thirdly. There is a Harmony in Providence, which (unless we knew All, from its Beginning to its Ending) we can never fully comprehend. 'Tis one entire System, a complete Bottom wherein all Ends are exactly wound up: A rare contrivance of Divine Wisdom: A curious piece of Divine Workmanship, wherein all particulars are so Interwoven as to make up the beauty of the whole. All the passages of the world, from first to last, have, in the providential Dominion of God over them, some dependency each upon other, and are not to be fully judged off singly, and a part. No One Action but relates to Millions of others; nay, has some reference to all others from the first to the last of the world. Each particular hath some reference to the whole, like the Parts of a Natural Body, where every Part refers to the Whole: And is not, in its use, to be fully comprehended without an exact knowledge of the Whole. Every part of Providence hath somewhat in it Relative to all the rest. Though God be Just in each particular, yet he still executes his Justice to every part with reference to the Whole; And so, Times and Orders all particulars that the beautiful season of every part is, when it bears its exact proportion to the Oeconomy of the Whole. Nor can we suppose this to be otherwise, but that God, who by an Infinite comprehension had all things present and before him, should so rank and dispose them, that at last the whole business of the World, should appear but One complicated and orderly united Means to bring about the first designed Ends.  
This consideration of our own incapacity to make a full and complete Judgement of the whole, or of many parts of Divine Providence, aught to prevent such rash Censures as Men are too apt to make upon it: And to persuade them not to deny it, where they cannot fully comprehend it: And to answer, in many cases, the doubts men may propose to themselves about this matter; but does not answer this Objection fully. Because 'tis not to be denied, but that there are very many particular cases wherein God's Justice and his Providence are visibly not to be reconciled together in this World. And upon that consideration I say 'tis much more reconcileable and natural to suppose the Being of a future state after this life (by which all Objections against Providence are fully answered) then to make that an Objection against Providence, and deny the Being of it thereupon, and that upon these two grounds. First, the existence of a general Providence is, upon convincing evidence proved to us. We have as good Reason to believe God Rules the World; as we have to believe that he is Just. And in that case, when we find we cannot, here in this World, accommodate his Rule and his Justice together, 'tis not reasonable to oppose the one by the other (when neither can be rationally denied) but to admit a state beyond this World, by which they are both safely reconciled. Secondly, there is nothing in the admission of a future state, in itself any way unreasonable: Nay, the existence of such a future state after this life, besides the evidence it has from the notion of Providence, has also many other rational proofs peculiarly appurtenant to it, and is a thing in itself, upon other grounds, highly probable. He that will bottom a denial of Providence singly upon this Objection, must prove that there is no state of things after this life, or at least, have it granted to him. The proof of it is impossible, and the grant of it were very unreasonable, when 'tis a natural and necessary consequent to all that rational proof that is made of a Providence in general, and I cannot deny the one without rejecting the other; the thing in its own Nature, is greatly credible, and has been believed in all Ages, not only by the greatest part of the wisest and best, but even of the rudest and most barbarous, 〈…〉 which strongly tend to persuade us the belief of it is founded in the dictates of right Reason, and the common Sentiments of Nature.  
'Tis to be taken as an undeniable Truth, that the existence of Providence, and the Being of a future state have a necessary dependency each upon other, and are no way separable. If there be a Providence, there must be a future state after this life. And if there be a state hereafter, it must relate to a Providence here: The Epicureans therefore deny both. Epicurus under all his pressures made his retreat to this Maxim, That there had been a time when we were not in Being, and there would be a time when we should exist no more. Of how little a signification to the World the bare notion of a Deity would prove, abstracted from the belief of a Providence here, or any state hereafter, is easy to discern. The Truth is, whoever admits the existence of a Supreme and first being, will be rationally forced to acknowledge the other two. If there be a God, he must Rule: Infinite power cannot be set by; and if he do Rule, there must be a reversion of rewards and punishments after this life, so Plutarch observes. The same Reason which confirms Providence, doth likewise confirm the immortality of the Soul: And if the one be taken away, the other follows; so that the great fundamentals of all Virtue and Religion will appear sufficiently justified to us from the regular determinations of right Reason.  
Upon these and many other invincible proofs is Gods providential Rule over the World established. The true notion of which frees us from the manifold absurdities of Epicurus his chance, and Chrysippus his destiny, the two wide extremes on either hand. The first is the poorest account that ever was given of such Oeconomy as we see in this World, and a monstrous piece of folly, to think Chance should be Predominant whilst infinite wisdom is existing. The other such an unreasonable and abusive fiction of Providence, (if related to God) as renders it inconsistent with the freedom of a Rational Agent. The one denies all providence and makes God to do nothing: The other destroys man's freedom, and makes God to do every thing. Both equally false. 'Tis true, that God Rules over the Whole; And 'tis as true that his Rule no way destroys the freedom of man's will. Nor is the world subjected to any such thing as a Stoical Fate, from any necessary connection of causes, but all the actions of men proceed from the free choice and determinations of their own breasts. Every man's own Will being the true cause of his own do.  
Thus much may serve to silence and shame all the ignorant doubts and profane denials of providence, to assure men there is a God that Rule's in the earth, and to justify the exercise of a supreme ‛ Dominion over the world. Upon the truth of which the validity of all Divine Laws must necessarily depend. Such who (in the third place) admit the being of God, of Providence, and Religion, but reject the Christian-religion and consequently the Bible, as not true, and close with some other in opposition to it, against those the whole of this discourse will chief tend. If the Divine Authority of the Bible be sufficiently made good, and the Scriptures proved in truth to be what themselves tell us they are, Laws sent us from God, by which he will Rule and judge the world, two things will result from it, first, All other Religions but the Christian will thereby appear to be false and fictitious. Secondly, Such who have embraced the Christian Profession will be abundantly confirmed in the verity thereof, freed from all such doubts as may arise about it, and be ascertained of the truth of those grounds upon which it is established.  
In the prosecution of this matter, when we deal with Antiscriptural men, such as pay no homage at all to the Bible, nor yield any obedience to its Authority, two things are to be avoided, and ought not to be insisted on, in order to their confutation. First, 'Tis not a reasonable step towards it, to say the Scriptures are the Principle upon which our Religion is built, and therefore aught to be granted to us: Because, in every particular Science, some Principles must be granted as the Substratum; without which it cannot be upheld, and by a denial of which the being of it is subverted. This unwary demand is the ready way to six every man in his own profession whatever it be, and to prevent the most important Discourse of Religion amongst all such who have already embraced any Religion; for there is no Religion without some prime Principles upon which 'tis erected, and by the grant of which it will be established. And as we are sure 'twill be equally expected, so there is no better ground upon which it can be denied: Nor no less reason why we should admit the principles of other men's Religion, than they grant ours. And if so, we shall soon come to a full point in all our debates about different Religions. To such who have already closed with the Christian-profession, this holds good. And he that admits not the Scriptures as the first Principle and Rule of all discourse upon any internal point of the Christian-Religion, is not to be disputed with. Because, in disowning that principle, he destroys the being of the Religion he is contending about, and subverts the whole by the manner of his disputing about a part. But when we deal with men out of the Church and Enemies to it, and the doubt is about the Scripture itself, we cannot otherwise defend it then by admitting it a matter Debateable, and endeavouring its justification upon principles common to us both, and such rational grounds as carry in them the greatest aptness to convince such opponents.  
'Tis not to be denied but that in all Rational inquiries after truth and all humane-debates, there must be some common maxims and principles acknowledged on all sides, without which there can be no due measures of any discourse, nor any Standard by which a man can proceed either to satisfy himself or convince another, and 'twill be utterly impossible ever to come to a rational end of any debate whatever. For, If one thing be to be proved (as it must be where things are in controversy) by another, and every thing may be still denied, we must prove in infinitum. He that opposeth needs nothing to help him but a bare Negative, and he that is to prove will be lost in an endless circle. Some principles therefore there are which govern all men's thoughts and discourses as things granted by them, and are of absolute necessity to the rational conduct of the World. And they are of two sorts; First, Such as are in themselves so obviously true to our Senses and Reason that they gain an Universal Assent, and are approved by the common Vote of Mankind. These are such things as no man can be supposed to deny if he would, no more than he can deny himself to be Reasonable; and do discover to us the truth of the rational faculty, by the natural Emanation of which we fix upon many positions as undoubtedly true and beyond all question or dispute, and from thence measure out the truth of all other things. Therefore Aristotle says, that in all acquisition of knowledge there is a proceeding from premises known and agreed, to conclusions that before were not known nor agreed. These first principles are secured by the innate rectitude of the rational faculty. These prove themselves by their consonancy to the rational Nature, and cannot be otherwise proved, because they are the ground and foundation of all other proof. And of these 'tis true what the Schools say, A posteriori possunt manifestari, non per aliquid prius probari. Whatever knowledge we find attained to amongst Mankind, 'tis deduced from these first principles, and is a Science subalternated to them. 'Tis from hence that all thoughts and debates are steered to some end, and guided to some conclusion. These principles are not to be confined to any enumeration, being of equal extent with the rational capacity itself, and are occasionally produced by our reason, according to the various objects 'tis conversant about. Nor can any other Character be given of them but that they are such genuine Issues of Reason, as become self-evident Maxims to the universal Reason.  
Secondly, There are acquired principles amongst mankind, which are taken as granted truths, and proceeded upon as such, that are not of this first nature: These secondary principles lie more remote from the first view of our reason, and are discovered by a chain of Inductions; and our assent to them proceeds from an Industrious exercise of reason, by which we come at length to acknowledge their verity, as agreeing to that idaa of truth we find seated in the rational Nature, and corresponding to those primary dictates of Reason, and equally true with them. These things men accidentally make principles to themselves; and, laying them aside from debate, as things granted and agreed to, proceed to superstruct other notions and principles upon them; such principles as these (in the pursuit whereof mankind doth greatly differ, and often mistake) are the reasonable bounds of all such future debates as are bottomed upon them, but ought not to be imposed when the principles themselves are in question, nor upon such who make it their business to oppose them as erroneous and mistaken. When two Mabumetans are in dispute, the authority of the Koran is, to them, a proper Umpirage, because a principle granted by both. But when a Mahometan disputes with a Christian, the proof of the Koran itself must precede any proof he can make of Religion from thence; because whatever is itself under question and doubt, can never be a Rule to determine other controversies by.  
Nor ought this (the fact whereof is so verified to us) to seem strange, that men should often mistake and generally differ and divide upon all such acquired principles, as they do, that 'tis hard, if not impossible, to find an instance wherein the whole World have been able universally to take one step together, beyond those first and irrisistible institutes of Knowledge, and those primary Elements of a rational Being. 'Tis no way strange to see what is laid as a foundation by one, should seem an absolute nullity in the mind of another. What one man resigns up himself to, as his guide, another should reject with contempt. If we consider, first the difficulty wherewith all acquired knowledge is attained, and the various paths men tread towards it: How hard it is to reduce things to a Harmony with the rational Nature! With what labour and sweat of the mind we come to measure out things by the line of our Reason, and to find out those proper Mediums of demonstration that lie in a direct line to the truth of any proposition! And how natural is it to doubt and object to the utmost in all rational progression! Secondly, with what various abilities the World is capacitated for all intellectual attainments! and how differently men do improve their knowing faculty! First principles arise from the Truth of our Reason in its naked existence; but all second Principles from the exercise and improvement of it. How few be there that travel so far as their own Reason would guide them! or suffer that noble faculty to do what it would do! What unequal concerns have Mankind about Truth! 'Tis the Jewel and delight of some, 'Tis an absolute Drug to others. Some men make the Talon of their Reason ten Talents; oothers fold up their knowing faculty in the slumber of a drowsy sensuality. The greatest part of the World sit down satisfied with what they do know, not what they might know: And choose a lazy enjoyment of ignorance and error, rather than an inquisitive possession of Truth. Men are not only born of several Statures in the knowing part; but they continually render themselves so, by the various and different improvement of those abilities they possess. Thirdly, the faculty of our Reason itself renders all things capable of dispute and debate that are not bounded with visible contradiction to its own Being, and are beyond the limits of those primary Laws it necessarily gives to itself, and makes various determinations about all such disputable matters, and very often where we may well suppose an equal ability on both sides, men differ about the same thing. The cause whereof must not be imputed to any innate defect in the rational Nature, as if God had made us with a lame faculty (for whoever denies the truth of that, must needs retort the lie to himself; because he has no other faculty to judge by) but the true Reason of it lies collaterally, either first, From the difficulty relative to our Reason, in the Objects 'tis conversant about, from whence may well be supposed to arise various and different Sentiments: for all things are not in their own Nature capable of positive determinations; we meet with few things without some difficulty, but with very many things that greatly pose us: with some things so much out of our reach that they exceed all bounds of comprehension, are beyond the Verge of Problems, and serve only to show us the limits of a finite understanding. Or Secondly, from the want of such perfect information, as is requisite to ground a complete and perfect Judgement upon: There being not a little share of uncertain guess and conjecture mingled with most of our Knowledge of things, which nothing but experience can deliver us from. Or Thirdly, (which is most general, and an undeniable evidence of Man's fall) From the Bias of some Interest or Concern whereby Men are engaged, or some natural propensity and inclination they are born with, that opposeth and undiscernedly prevails over the true and genuine issues of Reason enslaves them to appetite, and sways the Judgement another way. 'Twas therefore a prudent observation that one made heretofore upon those various Sects that arose amongst the Philosophers in Graece, that Qui fuerunt ingenio severo, rigido, & moroso, querulo, & aroganti, ij Stoicismum suns amplecti, qui vero fuerunt ingenio molli, & stadiosi tranquillitatis & atij, ij fuerunt Epicurei, qui denique fuerunt ingenio civili, modestoque & liberali, ij Peripateticorum Doctrinam sunt secuti. And Aristotle in his Discourse of the Summum Bonum, says, Vnumquemque prout animo affectus est, ita de Summ● Rono judicare, atque inde oriri quod alij Summum Bonum collecant in Divitiis, alij in Honoribus, alij in Voluptate. 'Tis from hence, and from those many other circumstantial impediments we are liable to in all our rational determinations, and not from the faculty of our Reason in itself considered, that hath been derived that great variety of Judgement and Opinion whereby the World, in all the Ages of it, hath been divided.  
Of this second sort of acquired and accidental Principles is men's assent to and belief of the Scriptures, as a Book penned by Divine Inspiration, and being of extraordinary Mission from God. 'Tis not of those first born Principles of Reason, from which we cannot descent without an apparent absurdity, and therefore is not within the compass of those first praerequisites to all debate and discourse, and the standing boundaries of all Ratiocination: but, is of such a Nature as admits men's doubts, queries and debates about it. And the absolute positive belief of it is not to be imposed upon any man, but all men reasoned and discoursed into an assent to it, upon such grounds as are most suitable to such a subject, and men's satisfaction about it. Natural Religion is born with men, and is connate with their Being's, and must be supposed. But all supernatural Religion is discoursed into men, and makes its entrance that way. Though it be true, that in all Sciences there must be some Principles granted, yet they ought to be no other, nor need to be, than such as are general and common to all Mankind, and such as lie adequate to every man's Reason: And not such as are only the property of one party, and are peculiar to men of one persuasion. Whenever men (in order to the founding of any Science) lay down positions and Principles upon which they proceed, if such Principles be beyond the first and common rudiments of every man's Reason, though in themselves never so true, yet they ought to be subject to debate, and admitted questionable in all Reasonings about that very Science. Not to admit some universal Maxims, is the way to make Mankind certain of nothing; and to admit any particular men's Opinions, as indisputable Principles, is the way to enslave the World to every party. The Scriptures are the first Principles of Christians, but not of Men. The first of Christian Religion, but not of all Science: And therefore we ought to begin their Proof against all Antiscriptural opposition, from the common Notions of every man's Religion and Reason, and from thence induce an assent to their Divine and Sacred Authority; which we shall find God has made sufficiently evident to a rational and impartial inquiry.  
Secondly, The Testimony given by the Holy Ghost in the Minds and Consciences of Men, to the Truth of the Scriptures (though it be the most convincing Evidence that can be given to them, and that way God is pleased to reserve to himself of giving men an unquestionable satisfaction about that, and all other Divine things yet) 'tis not to be urged in proof of the Scriptures, against its professed Adversaries: And that upon two accounts.  
First, Because the blessed Spirit itself is not a common demonstrable Principle amongst Mankind, and so cannot be made use of against those that know no such Testimony, nor admit the being of any such Principle. Nothing but what a man does assent to, can with any good Reason, be urged upon him to prove what he does not assent to. To go about to prove the Scriptures by any Evidence arising from the Holy Ghost must needs be visibly absurd; because there is no other way to prove that there is any such thing in Being as the Holy Ghost, but by the Scriptures themselves. So that what I am about to prove, must first be admitted before I can make good the existence of that Medium I take to prove it by.  
Secondly, Whatever Evidence the Holy Ghost gives to any man, to assure him of the Truth of any proposition, that Evidence, as such, can never go beyond his own Breast, nor can I ever prove any thing by it, as it is a Divine and infallible Evidence; because such Evidence is no way Communicable to another but in an ordinary way. Nothing is visible to another in such cases, but the Reasons I can produce. The Divine illumination I have within myself to convince me that such Reasons are Cogent and prevailing, can never be so demonstrated as to convince another that has no such illumination. The illuminations of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men are no other way to be conceived of, then that he is pleased to propose the right Grounds and Reasons upon which things are to be believed, and to convince and satisfy the understanding that they are so, and to bring men to acquiesce in Conclusions by assertaining them of the Truth of the Premises. 'Twere Heterodox and false, and one of the worst sorts of Enthusiasm, to say, That Divine illumination were not always accompanied with rational Evidence. And that any thing were the product of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men, for which no Reason could be given, 'twere most unsuitable to a reasonable being, and most contrary to the manner of Gods dealing with Men; all the intercourse between God and Man being maintained by the truest exercise of our rational faculties, and no otherwise. Whoever rests assured from a Divine Testimony of the Truth of the Scriptures as coming from God, may deal with an Antiscripturist by those Grounds and Reasons upon which such Testimony is built: But will vainly and to no purpose urge that satisfaction he receives of the validity of such Grounds and Reasons from such a Testimony, when that Testimony can be no further made Evident then by such Reasons and Arguments as he is able to produce for it, of the sufficiency of which every other Man's Reason, in an ordinary way, must necessarily be the Judge.  
To this present undertaking, there ought also to be this praeliminary Consideration, that as there are divers Things of divers Natures, true, so there are various ways of rendering the Truth of them Evident, and Mediums of proof proper and peculiar to each. This is visible in Aethicks, in Physics, in Mathematics, and in all other Sciences. When we discourse of the Bible, divers things will come in question, the Truth of which, by various Mediums of proof must be established. First, in the general, whether it be reasonable to believe that there should be any such Supernatural Law as this, sent from Heaven or no! This is to be cleared from the exercise of our own Reason, and the common principles of such natural Religion as every man is born with. Secondly, whether this Book, as 'tis now proposed to us, be, in the Matter of it, such as is likely to come from God, and to be that Law by which the Supreme Maker of all things would Rule and Judge the World! This must also be cleared from that Natural Divinity that lodges in every Mans own Breast, and those primary Notions of God and Religion, which all unprejudiced Reason assents to, and which are antecedently supposed to all discourses of Revelation, and whatever is Supernatural. Thirdly, whether this Book was written by those Persons whose Names it bears, and in those Times wherein it avows itself to be written! Whether such Miracles were wrought! such Predictions fulfilled! All things of that Nature (being matters of fact) must be proved to us by credible Testimonies, and by such means as can ascertain us about a matter of fact, and a thing long since past. He that demands to be satisfied about a matter of fact long since past, and yet denies to acquiesce in Historical Evidence, is so absurd, as at the same time to propose a Doubt, and resolves against all way of Answer. Fourthly, whether this Book, as now we have it, be the same it was when it was first written! and have not been since corrupted or changed! The proof of this depends upon what may be rationally urged to make it credible, That this Book should still be secured by a Divine care, and to render the ways and means Historically Evident, by which such a Divine care, in all Times and Ages, hath been exerted. And so, in all other things that may be in doubt about the Bible, there are proper inducements to our belief (as will appear hereafter) and such as the Nature of such a subject requires. And he that will not acquiesce in a belief of things upon the Evidence they are capable of (though perhaps, not so full and convincing as some other things will afford) declares himself to be obstinately wilful and absurd. Nothing can now be urged in proof of the Bible, that will come under any sensible demonstration. The proposal of this Book to the World to be received as a Law Divine, is not so made as by Mathematical Evidence, or gross visible absurdities in its denial, to introduce itself irresistably at the first sight. But this book is so proposed to our belief, as that all men, by a serious and impartial consideration of the matter of it, and a due enquiry into all the Circumstances attending it, may have ground sufficient to acquiesce in it as Divine, and judge it to be such as itself claims to be.  
And that the Bible should be upon such terms and no other proposed to the belief of the World, seems highly reasonable, when we consider that God intends this book as the great SHIBBOLETH, by which he will try the World; that from the believing or not believing of it, shall arise the great discrimination between Virtuous and Good Men, and such who free from the prevailing influence of corrupt and sensual Interests pursue the Genuine dictates of right Reason, and improve those notions of Divinity they are born with, and others who either choose to be Sottishly Ignorant, or else wilfully to oppose what God had made in itself most suitable and corresponding to the Reason and Conscience of every unprejudiced Man. The truth is, our Assent, or not, to the Bible, is made a matter of Reward and Punishment. And therefore 'tis so proposed to our belief, that there may be a sufficient ground for both.  
The way to this Discourse in hand being thus far cleared, I shall now prosecute the design of it, in this method. First I will endeavour to render it a thing reasonable to be believed that there should be some supernatural Law revealed from God and given to mankind (in order to their present and future happiness) as the great Guide and Rule of all their actions towards God and towards each other. And that 'tis not a reasonable supposal that the world, in the posture we find it, should be left singly to the conduct of Nature. Secondly, That 'tis most rationally credible, upon all such grounds by which a judgement in this case ought to be established, That this Book we call the Bible is this Revealed Law superadded to our natural Light, and contains in itself that complete Systeme of Divine Truth by which God will Inform, Rule, and Judge the World. And this I shall endeavour a proof of, from the matter of this Book itself, and from such external concomitants of it, as highly concur to create a belief of its Divine Authority. And lastly, propose all such considerable Doubts, Queries, and Difficulties as the minds of men are usually busied withal about this Matter. And attempt their Satisfaction therein.  
To make the first thing proposed evident, that 'tis Reasonable to believe, in the general, that God should give us some further direction than what our Natural Light will afford us: That he should promulge some Supernatural Law to the world: Let these several things following be duly considered. First, What wretched and dismal Ignorance has the world been in, yea the wisest and best parts of it, and in what disagreement with itself about all parts of Religion, where this supernatural Law hath been either not known or not received! How sadly hath that inbred principle of Religion wherewith all men are born, been seduced and misled, where there has been nothing supernatural to guide and direct it! The natural notion of a Deity has corrupted into all folly and vanity, and men have form Religions not only hateful to God, but at last nauseous to themselves. Devotion, men still had, to somewhat above them, but they knew not well how to express it. The Wisest saw reason enough to scorn their own Religion, but knew not how to compose a better. Some went far in the Negative, in saying what ought not to be, that then was, amongst themselves, but none ever attained to a certain directory of what should be. When we view over the utmost products of all humane abilities, and the greatest discoveries at any time made by natural light, we shall find the world without Revelation to have been greatly defective in these three things. First, in their Divinity, in their conceptions of the Deity, and their Worship of him. Secondly, In the account they gave to themselves of the world's first Production and of the Origine of things. Thirdly, In their Morality, and in their Ethical Institutes of humane life, and the converse of mankind together. First, In their Divinity. Varro ranks all the Heathen Theology under three heads, Their Fabulous and Historical Theology, Their Natural and Mystical Theology, Their Civil and Political Theology, which he also calls Mythical, Physical, and Civil. The first came from their Poets, and contains such a Rhapsody of Nonsense and Folly, as the like to it hath not, upon any occasion, nor upon any subject, been collected since the world began; That one God was born from a Man's Head, another from a Man's Thigh, a third from some drops of Blood. That some Gods were Thiefs, others Adulterers, others Servants to Men, with multitudes of such absurd and ridiculous fictions. The Second sort came from their Wise men, and from their Philosophers. They dispute what the Gods are! Where they are! And whence they are! And amongst them, we find an endless diversity, and most stupendious folly; some making the gods to consist of Fire, some of Numbers, others of Atoms, and by their Mystical Divinity interpreting Jupiter to Fire, Juno to Earth, Pluto to Air, Nestis to Water, and others of their Gods to the several parts of the World, with many other so gross and notorious absurdities, that Justin Martyr tells the Grecians that the Divinity of their Philosophers, Multo sit quam Poctarum Theologia atque de Diis doctrina ridiculosior, is much more absurd than that of their Poet. The third sort relates itself to the Laws and Customs of particular Cities and Countries, by which they ordered their Priests what Gods they should worship! at what Times, and Seasons! and upon what occasions, what Sacrifices, and Services! and all things relating to the exercise of their Religion, both upon the Stages in their Theatres, and also in their Temples. For in the one, they represented their Gods, and had Plays acted in honour to them, as a part of Religion, and in the other they Worshipped them. In all which we find them shedding the blood one of another, and offering most inhuman sacrifices, and a numberless multitude not only of childish and foolish, but profane and impious, obscene and lascivious rites and ceremonies. If we look back as far as any Heathen Records will carry us, and view over the Barbarous Nations of the world (for so the Grecians were pleased to call all but themselves according to that of Varro, Barbarae sunt omnes nationes praeter Graecos) the Phaenicians, the Caldaeans, the Egyptians, and such others as we have any account of in story, we shall find them lost in a strange mist of Ignorance, about all points of Religion, and we shall find Idolatry to be an Early as well as an Epidemical disease. The worship of the Su● beginning probably not long after the Babylonian dispersion. And the Caldaans', who are upon good grounds supposed to be the first people that associated themselves into a national government after the stood, hasted apace into all kind of Idolatry. Bell or Bel● (for it is the same Name) the next successor of Nimred and first King of Babel after him being Canonised for a Daemon and Deified b● them after his death. It has filled some Volumes with tedious and nauseous vanities, the Narrative of the Divinity and Mythology o● those and other Nations, the Names and Derivations of their Gods (the most Rational of, which were the Sun, Moon and Stars) wit● all their wild and fabulous Theological inventions and fancies about the worship and service of them. This we find by the most Ancient writers of their own, and have also a large account thereof in Diodorus Siculus, the firs● that made a collection of general History, and (as Eusebius says of him) was Vir ap●● Gracoes clarissimus, quip qui Universam Historiam ad unum commodissime corpus collegit. Nor was this ignorance and blindness wherewith the world, in its more barbarous condition was benighted, any way Cured by the increase of Knowledge and the propogation of humane Science: But Idolatry grew up with Philosophy. The Number of their gods increased with their Philosophers. The more they knew, the more gods they worshipped. The more men improved toward the utmost strength of humane abilities, the more visible was their impotency about Divine things, and the more did principles of superstition and idolatry expatiate themselves amongst Mankind. The Reason of which seems to be, that being unable by their natural inquiries, to arrive at a right knowledge of the true God, and a Certainty in Divine things, their contemplations did but multiply their mistakes, and men's greatest abilities proved but a prolisick Nursery of Errors. Yea, the more devotion they had from a clearer knowledge of a deity in general, and the farther discovery they made of a state of mankind after this life, the more propense they were to an universal Apostasy to all the ills of Superstition and Idolatry, by representing false Images of those things to themselves, and dilating those Apprehensions into Multiplied Objects both of Fancy and Sense, having no clear and fixed notions whereby to rescue themselves from their own fluctuations about those matters.  
That we call Learning (which is nothing else but acquired Knowledge resulting from the improvement of our rational faculties) if we consider its rise, 'tis not to be doubted but that the several parts of it had their first preductions from the Nations the Grecians called barbarous, and were begun amongst them as the position of each Country, and the inclination of each people variously led to them. If we consider the progress learning hath taken, it came from all other parts, and first concentered in Graece, removed thence to Rome, and in the Declension of that Empire, diffused itself into all these European parts of the World. To make the Grecians the first Authors of it, as some do, and to derive it originally from them, is to abuse the World with a false and fictitious pretention, as if all the rational part of the World had been in a Lethargy but themselves, and all men's intellectuals had lain in a Trance, and been first awakened in Graece. 'Tis true, that what lay scattered in several hands, was their first eminently united, and greatly improved by the singular abilities and industry of their Philosophers; but to all parts of the known world were they indebted for the general grounds of their Knowledge. Ab omnibus fere Barbaris Artes & utilia ad vitam Documenta Graecos didicisse, says Eusebius. And he tells us after, their Astronomy they had from the Chaldeans, their Geometry from the Egyptians (without doubt the most learned of all the barbarous Nations) their Letters from the Phaenicians, and the notion of one God from the Hebrews. Clemens Alex. says, Vita me deficiet si velim sigillatim Graecorum furta persequi. Stromat. Pag. 149. Two famous benefactors they had that all Story makes visible: Cadmus who first brought them the inestimable Treasure of Letters, and instructed them in the Phaenician Religion and Learning, and Orpheus, who instructed them in all the Egyptian Knowledge. Some of themselves, as Democritus, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and others who traveled much into remote parts, acknowledge the great Foreign helps they received: But especially Plato, of whom Clemens Alex. says, Clarum est autem semper inveniri Platonem magni facere barbaros, utqui meminisset se & Pythagoram plurima eaque praestantissima & nobilissima dogmata didicisse apud Barbaros. Stromat Lib. 1. Lactantius tell us, that Pythagoras, and after him Plato, were so inquisitive after Truth, that they traveled into Egypt and Persia, and other countries' to be informed of their Religion and Learning, and wonders they never went to the Jews. Which if you believe Strabo, Pythagoras did; for he tells us, that Pythagoras went into Jewry and dwelled a long time at Mount Carmel. Aristotle plainly owns the rise of Philosophy to be foreign to Graece, and says, Persis, Magos, Babylonijs & Assyriss Caldaos, Indis Gymnosophistas, Celtis seu Gallis Druidas, & qui Semnothei appellabantar, ejus rei fuisse Authores. Many of the Grecians we know boast much to the contrary: Diogenes Laertius in the beginning of his Works, seems more positive against it then any; for for he tells us, that such who think other Nations, before the Grecians, began to Philosophise, Per imprudentiam Graecorum recte facta inventaque Barbaris applicant, ab ijs enim non solum Philosophia, verum ipsum quoque humanum genus initio manavit. Two things well joined, and of equal credibility; the latter as probable as that fabulous tradition amongst the Egyptians, That Mankind came first out of Egypt, and were there originally produced by the River Nile: And the former against the best and most ancient History, and positively disproved by some of the chiefest Grecian Philosophers themselves. Nor are the Reasons he gives after for it, so considerable, that they deserve either to be confuted or named.  
Whatever could be done without supernatural help, by the Wisdom and industry of Men, seems to be attained to between that time wherein Learning flourished in Graece, and the declension of the Roman Empire. The most famous Men that the World hath had, for all natural acquirements flourishing in that compass of time in Graece and in Rome. And yet there needs no greater or other Evidence of man's defect without Revelation, than the Records of those very times. If we consider, first, how mean, confsed, and uncertain an account they gave of the first cause of things, and of the Origine of the World. Thales Miletius the founder of the jonick School, who was Antiquissimus Sapientum in Graece, and the first Author amongst them of that Science they afterwards called Natural Philosophy, and came nearest to the Story of Moses, he derived all things from Water. Rerum omnium principium dixit esse Aquam; ex Aqua namque omnia existere, & in Aquam resolvi omnia. Following therein Homer the great Prophet of Graece (whose Books were indeed the great Pagan-Bible, and from whom not only most of the Gracian Religion, but most of all the Heethen Theology was after derived) for he makes the Sea the common Parent of all things.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Occanum rerum genuit qui cuncta parentem.  
Year, of the Gods themselves; for he derives their Pedigree no higher.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Oceanumque Deūm patrem Tethymque parentem.  
Anaximander, his Successor, he thought the World came from no one particular thing, but that all things had their proper and singular beginnings, which he held to be Infinite, and that Infinite Worlds were thereby begotten, all which had their successive Original, Continuance and End. Anaximenes he thought all things came from Air, Ex Aere omnia fieri, & in hunc desinere omnia. Heraclitus ascribed all to Fire, thought all things came first from Fire, and would revert to Fire again. Pythagoras, the Author of the Italic Philosophy, and the first introducer of the Name of Philosophy, according to Laertius; And as Clemens Alex. tells us, the first that took the Name of a Philosopher upon himself; which St. Austin says he did out of modesty, refusing to be called a Wise man (which every Philosopher was before but chose rather to style himself a lover of Wisdom; he ascribed all things to Numbers. 'Twere endless to mention all the absurd and contradictory speculations the Philosophers had about this matter. The three best of all the Philosophers, who successively instructed each other, and attained to the top of the Grecian Literature, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle: What a Cloud did those elevated understandings set in about these matters! Socrates (so far as we can judge of him by what his Scholars have collected of his, for he wrote nothing himself saw so great vanity in the Sentiments of all the Philosophers about these things, & withal was so convinced of his own inability to come to a right comprehension of them, that he applied himself chief to Morality, waved all dispute about them, as uncertain and no way satisfying, and made his business to instruct men in the Rules of good living, and to withdraw them from such speculations wherein he found they had been ever benighted and lost; which doubtless was the wisest resolve by far that any of them ever came to, it being a singular part of prudence to be silent in that about which we are Ignorant. And in this particular happily he made good what the Oracle said of him, Mortalium unus Socrates vere sapit. Plato asserts three first Principles of all things, Deum, Materiam, & Idaeam. Deum Conditorem omnium; Materiam autem primariae rerum genitarum generationi subjacentem, & Causam occasionemque Deo creationis praebentem; Ideam porro Creaturae cujusque exemplar. And sometimes adds a fourth, Animam universalem. Aristotle makes but two Principles, Deum & Materiam. And indeed so contradicted the former Hypothesis of Plato, and so little agreement was there in those things between them (though he had been his Scholar from fifteen) that Plato complains, He kicked at him as Foals use to do at their Dames that have bred them up. Some thought the World Eternal without a Deity. Aristotle he thought it Eternal with a Deity, and that the World flowed naturally from the Divine Being, as light does from the Sun. Nor indeed was there any one Philosopher amongst them all, but held that the matter of the World in some posture or other (about which they much differed) was Eternal, as well as the Deity itself. And therefore one of the Ancients says, Omnes Philosophi in his consenserunt semper, prater Deum ab omni Eter nitate aliquid fuisse. In this all Philosophers have agreed, that there was somewhat else besides God from all Eternity. They never admitted the matter of the World could possibly come originally from Divine Potentiality, and so from nothing; if you respect matter, that Maxim, Fieri é nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti, was universal amongst them, and still confined by them all to the notion of matter.  
For Divinity, no parts of the world, before or since, ever produced a farther Corruption therein then Greece and Rome, in their greatest splendour. They made Gods of all parts of the World, and of themselves living and dead. Idolatry was then in its Meridian. That natural notion men have of a Deity has been in no Age of the World more notoriously debauched to the very dregs of all false worship, then in those knowing times. Whatever they generally loved or feared, fancied and not understood, that they were sure to Adore. Their backs were bowed down with an ignorant implicit reverence to what they knew not, and so their Devotions proved as ruinous to them as their Vices. 'Twas their Religion in Graece that made men turn Atheists, and made that learned Country the first Soil that ever Atheism grew in. 'Twas so grossly absurd, and their Poets had made it so ridiculous, that it became loathsome to the most intelligent part of themselves. At Athens so blind were they in their Devotion, and withal so confused with the multiplicity of their own Deities, not sometimes knowing which to apply to, that they inscribed Altars to the unknown God (by which they fell accidentally into the worship of the true God, before they were ware: for the unknown God, amongst them, 〈◊〉 indeed the true God) The occasion of 〈◊〉 ●uch we find in Laertius, in the life of Epimenides, who he says, in the time of the great Plague that was at Athens, Oves alas & nigras in Areopagum adduxit, ac dimissis deinde quo ire vellent auctor suit, ut ubi illi recubuissent ibi Sacrificarent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. These Altars are likewise mentioned by Pausanias, Lib. 1. and by Phylostratus, Lib. 6. Such Altars so inscribed also they had in Rome, upon the occasion of an Earthquake there, when they knew not which of their Gods to apply to, as appears by Agelli. Lib. 11. Chap. 28. In Rome, their Religion was grown to that height of absurdity, that one tells us in Cicero, the Roman Priests themselves did to such a degree, contemn their own Devotions and Ceremonies, that they could scarce forbear smiling at each other when they met in the Streets. 'Twere strange to believe God should be pleased with what Men mocked at themselves. Cotta in Cicero's Books de Nat. Deor. says plainly, Religions must be continued as they were first instituted for the safety of Commonwealths, but that otherwise all wise people laughed at those Mysteries. Never any man scorned any thing more than Caesar himself did his own gods, and as Tertullian observes, pleased himself often, in that he was able to make his gods feel the power of his anger. What a Childish folly 'twas then to believe that a Roman Consul lost his whole Army, because he slighted the feeding of some young Chickens! or that Marcus Crassus was therefore slain by the Parthians, because he despised some fopperies of Atteius! If we look off from their public Religion, and the general practice of their Divinity, and take a view of what the Wisest and Best thought, what a poor product were all their Notions, compared with the Bible! What a Midnight were men in, in respect of Religion, in that clear Sunshine of Humane Knowledge! Socrates, who saw the furthest of any man in the Age wherein he lived, into the vanity of the Heathen Theology, and died for a pretended Contempt of it, for the Charge that Melius, one of his Accusers brought against him at Athens, as Laertius says, was, Jura violate Socrates, quos ex majorum instituto suscepit Civitas, Deos esse negans, alia vero nova Demonia inducens. The first Philosophical Martyr that we read of, has yet left but little better Divinity behind him: Nor can I perceive he had any design or ability to reform the World that way; for he Answers his Charge by a flat denial, as appears by his Apology in Plato (and his whole carriage sufficiently assures us 'twas out of choice, and not out of fear that he did so) Sometimes also, before, he advised others to content themselves with the Religion of the Country they lived in. And we find likewise in Plato, how uncertain and doubtful he was about that great point of the Soul's Immortality, and a future state of Men after this life, and could determine nothing with himself positively about it, though he seems to incline that way, and to think it the more probable opinion that the Soul is Immortal: Much in the same way that Cicero speaks of it in his Tusculane Questions, who gives it but a probability: And as Plato does in his Phaed, who says in the Conclusion of his discourse, that he is not certain about it, nor will not be confident of it. 'Twas doubtless a high degree of uncertainty in his thoughts about those matters that made him say, He knew not whether 'twere better to die or to live, and that 'twas a foolish thing to be troubled about that of which we have no certain Knowledge, whether it be to be desired or feared. And when he came near to his end, he expressed great contentment in the hopes of being with Hercules and Palamedes in the next World; but still qualified those Hopes with this doubtful Parenthesis (In case the Soul be not extinguished with the Body) He chose indeed to be rather a good Moralist, and to deal in those Notions wherein he found some certainty, then to attempt much in the speculative part of Divinity, being wholly unable to frame any satisfactory Notions to himself about the Being of God and Divine Worship. He often plainly declares that of the Nature of God, and the business of another World he was wholly ignorant, and many of the wisest Philosophers acknowledged as much, and thought those things utterly beyond the reach of all Humane Knowledge, all Notions about them to be full of uncertainty, and therefore chose to submit to the Vulgar Sentiments, rather than perplex themselves with doubtful and unsatisfying Speculations, and run the hazard of contradicting the public Religion of those Countries where they lived. Plato the famous Divine Philosopher, who exceeded all the Grecian Philosophers, as much in the Speculative part of Religion, as Socrates did in the Practic, though there was more true Divinity uttered by him then by any of the Philosophers (where he first had it, is not hard to determine) yet attended with marvellous vanities, and intolerable Errors. 'Tis not easy to forbear smiling in reading over the account he gives of the Creation of the World (the matter of which he makes to be Eternal) the fabulous conceits he has about that and many other things of that Nature, 'twould tyre out any ordinary patience to read. A great promoter he was of that gross Idolatry of Damon-Worship; for he says, That when men die, their Souls become Daemons, and if their merits be good, they are Lar, if Evil, Lemures, if different, Manes. Of which St. Austin gives a large account, De Civ. Dei lib. 9 Ch. 11. Though he speak much of one God, yet himself then (as all the Platonists since) held that many gods are to be Worshipped; and in his Timaeus, he calls Saturn, Ops; Juno, and others Gods; and says, the Daemons and Heroe's are to be Sacrificed to, and the good Estate of the City commended to them. Cicero observes likewise, out of his Timaeus, that he spoke with great obscurity and uncertainty about this one God. Sometimes calling him an Eternal Mind, And sometimes calling the Sun, Moon, and Stars, & all parts of the World, the Souls of men, and whatever the Heathens worshipped Gods. And at last concludes, that the whole of his Principles, per se sunt falsa, & sibi invicem repugnantia, Are in themselves false, and self contradictious. Aristotle, that great Luminary of the Rational World, a man of a most sagacious wit, who traveled with such unparallelled success through all the Theorems of Nature, and all parts of Humane Knowledge, what Mushrom-Divinity has he left behind him! With what obscurity, uncertainty, and confusion with himself, has he spoke of those two great fundamentals of all Religion, the Being of God, and the Immortality of the Soul! to such a degree that many of his Disciples since have avowed that he denied the latter. If out of Aristotle's Books we should but extract a Model of his Religion, it might be for a Monument of wonder, that such a Giant in all Natural knowledge should die such a Child in Divinity. Cicero, who carried the Topsail of Learning in the Age wherein he lived, to whom the elder Pliny gave this Testimony, That he only had a Wit equal to the greatness of the Roman Empire, why did not he compose a right Systeme of Divinity; and leave a good account of those things to posterity behind him? from whom might we with more Reason, have expected it? he designing the Nature of the Gods, and Divinity for his Subject? In the beginning of his Book, he tells us with what unequal Sentiments men had debated those matters! Some of the Philosophers doubted whether there were any Gods, as Protagoras; Some positively affirmed there were none, as Diagoras and Theodorus Cyrenaicus, ●●●i vero Deos esse dixerunt, tanta sunt in varietate ac dissentione constituti, ut corum molestum sit annumerare Sententias. Name & de siguris Deorum, & de locis, atque sedibus, & Actione vitae, multadicuntur. Deque his summa Philosophorum dissentione certatur. And those (says he) that do acknowledge the Being of the Gods, have such various and different Opinions about them, that 'twere an extreme trouble to reckon them up; For, about the shape of the Gods, their employments, and what they do, and the places where they are, there are endless dissensions amongst the Philosophers. Now, why did not he, out of all the several Sentiments of the Philosophers, Compose a true notion of his own? unite their differences? and rectify their mistakes by one common Truth? instead whereof we find him doing little else but repeating their various opinions; which amount to no less in number then four or five and twenty (and in Diogenes Laertius there is good store more) and generally condemning them all as false and extravagant, unworthy the names of their Authors, otherwise famous and learned men; and at last sits down finding his own inability for so impracticable a task, and has left the World not much more informed than they were before in that point. The Sum of his three Books of the Nature of the Gods, is indeed a perfect Condemnation of the whole Pagan Religion; for, he says directly, All their Gods were but Men: and reckons up their Ages, their Garments, their Children, their Ancestors, their Alliances, and plainly confesseth their Temples were their Tombs, and their Sacrifices and Ceremonies, representations of their Lives, and the whole of their Religions, Superstition and Vanity. But when he came to speak of the Supreme Deity that made all things; yea, the Heathen gods themselves, he openly declares his own Ignorance, and says he can sooner admire then utter any thing, and better declare what the Deity is not, than what it is: And concludes upon the whole. utinam tam facile veram Religionem invenire possim, quam falsam convincere. I would I could as easily find out true religion, as discover that which is false. Himself, Socrates, and some others of the wisest of them, saw far into the Impotency of their own Religion; but I could never yet find that any of them arrived at any ability to compose a better. Nor can any man in any Age be produced that (without Revelation) has been able to give the world aright or satisfying information about the Being of God, and the Truth of Divine things. It having been in fact according to what is observed by the most excellent Mornay in his discourse De veritate Relig. Christ. Denique evolve quaecunque a Priscis mundi sapientibus. To be short (says he) Amongst all the things which the Wise men of the World have written here and there of the Service of God ye may hap to find some one good saying, in a hundred years, and some one other in another hundred: But when ye have gathered them all together as diligently as you can, yet shall ye be able to make of them neither Rules nor Grounds nor scarcely good Problems. So greatly is man, by his corruption, both blinded in things concerning God, and helpless in things that concern his own welfare.  
'tis true, that many points of the Christian Religion, especially the three Grand Fundamentals of it, The Being of God, his Providence and Rule over the World, and the Immortality of the Souls of men, have been even through these Heathen Ages, two ways acknowledged and justified. First, Implicitely and more Remotely, by the general and most corrupt practice of the Ethnick-Religion. What greater proof can there be of a God, and that the World still thought there was something above them, than their grossest Idolatry? All Idolatry apparently taking its rise from the corruption of men's natural notion of the True God. What meant their Imaginary Deities for every business, and for every part of the World, and their applications to them upon all occasions, to seek their favour, and appease their anger, but that they supposed a Supreme Disposal of things, and that the World was Ruled by a Divine Providence? And what signified all their fictions about Heaven and Hell, and their adoration of Daemons, and the worship of dead men's Souls, which they made to be Mediators to the Gods, and variously called them Lemures, Lar, Manes, Larvae, some of which (if they were the Souls of their friends) they fancied, stayed about their Houses and Dwellings for their protection; others were more at Large; some were good Daemons and above: Others Infernal and Below, as appears by that of the Poet.  
— Vos O mihi Manes  
Este Boni, quoniam superis Aversa voluntas.  
Whence came all this, but from an obscure confused notion of men's existence after this Life, and a belief of the Souls Immortality?  
In the second place, more expressly and explicitly, from the Judgement of some particular persons amongst them, who have uttered here and there some fragments of Truth, and have sometimes spoken in justification of these Main Points. So Plato and others have spoken somewhat of One God (Though it ought to be noted that the Being of One God was never generally and distinctly acknowledged in any Heathen Country, nor was there ever a Law made in any Heathen State to establish the Being and Worship of one God. Nay, some have supposed that no particular Person did ever purely by Natural Light, determine that there was but one God: But that such who have spoken of it had it from a Tradition originated in Revelation. So says a Learned Author in reproach of the Grecian and Roman Learning, That setting aside what they learned out of Egypt, they could never, by themselves, determine whether there were many Gods or but One) Cicero, Plutarch, and others, have spoken fully about Providence, and others of them have said much to justify the souls Immortality; so much has been acknowledged in the Heathen World, that the sparks of Divine Truth, though under much Rubbish, have been there secretly kept alive, and so much as does sufficiently assure us that the great Fundamentals of the Christian Profession are most Suitable to the Rational Nature, do only Rectify its Depravations; and have been some way witnessed unto, in the darkest times; And to that end we often make use of their Testimony. But 'tis not imaginable that God should leave the world without any further discovery of himself their chiefest good, or any further direction toward an eternal happiness which is man's chiefest end, than what we find the world (without Revelation) has attained to: Nor can there be a stronger evidence of the necessity of some Revelation, than the condition the world has been in without it. The whole of the Heathen Divinity having been, some way or other, tainted, and is reducible to one of these three heads, either erroneous, uncertain, or imperfect. Most of it erroneous, much of it uncertain, but all of it imperfect.  
If we inquire how mankind came to be benighted as they have been in these things of greatest concernment, How such a flood of Idolatry and Superstition came to overslow the Gentile-world! Two things ought to be considered in order to the satisfaction of such an enquiry. First, the Internal Cause of it, And secondly, the External Means by which it hath been brought about. The Internal Cause of it hath lain in two things. First, An Insussiciency in our Natural Abilities, since the Fall, to ascertain us fully about Divine things, and to give a satisfying answer to all those inquiries we naturally make about them; Secondly, the general ill improvement the world has made of those abilities it had, and the universal Declension and Apostasy of mankind from that knowledge they might have arrived at. For the first, Though the Being of God and the existence of a Supreme Power be witnessed to, by every man's Reason, and every man be born with a relation to somewhat Above him, and there be many Maxims of Natural Divinty connate to the true exercise of our rational faculties, yet there be two things can never be attained by any Natural search. First, A certain knowledge What God is! And Secondly a certain knowledge How he is to be Served! Neither a Satisfying account of the Nature of his Being, nor of a Worship acceptable to him, is to be compassed, without Revelation. About these two things, when men have had nothing told them from Heaven to fix them, their Opinions have been as various as their Inventions. The grosser part of the world (God being only an Intellectual Object, whom they could not see) generally fell to conceive of him by what they did see. Cicero himself confessing that when we come to consider Qualis sit Deorum Natura, Nihil est dificilius quam a consuctudine oculorum, aciem mentis abducere. Lib. 2. de Nat. Dear. And the more Refined part lost themselves in a Wilderness of Abstracted Speculations about what they could never distinctly comprehend. For the Second, 'Tis plain, a great part of the Heathen Idolatry arose, not only from their Mistakes in what they could not know, but from a corrupt defection from what they might know. Those Notices their own natural abilities gave them of God, thwarting their Sensual Inclinations, they delighted not to retain such a knowledge of God in their minds, but willingly turned aside to Delusion, left the guide of their Reason, and chose the conduct of Appetite. The Stupendious folly of their Religions, is as a Thousand witnesses to this Truth, That they lived not only below the true Knowledge of the one God, but far beneath the exercise of Right Reason. For though I am apt to believe that a Supernatural knowledge does much instruct us in the true extent of what is merely Natural, and does much enkindle our natural Light, and we see many things now to be attainable by Nature, which the world (so far as I can discern) never found out without Revelation. Yet 'tis not credible that a Rational Being (without some way extinguishing the dictates of his own faculty) should make a God of that which he himself knew to be but a Perishing Creature, or should think to please a being of such perfections as every man's Reason must needs ascribe to God, by debasing himself before the Meanest parts of the World.  
Secondly, If we consider the External means by which these Internal Causes have operated, and how all that Rubbish of Pagan Theology hath been visibly induced to defile and cumber the world, from five things chief we may derive it. First, From a corrupt Tradition of the World's first original, and the History of the Creation, and the Flood, and many passages both before and after the Flood, which Noah and his family first conveyed down to the world in its Repeopling, and the Jews from Moses afterward informed them off. This appears to have been a great rise to many of the Heathen Superstions and Vanities, and most especially amongst the Phaenicians, much of whose Religion seems to be a plain corruption of those original Truths, and an apparent Mythology upon the True History of things before and after the Flood, as appears by Diodorus Sicubus, and more anciently by their own famous Antiquary Sanconiathon, in the Version of Philo Biblius. The occasion of which corruption in the Tradition of those things was, probably, the Confusion of Tongues at first, the great increase of Barbarism after, the proud desire every Nation had to apply all Traditional Stories of famous persons to some of themselves; with many other Reasons which Scaliger, Bochart, and other Learned men give for it. Secondly, From the Fictions of the Poets, who 'tis clear, were the first beginners of all the Grecian Learning, and were therefore anciently called in Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers, and as Strabo says (and I thinks, upon very good grounds) were also the first beginners of all the ancientest Learning every where. All other Speech, whether Historical or Rhetorical, being but the progeny of Poetry, the Ancients knowing no other artificial or set form of speech but what was in Verse; and therefore, as the same Author says, Poetry was anciently called Prima quaedam Philosophia. These filled the World with innumerable Fables, Mythologized upon every thing, and did greatly promote their Theological Vanities and the Corruption of all true Story. Thirdly, From the wild Speculations and multiplied Theories of the Philosophers (of whom there were some hundreds of Sects) which served greatly to Puzzle and misled men. There being, as Cicero says, no Absurdity but had some Philosopher for its Patron. Fourthly, From their Oracles, by which the world lay subjected to all Diabolical delusions. And fifthly, from their corrupt Legislators, such as Numa in Rome, and others, who finding the World Sequacious in point of Religion, and Mankind apt to adore every fiction, imposed upon their belief whatever they thought most conducing to their own Politic Ends.  
Nor has the World without Revelation, been free from defects in its Morals, though Men attained far therein, and their Morality much outwent their Divinity. Cicero wrought with much better success de Officiis, than he he did the Nat. Deorum, yet the Bible has greatly improved the world herein. Let any man extract the most exact Scheme he can of Morality out of the best Philosophers, and the acutest Moralists, and compare it with the Doctrine the Bible proposeth to us about those things, and the defects of it will be visible. Amiraldus observes in his Treatise of Religions, That scarce can there be found any Commonwealth amongst those which have been esteemed the best policyed, in which some Grand and Signal Vice has not been excused, or permitted, or even sometimes recommended by public Laws. Plato makes a Community of Women, one of the fundamental Constitutions of his Republic. Socrates and Cato I think are agreed to be two as famous Moralists as ever were in Graece or in Rome. Cato the great exemplar for Virtue and Justice amongst the Romans, and Socrates the Phoenix of Graece for Virtue and Piety, of whom Xenophon gives this admirable account in his Book De Socratis memorabilibus dictis, Nemo autem unquam Socratem implum q●iddam & irreligiosum aut facere vidit, aut dicere audivit. No man ever heard Socrate speak, or ever saw him do a wicked and irreligious thing (that is, according to the conceptions they then had of those things) Himself the first Author of Ethics, and the first that contemned the fruitless Speculations of the Philosophers about other things, and reduced Men to the Doctrines of Morality: So says Laertius of him, Animadvertens autem naturalis speculationis, fructum nullum esse, eamque ad officia vitae nihil esse necessariam, invenit primus Ethicen deque illa & in Officijs, & in Publico, quotidie Philosophans, ea potius inquirenda hortabatur, quae mores instituerent, & quorum usus domi esses necessarius. Yet these two famous Vertuoso's were no better principled in Morality, but that they could part with their Wives unto others, for their own advantage. And therefore Tertullian in his Apology, cries out in derision of them, O famous example of a Grecians Wisdom and Roman Severity! A Philosopher and a Censor make a shameful Trade of their Wife's Chastity. Aristotle and Cicero both commend Revenge as a Laudable part of Magnanimity. Self-murder in many cases, was generally allowed off by the best of their Casuists. One thing of great worth in itself, and of most general use amongst Mankind, we are upon the matter wholly obliged to Divine Revelation for; That excellent Virtue of Humility has not a footstep to be found amongst them: nor is there a word of true Solf-denial in their best Ethics. Nay, the contrary Vice had a share with their Virtues. Pride and Self-esteem was a disease Epidemical amongst them, and seems wholly incurable by any notions they had. Some arrived to that impudence to compare themselves with, nay, prefer themselves before their own gods. 'Twas either a horrible folly to Deify what they Postponed to their own Self-estimation, or else 'twas a stupendious effect of their Pride to prefer themselves before the gods they Worshipped. Never any man amongst them proposed the Honour of their own Gods, as the chief end of their Actions, nor so much as dreamt of any such thing; 'Tis Evident the best of them in their best Actions, reflected still back to themselves, and determinated there; designed to set up a Pillar, to exalt their own fame & reputation, & to bring home a large Revenue of Glory and esteem to their own names: especially before the Gospel was extant, from the light of which 'tis probable even the Heathen Philosophers themselves did in many things rectify their Morals in after times.  
Nor is it unworthy our notice, upon how much safer and surer foundations the power of Princes and Magistrates is established by the Doctrine of the Scriptures, than what we find it was by any other Laws. With what positive indispensable strictness is men's subjection to Authority commanded! Not the least allowance for any Opposition to be made by private men against their Superiors. The worst Princes have a just claim to our submission; when we cannot actually obey, we are positively obliged quietly to suffer. We find the World governed by much loser Principles amongst the best of the Heathen, and Authority exercised upon much unsafer terms. 'Twas ordinary with them to rebel against Authority, if they thought it not well exercised; and to lay violent hands upon such as they had a mind to call tyrants and invaders of the People's liberties. Nothing more frequent in their Writings then the highest Encomiums of those that murdered and assassinated men in highest Authority. And nothing more common in their Cities, than the Statues of such to perpetuate their Memory. What superlative praises of those that slew the Tyrants of Thebes are transferred to posterity! Nay, that odious and detestable murder of Julius Caesar is so justified and applauded by Cicero himself, as if Brutus and his Complices had been sent from the Gods to do it; and yet in truth scarce did the Sun ever afford its light to a viler Action, and the Sequel of it sufficiently testified Gods high displeasure with such a Barbarous Assassination: for the people of Rome in general exchanged their Condition from better to much worse, and by the absoluteness and severity of three or four sharp Masters, felt an oppression far beyond even the most popular complaints of that kind against Caesar. And for the Murderers themselves, it fared much with them as it did with the accusers of Socrates. Every one of them came to an untimely and remarkable End: And some of them (as the ancients have been curious to observe) slew themselves with the very same Swords wherewith they had assaulted him, and became their own Executioners with those individual weapons, by which they effected their malice against his noble person. The Laws of the Gospel greatly heighten the attainments of the World in these things. All revenge amongst private persons is there wholly exploded, much more against such as are clothed with authority. The Gospel bids us Pray for them that persecute us and despitefully use us, and subject ourselves to Authority, not only for fear, and out of Interest, but also for Conscience sake, And this Doctrine the Apostles themselves made good in their own Practice, while they lived under that Monster Nero, the worst of Emperors, and the vilest of Men.  
The whole of these things point us to the reasonable expectation of that we are in quest of, which is some supernatural Revelation. All men have turned Banquerupts upon those first natural stores God entrusted them with. 'Tis necessary to set up anew upon the stock of Revelation. Nothing can be more pregnantly urged to show the necessity of it, then that the best and most knowing persons of the World, who have ransacked all the corners of Nature, and seem to have set a Copy for succeeding Ages to write after, in most Humane attainments, have been so far from discovering the certain tracks to an Eternal happiness, that they were never yet able to frame such a Religion as could reasonably satisfy others, or convince the wisest of themselves, or much less upon any good ground be supposed to find any acceptance with the true God. In what strange mists of Religious Ignorance and folly did those knowing Ages of the world breath out themselves and expire! making the meanest Creatures their Gods, and ascribing the vilest qualities of the worst men to their Deities! Losing themselves in a wilderness of vain Worship, to She Gods, Wicked Gods, Feigned Gods, Senseless Gods, Many Gods; How do these things point us to the Necessity of the Bible, to put an end to the foolish Fancies and Inventions of Men! that what man, since the fall, could not find out, or had lost the knowledge of, God might acquaint him with, and at once discover to him all those admirable Topics of Divine Knowledge which the Scriptures contain, and give him a clear and distinct account how the World came first to be made! and of those Methods by which Mankind came since to be saved, things beyond all natural kenn, and which only served to reproach the wisest thoughts, and to tell men how little they could discover of what they were most concerned to know. Moses having told us more in two Pages then the whole World ever discovered by the utmost of all Humane search. Nor has the world any way improved itself in this kind of Sience to this day. However men by experience and industry, have meliorated the condition of Humane Affairs in other things, whatever advance they have made in Natural Theories, or in any Mechanic contrivance, whatever Rust of Error or Ignorance that stuck to former Ages, may be worn off, by an improvement of Natural Speculation in this, yet where the Scriptures are either not Known or Rejected, they are at the same Loss in point of Divinity, they are as Ignorant of the True God as ever. And the Result of all Natural Theology (without the help of some Revelation) has been, and still is, no other than this, That while men have been most busily contemplating the nature of an Infinite Being, and contriving Ways to gain Acceptance with him, they have Lost themselves in the Crowd of their own vain Imaginations.  
Secondly, Such have been the Principles and Practices of all Nations in all ages, that it evidently appears, The world, men themselves, have generally found and acknowledged a Necessity of Revelation; and out of an experimental sense of their own Impotency without it, have still lived in expectation of somewhat Supernatural to be Revealed from Above. Mankind, since the Fall, have been still listening after some further discovery of God then what the Work of his hands does afford them, and some more perspicuous Notices of his pleasure then what their own Natural Abilities could dictate to them, as that which Gods goodness and his own excellent Nature seemed to promise to the World, and man's natural Tendency to some Supernatural happiness (as the great end of his being) continually called for. The Genius of the World has been so suited to the notion of Revelation, and men's thoughts have been so constantly taken up with an Expectance of some Divine Instruction, that they have been still in danger to fall into all the extremes of deluding Enthusiasm. Not only their Religion but whatever else they thought well off, they were ready to Father it still upon Revelation. Scarce was there a Mechanic Invention but they ascribed it to a Discovery made by the Gods. Pythagoras when he had found out an excellent Demonstration in Geometry, sacrificed a hundred Oxen in gratitude to the Gods who had favoured him with such a Discovery. Whatever was in itself difficult, or Excellent, they imputed the Accomplishment of it to a Supernatural Power. Homer (the great Oracle of the Heathen Divinity) not only ascribes to the gods the Invention of all abstruse matters; and all the Heroical motions of the mind; but refers our Ordinary Cogitations to Divine Impulses.  
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Talis nempe mens est Terram incolentium hominum.  
Qualem in dies indit pater hominumque Deumque.  
And his Book is filled throughout with Enthusiastic Advertisements directed to Men from the Gods. Cicero, in the end of his 2. Book, De Nat. Deor. is large in his expression this way. Nec unquam Magnus vir sine aliquo Afflatu Divino. Never was there any great Man (says he) without some— Inspiration. Not only were the Poets (who seem to be the Divines of the Pagans, and the Priests of their Mysteries) all Inspired Men; but not an eminent Physician or a Soldier was there among them, nor a Man any way excellent, but they derived his Abilities from some Supernatural Gift, and thought his Qualities from Above. Socrates that excellent person often says, That virtue and Religion are not things to be learned as Arts and Sciences are; but to be had by inspiration, being Divine and Heavenly gifts. He avowed himself raised up by God to Philosophise, and by his Precepts to Reform the Athenian manners: And, when condemned to die, and sentenced to the Poisonous Cup, Resolutely protested, Though the Prison-dores should be opened to him, with an injunction never more to Philosophise, he would wholly refuse his Liberty upon those Terms, and would choose to obey God rather then Men. We read not of an eminent Legislator in a Commonwealth but pretended he received his Laws from the gods. Solon's Laws were said to come from Minerva: Lycurgus derived his Laws from Jupiter. And much more was their Religion and the Rites thereof still fathered upon some Deity or other, and handed down to the world with a Supernatural Stamp. Numa Pompilius, the first founder of the Roman Ceremonies, declared he received them from the Goddess Egeria. No Religion in any Nation but has made some pretence to Revelation. That absurd Imposter Mahomet was wise enough to father his Medley Divinity and all the confused trash of his Koran upon Revelation. Nothing else could have cheated so many into a belief of such a Religion, but that they were first persuaded it came from Above, and that Mahomet had it Revealed to him from Heaven. The Heathen world were, in Truth, without any Revelation in Religious affairs, that is, They had no Divine Laws given them from Heaven to direct their Religious obedience (Whether it pleased God to Reveal any particular matters, at any time, to any of them, I dispute not; But He gave his Statutes, his Divine Laws, to Israel, and he did not deal so wit● any Nation besides) And yet nothing more general than the expectation of it, and nothing more common than Pretensions to it. This seems to have been a Catholic Maxim, that the true knowledge of the Deity, and the right way of serving him, must be revealed from Above. All the Nations of the Earth seem to have concentered in this belief, that Divine Revelation, and a Supernatural intercourse between God and Man was necessary, for the present and future good of Mankind. 'Tis well expressed by the Learned Camero, Omnium Gentium etiam Barbararum consensu receptum est, ut homini bene sit, praeter eam Rationem quam nimis magnifico & superbo Titulo vitae Ducem vocant, requiri Coelestem quandam Sapientiam; inde Nata est Religio, Ritus, Cerimoniae, quae sola Sanctitate se commendant. Praelect. de Verb. Dei. 'Tis a thing (says he) agreed to, by the consent of all Nations, yea the most Barbarous, that in order to man's well being, there should be a heavenly Wisdom to direct him, besides the guide of his own Reason, and from thence comes Religion, etc. 'Twas from this General apprehension that the World came to be so often and so easily imposed upon by deluding pretensions to inspiration, and the many gross Cheats of Enthusiasm, the greatest Impostors still setting up for Enthusiasts. 'Twas upon this account that the Heathen parts of the World were so enslaved to their Oracles, and did so greedily embrace whatever they thought came from above. The truth is, there is in every man not besotted with sensuality, and brutishly degenerated, an earnest thirst after the knowledge of God and Supernatural things. And there is as clear a Conviction upon every Reasonable man, that without some further discovery from God himself, than what this World and our own contemplations thereupon will afford us, no satisfying account of those things can be attained.  
Thirdly. Man is a Creature designed by his own Faculties for a Converse with the Deity, and by Natural Obligation, Tends to an Intercourse with God; To serve him acceptably, and to pay the Homage due from us, in such away as we may be fully ascertained is pleasing to him, and will be rewarded by him, is absolutely necessary to all humane welfare. That is, The greatest concern we have in this world, is to be fully instructed about Divine Worship. And this seems no way attainable without some Revelation. That God is, and that he is to be Served, my Reason will tell me; But What he is! and after what Manner he Exists (the knowledge whereof is indispensibly necessary, in all our Approaches to him, as that without which we shall be sure to Debase his Excellency, and to represent to ourselves some vain Ideas, and Phantasms of our own imagination) I must be taught from above. And for the manner how he is to be served, and what will be acceptable to him therein, I must look upward, and expect a full and complete direction from thence. Mankind seem, una voce, to have concentered in this, as a thing most sit, yea necessary, that God should from Heaven reveal to us the way of his own Worship, and Teach us the Methods of our Converse with Him. Where can we find a Religion in any Nation, not founded upon some Pretences to Revelation, and established upon this Admission? 'Twere indeed a most irrational thing, and a great Indignity offered to the Supreme Majesty to make Men their own Judges in that case, and to suppose it left to the Arbitrary Determinations of Humane Discretion, How God should be worshipped! The consideration of the Wisdom and Sovereignty of God, and our own Dependence upon him, is singly sufficient to evince this Truth, that we ought to be under a Law, and a Stated Rule for the Manner of our Serving of him, Without which we can never entitle the best of our Services to Obedience, or, upon any good Grounds, be secured of Acceptance. Not aught we to judge that any Worship ever found favour with God that had not the stamp of his own Command, and was not by himself, some way or other, Appointed. Though 'tis fit to believe that God was well pleased with the Moral goodness of the Heathen world, and any real conformity there was amongst them to that Natural Divinity that is originally annexed to every man's Being, and greatly displeased with the contrary, and rewarded and punished them upon their Good and Ill behaviour in those things, yet 'tis not to be doubted, but that the whole of their own contrived Worship, with all the Rites and Ceremonies of it, was a thing to God most Odious and Detestable. And of this we are well assured, not only from the Reason of the thing considered in itself, but from a very Authentic Determination that tells us The whole of that Worship was a Service performed to Devils. Nor could any the best Intentions that any men ever yet had since the world began, sufficiently excuse for Will-worship and Idolatry. There are but two ways by which any worship can be appointed by God. Either by a Law Natural, given to us in our first Constitution, or by some Revealed Laws since. The Foundation of all Worship must be either in Nature, or Institution. The Point then to be proved will be this, That God has not by any Natural Laws, given to Mankind a sufficient direction about his Worship, and that Intercourse between Himself and the World, that (respecting either his own Honour or man's Happiness) is necessary to be maintained, and all mankind naturally tend to: But has left us to expect it in a Supernatural way. That God, by a Law Natural, binds us to acknowledge his Being, and has given us sufficient notices of it in General, and binds us to acknowledge that there is an Honour and Worship due to his Being, and has given us some General Innate directions about the performance of it, I grant: And has also obliged us to Live according to the Dictates of our Rational Nature (which shows to us Good and Evil) by that very Nature which becomes Obligatory to itself; In these things, our own Reason is our Law, and according to that Law, men without Revelation are Rewarded and Punished: And so I doubt not but all the Heathen Nations were. But the Laws of Nature, the dictates of the best Reason, are not entrusted with such a plenary direction about Worship as 'tis necessary for us to have, and we all tend to; Nor can any man be a sufficient Law to himself in those things. And that may be thus made to appear.  
All Worship must either be confined to Words, Thoughts, and Bodily Gestures, and simply Terminated there; or else it must be extended to some further expressions of Service, by an Appropriation of some other Mediums unto it. First, No part of the World have ever yet thought it a thing Reasonable, that God should be no otherwise served then by Thoughts, Gestures, and Words. Both the Principles and Practices of all Nations have, in all times, declared the contrary. Nor has any Worship, in any Place, been established, or such a constitution framed as that we call Religion, without some other expressions of service, and some other External Mediums appropriated to it. And this seems to have arisen from two things. First, Men have never supposed their Words, or their Thoughts, or their Gestures, to be alone, a sufficient expression of that Homage they are naturally sensible they own to the Greatness and Bounty of God, for their own Being's, and the Donation of this world, which he has visibly bestowed upon Man, in making the Whole in a subserviency to Him, and giving him the plenary and quiet possession of it; But they still thought themselves bound to a further expression of Gratitude and Subjection. Secondly, Mankind in every Age have applied to God under a sense of Sin, and of Gild contracted by it, and upon that account, have still adjudged it as necessary to make some further Offering to God for their sins, and by some other Mediums then bare Thoughts and naked Expressions, to apply to Him about them. No man ever yet imagined such a service a sufficient Compensation for Sin, but have still attempted a further Satisfaction to the Justice above, and by some other ways have endeavoured to appease Divine Anger. Now, the Reason of the world does not issue itself into any positive Certainty about such things, as it does about things in themselves Morally Good and Morally Evil. No man's Reason determines about the positive Use of any such Outward Mediums of Worship, nor can assure me of God's distinguishing Acceptance, in any of them (And, to be upon certain grounds of Acceptance with God, is the chief thing in all our Worship) Nor is any man by Nature, a clear and certain Law to himself about such things; Nor is it possible he should; Because there is no Intrinsically Religious Good, as to matter of Worship, in any parts of the world, but all such goodness results purely from Institution. God has not sanctified any part of the Creation to his Service in such a way by any unalterable obligation arising from the Rational Nature. No such External Mediums of Worship are founded in Reason, but all in Institution. 'Tis true, the Light of Nature will direct me to that behaviour of myself in the performance of all Worship, which I think most Decent and Reverend, But for any External Mediums of Worship, the Light of Nature will give me no certain Direction at all. If any parts of the World be to be made use of in Worship (as by the judgement of God himself, and the practice of the whole world, it has been declared Necessary that some should be) we must then, both for the Choice and the Use, of such parts of the World, be wholly guided and steered by Revelation. And the truth is, every man's own Reason is Impregnated with Obligations to a further Degree of Worship and Divine Homage, than Reason itself is able to be a Safe and a Certain guide to us in, and directs us to many Duties which we want Revelation to teach us how to perform. Which has, in all Ages, made the world so inquisitive after it, and shows us how Rationally we tend Upward in this matter, and how greatly our own Natures prepare us to expect and receive Instructions from Above.  
Secondly, Should this be admitted, that Divine Worship might be confined simply to Thoughts, Gestures, and Words, yet would not our natural light enable us to acquit ourselves as we ought in this matter, nor well to perform such a service as that, without supernatural help. There be two great ends of all worship, which though inseparable in their attainment, are yet distinct in their application, and if not attained, the whole of men's attempts that way will prove altogether useless and fruitless. First, in a right manner to give to God the Honour due from us to him. And Secondly, to provide sufficiently for our own welfare, by an acceptance with him. For the First, how can we Honour God, with the Honour due to him, unless we have a right Knowledge of him, and such a discovery of his Being as may fully inform and ascertain our minds about him; which we never can have, nor to this day the World never had, without Revelation. 'Tis impossible to Honour God as we ought, unless (according to our measure) we know him as in truth he is; and 'tis equally impossible to know what God is, unless it be told us by himself. 'Tis not simply sufficient to Capacitate me for a due address to the Deity to know in the general that there is a Supreme Wisdom, and Justice, and Power above me, that some way or other exists (which is all my Reason will tell me) but I must have some direct and distinct Knowledge of that Being, wherein all those Attributes do exist: Upon which, as the Object of my Worship, my mind may terminate, and without which I shall be sure to form an Idol to myself in the room of that Being, and then apply those Attributes to It. To which fatal mistake and Idolatrous delusion the World (having by Nature, no certain account what God was, not after what manner the Deity did exist) in all Ages, has been too apparently subject. Secondly, how can we sufficiently provide for our own welfare, unless we can be safely assured of the forgiveness of sin, and the total removal of natural guilt: And how is it possible to be so assured, unless we knew the Terms of God's forgiveness, and the Means of our Reconciliation, to him? Of which we have no certain satisfying account given us by any dictates of Nature, nor can they ever be found out, until they be told us from above. Men must needs make strange Prayers, and have very wild and uncertain Meditations about God and their own Conditions, that were benighted with Ignorance in such things. Prayer and whatever else is itself a part of Natural worship, would be very lamely performed, without some Revelation to guide it. The Pagan devotion was a medley of strange Sentiments founded in horrible Ignorance of God, and of their own Condition, and the way of man's Restoration. Had Plato or Aristotle or the wisest amongst them but left us a Liturgy of their own Composition, it would with great effect have convinced us what necessity there is of some Revelation to guide even the best understandings in all Divine addresses.  
Two things about Worship, the practice of the Heathen World has taught us, beyond all reasonable denial. First, that Mankind have generally acknowledged it necessary that some Supernatural direction should be given for the manage of that intercourse that ought to be between God and Man, and have subscribed to the shortness and defficiency of Humane Wisdom about it. And Secondly, that there is no one certain complete Systeme of Worship, that by the light of Nature, Men do uniformly agree in. The one results from their constant recourse to Supernatural inquiries, and the many Enthusiastic pretensions thereupon. The other, from their great and eminent disagreement amongst themselves; for the Pagan world, who were only under the conduct of Naturallight (and had, in truth, no Revelation at all, but were still abused with the counterfeit of it) fell by that guidance into endless diversity in practice, and into a numberless variety of opinions, about the right way of serving and approaching the Deity, and were universally engaged in multiplied Mediums and Methods of worship, no way prescribed by any Natural Law connate with men's beings, or any general uniform issues of right Reason; nor indeed were they under any direction at all, either for their Choice, or their Use, further than what their own fancies or best guesses, or some Enthusiastic Impostors could suggest to them; which plainly declares, there is not an ability in Nature sufficiently to guide Men in Divine worship, so far as their own devotions do naturally Steer them.  
And we that indeed have Revelation, are instructed by that Revelation itself, sufficiently to know the necessity there is of Revelation. For we find that God, by his revealed Laws, does not only revive in general the whole of Nature's Laws about worship, and instruct us in the true Extent thereof, which he does, and much inlightens our natural Knowledge therein (which we find was greatly defective, even about Natural Duty) and gives us a complete view of our Natural Obligations to him, and teaches us in a duemanner, how to perform the Duties of Nature; he does not only do this, not only rectify, but far exceed all natural dictates of worship, and induceth much into his service that receives its Virtue and worth singly from Institution, and no otherwise. Never since Man was first made, has God left him singly to the Natural Laws of his own Being, for the payment of that Homage he owes him. Even to Adam in his Innocent state, God thought fit to give a Law Supernatural. A Law which for the matter of it, had no foundation at all in Adam's Nature, further than that he was by his own nature generally obliged to do whatsoever God required of him. Much more may we expect it since the fall, the whole Method of our Recovery being Supernatural. Nor is it fit to be thought that God (who has made man not only under an Obligation to the performance of all moral goodness; but has also implanted in his Being a desite of a peculiar and supernatural converse with him, and given him such noble faculties so capable of it) should not promulge some particular Laws by which he might receive a full and satisfying direction for the attainment of it, or indeed, that God should not direct men to the furthest approaches they were able to make toward him, and glorify himself by appointing a way to the utmost Homage and Service their rational Being's are capable of.  
Fourthly, Some things most essentially necessary to the Being of all Religion, and to the present and future good of Mankind, are not discoverable but by Revelation. And 'twere a barbarous conception to think that God should leave the World wholly in the dark about those matters wherein their greatest conceruments lie. I will not speak particularly of the Nature of God, how indiscoverable it is without Revelation, and yet how necessary to be known (according to our capacity) in order to all true worship; men's Ignorance in that particular having evidently been the root of all Polytheisme and Idolatry, nor what marvellous dark, absurd, yea, profane, and blasphemous conceptions the World had of it, without Revelation! Nor will I speak further of the World's Original, how useful and necessary the Knowledge of it is to us, to be truly informed how ourselves and all things else came first to exist! What marvellous instruction to ourselves and what a natural Homage to God results from it! which yet depends purely upon Revelation, and the Knowledge of it is impossible to be attained without it. Nor will I mention those uncertainties the World hath been, and must (without Revelation) be still entangled with all about Death, to know whether it be a Natural accident! a thing originally appurtenant to Humane Nature, and annexed to our Being's in their first constitution! or hath been as a punishment, or upon some other account introduced since! and the many difficulties that will arise to our meditation either way; nor will I much insist upon that uncertainty we must needs be in, about a future Condition after this life, unless particularly informed therein by Revelation. Though my Reason will tell me (and it may safely be collected from the unequal disposition of rewards and punishments here) that there is some future estate of things beyond this World, without a supposition of which I must either depose God from his Government, or else admit him unjust, both which are absurd, yet how conducing is it to all true Religion, and how necessary for the encouragement of Virtue and the supression of Vice to be fully informed about these things, and not to be left fluctuating about with every blast of uncertain guess and conjecture! What wild conceptions had the Heathen world about their Infernal Regions, and their Elysian Fields! Nor were they only fictions peculiar to the Poets, but admitted by their Wisest men, and best Philosophers, who were able to frame very little better Ideaa's of those things. To give one Instance of many, Plutarch one of the wisest and best of the Heathens, in the Treatise he wrote upon this Motto, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, gives no better an account of the future state of men's Souls, then that the Wicked are only overwhelmed in the perpetual Oblivion of all things; And for the Place and Condition of such as shall be happy hereafter, in his Consolation directed to Apollonius, he adheres to the opinion of Pindar, who describes those things in the same Fictious and Ridiculous way that Virgil does directly imitate Pindar therein, Epicurus indeed pretended to some Wiser Sentiments; But the end of them was to render all Notion of a Future condition Fabulous▪ and to Allegorise all that was said of another World into this; And to make men believe that whatever was said of the Sufferings and Pains of the Infernal Regions, it was nothing else but what was suffered in this Life, by Covetous, Ambitious, and Fearful Minds, Ex●gitated with their own Exorbitant Passions; Which was a most effectual way to banish out of the World all Fear of Vice, and all Love to Virtue, which even by those Obscure notions they had of a Future State, was much upheld and maintained. But to go farther, How necessary must we needs grant it, to have the certainty of a Future condition after this Life, established by Revelation, when we consider how Unfixed some of the Wisest have been, about the very Being of any such thing at all! Such men as Socrates and Cicero were Doubtful and Unresolved in the case, and came to no more but That they inclined to that opinion, and judged it the more Probable. And Aristotle discoursed of it with much more Obscurity. The Resurrection of men's Bodies is a thing of far Harder belief, stands in greater need of Revelation to credit it. 'Tis not the easiest task to possess men with a through persuasion about It, when 'tis revealed. Saducisme is a weed very apt to grow, and not soon Eradicated. We find St. Paul sufficiently Laughed at, at Athens for Preaching the Resurrection. 'Twas a New notion to the Philosophers. And yet if there were any Glimmerings of it amongst any of the Philosophers, it was amongst the Stoics, who were one of the Sects he encountered. I know, there have been some remote apprehensions amongst the Pagans tending this way: But neither the Pagan-world in General, nor any considerable part, nor indeed any part of it at all, ever agreed in a positive distinct belief of any such thing. Some fancied there would come to be such a Revolution of the Heavens, as that all the Stars would be precisely returned to the very exact Punctum in which they were when all things began first to be, and that then all that ever had been should return, in Order, Time, and Nature, to their former Condition and Station, and be just as they had been. Some tell us, the Magis, who were the Caldaean Philosophers, had some obscure notions that all men should, one day revive, and become Immortal. And some of the Stoics thought should be burnt to Ashes, and then would follow an immediate restoration of all things. But these were but wild and moving Guesses in general; no certain determination was Mankind able to make about this matter in particular. And yet, of how great use is the assurance of it to all the ends of Virtue and Religion! and how Sovereign a remedy is it against the terror of Death, which Aristotle calls the terriblest of all Terrors, to be assured, upon safe grounds, our Bodies shall be raised again, and all the Friends we part with here shall, in their Souls and Bodies Reunited, Exist for ever.  
But waveing the prosecution of these, there be two things in themselves of absolute necessity to the being of all Religion, and beyond all possibility of a Natural discovery, from whence I shall endeavour to demonstrate the necessity of a Revelation, in order to the present and future happiness of Mankind. First, a certain distinct Knowledge how that Evil we find in Mankind came first to Exist! whence the Corruption of Humane Nature came! In short, how there came to be such a thing as Evil and Sin in the World! Secondly, how Sin (and Gild, arising from the Conscience of it) may be removed, and Men brought to a Reconciliation with God and an inward Acquescency about it! For the first. That there is such a thing as Evil and Sin in Men, and Gild resulting from it, needs no proof; every man's own Reason determines the Case, and the whole transaction of the World is too sad an Evidence of. We find in the Prayers of all Nations a Confession of Sin: And no worship but some way or other tending to the removal of it; which is a public protest in the Case, entered by the whole World against themselves. 'Tis visible, our Inferior faculties do combat our Superior, and our Wills over Rule us to that which our own Reasons determine against. Aristotle, in the end of the last Chapter of his first Book of Ethics, confesseth There is somewhat in our Nature that opposeth right Reason. Whatever directions the Philesophers and Moralists gave to Conquer our Passions and subdue our Sensual Appetites, and to conduct us to Virtue, they are all grounded upon this supposal. Hierocles, a Stoical Philosopher, in his Discourse upon the Golden say of Pythagoras, speaks fully and excellently to this point; His words are these. Man (says he) is of his own motion inclined to follow the Evil and leave the Good. There is a certain strife bred in his affections; He hath a free Will, which he abuseth, bindang himself wholly to encounter the Laws of God. And this Freedom itself is nothing else but a Willingness to admit that which is not good, rather than otherwise.  
That a certain Knowledge of the Origine of this we call Evil, and a clear discovery of the first rise and Cause of it, is of absolute necessity to the Being of all Religion, and that a Man cannot be Religious as he ought without it, is easily proved, and will be sufficiently so, by a due consideration of these four things. First, how can we acknowledge God's Justice in Punishing Mankind, and without repining submit to it as we ought, unless we know whence this Evil first came! what Author it had! and how, and upon what terms man comes to be guilty of that for which he is punished! Secondly, how can we be (as we ought to be) sensible of Gods general or particular favours, and adore his goodness in preserving us, and providing for us, unless we be rightly informed of our own demerits and rebellion again him, and that Mankind have deserved a total ruin and subversion! which we can never be, unless we know the first entrance of evil, and the original Cause of it. Thirdly, how can we properly address ourselves to God to repair our ruins, unless we perfectly know how the first breach came to be made! Lastly, how is it possible, upon reasonable Grounds to restrain Mankind from Impeaching the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness of God in making and Governing the world, unless we know the first rise and primary Cause of all the disorder we see! which is not to be known till we come to the Springhead of evil and sin. With what Impatience did Men use to reproach God and Nature about it, as if there were a kind of Malevolens and ill will in the Deity to the happiness of Men! One says,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Another.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
And a third.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Nor indeed can we well blame the disorder of men's minds that contemplate the present posture of the World, and are able to give no satisfying account to themselves, how things came at first so to be!  
And that a certain account of evil in its original is impossible to be had without revelation, will appear very evident. How should any man ever come to discover whence that internal conflict first arose between the Will and the Judgement! How a man came to be first so divided against himself, one condemning the other! No man naturally knows any thing of its Causality, nor more of it then that it is so. How should any man ever find out from whence, or by what means those unrnly lusts and passions, those evil and crooked inclinations that naturally infest the minds of men, and are a part of themselves, that create a guilt in men's own Breasts, and prove so ruinous to others, came first to exist? What footsteps are there in Nature to conduct us to the first cause of these things? and the miseries that attend them? something indeed we may say Negatively of the Origine of evil; but we cannot affirm positively the least thing about it. We can much less tell how Mankind came to be wicked, than we can tell how they came first to be! and yet 'tis impossible to know that, but by revelation. 'Tis easy to derive the beings of men in general, from some Supreme maker (though we can never find out the time when, nor the manner how they came first to be made) but we can no way at all imagine from whence to derive the evil of their beings, or upon what to father the Corruption of humane Nature, nor what Date to give it. From a Being infinitely perfect and good, evil itself could not originally come; that is, Men could not at the first be made so. That we may safely say in the Negative to assert man's Apostasy, however any part of the world may dream otherwise; 'tis demonstrable that man is some way or other degenerated from his Primitive state (from the clear evidence of which, if we duly consider it, results the absolute necessity of a revelation) 'Tis impossible evil itself should be Concreated with him, and be originally appurtenant to him, as part of him. And 'tis thus demonstrable, if man had been at the first made, as now he is, naturally inclined to evil and Vice, had his inclination to evil as well as to that which is good been Created with him, his reason would never have approved the one, and condemned the other; because both natural, and upon equal terms in our Constitution. To condemn any one part of our original constitution by another, had been in itself not only unnatural and unreasonable, but it had been directly to reproach our maker, and ourselves, which nothing Created can be supposed to be so Created as naturally to do. Nature (as 'twas first framed) could never be so divided against itself. A man could never have had any Conscience of evil, nor any remorse for it; nor could any guilt have been contracted by it, had it been (as now it is) part of himself, and at first Created with him. 'Tis not possible a man should judge in himself that to be evil, and repent of it as such, which he acted in prosecution of his first make. There can be no fault in acting suitably to our original frame and composure, nor any punishment due for so doing, in the judgement of a rational Being; because 'tis impossible to do better. All Conscience of evil and sin must necessarily arise from an inward conviction that we are not what we ought to be; which we must needs be if we be as we were first made. Whenever my Reason tells me I do that which I ought not to do, the same reason will tell me, I am degenerated, and do not what I was first made to do; Besides, 'tis utterly impossible that a man should be originally Made with Opposite Inclinations, and an irreconcilable conflict within himself (one part condemning another) by a Being that is Unity itself in all goodness, and one and the same by an infinite Identity in all Perfection. We can never, with any common sense, father Division upon Unity, or that which is Imperfect and Evil upon that which is Perfectly Good, or primarily derive such a Composition as Man now is from what we know God must needs be. Nor can we imagine That inherent Shame we now find in the nature of Mankind, relating to much of themselves, could be of the Same Date with their first Constitution, or that Man should be at the first so created as to be naturally ashamed of any part of Himself, or anything relative to his own Being. 'Twas an Apostasy from what he once was, must needs make him turn aside and hid himself from his own eyes; 'Twas Evil and Gild must needs be the first Authors of Shame.  
So far we may go in the Negative; What we now are, is not what we first were. But how came the Change? Has any ill Genius, Since, taken up its abode in Humane Nature? And, imposing upon it, Acted it to all this Evil we See? Is the world under the Tyranny of any Evil Spirit? Or, is mankind degenerated by any Necessary Decay in the course of Nature? Or, was man's own Will the great root of Evil? Came it from a Created Freedom? Have men Wilfully defaced themselves? If they have, When was it done? What was the first occasion of doing it? Was it done all at once? and has it ever since come by Descent, and been entailed by a certain Propagation upon the world? Or has its entrance been Gradual? Were some only the first Authors of it? Or has every man in every Age had his share in the Conspiracy? In short, If we suppose (which we ought) that Man was Not at first created with an Actual principle of Evil in his breast, Whence could it primarily Arise? And whence should we come to call it Sin? and, in the true judgement of Reason, Determine against it? It must be grounded upon a man's Relation and Duty to God. All conscience of Evil and Sin which we have in our own Nature, is still with a reference to God, to his Nature, and to his Will, and our Subjection to him. If such a thing then as Evil and Sin (for they are Conjoined by the Rational Nature) must needs arise from man's Relative Subjection to God, it must be by Opposing and Disobeying his Will revealed by some Law, And that Law must be either Natural or Supernatural; If Natural and Created with him, it must needs be the Dictates of his Reason: And 'tis marvellous hard to conceive how Man (while he was entire, and untainted, in the complete furniture of his first make) should (without some very violent Impressions, or some very strange concurrence of Accidents) go astray from the guide of his own Reason, and transgress such a Law as was the chief Ruling part of himself. Nor are we able to give to ourselves the least satissying account of it. If a Law Supernatural; What that Law was! or How, or When, or by Whom Transgressed! we can never discover; Nor so much as make one probable Guests towards it. No man will ever find an Answer to these and many other endless Inquiries, that searches by the Candle-light of Nature. Nor is there any one Waymark set up to direct us. No one thing has so point-blank silenced the whole world in all Ages, as this has done. How miserably involved in their own Confused notions were the Philosophers about this matter! Never arriving at the least glimpse of truth in the case. Sometimes deriving Evil from the perverseness and malignity of Matter, sometimes from I know not what fancied principle of Discord; Nor could they issue their Doubts at last into any better Resolve, then that there were Two Supreme Being's, one infinitely Good, and the other infinitely Evil, equally the Cause of both the principles of Good and Evil. And so were fain to Canton the Deity, and to put both the Principles upon even terms (which directly overthrows the dictates of all right Reason) to make room for a Solution of this Problem. And should we admit such a Cunning contrivance of Nonsense as two contrary Supremes, it would but still further Involve us. If a man were so made as he is, How came it to pass that both the Deities Agreed in the doing of it, and are yet perfectly Opposite and Contrary each to other? Did one make the Good part, and the other the Ill part? Or did the Good Deity make man alone, and the other Debauch him and Un-make him after? 'Twill not be easy, in a due manner, to Share him Between them, And if that we naturally call Evil came originally, as well as that we call Good, from a Being Eternal and equally Supreme, Why should the Judgement of right Reason in man be so much for the One, and directly against the Other? If it be so, the Pedigree of the One is no whit meaner nor base than the Other. Nor is it a thing in itself possible, to annex that we mean by Evil, or Imperfection from whence it naturally results, to what is Eternal; because Eternity necessarily includes Perfection, and cannot be reasonably supposed without it. In such a dismal Wilderness of Ignorance and Error has Mankind wandered about, whilst they contemplated these things; about which upon any good grounds to be ascertained is (without Revelation) utterly impossible; nor can we (whilst Ignorant of the Origine of Evil) ever find out the true Reason and primary Cause of all those Sorrows and Miseries we find the World possessed of. 'Tis true, the Heathen were deeply sensible of the ruinous and sad Condition of Humane Nature, and the troublesome revolutions of the World; some to so great a degree that they thought, as Euripides did, that we ought to weep at the Birth of our Children, and to laugh our Patents to their Graves; and 'twas usual with them to fancy Death as a Present sent from the Gods to the best men for their best Actions: So they fancied Death sent to Cleobis and Biton for their Piety to Juno. To Agamedes and Tryphonius for building the Temple at Delphos: But they knew nothing how the World came into this posture we find it! either it must be a necessary consequent of Nature, or else the World is under some great punishment imposed by the Supreme Judge of it. If all we see be necessary consequents from Nature, we must needs think Nature itself to be some very Imperfect and Ill Composure. We must needs imagine it a wretched constitution at first, that carried in its bowels so many dismal misfortunes. Who can suppose God should from the beginning frame this World in the posture we find it? and erect the course of Nature with all those forrows we see necessarily attending it? We can never reasonably believe things so wrought off their maker's hands at first, as that the necessary and natural consequence of them should be their present posture. And if we suppose (as well we may) all the sad and sorrowful accidents, and troublesome vicisitudes of humane life, to come from a Judgement since imposed from above; for some Treason of which the World has been attainted, and some grand piece of Rebellion against the great Sovereign, how short a Stage will Nature conduct us, in our searches after those things! Who can inform us of the first Authors of such a fatal Treason? the Time and Occasion of its Commission? What the Sentence was God pronounced when he inflicted these Judgements? How far it Extended? Whether all the other parts of the world be punished for Man's Transgression? Or how it came first to pass that they are as we find them? Whether God will pursue the Execution into the other world! Or whether any Bounds be set to its duration here! and the world shall ever survive and outlast it, and return at length to be in so much a better Condition as we may reasonably conjecture at first it was! These and many other necessary Questions may be asked; but can ever be resolved without Revelation.  
And as Mankind have been still reproached by their own Ignorance about this matter, being never able to make the least probable guess at the Origine of evil, nor to ascend by the Streams to the Fountain (the Springhead of natural corruption being as much concealed from the most enquiring men, and as much unknown to the wisest parts of the World, as the Fountains of Nile were to the ancient ●eographers) so, in the second place men can never (without supernatural help) upon good Grounds be assured how to remove that guilt engendered by it! the burden of which they continually groan under, as the heaviest and sorest of all humane pressures; that is, no man (should he study over all the Volumes of Nature) unless it be told him from Heaven, can certainly know upon what terms God will proceed in pardoning and punishing the sins of the World! should a man imagine that God would take no other vengeance upon men's disobedience, than those temporal judgements he has laid upon them and the World they dwell in? Should a man imagine that God has satisfied his Justice in Condemning man to Death, and Sentencing of him to the Grave, and exposing him to those Sorrows that attend him thither, and means to go no further? These thoughts will not obliterate men's Gild, nor will such guesses at the Penalty at all appease the minds of Men when they do iii. Will God have the firstborn of men's bodies, or the best of their Substance, or what parts of the World to satisfy for their disobtdience? If we should ransack all the particulars that Humane invention can reach in this kind, we could never be fully assured, that the Expiation of men's Sin lay in any, or in 〈◊〉 of them. The great concern of the World, and that which Mankind above all other things naturally press after, is a certain Knowledge upon what terms they may be accepted with God the sense of their own Apostasy, and the Conscience of Divine Justice necessitate it so to be; and with such a Knowledge no natural abilities can supply us. That God is Just my Reason will tell me, and that he is Merciful my own Breast will assure me; But how he will proceed to deal with men, so as to reconcile both these Attributes! how far the one shall be Predominant over the other! or whether they must be in equal Conjunction, and both concur! and how that can be done! What will procure Mercy, or what will satisfy Justice, or how they will be made to meet in one Divine Act, when both perfect, and nothing of either can be abated; because not consistent with their perfection! are things utterly impossible to be known without Revelation. If God forgive absolutely without any satisfaction; what becomes of his Justice, which should secure and vindicate the Honour of his Laws? And should he only forgive men when they themselves make a Plenary satisfaction to Justice, where were his Mercy? And how could such a plenary satisfaction to insinte Justice for men's disobedience be ever found out? what Proxy can a man make in that case to answer for his sin? What part of the world can be his sufficient substitute? or what can we suppose can satisfy Divine Justice for men's transgression that is beneath themselves? If we go strictly to Justice, nothing of less Dignity than the Offender can compensate for the Offence, if any thing but the Offender himself. And so it appears, some of the Heathens themselves thought by that famous saying amongst them,  Cum sis ipse Nocens, moritur our Victima pro te? 
And should we suppose God in his Judiciary proceed with Men, to forgive upon a Partial satisfaction, to accept some Imperfect satisfaction to his Justice, and to make up the rest by his Mercy, this were to render his Attributes Imperfect, and to make him act like a Man, neither as infinitely just nor infinitely Merciful, nor at all like himself; nay, in some measure to deny himself, which is impossible. The truth is, the evil of the world being in its Nature an offence against God, and the guilt arising from it relating to his Tribunal, where no Sentence can pass but what is the result of infinite and perfect Attributes, the terms of our pardon must come from God. 'Tis not in man to find out how God shall forgive him, or to to Chalk out the Tracks of Divine Justice and Mercy toward himself; nor will his guilt be removed, nor his thoughts be at rest, till he know God's mind about it. Nothing can assure us of Reconciliation with God, but what is from Heaven appointed as the means of it. No natural knowledge can give us any certain direction about it; nor is it reasonable to believe it should. If Humane Nature had no absolute security in itself of its first state, how can we expect it should restore itself when once degenerated? What did not remain perfect when it was so, is much more unlikely to recover again out of Imperfection to be so. Every man may know he is degenerated from what he ought to be, and so may reasonably collect from what he once was; but no man can reason himself into a certain way of Recovery. The whole world have subscribed to their own Apostasy, but could never agree upon any certain remedy. How miserably have Mankind tired themselves, and to how little purpose, in finding out what would appease Divine Anger, and compensate for their disobedience! No man ever yet wors● ipped any God▪ but he made some Offering to him, in hopes that might indemnisie him, and be taken in Lieu of his own punishment. Men have at a Venture offered up all parts of the world in Sacrifice have tried all experiments, victimis & lavacris, and by all other means their best guesses could suggest to them, to obliterate their own Gild, and to procure D v●●e favour; but never were upon any su●er ground than their own vain fancies for acceptance. Aga●hias tells us in his second Book of the Persian war, that the Persians were wont to solemnize a great Holiday once a year, which they called The death of Vices, in which (as an eminent piece of Devotion) they slew multitudes of Serpents & all other sorts of wild Beasts, and thereby thought they should Execute all their Corruptions, & safely bury their sins. The Philosophers abounded with remedies fo● this Epidemical Disease. Some thought to cure the evil of the world in a Moral way, some in a way Mathematical, and some by Religious Ceremonies. But alas, The right way of doing it has lain hid from Ages and Generations till God himself made it known, and revealed it from Heaven. What a trifle is the Blood of a Sheep or an Ox to satisfy for an Offence against an Infinite Justice! At how easy and cheap a rate might men Sin, and God be satisfied! And what a public toleration of evil were it, if the Blood of Bulls and Goats might take away sin, and the lives of unreasonable Creatures Commute for the sins of Men! The consideration of all these things does directly Steer us upward, and point us to a dependence upon Revelation, to give us a clear, distinct, and satisfying Knowledge of God, of ourselves, and of this whole World? How man came to Rebel, and Sin first to enter; By what ways and means Indemnity may be obtained? And upon what terms we may be again reconciled to God and accepted?  
This precious discourse, the design of which is to render it a reasonable supposal that there should be in the general some Divine Revelation, some Laws Supernatural promulged to the world, and that Mankind should not be wholly left to the conduct of Nature, can be no way ungrateful to those who are already possessed with a due esteem of the Scriptures, and do assent to their verity; because 'tis to reinforce one of the greatest supports to all Scripture-belief. Nor will it seem impertinent to those who are any way ingenious in their doubts and inquiries about this matter; because 'tis naturally & necessarily the first step that is to be taken, in order to their satisfaction: But may be very well offensive to such who shall design to themselves a disbelief of the Scriptures, and make it their Province to weaken their Authority, and render all proofs brought for them insufficient; because it goes far towards an evident and apparent determination of the whole cause against them: Does indeed petere jugulum of their chiefest pretences, and virtually breaks the very Backbone of all Antiscriptural opposition; for if there be such a thing as a Revelation m●de to the World (as that which the goodness of God, and the wants of men seem necessarily to call for) If God have given to Mankind a Law supernatural, Where is this Divine Law to be found? 'Tis but reasonable to suppose it somewhere or other upon Record. This Book we call the Bible must needs be it, and will certainly carry it against all Pretenders, the natural dictates o right Reason being Judge. What Book or Writing is there extant under Heaven, that can (with any tolerable colour) counter plead the Bible upon this account? A man must be horribly Hoodwinked in his intellectuals, that does not evidently see 'tis impar co●gressus between the Bible and all other Pretenders. From what pa●ts of the world will you fetch such a Supernatural L●w, by which we may suppose God to Govern Mankind? one either fit for him to Give, or for us to Receive, according to that Natural Knowledge we have of him, and of ourselves, and that Rational Judgement to which all Supernatural pretences ought to be subjected? Where w●ll you find a Systeme of Divinity that makes known to us (in a way suitable to our natural conceptions of him) the most of God, and of his Nature we are able to comprehend, delivers us from all the entanglements of Humane Nature by ways and Methods so proportioned thereunto, and discovers to us certain tracks to the highest happiness here and hereafter we are capable to enjoy? Shall we go to the Laws of Lycurgus and Solon, because they pretended to Revelation? Can any man be so stupid? Those Laws were chief Municipal, and made no pretence to what we inquire after. Shall we imagine the Books of the Sibyls, because they were thought to be filled with many Divine secrets, contained such Revelation? The greatest part, if not the whole of them is long since perished out of the world, which is proof sufficient they were none of those standing Laws by which God designed to Rule and Judge Mankind. Some excellent Greek Verses there are indeed extant at this day, which go under their Names; but they are upon good grounds by the most learned, supposed to be none of theirs. And i● they were, the Christian Religion and the Truths contained in the Bible, are so clearly described, and the Pagan Religion so directly and strongly confuted therein, that the Scriptures can scarce have a greater Testimony given to their Divinity. Shall we go to the inspired Enthusiastical Po●ts for this Revelation? What a ridiculous foppery would that seem to one that has once conversed with the Bible! And what a wild, extravagant Religion should we erect from the Theology of Hesiod! The Hymns of Orpheus! The Poems of Homer! The Odes of Pindar! Or from Virgil or Ovid! Shall we look back to the Heathen Oracles for this Revelation? To those of Delphos, Dodona, Jupiter Hammon, and the rest? Who can be so marvellously vain? Besides, the consideration of that general uncertainty, and sometimes falsehood that visibly attended their responses, the Records of those Oracles, the Books wherein their Responses and Divinations were contained, are long since perished and lost. Shall we go as far as Numa Pompilius, and his Goddess for the old Roman Theology? That▪ s impossible to be retrived. The Religion of Numa is long since vanished out of the World, and the Books wherein it was contained were openly Burnt. And upon this occasion were they burnt long after the death of Numa, in the Consulship of Cornelius and Bebius, there were found in Rome two Coffins, in the one whereof was the Body of Numa, and in the other fourteen Books of Numas, seven of them in Latin containing the Laws and Ceremonies of their Religion▪ and the other seven in Greek, concerning the Study of Wisdom; and in these latter was much contained not only destructive to the Gods, and the Religion of other Countries, but also to his own, and to the Roman Profession; of which the Senate well considerdering, resolved it as best, that the whole fourteen books should be openly burnt together: Which was accordingly done; Of which we have an account at large in Valerius Maximus and Varro. Or shall we, at last, come to that Arabian Prophet, to Mahomet to set up his Collection of Precepts, his Koran (which he tells you, a hundred times over, God was the Author of, and that all Mankind could not have writ a syllable of it) to confront the Bible? 'Twere, to the full, as wife a project to light a Rush-candle and resolve to outface the Sun, as to encounter the Bible with such Mean and Ridiculous Stuff. What an absurd Foppish Flame is that Koran! Evidently a Cheat in every Page of it; A confused Medley of wicked contemptible trash, heaped up together by a Triumvirate of Arrians, Jews, and Pagans, all known Impostors in the Ages, wherein they lived, and so transferred by the History of their own times, to all future Generations. God has made every Reasonable Mind (not some way or other Debauched or Preingaged) a Touchstone sufficient to discover such counterfeit Metal. Some part of it seems rather like the Rave of men Distracted then any product of Common Reason. It tells us that Men were first created of Shadow, That the Earth was made in two days, and that God fastened it to the Mountains by Anchors and Cables, That Mahomet cut the Moon into two pieces, and Cemented it close together again: with a multitude of Such Raving and Distracted Phantasms. In many things 'tis evidently self-contradictious, and what is said in one place is directly overthrown in another. Mahomet himself sometimes plainly Confessing He knows not whether He or His be in a way of Salvation, (for which very saying, I wonder the people did not stone him) The whole of it a Rhapsody of most prodigious Absurdities: A c●nlused Inconsistent Composure: Principles of Heathenism, Judaisme, and Christianity, all Generally Corrupted, and so wildly patched up together, that Mahomet might very well declare what he did, That he thought, No body would ever be able too understand his Law. Whatever we sinned in it that carries the least Resemblance of Truth, is apparently stolen out of the Old and New Testament, though for the most part visibly Falsified and inverted. It tells us that Jesus was secretly conveyed in●o Heaven, and that somewhat in his likeness which was not himself, was nailed to the Cross. That He was not really Crucified, but that the Jews were Abused and Deluded. It tells us also that in the 14th of St. John's Gospel (where mention is made of Sending the Comforter) that there was much sard of Mahomet, which the Christians have since Razed out. Which is to father a ridiculous and impossible falsehood upon them, for that Gospel was Extant long before Mahomet was born or thought of (for he was not born till the year of Christ 571) and published most parts of the world over, not only in the Greek Copies of it, but in divers Translations, in the Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopick, and Latin tongues, and was far enough from the possibility of any universal Alteration that could be made by the Christians in Mahomet's time. That which the Koran tells us in general of the Bible and the Christian Religion directly overthrows itself, and Mahomet thereby has utterly subverted his whole Fabric: For he says that Moses and Christ were both sent from God, and that the Old and New Testament are Divine Books, that God imparted the Law to Moses, the Psalms to David, and the Gospel to Christ. But pretends that as the Gospel succeeded the Law, so the Koran does the Gospel. Now if the first be true, I am sure the latter is false, unless God can contradict himself, which is impossible; For both Moses and Christ have delivered very many Doctrines directly Contrary to His. The Bible and the Koran are sufficiently Inconsistent. And therefore wherever the Old and New Testament are acknowledged to be Books Divine, and from God, the Koran ought, reasonably, to be Rejected as a Vile and wicked Delusion.  
If it be asked, as usually it is, How that Religion came to spread so far, and the Disciples thereof to be so Numerous, if it be so Vile, and also so absurd a Cozenage as indeed it is! Such a Question will be easily answered if these Three things be considered. First, The Mahometan Religion owes its original to the Sword, more than to all its pretences besides. 'Twas Mahomet's being a General that made him pass for a Prophet. Nor was his Koran at first received in any Nation where his Sword did not make way for it. 'Tis a Religion that was at first Introduced, and has been since Propagated and Upheld purely by Force. Not Discoursed into men, but Imposed upon them. Mahomet himself often declares that God did not send him to convert the World by Miracles, but by the Sword and by Instruments of War. And indeed, There is not a Chapter in his Koran where he does not preach Fire and Sword, Wars and Massacres, for the advancement of his Law. Secondly,  that Religion is introduced, all Inquirie into it is absolutely forbid, and men are Made, (without the least Tasting or Chewing) to Swallow the whole Body of Mahomet's Divinity at Once. And by this means, Ignorance is grown so natural an Appurtenant to that Religion, that wherever 'tis settled, it does not only silence all Discourse of Divinity, but totally ruins all Learning, and brings men into perfect Enmity with all Liberal Sciences. 'Tis an easy thing to spread the Basest Metal as well as the purest, if we can prevent its Trial. Falshood and Truth are upon Even terms, where all Reasoning is Forbid. And, as Vives well observes, (discoursing of this Mahometan Tyranny) Tutum mentiendi genus est, Nolle rationem corum quae dicas reddere. 'Tis a safe and sure way of Lying, to resolve to give no Reason for what we say. As nothing is more contrary to the nature of Truth and that rational Reception it bids for, amongst mankind, than this principle, so nothing can be more Effectual to the introduction of all Error and Deceit, then to Compel men to lay by, as useless, their own Reasons, and vield up themselves, by an implicit subjection to the conduct of such notions as others provide for them. Thirdly, 'Tis a Religion that Allows and Incourages men in the prosecution of Sensual Satisfactions, Say: Mahomet to his Disciples, Avenge yourselves of your Enemies, and take as many Wives as you will, to propagate the Sectaries of Mahomet. A sure way to oblige the corrupt part of the World, and by which the Devil out-numbers Christ. He himself Practised accordingly; for his followers deny not but that he took Wives at his pleasure, and sometimes other men's: And then most blasphemously introduceth God himself speaking as if he had, in an extraordinary way, Married them to him. And indeed, suitable to his Doctrines and Practices is the End he proposeth, and the Heaven he promiseth hereafter: A complete enjoyment of all Earthly and Sensual delights: The Paradise he describes, being a place where men shall enjoy all the imaginable pleasures of Meats, Drinks, Music, Women, and whatever the lusts of men can desire. Which sufficiently declares the Nature and End of his whole Constitution.  
Nor is it any way hard to discover (if we consult the time when this Enthusiastic Impostor composed his Koran) out of what Dunghills much of it was raked together. That vile Pollution of Marriage by a Licentious Multiplicity of Wives, he had from the School of the Nicholaitans: His Carnal Paradise from Cerinthus; That absurd conceit that Christ did not really suffer, but a Phantasm in his place, was first forged by the Cerdonians: That rage his Koran is every where stuffed with, against the Trinity and the Deity of Christ, came, no doubt, from the Arrians, who were famous at that time, & some of them his great Assistants; In short, The Religion of the Koran was at first founded, has been since propagated, and is still upheld purely by the Sword; is in itself so wicked, and so absurd a constitution, in many things so Heterogeneal to the dictates of right Reason, that when ever it wants the Military prop to support it, if ever it come to be nakedly exposed to the Test of men's Reason; or to a Trial by Persecution, it being neither founded in Natural Reason, in Miracles, nor in Sanctity and Holiness of Life, the Compages of it will soon be dissolved, and the whole of it will quickly expire.  
But to return; He that rejects the Bible will be easily reduced to this Dilemma, either he thinks there is some Revelation extant from God to the world, or he thinks there is none. If he say there is none, first he puts the lie not only upon the Christian and Jewish, but generally upon all the Religion that either has been, or is, throughout the world. Revelation (either real or pretended) having been the universal foundation in all Ages, of that constitution we call Religion. All Nations have respectively attributed the Origine of their Mysteries to their Gods. Which though it proves not that the world has generally had Revelation, nor justifies any one pretence to Revelation, upon which any one particular Religion is founded, yet it proves thus much, that by the judgement of the whole world there is good Reason to expect Revelation. And that thereupon Mankind have lived either in the real or Imaginary possession of it. And 'twere strange to conceive that the world should universally agree in the Reason and necessity of it, and all Nations in all Ages thereupon pretend to it, and yet there should neither be, in the general, any real or rational ground for the Expectance of any such thing (for if there were, we cannot then, without impeaching Divine Justice & Goodness, refuse in the general to suppose it) nor the least truth any where in the fact of any such thing.  
Secondly, If he say there is none, he will be forced to confess that God (who has made man the Noblest of all Earthly Creatures, and Lord of the world) has left him to a worse Condition in the present posture we sinned him, than the meanest Creature he has subjected to his use, which is greatly unreasonable to conceive. The meanest Creatures that God has made even to the Ant, he has given them a sufficient ability to attain the highest end of their beings. 'Tis so in every Creature beneath the rational beings of men; whatever happiness they naturally tend to, as their chief end, God has given them an innate ability that sufficiently directs them for the obtaining of it; not is there any defect in the meanest Creatures that way. 'Twere strange to suppose it otherwise with man, that God should not sufficiently instruct him in all things necessary for him to know, in order to his highest end, and the obtaining of that Supreme good he naturally tends to; supposing him degenerated from an ability he once had, yet we can no way imagine it consistent with God's goodness to leave the whole of Mankind without a sufficient means of Recovery, nor consistent with the great end of God's Creation, in all the works that he has made. All other Creatures desire only what gratifies the sensual Appetite, not what is in itself simply best. They centre in a sensual satisfaction as their highest end, and are sufficiently enabled for the obtaining of it. Man by his natural faculty mounts upward, reaches after a higher and more Noble happiness, a good above and beyond this world, Man by Nature has an innate notion of a Deity, a Supreme Being above him, that has in himself all possible Perfection, is superlatively good; The Enjoyment of this good, and a Converse with such a being he must needs aim at; because 'tis the highest Good his Reason discovers to him, and in the truest judgement thereof the most suitable of all other to the rational Nature. He also finds himself with a peculiar Relation and Obligation (above all other Creatures) to this Supreme being, and designed by his own saculties for present and future Rewards and Punishments from him. Now man were, in this respect, of all other Creatures, by far, the most unhappy, should he be left in the dark, and not fully informed and ascertained about these things which are the highest ends and the most necessary concerns of his being, should he not have some certain account of God, by what ways and means he may come to enjoy him, and upon what terms God will deal with men here and hereafter, have as full an account of God and of his own Duty, in reference to him as his rational being calls for, and he himself is capable of. And to arrive at this there is no possibility without Revelation. Natural Divinity, if duly pursued, points men directly to Supernatural, from a sense of its own deficiency: And our Natural light shows us the necessity of Revelation, from its own imperfect discoveries, and by directing us to many Daties in general, which (without Revelation) we know not well how to perform. My natural light tells me of a Sapreme and Perfect Being that made me, but gives me no distinct or satisfying information about him. My natural light enjoins me to Worship him; but cannot sufficiently direct me in the way of it. My Natural light tells me I am upon Ill terms with God, and bids me (is my nearest concern) endeavour a Reconciliation with him, and assures me of the possi●ilit) of it from the general notion I have of his Goodness; but can give me no sure and certain Directions for the obtaining of it. In short, My natural light tells me Man is a Creature made for Supernatural enjoyments, for Rewards and Punishments from God, Superior to this World; but discovers not unto me sufficient and infallible means (which in this case is of absolute necessity to my welfare) for the obtaining the one or avoiding the other; but bids me look upward, and expect to be further taught from above. So that to say there is no Revelation at all, That God has left Mankind wholly to the conduct of Nature, is plainly to say God has left Man under that unhappiness which no Creature is under besides himself; that is, not fully informed about those things he is most concerned to know, nor sufficiently enabled to obtain the great End of his Being. 'Tis to say, God has made a reasonable Creature with a direct tendency towards himself, and the highest Supernatural good, with great Hopes and sears of Rewards and Punishments from him, and with inherent Obligations in his own Nature, relating to both, and yet hath left him with great uncertainty and obscurity to contemplate about these things, and has given him no sufficient (or to his own Reason, satisfying) directions about them; than which no conception more vile and impious, and in itself more contrary to all true notion of God, can at any time infest the minds of men.  
If it be acknowledged there is any where extant a Revelation from God to the World, let it be produced. Let the best ●ival to the Bible upon that account, or all its Competitors together be brought fo●th, and let but the dictates of right and impartial Reason (of Reason, as much itself as we are able to conceive it, as abstracted from all prejudice, all Bias of Custom, Education or any collateral interest, as we can suppose it) be the Judge, and we shall soon pat an end to the Contest. Let men be but true to that Divinity they are born with, and to the gennine issues of their own Reason (which must be the Judge in this case) and the Bible must needs be Predominant, and prevail against all Competition. And that will be thus made to appear.  
There are somethings which by the Judgement of right Reason must necesiarily be appurtenant to a Revelation from God, and such a Divine Law as we are in pursuit of, and without which it cannot reasonably be supposed. Now, we find those things peculiarly to belong to the Bille, and that they are no way applicable to any other Writings or Pretences to Revelation whatsoever. And this being so (as by the following particulars 'twill undeniably appear to be) where any Revelation in the general, is admitted, the Bible cannot with any colour of Reason be rejected: And in truth its Divine Authority will against all opposition be established.  
First, There must be reasonably supposed (in any Divine Laws God shall reveal to the world) such a Legislative Authority expressed in Commanding, in Promising in Threatening, and throughout the whole of them, as is (by the judgement of our own Reason) suitable to the Sovereignty of God and our natural subjection to him, that is, we must needs suppose God to give Laws in a way like himself. In this respect the Bible is singular. No Book under under Heaven contains such an assumption of Supremacy over the world, nor speaks to us in such a manner, with that Majesty and uncontrollable Authority in Gods own Name, as this doth. Requires indispensible obedience from from all Mankind to whatever it enjoins, as the Will and Pleasure of the Great God, upon the highest Penalty, That of Eternal destruction to Soul and Body. How far any man could have gone in this respect in personating the Supreme Majesty of God, and abusing the world with a Counterfeit of his Divine Authority, needs not to be considered in this case (though, 'tis certain, the Bible has out gone all the possible contrivance of Men in such a way, and none but God himself could have spoke to the world in words so becoming his own greatness, and so suitable to those conceptions right Reason will give us of him) because though many Books and Writings have made a claim to Revelation besides the Bible, yet in fact, no Book nor Writing has so much as attempted to Command the world in so Majestic a way, nor indeed in any way becoming the Greatness and Sovereignty of God. The Bible has a peculiarity in this respect above all other Writings that have been extant since the world began. We find not an instance where any have so far usurped the Throne of God, as with such an absolute superintendency to dictate to the world. All pretended Revelations have in this visibly discovered their own nakedness, and betrayed their own mean descent: Not one of them having been clothed with such a Divine & Majestic Authority as becomes a product of Infinite Wisdom and Power: and most of them no way suitable to the common Prudence of men. The Ancient Heathen pretences to Revelation were, for the most part the meanest and most trifling part of those Ages wherein they were extant. And that Koran which, in later times, Mabomet has fathered upon Revelation, is a Systeme of Laws so prodigiously unsuitable to the Majesty of God, that 'tis, much of it, no way reconcileable to common Discretion, or any way worthy an Edition from Wise or or Good men.  
Secondly, My Reason will tell me that a Revelation from God to the World must needs be supposed to give us an Account of all things necessary for us to know, and to carry in it a Compleatness and Sufficiency of Instruction and Direction for all the great Ends of Mankind relating to this life and a future. 'Tis not imaginable that God should make a Revelation to the world, and not make it proportionate and sufficient to all the Ends of Revelation. The great End of Revelation is to supply the Desiciencies of Nature (for if Nature were in itself perfect and without defect, there needed then no Revelation) and to furnish mankind with all those necessary Requisites to their own present and future happiness they stand in need of, and which they cannot otherwise obtain. Adaquate therefore to our Natural Defects ought our expectance to be in this matter. When a Book proposeth itself to us as a Law Supernatural and containg God's mind Revealed and make known to the World, 'tis a most reasonable way of Trial, to examine whether This Book contain all those things I may justly expect from such a Revelation, and be rationally accommodated to All those wants I expect a Revelation should supply, and for which a Revelation from God, my own Reason tells me, must needs be Designed. Now, the Bible stands Single in this respect likewise. No one Book, nor all the Books that now do, or at any time have pretended to Revelation, can answer all the Ends of a Revelation, besides itself, or endure such a rational Test, but are visibly Defective and Insufficient for those ends they must needs pretend to be Designed. What Book, besides the Bible, ever gave us so full a discovery of God as our own rational Nature looks after, tends to, and capacitate's us to receive? What Book, besides This, ever gave to mankind a clear and distinct account of the First Existence of things, and the Origine of the Universe? What Book, besides This, ever gave the least tolerable account of the Origine of Evil, the first Rise and Inlet, with the after- Progress of it? the Punishment inflicted for it, and the certain Means to Remove and Obliterate it? Never any Book so answered that great End of Revelation, as to make a full discovery to us of the whole business of man's Apostasy, and of his Recovery. In short, What Book, but the Bible, gives us an account of God's proceed with Men from the first Foundations of the Earth, and has plainly and punctually told us what he will do to the end of the world, and for ever? has to the utmost discovered and supplied all our natural Defects, made known to us all that was necessary and fit for us to know, pointed us to the furthest bounds of our duty to God, and one towards another, and revealed to us plain and direct ways and means to attain the highest happiness here, and the most excellent Rewards hereafter our Being's are capable of? No other Book can so much as make a pretence to it, nor, with the least colour, be produced upon this account, in competition with the Bible. Did the world afford any Other Book, with an equal Pretence, that more fully answered all those Ends to which we may rationally expect a Divine Revelation should be Designed, I grant we had good Reason to prefer it before the Bible, and receive it as such; But if This Book alone, and no other, be found to answer all the Rational ends of a Revelation, and to exceed all the Attainments of Mankind both Moral and Divine, and whatever has made Pretence to Revelation besides, There can be then no Reason at all to doubt, but that This Book ought to have the Precedence of all others, And really and truly is, what itself claims to be.  
Thirdly, All Revelation must needs be supposed to be corresponding to, and perfective of, the true and genuine Issues of our Natural Light. There must be nothing in it relating to God, to ourselves, or to any part of the world, that any way contradicts the Law Natural. For that being the Primary Law God gave to the world, and which is originally annexed to our Being's, and inseparable from ourselves, 'Twere absurd to conceive (and indeed, upon many accounts, impossible to be) that God should ever Repeal either the Whole or any Part of it, but still proceed to Rectify and Complete it, and Superstruct all future Revelation upon it. Two things, upon this account, we may reasonably expect from any pretence to Revelation. First, So far as it relates simply to things Natural, it ought to be justified to us by the dictates of right Reason, and to be a Re-inforcement of the Law truly Natural. Secondly, Whatever it proposeth to our Belief as Supernatural, aught to be no way unsuitable to a Rational reception as such. For though I may well suppose God to reveal things to me that were Above and Beyond me, and which my Reason could not Discover (and cannot refuse so to do, without a Negative upon the great End of Revelation) yet I cannot reasonably suppose him to reveal any thing to me that is, in itself, directly Contradictory to my Reason to believe, when 'tis so discovered, or uncapable of a rational assent to its verity, when in such a way proposed. Because the design of all Revelation must needs be in a Reasonable though Supernatural way, to Instruct and Inform mankind. The Bible, upon this account, will be found to justify itself against all exception, and to prevail against all competition. First, Not a Syllable in it Destructive to the Rational nature; some things indeed above the full reach and comprehension of it, but no way Destructive to it; And those such, and in such a way proposed to our belief, as aught to Enhance and no way to Lessen our value and esteem of it; Because 'tis a thing proper and suitable to the Majesty and Greatness of God, and that which we ought to expect from him, to bring such things about, and to make such Sublime discoveries of himself to us as may provoke us to Reverence and Adore as well as to Believe. When God discourseth to us of his own Infinite Being, and tells us how the Deity itself does Exist, 'Tis a most rational thing to suppose, from the nature of the Subject, he should tell us many things that we cannot now Grasp in our minds, nor fully Comprehend. Indeed, whenever God reveals himself to the world, every man's Reason will tell him, 'tis a thing fit to be, That many things should be Received and Believed barely upon the Credit of God's Authority, and justified to us from their Author when they exceed the bounds of our Comprehension. What respect and Reverence do we otherwise, pay to the Great God, more than we should do to the Meanest humane Pretender, to whom we cannot deny an Assent to whatever he can Demonstrate either to Sense or to Reason? And 'tis no way Contradictious to Reason to bell us any thing is, that is in itself possible to be, and no way Unsuitable to God to bring about (when we are told God is the Author of it) but highly agreeable to it. Things Naturally and Humanely Impossible are as Easy and as Proper for God to do, and as fuitable to our Reason to conceive he that first made all things should do, as the ordinary actions of men are for them to do. Nothing is a Bar to my reasonable Belief about God and his Operations, but either what is against that notion I have of his Excellent Nature, or what (to my reason) implies a perfect Contradiction in its Existence, and so is utterly Impossible to be. The one, my reason tells me, God (because of his Infinite Perfection) never will nor can do; And the other, it assures me, cannot be done. The Bible tells us of no one thing (in the highest Supernatural Discoveries it makes to us) but what is, in itself, very Possible to be, Nor of any thing but what seems, to our reason, very agreeable to the Nature of God that it Should be, and very fit for us to believe (when we are told of God so) that it is. Secondly, Never any Book made such a discovery to us of what is truly Natural, and so far Revived and Restored to the truth of themselves, as this has done, the Natural Laws of our own Being's, All impartial Reason being Judge. No Humane Wisdom ever did, or ever could have given Mankind such a prospect of their Natural Duties toward God and toward Themselves as the Ten Commandments have done, or composed such a Systeme of Law Natural, or made such an exact Compendium of it. None but God that made man at first, and knew his Original, could have so far Discovered him to himself, and retrieved to his knowledge so much of his Primitive State, and discovered to him, What (by the judgement of his own Breast) he still Ought to be. The whole of the Scripture-Religion (both as it relates to God, and his worship, and our performance of Relative duties to each other) carries in it the Highest Perfection attainable by our Natural Light; And wherein it exceeds it, is the most Suitable to it, and the most justified by it of any Religion the world has been ever yet possessed of. What pure and admirable discoveries of Gods Excellent Nature does it afford us, without the least Savour of what is Earthly and from Below! So corresponding to a Rational Idea of him, that nothing can be more; Religion and Worship without the least taint of Idolatry or Superstition; Rules of Holy living, without the least mixture of Impurity; Such Directions for our Behaviour towards God and Man, as every man's own Breast Subscribes to, as Just, Holy, and Good. Indeed 'tis a Religion that so perfects Nature and whatever it reveals that is above nature 'tis so graffed upon the Stock of our Natural knowledge, and in such a suitable way superadded to it, and so Incorporates with it, as is admittable to conceive, and could be the effect of nothing but an Infinite Wisdom, even of God himself who perfectly knew what was in Man, and what would be Best for him, and most Agreeable to him. What just cause is there to Reject and Disclaim all other Religions upon this single account! 'Tis impossible, That should be a Law Divine and Supernatural that proves any way Destructive to what is truly Natural. What Unworthy, Unreasonable, and Unnatural conceptions of God and his Being does the Heathen Religion stand justly charged withal! How contrary was it to the true dictates of Nature, and the natural shame inherent in every man's being, to use such horrible Obscene and Lascivious Ceremonies, as they did in the worship of some of their Gods? How unnatural and Inhuman was it to Murder each other, and shed the blood of Mankind, as they did in their Sacrifices? How may Vices that Nature condemns, grew up under the shadow of their Religion, and no way reproved; yea, some allowed and justified by it! The Bible spares not one: Goes to the utmost extent of all natural Evil, and all natural Good. The Koran also falls slat before the Bible upon this account. 'Tis so far from perfecting our natural light, or corresponding with it, that in some things it directly overthrows it: And is every where stuffed with such absurd, ridiculous, and incredible sopperies, as do inevitably expose it to the just scorn and contempt of all unprejudiced Reason.  
Fourthly, We must needs suppose that a Revelation from God, a Law Supernatural, to which an universal obedience is required, should have such a Conveyance to us as is suitable to its Author, and that great concern mankind have in it; that is, 'Twere a most irrational admission, that God should reveal himself to the world, and not do it in such a way as should carry in it Evidence sufficient to every rational enquiry. We ought to believe that when God requires our obedience to Laws as Divine, he should afford us means sufficient to know that they are so, such as may satisfy all reasonable doubts, and shame all wilful Opposition. 'Twere to impeach the Wisdom, Justice and Goodness of God, to think otherwise. Without this neither God's end nor man's end can be attained: Not God's end; for he can never with Justice proceed to reward or punish men by a Law revea'ed, unless they have notice sufficient that it is so. Not man's end; for 'tis impossible to be any way advantaged by a Revelation, as such, unless I be first assured that it is such. How general soever pretences to Revelation have been, and men's belief of those pretences, yet no pretence to Revelation but the Bible alone, has in any Age been accompanied with such a rational justification as we ought to expect a Divine Revelation should be, to ascertain us that it is so. And of this, the fact is sufficiently evident: All pretensions that way have been either recommended to the world upon the credit of men's bare words, or else have obtained a reception by means visibly capable of delusion and imposture. What reasonable assurance had the Heathen world of a Divinity in their Oracles (which yet made the most probable pretention of any thing amongst them to it?) 'Tis acknowledged by all that lived in those times, That the responses of those Oracles were given by persons visible, and seen when they did it. In some of them by young Virgins, which they supposed them to receive in a strange Obscene way, not fit to be mentioned; and in others of them by a man whom they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one that spoke under the Oracle out of the Caverns of the Earth, by the Vapours of which they supposed him Inspired, and to become an Enthusiast. That those Oracles, for the most part, uttered things doubtful and un-intelligible, is evident, and sometimes contrary to Truth; as we may see plainly set down in Thucydides, and other Authors of their own, and which never came to pass (one Instance of which was singly sufficient to confute their Divinity.) No Almanac maker writes with less certainty of the Wether, than they generally pronounced about future events. And the best excuse their greatest Adorers made then for them, was, That those Daemons that inspired the predictions, did not themselves know things future, otherwise then by their inspection of the Stars, and so could collect from thence but uncertain conjectures. Plutarch, after all the pains he has taken to give the world a right account of the first rise of those Oracles, and the cause of their after ceasing, and spent much time in discoursing whether the Daemons that first caused them were not Mortal and Perishable! Or whether they removed not their Places, and changed their abode! and many things of that Nature: At last concludes with this excellent Philosophy, That the true Cause of those Oracles was, that the Earth in some places was endued with certain Prophetic Virtues, which came by Exhalations to be mingled with, and insinuated into Souls fitted to receive those inspirations, and so cause in them Enthusiasms and predictions of future things. And, at last that Virtue, in the Subterranean Caverns is spent, and evaporates and so the Oracular Spirit ceaseth. What ground had the Heathen for all that Religion they took from their Poets, but their own Words that they were Inspired? What other Evidence had the Romans at first for their Religion, but that Numa Pompilius told them h● conversed with a Goddess, and received it from Her? What have the Turks to this day to assure them that Mahomet was a Prophet 〈◊〉, and conversed with God and the An●● 〈…〉, besides his own bare ●ord? He 〈…〉 claimed working of m●●acles an● a●●●● h●mself sent from He●●●● to conve●●● 〈…〉 with his Sword. A Re●●●●tion from 〈…〉 to be accompanied (and ●●nnot 〈…〉 to be otherw●●e● with such plan and 〈◊〉 evidence as is ●●ed to all reasonable satisfaction, though 〈◊〉 prevail n●t to a universal conviction; such as will abundantly jus●●fie it 〈◊〉 to the strictest scrutiny or all wise and good men, however it be judged or by perverse and corrupt men. The Bi●le is not only s●●h for the matter out, as that we make appeal to the most genuine issues of every ●●ns Reason, whether the Justice, Helmess and G●o●●s of God be not very transparent in it, but in its gradual Conveyance to the World at ●●ve●●al times, and in distant Ages and places, has been visibly accompanied with open and apparent Evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty power, such (and in such a manner visible) as no one thing in the world besides itself can make a pretence to: And such as the fact of them, its worst Enemies (not a Celsus, nor a Julian) did ever assume impudence enough to deny; And indeed is eminently and singularly justified to us (as in particulars shall be showed hereafter) by a concurrence of all those Evidences from whence a rational satisfaction about a Law Supernatural and Divine aught finally to result.  
Fifthly, A Revelation from God, my Reason will tell me, must be without any visible defect. 'Tis unreasonable to father that upon God, which we ourselves upon good grounds are able to charge with failing and Imperfection. Whatever claims from Him, and speaks to us in his Name, must have nothing in it unlike him, or unworthy of him. A pretence to Revelation must be above any just and reasonable Exception, or it naturally becomes its own Executioner. If in the judgement of right Re●son it be found guilty of Corruption in Doctrine, or of any falsehood in matter of fact, 'tis but equal to reject it as a Spurious and fictitious Delusion. And therefore 'twas rightly said of St. Austin to St. Jerome, Si mendacium aliquod in Scriptures vel levissimum admittatur, Scriptur●● Authoritatem omnem mo● labefactari ac convelli. If we admit the least falshhod in any part of the Bible, we ruin the Authority of the whole. All the Counterfeits of Revelation have upon this account visibly betrayed themselves, and revealed to us their own original. No one but the Bible, can the world produce, that will not some way or other disclose its own shame, and that falls not under some (nay, many) just and reasonable exceptions, 'Tis this Book alone in which there is not a flaw to be found. 'Tis only this Divine Law that is Perfect. The Bible consists of three parts, the Doctrinal, the Historical, and the Prophetical. Let the most acute Anti scripturist living produce any one Doctrine out of the Bible, that to the judgement of right Reason seems corrupt and unsound: Let him show any one Prophecy relating to things past, not duly fulfilled: Let him, upon good and sufficient Historical Authority, palpably disprove any one matter of fact in the History of the Bible, and we I yield him the cause. And if this be not to be done (as in fact it never has been, and we are well assured never can be) If a Book containing so much variety of History, far beyond any other Book extant, for so many thousands of years: It a Book pronouncing with that positive certainty about such a multitude of future events, in so many several Ages, and relating to so many several persons and places; containing in the Doctrinal part of it Directions and Rules for the who●● business of ●ens Duty ●o God, and toward each other: I● this Book have not a ●●●un to be sound in it: If it be proof against all exception: If there be nothing but Truth in it, in all these respects; what more invincible Evidence can there be given to its Divinity? Who but God himself could have indicted in h●a ●ock? 〈◊〉 who but a man wilful and absurd can withstand such a Conviction? 'Tis the B●●le, and 'tis that Book alone, upon every Page of which that Image and Superscription of God is eng●aven, Tru● itself. 'Tis a ●o●● 〈◊〉 in its ●niver●●● Triumph over all 〈◊〉. Where is 〈◊〉 a Book to be ●ound, 〈◊〉 of any considerable subject (much 〈…〉 a ●au●●●● this) ●●●t c●●●●● 〈…〉 ●●●●ton●● Judgement of Mankind, 〈…〉 worst enemy to find 〈…〉 p●o●ucts are brought forth in 〈…〉 failing and Imperfect. N●●●●●● 〈…〉 the wisest or m●n 〈…〉 bound. Of this we are experimentally ●●●●ed by all History, Philosophy, and all 〈…〉. This Holy 〈…〉 legitimate Off spring of God, and th●t which only contains his mind Authoritatively revealed and made known to the world, so it has singly appurtenant to it all those requisites necessary to a Divine Revelation. And without which no such thing can rationally be supposed.  
These things being so; He that rejects the Bible will find he is avoidable ob●●●ed, either to deny that there is any Revelation a● all, and consequently to give some good answer to what has been urged for the reasonable supposal of it, and some tolle●●●●● account h●w Mankind (when we consider God's goodness, and our own necessities) can be supposed to be left without it; or else to pro●●●ce somewhat that with more Just●●● and better Evidence can put in a claim to it: is M●●●l more becoming the greatness and goodness of God, and more suitable and use ●l to men. The first, I dare say, will be found a task utterly impracticable, if unprejudiced reason may be Judge; and with what success the latter i● like 〈◊〉 proceed, and how visibly absurd 'twill ren●e● its undertaker, will soon be determined by every sober mind; when it plainly app●●●s by what has been said, that so many things which my Reason tells me must all necessarily accompany a Divine Revelation, and without which it cannot be admitted as such, are all 〈◊〉 them found peculiarly appurtenant to the ●ibl●, and cannot belong to any other Books or Writings, or to any other Pretences to Revelation whatsoever.  
Having thus established these two general points; First, that 'tis a thing in itself reasonable and fit to believe, that there should be some Revelation made from God to the world, some Supernatural Laws promulged as the great Rule of men's lives here, and God's Judgement hereafter. And that these Laws should be somewhere or other extant upon Record (that Mankind might be fully assured and ascertained about them, and that they might be visible to all) that there should be some such Book as the Bible pretends to be, and that 'tis greatly unreasonable to believe the contrary. And Secondly, that in the Judgement of right Reason there are many general qualifications that must necessarily be appurtenant to such a Revelation wheresoever 'tis extant, and by which 'tis but reasonable that Mankind should make a Judgement of every pretence to it, and that all those qualifications are found punctually and peculiarly belonging to the Bible, and cannot be applied to any other extant pretences to Revelation whatsoever. I shall now proceed to the second thing proposed, which was a more distinct and particular proof, and endeavour to make it appear that this Book is indeed sent us from Heaven, and is in truth that Revelation we have good cause to expect from above, and that we have all those Reasons concurring to make us acquiesce in it as such, from whence a Judgement in such a case ought finally to result: That there is so much Evidence to be given in, to prove its Divinity, as no man ought to desire, nor can reasonably expect more, in a matter of such a Nature: And so much, that where men's corrupt Interests and prejudices are not Predominant, will appear sufficient to every impartial enquiry.  
And this shall be prosecuted in this Method. I will these several ways consider this Book. First, In the time of its conveyance to the World. Secondly, In the way and manner of its conveyance. Thirdly, In the success and effects of it, since its conveyance. And lastly, In itself, in the matter of it as we now find it. And from each of these considerations will a signal Testimony be given in to its Divinity, and when we have taken a view of the whole, we shall find that the Book both in the Matter of it, and in all the Circumstances that have at any time attended it, does eminently relate itself to God as its Author, and cannot be reasonably judged the product of any Humane contrivement whatsoever.  
For the first, When we resl●ct upon the ●●me of this Books conveyance, we shall find two things of very great weight offering themselves to our consideration. First, the Antiquity of those things it relates to us, and informs us of: And Secondly, the Antiquity of this 〈◊〉 i●●●l● since composed and delivered to us with such a relation. The Contents of this Book ●●ch a● far as the first foundations of the Earth and the Heavens, and give us an account of God's Revelations to Man since his first m●●● and Original, and of an Oral and ●er●all int●●●●●●se between God and the World for two thousand four hundred and old years, before it was any where extant upon R●●●●d or any part of it written: Which no other B●●● since the World began so much as makes 〈◊〉 ●●●●●●ce to. If we consider the Revelation Historically contained in this Book, 'tis what was 〈◊〉 the beginning, and of the same 〈…〉 the World itself. If we consider the Edition of it in this Book, and the time 〈◊〉 this Books a●●ual Publication with all the a●●●tional Revelations contained in it, we shall find this Book to be the first born in its kind, to precede all other Writings whatsoever, and in truth to be extant while Thales, Mile●●us, Hamer, H●rmes, and the most primative writers the world had, were unborn and unthought of, Moses wrote of the God of Abraham, long before any of the Heathen Gods had a written mention made of them: God pleasing so to order it, that although the Revelations he made to the World were not written from the beginning, yet they were written long before any other Writings were extant: And his own Laws were first recorded, and all other Writings are of a subsequent Date to this Holy Book, First, I will evidence this in point of fact, and show that it is so, that to this Book is indeed due the right of Primogeniture, and that all other Books are of a much after-edition. And becondly, examine what reasonably results from thence toward that proof of the Bible we are about. To all which this must be premised, that when we speak of the Bible as thus, Ancient, we intent actually no more of it then the Writings of Moses (the whole Contents of the Bible being above four thousand years in a gradual publication, and the Bible itself above a thousand and six hundred years in writing; for so long it was from the time that Moses writ to St. John the revealer) nor need we intent more to justify the Antiquity of the whole; because 'tis all there virtually contained, all the rest is superstructed upon that as its ●o●ndation, and every several part of the Bible after Moses till the Top-stone was laid appears evidently to be writ in direct pursuance of what Moses at first delivered; and so much St. Paul affirmed before Foelix, that he taught nothing but what was long before extant in Moses and the Prophets. For the first, That the Books of Moses are in fact the most Ancient; I find both Jews and Christians have been greatly concerned to make it manifest, as judging it a point that did greatly credit their profession, and highly justify that Religion they adhered to. Josephus and others of the Jewish writers have much insisted upon it, and amongst the Christian Writers, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius; Cyrill of Alexandria, in his Books against Julian, St. Austin and others: But most especially Justin Martyr and Eusebius; Justin Martyr in his Parenaetick to the Grecians; because they used with great Arrogance to boast of the Antiquity of their own Learning and Religion, and upon that account to look with great contempt upon others, proves against them out of Pagan Authors (and those chief their own) beyond all reasonable denial, that the Books of Moses were of much greater Antiquity than the most Ancient Writers they could make a pretence to: And that the Christian Religion, being the natural issue of those Writings founded upon them, and derived from them, was no new or upstart invention; but indeed the first and most Ancient written and unwritten Truth the World was possessed of; and the same thing is afterwards more largely and distinctly proved and made good by Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation. Who thus concludes, Quare omnibus Diis ac Heroibus Graecorum multo Vetustior Moses invenitur. And indeed the most Ancient of the Grecian Gods, as appears by their own Histories, were not of a much Earlyer date than the Wars and ruins of Troy, which Moses preceded some hundreds of years. Josephus says in his first Book against Appion That the Grecians had no Elder write then Homer, who lived as Pliny says two hundred and fifty years after the Trojan War (which War was about four hundred and seven years before the Olympiads began) according to Solinus two hundred and seventy years, as Herodotus thinks three hundred; But 'tis clear from his own Poems that he lived some very considerable time after, at least one hundred years by the Lowest calculation. Moses was so long before him and so much his Predecessor that 'tis granted by all that make mention of him That he lived some hundreds of years at least four hundred and odd before the Battle of Troy, before the beginning of the Olympiads not less than eight hundred and forty years, (Till which time the Grecian History is generally Confused and Imp●r●●●●, n●r had they any certainty in St●ry till th●n, which Varro positively affirms, and Eus●b●●● also proves out of the Annals of Africa●us who tells us Us●iad O●●mpiadas ni●il exploratum in Histori▪ Graecorum m●●tur, sed omnia consusis conscripta tempori●us, sunt: Post Olympiad ●s v●ro quoniam quadr●●unto dil●gentissime o●nia notahantu●, Nulla penitus confusio temporum su. And indeed till that time there is little certainty in any Story but that o the Bible) He lived b●fore the building o● Rome about eight hundred sixty and five years, for Rome was founded in the beginning of the Seventh Olimpiad, which was twenty five years after their first beginning, But suppose Homer was not the first Grecian Writer, as Euschius and others think, and perhaps truly enough, that they had others before him, 'Tis certain and agreed to by all. They had no Letters amongst them till Cadmus, nor any Written-●earning for some considerable time after him. And ●tis well known that Cadmus was Later than Moses; Those that carry him highest make him but contemporary with Josuah, and he is as some think, more truly to be reckoned of the same time with Oth●icl mentioned in the book of Judges. And yet we find the Ancientest learning the world possessed of besides the Bible, is written in the Greek to●●●e. So Justin Martyr observes, speaking of this matter, says ●e, Si quis vel P●etar●● veterum, vel Legislaterum vel ●isio●●or●m, vel Plilosopherum meminiss● velit, comperiet tamen ill●s Libros sues ●r●cerum compos●●sse literis. Both Justin Martyr who lived within a hundred and thirty of Christ and ●uschi●s a●our two hundred a●ter him, have evidently proved from the best and most acknowledged Calculations, and from the mention that is made of Moses by Proph●●e Writers, such as Sanconiathon the Phaenician Antiquated, Ber●sus Caldeus, Ptolomens, and Man●tho, Egyptian Chronologers, and amongst the Creac●a●s, Artapanus, Polemon, Eupolemus, and from Tregus Pomp●ius epitomised by Justin and others, that Moses was the first Legislator, and lived long before any Authors of Books were extant; And this is also very particularly affirmed by Dioderus Siculus (the best and most eminent Historian the Gracians ●●d, who says himself he spent thirty years in Travel to search out the Antiquities of all Countries and to enable himself to write a General Story) for he tells us in his History that ●e had learned from the Egyptian priests that Moses was the First Legislator and Preceded all others in that kind. We are told by many Ancient Authors that he lived with (and to them St. Austin agrees in his 18th. Book De civet. Dei.) and by others, That he Preceded Cecrops the founder of Athens, after whom all those Ancient and memorable things fell out in Greece, as Deucalion's flood▪ Phaeton's sire, the birth of Ericthonius, the ripe of Proserpina, the mysteries of Ceres, the ●●titution of the Eli●●●●●● sacrifices, Triptolemus his art of Tilling the Ground, the carrying away of Europa, the birth of Apollo, the building of Thebes by Cadmus, after whom also where Bacchus, Minos, Perseus, Esculapius, Hercules, and others whom we find mentioned in the Grecian Authors as most Ancient; Nor had the Grecians any higher terms to express Antiquity by, than Cecropian and Ogygian, which they used to call all such things as they thought most Ancient from Cecrops and Ogyges, in whose times they supposed Men like Mushrooms sprung naturally out of the Earth about Athens. But the certainest account that seems to be given of the direct Time in which Moses lived, is this. That he was Contemporary with Inachus the first King of the Archie●es. In this, Chronologers seem most generally to agree, as Scaliger shows in his most learned Animadversions upon Eusebius his Chronologie. Justin Martyr, Tertullian Tatianus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and many others of the Christian Writers affirm it, and from many Heathen Authors we have direct Evidence for it. Polemon in his first Book Rerum Graecanicarum, is express in it, and Apion, both in his Commentary that he writ against the Jews, and also in other of his Writings, speaks of the Jews coming out of Egypt, Regnante apud Archivos Inacho, quibus (says he) prefuit Moses. And Ptolomens Mendi●us, an Egyptian that wrote the Chronicle of Egypt, says, that Moses governed the Jews, and lead them out of Egypt, quando Inachus Argis regnabat. And 'tis sufficiently known to all that are any way versed in Antiquity, that Inachus, and also Cecrops. lived some hundreds of years before the Trojan War, and long enough before any Books, or the most Ancient Written Learning the world had, was extant. Tertullian in the 19 Chapter of his Apology tells the Romans they also, as well as the Grecians, glorified much in Antiquities; says he, Our Religion far out does all you can produce of that kind; for the Books of one of our Prophets only, (viz.) Moses wherein it seems God hath enclosed as in a Treasury, all the Religion of the Jews, and consequently all the Christian Religion preceding for many Ages together) reach beyond the Ancientest you have, even all your public Monuments, the Antiquity of your Originals, the establishment of your Estate, the birth of most part of the people, the foundation of many great Cities, all that most advanced by you in all Ages of History, and memory of times, the invention of Characters, which are Interpreters of Sciences, and the Guardians of all excellent things, I think I may say more, even your Gods, Temples, Oracles and Sacrifices; Have you heard mention made of that great Prophet Moses▪ He was contemporary with Inachus, he preceded Danaus' three hundred fourscore and thirteen years, the Ancientest of all that have a name in your Histories: He lived some hundreds of years before the ruin of Troy. Every of the other Prophets succeeded Moses, and yet the last of them all is of the same Age as your first Wise men, Lawgivers, and Historians were. And indeed, well might he tell them so; for the Prophets Hosea and Isaiah were contemporary with the first Olympiad, which began, as Scaliger proves aut of Eusebius and others, but in the Reign of King Ahaz, whose Son Hezekiah lived at the same time with Numa in Rome; and E●dras himself, and the latest Writers of the Old Testament wrote before Socrates Philosophized in Athens, who taught not there till some time after the Captivity. This Antiquity of Moses and his Writings, and their precedency to all other written Religion or Learning, is in fact so evident, that 'tis not capable of any tolerable denial: And as Scaliger says in his discourse upon Eusebius, the proof of it resulting so plainly from the universal Testimony of Heathen Authors themselves, nihil superesse Paganis videt●r, nisi aut ut inge●ua confessio ab tis exprimcretur, aut silentium pertinac●ae sinem faceret; And he adds, quod certe faeliciter c●ssit, ut & hac in parte Porphrius manus daret. 'Tis not made out from any nice disputes between Chronologers, comes not within any near compasses of time, but from a general concurrence of all Histories, and is so far beyond the ●each of all contradiction that the worst Enemies to our Religion have agreed it, and given in their Testimony to it. Of this Eusebius in the tenth book of his Praep. Evan. Chap. 3. takes special notice, and tells us, that Porphrie (one of the most raging malicious Enemy that ever the Christians met with) had in his fourth book which he writ against them, given this Testimony to Moses and his Antiquity; That he had written the History of the Jews truly, which thing he had perceived by conferring it with Sanchoniathon the Berutian, who rehearseth the very same Circumstances, and Names, and Places that Moses does, the which he had learned out of the Registers of one Hierumbalus a Priest of the God of Levi, and out of the Chronicles of the Cities, and out of Holy Books dedicated to Temples; and this Sanchoniathon (says he) was after Moses about the time of Semiramis. By which it evidently appears, he had such an Opinion of the Antiquity of Moses, that he makes him to be much earlier in the World than we affirm him to be. But 'tis agreed on all hands he lived and writ in a time long before any other Authors of books, or any other written Learning was known.  
And this clear Evidence we have (so clear, that in such a case a clearer cannot be expected) of the Antiquity of Moses in point of fact, and the Preeminence of his Writings above all others in that respect, gives us very probable ground to believe, that he himself was the first introducer of Letters as well as the first Writer of Books (whatever other Nations have fabulously boasted to the contrary, and notwithstanding Pliny's absurd supposition; that Letters were Eternal; because he imagined the World to have been so) for 'tis not reasonable to think if the World had enjoyed the use of Letters before, but that there would have been some Monuments of it before his time remaining, at the least to the next after Ages, of which we should have had some credible account from them. And therefore Diodorus Siculus gives this as the Reason why there were no more Ancient Histories and that the Actions of Kings were not Recorded of old; because the World wanted Letters: Impossibile est (says he) primas Literas aeque ac primos Reges vetuslas extitisse. And Josephus gives the very same Reason why we have no more Ancient History than we have; because the world anciently wanted the use of Letters; but especially we cannot suppose but that those Revelations God made before of himself and his mind to some parts of the World, would have been safely preserved in Writing, and left upon Record to posterity long before Moses writ; nor can we well imagine that those Holy men to whom at any time God pleased to reveal himself, should not use their utmost diligence in the best way to secure and communicate so inestimable a Treasure; of this we hear not the least upon any tolerable ground of credit, nor of any other Writings before Moses, but upon reports that appear grossly fictitious and fabulous. 'Tis a thing greatly probable, that till Moses his time the World knew nothing of Letters; for we neither find any Laws of God, or of Men written before, and 'tis likewise most probable that we own them not, nor their use to Humane invention, but to Divine Revelation (and 'tis likely Plato had learned so much from the Jews, when he said in his Cratilus that the Original of Letters was from the Gods) 'Tis a thing offers its self very fairly to our belief, that God himself, when he gave the Ten Commandments written by his own singer to Moses, introduced the first Alphabet, and that Letters themselves and those Divine precepts are of an equal Date; I insist not on this as capable of any certain and positive proof, nor if it were, is it to be urged as a convincing Evidence of the truth of the Bible: But yet 'tis a Circumstance of very considerable weight, and has very good probabilities for its belief, and that we shall find if we consult but what chrysostom, Theophilact, and other of the Christian Writers have said in the justification of it: Cyrill of Alexandria in his seventh Book against Julian insists much upon it: Vives upon the thirty ninth Chapter of St. Augustine's 18 Book de Civ. Dei, says, that 'tis the most common opinion both of Jews and Christians, that Moses first gave Letters to the Hebrew Language▪ which doubtless has the Priority of all others) and that Eupolemus, Artapanus, and many other profane Authors affirm it, and that both the Egyptians and also the Phaenicians (from whom the Grecians first learned the use of Letters) had their Letters from Him, and that Mo●es was that Mercury to whom the Egyptians ascribe the first invention of them.  
The Objections that are usually made against this, seem but of very little weight. First, we are told of certain Tractates of Enoch, that were written before the Flood. Secondly, of two Pillars of the Sons of Seth with observations Astronomical engraven upon them, which they set up to continue their Learning, and that it might remain beyond the Flood which Adam had foretold them of, The one of which remained in the Country of Syria till the time of Josephus, as he himself says. Thirdly, that Moses in the 21 of Numbers makes mention of the Book of the Wars of the Lord, as a Book extant before that time. And fourthly, that Moses himself is said to be Learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians, which learning probably was written. For the first, That there were Books of enoch's Writing before the Flood which were preserved in the Ark, (for so they must be) seems to be a story wholly fabulous; we find not one word of them amongst the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles, nor before, and 'tis certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him, they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church, though they had not been within their Canon, (which we are sure they were not) and Philo, or Josephus, (most diligent searchers of their Antiquities) would have made some eminent mention of them, in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books; and therefore 'tis not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant. But 'tis most probable that after the Apostle Judas had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecy of Enoch, which Prophecy, without doubt, he came to the knowledge of, either purely by Revelation (which I rather believe) or else by a Tradition, the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation, by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in aftertimes to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses, that were not to be found in his Books; for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time, that are not recorded in his Books: St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews, says, that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law; he took the blood of Calves and Goats, with Water, and Scarlet Wool, and Hyssop, and sprinkled b●th the Book and all the People, saying, this is the Blood of the Testament, etc. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus. So Stephen's Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts, tells us, that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God, by his Hand, would deliver them, but they understood not; By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian, that he himself has no where set down, and by which we come to understand; that before Moses went into the Land of Midian, God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people, which Moses himself has not any where told us. I say, 'tis probable that some Heretics in the Church (most likely the Gnostics, who much cried up those Spurious Writings) to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests, took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books (just as some others did under the names of Ja●nes and Jambres, after St. Paul's mention of them) as written by Enoch before the Flood; which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves; for those that were published under his name were stuffed, as St. Austin says, with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels, and such ridiculous relations of Giants, whose Fathers were Angels, and no men, that they are to be justly rejected as palpably counterfeit and fictitious; Of the same mind is Jerom, Chrysostom, and Epiphanius; and when Celsus alleged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproach to the Christians; Origen in his fifth Book answers him by showing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians than had of them. For the second, those Pillars of the Sons of Seth, 'tis beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge, or that they should so do, or that any Engraving upon them should be visible some thousands of years after, especially upon one of Brick; for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick, and another of Stone, and that of Stone they made on purpose to last, if the other should decay (how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guests) and yet he says 'twas that of Brick that then remained, upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters; but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented; which might be by many other representations, and other ways then by Letters; for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of men's thoughts one to another was extreme early in the World, though they wanted Alphabetical Letters: Nor does Josephus say, that He saw it it himself, or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it, or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen, but only in general that it was then in the Country of Syria (where he left men of leisure to inquire after it.) The truth is, there are so very many improbable and unlikely, if not impossible Circumstances, do attend this vain Story, that 'tis plain Josephus (though in the general a Historian of deserved credit) took it upon bare report from others (some late Authors think, and perhaps not amiss, from the fabulous relation of Manetho, who says, he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it; nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so? for we sinned many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust, and fallen thereby into very great mistakes. Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans, yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History, That the Jews worshipped an Ass' Head with the highest veneration▪ then which nothing could be more untruly, and upon less ground affirmed; and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius; for he says In the time of Claudius, Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit: That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome, who were continually making uproars, being stirred up thereunto by Christ. Then which there could not be an absurd mistake, nor a greater falsehood well uttered. For the third, The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers, and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord, as a Book then extant, his words are, wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, what he didin the red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon. First, divers probable senses are given of the place, that render it no Objection in this case. The Geneva Translation, not much differing from some others, renders it thus, Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord, etc. If so, then 'tis Prophetical, and may relate to Joshuah, who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord, and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after. Junius reads the words thus; Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae, etc. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord, etc. And so understands it not of any particular book, but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the mouths of most men concerning those passages there expressed. Paulus Fagius, who seems to give the rightest account of it, differs not much from this of Junius, only reads it in the futuretense, and supposes it to intent a future relation, his words are, Ideo dicetur (est enim verbum Hebraicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 futuri temporis) in commemoratione bellorum, hoc est, cum bella Deicommemorabuntur, recensebuntur a posteris, quae bella pro Israel in mari rubro gesscrit, & quae ad hos torrentes: quasi dicat, high avo locitanquam memorabiles ab omni posteritate repetentur in quibus Deus pro Israel dimicavit, ubi prodigia Coeleslia ost●nsa sunt; that is, In the relation that shall be hereafter of the Wars of the Lord, there shall be a famous mention amongst all posterity, of what God did for Israel in those two places; wheresoever the Wars of the Lord are spoke of, what God did in those two places shall have an eminent mention. The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepher, signifies properly any rehearsal or enarration, recensionem aut enarrationem quamcun●; recensionem scriptam; but per accidens. If we understand it not to relate to any Book, but only to a relation Verbal as it seems most probably to do; because Moses speaks only of a rehearsal in generals but not directly of a written rehearsal, it reaches not this matter; and if it do, I see no good reason can be given why by that Book of the Wars of the Lord should not be meant either some succeeding Book, part of the Bible, or else that very Book of Numbers itself. But Secondly, which way soever this Text be taken, it can never be reasonably urged to prove there were Letters or Books before Moses; because 'tis said to be a Book relating a Story of things done in Moses his own Time; for those Wars called the Wars of the Lord, commenced but at the people's coming out of egypt under his conduct: And therefore 'twas impossible there should be a written story of them before Moses himself was extant. To the last Objection I Answer, 'Tis true that the Egyptians were a Learned people, probably the most learned the world than had. The continued clearness of their Sky, and the constant overslows of Nile, naturally tending to render them learned in those two Noble Sciences of Astrology and Geometry; yet there is not the least ground to believe they had any use of Alphabetical Letters before Moses his time, or any other way to express or communicate their learning, but what was Symbolical and Hycroglyphycal; nor is there the least Record any where extant to evince the contrary. Aristotle says, The ancient way of the Egyptians writing was, per Hi●roglyphycas literas saxis incisas; and he adds, Conceptus a●imalium scr●bunt, uti occulata side legimus in lapidibus per figuras; idem in omnibus Scientijs, Artibusque sacientes, quos locabant in Templis tanquam Paginas perlegendas; talesque illis pro libris extant. Tacitus tells us, Primi per siguras Anima●ium Egypti sensus mentis efsingebant, & antiq●●ssima Monumenta memoriae humanae impressa saxis cernuntur. Diodorus Sicalus long before, in the fourth part of his History has given us a large account of this Symbolical way of writing amongst the Egyptians and Ethiopians, which was reduced to these three heads, Imitativa, Tropica, & Enigmatica; nor do we hear a word of any other writing amongst them, till Moses his time, who in all probability first discovered to them that way of transferring their minds one to another by Alphabetical Letters. And this Artapanus a most ancient Historian tells us, who speaking of Moses, says,  quasi Deas ab Egyptijs coleretur, & propter Literarum inventionem Mercurium appellatum; That he was reverenced by the Egyptians as a God, and for his first inventing of Letters called Mercury.  
The Antiquity of the Bible in point of fact being thus cleared, 'tis in the second place to be considered what Testimony to the Divinity of the Bible does in truth result from thence! And herein we shall find the one very remarkbly leading us to the other. First in the general, 'tis a thing not to be denied that a reverence to Antiquity seems to have been universal; All men in all Ages seem to have risen up and paid respect to the Hoary Head of Antiquity: and that upon these two grounds; First, What is most Ancient, has undergone the greatest Trial: Every man is ready to venerate what has endured the Test of many Generations, and lasted through most Ages; because nothing corrects mistakes like Experience, not distinguishes falsehood and truth like Time; Time we say, and truly say is Index, as well as Edax rerum. Secondly, Every man's Reason tells him all Secundary truth must needs lie nearest to the Eternal truth, and so be of greatest Antiquity. Error of every kind is of a later Edition than truth, an Apostasy from it, and a Corruption of some prime Principles. Though Error and falsehood may be very Ancient, yet Truth is still the Elder Brother, and has this still to say to all its opposers, Non fuit sic ab initio: And therefore the farther we wade into Antiquity, the nearer still we come to Truth. In Religion most especially that Maxim prevails, antiquitate nihil verius, veritate nihil antiquius. In the present case the Antiquity of the Bible carries in it a very signal proof of its Divinity. That which is the most ancient Religion, is like to be the Truest; greatest antiquity in Religion, is an eminent mark of greatest Truth, and that upon these two very forcable considerations; First, 'tis reasonable to believe, that there has been an intercourse between God and Man since the beginning, and a Supernatural inter course since man's first defection, that God's Revelations were as early as man's necessities, That there was no time wherein man stood in need of Supernatural Instruction and help, but that God affords it to him. If the supposal of Revelation in the general be reasonable, (as I have proved at large it is) the other will follow; and we shall find good ground to believe, that there has been a Revelation from God since there was first Reason for it, and such a constitution as Supernatural Religion in order to man's happiness and recovery that bears an equal Date with his first apostasy▪ to think otherwise were to deny what the notion of God's goodness very openly affirms to us. And this being so, no Religion can be True that is not clothed with great antiquity: And that Religion that is most ancient, and can derive itself from the beginning must needs be most True. The Bible therefore giving us Historically an account of God's first intercourse with man, and of the constant continuation of it in all Ages, and being itself the first account that ever was given of Religion in such a Written way, upon all accounts the most Ancient the world has, and in its own Antiquity answering that antiquity we may justly expect to accompany Gods First Revelations, the Bible I say upon this account has a singular evidence given in to its Credibility, and its antiquity does strongly affirm its Divine Authority.  
Secondly, The Antiquity of the Bible does point us to its Divinity, because 'tis not reasonable to believe that the First Writen account the world had of Religion, should be a Cheat, that the First eminent Record of Religion should be a Lie, and not only a Lie but the Worst of Lies, and the most Pernicious and Destructive falsehood, (for so it must needs be to impose a Law upon the world in God's name without his Authority) that ever was published amongst mankind. 'Tis not in the judgement of right Reason consisting with the Wisdom and Goodness of God to suffer the world to be Originally Cheated in point of Religion: to suffer a public open Counterfeit of his Name and Authority to the highest degree. First to possess the world and take the Precedence of all truth: to permit the Devil to publish a Systeme of Lies and erect a Monument of Falsehood, Before there was any written Record of Truth. We must needs suppose God's care of Men, and the concerns of his own honour, to engage him to the contrary, and that God should First establish his own Truth, to which mankind might still have a recourse, and by which as a Standard, all Delusions and False Pretensions might be Tried. 'Twere, as one says well, very absurd to think God should permit the Devil to set up a Chapel before he had built a Church. If the Bible were originally composed by Impostors, and be not a Divine Book, 'twill then undeniably follow that the most Primitive and Ancient account we have of Religion is connterfeit, And that in the Earliest notices we have of God, of the world's Original, Man's fall, and the way of his Recovery (for we have none so early as what the Bible gives us of any of these, and of some of them no other) the world is Deceived and Abused, and that God suffered the Devil in the first place, (and before any thing was publicly extant from him to contradict it) in his name and with pretence of his Authority, to abuse and deceive Mankind with a false and delusive account of all those things they are most concerned to know, and upon the right Knowledge of which their present and future happiness does unavoidably depend. This very one consideration will prevail much upon every impartial judgement. Who can believe the first Religion should be the worst, when True Religion must needs be as old as the World? And the Earliest notions of God the falsest, when we must needs think it reasonable that God should reveal himself to the World from the beginning? Or that the first book we sinned writ should contain the Highest imposture in point of Religion, and more dishonour God and abuse the World than any or all the Books written since? 'Tis a thing beyond all compass of credit, That God should suffer false informations to be given in his own Name of himself and his own Revelations from the first beginning of the World for about 4043 years (for about so long a time it was from that first intercourse between God and Man the Scripture gives us Historically an account of till the last Revelation of St. John) And that this account should begin with the first book that the world had, and be gradually carried on into such a complete Systeme as now we see it is, in a Written way, by several hands, in several Ages, for a thousand and six hundred years together (for about so long a time it was from Moses his first Writing to St. John's Closing the Bible) Nor is it supposable that the vilest falsehood for such is the Bible if it be not from God (a Religion whereby (if it be false) God would be more dishonoured, and men more deluded then by any that ever was yet extant) should have this to say in its justisication, That 'tis of all others the most Ancient, and has been longest lasting amongst Mankind. The consideration therefore of this Book in the Time of its conveyance, the Antiquity of it in respect of the matter it contains, and the Antiquity of itself, as a Book written long before all others, and of so early a Date in the World, does with great Evidence point us to its Divine Original, and very strongly tends to persuade us that God himself was the Author of it.  
Secondly, The way and manner of this Books conveyance to us. The Method of Gods thus Recording his pleasure has been such, that we shall find we have all those reasonable inducements (and in some respects more) to credit it, upon which we receive any Humane Authors, and acquiesce in them as true: And all such farther Evidence as we can well expect to insure us of the truth of a Book that pretends to come from God and be Divint, And this will appear to be so, if we consider, first, the Instruments God employed in the writing of it, and such humane Circumstances as attended their doing it. And Secondly, The Divine witness God himself has in the most eminent way, given to this Book in its conveyance, to ascertain us of the truth of it, and of the sincerity of those that wrote it.  
First, If we consider the Penmen of this Book, those amanuensis God made use of for the writing of it, and such Circumstances as attended their doing it. How unlikely a thing is it that they either did or could abuse the world in this matter, if we reflect upon these several things. First, the unblemished Credit and Reputation of these Writers. Secondly, the several Qualifications and Qualities of them. Thirdly, their Interests as moral and reasonable men. Fourthly, their Number, and that great distance of Time in which many of them wrote one from another. For the first, Nothing we know does more credit Ancient Authors, than the good Report of those Ages wherein they lived transferred to posterity. Not one of those Holy Penmen God employed in writing the Bible, was (that ever we find upon any good grounds) tainted in Reputation or convicted of any sort of Impostor in their own or future ages, but were men of acknowledged Integrity and Sanctity in those times wherein they lived, and very many of them gave the highest Testimony to their integrity, in becoming Martyrs in justification of what themselves writ. For the Second, the various Qualities and Conditions of these Writers seems much to secure us against so vile a design as this book must needs be composed with, if it be not from God. Some of them were Kings, and men of the greatest quality before they writ, and not very likely to be guilty of so much baseness and meanness to carry on such a work, and also men of deepest Learning and Knowledge: Others of them, many of the Prophets, and most of the Apostles were men Illiterate, and of Parts and Education so mean, that they seem no way capable to write so profoundly, to lay so deep a Contrivement of mischief, or by the single strength of their own abilities to bid so fair to delude the World. 'Twere strange to Imagine men of such distant qualities and different abilities should all agree in the same Imposture, and so Harmonise as we find they do in the promotion of it. Thirdly, If we consider the Interest of these Writers as they were Reasonable Men (for so we must needs suppose them, and to act upon the same inducements that Mankind do in all other things) No man could reap any advantage by counterfeiting this Book, nor could the Composers thereof design any Earthly or Heavenly Good to themselves as a Recompense for such an undertaking: not Heavenly, for 'twere the highest Offence against God, and meriting the highest Punishment: Nor Earthly, and that upon these two Grounds. First, because the tendency of the Book throughout is to mortify men's Earthly ambitions and appetites, and to propose a happiness of another Nature as men's great Interest, and relating to another World; and no man of common discretion that designed to greaten himself here, would choose to become the Author of such a Doctrine in order to it; because every step he advanced that way would visibly betray an Apostasy from his own Principles, and render him an open Impostor, meriting the scorn and contempt of all Mankind. Secondly, The most of those that God employed in that work actually exposed themselves by the doing of it to all the Persecutions, Hazards and Contempts imaginable; And some of them as amongst the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel, and all the Apostles (according to what our Saviour foretold them) as History assures us, save only the Apostle John, with the loss of their own Lives published their Doctrine. 'Tis a thing greatly ridiculous to imagine so many men, in so many Ages, should agree to cheat the World to no other end but their own certain ruin both in this world and the next. What end could many of the Prophets have in those unwelcome Messages they brought to those Ages wherein they lived, and for which they knew beforehand they should meet with so much ill usage? No man can be so sottish to think Jeremiah designed to himself any Interest in this world, when he prophesied himself into the Dungeon, and at last into his Grave. Or that the Apostles designed greatness or happiness here when they knowingly exposed themselves to all the rage that was then upon Earth, and endured the shock of all that fury which either Jews or Gentiles or the whole World together could execute upon them. He that reads the Story of St. Paul must needs suppose him to act beyond the bounds of all folly and madness, and not like a man either capable of instructing or abusing Mankind, if he intended any thing in this world as his End. The Motives of those Holy Writers in what they did, cannot with any Colour of Reason be judged to be other then pure obedience to God, love to truth, and preferring a Reward hereafter above their own lives, and all enjoyments here. How highly did they preach up obedience and submission to Magistrates, when all the Rulers upon Earth were their most bitter Enemies! And that Doctrine could have no other effect but to bring their own Heads to the Block. The Authors of the Heathen superstitions were of a very different Genius. And as one says well of them, Cute Authores superstitionis inter Gentes, omnes sibi & suis semper conciliarunt Dignitatem. Nor is there any part of the Bible written by any of them with any the least show of intention to greaten or advance themselves thereby: But on the contrary, many of the most eminent of them have themselves Recorded their own great fatlings and imperfections, as well secret as open: They all appear to be themselves under a subjection to the Doctrine they taught (which plainly declares they were inspired from above) and no way Masters of it as a Creature of their own. Throughout the whole Book there is a visible Antipathy to all selfseeking, flattery, or compliance: God alone is exalted, and all men's persons, Actions and reputations are openly Postponed to his honour, and put in subjection to those Holy and excellent truths there delivered. Moses of all the rest seems the g●et●st gainer in this world; because 'twas necessary at that time God should raise up a leader to his people, yet 'tis plain he had no design for himself; for he pronounceth a grievous curse, and a sore Judgement upon his own Tribe, the Tribe of Levi, rejects his own posterity, leaves them to the condition of common Levites, sets up Joshuah to succeed him, and places the Kingly superiority over that people in another Tribe from his own, the Tribe of Judah; and himself while he lived attained to no more, but to spend his days with great trouble, amongst a murmuring mutinous people in a wearisome Wilderness.  
Fouruthly, The Number of those Writers and the great distances of Time may of them lived in from the other, does as probably secure us against any Humane contrivement in the composure of this Book as we can reasonably expect. The world affords not an instance, that ever so many Men that lived in so many several and distinct Ages, so exactly agreed about any one thing, much less to cheat and abuse the World, and carry it on in such a continued written way: Never any such thing was done in any kind; nor is it supposable upon the grounds of common Reason that ever any such thing should be: 'Twere strange it should be done in a matter of highest concernment, wherein God's Honour & man's welfare are to the utmost engaged; that such a number of Impostors should be at several distant times for fifteen or sixteen hundred years together in contriving and composing such a Book as the Bible is, to delude and deceive the World, and that in all that time there should be no palpable discovery made of them, nor they themselves should so trip in the doing it, as visibly to shame their own undertaking, and betray those corrupt and rotten principles upon which they proceeded. As 'tis highly improbable that such a number of men, living at such distances of time, should all agree in the same design, and the same way of promoting it, (and agree they must; for 'twere absurd to imagine it could happen so to be by chance) because most parts of the Bible have been still written with a reference to things future, and no man that writ any one part could at that time know that others in future Ages would justify what he said, and take up the design in a right nick of time, just where he left it, and so still carry it on; and yet this must still so come to pass, if the Bible were written by any Humane contrivement. Moses could not humanely foresee, That so many Prophets would ari●●●n so many after Ages, to justify, explain and carry on what he at the first writ; nor could Moses or those Prophets know any thing of the coming of Christ and the Apostles so exactly to fulfil the whole. And yet all this, and all things relating to the Bible, have come as punctually to pass, as if all those persons that writ the Bible had lived at one time, had all talked together, and perfectly agreed the whole business before one word of it was written. Nay Moses is so explained and justified by the Prophets, and both in such a way explained and fulfilled by Christ and the Apostles, Promises and Prophecies are in such a manner made good, fulfilled and interpreted, as seems utterly beyond the reach of all humane skill and contrivement, supposing all the Writers had lived at one time, had all consulted together, and with their utmost abilities laboured to bring it so to pass. What Humane skill can we reasonably conceive could have contrived such a gradual fulfilling throughout the whole Bible as now we see of that promise, That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head? What Humane Artifice can we conceive could have contrived such a Prophetical Prayer as Gods persuading Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Sem, with such a fulfilling of it, as that after the World had been Cantoned (in Ages then to come) into Jew and Gentile, from their posterity both Jews and Gentiles, who were in the highest enmity each to other, should incorporate into one faith, and become one under the Gospel by an united subjection to one common Head? and so in many others of the like Nature. And indeed no man that is not bereft of his wits can Imagine, that any company of Impostors could have been the Authors of such a projection as the saving men by Jesus Christ, which is the main and grand design of the whole Bible, or could have contrived such remote obscure promises of it at first, and such gradual and stupendious fulfilings of those promises after. 'Tis not, I say, only highly improbable that such a number of men living in such distant Ages, should agree to write such a Book; but 'tis unreasonable to Imagine, that admitting they had so agreed, yet that they could have produced such a book as the Bible, or that a Book so consisting with itself, could have been at such remote distances of time contrived by the cunningest Heads of any wicked Impostors whatsoever. Nothing less than a Divine and Heavenly Wisdom could have guided so many hands as writ the Bible in so many Ages into such an admirable agreement, and punctual correspondency with themselves. 'Tis not easy to find an agreement between men of the same sect and opinion in any one Age, or to find any one man in his own writings, if he writ much, exactly agreeing with himself; But to see so many men, in writing such a Book as the Bible, so harmonizing together as there they do, is of singular consideration: Throughout the whole Book we find these Writers still proceeding and building forward till the Top-stone is laid, without rejecting any thing, all things completed, and fulfilled, never any thing denied, Contradicted, or destroyed, but we still see a rare use of every part relative to the whole, and such a fabric entirely reared, without the least part Misplaced, or any cause seen to entertain a second thought or to Alter. Of which no instance can be given in the promoting of any humane Science whatsoever.  
The Harmony we find in this Holy Book is of great Remark, upon these three accounts. First, 'Tis a harmony that results from exceeding Different Styles, and the greatest Variety of Matter. 'Tis not so many men's bare agreement together upon any few plain points, but 'tis so many men's agreeing together who have writ Historically, Prophetically, Doctrinally, with wonderful variation both for Matter and Manner of all the Sublimest notions the minds of men are capable of, as well as of the plainest truths, of things in Heaven, in Earth, in Hell, of all sorts of things relating to God and Men, and of the whole business of this World, and the next. Secondly, 'Tis a harmony resulting from an involved Correspondency of the parts one with another, and of every part with the whole (now we see it conjoin d) in such a way, as could not be foreseen or contrived by any humane wisdom in the writing of any one distinct part. There is in the to●um compositum of the Bible such a peculiar Oeconomy relating to the whole, in the conjunction of all the parts, and likewise such an united consent in all the parts when together (relating to their conjunction) in all the Doctrines, Prophecies, Promises, Types, Histories, to promote the same thing, and such a Dependency each upon other in order to it, the whole in its connexion is so issued into one great and common end, as must needs argue a further and greater design in producing the whole, than what any Individual Men could possibly have at several distant Times in writing the particular Parts. Thirdly, 'Tis such a harmony as has been and still is daily more and more discoverable to us by the Accidents of Time, And the products of Ages and Generations have showed us much of it, that lay hid and we knew not of before. The more experience we have of this Book the more we find it at unity with itself, and the more we search into it the deeper harmony still we discover: Every Age proves a fresh Interpreter, and the successive Revolutions of this whole world reveal to us more and more of its rare and admirable Concord, and we come to find things that seemingly most differed in the highest and safest agreement; Which, when we consider by how many several Pens, and at how many several and distant times, this Book was handed down to us, could not be the effect of any Humane Artifice, nor is it a thing that any Writers by the strength of their own abilities could possibly in their own Time's design or provide for. Nor can we suppose it the effect of any other cause but an Infinite Comprehension and Foresight: And that the Writers of this Book were in all times guided in what they wrote by the Supreme Wisdom of that one God who is constant to himself and the Same for ever.  
This consideration of the Penmen God made use of for the Writing of this book, and those Humane circumstances that attended their doing it, goes thus far, That there is at least as much (if not More) Ground to believe this book upon that single account, as there is to Receive any other Humane Authors we are most satisfied in: Indeed as rational inducements to credit those men that wrote the Bible, considering Who they were that wrote it, and how, and when, and upon what Terms they wrote it, as to credit any other Authors we least doubt of; And if so, these two things will follow upon it; First, That he that rejects the Bible, obliges himself to believe no other books without apparent disingenuity? Secondly, He that does credit the Authors of this book with the same credit wherewith he credits other Authors, and supposes they were men of common honesty that would not knowingly write an untruth, cannot then refuse to receive it as a book Divine and Infallible, upon as good terms of credibility as he believes any the best humane Author in its Kind to be True, because they themselves tell us that it is so, (which were it otherwise without most impudent falsehood they could not do) that God himself inspired them to write it, That 'twas no product of their own, but that every part of it is the genuine Dictate of the Holy Ghost.  
But in the second place, in the manner of this books conveyance we shall find a further and more unquestionable ground of satisfaction, and a Divine witness given by God himself to the Truth of these Writings, to assure us beyond all reasonable doubt, they were written by men that did not deceive us, but such as were Entrusted by himself for that purpose; And that is the miracles that were wrought, and which visibly accompanied their first publication. In the discoursing of which after a due sort, these three things will naturally fall under consideration. First, the Nature of a Miracle in general, what properly it is! Secondly, What evidence we have for the Fact of those Miracles we say the Scriptures are justified by! Thirdly, Whether Miracles simply in themselves are always an unquestionable proof of that Doctrine they are wrought to confirm, and an infallible justification of the integrity of the persons that work them! The two first are of an ea●y dispatch, the difficulty rests in the Latter.  
For the first, A Miracle is properly that which can have no second cause for its Author, such a thing as no created Power in the judgement of reason can effect. Raising men Dead, curing disease's by speaking a Word, being able in a moment to speak all Languages, are things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Ability and such things as can be only related to God as effects of his supreme and unlimited Power: And su●h is a Miracle. Secondly, For the Fact of those Miracles we claim in defence of the Bible, we are much eased of the labour of proof from a General Concession: And 'tis of great remark, That the Warmest Adversaries, the Scriptures have met with, have never denied the Fact of those Miracles pleaded in their behalf, but endeavoured to invalidate their testimony some other way; Neither the Miracles of Moses (which we find often mentioned in Heathen Story) nor of Christ, are denied by any in point of Fact, but both fathered upon Egyptian Magic. Those of Moses, by the Heathens heretofore, as we find in Pliny and Apuleius. Pliny says There is a very great Magic depends upon Moses and the Cabala (Though he might have remembered that never any Law so positively forbade Magic as did that which Moses delivered) and those of our Saviour by the Jews and the Heathens since; The Jews affirmed that all that our Saviour did was done by a Magical skill he first learned in Egypt, and brought with him from thence, And Julian the Heathen says that Peter and Paul were the most expe●t men in Magic that ever lived, and that ●hrist himself wrote a Bo●k of that Profession and Dedicated it to them two. Our Saviour's Miracles in point of Fact are not only acknowledged by the Jews, but expressly both by Celsus and Julian (two of the most Learned, Malicious, and Industrious Adversaries that ever opposed the Christian-profession) And this we may see in Origin's second book against Celsus (of whose w●●k● there is nothing left but what is there repeated) and Cy●ill's sixth book against Ju●ian. And ●n truth the Miracles of Christ and the Apostles and those that succeeded them in the Christian-church were in Fact so many, so eminent, so visible, lasted so long for in the Church for three hundred years in some measure they lasted) and the Relation of them has descended down to us by such a Constant Uninterrupted Written and Unwritten Tradition, that no man has yet assumed Impudence enough publicly to Gainsay them.  
For the Third, Whether miracles simply in themselves are always an unquestionable proof of that Doctrine they are b●●ug●t to Confirm and an infallible justification of the Persons that work them! I answer, In the general they are not. If the Doctrine be no way Destructive to those Natural no●●ons of God we are born with, If it be not evidently to our Reason Dishonourable to H m, tending to seduce us from him, and opposite to that Natural Duty we own him, They are. But if otherwise, if they come in direct Competition with the Law of Nature, They are not. No Miracles whatever can or aught to oblige me to what my Judgement Dissents from as sinful: And that upon these two grounds; First, The Law of Nature as 'tis Previous to all Laws, so 'tis an unrepealeable Law, because 'tis so perfectly the Result of my Reasonable self that should God contradict it he would cease to deal with me as a Rational Being, which is not upon any account to be thought. Secondly, 'Tis not against Reason to suppose a possibility that God may in some cases exert a supernatural power by ill instruments for Trial as well as Establishment. God has no where told us that he will not so do, nor do our own faculties Recoil against it and adjudge it unreasonable that God should exercise the world with such a Trial, if he afford means sufficient to Oppose and Resist it. Such who deny this Latter, and say that a Supernatural power in a way miraculous was never exerted but to confirm and establish a Divine Truth, that 'tis an Impeachment of Divine Justice, and most unreasonable to think the contrary, That although many things may be b●ought to pass by the Devil and Ill men that are in their own nature Wondrous, miranda, and mira●itia, and utterly beyond the compass of our Reason to conceive How by any natural power they should be effected, yet they are not Miracula, they are still either natural effects proceeding from natural causes, though secret and occult, or else delusions some way or other upon us. From the opinion of such I descent, and that upon these four Grounds. First, That which they say does no way answer that end for which they themselves intent it. Secondly, 'Tis against plain Texts of Scripture. Thirdly, 'tis against great evidence of History. And fouthly, Because the admission of the contrary is no way Destructive to those natural nation's we have of God's a●tr●butes, and his providential Rule over the world.  
First, What they say does not answer that end for which they themselves intent it. For if God suffer the Devil to exert a natural power in such a way that to the best exercise of my Senses and Reason it seems supernatural and miraculous, 'tis all one to me as if it really were so, and to my Judgement must needs be of the same prevalency with a miracle itself, nor have I the least way to help myself, if I am bound simply to subscribe to whatever is attested to by a Miracle, and look no further; For that must needs go for a Miracle with me, which to my senses and reason seems so to be. And 'tis evident such who make those Distinctions, do themselves thereby subject the witness of a Miracle to the Doctrine 'tis brought to confirm; For if those they call Miranda and Mirab●lia be in all outward appearance as true miracles (as they are acknowledged to be) they would then have been so called, and that distinction had never been made, had not the Doctrines they are severally brought to confirm been ●●judged a ground ●u●licient to Create the distinction. He that tells me 'tis not sit to suppose, as not consistent with the Justice of God, that in a way Supernatural and miraculous any w●●ness should be given to a Doc●●●●● sa●se an● corrupt, and yet tells me the Devil and ●● men are often permitted with n● any m●ans left of conviction by: power mee●ly natural to ●●ect such a counterfeit of it, that to the best Senses and Reason●● Mank●n●, is not discoverable, fi●st must nee●● barely suppose the counte●cit, and next say nothing at all to salve the Justice o● God about that matter.  
Secondly, 'Tis against plain Texts of Scripture, What the Magicians did in Egypt in opposition to Moses seems to be plainly and undeniably miraculous; turning Rods into Serpent's waters into Blood, and bringing forth multitudes of Frogs out of the Waters by stretching out the Band with a Rod in it, cannot be●eckoned otherwise: And Pharaoh and the Egyptiaus were satisfied they did the same thing in those kinds that Moses did, having the same exercise of their Senses and Reason about both, and were hardened thereupon. And that what Moses did in those particulars, was miraculous, is plain; for God says to him in the 7th. of Exodus, when he first sent him to Pharaoh, When Pharaoh shall speak unto thee saying, Show a miracle for you, than thou shalt say unto Aaron, take thy Rod, etc. And in the 105 Psalms those things done by Moses are spoken of as miraculous, and in the 27 Verse called The signs and wonders which God shown in the Land of Ham; of which 'tis expressly said in Exodus. The Magicians did the same. In the 13 of Deut. we find there by God's direction a Caution given, If a Prophet arise, or a dreamer of dreams, [that is, one pretending to see Visions, or one that spoke only from dreams, which were an inseriour sort of Prophets that saw things more obsem●ly, of which kind soever it was] and shall give thee a Sign or a wonder [any Miraculous or Supernatural thing the word signifies] and the Sig● or the Wonder come to pass, if he say let us follow strange gods which thou hast not known, Thou shalt not hearken to him; for the Lord your God proveth you, etc. In the new Testament our Saviour tells us in the 24 of Matthew, of false Prophets that should arise and show, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, great Wonders and miracles, even such as if it were possible would deceive the very Elect. And in the 13 of the Revelation we read of another Beast rising up, that doth great Wonders, so that he maketh fir● come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sigh of men, and deceives them that dwell on the Earth ●y Reason of those miracles which he hath power to do in the sight ●f the Beast. And in the 19 Chapter, we are tol● of the taking of the false Prophet, who wrought miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the same Book we read of The Spirits of D●vils working miracles.  
Third●y, 'Tis against great Evidence of History; for though I doubt not but that for the most part the World has been abused and deluded with pretensions this way, which we have good Reason to think, when we consider what a superior power to what is amongst men the Devils have by their Angelical Nature, and what s●●ange and secret operations there are in Nature itself of which we can give yet no better account in many things, for aught I see, than Arislotle did long since, when he derived them from invisible Causes, that he called Occult qualities; and also when we consider how the Wo●ld in all Ages, has generally doted upon the Art and Practice of Magic, the Reason of which Pliny says was not only because such strange things were brought to pass by it; but because there was also a concurrence in it of three such eminent Sciences, as Physic, Mathematics, and Religion, yet 'tis no way reasonable to reject all the account we have in Story of Supernatural and Miraculous things that were brought to pass in the Heathen World. Nothing more frequent in History than relations of such things, it seems an unreasonable resistance of Historical Evidence, to think there was nothing real of that kind, that there was nothing supernatural, in all the business of Esculapius, of jarchas, so famous amongst indian Brachman●s in the times of the Apostles, Tespesion amongst the Gymnosophists of Ethiopia, Simon Magus of whom we have such strange Stories, and most especially Apollonius Tyenaeus, who lived in the time of Domitian, though leasily grant much of what they all pretended to was visibly but a Counterf●it of it; nor can I wholly disbelieve what I find in the Roman Story about Clauda Vestalis, Tucia, and other of the Vestal Virgin●, nor many other reports I find in credible Authors about such things: especially that Story of Vespasians curing a lame and withered I high, by treading upon it, and a Blind man in Egypt by spitting upon his Eyes; of which latter Cure Tacitas and Suetonius (Historians of great Credit) both gives us a very full and perfect account, and very exactly agree in the Circumstances of it; and as Dr. Jackson says in his Book upon the Creed, both those Cures were well known to the most Judicious Roman writers of those times, and so constantly avouched by them, as can leave no place (says he) for suspicion in Ages following.  
Fourthly, The admission of the contrary is no way destinctive to those natural notions we have of God's Attributes, and his providential Rule over the World; because God never puts men under any rational necessity by it to credit a falsehood. He never permits men to be exercised with any such Trial, but when there is Evidence sufficient accompanying it to assure us 'tis but a Trial of our stability, and so intended. 'Tis no way unreasonable to suppose that God who is infinitely wise, and above us in the ways and Methods of his Supreme Rule, should for Holy and excellent Ends we cannot reach, exercise the World with the greatest Trials, even Trials from an appearance of his Almighty power, so long as he still affords a plainly Superior Evidence to Truth, and so Circumstantiates things that there is abundant ground of distinction. To make this appear is of chiefest concern in discoursing of this matter, how Gods Miracles can be an infallible Evidence, if the Devil and Ill men be sometimes enabled, (for so it is to be understood; for by no inherent power of their own can they do it) to act also in a Supernatural and miraculous way! for if a miracle by whomsoever wrought be not a sufficient proof of any Doctrine 'tis wrought in confirmation of, 'twill then be said the Testimony from miracles seems to to be much Invalidated, and Mankind to be left at great uncertainty about it.  
That God, when he is pleased to establish Divine truth to the world by the power of miracles does make that Testimony unquestionable, and clearly Distinguish the witness given by His miracles, from any witness the Devil or his Instruments can give by any either seeming or real operations of that kind, will very evidently appear these three ways. First, from the order of his proceeding. Secondly, from the manner of his proceeding; and Thirdly, from the ma●ter about which he proceeds. First, God makes the miracles he works from Heaven an infallible Testimony by the order of his proceeding. He primarily, and in the first place before false Doctrine and worship can have any such pretence, by the power of Miracles settles and fixes his own truth, and makes that so settled a Rule to us to try all other Doctrines by. God has been ever beforehand with the Devil and his Instruments in this kind: Nor have they ever been suffered to attempt the World this way, till truth was First so unquestionably settled, that there was abundant ground to secure  and unprejudiced men from any seduction, were the temptation to it never so great. This was the case at first under the Old Testament; God by most eminent and undeniable miracles from Heaven established the Doctrine and Worship published by Moses, and thereby fixed that as the great Standard and Rule of all Religion, before the Devil had ever attempted to impose any Systeme of his own upon the World in such a way; and that being so settled, a●ter-prop●ecie was not to be judged of singly by a power of working Miracles (God himself had directed the contrary) but also by its conformity to that established Rule; and therefore if any Prophet arose, though attended with a Miraculous power, and endeavoured to introduce a Doctrine destructive to wh●t was so already established, and to withdraw them from the worship of that God to whom by Moses his Law they were Primarily subjected, they were obliged not to hearken to him, but to reject his Doctrine as a vile and wicked temptation. And 'tis of great remark, and an eminent justification of God's proceed in this kind, that the most that ever the Devil was suffered to do, was at first in opposition to Moses, when he by a power of miracles came to settle that Divine Law (for never any false Prophet after could reach to do what the Magicians than did) and God in that very way, plainly, and openly, (to satisfy the World for ever after in this matter) determines the Cause against him; And Moses so far out went the Magicians in a Miraculous way, that they were forced to this confession, This is the singer of God. By which expression seems not to be meant that this particular work of turning Dust into Lice, in which the Magicians fa●led, is an effect of a Power Divine and Supernatural, and all that was done before both by Mo●es and us, (which were works every whit as great) was done by a power mee●ly natural: But This is the singer of God; that is, To stop us, that now we have tried to do the like, we find we cannot, that we should ●e able to go no ●●●ther, that our power of working Miracles should fail us, and be taken from us, and Moses should be still able to proceed.  
So under the New Testament, the Gospel was first eminently established by unco●●ollable miracles, as the great Standard and Rule of all suture Doctrines. And acquaints us that there is no further Revelation to be expected, before the wonders and Miracles of Seducers were extant. And when God has, by a miraculous power, once unquestionably established his own truth, all pretences to Miracles, be they feigned or real they come too late. Truth is in possession, and by that all things are to be tried, and whatever is found opposite to it, is but reasonably to be reckoned as a Trial and a temptation only to prove us. The Broad seal of Heaven is already solemnly and openly set: And let the Devil bring what shows he can of the same impression, they are still to be rejected. And whatever the Devil has been at any time able to do of that kind, has been but this second hand work, and to seduce men from a truth beforehand unquestionably established, and to which there was Reason sufficient (whatever could be done to persuade to the contrary) for all men to adhere. And this made St. Austin, when the Donatists, much urged upon him in their justification, a power they had of working Miracles, to tell them, The truth was that way fully settled before, and we had warning enough not to be seduced from the Orthodox Doctrine of the Gospel by any such pretensions.  
Secondly, The manner of Gods proceeding in his working of Miracles to ascertain the World, does sufficiently secure us against the danger of being seduced by Impostors that way, and any Miracles they can produce, if we consider; First, The grand occasions upon which God still works them. Of how vast concernment was the rearing up of both Testaments, and justifying the descent of Christ into Humane Nature. Secondly, The number of them, How far have Divine Miracles outgone all others in that kind. Thirdly, The Eminency of them. Fourthly, The Perspicuity of them to all sorts of men. Fifthly, Their performance without the least outward means, wherein there might possibly lie a deceit. Sixthly, The long and lasting continuance of them. In all these respects are Divine Miracles differenced from all Diabolical Actings that way, which for the most part have been fictitious and discoverable so to be: and when real, comparatively but few, and in no sort bearing any proportion to any of these Circumstances, wherewith Divine Miracles have been openly accompanied. And 'tis also to be noted, that very many of those Miracles we are told of amongst the Heathens, admitting them true, were not wrought to confirm or justify their Religion, but upon other occasions: often for ends concealed and wrapped up in the Counsels of God which we know not of, and sometimes for other ends then to establish their Religion visible, as it seems to be in the case of Vespasian, whom God had designed as his Minister to execute so many dreadful Judgements upon the Jews, and therefore would establish him by those extraordinary Actings in the possession of the Roman Empire, which with great difficulty, and against much probability to the contrary he obtained; and as Sueton●us says of him after he had obtained it, wanted Personal Authority and Majesty to manage such a Dominion. A clear instance concerning this whole matter God gave us at first in the Magician's opposition to Moses; wherein he gave us to know, that although Divine Truth might by Miracles be opposed, yet the superior Luster of his own Miracles should be so visible to all, as perfectly to silence and vanquish the rest, and both in Number, Continuance and Quality as then it was, the difference should be to every Eye obvious and apparent.  
Thirdly, The matter, for the establishment of which Divine Miracles are ever wrought, affords us ground sufficient to distinguish in this case. 'Tis always a doctrine leading us to that God of whom we have a notion imprinted in our own Nature, revealing him further to us, and instructing us in all those Holy Virtues, and excellent ways of living, that most correspond to our Natural light, are most suitable to that natural Divinity we are born with, and evidently tends to make us most happy here, and conduct us to the highest reward hereafter. Whatever miracles we shall at any time see wrought, to justify a Contrary doctrine, my own Reason will reject as a Temptation, and assure me that in the one case a miracle is sent from God to Ascertain me, and in the other the Devil is only enabled in the highest manner to Tempt and to Try me. And these three ways in the case of miracles, are we sufficiently secured against all the attempts that can be at any time made to seduce us that way: And may hereby rest abundantly satisfied in the testimony of Divine Miracles, given to Divine Truth, by whatever ways the Devil shall be able to countenance and promote a Contrary Interest  
Now, That the Scriptures have been attended with Miracles in their conveyance, is not (as before is proved) by any denied. And that those miracles have the advantage of all the foregoing circumstances is likewise very evident. The Doctrine of Moses is the First b●rn of all others, being the Religion that was from the Beginning. God, in the first place, settled and consecrated That by a miraculous Power, before any other Systeme of Religion was extant, and gave it therein the Precedency of all false Prophets and Impostors and whatsoever Doctrines they should by that means oppose it withal. And so the New Testament being the natural product of the old, is by the miracles of Moses at the first, and those of our Saviour and the Apostles after (upon the validity of both which 'tis established) secured against all opposition that can that way be made against it to the end of the world.  
Secondly, The way and manner of Gods working those miracles by which the Scriptures are justified to us to be his Words, has eminently distinguished them from all other operations of that kind. So 'twas in the times of Moses, when the Devil by the Magicians went further that way then ever he did after. How far did the miracles of Moses exceed His! More miracles! Greater miracles! More Continued miracles! Undeniable and Uncontrollable evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty Power, in a way far superior to what they could bring about! Under the Gospel the miracles have been such in the manner of their working, as leaves no room to doubt of God's intention to secure us from Heaven ●●ereby of the Truth of our Saviour and his ●●●●rine: If we consider, First, the grand ●●●●sion of them: To fulfil the Old Testament and establish the New: And this by Private men (respecting the world) without the least clothing of Humane Power or Authority. Who can imagine less than that a Commission to Christ and the Apostles should be sealed from 〈◊〉 Heaven in extroardinary way, to assure the World of their Authority to do this? Secondly, The admirable Nature of those miracles, Raising dead persons, curing all sorts of diseases, commanding Winds and Seas, Vanishing in a moment out of the sight of multitudes. Thirdly, Their Number, being exceedingly Many, done in all places, and upon all occasions where they came. Fourthly, Their Visibility, openly seen and acknowledged by all present, by multitudes, Fiftly, Without the use of any Secondary means, or the least show of Diabolical enchantments; And as one of the Ancients says Sine ●lla vi Carminum, sine Herbarum aut Graminum s●ccis, sine ulla aliqua observatione sollicita, Sacrorum, Libaminum, Temporum, etc. All most frequent in Heathenish Sorceries and Enchantments. Sixthly, The Long and lasting continuance of them: Not only during the times of Christ and the Apostles (and one of them, the Apostle John, lived till Trajan's time, which was above a hundred years from Christ's birth) but also for very many years after, in the Christian Church. What miraracles does the world pretend to, that can compare themselves with these miracles upon all or any of these accounts? No men, no● Devils ever did such works, nor in such a manner as these were. What lamentable and pitiful things are those of Apollonius, Tyanaeus, Esculapius, or any others compared with These! And what a shameful and indeed Ridiculous Partiality does appear in Hierocles and Porphiry, who designing thereby to incense the Emperors against the Christians, who much justified themselves upon the power o● miracles, and to bring them under persecution) have endeavoured to draw a Parallel between the miracles of Christ and Apollonius! We find by Eusebius that Hierocles (in a Book that is since lost) compared Apollonius and Christ; the Evangelists who wrote our Saviour's Story and Philostratus the writer of Apollonius his Life, upon that account together, and preferred Apollonius and Philost●atus before the other. But with what an unreasonable Partiality is ea●y to be seen by any that wil● consult Eusebius his Answer to him; One chie● miracle Philostratus tells us off, was, that Appollonius sitting at meat, was served after▪ wonderful manner, with Men of Brass; And another is That an Elm tree speak to him and Saluted him; with many other such things, which to every common understanding, appear at first sight, very capable of Deceit and Delusion. The Sun is not in Lustre more Superior to the Dimmest Star, than Christ's miracles are to all Pretensions of that kind. Nor were there ever any operations either of men or of Angels visible in this world that with any colour of Justice and Truth can (all circumstances considered) be put in balance with those eminently miraculous actings of Christ and his Apostles.  
Thirdly, The Doctrine contained in the Scriptures which the miracles were wrought to confirm, and to assure us of the sincerity of those that delivered them to us, is most evidently from God, most corresponding to our Natural obligations to him, and is in itself directly opposite to the whole Corporation of Debauched and Evil men, destructive to all corrupt Doctrines and Practices whatever, and perfectly ruinous to the Interest of the Devil in this World, of which there needs no other proof but an appeal to the Judgements of all sober minded men. Never was there any Doctrine brought to light, so Holy, and so excellent. A Doctrine that has visibly the highest tendency to those two great ends of all Religion, the Honour of God, and Man's present and future happiness. No Instance can be given of any particular Duty enjoined Destructive to man's true happiness, but all perfective of it. The strictest self-denial has a Recompense proposed to us of a hundred fold in things of a far more Noble and excellent Nature, and most suitable in all such cases to a Rational choice. The result of the whole is this: Whenever Miracles are wrought to establish such a Doctrine as in the judgement of right Reason is likely to come from God, we are upon the highest and most unquestionable ground of Assurance that we can be. Whenever a Miracle is wrought to establish a contrary Doctrine, 'tis the highest Trial, But still God is pleased to order it so, that we have ground sufficient to oppose and will s●●nd it, and ●●●kon in only as such. Wh●●●ver consults, th● writings of the Primi●i●e Ch●●s●●●● will and there were two things upon which they ●h●●●l● in●●●●d, and by the strength whereof the Christian Religion made its s●●st En●●a●ce, and ravelled through a great part of the Heathen world: The Excellency of its Doctrine, and the Miracles wrought ●o confirm it; And these two conjoined give ●s the m●st in●a●●ible Assurance of Religion we are capable of in this World. The Mira●●es justify the Doctrine, and the Doctrine reflects a Testimony back to the Miracles: and in that Conjunction the proof is Invincible. And so 'tis in this case of the Bible; For we can have no more than what we find here: The Best Doctrine, with the Highest Attestation. Whoever warily considers our Saviour's Reasonings with the Jews, shall find him going upon this Ground: For as he frequently justifies his Doctrine from his Miracles, so he likewise often justifies his Doctrine to be in itself Divine, Corresponding to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and in direct pursuance of what Moses and the Prophets had taught: And so makes the testimony of his Miracles unquestionable thereby; For such a Doctrine accompanied with such miraculous Evidence, must needs be from God, and can admit of no Rational Opposition; And therefore, in discoursing this matter in hand, neither aught to be insisted on, neither the Doctrine nor the Miracles, Distinctly and Separately from the other, but Both urged in that excellent Conjunction in which they are handed down to us.  
Thirdly, If we look upon this Book in the Success and Effects of it since its Conneyance, We have from thence still further evidences of its Divinity, and more Rational persuasions to derive it from God, as a Book of his own Composing, and about which he has exercised a peculiar Care; And that upon these two Grounds. First, That this Book (though written at several times, all so long since past, and some of it before any other Books were extant) has yet, in its passage through so many Ages, escaped all the dangers to which it has been exposed, and is preserved entire to us to this day. Secondly, That this Rock and the Religion contained in it has made its Entrance into the world, and gained an Acceptance amongst Mankind, in such a way and by such Means, as are Peculiar to itself, and no other Religion can make a Pretence to: In such a Way as when we rightly consider it, 'twill seem Absord and Ridiculous to all common Reason to suppose that the wickedest Sergeant and the standest piece of Imposture about God and Religion should ever be able so to do: Or indeed that any Book of Religion should upon such Permes arrive at such a Reception but one that contained the Highest and most Evident Truths, and had the great God for its Author. For the first, 'Tis true that other Books very Ancient, and written long ago, as we have good ground to believe, have descended Entire to this very Age. But herein the passage of the Bible through the channel of so many Ages, is Distinguished from all other Writings, not only that 'tis, some of it, much Elder than they, and upon that account more liable to Loss and Decay, but that no Book or Writing, the world was ever possessed of, has had that violent Opposition made against it, nor such Designs form for its Ruin and Extirpation as this has had; Others have met with a quiet and peaceable passage: This has been often beset with most Keen and Inveterate Enemies: Besides that great hazard so much of the Bible was in as than was Extant in the days of Josiah, when for aught appears by the Story there was but one Copy, and that had been lost for sixty eight or sixty nine years, and was hid either in the Rubbish, or else in some secret part of the Walls of the Temple, (for it was found when the Temple came to be Repaired) and in all probability was there hid during the wicked Reign of Manasseh, by some malicious Idolaters, with an intention utterly to extinguish it: Which might easily have been done in a way that had made it Irrecoverable, had not a Divine hand over ruled and secured it. Besides this, and some other Hazards the Bible has scaped of a like nature, we read of two famous and most Implacable Enemies furnished with all Humane power, that with all their might and skill have beset it: Antiochus Epiphanes under the Old Testament, and the Emp●rour Dioclesian under the N●w. This Antiochus Epiphanes called likewise (and much mo●● truly) Epi●●a●●●, the Mad and the Furious, was prophesied of and plainly foretold by the Prophet David in the eighth and eleventh chapters of his prophecy: He there calls him a King of fierce count●●●●ce, and says His heart should be against the h●ly Covenant, and that he should have indignation against the holy Covenant: Which was the Law of God, the Scriptures then Extant. This Antiochus came in the times of the Maccabees, and most cruelly destroyed and wasted Jerusalem, and made it his grand business to ruin the Jews, and utterly extinguish their whole Religion and Worship, Dedicated their Temple to Jupiter Olympius, Erected an Altar therein for the Worship of that ●●●l, and in contempt of the Jews, caused many Swine to be slain and offered up in sac●●fi●e to him, and as the surest way to pat a perfect ●●nd to the Religion of that Place and People, with utmost diligence made search after their Law, and wheresoever he sound it, i●●● dirtily Burnt and destroyed it, and threatened ●●st exquisite torments and Death to any that should dare to Conceal or Retain it; Of which Josephas gives us the Relation at large, in the 12th. Book of his Jewish Antiquities. Some will needs imagine that Antiochus so far prevailed in this undertaking, that the Scriptures then Extant were wholly Destroyed; But the contrary is most evident and a special providence in their preservation sufficiently visible; For, no sooner was that storm over, but the Bible was every where publicly extant, having been particularly preserved by Mathias the Son of Asmonaeus and his sons (who, as Josephus says, resolutely ventured their Lives in the doing it) and also by other good men, and was universally known in that Age amongst the Jews to be so. Calvin in the first book of his Institutes, observes, That though the Jews had undergone the malice of manifold Enemies on all hands, yet neither the Loss, nor the Change, nor the Corruption of their Law, was ever by their worst Enemies objected against them. And indeed, how great soever their enmity was against their Religion; yet they never denied but that Moses was the Author of it, and that the Law they had, was the Same He deli●cred at first. Under the New Testament, since the closure and completion of the Whole, What a f●●ious Persecution did the Bible escape in the time of Dioclesian! Who, after the grievous sufferings of the Christians in Mine fore Persecutions, assaults them about the year 302 with the sorest and most cruel of all, and with a full purpose to root Christianity utterly out of the world, and destroy its very Name from the face of the Earth. Euselius tells us that in the Nineteenth year of his Reign He published an Edict against the Christians and Christianity itself: In which he so much Gloried, that he caused a Pillar to be erected as his Memorial to all posterity, with this Inscription, Dioclesiano Casari Augusto superstitione Christi ubique deleta. To Dioclesian the Emperor having abolished the superstition of Christ, all the world over. By that Edict he commands that the Christian-Churches should every where be demolished, the Christians all Seized and Imprisoned: Et quibu●cunque adhi●itis Machinis, victimas Idolis immolare cogerentur. That by all sorts of means fair and foul, they should be brought to sacrifice unto his Idols: And that the Scriptures should be every where sought for, burnt, and destroyed: And whoever Retained them should be most sharply Tormented. Dioclesian at this time had the command of the greatest part of the Habitable world; For, as one of the Roman Writers said, Roman● spatium est Vrbis & Orbis idem. The Scriptures were then but in Written hand. Men generally Quaked with the fear of that Raging Tyrant: Very many Apostatised and delivered up the Bible to his wrath, and were thereupon branded with the name of Traditores (of which, and of the whole business we might perhaps have had a larger account, had not The Life of Deoclesian written by Eusthenius his Secretary, been since lost. For, As Baronius has rightly observed in his Annals, We have now no Writer who did at that time Historically set down the Actions of that Emperor) Yet, God by his Providence, delivered this Book out of his hand, Disappointed his fury, and suffered him not to quench the Light of these Divine Laws. The Christians at that time Tired out the Inventions of their Enemies in finding out ways to torment them, and by their constant and patiented suffering the utmost of humane misery even wearied out their Executioners. One remarkable passage we have in Euseblus that happened upon this occasion: A noble man in Nicomedia, of eminent Quality, hearing this Edict against the Christians and the Bible published at Nicemed●a, After it was Read and openly fixed to a public Pillar, in the presence of Dioclesian himself, Maximinius, Galerius, Constantius, and other the Chiefest persons in the Empire, (for 'twas usual with the Emperors to come themselves in Person with their chiefest Attendants to hear their own Edicts against the Christians proclaimed, to see the Christians tormented, and to make themselves sport with their miseries) this Noble man had such a zeal for the Bible, and the Christian Religion, that before the Emperor's face he took down that profane and impious Edict, and with a Holy indignation openly tore it to pieces, and and thereby willingly exposed himself to the utmost suffering the fury and rage of the Emperor could any way make him the subject of.  
Two things are usually urged in diminution of the ●●ble and its Authority, upon a quite contrary account We are told by some, The Bible has been so far from being preserved entire in the whole, or in its parts, that first all that part of the Bible that was then extant, when the people of Israel were carried into Babylon, peri●●ed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and that Esdras wrote it himself all over again upon their return, and that we have now so much of the Bible only from Him, and as he Re-p●●ned it. In this Mr. Hobbs, in the 33 Chapter of his Leviathan (where he has not failed to insinuate all such things as might gratify men of Sceptical notions about the Bible is very positive, and tells us, The Books of the Old Testament are derived to us from no other time then that of Esdras, and were retrived by him when they were lost. And Secondly, we are told that many particular Books and Writings, penned by Divine inspiration, and once part of the Bible, have been since consumed by Time, and are now wholly lost out of the World. The first, That so much of the Old Testament, as was then extant (which was the whole as we have it, save some part of the Psalms, the Prophecies of Eze●iel. Daniel, Haggai, Zachary, and Masachai, and the Books of Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah) was totally lost, and all the Copies destroyed in the ruin of Jerusalem and the Temple, is an assertion very weakly grounded: And there are very sufficient Reasons to persuade us to believe the contrary. First, Weakly grounded; for there is no other ground for it, but that in an Apocryphal Book that goes under the Title of the fourth Book of Esdras (a Book every where stuffed with Childish and fabulous Stoties) There we find this absurd fiction, that Esdras should speak unto God, and tell him, Thy Law is burnt, and no man knoweth the things that thou hast done, and therefore desired to be inspired to write it all over again, and to wrire all that had been done in the World from the beginning: And that after he had been forty days and nights with God (in an apish foolish imitation of Moses) and had taken a Potion God had prepared for him, he dictated all the Bible over again to five men. Now, of how little credit this Relation (being no where found but in this Book) ought to be with any considering man, will appear, if we consider that this Book was not only constantly rejected as Apocryphal by the Jewish Church, as a counterfeit under Esdras his name, and none of his, but has been so by all sorts of Christians under the Gospel. St. Jerom calls it a Book full of Idle dreams. The Papists themselves, though they have admitted many other Books that we reckon Apocryphal into their Canon, yet have still rejected this; and Bellarmine himself, in his Book de Script. Eccles. speaks with great contempt of this whole Book: And calls the Author of it, whoever he were, a writer of Romances. Secondly, There are many very good and sufficient Reasons to induce us to believe the contrary. First, There is no where in any part of the Bible, the least mention (not by Esdras himself, though he gives us a large and particular account of what he himself did) of any such thing. And 'tis not conceivable but so eminent a thing as God inspiring one man to write over again so great a part of the Bible, which so many had been inspired to write before, would have been some where or other Recorded: nor is it credible but that so great a Judgement upon the Jews as the total loss of their Law, would have been distinctly mentioned, when the Holy Ghost is so very particular in giving us an account of all the loss●s the Jews underwe●● at that time, of all the ruins made by the Babylonians at Jerusalem, and of all the spoils they carried into Babylon from thence. Secondly, 'Tis not to be doubted but that there were multitudes of Copies in the hands of the Religious Jews, especially the Priests (of whom there were many hundreds) who had a constant use of it: And that the People also d●d generally possess themselves of it after that eminent danger it had undergone, and the Recovery of ●●●n the Eighteenth year of J●siah; And 'tis not to be supposed that all the Copies could be destroyed. Those that probably were in the hands of Jeremiah, Gedalich, and many others who stayed behind and accepted their liberty to continue still in Judea, and those in the hands of Daniel Ezekiel, and those that were carried away with them in the first Captivity to Babylon, long before the City and Temple were burnt, and all those which were probably kept by many of those that were carried into Babylon after, especially if we consider, that we no where find that the Babylonians made it any part of their business in particular to destroy and extirpate their Law. And when Antiochus did afterward with all his might endeavour it, by Reason of the many Copies that were extant in good men's hands, he was no way able to effect it. Thirdly, It appears the Jews had the Scriptures with them during the time of their Captivity in Babylon, both from daniel's Prophecy, who Prophesied there, and also from other Historical Evidence. First, From his Prophecy; for we find him in the 9 Chapter of his Prophecy quoting several times particularly the Writings of Moses: And in the beginning of that Chapter he says. He understood by Books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And those Books could be no other but the Prophecy of Jeremiah itself, with other parts of the Scripture and the Records of the Kings of Babylon (wherein were to be found the times that the Jews were brought thither) which Daniel compared together, and so found out the End of J●remies seventy years, and of the Captivity; the difficulty in the doing of which arose from hence, that there had been four distinct Captivities, and four several Kings of Judah carried into Babylon, at four several times; first Manasses, than Jehojakim, and with him amongst others Daniel himself; Thirdly, Jeconias, and with him Ezekiel and Mordecai; and lastly Zedekias, when the City and Temple were destroyed. And 'twas not a thing very easy to know, from which of these Captivities to reckon the seventy ●a●s. Ezekiel seems to begin it eleven years before the City was destroyed, when Je●●onias was carried away thither; for he says, In the five and twentieth year of our being in Captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month in the fourteenth year after that the City was smitten. And the Prophet Jeremy, in comforting those that were carried away with Jecenias, used these words, Thus saith the Lord, after seventy years be accomplished in Babel, I will visit you, and cause you to return to this place; by which he seems to begin the seventy years from thence; but in other places is very express that the seventy years were to be accounted from the destruction of the City and Temple. And so it appears, the Captivity mentioned by Ezekiel was not that by which the seventy ●ears were to be reckoned. Nor was the Prophecy uttered by Jeremy to comfort those that were captivated with Jeconias, to commence when uttered, nor till the destruction of the City, and the last Captivity of Zedekiah: All which Daniel considered, and by comparing these Prophecies together, found the exact time from whence the seventy years were to be accounted. Secondly; From Historical Evidence; for Josephus says, the Reason why Cyrus set on foot the rebuilding of the Temple, and restoring of the Jews to their Country, was his reading the Prophecy of Isaiah, which was written ●10 years before his time, wherein the Prophet foretells in God's name, that Cyrus should be raised up for that very purpose; upon reading of which during the Captivity he save, Cyrus was ravished with admiration of God, and surprised with an ardent zeal to bring about what was so long before written. And 'tis highly probable that God made use of the sight of that Prophecy to engage Cyrus to what he did; for otherwise 'twas a thing in itself most absurdly impolitic, and against all ordinary Rules of discretion, to restore such a people, and rebuild such a place, that had been so famous and so terrible to all the Nations round about. Especially when as Josephus says, there went out of Babylon at their return, of those two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin there captivated Four Million six hundred twenty and eight thousand Persons that were above twelve years old, besides four thousand and seventy Levites; and of their Wives and Children together forty thousand seven hundred forty and two: besides also some hundreds of the Tribe of Levi, that were Porters, Singers, and other sacred Servitors. Fourthly, 'Tis not Imaginable that Zerubbabel, Joshuah, Haggai, and so many others of them would have so laboured as they did to return out of Babylon, to●e-build their Temple, and restore their Ancient Worship, if the Law of God, the great Rule and Foundation, of it had been wholly l●st and extinguished. Nay, it appears evidently in the Book of ezra, that those Jews that first●et●●●ed into Judaea before Esdras came out of Babylon, brought the Law out of Babylon with them; for in the sixth of Esdras 'tis there said, They set the Priest's in their divisions, and the Levites in their corpses, and settled the Worship o●the Temple, according to the Law of Moses (which we cannot conceive, after seventy years, they could so exactly have done, or would ever have attempted to have done it, had not they had the Law with them) while Esdras himself was yoten Babylon; and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem, we find in the 8th of Nehemiah, the people were so far from wanting the Law, or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him, as is pretended, that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them, which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of, and which was notorious amongst them. Fifthly, 'Tis no way probable that Esdras should so Repen the Bible; because we find his own writings full of Caldee words, as also the Prophecy of Daniel; but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity, is in pure Hebrew; and 'tis no way conceivable but that if he had Re-penned the whole, he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books, and according to the Idiom that was then in use amongst the Jews, either wholly in Caldee, or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together. The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantic fable, taken out of a Book soused with many vain and ridiculous follies, and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit, 〈◊〉 we'll depend upon such Evidence; for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark (in the sides of which the Law we know was placed) were secured by the Prophet Jeremy, and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo, when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt: And if any such thing were, though the Law be not particularly mentioned, yet being always kept in the Ark, ●●s not to be doubted but Jeremy preserved it with the Ark, and had an especial reference to the securing of it, in what he then did. This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented, that at the return of the people out of Babylon, the care of Esdras about the Bible, and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled (in which were present Haggai, Zacharie; Malachy, Nehemias', and Zerubbabel) was very eminent and great; and to this day we derive singular advantages from it. For first, with great diligence they made an exact separation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration, dictated by the Holy Ghost, and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages, and all other Writings whatsoever, whether written by true Prophets or false, for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent, might, (and without doubt, many of them did) write divers things without any immediate assistance or direction from God, and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority; they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together, which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands, no public use being made of them: Incorporated the whole into one entire Volumn (an admirable work) in the order we now have it, which before was not possible to be; for several Psalms, several of the Prophecies, and some other Books, were written after the coming of the people into Babylon; and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoined in one entire Volumn, more of them then the five Books of Moses, the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a public assembly to the Levites to be laid up in the sides of the Ark (the peculiar Archive God had, by his special command appointed for it; the whole of the Old Testament so united, they ranked under three Classes, and divided into three parts; which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour, who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it, when he says, All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.  
Secondly, Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great, and most highly is it to be applauded, in adding points to the Hebrew Letters, to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue, and facilitate the reading and Learning of it, dividing the sacred Writings into Verses, with many other things of that kind, most probably first begun by them, of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account. The whole of their endeavours this way, and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein, was called the Massora (which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text, and to deliver the Old Testament safely and entirely over to us.) What a useful and most laborious enterprise this Massora was, we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus. Massora (says he) est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingenios● inventa, qu● Versas, Voces, & Literae ejus n●meratae, omnisque ipsarum variet as notata, & suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est, ut sic constans & genuina ejus lectio conservetur, & ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur, & valide premuniatur. The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture, ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews, in which the Verses, words and Letters, are all numbered, and all their variations particularly noted, and set down in their proper places, with a recital of the particular Verses, that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved, and for ever secured against all change or corruption. And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massora (however augmented by others in after Ages) and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ou● Saviour, as some have supposed. Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved, from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews, and thus concludes upon the whole. Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia, Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse. This is the common opinion amongst the Jews, that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue.  
Thirdly, That Ezra and that great Synagogue, to render the sacred Text more intelligible, and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident, did make some small additions, and some verbal alterations in some places, is greatly probable, and it might easily be done; but no Re-penning the Bible, nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record, nor to the credit of its Authority: nor can the least Objection (though many have endeavoured it) be raised from hence to that purpose, when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly, and who were, without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter. In a Word, that famous and venerable Senate in which the last of the Prophets were present, all parts of the Old Testament being completed, and the whole Prophecy that God vouchsafed till the coming of the Messiah delivered, applied themselves to the punctual Collection of the several parts together, and securing the Original text against any corruption or alteration, exactly settled the Canon of the Old Testament, which the Jews kept punctually to, till the times of our Saviour, who fully approved the Scriptures as he then found the Jews in possession of them.  
Secondly, That any parts of the Bible, or any Books dictated by the Holy Ghost are wholly Lost, we utterly deny. The affirmation of it is neither consisting with the notion of Divine providence in General, nor can any particular proof be brought to make it good. Those who insist upon this (as Bellarmine and some of the Papists do, thereby to gain an advantage to the Church when 'tis put in balance with the Bible: And others with design by proving the Loss of any Part, to invalidate the Authority of the Whole) instance in the three thousand parables or proverbs of Solomon, and a thousand and five songs, spoken of, 1 King. 4.32. The Books of Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the Seer, mentioned in the second of Chronicles, The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the visions of Iddo or Addo the Seer, spoken of in the 2 Chron. 9 and some others: And under the New Testament, an Epistle of St. Paul written (as they suppose) to the Laodicaeans, mentioned Colos. 4.16. Although very many of these Writings mentioned in the Old Testament seem to refer to other parts of Scripture contained in the Bible▪ In particular, 'tis probable that Nathan and Gad wrote some parts of the Books of Sam●● and the Kings, so much at least as concerns the Actions of David, of which they were exactly knowing, if they wrote not the whole Second Book of Samuel and the first of the Kings, which some upon probable grounds supposes yet, Admit all these were other writings than are now contained in any part of the Bible, it will no way follow they were ever any part of Canonical Scripture. When the Scripture mention's Books written by these or any other Men, and relates historically to the matter o● them, (as St Paul sometimes quoted Heathy Authors) Will that Infer They are parts of the Bible? By no means; Nay, the very Writers of the Bible themselves, such as David, Sol●mon, and others of the Prophets might (and without all doubt some of them did) Writ many things in an ordinary way, that were True, without any Divine or Infallible direction. and which were never incorporated with the Bible; and so says St. Austin, in his 18th Book De civ. Dei. says be, Those Prophet whom it pleased the Holy Spirit to inspire, wrote some things as Men, And those works we have 〈◊〉 in our Canon, nor had the Jews in theirs: and other things as from the mouth of God; and these works are really Distinct, Some being held their own as Men, and some the Lords as speaking by them. And therefore He that will prove from hence, that any parts of the Bible are Lost, must first be well assured that These are no parts of the Scriptures we are now possessed of, and Secondly that admitting they are not, That they were written by an Infallible Spirit, and ence within the Canon: Of which Latter, we are well assured the least proof cannot be made: For the Jews were most faithful Preservers of those Oracles of God committed unto their change. Nor were they ever so much as once blamed by Christ or the Apostles for any Miscarriage that way. As for an Epistle supposed to be written by St. Paul under the New Testament to the Laodicaeons', which is since Lost; The supposition is frivolous and groundless; For the words in the Greck are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, And that from Laodicaea. Which cannot be understood of an Epistle written by St. Paul to Laodicae, but of one written from Laodicaea either to the Colossians themselves which they then had by them, or else to St. Paul, which he sent them, and required them to read it, as containing something expedient for them to know. The mistaken opinion from this place, of an Epistle from St. Paul to the Laodiceans, hath most probably arisen from the ill rendition in the Vulgar Latin, where the words are rendered, & illa quae est Laodicentium. But without any ground from the Original. Catherinus confesseth that according to the opinion of Chrisostome, and Oecumenius, Non hic nominari Epistolam a Paulo scriptam ad Laodicenses, sed ex co loco scriptam. That here's no mention of any Epistle written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans, but of some Epistle written from Laodicaea. That there was anciently a Counterfeit Epistle that pretended to be written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans, which is since lost, is most true; But in those times wherein 'twas extant it was universally Rejected as Spurious and known so to be. St. Jerome speaks of it, but says, Abomnibus exploditur. The second Council of Nice in their sixth Canon say thus of it, Inter Epistolas Pauli Apostoli quaedam fertur ad Laodicenses, quam Patres nostri tanquam Alienam reprobaverunt. Tertullian against Martion, and Theophilact, both reject it with great contempt, and say, 'tis Apostolico nomine plan● indigna. And Bellarmine himself, though he had formerly affirmed there was such an Epistle, which was certainly Lost, Yet in the first Chapter of his Book which he calls his Recognition, or After-view of his works, Retracts it, says he was mistaken, and that there never was any such thing as such an Epistle written by St. Paul.  
So that all the Insinuations of this kind, that any parts of the Bible, any Books, written by a Divine inspiration have been at any time Lost out of the world, appear to be very weakly and ill Grounded. And in truth, the foot steps of Divine providence have been eminently visible in Securing those Holy writings, upon this threefold account: From Destruction, Addition, and Alteration. First, No accidents of Time nor Designs of its worst Enemies have Totally obliterated the Whole or any Part. Secondly, Though many have attempted to piece in, and add to it false and counterfeit Fragments, and some whole Gospels, yet in defiance to all those Essays, the Scriptures have remained entire, and stood like a Rock Impenetrable. No Spurious Writings have been able to incorporate with this holy Book. Such who have gone about to forge Scripture, have but made the Lustre of the Bible more Eminent, and more evidently shown us the difference of Gods re●ealing from Heaven, and men's counterfeiting upon Earth: men's writing by the strength of humane abilities, and men's writing as they were moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost. Thirdly, From Alteration; No man has been suffered (notwithstanding all the attempts of Heretics to that purpose) to pollute or corrupt it; All such attempts have still been discovered and openly shamed. How many Heretics have carried about their own Confutation, whilst they possessed this Book? and yet have not been suffered to change or alter such passages as have been most Cogent against themselves? The Bible passed through the Arian-world with all those plain Evidences it contains of the Divinity of our Saviour. When Emperors, Councils, and indeed upon the matter the whole Christian-world, w●●etainted with that Heresy, the Bible scaped the infection, when the alteration of two or three plain texts would have done them more service than all the volumes they wrote in their own Defence; And, great designs were on foot that way, yet they were still disappointed, as is evident by what we find in St. Ambrose. The Jews to this day need no other Confutation than their own Bible: Moses and the Prophets in whom they trust, are thei● greatest Accusers. All sort of Heretics to this day are possessed of the Bible, as Uria● was of David's Letters to Joab, which contained his own Ruin: and as Golia● was of hi● sword, which served at last to cut off his own head.  
Secondly, The success and effect of this Book since its conveyance, gives in a Signal and most undeniable Evidence to its Divinity. If we consider the ways and means by which it has introduced itself, and upon what terms the Religion contained in it has gained that reception we find it has had amongst Mankind. 'Tis of admirable consideration that a Religion directly opposite to the whole corrupt interest of humane Nature, and calling men to the highest Mortification and Self-denial, upon the account of an Invisible World to come, nakedly proposed by men, upon a worldly account always inconsiderable, without any the least Earthly supports: A Religion perioding the Jewish Religion, and totally subverting all other Religions: A Religion opposed & disowned to the utmost by the Jews themselves (though it derived itself wholly from them, and pretended to be the natural product of their Religion, and the true Completion of all they believed and expected) a Religion in oppostion of which the whole World besides were agreed, and indeed both Jews and Heathens perfectly concurred. I say, 'Tis of admirable consideration that such a Religion so circumstanced against all the Religion, the Wisdom, and the Force of the World, should at first make its entrance, and be embraced by so great a part of Mankind, and within the space of thirty years or thereabouts after its first Publication, for so it was, be spread not only throughout all parts of the Roman Empire, but also amongst the Parthians and remotest Heathens. To no other Cause, but it's own Innate worth, and the Divine evidence from Heaven attending it, can it with any tolerable colour of reason be ascribed. The zeal men had for all other Religions in which they were Educated, sufficiently prompted them to hate, abhor, and persecute it. The Learning and the Wisdom of the whole World was employed to render it despicable, and to bring it under contempt; And all the force of the Roman Empire was every where violently at work for its total Suppression and Extirpation. And yet, against all these seeming invincible oppositions, did the Bible prevail. The power of that great Empire could not withstand the naked proposal of a simple Truth; And both Judaisme (in the main of it, as a National Establismment) and Heathenism finally fell before it.  
This Book and the Religion it contains, as it avows itself to be solely from God, and comes to us with a commanding voice from Heaven, speaks to us in God's own Name, and upon that single account requires our obedience; And those that wrote it, neither had nor pretended to have any other Authority but what was Divine and from Above; So it has introduced itself by Means suitable thereunto. Never was there at first any Force used to compel men, nor any Arts practised to deceive men about this matter. No man can prove out of any Story that ever the Apostles or the Primitive Professors of this Religion raised Arms to introduce or promote it; Or that any Humane Authority did countenance or assist it. The Christian Religion has this to say for itself above all others, That 'tis to debtor to the Sword either in a Civil or Military way; Neither the Sword of Justice, nor the Sword of War can lay any claim to it, as a Product of theirs. The greatest part of the Roman World ●ad embraced it, and were become Cri●tians before Constantine publicly owned it. It owes nothing to any violent course for its Primitive Reception, nor indeed to any Humane contrivement; Neither the subtlety of Philosophers, nor the Eloquence of Orators assisted in this matter. It never advanced one step further in its first publication than its own Innate Excellency, & the Divine evidence attending it procured it acceptance: nor did it ever gain a Convert, but where it could approve itself by Divine Evidences, to the Reasons & Consciences of men, to be Divine? I make a peremptory demand to all Antiscriptural men to grant me this, as a truth not capable of any denial, That for three hundred years together the Gospel by its own Divine strength, withstood the most furious and violent Winds & Tides of all humane opposition, and by no other assistance but what was purely Divine, traveled most parts of the World over: It offered itself to men's reception upon no other terms but by an Appeal to the Judgement and Conscience, and was contented to stand and fall by the Rational determination of every man's own Breast, and s● prevailed. Such who embraced it ha● no other way of Contest but Holiness o● living, and Patience in suffering: 〈◊〉 both which they were very Eminent. To the first, their very Enemies the Heathens bore testimony; Pliny and others speak of the Christians harmless and holy behaviour. For the latter, Never was any Religion so begun and propagated by such indefatigable Sufferings: How few Martyrs for Religion can the Heathen World boast of! If we admit Socrates for one, how few Successors had he? And those few they pretend to, seem by all Circumstances to be such as had no other end but to perpetuate their own names to Posterity, by suffering for such things as they thought the World would highly magnify. But for Christian-Religion we find innumerable sufferings of Men and Women of all Ranks, Qualities, Ages, and Conditions: In many of which we cannot suppose any thing but Conscience and hopes of a future Reward could possibly be the Motive; Being persons of such mean parts and conditions, as could no way be thought to design a Name to themselves hereafter. Nor indeed can we reasonably suppose an esteem upon Earth, and vainglory, could be the ground upon which any of them suffered, when we consider they suffered for a Religion, the very name of which was every where Odious and Detestable, and the Profession of it brought nothing but shame and contempt. It swims down to these latter Ages in whole streams of Blood that ran from its Primitive Martyrs; God pleasing to introduce the Gospel at first without any thing Humane to befriend it, that we might be for ever ascertained of its Author. Who but God himself by a Power from above (can we reasonably imagine) could have enabled a few Mean, Ignorant, and Contemptible men so to confront the whole World, and in the Evening of it, (when other Religions had so long lasted, and were so fast rooted) to erect a Religion destructive to all the rest; and to break through all the Opposition that the Religion of the Jews and Heathens, the Philosophy and Learning of all the knowing parts of the World, the Laws and force of the Roman-Empire in its greatest splendour and strength, could form against it? And what Doctrine but one in its own Nature Di●●●● and attended with the visible effects 〈◊〉 Almighty Power to own and ju●●●●●, can we conceive, could have 〈◊〉 the World so to bow before it? How ridiculous does it appear to suppose a company of mean Impostors that had neither God nor Men besides themselves to befriend them, nor any other Foundadation but a Design in the highest manner to cheat and abuse the World, could have effected all this; and that they should finally so prevail, and impose the grossest Delusion imaginable upon Mankind, against all such Opposition! Had I no other consideration to induce me to believe the Bible but what ariseth from hence, this one seems singly sufficient to me to justify its Divinity, against all reasonable suspicion of Imposture, and for ever to silence all the doubts that can be at any time made about it. What greater assurance can we have that a Doctrine is Divine, and comes from above, then when we see it has ventured itself upon its own Divine Evidence, against all Humane Opposition, and singly by that prevailed and spread itself all the World over: Neither Arms nor Councils, neither the Policy of Julian, nor the Sword of Dioclesian could put a stop to its progress. Had God disowned the Gospel at first; Nay, had he not Eminently and Visibly witnessed to it from Heaven, we cannot possibly imagine how it could have taken one step forward; It had doubtless, as it was then circumstanced, been stifled in its first birth, and buried in perpetual silence. We find all the Religion of the Heathens has still grown up under the shadow of Humane Power and Authority, and has still decayed when Humane props have been removed. I challenge any man to show me any other Religion that ever prevailed in the World without Humane help! and that ever stood out the brunt of Persecution! All other Religions but what have been founded upon the Bible have still fallen before the Power of the Sword; 'Tis only the Religion of the Jews and the Christians (founded at first upon the Bible, and the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine contained in it) that has weathered out all attempts for its eradication. 'Tis a marvellous evidence of that solemn and divine foundation upon which the Jewish Church and the Old Testament were at first established, That notwithstanding all that the Jews have suffered, and their very Being in a National way, and their National Worship (in which their Religion chief consisted) be utterly extinguished, yet still they retain their Profession, submit to a Yoke of most burdensome Ceremonies, & remain dispersed in the World, a Monument of Scripture-verity, and so many standing Witnesses to the Truth of many eminent Predictions both in the Old and New Testament. And thus, from the success of this Book also since its first conveyance, and all the circumstances that have attended the progress of it, since its first publication, have we as great an assurance as in such a Case we can well expect, that God himself, and no other, is in truth the Author of it.  
I come, in the fourth and last place, to consider this Book in itself, in the Matter of it, as at the present we find it, and as it now lies before us. In the doing of which, I mean not to insist separately and abstractedly upon any Internal evidence that results from the matter of the Scripture itself, but to take it (as it ought to be) in Conjunction with the former, and all other Collateral proof. 'Tis neither Reasonable nor Warrantable to disjoin the proof God has afforded us of his Word, and lay the weight of its Justification upon any one single Evidence; For, when God commands us to believe and obey this Book as his Word, and imposeth the highest penalty upon our not doing it, he lays not the stress of his Command, or the Penalty (nor ought we) upon any one particular sort of Evidence, External or Internal, but upon the whole entire proof he has made to us of it, and all those means he has afforded for our Conviction and Satisfaction about it. When we are upon a general proof of the Bible, 'tis not necessary to insist upon any Internal Evidence that results from the Bible itself, as singly sufficient to prove it, or enter into any debate whether it really be so or no, because we have all the Cumulative advantage of an External justification. And if all together be sufficient to prove the Bible to be what we that profess the Christian Religion take it to be, 'tis enough for our purpose.  
And that the matter of the Bible itself, with what ever Evidence will arise from thence, is not to be abstractedly insisted on from other Collateral proof, nor that any Collateral proof will prevail in this Case without there be also an Innate Evidence resulting from the matter of the Bible itself, so that a Conjunction of the Evidence in both kinds, is absolutely necessary to establish a general proof, will be thus made to appear: The Bible, as hath been said, consists of three parts, Doctrinal, Prophetical, and Historical; whatever Evidence we have from the Scripture itself to prove its own Divinity, must needs chief arise from the Doctrinal part; Because the Prophetical and Historical part can never be fully justified without Foreign proof; we cannot know the History of the Bible to be certainly true from the Bible itself: Nor can we sufficiently prove any Prophecies in any part of the Bible to have been actually f●llfilled, because they are said in other places of that Book so to be: For 'twere to beg the Question, and admit the Book to be true, when we are debating whether it be so or no! This we may urge in proof of the Historical and Prophetical part, from that Divine Evidence that comes from the Doctrinal, that we find such History, and such Prophecy in an admirable Conjunction with such a Doctrine, subservient to it, tending to the establishment of it, and environed with all probable Circumstances of being true, both from the nature of the Prophecies, and also from the excellent Manner of their fulfilling, and from the rare Method of the History, in order to the great end of the whole. But at last, the Positive and absolute Proof to one that denies it, must needs depend upon somewhat Collateral to the Book itself. Secondly, No External proof of the Bible would be sufficient to any reasonable enquiry, were there not likewise an Internal Evidence resulting from it to its Divinity; that is, 'Twere to no purpose to urge any Arguments from External Evidences (be they Miracles or what they will) to prove a Book to be Divine, and sent us from God, did not the Book approve itself to the judgement of right Reason likely so to be: 'Twere a vain attempt to endeavour to make a reasonable man, upon any collateral considerations, submit to the Bible as a Law Divine, did not the Bible, upon a due Search into the matter of it, appear worthy of such a Denomination. I much applaud that saying of Mr. Chillingworth upon this occasion, For my part (says he) I profess, if the Doctrine of the Scripture did not appear as good, and as sit to come from God the Fountain of goodness, as the Miracles by which it was confirmed were great, I should want one main Pillar of my Faith, and for want of it, I fear I should be much staggered. Nay, 'tis that Innate and satisfactory Testimony the Scriptures give at last of themselves, and their own Divinity to our Reasons, that finally determins all rational assent, establishes the truth of all other Testimonies, and upon which our belief of them as Sacred and Divine, is ultimately founded and established. So that as, on the one hand, we ought not to insist upon any Internal Evidence, as simply sufficient to Evidence the truth of the Scriptures exclusively, to the External justification God has encircled them withal, and upon which the full and absolute proof of divers parts must necessarily depend; and also because 'tis upon all the reason God has given us to believe the Bible, that be requires our assent to it: So, on the other hand, we must not deny an Internal evidence to result from the Innate worth of the Bible itself, whereby it appears to our reasons at last to be what other External Arguments persuade us to believe it is. When we taste the Excellency of the Doctrine, and when we perceive how all the matters of Fact stand justified to us, a Divinity appears in the Whole. We find this Book to be a rare Composure of Divine Wisdom, are convinced upon the whole matter 'tis from above, and bow to the Authority of God (as the formal Reason of our Obedience) whom we evidently perceive speaking to us in it.  
This being premised, I proceed to consider this Book in itself, in the Matter of it, as it now lies before us; And herein I shall endeavour these two things: First, To show that this Book, so far as 'tis capable of being completely judged of, by what ariseth from itself, without any Collateral Supplement, so far as every Man's Reason becomes a competent Judge of it in its bare proposal, appears to a reasonable enquiery, most likely to come from God, and to be Divine; And by that internal Evidence arising from its own excellent Nature, reflects back also a justification to all those External Arguments brought to prove it. Secondly, That in all such things as relate to Matters of Fact, and wherein an External Justification is necessary to ascertain us fully about it, we find this Book so witnessed unto, so environed with a concurrence of Humane Testimonies, as leaves no room for any reasonable Doubts to be made about this Matter.  
For the first. That this Book, so far as we can competently judge of it from itself, appears to be Divine, and that there are many Internal Reasons of great force, resulting from the Matter of this Book itself, to persuade us that it is from God, and written by his special Command, will be sufficiently manifest in the consideration of these following Particulars. First, We find contained in this Book some things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Abilities ever to have found out: Such as could not, in the judgement of right Reason, be the product of any Humane Invention. Not only such things as no man did think of before, (for that every Book contains that gives birth to a New Notion) but such things as no man could ever have thought of: Such as could not have been known amongst Mankind any other way than by Revelation: And therefore, though written by Men, must needs be revealed from Above. The Instances of this shall be these two; First, This Book tells us such things of God, of his Nature, of his Eternal Counsels, of the manner of his Existence, as were utterly beyond the confines of all Natural Discovery, and could not be minted in any Humane Brain. No fimie Intellect could ever have traveled into such Depths and Heights as by this Book we are acquainted with, and appear to us to be in the Counsels of God, in order to the glorifying of himself by the Works that he has made. No man could ever have imagined a Trinity in the Deity, or such an existence of one Simple Essence as this Book acquaints us withal: These are such things as could never be hammered out in any Humane Shop: Such as without Revelation could never have entered into any created Mind to conceive of. Secondly, That contrivement we find in this Book of Saving the World, and rebuilding the fallen Tabernacle of Humane Nature, is evidently a reproach to the best abilities of Mankind, and an undeniable instance of this kind; 'Tis not only what was unthought of before, but what lay infinitely distant and wide from what could be thought, either by Angels or Men, and directly fathers itself upon that Supreme Wisdom that is Above. And that first in respect of the thing in itself considered; And secondly, In respect of the Manner and Method of its Accomplishment. First, In respect of the Thing itself; and that on two accounts, The height of stupendiousness that is in it, and the transcendent degree of excellency that is in it. First, The Stupendiousness of it; What a hidden and amazing Mystery, how far removed from any mortal view or imagination, was this, That the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity should descend from Heaven, and assume Humane Nature into a conjunction with the Divine! and in that conjunction become the Saviour of the World! That He should take upon Himself, in His own Person, the Sin and Gild of Mankind! Die for the World! Make thereby a Satisfaction proportionate to Infinite Justice! and prepare a way for God to express himself in the utmost act of Mercy, in a conjunction with the highest exercise of Justice! No less than an Infinite Understanding could have shaped such a Design, or been the Author of such a Projection: Nor could any but God himself (with whom all things are possible, that are in themselves possible) have found out an expedient to have reconciled those two Infinite Attributes in his deal with an Apostate Creature. Secondly, Such a strange prodigious Excellency appears in the whole business of our Redemption, such a floodgate of Divine and Supernatural Truth is let open by it, that not only the wisest Men, but the Angels themselves look with the highest admiration upon it. Indeed, all the Ends of God and Men are so attained by it, and in a way so suitable to the Nature of Both, that nothing but the Boundless Wisdom of God could have contrived it. In what a stupendious and unthought-of way is God, in all his Attributes Manifested, Exalted, and Glorified? After how excellent a manner is the Evil of the World, both in respect of the Gild and Dominion of it obliterated and expunged? To how astonishing a degree is the whole Interest of Mankind provided for? And to how great a Happiness here and hereafter is the World recovered? And this in a Way, and by Means far out of the reach of the wisest Thoughts, by the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel. In which there are three things of singular remark. First, That a Man is brought thereby to as near a converse with God, in the truest exercise of his Rational Faculties as our Nature will bear, and as can be had in this World, considering that infinite distance there is between the Nature of God and our present composure. Secondly, The greatest present, and future happiness is proposed to Mankind upon such qualified Terms, and with such regard to the Impotency of Humane Nature, as is admirable to consider. 'Tis not made ultimately to depend upon Perfection of Action, but Sincerity of Intention. Thirdly, Provision is made for the greatest and noblest Homage that Mankind can pay unto God; Man is brought to do the Most he can, in a way most suitable to his Being, as a Free and Rational Agent, and yet to the highest Self-resignation, and God has the Glory of all his Actings. Never such Sanctity and Conformity to the Divine Nature; Never such willing and chosen Obedience, Never such inward integrity and love to God, nor such self-denial for God, as the Gospel produceth: And yet men still depending upon Divine Assistance for all this. The glory of the Whole redounds to God: His goodness alone is magnified; Man is so debased, and God so exalted: Man becomes so Happy in that Debasement, and God so Glorious; and both in a way so suitable to the Creator of all things, and a Creature: Indeed, the Righteousness of Man is introduced in such a Subordination to the Righteousness of God, as fills us with the highest Admiration, and could never have been the effect of any Human Projection.  
The manner also by which the Scriptures have introduced the full and perfect discovery of Christ from the beginning, is such, the design of it appears so to be laid, as evidently points us to God. The whole Scriptures, even the difficultest parts of them, seem in a wonderful way to issue and unravel themselves into Christ as their great and common End. If we dissect the Bible, and rip up the Entrails of both Testaments, after how excellent a manner does Christ appear to be the great Soul of the Whole! And how strange and prodigious a vein of Divine Wisdom do we perceive running throughout all the Parts relating to Him! What a curious piece of Divine Skill to any considering Mind, is the Scripture-Method of revealing our Saviour! In what peculiar, unthought-of, yet strangely proper and agreeable Expressions, is he promised! In what deeply Mysterious, yet fully significant Types and Shadows represented! What a dark and obscure, yet lively and complete Image was drawn of him under the Law! With what un-imaginable variety of Predictions and Prophecies was he foretold! And with what a strange concurrence of all parts of the Old Testament, was Christ brought forth in the New! The New Testament is such a Counterpart of the Old, and the Old such a Justification of the New, and between both there appears such a harmony, resulting from such a strange variety about this Matter, as none but God himself could ever have tuned them into. And indeed, the whole of this business, both for Matter and Manner, appears an eminent effect of divine Wisdom and cannot be ascribed to any other cause.  
Secondly, We find the Laws contained in this Book to be of such a nature that they reach the Inside as well as the Outside of all Mankind: Pierce into the Secrets of every Man's own Breast, govern a Man's most retired Thoughts, speak with absolute Authority to the Grounds and Principles, the Design and Tendency of all men's Actions; And this seems much to evidence their Divinity. Who but God himself can exercise a Dominion over the Mind, speak to the Heart, and judge of the first and invisible rise of disobedience there? Two things upon this account are very considerable from what we find in this Book. First, That 'tis throughout equally directed to the mind, and to the thoughts of men, as well as their outward Actings: Forbids inward coveting and lusting, upon the same penalty that it does the grossest Practice of evil. This, as 'twas never done in any Heathen Laws, so 'twere absurd for any Humane Authority to attempt it: because things of that nature are only connizable by an Infinite Knowledge. Secondly, This Book does not only pretend to an invisible dominion in that kind, But it makes such a discovery to us of the inside of the World, speaks so exactly to what we find within ourselves, does so effectually command us, has such a justification from every man's own Breast, that we cannot but reasonably suppose that God himself was the Author of it. Who but He that perfectly knows what is in Man, could have encompassed him round with such a Law? A Law that divides between the Soul and the Spirit, and is a discerner of the Thoughts of the Heart. Who, but He, could have given such an exact Rule to the manifold Thoughts and Inventions of Men? There's not a private Closet in any Man's Soul, into which the force of this Law does not, some way or other, extend itself. There's not a Mental Case can happen that's left undetermined, but falls under some Regulation or other from this Book. In short, Here's a Book that tells us the Good and Evil of all our Thoughts, becomes a perfect Law to our Inward parts, punctually speaks to all that's in our Hearts; Nay, tells us more than we before knew of ourselves, and yet find to be true. Is not this likely to be the Voice of God? None but he that made us, that sees within us, and from a Supreme Sovereignty over us, judges upon the Whole that belongs to us, can we reasonably imagine, could have promulged such a Law?  
Thirdly, The design and tendency of this Book, and the influence it hath upon Humane Life, does greatly persuade us that 'tis from God, and can have no other Author. The evident tendency of it, is to bring us to the best way of Living we are capable of in this World, both in respect of God, of ourselves, and all others. The Doctrines and Precepts of this Holy Book are so justified to us from the Light of our own Reason, and do so directly tend to the perfection of our Nature, and so guide us to what we ourselves judge to be best, that 'twere extreme unreasonable to judge it an Effect of the vilest and worst sort of Imposture! Never any Doctrine taught men to live so dutifully to God, so comfortably to themselves, and so usefully one to another, so tuneably in all Holiness and Righteousness, as this of the Bible does. The Doctrines of this Book are most transparent Beams of Divine Perfection: They are a Rule given according to what is eternally existing in the Holy Nature of God, so far as we are capable of a conformity to it: And that, in the judgement of right Reason, is the Highest and Noblest account of all good Living; For, we cannot do better than in our Measure to correspond to Divine Perfection. No Law can, with greater Reason, and less Arbitrariness, nor more indispensably oblige us, than that which appears to be grounded upon the Eternal and Unchangeable Nature of God; And such are the Laws of the Gospel, The great Design of which is to assimilate men, (so far as their Faculties will bear it) to the excellent Nature of God, and that rational Idea of it we are all born withal. What crooked and imperfect Lines have men drawn in their best Documents both Moral and Divine, compared with this complete and excellent Rule of Holy Living! What Pure and Spiritual Worship is here! How suitable to the Holy Nature of God What undefiled Religion, without the least mixture of Idolatry or Superstition! What Superlative Piety and Virtue, without any one spot of Vice! Yea, forbidding Evil in the very Thoughts! What punctual and perpetual Truth and Honesty is here required, upon no other grounds but pleasing God, doing good to Others, and hopes of a Reward hereafter! There's not the least taint upon any one Duty the Scripture requires from us, by proposing any base, mean, or sordid Ends. No vain Glory: No esteem from Men: No corrupt Advantages are made the ultimate End of our Obedience. The best way of living, and upon the noblest account, is here proposed to us. An exact Scripture-Life has as much of Heaven as can well descend upon Earth; Makes the World as quiet an Habitation as it can be, and Mankind as happy in themselves, and as easy one to another in all Converse and Society as they themselves can wish to be. Where is there a Man (not degenerated below his own Reason) but approves the Scripture-Precepts as Excellent, and justifies Him in his own Breast, that conforms most to them? No welldisciplined Heathen can refuse so to do. What Charity is here required! Still we are bid to hope the best, To look upon all Men with a kind eye, and to interpret them into the best sense they are capable of. What commands, Not to offend weak Ones! What mutual Forgivenesses! What provocations to Love! What strict injunctions to do good to all men upon all occasions! With what patience and meekness are we taught to behave ourselves! Indeed, 'tis such a Doctrine as makes a Man perfect, throughly furnished to every good Work; Brings men to the best way of Living, the nobles● Principles of Suffering, and the comfortablest way of Dying. Now, How can we better-judge of a Law that pretends to come from God, and to be of Divine Mission, than by its Nature, the great Tendency of it, and the influence it has upon Humane Life? And when we find so holy and excellent a Design as appears throughout this whole Book, for the honouring of God, and completing the Happiness of Men, and in a way so corresponding to the judgement of right Reason, and that Divinity we are Born with; What can we otherwise judge, but that such a Book must needs be from God? Such pure and untainted Streams of Pretty and Virtue must needs slow from the Fountain of all Perfection. 'Tis not possible to imagine that the Devil or any Ill Men should be ever either able or willing to compose a Book of such a Nature, that should reduce the World to such a posture as This does: To make men the best Subjects to God, the best Friends to themselves, and the most useful Citizens one to another. Nothing less than an Infinite Wisdom could have contrived so great a Happiness for the World; And nothing less than Infinite Goodness itself can be reasonably thought to be the Dispenser of it. 'Tis extremely absurd to think that That Doctrine, which, in the judgement of the best Reason, is the most Pure and Excellent, and most useful to the World, of any we find in it, should be the product of the Devil, or the worst sort of Impostors, (and that ●t must be, if it be not from God; for there's no middle way). 'Tis to suppose that such should outdo Divine-Goodness in that wherein my Reason bids me expect the highest expression of it: And in truth, That the World should stand more indebted to such Benefactors for the best things, than to God himself.  
Fourthly, We find in this Book, a full and most comprehensive account of the Revolution of this whole World in all its changeable Vicissitudes, and of God's visible Providence in the disposal of all Humane Affairs. Indeed, We find this Book a complete Map of the Whole Affair of the World, and God's Government of it. There evidently appears an exact Conformity between the course of the World, and what we are here told of it. Nothing comes at any time to pass contradictive of, but according to, what is here revealed to us; And this we shall sinned, if we consider the course of things, either in a Natural way, a Moral way, or a Spiritual way: First, In a Natural way; The natural course of the World has continued to this time, according to what Moses at first, as from the Mouth of God, declared about it: That there should be Seedtime and Harvest, cold and heat, Summer and Winter, and that Day and Night should not cease, but succeed each other. Secondly, In a Moral way; The Scripture has given us a Summary, yet satisfactory and full account of  we have seen acted amongst Mankind to this day, and told us in general of all those Principles, Designs, and Practices by which the Wheel of this World has been turned about by the restless minds of Men in all Ages; So that we see nothing under the Sun of which we are not some way informed in this Book. Thirdly; In a Spiritually way; Here we have an exact account of all that Divine Intercourse which has been, or at any time is, between God and Men; The manner of it set down, and the general method of God's proceed in his convincing, enlightening, sanctifying, satisfying, and comforting the minds of men. No man can well judge this an effect of any Humane Design, nor can reasonably think that the private observation or experience of any particular men could have reached so far. Providential Occurrences would soon have confuted any counterfeit pretence to such an universal account of the whole Affair of the World: Nor could any but God himself be secure, not to mistake in such a matter. The more we contemplate this World in its various motions, the more we consider the many intricacies and changes of it, the more is the Bible still justified to us; because we perceive the whole transaction of this World to be there strangely Epitomised. We are not only told in the general what shall fall out, that bad men shall often Prosper, and good men Suffer; that there is one even to the Righteous and the Wicked; that no man shall be able to make a certain judgement of Gods Loving or Hating, by the course of things here below; but we are so far pointed to the Reasons and Ends of these things, as much justifies Providence to us, and greatly informs us about those Grounds upon which God proceeds in his Supreme Rule here, in order to his future judgement hereafter. Nothing can befall a good man, or an ill man, or happen in any kind, of which we are not told in the Bible, and of the reason whereof we have not some general and satisfying account. 'Tis extremely unreasonable to think that any other but God himself (especially, not the worst deceivers) could have made such a complete Model of his own Government; and 'tis no little justification of this Book, that God visibly governs the World according to what is here delivered. And those Laws must needs have all the rational probability to be Divine, and come from the Supreme Ruler above, suitably to which all things evidently come about here below, and to which the whole Revolution of this World, in all times and ages, and in all respects, appears exactly corresponding.  
Fifthly, We find in this Book a full and ample provision for all the ills that have accompanied man's first Apostasy, and adequate and proper Cures for all the Maladies of humane life. And therefore 'tis very likely to be a Divine preseription sent from above, to heal and relieve the World. Who but God himself can be reasonably supposed safely to disengage Mankind from all the entanglements of their Lapsed and Apostate condition? I appeal to every unprejudiced man whether this Book be not a general Storehouse, a Divine Treasury, (far beyond what the World besides can afford) to supply all the wants of Humane Nature: Not only more clearly and fully than was ever before, revealing to us the greatest good, pointing us to that true Summum bonum of a rational Being which Mankind in all Ages, with so much ignorance and disagreement with themselves, had been groping after, and conducting us to the greatest happiness, but applying suitable Remedies to every Distemper. Where can any man under the sense of sin, and the displeasure of God, or under any other dejection of mind, poverty or disgrace in the World, sickness of body, loss of friends, or any sort of affliction, comfort himself as he may here? What a Sacrifice are we here told of for Sin! We find all men in all Religions have still harped upon a Sacrifice; The Sacrifices of living men were most Inhuman, detested by the best of Heathens; The sacrificing of Beasts, though generally practised, the wisest knew not what to make of, and thought it strange that God should be Atoned by the fat of a Bruit. How infinitely does the Sacrifice we are acquainted withal by the Gospel, exceed all the World has thought of in that kind! Of how amazing, and yet of how satisfying a nature is it! What Divine Antidotes are there provided in this Book, from suitable Examples, comforting Promises, wise Directions, heavenly Counsels, to keep up a sinking Mind! 'Tis like that Wood where Jonathan came in his extremity and found Honey every where dropping, and a taste of it revived his Spirits, and renewed his Vigour. And herein lies the strength of this Consideration, The reality, the excellent and proper nature of that relief, and those Satisfactions that upon all occasions are here proposed to us: They are no such deluding Trifles as men are cheated into by education, and acquiess in only because they are bred up with a good Opinion of this Book: But they are such things as are of intrinsic value, such as are in themselves, and in their own Nature most real & most suitable to a rational Being in all such cases, and justified to us from the Light of our own Reason, and that innate Notion we have of a Deity. The Voice of the Bible is, If thou do well (they own Conscience being judge) thou shalt be accepted; If not, Sin lies at the door. We find no resemblance here of the Heathen Superstitions, nor of those Vanities wherewith other Religions, through men's ignorance, and the tract of Education, have besotted the World. The terms of our Reconciliation with God, and our happiness in this World and the next, are such, and so propounded to us, as every man's own reason must needs acquiesce in; and there is a self-evident satisfaction results from the performance of them. It prevails much upon me, this general provision I find here made to suit all men's conditions in all Times and Ages, and the great worth and transcendent excellency of it. And 'tis a great account to us of that wonderful variety we find in this Book, both for matter and expression; What Depths and Shallows in both respects! Sometimes the sublimest Notions clothed with the highest Expressions; Sometimes the easiest plainest Truths imaginable; Sometimes Divinity decked with the richest Expressions of Oratory, to delight and instruct the noblest and largest mind: Sometimes brought down to the meanest Similitudes, and expressed by things of the most common use amongst Mankind, to be grasped by the poorest understanding: And yet a decency and majesty in all. No part of Mankind but find here a plentiful and suitable provision for every Condition. Not an impotent impoverished mind but is here relieved, nor a condition so mean but is cared for. And this tells us much of the vanity of those who are apt to sit in judgement upon this Holy Book; To find fault with some things as too Mysterious, and with others as too mean: To think many Stories, Examples, Directions, Superfluous, and others wholly Impertinent. When such men can fathom the deep and large design of this Book, are able fully to comprehend the sizes of all men's Capacities, and the variety of all men's Conditions, and can assure me that what one contemns, or not understands, may not prove of excellent and proper use to another, I then will acknowledge, They are every way fit to correct the Bible, and leave them free to fit the World with a better Model.  
Sixthly, This Book appears so composed, that all Truths are visibly concentered in it. Here is indeed a perfect Rendesvouz of all such Truths as were any where scattered, and the World imperfectly has had, and all such as they were in need to have; All such natural Truths, both of a Moral and Divine Nature, as the Reason of the World does acknowledge, and a full discovery of all such supernatural Truths as the minds of men naturally pursue, and are inquisitive after. Whatever is written in man's heart, or upon the Works that God has made, is here, after an excellent manner Transscribed, Justified, and Improved: And many defects of natural Knowledge supernaturally supplied, by a most suitable Revelation. So that if we'l● judge of this Book, either by what we certainly do know, or by what we need and desire to know, and expect should be revealed to us, concerning God, ourselves, and this whole World; We shall find great reason to derive this Book from Above, and subscribe to it as Divine. For the First; Never any Book contained such a System of natural Truth since the World began, nor ever so far interpreted to us what truly is so; And of this, every man's own Reason becomes a proper and competent Judge. Secondly, Never any Book has told us so much, nor gone so far to fix the restless minds of men about all such supernatural things as they are most inquisitive after. 'Tis here we have a certain account of God's Nature, and the manner of his Existence; how and when he created the World! With what Designs, and to what Ends he disposes and governs it! Whence all our disorder first came! How 'tis to be cured! Sin removed! and Man reconciled to God 'Tis here we are certainly assured of the Resurrection of our Bodies, the Immortality of our Souls, and the condition of our future being for ever. 'Tis here, we know all we can know, and all we need to know, both of this World and the next. From no other but God himself could such a Beam of Light have broke forth, so to enlighten the World; Nor will it seem any way tolerable to an unprejudiced Judgement to father such a Book upon the highest principle of Falsehood, and derive it from the worst design that ever the World was defiled with.  
Secondly, I shall endeavour to show, that this Book (so far as it relates to matters of Fact, wherein an Etxernal justification is necessary) is so far witnessed unto, that there can be no room left for any reasonable doubt to be made about it. First, That there was such a man as Moses, and such a People as the Jews in Egypt, in those times which the Scripture mentions: That Moses was their Leader, and that he led them out of Egypt, wrote their Story, and gave Laws to them, we have attested to us by the most Ancient Records of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Chaldeans, and the Grecians: By Sanchomathon the famous Phenician Antiquary, Berosus a Caldean, Ptolomeus, and Manetho Writers of the Egyptian-Chronicles: The latter of whom, Manetho, speaks very particularly both of the Jews coming into Egypt, and their departure thence: And amongst the Grecian Writers, by Artapanus, Polemo, Eupolemus, Diodorus Siculus, with many others (as is at large proved by Josephus in his first Book against Appoin:) And one of these, Artapanus, is so large in his Relation of the Story of Moses, that he sets down much of the business of his whole life, and many of his Miracles, his contesting with the Magicians before the King of Egypt, his carrying the Jews thorough the Red Sea, and the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them; his dwelling with the Jews after in the Wilderness, Who were there (says he) fed with a certain Snow that God reigned from Heaven: And at last, describes particularly the very Person of Moses, and sets down his Stature, his Countenance, and his Complexion. Many of the same things are Recorded by Eupolemus, Demetrius, and others. Numemus a Pythogorean-Philosopher (whom we find quoted in Origens' fourth Book against Celsus) tells us he had read the Life of Moses in many good Histories: And relates many particulars of him, as, his being taken out of the Water, his being bred up in the Court, that he wrought many Miracles, and that certain Magicians, called Jannes and Jambres, attempted to do the like. No one Story amongst the Heathen of any Nation has been so witnessed unto by Writers Foreign to that Nation, as the History of the Jews has been, who from their greatest enemies have received a sufficient Testimony, in point of Fact, to the truth of Moses, and what he wrote. And indeed considering how great and eminent a Commonwealth was at first first established by the Writings of Moses, and what a notorious and visible con●m●●nce and succession there was of it, 'tMorally impossible that the business of Moses and his Writing in those times, in matter of Fact, should be fictitious and false. Of so much of the History written by Moses as relates to things transacted before the Flood, we cannot expect to find any exact and punctual account in a Traditional way: Because of the great disadvantage of Oral Tradition, especially by the confusion of Babel. And yet, 'tis very evident that some considerable Remainders of the Ancient Story of the first World, about the Creation, the long lives of men in those first times, and divers other things were preserved amongst the several Nations after the dispersion at Babel. And we find many things relating thereto in Hermes, Orpheus, Homer, Hesiond, and the most Primitive Writers: Of which Vossius, Bochartus, and many others have given a very satisfying account. Concerning the Flood, that there was such a Deluge, nothing has been more universally credited; And because the Tradition of it was, That it befell in the prime time of the World, and men were generally ignorant of the right account of times: Therefore they applied it still to that time they thought most ancient. So the Thebans to the times of Ogyges, and the Thessalians to the time of Deucalion: which Floods of Ogyges and Deucalion were not two other distinct Floods, (as some have supposed) but the same Flood of Noah, applied to those times, and called by those Names which they thought of greatest Antiquity. One says well, What Nation has not believed it? Even amongst the remotest Indians we find the Tradition of it has remained: And what Author has not spoken of it? Amongst the Egyptians, Phoenicians Grecians, and Romans, nothing more common. And well may we suppose it should be so; For, Those who attempted the rearing of that Structure at Babel, had probably a particular respect; in what they did, to the Flood that was past, resolving to prevent the danger of another, (which sprang from their own Infidelity: For God by his Promise to Noah had secured them against all fears of that kind) and therefore had sufficient occasion wheresoever they came, to preserve and continue the memory of it. Berosus, one of the most ancient Writers after Moses, (I mean the true ancient Berosus, and not the latter Counterfeit of him) sets down the Story of it, in the very same way that Moses does: Gins his History, Ante Aquarum cladem Famosam quâ universus perut orbis; And says, There was only eight Persons saved. Cyril in his first Book against Julian, shows that Alexander Polybistor and Abidene, under the feigned names of Saturn and Xyfuthrus, have writ for the most part the same Story that Moses has done, of the Flood, and of the Ark, and the Place of its Resting. And in very many other ancient Authors have we particular Narratives of it. And 'tis evident that many Poetical Fictions, and Fabulous Stories, that we find amongst the Ancient Heathen-Writers had their derivations from thence. So that, to doubt about the Fact of what Moses has written in this particular, were extremely unreasonable; For 'twere to deny what is eminently witnessed unto by several Historians of several Countries, and to withstand the Stream of an Universal Tradition. The Story of Building the Babylontan Tower is particularly set down by the same Alexander Polyhistor and Abidene, as we find them quoted at large by Eusebius; They tell us, That Men would needs, in despite of the Gods, build up a Tower to the Sun in the place where Babylon now is; And when they had built it very high, the Gods overthrew it; And that at that time began the diversity of Languages. And 'tis obvious to the commonest understanding, That all that Fiction of the Poets about the Giant's warring against Heaven, is but a corruption of this Story. The Burning of Sodom is mentioned by many of the best credited Authors, by Diodorus Saculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Pliny, and Solinus. And 'twere easy to produce the like Testimonies to the most eminent Passages that Moses has set down. That the People of Israel conquered the Land of Canaan, dispossessed the Inhabitants, and settled themselves in Palestine, is a thing so notorious from the Effects, that 'tis capable of no denial: And we have a large account of many particulars of it in Procopius, Eupolemus, and other Authors who wrote of Joshua, Samuel, Saul, David, (in whom, according to the Prediction of Moses, the Government of that People came into the Tribe of Judah) and others mentioned in the Sacred Story. That there was such a King as Solomon that built a Temple at Jerusalem, Josephus in his first Book against Appion, proves from the ancient Chronicles of the Tyrians, which (says he) they have kept with great diligence: And therein mention is made of Solomon's League with the King of Tyre, and of his building the Temple at Jerusalem, and the exact time of it, A hundred forty three years and eight months before the building of Carthage. The same account we have in Eupolemus, Alexander Polyhistor, Haecateus, Dius a Phenician, and many others, who have written so largely about that Temple, that as some have observed, There was not a Vessel, nor any Tool, or Instrument in it, which they have not particularly mentioned: which exactness we find not in any Heathen Story in the Descriptions of any Temples of their own. The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon, Cyrus his obtaining the Persian Empire, and his Conquest of Babylon, is all punctually set down by profane Writers. Alexander Polyhistor writes an exact Story of Jeremiah's Prophecy, and of the Captivity. And Diocles and Berosus both give an account of the Jews deliverance by Cyrus, and that they were Captives in Babylon 70 years. And Alexander Polyhistor and Haecateus; both writ of Cyrus his re-building the Temple of Jerusalem. daniel's Predictions about the four Monarchies and other things, have been visibly fulfilled beyond all denial. Porphiry so raged heretofore at that Prophetical Instance of the Truth of the Bible, that he seeks by all means to evade it, spends his whole twelfth Book which he wrote against the Christians to that purpose, and finds no other way at last to do it, but by an absurd pretence, That those Prophecies about the four Monarchies were written long after daniel's death by some other in the times of Antiochas: Which is sufficiently confuted, Not only by the credible relation we have in History, that daniel's Prophecy was showed by jaddus the Highpriest of the Jews to Alexander, (who lived many years before Antiochus) when he was marching toward Jerusalem with an intention to destroy it, who finding himself so particularly in that Prophecy, prophesied of, spared the City thereupon: But because the 70 Interpreters, who tran●tated the Old Testament for Ptolemy, about a hundred years before Antiochus, tran●●●ated the Book of Daniel, which was then extant and part of the Bible. After the Captivity, 'tis clear from all Story, that the Jews that returned out of Babylon continued under a National establishment (though not under a succession of Kingly Government from the Posterity of David, for God had declared by Jeremiah, that none of the Seed of Jeconaih should any more sit upon the Throne of David) had Sovereign Jurisdiction among them (which the ten Tribes had wholly lost, and long before were totally deprived of); Nay, were still governed by some of themselves, till the Romans imposed Herod and Idumaean upon them, in whose time our Saviour was born; So that the Sceptre did not departed from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet till Shiloe came.  
For the Matters of Fact relating to the New Testament, 'Tis not possible for any reasonable Man to , there was such a Man in Fact as our Saviour, and such Men as the Apostles, that lived in those times, that erected the Christian Religion, because of the succession of it in multitudes of Professors ever since, and the written Account we have of it; Not only from Christians themselves, but from Jews and Heathens in those times. Tacitus and Suetonius both make mention of Christ; Tacitus in the 15th Book of his Annals, speaking of Nero's cruelty to the Christians, says, The Author of them was one Christ, who in the Reign of Tiberius was punished with death, by Pontius Pilate Procurator of Judea. Josephus speaks of him. Pliny, Suetonius, and others, writ of the Christians extant in those times, of their Principles, their manner of Living, and of their Sufferings. Suetonius says, in the Life of Nero, Christianos genus hominum maleficae superstitionis suppliciis affixit; That he pumshed the Christians, a sort of men of a magical superstition. Many Historical Passages in the Gospels are attested to us by Heathen and Jewish-Writters, (though 'tis most certain, the Roman Historians of that Age knew not much of the Affairs of Palestine, as appears by what they have writ concerning the Jews, especially Tacitus, who appears very grossly ignorant both about them and their Religion). The Star that appeared at our Saviour's Birth is mentioned by Pliny, lib. 2. chap. 5. And by the Philosopher Chalcidius largely in his Comment upon Plato's Timaeas: Herodi killing the Children in Bethlehem, by Macrobius: The Eclipse of the Sun upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour (which considering the Position of the Moon at that time, it being the time of the Jews Passeover, must needs be judged to be prodigiously supernatural) was mentioned in many Heathen Writers; which Eusebius says he himself had read. Both Eusebius in his Chronology, and Origen in his second Book against Celsus, tell us, That Phlegon Trallianus, who lived in the time of Adrian, in the thirteenth Book of his Chronicles, wrote of this Eclipse, and says, That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiad, there was the greatest Eclipse of th●●an that ever was beheld, and withal a strange Earthquake. And that year was exactly the eighteenth year of Tiberius, in which our Saviour suffered. And 'tis certain, by what we find in Tertullia's ●●●lo●y, and other of the Christian Writers, in those first Ages, that this and divers other Passages that relate to the Sto●● of the Gospel, were in those times Re●●red amongst the Romans; For, they of●en appeal to their own Records to ●●ove the truth of this and many other particulars. Justin Martyr in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus, (which ●e wrote but fifty years after the death of St. John) persuading the Emperor to the belief of our Saviour's Miracles, refers him to the Acts of Pontius Pilate then Registered at Rome. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That our Saviour (says he) did these things, you may learn from the Registers of the Acts done under Pontius Pilate. Josephus who was born about five or six years after our Saviour's suffering, and survived the Reigns of both the V●spatians, relates much of the New Testament Story of John the Baptist, of his Holy Life, and also of his Death: Tells us of Herod, (and gives a large and particular account of his strange and remarkable Death) of Pilate, of Festus, Foelix, Gamaliel, and others. Indeed, neither Jews nor Heathens did ever, in those times contradict or deny any matter of Fact that relates to the New Testament Story, judging it certain beyond all denial. Julian himself admits the Fact of Christ and his Miracles, and plainly acknowledges, the Books of the New Testament were written in those Times, and by those very Men whose names they bear, That we have no fuller and exacter an Account of Christ, and the Affairs of Judea, in his time in the Roman Story, is not to be much wondered at, if we consider the peaceable Posture that Country was then in, (News which best pleased the Romans from any of their Provinces, and wherein they were mostly concerned). Tacitus observes that Judea was most quiet in the Reign of T●berius, (as well it might; All that our Saviour and his Followers did tending highly to Peace and Subjection). Now, We find that the Roman-Writers chief applied themselves to write of some famous Wars, the suppression of some eminent Mutinies, or some such Accidents as in their Issue redounded much to the Roman-glory: The peaceable condition of any Province usually shortened their Relation of it; and therefore, neither of the Jews not of the Christians in that Age have they vouchsafed to say much. Nor did the Christians at any time (such was their peaceable and submissive behaviour) give Historians occasion to mention much more of them than their patiented sufferings. But in the aftertimes of V●spatian, Trajan, & Adrian, when the Roman-Sword was drawn against the Jews, and there were great Mutinies, Rebellions, and Wars amongst them, the Roman-Historians have left us an ample Relation of all those Affairs.  
Two things there are of great eminency in themselves, and of most public Nature, contained in the Bible, the Fact of which have had such signal justification, as does greatly establish the Truth of the Whole, and to which a very peculiar Remark is due; The one is, the History of the Flood in the Old Testament, and and the repeopling of the World after it by the Posterity of Noah: The other is; those Prophetical Predictions of the Destruction of Jerusalem, of the ruin of the Temple, and the Afflictions and Sufferings of the Jews, uttered by our Saviour in the New. For the first, That there was such a Flood, Nothing (I have showed) has had a more universal Belief. That the Earth (according to the History of Moses) was again repeopled by the Posterity of Noah, and that the Nations were divided in the Earth from his three Sons, and their Issue, as Moses tells us, we have (from the Records of all Nations, and the consent of all History) abundant cause to believe; And that upon this threefold account. First, We find that in those Eastern Parts where Noah and his Family are said first to land and settle themselves after the Deluge, the Grandeur of the World first began: (of which the Greatness and Splendour of the Assyrian-Empire is a sufficient Instance.) Those Eastern Countries arriving to much state and pomp, and to much greatness in Dominion and Government, long before either in Greece, Italy, or any of the Western Parts, any such thing was attained to or known. Which evidently shows that the Inhabitants of those Countries were the Firstborn and Heirs of the World, who had the great Court and Metropolis amongst them; and that other Nations were of the Younger▪ House, and Colonies of a Latter Edition. Secondly, The earliness of Learning, of Art, Sciences, and Inventions, amongst ●he Assyrians, Chaldae●ns, and Egyptians, before they so much as budded forth, or appeared in other Conntries, does argue, That those parts were first inhabited, That they were the eldest Possessors o● the World, had been longest in it, wer● of greatest Experience, and that other Nations & People were gradually derive● and planted from those Countries, an● the Inhabitants of that part of the World. Thirdly, We find that those in honour of whom the Nations received their first Names, were the Posterity of Noah that Moses tells us of. From Japhet (most probably the Eldest Son of Noa●) called by Hesiod, and others of the most ancient Writers, Japitoes, and his Posterito Jape●●onides, came the Gomerians or ●ymbrians from his Son Gomer, the Magogims from Magog; the Medes or Madians from Madus; the Jones (after called Grae●●ns) from Javan, in Greek Jovan; and so from the Posterity of the other two: The Canaanites from Canaan; the Sabae●ns from Seba, (which the Grecians writ Saba) the Philistims from Palesthim; the Thracians from Thyras; the Sidon●ans from Sidon; the Egyptians from the Posterity of Cham, Egypt being called Mizraim from Mizraim one of his Sons; Mizraim in Hebrew being the name of Egypt, and anciently even to the time of Josephus, the Egyptians (he says) were called Chuseans from Cush or Chus the eldest Son of Cham: And so throughout all the chiefest parts of the Earth, we find the several Nations by their ancient denominations to be originally descended from that Posterity of Noab set down in the tenth of Genesis. Sem's Posterity appear to have been the Planters of Asia, Cham's of Africa, and Japhets of most part of Europe, with Asia the Less. Of the first peopling of America, from whence it was first peopled, or at what time, little account can be expected, nor can any Objection be reasonably made from thence in this Matter, because of the perfect silence in all Ancient Story of any such place, and because of our total ignorance of it till of late; but there is ground sufficient to believe that 'tis of a much later Plantation than the other three parts of the World; For there are not Records found amongst the People of that Country that exceed a thousand years, and as most tell us from thence, Not above eight hundred. The exact and punctual account of this whole Matter, we have from Josephus and Euseb●us heretofore, and from many learned men since: But especially from the most excellent Bochart, who has herein far exceeded them all, and whose most successful endeavours this way have not only most evidently cleared the Truth of Sacred History in this particular, but indeed the Whole of what Moses has wrote, is very greatly justified thereby.  
Secondly, Those Prophetical Predictions of our Saviour in the New Testament, concerning the miseries of the Jews their being led Captive into all Nations, the Besieging of Jerusalem, and such a Ruin of the Temple, as that one stone should not be left upon another, with many other Prophecies relating to that business, have had such an eminent and notorious fulfilling, in the times of Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, and since, as greatly justifies the whole of the Gospel, and much assures us of the truth of all that our Saviour has spoken. What we find in Tacitus, Hegysippus, and other Heathen Writers, but especially the Story of Josephus, their own Historian, has written of that which happened to the Jeus, their City and Temple, about forty years after the sufferings of Christ, is so exactly corresponding to what he himself foretold, and is set down in the 24th of St. Matthew, that no instance can be given that any future events were ever so plainly and fully foretold, and so punctually fulfilled in any Age: Nor can any impartial man consider that strange Agreement there is in every Particular between what then happened, and what our Saviour foretold so many years before, without being greatly affected with it. And how fully competent Josephus was to write that Story, may be judged by what he himself says in his first Book against Appion. I myself (says he) have composed a most true Story of those Wars, and of every particular thing there done; As well I might, having been present in all those Affairs: For I was Captain of the Galilaean● amongst our Nation, so long as any resistance could be made against the Romans; And than it fell out that I was taken by the Romans; And being Prisoner unto Titus and Vespasian, they caused me to be an eye-witness of all things that passed: First, In Bonds and Fetters; And afterwards freed from them, I was brought from Alexandria with Titus when he went to the Siege of Jerusalem: So that nothing could then pass whereof I had not notice. For, beholding the Roman Army, I committed all things to writing with all possible diligence: Myself did only manage all Matters disclosed unto the Romans by such as yielded themselves, for that I only did perfectly understand them; Lastly, Being at Rome, and having now leisure, all businesses being past, I used the help of some for the Greek Tongue, And so I published a History of all that had happened in the aforesaid War; Which History of mine is so true, that I fear not to call Vespasian and Titus Emperors in those Wars to witness for them; I first gave a Copy of that Book to them, after to many noble Romans present in those Wars; I sold also many of them to our own Nation to such as understood the Greek Language; Amongst whom were Julius, Archelaus, Herod the Honest, and the most worthy King Agrippa; who do all testify that my History containeth nothing but truth, who would not have been silent if any thing, either out of Ignorance or Flattery, I had changed or omitted in any particular. The City of Jerusalem and the Temple being about forty years after our Saviour's time, by Vespation and Titus totally ruined and demolished: The Jews after that, three times endeavoured to rebuild their Temple; The first time was under the Emperor Adrian, in the year after Christ 136. Which attempt had no other effect but the slaughter of fifty thousand of them, with many other sad Desolations, which we find set down at large by that noble Historian Dion Cassius. Their second attempt was under Constantine, which he soon quashed, but not without great Expressions of his Displeasure against them, cutting off their Ears, and branding their Bodies, and making most of them Slaves and Vagabonds. Their last attempt to rebuild it, was in the days of Julian, when they were so far from being any way hindered, that they were highly encouraged by Julian himself, with Money and all Materials, on purpose (as Sozomon tells us) to vilify the Christian Religion, and confront our Saviour's Prediction. The Story of it we have from one that we are sure could have no design to befriend the Christians: Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen-Historian, and a Soldier at that time in julian's Army: He tells us with what immoderate Expenses, and indefatigable Industry the Jews by the help of Julian set about it, intending to make it more famous than ever: And that to expedite the Work, Julian appointed one Alyppius, a Person of great quality in his Army, to oversee it, and assist in it: And at last, concludes his whole Relation with these words, Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alyppius juvaretque Provinciae Rector, Metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebis assultibus erumpentes, fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo, elemento destinatius repellente cessavit incaeptum. Am. Marcel. lib. 23. When therefore this Alyppius set eagerly on the work, being assisted by the Governor of that Province, dreadful Balls of Fire bursting forth, with often assaults, near the Foundation, made the place (the Workmen being several times devoured with the flames) inaccessible: And after this manner, the Element resisting, as with some kind of destiny, the design was given over. This was that final stroke from Heaven, that put a period to all endeavours of rebuilding that place, and to all future attempts of restoring again the Jewish Church-state and Polity. And how great an Evidence is it to the truth of the Gospel, and the Whole of what our Saviour has spoken, to sinned all these Predictions against his great Opposers and Crucifiers so strangely and so exactly, and in so visible and notorious a manner fulfilled.  
And in truth, that general prophetic Spirit we find throughout the Bible, those manifold, plain, and direct Predictions 'tis every where filled with, of things future and to come, tells us much of its Divinity, and greatly assures us, It could not be an effect of Imposture. Nor is it any way reasonable to think, That such who designed to Personate the Holy Ghost in writing a Book, should choose to compose it in such a prophetic way, and so positively and plainly deliver themselves about so many future events: Indeed, about most of the great things that have come to pass amongst Mankind; For, the first miscarriage in that kind, a palpable mistake in any one particular, must needs ruin the credit of the Whole. No man can believe that God can lie, or that an Infinite Knowledge can ever give a wrong Divination about what is to come. He therefore that personates the Holy Ghost in such a foreknowledge of things, must be sure never to miss, or else resolve to take the shame of his own Imposture. That in the Heathen-World there have been great pretensions to a foreknowledge of things, is not to be doubted: But upon very different terms to what we find of that kind in the Bible. First, Many things pretended to therein in a prophetical way, were such as might humanely be fore-seen, and were only the regular Consequents of some natural, and then extant, though more remote and less visible Causes. The first Discoverers of many secret workings in Nature, might upon that account have soon arrived to a great prophetical Credit. Thales who first amongst the Heathens foresaw an Eclipse of the Sun, might easily have passed for an eminent Prophet before the knowledge of its natural cause grew common. 2dly, The Heathen Predictions were generally clothed with Expressions so enigmatical and so unintelligible, as in truth rendered them Problems rather than Prophecies. They seemed to be framed more to confound and amuse, than to inform or satisfy, and to be chief calculated to abuse the weaker part of the World, who are apt to adore what they least understand, and to suppose some extraordinary Matter to be wrapped up in all such clouded Expressions: According to that of Lucretius,  
Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantut amantque  
Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt.  
Thirdly, Their oraculous Divinations of future things, were for the most part so delivered, that they had divers Aspects, carried in them divers intricate Senses, manifold Ambiguities: And to secure their Credit, were made capable of divers (and those contrary) Interpretations: Which made the Heathens themselves call their great Oracle at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Thwarter, or Crooked-speaker. Fourthly, Many of their plainest and most intelligible Predictions have been consequently found to be false and mistaken; and others of them have had a direct tendency to a perfect subversion of their own Religion, and to establish the truth of the Bible; so 'twas when the Oracle of Apollo (which we find repeated by Porphiry) declared that, All other Gods were but Airy Spirits, and that the God of the Hebrews was alone to be worshipped; Which Direction, had it been followed, had put a final end to all their own Religion. So 'twas when the Sibyls prophesied so fully of the coming of Christ, which we find repeated out of their Works, in the 4th Eglogue of Virgil. We deny not but that, for some secret and to us unknown ends, God (who, as the Heathens generally acknowledge, could only do it, for they still ascribed it, even Porphiry himself, unto their Gods) might and did sometimes reveal some future events, which no other way could be known (as he did the death of Saul, and his Son, at Endor) to the Devil or to others, which they might communicate. But nothing that ever was extant in that kind, can be any way put in balance with that Prophetic Spirit we find in the Bible. 'Tis much in this case, as 'twas in the business of Miracles; The Heathen-world were filled with Pretensions both ways: Some of them real and true, but most generally fictitious and false: And when true, both the Miracles and the Prophecies, from whence we derive a proof of the Bible, have been so differently circumstanced, and there is such a superior eminency and lustre in the one, as renders the other no Objection at all in this case. Here we have clear, plain, and positive predictions of most of the greatest things that have happened: Predictions of such things as could have no dependence upon any natural cause, then extant when they were made: Such as must needs have their rise from the unbounded Will of God, or the free choice of men. A multitude of such Predictions, with marvalous variety, and great exactness and particularity, concerning Persons and Things, in all Ages, and throughout a constant and un-erring Success, without a Failure in a Tittle: And the accomplishment and truth of the most of them recorded in the general Story of the World. Who but God himself, can we suppose, could pronounce with such a positive certainty upon all future events? Not to foretell once, or a second time, what shall be here or there, but to speak with a positive prophetic determination about all the Great Things that were to happen, and write of the future state of the World, as men writ Histories of Ages past; And to have things always rightly come to pass! Never to mistake! Constantly to give right Divination! This is singly the property of God; Nor can any other be reasonably though the Author of such a Prophetical Book, but He that grasps all Ages with an Infinite Knowledge, spans all Times and Seasons, from whom nothing can be concealed, and who with the sane Infinite Eye, equally beholds all things past, present, and to come.  
To conclude this Matter; If the supposition of some Revelation in the general be reasonable: If it be not fit to believe that God should wholly leave the World to the conduct of Nature, which hath been largely made to appear; If then we find a Book that is, of all others, the most Ancient, contains the most Primitive notions of things, and from which the earlyest Authors, (as from the great Fountain and Spring-head of all Divine Learning and Knowledge) appear to have drawn out much of what they have writ: That gives us the most punctual account of the World's Original: With an exact Historical Narrative of all the great Successive Revolutions of it, long before any other Writers were extant, with such an adjustment of Times all along, that without it no certain Knowledge can be attained in Chronology, and the study of it would become more intricate than a Labyrinth: If we find a Book written by several Men, of several Qualities, Conditions, and Interests, in several distant Ages, with wonderful variety both for Matter and Manner, promoting (by an unparallelled agreement with itself) one and the same Design, and that the most excellent in the judgement of every man's own Reason, that can descend from Heaven, or be embraced by men, terminating all in the Glory of God, and Man's utmost Happiness: A Book leading us to the farthest confines of all natural Truths our own Reasons comprehend and approve, and revealing such supernatural Truths to us, as appear evidently sitted and suited to supply all the defects of our natural Knowledge; and after an admirable manner harmonise with the rational Nature, in which things from Above are so interwoven with things below, and every way so proportioned to them, as that Truth's Supernatural, which we cannot fully comprehend, appear justified to us by Truth's natural, that we are perfectly judges of, and between both there appears a wonderful concord: If we find a Book written in God's own Name, commanding the World upon that single account to bow before it, and in a way peculiarly proper to his own Sovereignty and Greatness, with a positive claim to his immediate Authority; and the truth of this claim established to the World by a multitude of the greatest and most eminent Miracles, at several times, openly wrought, that ever were extant, and the Fact of which was never by any denied: A Book, the Doctrine whereof, by the power and reputation of those Miracles, it's own innate Worth, and the Divine Assistance that accompanied it, without the least humane help; nay against all Humane-Opposition, all earthly Policy and Force withstanding it, has gained so great an acceptance, as we see ●his to have done, subdued in its first entrance that great Empire of Rome, subverted the whole Judaical Fabric, and ●as made both Heathenism and Judaisme ●inaly fall before it.  
If we find a Book that gives us the ●est and most satisfying account of the ●hole affair of this World, and all the Vicissitudes of it, and of God's providential Rule and Dispose of all Humane Affairs: A Book in which the whole business of the World is fully and strangely epitomised, and we see nothing happen or come to pass contradictive of, but according to what is there written, and of which we find there some general notice.  
If we find a Book, the Doctrine whereof totally subverts the whole interest of the Devil, and all the corrupt interests of Men, in a way far superior to what ever was, or can rationally be supposed, ever could be attempted in that kind by the wisest and best of men, and introduces much nobler and elevated Notions o● Piety and Vert●e, than the World wer● any other way ever possessed of.  
If we find a Book that has plainly an● directly foretold most of the great thing▪ that have come to pass in all Ages, tha● has (many hundreds of years befor● some of them happened) pronounced with an absolute prophetic certainty about th●m, and has never been found t● mistake in a tittle, (though it has, sometimes descended so to Particulars, as 〈◊〉 name even the Persons of men long before they were born) cannot once be impeached for giving a wrong Divination about the least Circumstance relating either to Persons or Things.  
If we find a Book that has been signally preserved from the greatest rage of many powerful Adversaries, and from the most Violent and Potent Attempts for its total Suppression and Ruin, of such who were in highest Authority, and furnished with greatest advantages to effect it; A Book that has scaped all sorts of Contrivance against it, and safely descended through the Channel of so many Ages, and been to this day providentially secured and unmaimed, and entirely delivered over to us.  
If we find a Book that evidently, in the judgement of all right Reason, improves Mankind to the highest pitch in all worthy and excellent Attainments, bo●h Moral and Divine: Brings the World into the best posture 'tis capable of: Makes men Wiser, Better, and Happier than they ever were, or could themselves find out how to be.  
If we find a Book that, by means utterly unthought of, and far out of all humane-reach, and yet of a most holy and excellent Nature, sweetly and safely (even to our greatest admiration) reconciles us to God: Fills up that vast Gulf that was between Heaven and Earth, and makes way for a free and perpetual intercourse between God and Man: Exposes to the view of the World thereby a Beatitude infinitely transcending whatever the Wisdom of Man could contrive or invent: which the rational Soul, the more it considers, still the more it adores and admires, and in which to the utmost 'tis delighted and satisfied.  
In short, If we find a Book that has all those things (if we respect both the Matter of it, and the Manner of its conveyance to us) appurtenant to it, that we can rationally expect should accompany a Revelation from Heaven, and such a supernatural Law by which we may suppose God would enlighten and rule the World: A Book that every way answers all the great ends of Revelation, proposeth most suitable Remedies to all our natural Defects, leaves not a Disease in Humane Nature uncured, nor a Breach that man's fall hath occasioned un-made up: If there be not one thing we can imagine God should reveal to us in order to our present or future Welfare, about things visible or invisible, about This World or the Next, that we are not here told of: If we have here such discoveries made of things supernatural and unseen, as have evidently set bounds to the restless and inquisitive minds of Men about those Matters; And such as we cannot reasonably judge could be the product of any humane thoughts, nor of any thing less than the infinite and boundless Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD himself. If we have found such a Book, If the Bible be thus qualified, What can be otherwise judged upon such Premises, but that this Book is indeed that sacred Instrument wherein God has recorded his Sovereign Pleasure? This is in truth that Revelation from Heaven the World in all Ages have so much expected, and to which so many false pretensions have in all Ages been made; Here is indeed contained that System of Laws supernatural, by the publication whereof God has abounded in all the effects of his Bounty, and even outdone the furthest Conceptions the World has at any time had of his Goodness. How strangely unreasonable were it to derive such a Book from the highest degree of imposture! How heterodox is it to all good sense, to suppose, that the worst and most pernicious delusion by which the World has been ever abused (which we must needs reckon this Book to be, if it be not from God) should have, in point of time, the precedency of all true Religion, and be of an ancienter date than any divine Truth the World can pretend to! Who, that believes the supreme Existence of God, can imagine that the best documents (in the judgement of all unprejudiced reason) that ever mankind were disciplined by, should have the Devil, or the vilest of men for their Authors? That such should contrive and publish a Doctrine that brings men to the best method of living? That such should reduce mankind to the happiest and best condition? and out do the Divine goodness in that particular? Who can imagine that the Devil or any ill men, in promoting the highest Treason against God (counterfeiting his Name and Authority) and the greatest ruin to mankind (deluding them with false informations about their chiefest concerns) should be able to produce, in their justification, the most eminent Miracles, and all the greatest Evidences that rationally can be expected to ascertain the World in the publication of the highest supernatural Truths? In a word, who can believe a Book so circumstanced as we find the Bible to be, should be composed by the worst Instruments, and with the worst of designs? No such thing can ever be credited, while we suppose there is a God ruling above, and men live in the exercise of Reason below. 'Twere most absurd to suppose that any Book falsely pretending to God's Name and Authority, designing his dishonour and man's destruction, should be capable of such a proof as has been brought in defence of the Bible. And yet, so must the Tables be turned, the whole proof must so be inverted, of all that hath been said, a contrary application must of necessity be made, if this Book comes not from God, and be not in truth what itself openly claims to be.  
The Divine Authority of this Book we call the Bible, being thus, upon the forementioned grounds, established: I come, in the last place to a Consideration of such Doubts and Objections as are usually made about it. All the Material Difficulties that can be proposed, will be reduceable to these four Questions.  

I. First, How could men come to be assured, in those times wherein the several parts of the Bible were first written, that they were written by an Infallible Spirit, and upon sure grounds, distinguish them from all other Writings?  
II. Secondly, How come we certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ? How can we know that we have now contained in our Bible's all that was written by a Divine Inspiration, and intended as a standing Rule to the Church, and no more? That is, How can we be now safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture? And be able, upon good grounds, to say, What is Canonical, and what is Not?  
III. Thirdly, How can we that have not the Originals of the Scripture, not the Autographa's of those that wrote it, but only the Copies of them, and most but the Translations of those Copies, rest assured we have God's Mind as it was first delivered?  
IU. Fourthly, How can we believe this Book (say some) to be from God, when we find contained in it divers Contradictions, several strange and incredible Stories, and other things greatly liable to exception?   
In answering the first Question, This aught to be previously considered; That there were Advantages peculiar to the belief of those who first received the Bible, or any parts of it, and lived in those Times wherein it was first delivered, that we have not.  
And we have likewise some Advantages (and those very considerable) to our belief, which they had not. They conversed with the Penmen themselves, (the Names of many of whom are to us wholly unknown: the Holy Ghost not judging it necessary to record them: foreseeing the Scriptures would descend to us upon other sufficient Evidence); They were able to judge of their personal Integrity, and the account they gave of their Divine Commission; were Eye-witnesses of the Miracles, saw the Original Writings; And in the Apostles times, many knew some of their Hands. These we have not; but we see the progress and success of this Book, which they saw not; We see this Book translated into all Languages: whole Nations converted by it: The Gospel spread all the World over, and the fulfilling of many Predictions since, which they could not then be Witnesses of: With many other great Effects of it; We see the Whole conjoined, and the excellent Harmony of it, and the relation each part has to complete the Design of the Whole: Are in divers respects upon different terms of judging now upon the Whole, from what men were in judging at first upon any particular parts.  
But to come to a direct Answer to this Question: There could be but two ways to ascertain men in their reception of any part of the Bible, when it first became public.  
First, By some outward visible Justification of the Persons employed in that Service, to assure us that they were sent and commissionated from God.  
Or secondly, From the Matter and the Nature of such Writings themselves. And herein a due consideration of those Times and Seasons in which the several parts of the Bible were written, and the then present state of things, and the order of writing it, will much inform us. Moses, who laid the first and great Foundation of the whole Fabric in the five Books that he wrote, He had a justification Personal beyond all question; His Commission and Authority to do what he did, was sufficiently evident to all that conversed with him; There was all that could be expected to assure those that then lived, that God had employed him; For God admitted him openly to a personal converse with himself. We read in the nineteenth of Exodus, that the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come to thee in a thick Cloud, that the People may bear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever, etc. He impowered him, upon many occasions, to work the greatest Miracles, that, since the World had a being, had ever been wrought: and openly to shame and outdo all his Opposers, and all Pretenders that way. And whensoever there was a doubt made about this Divine Authority, or any contest with him upon that account, as in the case of Korah, and at other times, God plainly and openly from Heaven, in the sight of all the People, decided the Matter; to assure them, and all Generations to come, that Moses was no Impostor, but acted by a Divine Commission in what he then did.  
And indeed, It being the first time that God revealed himself to the World in a written way, and published those Laws which were to be a Standard to all that succeeded, and the great Cornerstone of all that Revelation, that he would at any time after make to Mankind; 'twas but necessary it should be fixed and established upon certain and unquestionable grounds. So that such who lived in Moses his time, could have no good reason at all to doubt, in the least, of his sincerity; for all was done that could be done to put that matter out of question. And God visibly shown himself, as we find in the four and twentieth of Exodus, and his own glory amongst them. For, 'tis said, They saw the Lord God of Israel, and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a Saphire-stone, and as it were the Body of Heaven in its clearness. Nor could there be any doubt raised, Whether the Laws and Precepts of Moses were rightly recorded, and as he intended they should: For, before his Death, he himself, by God's special command, in a public Assembly, delivered over his Five Books to the Levites to be laid up in the sides of the Ark. After Moses his time, till our Saviour's coming, and the writing of the New Testament (when there was again a Floodgate of Divine Power let open in Mighty and Miraculous Operations) all the parts of the Old Testament that were at any time written (and they were not all Written till the time of Ezra; after whom, and the erection of the second Temple, God made no further Addition) all the other parts, I say, of the Old Testament, were principally to be judged of by what Moses at first established; Working of Miracles, after his time, was not to be the great and only Rule of Prophecy and Revelation. God had declared and commanded the contrary; Nor indeed has the Holy Ghost thought fit to record to us (whatever might be done in that kind) that any one Penman of the Old Testament wrought any Miracles after Moses his time. 'Tis a truth, that there was among the Jews a Succession of the Office of Prophets after Moses, and certain Schools of them, which first began, and were continued in the Cities of the Levites, who dwelled dispersed amongst all the other Tribes: And of many that were probably trained up in those Schools we read in Scripture, as of God and Nathan, and other Seers and Prophets: That some of them wrote no part of the Bible, nor (that we read of) were any way extraordinarily employed, but most likely were so styled, because they had their education there, & were bred up and devoted to that Office and Employment: That God did often make use of those that were of that Prophetical Society in extraordinary Matters, I doubt not; But in dictating the Bible, God was pleased arbitrarily to choose out what Instruments of conveyance he pleased, and confined not himself to any one sort of Men, nor to any Prophetical Office, to give us any assurance from thence in this case; For he sometimes chose men out of the Court, as he did Isaiah the King's Nephew; And sometimes from the Herd, as he did Amoz the Shepherd, who says himself, He was neither a Prophet, nor the Son of a Prophet. And God, in an extraordinary way, by the Word and the Prophecy that he gave such to utter, created them Prophets. And the greatest evidence of such men's Prophetical Authority arose (if no Miracles were wrought by them) from the Word they uttered: And if any were (of which we cannot be certain, the Holy Ghost being silent about it) from a conjunction of both. A Miracle wrought in confirmation of any Doctrine correspending to what God by Moses had at first established, was the greatest assurance that the Judaical Church after Moses was capable of; No false Prophet in those days ever arrived so far: That is, They never had the concurrence of a Personal and a Doctrinal Justification together; If any such wrought a Miracle to gain them a personal credit, yet their Doctrine was still faulty: And being to lead men from God, and to subvert those Laws of his by Moses so solemnly settled, That was an intimation sufficient from God's own direction, to discover and shame them. But, supposing the several Penmen of the Old Testament after Moses, wrought no Miracles at all, and that God made most of them Prophets by that very Employment, which 'tis certain he did, and that they were not previously in any such Office, so that nothing of that kind could give men any assurance; Yet by these three ways, men might be then much secured in that case, in the first Edition of every distinct part of the Old Testament. First, From the known personal Sanctity and Integrity of the Writers themselves; God never made use of any ill men, or such as could come under any reasonable suspicion of Imposture, to write any part of the Bible; nor of any but such whom men in that Age wherein they lived had very good reason to credit. This being a certain and revealed Truth, that in writing all the parts of the Bible, 'twas Holy Men still that Spoke and Wrote. Now, there could not be a more superlative imposture and wickedness, than to ascend the Throne of God, to speak in his Name, and pretend his Authority, without his Order. No Man (not wholly forsaken of all fear of God, and respect to men) could be supposed to make such an attempt: Nor could any Man of known Piety and Honesty be reasonably suspected of it. Secondly, and chief, From the conformity of what was then written to the Laws and Precepts of Moses, settled upon such unquestionable evidence; for whatever was superstructed upon that Foundation, came under the same Justification; So that if any Writings were published in God's Name, that appeared to be (as all the other parts of the Old Testament did) but a further discovery and promise of the Messiah, a renewal of those Threaten and Promises in Moses to that People, and a further promotion of those Holy Laws, and that Religion and Worship by him established, there was no absolute necessity of Miracles in such cases. If any man will suppose there might be in those times Books piously written, and grounded upon the Doctrine of Moses, that came not from any Divine Inspiration; in judging of which Men might be possibly deceived and mistaken. I answer, Either such Books pretended to a Divine Mission from God, or they did not; If they did not, no man could be endangered by them; If they did, They must either be written by true Prophets or False; No true Prophets would do it; And 'tis not reasonable to think any false prophets should; because they could serve no Design by it: Nor could the Devil, or any ill Instruments any way promote their own Interests by persuading men to serve the true God in the right way; Nor do we find that in Fact any such thing ever was. Thirdly, There appeared in most, if not all, the parts of a Bible, a peculiar Majesty, a savour of Divine Authority in a more than ordinary way; A great and eminent difference, as the Prophet Jeremiah says, between the Chaff and the Wheat. Nor is it fit to suppose but that wh●● came by an immediate Inspiration from God, should carry some Impressions of his Wisdom & Power, and be some way differenced from the common Writings of weak and fallible men. Besides, from many other Circumstances attending the first Edition of the several parts of the Bible, relating to the Matter written, and the Authors that wrote, might God give a further evidence to their Divine Authority, of which we are now wholly ignorant; And it would be perhaps somewhat of curiosity, and of little use to inquire after; And some of them are recorded to us in the Scripture itself; As, particularly, the foretelling of future Events, that accordingly came to pass.  
Two ways God himself had previously appointed by Moses for the discovery of all false pretensions to Revelation.  
First, If any Pretenders that way came to seduce men from the true God, and that Divine Worship of his then established, God commands, They should be rejected.  
And secondly, If they foretold things that came not to pass, they were no way to credit them.  
So we find it in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy, When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. The certain predicting of future events, was an unquestionable evidence of a Divine Commission: And this way many of the Prophets were justified in those Ages wherein they lived. As particularly the Prophet Hosea, who with the Prophet Amos, was sent to the Ten Tribes at the same time that Isaiah and Micah were to Judah: And in the sixth year of Hezekiah (to which time it appears Hosea himself survived) his Prophecy long before against the Ten Tribes was actually fulfilled, and the destruction he prophesied of, came actually and visibly upon the Ten Tribes at that time, by the Hand of the King of Assy●●a. And others of them had the like Justification, though sometimes it fell out to be later, and the events of their Prophecies could not be known till after-ages. Nor did any one Penman of the Scriptures, or any Prophet of God, ever mistake in a tittle in this kind; For although sometimes the judgements they prophetically threatened, were not actually inflicted at those times, they were threatened so to be; yet that could not be the least derogation from the truth of their Prophecies, because God still reserved a supreme and sovereign power of Pardon and Forgiveness to himself in such cases: And all such prophetical Threaten were still denounced with a reserve in case of repentance; And God himself, to justify his own Prophets, did publicly declare thus much, At what Instant I shall speak concerning a Nation, or concerning a Kingdom, to pl●ck up, and to pull down, and destroy it; If that Nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from the evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them, etc.  
But the total and final decision of all Questions that could arise among the Jews touching the several parts of the Old Testament, God was pleased to make in the times of Ezra, and that famous Synagogue, That after so long and sad a captivity, assembled to reform what was amiss, and to revive the glory of that decayed Church and State, (which God had promised to restore and continue amongst those two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, until the Messiah should come) several of the last Prophets being personally present, They, by a divine direction, collected all the Parts of the Old Testament together, (some of which, as the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Amos, and other Prophecies sent from God, and which came by Divine Inspiration, were wholly rejected by the corrupt ruling part of the Judaical Church in those times wherein they were first uttered) made a perfect separation, not only between the Works of True Prophets and False, and such Writings as came by Divine Inspiration, and such as were only of Humane Extraction; but between such as were to be of a perpetual continuance, and a standing Rule to the Church, and such as related only to particular Cases, and were not so. They, by God's direction, punctually settled the Canon of the Old Testament, put a perfect period to all Doubts in those times about this whole business; and in that settlement of the Scripture then made, the Jewish Church fully acquiesced, and to it firmly adhered till the times of Christ and the Apostles. From whose Divine Authority we have a● re-establishment of all that was then done.  
For the New Testament, as God was pleased to establish the first Foundation of all Written Revelation in Moses his time, upon evidence from Heaven beyond all compass of Question; so the completing and finishing what God intended that way, the laying the Top-stone of that Fabric, (which was done in the writing of the New Testament) was accompanied with such manifest Effects of a Divine and Almighty Power, that no man that lived in those times could make any reasonable doubt about it. There were in this case the greatest Miracles to confirm the most excellent Doctrine, and 'tis not possible to be upon surer grounds in point of Revelation. The Miracles were then apparent and visible; And the excellency of the Doctrine appeared these two ways.  
First, That in itself simply considered, it introduced a Religion wherein all the great and  ends both of God and Man (in the judgement of all unprejudiced Reason) were to the utmost attained, and wherein all that the World had in that kind at any time before arrived at, was far outdone and exceeded.  
And secondly, In a relative way, in that it evidently appeared (and that in a very singular and extraordinary manner) to be the great accomplishment of all that God had before promised and foretold: The natural Offspring of the Old Testament, and that which the Scriptures, before written, throughout, traveled withal; Indeed, the Genuine Issue of all former Revelation, and so was incireled with all that Divine Justification that any former Revelation had been at any time accompanied with. And in the distinct publication of all the particular Parts of the New Testament, men had these two grounds of satisfaction in those times: First, (If we admit that Epistle to the Hebrews to come either from St. Paul, or some other Apostolical Hand, of the latter of which the Epistle itself sufficiently assures us; And for the former, there seems to be good evidence from some passages in St. Peter: And no man can be so reasonably supposed to write a Determination of that grand Question then on foot, about the abolition of the whole Judaical Policy, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles) I say, If we admit this Epistle to come from an Apostolical Hand; Every Part of it was then written by Apostles and Evangelists, men not only perfectly knowing in all the Transactions of our Saviour, but every one of them then known to be men of extraordinary Endowments, in Office under Him, and with the highest Delegation of his own Power entrusted by Him. And as the Writing of the Old Testament ended with the Prophets, so the writing of the New had its period in the Apostles. Secondly, All the several Parts, at several times, and by several hands written, appear so to promote one and the same Design, are so much the same in Doctrine, do so harmonise in the same Tendency and End, and have such a relation each to other, that whatever Reasons there were in the general to satisfy men in those times about the Truth of our Saviour, and the Religion by him established, (and there was all that could be expected from Heaven in that case) the same would go very far to resolve all such Doubts as could be made about any particular Parts of the New Testament then written.  
Secondly, How can we now come certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ? How can we know we have now contained in our Babbles all that was written by a Divine Inspiration, and intended as a Rule to the Church, and no more? That is, How can we now be safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture, and be able upon good grounds to say, what is Canonical, and what is not?  
'Tis too apparent a Truth, that nothing by the power of its own worth and excellency, has ever been able to scape contempt and reproach from the unruly wills and debauched minds of corrupt and unreasonable men. The Bible has met with its share in this kind. Some, upon Fanatical Pretences, have despised and rejected the Whole; Others have mangled and severed it as themselves thought good; receiving some part only as Divine, and rejecting the rest as they pleased. Of this Iraeneus, Tertullian, Epiphanius, St. Austin, and many of the Christian Writers have given us a large account. The Manichees rejected the whole body of the Old Testament, as coming from an Evil God. The Ptolemaites (as Epiphamus tells us) rejected all the Books of Moses. The Gnostics, with some other Heretics, rejected the whole Book of Psalms. Cerdon, and after him Martion, rejected all the Gospels but that of St. Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and divers other parts of the New Testament, as we find by Tertullian. The Valentimans rejected all the Gospels but that of St. John, as we see in Irenaeus. Others rejected all that St. John wrote. The Ebionites received no Gospel but that of St. Matthen, and rejected in gross all the Epistles of St. Paul.  
In a word, There is not one Part of the Bible, from the first to the last, that has scaped the reprobation of some bad Men. But all such attempts were soon blown away, expired in the Birth, bore about them their own shame and reproach; made no considerable battery upon the Truth in any Age; Nor did they reach further than the vitiated Minds and corrupt Breasts of such Profligate Heretics as were the first Authors of them.  
In answering to this Question, How we come to be well assured about the Canon of the Bible, and that those Books now received by the Church of England, and other Protestant Churches as such, are all Canonical, and no other.  
Two things only will occur, that are of any seeming moment; In the due consideration of which, all will be said that is needful about this Matter.  
First, How we come to reject out of our Canon those Books commonly called Apocryphal, which were written (at least all but one of them) during the times of the Old Testament?  
And secondly, Upon what grounds we now receive some particular parts of the New Testament, which have sometimes lain under question?  
If we mistake in the first, we have less in our Bibles than we ought: If in the latter, we have much more than we should. About the first, concerning the several parts of the Old Testament, there is amongst Christians themselves a present Disagreement: But concerning the other, the whole Christian World is, at this day, of the same opinion.  
For the First, That there is good Reason to reject those Books commonly called the Apocrypha, that they were not written by any Divine Inspiration, nor sent us from GOD, as any part of those Supreme Laws by which he intended to rule and judge the World, and so ought not to be reckoned within the Canon, will be made very evident to any reasonable Judge, upon these Considerations following.  
First, After the time of Esdras, and the erection of the second Temple, 'tis universally agreed by all the most Ancient Jews and Christians, that the Jews had no Prophet amongst them, Nor did GOD raise up any Man with an Extraordinary Spirit from the time of Malachi (who is agreed to be the last Prophet) till John the Baptist, Which was for the space of four hundred and odd years. Now 'tis sufficiently evident that these Apocryphal Books were all written after the time of Malachi, and so can be of no extraordinary Mission; And if any of them had been written before, and had been extant in Ezra's time (which they were not) it had been an unanswerable Reason for their Rejection now, Because they were not received then. For, 'tis well known that none of these Books now in question were by Him incorporated with the rest of the Bible, nor were within the Canon at that time settled. That the Jews had no Prophets (by whom all parts of the Old-Testament were written: For the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles; And the whole of the Old-Testament is called Prophecy) nor any Men of an Extraordinary Spirit amongst them after the Captivity, both Jews and Christians generally agree. Josephus is express in it; in his first Book against Appion he tells us, that from the time of Artaxerxes, though certain Books had been written, yet they deserved not the same Credit and Belief that the Sacred Scriptures did, because there was no succession of prophets amongst them. Saint Austin in the 45th Chapter of his 18th Book De Civitate Dei, showeth at large that the Jews had no Prophecy after Ezra's time. And the same, Eusebius affirmeth in his Demonstrationes Evangelicae; Post Zachartam & Malachiam non fu●sse amplius apud Judaeos Prophetam; Et a reditu ex Captivitate ad tempora Servatoris nullum babucrint Judaei sacrum Volumen. The Jews had no Prophets after Zachary and Malachi, nor any Sacred Writings after the Captivity, till our Saviour's time. And some of these very Books tell us as much themselves: For, in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. 9 'tis there said, That there was then great Tribulation in Israel, such as had not been since the days that there had been no Prophet in Israel, (relating to Ezra's time.) And indeed it appears very plain from the Scripture itself, that there were no Divine Writings published between the Prophecy of Malachi, and the writing of the Gospels. For the Evangelists take things up just where he left them, and begin the Gospel from the end of Malachi's Prophecy. For, he ending his Prophecy at John the Baptist, under the Type and Title of Elias, and the Evangelists beginning the Gospel with Him, (for St. Mark expressly declares the ending of that Prophecy to be the beginning of the Gospel); There is a visible combination from thence, from that period of Prophecy, of the Old and New Testament together.  
Secondly, All the Writers of the Old Testament were Prophets to the House of Israel, and to the Church of the Jews; and their Writings and Prophecies were directed chief to them. And so they were all writ (except some Passages in Daniel and Ezra that were written in the Chaldee Dialect, to which the Jews had in their Captivity been much accustomed) in their own Native Language, the Language of Canaan, which was the Hebrew. But these Books were confessedly most of them first written in Greek, and could be of no use at all to the Jews at Jerusalem, and in Palestine; nor understood by any but the dispersed Hellenists: And so were no way likely to be sent from the Holy Ghost to that Church, who never owned any Scripture for Canonical but what was in Hebrew, a Language peculiar to them. And the Bibles they constantly used till our Saviour's time in their Synagogues were all in Hebrew.  
Thirdly, There is, in most of these Books, some eminent discovery of their own Humane Extraction: As in the second of Macc. 2.24. The Author of that Book, whoever he were, tells us that he had borrowed what he wrote out of Jason of Cyrene, and contracted five Books of his into one Volumn. And so what he there wrote, he is so far from fathering it on the Holy Ghost, or any Dictates of his, that he plainly confesseth 'twas none of his own, but the bare Epitome of another man's Writings, and desires to be excused if he had not done it well. And 'tis most notoriously evident to every common Reader, that many of these Books contain such ridiculous Stories, and gross Absurdities, that without high impiety, and great contradiction to all those Natural Notions we have of God, they cannot be imputed to the Holy Ghost as their Author.  
Fourthly, These Books were never received by the Church of the Jews into their Canon, nor are to this day: And so, during the times of the Old Testament, were never received by any Church, (for there was then no other) which is most absurd to conceive of any parts of God's Written and Supreme Laws; As also that the Jews, to whom in a most peculiar way the Oracles of God were committed, and who had the custody of all God's Sacred Records, and were (as St. Austin calls them) God's & the Churches great Library-Keepers, should so notoriously err, as to reject (for, not to receive into their Canon is to reject) so great a part of the Bible. 'Tis somewhat strange that those of the Roman Church (with whom chief we contest in this Matter, and who annex to the Church an infallible Judgement) should imagine the Church of the Jews to fall into so great and gross a mistake in so fundamental a matter. That the Jewish Church never heretofore received these Apocryphal Books into their Canon, nor do to this day, is a thing that with the least colour of Reason cannot be denied. That they do not to this day, is known all the World over, wheresoever the Jews are: And their Bible's are to be seen. That the Ancient Church of the Jews, before the times of our Saviour, had no other Books within their Canon, than those we now have, is evident from the testimony of Josephus, in his first Book against Appion, who there t●lls us what Books the Jews reckoned Canonical, and says, They are only twenty two in number, (according to the number of Letters in their Alphabet); and reckons those very Books we now receive as only Canonical; Other Books, he says, there were written after the Captivity, but they were never numbered with the Sacred Records. Origen, St. Jerome, and many other of the Christian Writers have largely proved the same. Those of the Roman Church, who have turned every Stone to ease themselves from the dint of this Argument, have found no other countenance that ever these Books received from the Jews, to make us suppose they received them into their Canon, but that in some places, some few of the Hellenist Jews that lived remote from Palestine, had annexed some of these Books to their Septuagint Bibles. But such Hellenists themselves had any esteem of them as Canonical Writings: Nor can it any more be proved from thence that they had, than it can, That we in England receive them into our Canon, because they are bound up with some of our Bibles. And never were any of these Books annexed to the Hobrew-Bibles used at Jerusalem, and in Palestine; nor were any of them ever read or admitted into their Synagogues there. In truth, This matter, in point of Fact, is so notorious and evident, that Bellarmine himself makes an ingenuous confession of it, and says plainly, Hos omnes Libros (speaking of these Apocryphal Books) ad unum rejici ab Hebraeis, That every one of these Books were rected by the Church of the Jews, Contr. 1. lib. 1. ch. 10. And confirms the same out of St. Jerome. And if so, we have then not only the judgement of the Judaical Church in this case, (which is singly sufficient: For, 'twere a ridiculous contradiction to make any Books part of the Old Testament now, which were not so received then). But we have also a more infallible determination; For our Saviour and the Apostles fully and constantly approved the Old Testament, as the Jews were then possessed of it. 'Twere absurd to suppose that our Saviour should with so much exactness, reduce all to the Rule of the Scripture, and yet tacitly approve, and silently pass over so great a mistake about the Rule itself. Our Saviour directs the Jews to search the Scriptures as they then had them, as being perfect and complete: Appeals to their own Bibles upon all occasions in his own defence: Expounded Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, as those to whom he spoke were acquainted with them, and as they were then extant; Nay, he himself read and preached in their Synagogues out of the Scriptures, as he there found them, and as they were there publicly used. And no man can soberly imagine that our Saviour would go about to instruct the People out of any false and imperfect Rule. The Apostles likewise upon all occasions made use of the Old Testament as they found the Jews possessed of it; Nor have we the least intimation that the Jews were either mistaken in the number of those Books they received, or that the least alteration had been made in those Books, since the times wherein they were first written.  
And 'tis as evident that the Old Tement (as the Jews than had it, and as our Saviour and the Apostles approved it) descended down to the Christian Church, and was constantly so received. The Primitive Writers agree universally in it. Cyprian, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Nazianzen, all bear witness to it. Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem, after he has reckoned up to his Catechumini, the 22 Books of the Old Testament we now receive, adds, Hos lege viginti duos; Cum Apocryphis nil habe negotii, Catechis. 4. Read these two and twenty Books; But meddle not with the Apocrypha. Origen, quoted for it at large by Eusebius, in his History, reckons up the very same twenty two Books for the Canonical parts of the Old Testament: And so does St. Jerome, and expressly reckons the other Apocryphal. The same we find in Russinus, who says, The Apocryphal Books they never anciently called Libros Canonicos, but Ecclesiasticos. And the first Council we read of that entered into a consideration of this Matter, which was that of Laodicea, about the year 364. in their 59 Canon, declare the Canonical Books of the Old Testament to be the very same, and no other than those we now receive. Nor were these Apocryphal Books ever otherwise reckoned, either in the Jewish or Christian Church, than as humane and fallible Writings, till the late Assembly at Trent were pleased to declare them otherwise.  
These things must needs seem sufficient to any reasonable man to clear up that doubt on the one hand, Whether we have not less in our Bibles than we indeed ought to have! Because that besides what the Roman Church hath of late done to Canonize these Apocryphal Writings, no other addition to the Bible has been at any time attempted, that merits the least consideration. I proceed to the doubt on the other hand: And that is, How we may be reasonably secured, that our Bibles contains in them no more than they should! That is, upon what ground we receive some Books in the New Testament! The Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistle of Judas, the 2 and 3 Epistles of John, and the Apocalypse! Of all which there has formerly been some doubt made! In the solution of which, I shall endeavour these two things: First, To show what were most probably the first and original grounds of such Doubts! And secondly, To show that those doubts than ought to be of no prevalency with us now; And that there is, at this time, no good reason to make the least doubt of any part of the New Testament, as we are now in possession of it. All the Doubts that have arisen about any parts of the New Testament, were most probably these two ways occasioned. First, 'Tis obvious that the New Testament was writ in several parts, at several times, and not all composed together. The Whole became not public but by many steps and degrees: Had several former and latter Editions; That is, some parts that were first writ, were copied out by those that had the Originals, and conjoined, and so dispersed: And other parts still added as they were written, and became public. Now 'tis easy to conceive that some parts that were after added to such Bibles as first came out, might be at first questioned and doubted of, by such who had the former Editions, and were not fully informed about the after Addition of other parts. And so it has fallen out in the publication of most Systemes of Humane Laws that have come out gradually and by parts, and not in a full and entire Body at once. Secondly, 'Tis very probable that many Christians that lived in those first Times, by reason of their distance from those places where some parts of the New Testament first became public, might be, for a considerable time, it may be till after the deaths of their Authors) without any notice of them; And upon that account some doubts about such parts might arise, because they ●ad come to their knowledge no sooner, especially if any such parts seemed to ●avour or countenance any particular Sect or Opinion, as the Epistle to the Hebrews did that of the Novations, and the Apocalypse that of the Chiliasts). And this is most likely to be the true reason why some of the Epistles (and we know 'twas about the Epistles that the doubts chief were) were at any time questioned, especially such as were more remotely, and uncertainly directed to the scattered Jews, as that of St. James, that to the Hebrews, and that of St. Peter, which were no way likely to be so soon, or so commonly known to the generality of Christians; Nor could they be so easy to come by as those Epistles sent to Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus, and those great and public Cities, from whence the fame of them would soon spread; and Copies were upon much easier terms to be had, because 'twas certainly known where the Originals were.  
Secondly. There is no good Reason, from any Question that was made heretofore, to raise any Doubts now about any Parts of the New-Testament; And that for these three Reasons: First, Because these Books in question were most generally received at first, and doubted of only by some, and those such who had least information about them. And this is very evident; Because we find them frequently quoted, as Canonical Scripture, by many of the most ancient Christian-Writers, in those Ages next the Apostles. Tertullian (except the second Epistle of St. Peter) hath in his Works quoted, as Canonical Scripture, every Book of the New-Testament we now receive. And St. Jerome, speaking in his Epistle ad Dardan●m of the Epistle to the Heb●ews, and some other of those Books about which we now discourse, says, We receive them not from the Custom of this Time, but from the Authority of the most Primitive Writers. Secondly, They contain nothing in them but what does plainly harmonise with the rest of the Bible, and is generally witnessed unto by other Books, about which no question hath been at any time made. And of this there can be no doubt, unless it be concerning the Revelation, which yet contains a most Admirable, though Mysterious Agreement with the Books of Moses, the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, and divers other parts of the Bible. And to this Book (besides that the suitableness of Events thereunto, and the notorious fulfilling of many Prophetical passages in it, has put its Divine Authority out of all question) we have as great a Testimony from Antiquity, as can in such a case well be expected. Justin Martyr, who lived very near the Apostle John himself, in his Dialogue with Tryphon, citys it as the Writing of St. john, and without the least question, ascribes it to him. Irenaeus (who lived some small time after Justin, and was the Scholar of Polycarp, who was the Scholar of St. john) says positively, 'Twas written by St. john the Apostle. And that he was well assured thereof from some (most probably Polycarp) that had seen the Apostle john himself, and personally conversed with him. Lib. 4. cap. 37. and Lib. 5. And ●ertullian in his 4th Book against Martion, says, Though Martion did reject the Apocalypse as none of St. John 's, yet (says he) the succession of Bishop's tracod to the beginning, will establish Him as the certain and undoubted Author of it. Thirdly, God has, in a providential way, determined this matter. For, those that at first questioned those Books (when the heat of primitive Persecutions were somewhat abated, the Church had free intercourse and communication together, and came to be better informed) received them: All doubts about them are now vanished. Luthur, and some with him in Germany (who were the last that revived any doubts of that kind) upon second and more deliberate thoughts, recanted their Error. All Christians are now at an Agreement about them (the Supremest Establishment that can be of Canonical-Authority) even the Roman Church themselves receive the Apocalypse into their Canon, although many passages in it seem very particularly directed against them. Indeed, the heavenly lustre of these Books is broke forth like the Sun in his strength, has overspread the whole Horizon of the Christian Church; And where ever the Gospel is owned, these Books are received with that Veneration that becomes due to such Sacred Writings.  
The Church of England Judges the doubts that have been at any time made about any parts of the New Testament not worthy of our Notice. And therefore in the sixth Article it is thus expressed. In the Name of the holy Scriptures we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church. That is, no considerable doubt; no general doubt in the Whole Church; Nor indeed any such doubt as aught to disturb either the Church's determination, or any particular man's judgement about this matter. For it cannot be showed that any One entire Church, or that any National or Provincial Council, or indeed that any Considerable part of the Christian World, in any Public Confessions, Catechisms, or otherwise, have rejected any of those Books we now reckon within the Canon. The most Considerable Doubt that we find made about any one of them was, about the Epistle to the Hebrews, which for some time was doubted of in the Roman Church; And yet Eusebius says only, It was doubted of a quibusdam in Ecclesia Romana, by some in the Roman Church; and 'tis certain, much of that doubt was, whether St. Paul were the Author of it or no? But to conclude an Answer to this Question, let these two things be Considered. First, under the Old Testament, so soon as all the Parts of it were finished, the Canon of That was exactly settled by men of an infallible Spirit, in the times of Esdras, and those last Prophet's contemporary with him; and so no further Doubt was, or could reasonably be made about that. Secondly, under the New Testament, it pleased God so to order it, that he that closed up the whole Bible, and wrote the Conclusion of it, so far outlived all the other Penmen, that he himself might very well see the Whole conjoined, and deliver it over to the Church, entire as we now have it. The Apostle St. John not only survived Titus, and that famous Destruction of the Temple, and the Jews, in his time, but he lived through Domitian's time, and Cocceius Nerva's time, to the Reign of the Emperor Trajan, which was somewhat above a Hundred years after our Saviour's Birth, and sixty and odd after his Crucifixion; so Irenaeus tells us lib. 2. p. 192. And some other of the Apostles it should seem lived long; for the same Author says, that there were in his time Saniores qui non solum Johannem viderint sed & alios Apostolos: Elders that had not only seen S. John, but others of the Apostles. That the Canon of the New Testament was established and settled by Apostolical Authority seems very probable. S. Austin contra Faust. Man. lib. 11. cap. 5. and in his 19 Epist. positively affirms it, Distincta est (says he) à posteriorum libris excellentia Canonica authoritatis veteris & Novi Testamenti, quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus. Saint Jerome says, Johannem omnium longissimè vixisse & videre libros omnes & confirmare posset, & si qui fictitij liberi ederentur, eos à s●cris & verè Canonicis distinguere. That the Apostle John outlived all the rest of the Apostles, that he might peruse and confirm all the Parts of the New Testament and distinguish them from all counterfeit Writings, if any such came abroad. And he further adds, That some Spurious Writings concerning the actions of S. Paul were brought to him, and that he, by his Apostolical Authirity, condemned them. Tertullian, de Prescript. says expressly, The Canon of the Bible is founded upon Apostolical Authority. And Eusebius gives this plain testimony to it, Narrant veteres Johannem Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum rogatu, Germanum Scripturae Canonem constituisse. The ancients tell us (says he) that St. John, upon the request of the Asiatic Churches, settled the true Canon of Scripture. 'Tis certain that S. John before his death, made his abode much at Sardis and Ephesus, and amongst those Asiatic Churches; For after the death of Domitian, he was restored from his Banishment by the Emperor Nerva, and returned from Patmos into Asia, and there governed the Churches until his death. And 'tis extremely probable, that upon their desire, he then fully settled the Canon of the New Testament; for that there was then occasion for the doing of it, we sinned by Ense●ius his History of those times. And it is evident from S. John himself that the Church of Ephesus had been attempted by false Apostles in those days; and whatever Doubts of that kind were then extant, we cannot otherwise suppose but that they would be proposed to him, and End in his Apostolical determination. So that if we lay all these things together, St. john's living so long after all ●he Parts of the New Testament, but the Revelation, were Written: And his surviving some very considerable time after the Writing of that, (for it is most probable that he received those Visions and wrote them in the end of the Reign of Domitian) his closing the whole with that Book; after which, he declares (as many think) by pronouncing a Curse to him that should add to it, or diminish from it) that there was to be no further Revelation expected, having therein given a full account of the State of the Church to the end of the world. Considering the Doubts that were then extant about some Parts, amongst such as had not a thorough Information about them, and that False apostles did then appear, considering of how great a Concern it was then, and would be to all future Ages to have the Canon of the whole Bible settled by an Infallible judgement; and considering the material Evidence we have from many Primative Writers, That indeed it was so. All these things considered, there seems very probable Ground to believe that the Apostle John before he left the world, did fully Determine this matter; and 'tis most likely, that as the Knowledge of what he had done came to be published abroad, the Doubts that were then made disappeared. And we that live in these latter Ages see that all the Questions and Doubts that have at any time been, are perfectly vanished, and the whole bopy of the New Testament hath now gained an Universal reception.  
Thirdly, How can we that have not the Originals of the Scriptures, not the Outographa 's of those that Wrote them, but only the Copies of them, and most but the Translations of those Copies, rest assured we have God's Mind as it was first delivered?  
In Answering to this Question, it must be acknowledged that the Original Records of every Part of the Bible did at first consist of Perishable matter, and have undergone the common Fate of all other Writings. 'Tis evident it was not the pleasure of God that the Authority of the Scriptures should be terminated singly in them, but be of a much farther Extension, and of a perpetual Duration. 'Tis not to be doubted but that the Apographa's Copies truly taken from the Originals of any part of the Bible, were of equal Authority with the Originals themselves. 'Twas not the Paper, nor the Ink, nor the Hand wherein they were writ, nor any thing Circumstantial of that kind, but the Matter itself, as dictated by the Holy Ghost, that gave Authority to them. And wheresoever that Matter is truly contained, there is also the same Authority present. The great Question in these days will be, Whether those Copies we have of the Scriptures in those Original Languages in which they were first Writ, be True! and whether they have not been since Defaced or Corrupted?  
The Satisfaction that ought to be given to this Inquiry, must arise these two ways; First by considering the Scriptures themselves in their present posture; And Secondly, by considering such Circumstances as attended their first Transcription, and the various Copies that were then, and have been since, taken of them. I begin with the Latter. First, the Old Testament we know was delivered over as it first became written to the Church of the Jews, and committed by God himself to their Custody: And 'twas they alone that had the Care incumbent upon them, punctually to Transcribe, and safely to secure it. That they performed this Trust with great Care and exactness, and delivered the Old Testament over entire to the Christian Church, we have good cause to believe: and that both upon general, and some more particular ground. First, upon General ground; 'Tis notorious that the Jews had the highest value imaginable of their Law, and prized it above all else they possessed. Both Josephus and Philo tell us, that the Jews would rather have suffered a thousand Deaths, then that the least thing should be once altered in the Divine Laws and Statutes of their Nation. The miraculous power upon which the first Foundation of it was Established, had imprinted in that People an indelible veneration of it. Secondly, it was the Municipal Law of their Country, and that by which all matters of right were daily Adjudged, and by which each man's Property amongst them was maintained and secured. Thirdly, their Law was not only the Glory of their Nation, and the Foundation of their Political and Ecclesiastical being, but it was also the great Title they had to their Country. The Scriptures contained in themselves the Deeds by which God himself conveyed to them the Land of Canaan, and gave them the highest Right to possess it. 'Tis not hard from hence to conceive that the Jews would be careful of such a Book, wherein their Bodies, their Souls, their Estates, their Honour, and indeed their All was so much concerned. Secondly, it appears more particularly and in fact that they were so; For after that by God's Providential disposal, Ezra and that Famous Synagogue with him, had exactly settled their Canon, and delivered over the Scriptures pure and entire to the People at their return out of Babylon, the indefatigable Care of the succeeding Mastori●es, from those very Times downward, to preserve every Letter and Syllable of the sacred Text entire, is notoriously known to all that converse with the Jewish Writers; even to so great an exactness had they arrived, that they knew how often every Letter was used in the Bible: And indeed they took such a course to preserve the Original Text entire, that it was morally Impossible that the least considerable Alteration or Change could at any time be made in it. Eusebius speaks with great Wonder of the Industry and Care of the Jews in this matter, Mirabile mihi videtur (says he) duobus annorum millibus, in●o majore tempore jam ferè transacto (non enim exquisitissimè annorum possum dicere numerum) Nec verbum unum in Lege illius esse immutatum, sed Centiès unusquisque Judaeorum moritur, quam Lege Mosaicae derogavit. It seems wonderful to me, that for the space of two thousand years and upward (for I cannot exactly reckon the number of years) not so much as one word should be Changed in their Law, but that every Jew would rather die a hundred times over, then derogate in the least from it. And that this care of the Judaical Church was, by God's blessing effectual and successful for the securing of the Old Testament from all maim or Imperfection, and the least considerable alteration from what it was when it was first Delivered; There needs no other Evidence then that our Saviour and the Apostles fully approved it as the Jews were then in possession of it, and never charged them with the least Gild either of Corruption or Neglect in that kind. And to suppose the Jews have Corrupted it since (considering that it was near three hundred years before our Saviour's time, translated into Greek, and that any after-corruption must needs have been manifestly Discovered from thence; and considering how much of it is quoted in the New, (is very absurd.) so thought st. Jerome in his time, siquis dixerit, post adventum Christi & predicationem Apostolorum, Libros, Hebraeos fuisse Falsatos risam tenere non potero, ut salvator & Apostoli ita Testimonia protuleri● sicut à Judaeis falsand●erant. If any man think the Old Testament (says he) falsifyed after our saviours coming, I can scarce forbear smiling to think, that our saviour and the Apostles should quote the Old Testament so, as the Jews should falsify it after their times. And with the same Contempt speaks Origen, and s. Austin of such a vain and absurd supposition.  
That we have also good reason to believe, that the New Testament is safely and entirely, and without any Considerable variation from what it was when it was first written, descended down to us, will likewise appear; first, from the Circumstances attending its first Transcription, and the Manner, and Circumstances of its Conveyance: And secondly, from its Present condition and posture. For the first, When the several Parts of the New Testament were first written, so very many had embraced the Doctrine thereof, from the Preaching of Christ and the Apostles, that it is not to be doubted but that multitudes of Copies were immediately taken, and dispersed into all parts of Europe, into Asia, and Egypt, and wheresoever the Christian Religion was by any received; Nor can we suppose that men that suffered daily for a Religion, the loss of their lives and estates, would not be careful Exactly to know the Doctrine of it, and to be safely possessed of that great Rule by which they were to be in all things Directed, when ' 'twas so easily to be had. Nay, ' 'tis probable that the Apostles themselves might disperse several Transcripts of their own Writings amongst the Christians, & so innumerable Copies might be taken from many Originals. But however, Certain it is, that the Autographa's of the Apostles, the very Originals of the New Testament themselves, were very long Preserved as most precious Jewels in the Church. Tertullian says, some of them were extant in his time; and we are told by some Authors of Credit, that s. John's Gospel Written with his own Hand, was preserved by the Church of Ephesus till the time of Honorius the Emperor. Now let any reasonable man judge what a vast number of Copies were likely to be taken before the Originals perished? and how highly improbable, if not morally Impossible, it was, to impose a public and general abuse upon the world by a false Transcription of such Writings! while the Originals themselves lasted it could not be done. Nor can we conceive the Christian Church so intolerable sottish, and so universally Negligent, as to take up with false Transcripts, while the Originals were to be had to compare them withal, and correct them by. And before the Originals themselves perished, such a vast multitude of True Copies, generally known from the Originals so to be, must needs be extant, and we are historically assured actually were so: that the scriptures were for ever thereby secured against any attempts that could possibly be made that way.  
secondly, If we consider how much this Book upon its first publication filled the world with Discourse! what various Disputes there arose relating to all Parts of it, wherein an Appeal on all sides was still made to the Letter of the Text and the Book it self! how throughly all Passages in it were Discussed and Examined both by Jews, Christians, and Heathens, urged and made use of in the warmest controversies (in the pursuit of which, by men of different Persuasions, the misreciting, or corrupting a Text would soon have been openly published) If we consider by how many Authors in those times it was quoted; and that it was then the continual and general study of the Christian-parts of the world, and the constant and daily Work and Employment of many amongst them to Preach and instruct the People out of it; all this Considered, it is most absurd to imagine that the least considerable Alteration could ever be made in such a Book, without some notorious and universal discovery: Nor could it ever possibly happen, unless we'll suppose that all men, in some One Age, of all Opinions, that were possessed of the Bible, should at once agree together to deface their Grand Charter, their Magna Charta by which they held all, to corrupt that sacred Depositum on which they wholly relied for their present and eternal welfare, to no other end, but their own utmost ruin, and to abuse all succeeding Generations.  
secondly, If we consider the New Testament itself as we now find it. First, ' 'tis in the Bulk of it so composed, as does much secure us (especially in all material things) against all danger this way. Either it must have been Generally attempted, or in some Particulars. To imagine any General attempt should that way be made, is ridiculous; nor do we hear one word that there was ever a Thought to endeavour any such thing. And to effect an Altetation about any One Particular point, is a thing could not easily be done; because no little alteration would do it. No considerable Truths could be Inverted without many alterations made: because they are all generally grounded upon very many Texts, witnessed unto from several places; and indeed all the Eminent Truths of the New Testament are so interwoven together, and have such a Dependency each upon other, that it would be found a very hard Task to Deface the beauty of any One, without giving a considerable Wound to the Wholes Nor in truth do we find any one Part of the New Testament that looks like a Patch set upon the rest, nor any one Doctrine that savours in the least, of any such sophistication. This Book does not appear to be partly from God and partly from Men, but there is One Divine spirit breathed visibly through the Whole. 'Tis all of a Piece. Nor could any wicked design to Corrupt any one Part of it have taken effect, but in all probability the rest would some way or other have made an opon Discovery of it.  
Thirdly; The various Readins we meet with in several copies of the New Testament, are in themselves, if duly considered, a great evidence that the Originals have not been corrupted; for such various readings of any place cannot be reasonably thought to arise from any design to vitiate and falsify the Text; because such various Readins do rather accidentally tend to discover anything of that nature, and secure against any Total and General Alteration; and amongst them all to contain and preserve the Integrity and native sense of the Text, and enable a diligent Reader, by a through search and Examination of them to find it out. Nor do we ever suppose that any Book that has passed through many hands and been often Transcribed, to be totally Cortrupted or Changed, because in some places of it we find various Lections, but are thereby much secured that such Books have not been Designedly Altered; And with good reason do judge that such various Lections are barely the effects of casual mistakes, and that the Original sense of the Author is still preserved, and may, by a careful and diligent inspection be found out amongst them. And indeed, those we find of some Texts in the New Testament, are of such a nature, that they all evidently appear the effects of humane frailty, and only such variations, as might (considering how vast a number of Copies were at first taken) escape the best scribes, and the greatest diligence. Nor is there the least appearance of any Design or Contrivance to Vitiate the Original Text, or any thing to be found that in the least degree looks that way in all those Various Readins that we find amongst such Copies, as have been most anciently, most generally, and most publicly used in the Church, by which we are to take out Measure in this matter. 'Tis in this case, of great Consideration, That no Particular designs of any bad men have been gratified, nor any corrupt Ends attained; nor indeed any Distinct Ends at all, of any sort, by any such diversity of readings: which sufficiently shows they came not originally from Contrivement, nor were Intended as the Foundation of any particular Notions, but are the bare and single effects of Accident. That the New Testament therefore has been in any Part of it, wholly changed and corrupted, there appeareth neither Certain not Probable ground to believe. Nor indeed is there any good ground to believe that these Sacred Records have suffered the least violation in this kind. First, no man can prove that the Scriptures were ever Corrupted, nor tell us by whom, or When, or the manner How! which yet ought to be done, if men will Reasonably Object in this case; For no such Presumption as this (that renders God in his Providence so Regardless of his Word, and his Church, and so Reproaches the Christian Profession that has been in such a Succession Established upon the Authority of this Book) ought ever to be admitted without very positive Proof: Especially when we have such apparent Reasons to believe the contrary. By Whom is it, I ask, that the Bible could be corrupted? It must have been either by Jews, Pagans, or Heretics. 'Tis plain the Jews have not done it; for we find multitudes of Texts that give in a daily witness against them, which doubtless had they attempted the Bible in such a way, they would never have suffered so to remain upon Record against them. No part of the Pagan World can be reasonably thought to have done it: for the Scriptures contain such an eminent Revelation of the One true God and his Worship, as puts an end to all Heathenish vanities, and at once dispatches all False gods out of the world. Nor have Heretics done it; for 'tis this Sword of the Spirit, the Written Word of God, that upon all occasions mortally wounds them: the Scriptures have slain their thousands and their ten thousands in this kind. 'Tis the purity of the Scriptures in asserting the Orthodox Truths of Religion, that has in all Ages kept up the Christian Verity, and still brought all sorts of Heretics to an open shame. It has been the Wresting or Perverting, not the Corrupting of Scripture, from whence all Heresies have chief arisen; and the native and genuine Sense of the Bible has still proved their Ruin. Nor is there upon the whole of this matter, any tolerable Reason to Doubt but that as God was pleased by his special Providence to Secure the Old Testament (which we are sure he did) and preserve it entire till the time of our Saviour, so by the same Providence he has secured the Old and the New since, and delivered them over to the Church in these latter Ages without any considerable variation from what they were when they were first written. And this aught to be duly considered, as an eminent help towards a rational Satisfaction in this point, That the very same Objections which some men now please themselves with against the New Testament, the Old Testament was equally liable to, in the times of our Saviour and the Apostles. For after Esdras' time, the Old Testament came into no Infallible bands till the times of the Gospel, was conveyed by fallible means through many Ages down to those times, had the same possibilities of Alteration then, that the New Testament has now; Various Lections also in the Hebrew copies were then extant: And yet for all this, the Scriptures of the Old Testament were then pure and entire: Nor does our Saviour or the Apostles mention the least defect that was then in them: Nor was there in those eminent times of Reformation, the least Question or doubt ever raised upon any such account.  
One grand Objection is usually made upon the whole of this matter, and 'tis thus framed. All these Arguments brought either to prove the Bible in general, or to answer such particolar doubts as arise about it, are built (say some) upon no better foundation than Hu●an●, and in themselves fallible grounds: And if so, we still embrace our Religion, but upon uncertain terms; can never from chance arrive at any positive and absolute assurance, nor come to such a Divine and Infallible faith as we ought to have in this case.  
In answering to this Objection, this must be acknowledged, that although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were at first Penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost, yet the manner of their Conveyance to future Ages has been by Humane, and in themselves fallible means. The Grounds and Reasons of which disposal of God, though we cannot pretend fully to reach, yet we are thus far informed; First, the Scriptures could not have been by means in themselves absolutely infallible, handed down to all Places and Ages, without the visible continuance and constant exertion of such a supernatural and extraordinary Power as would have wholly inverted that course we find God most generally takes in his Rule and dispose of the World. Secondly, it would have prevented all that case and industry God intended to exercise his Church withal to their great advantage) in the exact preservation of these sacred Records. Thirdly, there had been no room for a belief of, not occasion for a dependence upon that Wisdom and Power God has expressed, and wherein he has greatly honoured himself, in an overruling disposal of ordinary means to such extraordinary Ends, who has providentially secured this Book through all the several Channels of Humane conveyance.  
This Objection is much urged; First, by those of the Roman Church on the one hand, to convince us of the great uncertainty of our own profession, and the stability of theirs. And Secondly, by men of Sceptical Principles on the other hand, either to fright or persuade us, or both, out of all Religion, by telling us. There is no positive or absolute certainty in the grounds of any. How serviceable this Objection (though it has filled the World with great noise and clamour, as it has been pressed both ways) will prove to either of these designs, and indeed with how great absurdity 'tis managed in order to both, will be soon made to appear.  
All belief of things Divine in an ordinary way (I speak not of such Divine illumination, as God may particularly vouchsafe to any) ●ust of necessity be ultimately resolved into that we call Rational and Moral assurance; for when we speak most properly of Divine faith, we mean such a faith as is built upon a Divine Testimony, not denominating it from the Object of it, nor from the Effect of it (which is less proper) but from the Foundation and Ground of it. Now Divine faith, in that best and truest sense of it, will be reduced into no more than a Moral a ssurance at last; for, if I say my faith is Divine, because built upon a Divine Testimony, 'tis in some sense true: But if I am asked, by what means I came to know that Testimony to be Divine! That question must needs bring me back to a Moral assurance as the ground of all my previous belief about that Divine Testimony itself, that it really is so. Whatsoever Revelation God makes of his mind to me, I must needs without Divine assistance receive it upon Humane, and in themselves fallible terms, and so judge of it as I judge of all other things. No man can receive my Revelation from God, with a faith a Divine and infallible as the Revelation is in itself, unless there be an equal inspiration in both cases, and God make men as infallible in Judging of Revelation when proposed, as he made the Instruments of it in the Act of its Conveyance. The plain Question, in this Case, is how I come to receive all other things into my belief that are Objects of belief? It must be confessed, upon the grounds of Rational credibility and Moral assurance; and therefore upon the same terms must I believe all things Divine and Supernatural, unless God give me new faculties, or some way extraordinarily assist me, and make me somewhat more than I was. Nor did any man that was not himself Divine and Infallible (as the Apostles were) and inspired infallibly to know that he was so, ever receive any Revelation upon any higher terms then that we call Moral assurance, and Humane credibility. For first, If I receive a Revelation upon Motives External and Foreign to itself, such Motives are all granted to be in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature. If I receive it upon any Motives Internal, any Testimony resulting from such Revelation itself, to justify its own Divinity to me, yet I must of necessity (without extraordinary inspiration) judge of such Internal Testimony, by Moral considerations, and from Humane and Rational Argumentation with myself, come at last to make a judgement about it. Those that lived in the first times, that saw the Miracles, and heard the Doctrine delivered from the mouths of the Apostles themselves, were yet (without inspiration) but upon Humane and fallible terms of judging and believing; because those Mediums by which they did judge and believe, were in their own Nature so; for, 'tis not a thing in itself infallibly certain, but that any man may be mistaken in the judgement he makes of a Miracle, or in that faith whereby he embraces any Doctrine as Divine.  
First, This Objection, as 'tis urged by those of the Roman Church, does not disturb us at all. Indeed, returns directly upon themselves, nor does the remedy they provide, any way cure that inconveniency which they suppose will otherwise accrue to Religion by it; They tell us, God has placed an unerring Judgement, a faculty of making an infallible determination in the Church, and from thence this Objection is Answered, by that means we are perfectly at an end of all doubts about this matter; for, if the Church, that is in itself Infallible, tells us, that this is the word of God, and as it was at first delivered, we come upon that account to a Divine and Infallible faith, as built upon a Divine and Infallible Testimony, and are infallibly assured about it. But this kind of reasoning brings us but just where we were, and is indeed in itself but a very mean sort of trifling; for, 'tis to erect another infallibility, to be assured of which there is ten times greater difficulty then in the former case. The Scriptures (we say) are in themselves Divine and Infallible, as coming from God; The Question is, about out way of coming to know this, that they are so. 'Tis confessed by us, it must be without inspiration by means in themselves Humane and Fallible, and from thence results the strength of this Objection: That supposing the Scriptures to be in themselves Divine, yet we coming in a Humane way to the Knowledge that they are so, and to solve all Objections against them, our belief of them is still resolved into no more than that we call a Humane and Rational credibility. And do we not come to the very same point in the other case? The Church (say they) is Divinely inspired; but how came I to know it? To say, by the Scriptures, is in this case ridiculous; If upon Providential and Probable Motives (as themselves do acknowledge) we are thereby pitched upon a fallible bottom still; are we not upon the same Humane and Fallible means of judging; 'Tis not enough in this case to make the Pope or any else Infallible; but before we can that way perfectly enervate this Objection, we must make every man infallibly to know that they are so infallible. Can any man more infallibly judge of the Church's infallibility then of the Bibles? Are there not as many, nay more questions that must necessarily be determined by Fallibly and Humanely judging in the one Case then in the other? as first whether there actually be any such thing as an infallible Church extant or no; Secondly, if there be, what Church it is that is so; and Thirdly, whether that Church be universally infallible, or only in some things; and under what sort of constitution it must be, when it so infallibly acts; so that, admit the Church's infallibility in itself, yet 'tis utterly impossible that a man should believe any thing upon its infallible determination, with any other than a Humane and Fallible Faith; because 'tis upon Humane and Fallible Motives upon which men primarily and previously come to an assurance of such infallibility. And therefore, whatsoever faith in the Roman Church is grounded upon the Churches infallible Judgement, it must unavoidably be ultimately resolved into such Grounds as are in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature. So that the Roman infallibility, as 'tis in itself an absurd and fictitious pretention, so were it admitted, 'tis to no purpose at all for that end for which 'tis intended, so far as 'tis urged in this matter.  
Secondly, a rational Belief of the Bible, and a rational Satisfaction about it, founded in a Moral assurance, is all we can have, and all that in this case we ought to expect. I demand of all such Objectors, by what means they come to any Assurance in any Point of Religion! To one of these three things they will be unavoidably forced: Either to deny that there is any certainty at all in Religion, and thereby to subvert all Religion: To pretend to extraordinary Inspiration; or else to acknowledge they come to it in a Moral way. And indeed the founding our belief of Revelation upon Moral and Rational Assurance, is so far from subverting the certainty of our Religion, that the grand Fundamentals of all Religion must of necessity be originally established upon that Bottom, and can be upon no other; for we come to an Assurance of the Being of God, and the future state of men's Souls, upon no other Grounds then Moral and Rational conclusions, from whence there can possibly result no more than a Moral Assurance. Whoever attempts a Rational proof of the Being of God, is obliged to disclaim all pretence to Infallibility, in the way of his Proof; because Infallibility is wholly relative to God himself: The notion of it cannot exist without the admission of such a Being; and therefore to talk of an infallible way of proving his Being, would be grossly absurd; for 'twere openly to beg the Question, and take that for granted which we oblige ourselves to prove. So that whoever upon rational terms and the grounds of Moral Assurance, believe the Bible to be sent us from God, believes it upon the same Grounds upon which he must necessarily believe the first Principles of all Religion, and believe it upon the highest terms God either requires or enables him without Inspiration to believe it; upon such as ought sufficiently to fix him in his belief, and upon such as if duly pursued, will certainly produce all those excellent ends God intends by this Book.  
This may serve, in some measure, to manifest the vanity of all pretensions to an infallible belief (without a Divine and infallible assistance) of revealed and supernatural Truths, and the Mistakes of such, who suppose we can never be settled in any Points of Religion without it: And may sufficiently justify an endeavour to make a Rational proof of the Scriptures, without a pretence to any such Divine and infallible Judgement about them. If so much be urged for the Proof of the Bible in general, and in Answer to particular Doubts relating to the manner of its conveyance, as will amount to a rational assurance and satisfaction; 'Tis all we can have without Inspiration, and all we ought to Expect in this case. All we pretend to from attempts of this nature, is but a Moral assurance that this Book was at first written by God's direction, and that those Copies we now have of it, are without any designed corruption, or other variation from the first Originals (than what humane frailty in the Transcribing of them has occasioned) descended down to us: and that in all such places where we find various readings, the true Sense of the place, and the original Dictates of the Holy Ghost, are amongst them all safely preserved, and by a diligent search may be discovered.  
And upon the same Grounds of Moral Assurance are men in point of Translations, and all such who are Illiterate. For, as we can be without extraordinary assistance but Morally certain that the Bible was Originally Written by a divine direction, and that those Copies we now have of it in the Original Languages, were at first Rightly transcribed, and have not been since corrupted or changed, so men may be also Morally Certain about a Translation. For 'tis in itself a thing very possible to be, that the Scriptures may, out of their own Languages, be truly and rightly translated (and being so, are of the same Divine Authority that they were before) and upon circumstantial considerations men may come rationally and safety to conclude that they are so. And indeed, unless all men in an Age that understand the Original tongues, should agree, (which is absurd to conceive, and morally impossible to be) to deceive and abuse those that do not; no Designed abuse nor any palpable falsehood can be imposed upon men that way. And in like manner, persons Illiterate may be Morally Certain that they are no way deceived, when the Scriptures are Preached or Read to them. The Ground of Assurance in all these cases is still the same; the Difference is only Gradual. Those who understand the Original Languages are upon easier and nearer terms of Moral Assurance about them, but in the other cases it may be also attained. And in all cases, God has providentially afforded means sufficient to secure any reasonable man about the Truth and Authority of his Word.  
Fourthly, How can we believe this Book (say some) to be from God, when we find contained in it divers Contradictions? Several strange and Incredible Stories? and other things greatly liable to Exception?  
This Objection, though it looks with the most Threatening aspect, has yet the least prevailing Influence; is of all others the most Impotent, has the least rational Vigour; and when duly examined, will prove least effectual to those bad Ends for which it is by any intended. When men tell us in general of Contradictions they find in the Bible, but come to no Distinct and positive Proof, they do not in that case Object, but Revile. He that will give an Edge to such kind of Discourse must punctually Instance Wherein this book has asserted any One such thing as implies a direct Contradiction, and is in its own Nature utterly Impossible to be; or where any two things are affirmed and denied so directly contrary to each other, that they are wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation. This task, with some degree of Contempt, we impose upon all Antiscriptural men: And are very secure that all those seeming Contradictions that are to be found in the Bible, do at last prove an eminent Testimony to its Divinity. For first, they are in their appearance so to be, a great Instance that in the Writing of this Book, there was no corrupt Design to Cajole or engage the opinions of men to it. And Secondly, upon a thorough 〈◊〉 & due there appears in them all, such a deep, unthought of, and admirable Concord (without the least show of any Designed Agreement) and such a unanimous tendency towards the great End of the whole, as greatly savours of Divine Council, and such a Contrivance, as we may reasonably expect to come from Above.  
In the management of these kind of Weapons against the Bible, we find none that have been at any time since, more dexterous, then heretofore were Celsus, Juli●n, Porphiry, and Faustus the Manichee. How mean their attempts were, and how little Impression they made, will appear by the Instance of some of their chiefest Objections in this kind. First they Object against the Bible, because we are told therein of divers Incredible things: As that a Serpent should speak to Eve; an Ass reprove his Master; that the Sun should stand st●●●; and a Woman be turned into Salt, with many other things of the like nature. That the Devil should speak in a Serpent, or that God should open the mouth of an Ass, can seem Impossible, and so incredible to none that acknowledge such Superior and Invisible Powers; especially 'twas absurd in Celsus, and Julian, and others of the Heathens so to Object; because nothing was more commonly believed amongst them then Stories of this nature; and 'tis well known the Devil spoke daily to them through Images. Philostratus gives a large account how an Elm-tree spoke to Apollonius; Porphyry tells us that a River saluted Pythagoras; & Julian himself and his Philosopher Maximus had oft heard the Devil speak with divers kinds of voices: and therefore no such things could seem Impossible to them, Nay, Julian acknowledged a Possibility of the highest point in the Bible, which is the Incarnation of the Deity; and himself gave an instance of it in Esculapius, whom he supposed to descend from Heaven and assume Humane Nature, that he might instruct the World in the art of Physic. 'Tis in truth, in itself, a thing Childish and absurd, to Object against the Bible for the relation of any such passages, if the Being of God be once acknowledged. 'Tis true that no humane power can make the Sun stand still, turn a Woman ●●●o Salt, or effect any thing of such a nature; and should the Scriptures ascribe any such things to any Humane Ability, the Objection were well grounded: but they are things possible, and easy with God to effect: and the fact of them, when ascribed to Him, of an easy belief; Nor can any man reasonably Object against the Scriptures upon any such account, that does not first deny the Actual Existence of God.  
Secondly, They tell us, there are some things contained in the Scriptures and ascribed to God, that are altogether unworthy of him, and no way fit to proceed from him; and they Instance chief in two: The Command given to Abraham to slay his Son, and the Command given to the Prophet Hosea, to Marry a Wife of Whoredoms, and an Adulteress, The first is soon Answered: For it appears to be a Command (which might very properly result from the Sovereignty of God) only for the Trial and Exercise of Abraham's obedience; and 'tis evident, God never intended any such thing should be effected, for he himself after forbade it. For the Second, 'Tis very plain to be only a Transaction in a Vision, to set forth the corrupt and Idolatrous state of the ten Tribes at that time, and nothing that was then really acted by the Prophet himself in person; and 'tis usual in the Scriptures to have things historically related, that were only in Visions transacted. So the Prophet Jeremy, when he was besieged in Jerusalem, is said to be Commanded to go to Euphrates a River in Babylon, and hid his Girdle in the hole of a Rock there; 'Twas not possible for Jeremy at that time to go thither, and 'tis very evident, he did not, neither then nor at any time after: And yet 'tis Historically set down though it was a thing only done in a way of Vision. So Ezekiel, when he was a Captive in Babylon, seems to be brought to Jerusalem, and is bid to dig a hole in a Wall there, and to see the wicked abominations of the Ancients of Israel; and yet 'tis certain, Ezekiel was then personally in Babylon, and that whole business was only done in a Vision: And so he himself affirms in the 8th Chapter of his Prophecy. So the Prophet Isaiah's going naked twenty days, and Ezekiels lying three hundred and ninety days on the one side, were things only acted in a way of Vision.  
Thirdly, They tell us of some passages in the Evangelists that can by no means be reconciled together. The most considerable of which are these two; First, In St. Marks Gospel, where the time of our Saviour's death is set down, we are told, That it was the third hour, and they crucified him. And in St. John's Gospel and St. Luke's, we are told It was about the sixth hour. Both which are easily reconciled, by a right understanding of the Jewish Custom of accounting a Day. 'Tis well known, the Jews divided each day into four distinct parts, which were their several hours of public Prayer, and going up to the Temple; the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, and the twelfth hour. When any one of these hours came, all the space between that and the other (which was three hours) was denominated from that first hour. As when the third hour came, all the whole three hours between that and the sixth hour, was called the third hour: So that the time of our Saviour's Crucifixion, being near unto midday, or our Twelve a Clock but some little before it, which was the time they called the Sixth hour. St. Mark says he was Crucified the third hour; because all the time between the third hour and the sixth was strictly so called, and yet in regard it was very near the sixth hour, both St. John and St. Luke say he was Crucified about the sixth hour; that is, 'Twas very near to Twelve a Clock at the time of his Crucifixion. And so there appears not the least substantial difference between them in this matter. Secondly, In the natural Genealogy of our Saviour, as 'tis set down by St. Matthew and St. Luke, they say, There is great disagreement, and such differences as are not to be reconciled. That there are considerable differences we confess, and that they are not, without some difficulty, to be reconciled, we also acknowledge. First, That there should be differences between the Evangelists in their accounting of this Genealogy, is not hard to conceive: If we consider these four things. First, That one Evangelist gins at the top, and traces our Saviour's Pedigree downward, The other gins at the bottom, and ascends upward. Secondly, One carries up the Genealogy of our Saviour as far as Adam, in whom all Mankind were equally existing: The other derives him no higher then from the Stock of Abraham, to whom the Promises were more peculiarly made. Thirdly, One seems to rehearse chief the Legal descent of our Saviour, the other confines himself more to his Natural. Fourthly, One obligeth himself in his account to the number of three fourteens, and permits himself for that Reason to leave some out, the other without any such confinement, makes his account more at large. And throughout the whole, they both sometimes intent the same Persons under different Names. These things have occasioned visible differences and variations in the manner of setting down this Genealogy: Nor can it be otherwise, but that these differences are such as that they are in themselves irreconcilable, there is not the least ground to suppose. Nay, 'tis very reasonable to believe from the Nature of them, and from those different Methods we see the Evangelists have chosen, that there is a most admirable Concord between them, and that this Genealogy is after a various manner purposely set down, to Answer divers Objections that might then be made amongst the Jews in those times: And by that diversity we find in it, is accommodated by the Holy Ghost to many great and excellent Ends. Secondly, That there should by difficulty to reconcile the Evangelists in this matter, and fully to find out that excellent Harmony that we have cause to believe there is in the Methods of both, cannot be thought strange, if we consider these two things, First, The Customs of the Jews (to which these Genealogies refer) in reckoning their Genealogies; amongst them it is ordinary to find differing Pedigrees, which seem much to contradict each other, when they really do not, and great differences were often occasioned thereby; and this is very easy to conceive; because the Jews had many particularites to themselves and their own Nation in point of Relation, which other Countries were not acquainted withal; men of the same Tribe were upon a Political account Brethren, as well as those that were naturally so, and were equally so styled; If a man died Childess, amongst them, and the next of Kin Married his Widow, and had Children by her, those Children are reckoned from two Fathers. Legally they were the Children of the first Husband, and Naturally of the Second. Successors and Providential Inheritors, both in Employments and Estates, are often reckoned as the begotten and natural Children of their Predecessors; and so in divers other particular cases, and in all their Genealogies, they generally reckoned their descents by a civil and Legal as well as a Natural Line. Secondly, We now want the advantage of many Genealogies and Pedigrees extant amongst the Jews in our Saviour's time, to which, without doubt, the Evangelists much refer in the courses of their account, and by which (were we possessed of them) they would much more easily have been reconciled and understood. The Jews were very curious and exact in the preservation of things of that Nature, and good Reason they had so to be; for amongst the Heathens want of Posterity might be supplied by Adoption; but the Jews were obliged to a strict succession in Alliance and Kindred. The whole of this matter is most judiciously discoursed of by the learned Grotius in his Annotatious upon these two Evangelists. to which (the exact disquisition of all the particulars being too large a task for this undertaking) I fear not to refer any impartial Reader, for a sufficient Answer to all that can be reasonably objected against the Bible from hence; there being nothing contained in either of these two Genealogies (that of St. Matthew and that of St. Luke) that in the least implies any direct contradiction; nor is there any such difference between them, or between them and any other part of the Bible (one of which must be punctually made good, or else this Objection is of no force) as appears wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation. But on the contrary, 'Tis evident the Evangelists do after an admirable manner consist and agree with themselves, Although in order to many excellent ends, and to clear us all Doubts about our Saviour's descent, they differently account: Which, upon the forementioned Grounds, can seem hard to none to conceive.  
Fourthly, They tell us There is much contained in the Bible, that seems of too Mean and Low a nature to come from such a wise and Excellent Being as God, and by no means fit to be Ascribed to Him. Such are many Stories, and many Similitudes, and divers Expressions we find there. On the one hand, they reproach this Book for containing things too High to be Credited: And on the other hand, they object against it, as containing many things too Mean to be Regarded; In the one, they impeach God's Power, and imply, some things are too Great for him to Effect: And by the other, cast a contempt upon the highest effects of his Condescension and Goodness (for nothing can more Savour of it then such a familiar way of conversing with Men) 'Tis true that the Scriptures have, by divers Similitudes, Resemblances, and Allegories, made the whole World and all we converse with, some way or other Hieroglyphical to us of Divinity: Have expressed somewhat of Religion to us, by all Parts of the Creation, and by the most common employments of Humane life: Then which, nothing could make Religion look with a more Familiar aspect upon us, nor render the Mysteries of it more easy to be embraced by all capacities: Nor is any thing more likely to preserve the memory of things Supernatural and Divine, in the minds of men, then when they are expressed to them by such things with which they are sure to have a constant converse while they stay in this World. Whatsoever we find in the Bible of this Kind, stands sufficiently discharged from all Reasonable exception, because 'tis visibly but adjusting the Notions of Religion to the impotency of many capacities. And of the meanest expressions, either in Similitudes, Allegories, Metaphors, or otherwise, that we find in the Scriptures, These two things must be acknowledged (by which they are enough secured against all just and rational Contempt) First, That they are such, as in their own nature, are proper and apt to inform in all those Cases in which they are made use of. And Secondly; They all appear to have a direct tendency to instruct men in the Noblest and Sublimest Truths, And are evidently Conducing to the Highest and most Excellent Attainments that Mankind are Capable of.  
These, and such like Objections have often faced the Bible; But have given very little stop to its Progress. Indeed, all occasions given, though by its worst Enemies, for the Discussion of it, have turned greatly to its Advantage, and still made it appear less capable of any Just and Solid Exception. The Bible is a Book that will endure Discourse. The Deeper we search into all parts of it, still the surer we are to find a Divine bottom. 'Tis true that the manner of its composure is suitable to its nature, and end: Savours altogether of the wisdom of another world: 'Tis evidently designed to subvert all corrupt Interests, and debase men's proud opinions of their own knowledge: 'Tis writ after a sort that seems peculiar to God, and in no such way as Mankind use to treat one with another; And therefore, 'tis no wonder if Some men both Object against it and Reproach it. Divers things there are which in the Reading of this Book, we are rationally obliged to Consider, and by the due consideration whereof, the Grounds of most men's exceptions would be removed. First, the Scriptures appear to be Designed as a General Storehouse of Instruction and Satisfaction to all sorts of Capacities and Conditions to the end of the world; And therefore it can be no very easy task, upon good Grounds, to condemn any Part, either as Useless or Improper. Secondly, Many passages in the Scripture relate to things past, and long since transacted, of the circumstances of which we are not fully informed; And many passages were accommodated to things then well known, which we in these After-ages are ignorant of. Others relate much to things future and to come: The Wisdom and Excellency of which will not so fully appear till Hereafter. And so we see it was in the Old Testament: The use and Reason of many things then, could not be so fully discerned till explained and interpreted by the Gospel. The Book of Ruth might then haply have been judged by some, as an Impertinent Addition to the rest of the Bible, But since the writing of the New we see what an excellent use there was of it, to make good our Saviour's natural descent in the flesh according to the promise. He that saw no more than the Old Testament might have thought that Historical discourse of Melchised●c that we find in Moses to be very defective, mentioning so considerable a Transaction of so Great a Man, in those early times of the world, without giving any further account of him; But now under the New, we are informed how Eminent a Projection of Divine Wisdom was wrapped up in the seeming Imperfection of that Story, and that the Eternal Generation of our Saviour in his Divinity, in a strange and unthought off way, was Represented and Figured thereby. Thirdly, Many parts of the Bible relate to the Customs and Laws of particular Places and Countries: Without the knowledge of which, No man can be a Competent Judge of them. In the Books of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, many things relate to the Customs and Laws of the Persians. In the Prophets, divers things are not to be understood without a reference to the Histories of several Countries to which they Relate. In the New Testament, many passages refer to the Laws and Customs of the Romans: And both in the Old and New Testament, many places are never to be well understood, without a very exact and distinct knowledge of several Customs and Practices extant in those times amongst the Jews; This may be seen in this one instance; Our Saviour says, He that will receive Him and embrace the Gospel must forsake father, and mother, houses and lands, wife, and children, and all he possesseth in this world. These passages of our Saviour, in themselves seem strange, and are extremely hard, at the first view, to be digested or understood; But become easily intelligible by a knowledge of the Jewish customs at that time; For, 'Twas but the same doctrine applied to himself, that was taught daily amongst the Jews, in admitting their Proselytes. The Jews dealt with all Strangers after a Threefold manner: Such as continued in Gentilism and Heathenish Idolatry, they permitted not to Inhabit amongst them, nor to have any Place in the Land of Israel. Such as Renounced the Gentile Idolatry and Assented to some Fundamentals of the Jewish religion, which they called the Seven precepts of Noah, These were termed Proselytes of the Gate, had their liberty quietly to Inhabit amongst them, and came into the outer court of the Temple, which they called Atrium Gentillum. Such as were Circumcised and embraced the whole of the Jewish Religion, those they called Proselytes of Justice, And they were in all things taken as Natural Jews. The manner of their initiation was to be Washed in some great Water up to the Neck, and there solemnly to Renounce not only their former Gods and their former worship, but their Country, all their Relations, and Kindred whatever, and so to come out of the Water as New borne, and from the time of that Ceremony, to commense Legitimate Jews. Of these last sort of Proselytes, and the manner of their becoming so, we find mention in Tacitus, where, speaking of such as went over to the Jewish Religion, Nec quicquam (says he) prius imbuuntar, quam contemnere Deos, exuere Patriam, Parents, Liberos, Fratres vilia habere. They are taught by their first Admission, to despise (that is, to forsake) their Fathers, and Mothers, Children, and Brethren. And to this Custom our Saviour evidently refers, when he speaks of men's being Borne again, and forsaking all to become his Disciples. Fourthly, The Bible being written at several Seasons, and in several distinct Parts, Revelation ascending gradually to its Meridian, 'Tis not Reasonable to ground an exception from any one part, without a due consideration of what we now find in the Whole. Many things, in the Infancy of Revelation, were less perfectly made known, some practices Less condemned, than what we now find they are under the Gospel. And thus it was in the case of Marriage; For although God had virtually determined mined that whole business by the Manner of his Creation at first, That One man should have but one woman; And had also, by his Last Prophet, given a very Pregnant intimation of his mind in that matter; yet the Doctrine of Marriage was never so fully cleared till the times of the Gospel; Our Saviour then makes a full and final Determination about it: For he positively declares, That Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, and shall marry another, committeth Adultery. By which, these two great Points about Marriage, are fully and for ever Determined. First, That Divorce is Lawful in no case but that of Fornication. Our Saviour declares that God had established Marriage, by a Law of Creation, and first institution, upon those Terms. And although the Mosaical indulgence, in regard of the present and particular State of the Jews, had for some time, interposed, yet he has plainly told us, It should be so No more, That Indulgence should be in force no longer, But that the Obligation of Marriage should remain as 'twas from the Beginning, That one Man and one Woman were to become one Flesh in that Relation, and upon no terms to be parted, but in case of Fornication, which in its own nature contains a virtual Dissolution of that Marriage-union. Secondly, That Plurality of Wives is a thing utterly Unlawful, and the Practice of it a great Evil; For our Saviour affirms That he that marries another wife upon an Unlawful divorce from his first, (and much more when there is no divorce) commits Adultery in so doing: Which he could not do, but upon this ground, That the having of more wives than one together, is a thing in itself altogether unlawful.  
FINIS.