&c. and those which are commonly told of him pafs among the Mahometans themselves but as legendary Fables ; and as fuch are rejected by the wife and learned amongst them; as the Legends of their Saints are in the Church of Rome. See Dr. Prideaux his Life of Ma homet, pag. 34. But, in the next place, those which are told of him do all want the two first Rules before-mentioned. For his pretended Converse with the Moon, his Mefra, or Night-Journey from Mecca to Jerufalem, and thence to Heaven, &c. were not performed before any-body: We have only his own Word for them: And they are as groundless as the Delufions of Fox or Muggleton amongst ourselves. The fame is to be faid (in the fecond place) of the Fables of the Heathen Gods, of Mercury's ftealing Sheep, Jupiter's turning himself into a Bull, and the like; befides the Folly and Unworthiness of fuch fenfeless pretended Miracles. And moreover, the Wife among the Heathen did reckon no otherwife of thefe but as Fables, which had a Mythology or myftical Meaning in them, of which feveral of them have given us the Rationale, or Explication. And it is plain enough that Ovid meant no other by all his Metamorphofes. It is true the Heathen Deities had their Priefts: They had likewife Feafts, Games, and other publick Inftitutions, in Memory of them; But all these want the fourth Mark, viz. That fuch Priesthood and Inftitutions fhould commence from the Time that fuch Things as they commemorate were faid to be done; otherwife they cannot fecure After-Ages from the Impofture, by detecting it at the Time when first invented, as hath been argued before. But the Bacchanalia, and other Heathen Feafts, were inftituted many Ages after what was reported of thefe Gods was faid to be done, and therefore can be no Proof of them. And the Priests of Bacchus, Apollo, &c. were not ordained by these fuppofed Gods, but were appointed by others, in AfterAges, only in Honour to them: And therefore these B 2 Orders Orders of Priests are no Evidence to the Truth of the Matters of Fact which are reported of their Gods. IV. Now to apply what has been faid, you may challenge all the Deifts in the World to fhew any Action that is fabulous, which has all the four Rules or Marks before-mentioned. No; it is impoffible. And (to refume a little what is spoke to before) the Hiftories of Exodus and the Gospel could never have been received, if they had not been true; because the Inftitution of the Priesthood of Levi, and of Christ, of the Sabbath, the Paffover, of Circumcifion, of Baptifm and the Lord's Supper, &c. are there related as descending all the Way down from thofe Times, without Interruption. And it is full as impoffible to perfuade Men that they had been circumcifèd, baptized, had circumcifed or baptized their Children, celebrated Paffovers, Sabbaths, Sacraments, &c. under the Government and Adininistration of a certain Order of Priests, if they had done none of these Things, as to make them believe they had gone thro' Seas upon dry Land, feen the Dead raifed, &c. And without believing of thefe, it was impoffible that either the Law or the Gospel could have been received. And the Truth of the Matters of Fact of Exodus and the Gospel being no otherwise preffed upon Men, than as they have practifed fuch publick Inftitutions, it is appealing to the Senfes of Mankind for the Truth of them; and makes it impoffible for any to have invented fuch Stories in After-Ages, without a palpable Detection of the Cheat when firft invented; as impoffible as to have impofed upon the Senfes of Mankind at the Time when fuch publick Matters of Fact were faid to be done. V. I do not fay, that every thing which wants these four Marks is falfe; but that nothing can be false which has them all. I have no manner of Doubt that there was fuch a Man as Julius Cæfar; that he fought at Pharfalia; was killed in the Senate-Houfe; and many other Matters of Fact Fact of antient Times, tho' we keep no publick ObServances in Memory of them. But this fhews that the Matters of Fact of Mofes and of Christ have come down to us better guarded than any other Matters of Fact, how true foever. And yet our Deifts, who would laugh any Man out of the World, as an irrational Brute, that fhould offer to deny Cafar or Alexander, Homer or Virgil, their publick Works or Actions, do, at the fame time, value themselves as the only Men of Wit and Sense, of free, generous, and unbiaffed Judgments, for ridiculing the Hiftories of Mofes and Chrift, that are infinitely better attested, and guarded with infallible Marks, which the others want. VI. Befides that, the Importance of the Subject would oblige all Men to enquire more narrowly into the one than the other: For what Confequence is it to me, or to the World, whether there was fuch a Man as Cæfar; whether he beat, or was beaten, at Pharfalia; whether Homer or Virgil wrote fuch Books; and whether what is related in the Iliads or Æneids be true or falfe? It is not Two-pence up or down to any Man in the World; and therefore it is worth no Man's while to enquire into it, either to oppose or justify the Truth of thefe Relations. But our very Souls and Bodies, both this Life and Eternity, are concerned in the Truth of what is related in the Holy Scriptures; and therefore Men would be more inquifitive to fearch into the Truth of these, than of any other Matters of Fact; examine and fift them narrowly, and find out the Deceit, if any fuch could be found: For it concerned them nearly, and was of the last Importance to them. How unreafonable then is it to reject these Matters of Fact, so fifted, so examined, and fo attested, as no other Matters of Fact in the World ever were; and yet to think it the most highly unreasonable, even to Madnefs, to deny other Matters of Fact, which have not the thoufandth Part of their Evidence, and are of no Confequence at all to us, whether true or falfe! VII. There are feveral other Topicks, from whence the Truth of the Chriftian Religion is evinced to all who will judge by Reafon, and give themselves Leave to confider. As, the Improbability that ten or twelve poor illiterate Fishermen fhould form a Defign of converting the whole World to believe their Delufions; and the Impoffibility of their effecting it, without Force of Arms, Learning, Oratory, or any one vifible thing that could recommend them! And to impofe a Doctrine quite oppofite to the Lufts and Pleasures of Men, and all worldly Advantages, or Enjoyments! And this in an Age of fo great Learning and Sagacity as that wherein the Gospel was first preached! That these Apoftles fhould not only undergo all the Scorn and Contempt, but the feverest Perfecutions and moft cruel Deaths that could be inflicted, in Atteftation to what themselves knew to be a mere Deceit and Forgery of their own contriving! Some have fuffered for Errors, which they thought to be Truth; but never any for what themselves knew to be Lies. And the Apostles muft know what they taught to be Lies, if it was fo; because they spoke of thofe Things, which, they faid, they had both feen and heard, had looked upon, and handled with their Hands, &c. A&t. iv. 20. 1. John i. 1. Neither can it be faid, that they, perhaps, might have propofed fome temporal Advantages to themselves, but miffed of them, and met with Sufferings inftead of them: For if it had been fo, it is more than probable, that, when they faw their Disappointment, they would have discovered their Confpiracy, especially when they might not only have faved their Lives, but got great Rewards for doing of it. That not one of them should ever have been brought to do this! But this is not all: For they tell us, that their Mafter bid them expect nothing but Sufferings in this World. This is the Tenuor of all that Gospel which they taught; and they told the fame to all whom they converted: So that here was no Disappointment. For For all that were converted by them, were converted upon the certain Expectation of Sufferings, and bidden to prepare for it. Chrift commanded his Difciples to take up their Crofs daily, and follow him: And told them, that in the World they should have Tribulation: That whoever did not forfake Father, Mother, Wife, Children, Lands, and their very Lives, could not be his Difciples: That he who fought to fave his Life in this World should lofe it in the next. Now, that this despised Doctrine of the Crofs fhould prevail fo univerfally against the Allurements of Flesh and Blood, and all the Blandishments of this World, against the Rage and Perfecution of all the Kings and Powers of the Earth, must fhew its Original to be Divine, and its Protector, Almighty. What is it elfe could conquer without Arms, perfuade without Rhetorick, overcome Enemies, difarm Tyrants, and fubdue Empires, without Oppofition. VIII. We may add to all this, the Teftimonies of the moft bitter Enemies and Perfecutors of Chriftianity, both Jews and Gentiles, to the Truth of the Matter of Fact of Chrift; fuch as Jofephus and Tacitus; of which the first flourished about forty Years after the Death of Chrift, and the other about feventy Years after: So that they were capable of examining into the Truth, and wanted not Prejudice and Malice fufficient to have inclined them to deny the Matter of Fact itself of Christ: But their confeffing to it, as likewife Lucian, Celfus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apoftate, the Mahometans fince, and all other Enemies of Chriftianity that have arifen in the World, is an undeniable Atteftation to the Truth of the Matter of Fact. IX. But there is another Argument, more ftrong and convincing than even this Matter of Fact; more than the Certainty of what I fee with my Eyes; and which the Apoftle Peter called a more fure Word, that is, Proof, than what he saw and heard upon the holy Mount, when our bleffed Saviour was transfigur'd before him, and two other of the Apostles: For having repeated that Paffage, as a Proof of that whereof they were Eye-witnesses, and beard 4 |