Will: Such as give us the utmoft Demonftration of the Wisdom and Goodness of God, without the Interpofition of his Almighty Power; by which he governs the unthinking Part of his Creation. And as the Jews first brought us into the Gospel, fo would we now provoke them to Emulation, by the fame Methods in which God has dealt with us; by fhewing them the Beauty, the Harmony, and irrefragable Demonftration of Fact, that has convinced us of the Truth of the Gospel. A The Infidelity of fo many of you Jerus was necessary (as fhewed before) towards our receiving of the Gospel, till the Fulness of the Gentiles fhould come in. And if the Cafting away of you be the Reconciling of the World, what fhall the Receiving of you be, but Life from the Dead! Amen. Rom.xi. 15. XVI. Let me now conclude, and apply all that has been faid, by a fhort Recapitulation and Inforcement of the principal Parts of it. You have given up all the Credibility that there is for the Truth of Mofes and your Law, rather than admit of the fame Credibility (and ftronger) that there is for Chrift and the Gospel. So that, as faid before, and has been proved, you have involved yourfelves under the Neceffity either of rejecting Mofes, or embracing of Chriftianity. Your Objections have been answered, ex Abundanti. For, after the full Proof of the Miracles of Chrift and his Apoftles, there needed no more to have been said, as to receiving the Doctrine which they taught, and those Expofitions they gave of the Law; which ftand upon as fure a Foundation, and carry the fame infallible Credentials of divine Authority, as the Law itself. And thefe cannot be overthrown by never fo great a Cloud of Difficulties or Objections, though they could not be answered to Satisfaction, without difproving the Motives of Credibility upon which they are received. For we may have fufficient Reafon to believe many Things, and yet not be able to folve all the Difficulties that may arife concerning them. As, As, in natural Things,we cannot explain the Manner and Conveyance of fenfible Objects, through our outward Organs, to our Soul; nor the thousandth Part of thofe Difficulties which are ftarted concerning the Sout itfelf; yet no Man doubts but that he has a Saul, that he fees, bears, thinks, reafons, &c. So, in fupernatural Things, who can solve all that may be afked concerning the Being and Operations of God? Yet all this is no Argument against the Belief of a First Caufe, and its effential Perfections; because it is forced upon us by undeniable Reafon. Therefore, unless you can fhew the Fallacy of those Four Marks, which are fet down in my Treatife, call. ed Deifm Refuted, to afcertain the Truth of Matters of Fact; or, fecondly, fhew that the Matters of Fact of Chrift want any of them; all your Objections, borrowed from other Topics, can fignify nothing against the Trutk of Chriflianity. And if you can fhew the Uncertainty of these Marks, or that they are wanting to the Evidence of Chriftianity, then down comes your Law with it; and we muft all together turn Deifts. You fay (as has been before quoted, p. 65, 66.) That if Chrift, after he rose from the Dead, had ap peared to the whole Congregation of Ifrael, &c. that this would have removed all Scruple from you; and that you would without all Doubt have believed him. And now, I beseech you, have you not had as miraculous Confirmation of him, as even this which you require? Was not the visible Defcent of the Holy Ghoft upon him at his Baptifm, and the audible Voice from Heaven, before all the People, telling them, from the Mouth of God, This is my beloved Son, &c. was not this a much stronger Indication from God, than if a Man, formerly dead, had appeared? Might not one Man be like another? Have not many been deceived upon that Point? Were not the Apoffles hardly brought to believe it, even by many Miracles? Would there not be more Queftions to be afked in that Cafe, than in fuch a visible Apparition from Heaven, before the Eyes Eyes of fo many People, and of Words spoken from Hea ven in all their Hearing? Our bleffed Saviour faid to some of your Fathers, That if they heard not Mofes and the Prophets, neither would they be perfuaded, tho one rofe from the Dead. And the Reason is plain, because the Proofs for Mofes, &c. indubitable than the Apparition of a dead Luke xvi. 31. are more Man. of But do you want even this Proof? Did not Chrift appear, after his Refurrrection, to above five hundred your Fathers at once? And has not this been attefted by a Multitude of Miracles, wrought by thofe of your Fathers who faw him, who eat with him, and converfed forty Days with him, after he rose from the Dead? Did he not appear to Paul from Heaven, after his Afcenfion? If not, would not fome of thofe Jews who then journeyed with him, who faw that Light above the Brightnefs of the Sun, and beard the Voice, though not the diftinct Words, of him that spoke to Paul; who were ftruck down to the Earth, and greatly terrified; who faw Paul ftruck blind upon the Spot, and led him by the Hand into Damafcus; would none of these have difcovered the Cheat, if all this Story had been a mere Invention and Forgery of Paul's? Would none of these have done it, who were fo far from being favourable to the Chriftian Side, that they were then going along with Paul to perfecute that Way, even unto the Death? Would they not have done it, when Paul trumpt it and the Chriftians laid fuch Stress upon it, that it is told up, at large in three feveral Places of the Acts? Chap. ix. xxii. and xxvi. when Paul, within three Days, began to preach Chrift in Damafcus, and confounded the o there, where those who journeyed with him were the prefent, and might have confounded him, if they had denied that Matter of Fact, when he adduced them as Witnesses of it. But, above all, the Miracles which Paul wrought, as great even as this, do vouch his Truth in this Matter; feeing they are deduced to us with all the four Marks before-mentioned, which do infallibly I infallibly demonftrate the Certainty of any Matter of Fact. Moreover confider, that all these Witnees to the Refurrection of Christ were Jews, and none other. It has been before obferved, that Chrift preached to none but the Jews, before his Death: So, after his Refurrection, he fhewed himself to none other but to them: And from the Jews only have we Gentiles received the Knowlege of his Refurrection, and of all the Gospel. This is a Tradition of the Jews; and deduced through a greater Number of them, and their Pofterities (as before has been fhewn), than there are Jews who now ftand out against it. These reject the Tradition of their Fathers, upon which they now lay the whole Strefs of their Religion: And are Proof against those Convictions which have converted the Gentiles. The Chriftian Jews did not fet up Chrift for their Meffiah; they chofe not him, but he chofe them. They John xv. understood not the Nature of his Kingdom; but were brought by him from their. Notion of reigning, to that. of fuffering with him upon the Earth. Therefore these are to be lefs fufpected than thofe others of your Fathers, who fet up Meffiabs for themfelves, in hopes to reign. with them in the Land of Canaan; and have been as often deceived, and fuffered miferable Destruction by it. But, as before has been argued, there is no fuch vifible Means in the World to bring them to that tem poral Grandeur which they expect; and the Nation of the Jews to that univerfal Honour, Supereminence, and Dominion through the whole Earth, as their Converfion to Ciftianity. Then will Chrift be not only a Light to e Gentiles, but the Glory of his People Ifrael. ; But chiefly, and above all, I earnestly recommended to you Jews the Confideration of your eternal State towards which you expect no Benefit from your Meffab; and yet without whom, you can give no Account how you shall be delivered and purged from those Sins, for which there were no Sacrifices or Expiation under the Num: XXXV. 25. 28. the Law, as has been difcourfed before. There was none for those who fled to the Cities of Refuge: Nothing could deliver them from thence, but the Death of the High Priest. Which was a plain Type, that nothing, but the Death of our great High Prieft, can deliver us from the Guilt of Sin. The like Parallel might be carried on through every Branch of your Law, pointing to the Meffiah: But that would divert too much. You have only a few Inftances here. The Whole would take up a Difcourfe longer than all I have written to you. I wish even the temporal Glory of Ifrael; and should rejoice that, in the Day of their Converfion, I fhould be found among thofe who are sprung from their Stock, and fhall exult to reaffume our antient and most honourable Name of Jerus. And let the chiefeft Glory, as in Heaven, fo on Earth, be to thofe of you who fhall lead the Way, and be inftrumental in the Reftoration of the Families of Jacob.. FINI S.. |