The Grounds of the Christian Faith, Book 2 · Chapter 9 (1 of 2)

The Grounds of the Christian Faith · Book 2 · Chapter 9 (1 of 2)

p. 252CHAP. IX. The rational evidence of the truth of Christian Religion from Miracles.

The possibility of miracles appears from God and providence; the evidence of a Divine Testimony by them. God alone can really alter the course of nature. The Devils power of working miracles considered. Of Simon Magus, Apollonius. The cures in the Temple of Aesculapius at Rome, &c. God never works miracles, but for some particular end. The particular reasons of the miracles of Christ. The repealing the Law of Moses, which had been setled by miracles. Why Christ checked the Pharisees for demanding a sign, when himself appeals to his miracles. The power of Christs miracles on many who did not throughly believe. Christs miracles made it evident that he was the Messias, because the predictions were fulfilled in him. Why John Baptist wrought no miracles. Christs miracles necessary for the overthrow of the Devils Kingdom. Of the Daemoniacks and Lunaticks in the Gospel, and in the Primitiv… Church. The power of the name of Christ over them largely proved by several Testimonies. The evidence thence of a Divine power in Christ. Of counterfeit dispossessions. Of miracles wrought among Infidels. Of the future state of the Church. The necessity of the miracles of Christ, as to the propagation of Christian Religion: that proved from the condition of the publishers, and the success of the Doctrine. The Apostles knew the hazard of their imployment, before they entred on it. The boldness and resolution of the Apostles notwithstanding this, compared with heathen Philosophers. No motive could carry the Apostles through their imployment, but the truth of their Doctrine; not seeking the honour, profit or pleasure of the world. The Apostles evidence of the truth of their doctrine lay in being eye-witnesses of our Saviours miracles and resurrection. That attested by themselves; their sufficiency thence for preaching the Gospel. Of the nature of the doctrine of the Gospel; contrariety of p. 253it to natural inclinations. Strange success of it, notwithstanding it came not with humane power: No Christian Emperour, till the Gospel universally preached. The weakness and simplicity of the instruments which preached the Gospel. From all which the great evidence of the power of miracles is proved.

OF all rational evidences which tend to confirm the truth of a Divine Testimony, there can be none greater then Sect. 1. Hyp. 5.a power of working miracles for confirmation that the Testimony which is revealed is infallible. The possibility of a power of miracles cannot be questiond by any who assert a Deity and a Providence; for by the same power that things were either at first produced, or are still conserved (which is equivalent to the other) the course of nature may be altered, and things caused which are beyond the power of inferiour causes: For though that be an immutable Law of nature as to Physical beings, that every thing remains in the course and order wherein it was set at the Creation; yet that only holds till the same power which set it in that order shall otherwise dispose of it; granting then the possibility of miracles, the subject of this Hypothesis is, that a power of miracles is the clearest evidence of a Divine Testimony, which will appear from these following considerations.

God alone can really alter the course of nature. I speak 1.not of such things which are apt only to raise admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them, or manner of their production, which are thence called wonders, much less of meer juggles and impostures, whereby the eyes of men are deceived; but I speak of such things as are in themselves either contrary to, or above the course of nature, i. e. that order which is established in the universe. The Devil no question may, and doth often deceive the world, and may by the subtilty and agility of his nature, perform such things as may amuse the minds of men, and sometimes put them to it, to find a difference between them and real miracles, if they only make their s…nses judges of them. And such kind of wonders, though they are but spa…ingly done, and with a kind of secrecy (as though they p. 254were consulting with Catiline about the burning Rome) yet the Devil would have some (especially when Ignorance and Superstition are Ascendents) to keep up his interest in the world. Or else when he is like to be dispossessed and thrown out of all, he then tryes his utmost to keep as many to him as may be; thus when the Spirit of God appeared in the miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles and the Primitive Church he then conjured up all the infernal powers to do something parallel, to keep possession of his Idolatrous Temples, as long as he could. Thus we find Simon Magus dogging the Apostles (as it were) at the heels, that by his Magick he might stagger the faith of people concerning the miracles wrought by the Apostles: after him Apollonius appeared upon the Stage; but his wonders are such pittifull things, compared with those wrought by Christ or his Apostles, that it could be nothing but malice in Hierocles to mention him in competition with Christ. But those things which seem a great deal more considerable then either of these, were the cure of a blind man by Vespasian in Egypt, Sucton. Vesp. c. 7.mentioned by Tacitus and Suetonius, wherein there was a palpable imitation of our Saviours curing the blind man in the Gospel; for the man told Vespasian, restituturum oculos si inspuisset, that he should receive his sight by his spittle; so Spartianus tells us of a woman that was cured of her blindness by kissing the knees of the Emperour Adrian; and Boxhornius hath produced an old Fable in the Temple of Aesculapius at Rome of several diseased persons that were cured there. A Blind man in the time of Antoninus was cured by this oracle; he must come to the Altar, and kneel there; from the right side he must turn to the left, and put five fingers upon the Altar, and then lift up his hands and touch his eyes, and so was cured. Another called Lucius cured of the pain of his side, by mixing the ashes of the altar with the wine, and applying it to his side; another cured of spitting of blood by the kernel of a pine apple, and honey used three days; a fourth cured of Qu…st. Rom. q. 7.blindness by the blood of a white Cock and honey, used three days upon his eyes. These are the most considerable of all the pretended mir…les done about that time, when the noise of the Christian miracles were spread so far and done so frequently, p. 255that they challenged the Heathens again and again to bring forth any person possessed with a Devil, if he did not confess to them that he was a Devil, though he made the Heathens believe that he was a God, they were contented to leave their blood in the place.

For thus Tertullian speaks in his Apology to them. Edat Apol. cap. 23.ur hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris, quem Daemone agi constet: jussus à quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille, tam se Daemonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi Deum de falso: aeque producatur aliquis ex iis qui de Deo pati ex stimantur, qui aris inhalantes numen de nidore concipiunt, qui ructando curantur, qui anhelando praefantur. Ista ipsa virgo coelest is pluviarum pollicitatrix, iste ipse Aesculapius Medicinarum demonstrator, aliàs de morituris scordii & denatii & Asclepiadoti subministrator, nisi se Daemones confessi fuerint, Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite. Quid isto opere manifestius, quid hâc probatione fidelius? simplicit as veritat is in medio est; virtus illi sua assistit, nihil suspicari licebit, magia aut aliqua fallacia fieri. Dictis non stetis, si oculi vestri & aures permiserint vobis. In these very daring words, we see how the Christians appealed to their senses, even with the hazard of their own lives, that they would make even Aesculapius himself confess what he was, and by whose power all the cures were wrought upon the dreamers in his Temples. And for the manner of the Devils cures, the same Author explains it thus, Laedunt primò, dehinc remedia praecipiunt ad miraculum nova, sive contraria, post quae definunt laedere & Apql. c. 23…curassecreduntur. They first possess the bodies themselves (as Daemoniacks were common in those times) and affect it with various distempers, afterwards upon using the strange remedies prescribed by Aesculapius, they forsake their station, and the person is cured. And for the cures performed by the Emperours, those who consider what various artifices were about that time used to procure an opinion of Divinity in the Emperours, will not much wonder that such reports should be spread of them, or that any persons should fain these distempers to give themselves out to be cured by them… But granting somewhat wonderfull in these, what are they, p. 256compared with those done by Christians? and whoever would lay down his life to attest any of them? So that though the Devil by his subtilty may easily impose upon Spectators eyes, yet it was impossible for him by any power of his own to alter the course o… nature or produce any real miracle. For every true miracle is a production of something out of nothing (which cannot be done by less then an omnipotent arm) and that either in the thing it self, or the manner of producing it. In the thing it self when it is of that nature that it cannot be produced by any s…cond causes as the raising of the dead; in the manner of doing it, when though the thing lyes within the possibility of second causes, yet it is performed without the help of any of them, as in the cure of diseases without any use of means, by a word speaking, the touch of a garment, &c. Now that all those miracles which were wrought in confirmation of the Christian doctrine were such true and proper miracles, will be discovered afterwards.

God never alters the course of nature, but for some very Sect. 2. 2.considerable end. For otherwise when he did it, it would not be taken notice of, nor thought to be an alteration of the order of nature, but only some rare contingencies which lye hid in the order of causes, but only break out at some times: of which sort are all those things which the ignorant World is apt to account as Prodigies. Of all which rare contingencies in nature, I say, as the Roman Orator doth, Si quod raro fit, id portentum putandum est, sapientem esse Ciccro de Div. l. 2.portentum est; saepius enim mulum peperisse arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse. If all rare contingencies be accounted prodigies, a Wise man is certainly the greatest prodigy. But these are quite of another nature from true miracles, which are immediatly produced by a Divine power, and intended for a confirmation of some Divine Testimony. There are now several weighty reasons which might make miracles necessary in the time of our Saviour, as an evidence of his Divine Authority and power.

That he came to take down that way of worship which had 1.been at first setled by a power of miracles in Moses. God would not be so much wanting to the faith of that people p. 257which had received their Law by signs and wonders from heaven, but that there should be as strong an evidence given to them, that the fulness of time was come when that dispensation was to have an end, and to give place to one more perfect, which was to be established instead of it. Upon which account the Iews might rationally enquire after a sign where any new revelation was discovered, which might null the obligation of any former Law: And when they enquire so much after a sign, our Saviour doth not reject the enquiry as in its self unreasonable, but as made in an unreasonable manner; for they would not be contented with the miracles which our Saviour wrought, which sufficiently manifested a Divine power; but all that they desired was a sign from heaven, i. e. such as were done at the giving of the Matth. 12. 38. 16. 1.Matt 12:38Matt 12:16Matt 12:1Law, the thundring and lightenings there, or as the raigning of Manna in the wilderness; now our Saviour justly checks this demand as importune and impudent; partly as knowing upon what account they asked it, meerly to tempt him, and not out of any real desire of satisfaction; and partly because of that abundant evidence which was given in the miraculous cures which were wrought by him, which were more suitable to that design of doing good in the world, then all the Thunderclaps on Mount Sinai were; neither were the people in a condition to be fed by Manna as they were in the wilderness, God graciously suiting the discoveries of his power to the peculiar advantages of the people which they were made to, and the dispensation they ushered in. Those terrible signs at Mount Sinai being very suitable to the severity and rigour of the Law; and the gracious miracles of our Saviour, to the sweetness and grace of the Gospel. And on this account our Saviour charged the Iews with hypocrisie in requiring a foreign as something above foreign, a prodigy rather then a miracle; An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign Matth. 12. 3. 9.Matt 12:3Matt 12:9be given it but that of the prophet Ionas, i. e. this people which are so far from the faith of Abraham, (and therefore are supposititious Children) that no miracles which I do, will convince them, but they seek only to have their humours gratified more then their faith confirmed by some prodigy p. 258from heaven, shall not by me be thus gratified; but having done enough already to perswade them, if they had any heart to believe, instead of a sign from heaven they shall have only one from the earth, and that not so much intended for the conversion of such wilfull unbelievers, as for the testifying my Innocency to the world, viz. his resurrection from the dead. And so elsewhere when the Iews demand a sign, it was upon the doing of that, which if they had attended to, had been a sufficient sign to them, viz. his driving the buyers and sellers out of the Temple. Which being a thing permitted Joh. 2. 18.John 2:18by the Sanbedrim and the Priests, how could they think so mean a person, in appearance, as our Saviour was, could ever have effected it, had it not been for a Divine Majesty and power which appeared in him. It was not then the expectation of miracles which our Saviour rebuked in the Iews, but being unsatisfied with the kind and nature of our Saviours miracles. It was their hypocrisie and unbelief which Christ condemned, notwithstanding the frequent miracles which he wrought among them: For we plainly find our Saviour very often appealing to his miracles as the evidences of his Divine Commission: If I had not done the Joh. 5. 36. 10. 25. Ioh. 15. 24.John 5:36John 5:10John 5:25John 15:24works among them, which no man else did, they had not sin, i. e. in not believing me. Whereby Christ both sets forth the necessity of his working miracles in order to the c…nviction of the wo…ld, and the greatness of the miracles which he wrought; he did those no man else had done, no not Moses and Elias, in curing all manner of diseases by the word of his mouth; and those miracles which they had done, he exceeded them in the manner of doing them. Moses fed them with bread from heaven, but Christ multiplied on earth some few loaves and fishes, to the feeding of many thousands: Elias indeed raised one from the dead; but Christ raised more, and one after he had been four days in the grave. And upon this very evidence of our Saviours miracles we find many believing on him. And even of those who were not so far wrought upon as to become followers of Christ, as Ioh. 1. 49. 3. 11.John 1:49John 1:3John 1:11the only Messias, yet we find them so far perswaded by the power of his miracles, that they looked upon him as a great Prophet, or one that was sent from God: So Nicodemus, p. 259who came first to Christ more as a rational enquirer then a believer, yet we see he was perswaded that he was a teacher come from God, because no man could do Ioh. 3. 2.John 3:2the miracles which Christ did, unless God were with him. And before him many of the Iews at Ierusalem believed in his Ioh. 2. 23.John 2:23name when they saw the miracles which he did; yet these persons Christ would not trust himself with, because he knew their hearts were not subdued to his doctrine, though their understandings were convinced by his miracles. And after this others of the Iews that looked not on him as the Messias, yet it is said they believed on him on the account of his miracles. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles then these which this man hath done? Although herein they were most unreasonable in believing the evidence, and not the truth attested by it, in believing Christ to be one sent from God by his miracles, Joh. 7. 31.John 7:31and yet not believing him to be the Messias, which was the thing attested by them. Not that meer miracles would prove the person to be the Messias who did them, but the miracles proved the testimony to be Divine; now that which Christ delivered to them as a Divine Testimony, was his being the Messias, and therefore by the same reason they believed him to be one sent from God, they ought to have believed him to be the Messias; for one sent from God could never falsifie in the main of his message, as this was of our Saviours preaching. And thence it is observable, our Saviour did not shew forth his Divine power till he entred upon his office of preaching, thereby making it appear he intended this as the great evidence of the truth of the doctrine which he preached to them. And herein the blind man in the Gospel saw more truth and reason then the whole Court of Sanhedrin, before which in probability he was convented about his cure by Christ; for when they sought to get something out of him in disparagement of our Saviours person and miracle, he sharply and roundly tells them, when they said they knew God spake to Moses, but for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. Why herein, saith he, is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and p. 260yet he hath opened mine eyes. If this man were not of God he Ioh. 9. 29, 30. ver. 33.John 9:29John 9:30could do nothing (as though he had said) is it not plain that this man is imployed by God in the world by the miracles which he doth? for otherwise God would not so readily assist him in doing such great works; for we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, ver. 31.and doth his will, him he heareth; i. e. If this man pretended a Commission from heaven falsly (whereby he would be the greatest of sinners) can we think God would so miraculously assist him? but we know by our Law, if one comes with a Commission from God, and draw men not to Idolatry, which is meant by a worshipper of God, such a one God is present with, and we are bound to believe him. And for this very miracle, of curing one born blind, was the like ever heard of before? did ever Moses or the Prophets do it? Thus we see what strong rational evidence there was in this miracle of Christ in the judgement of this blind man, which he uttered with so much reason before the Court of Sanhedrin, when he knew how like he was to be excommunicated for it; and yet this very person was as yet ignorant that Christ was the true Messias, as appears by the sequel of the chapter; but upon Christs revelation of himself to ver. 36.him, he presently believed on him. How strangely irrational were the Iews then in rejecting our Saviour when his ver. 38.miracles not only exceeded those of Moses both in number and quality; but which was more, they saw themselves the miracles which Christ did, but they received those of Moses only upon the credit of their Fathers. And from the strength of the evidence arising from the power of miracles it is that St. Peter tells the promiscuous Assembly, Acts 2. 22. That Iesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them, by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of them, as they themselves also knew. He appeals to their own knowledge, which he would not certainly have done, had it not been in a case beyond all dispute among them. Which was a thing so notorious among them, that we find the Pharisees themselves confessing it, What do we? For this man doth many miracles: Now then in a Nation p. 261John 11. 47.John 11:47whose religion had been established by miracles, and the certainty of the truth of it, among those who then professed it, did depend so much upon the constant credit which the report of the miracles done at the setling of their Law had among them; what could be a more rational convincing way of proceeding, then for our Saviour to manifest by a greater power of miracles in himself the undoubted credentials of his commission from heaven; and that he was the true Messias, which was foretold by their own most sacred and authentical records? Which will appear more,

Because the power of miracles did evidently declare that he was the very person promised. For if the exact correspondency Sect. 3. 2.of the event to the predictions in a Nation owning them as Divine, be an undoubted evidence that they are exactly fulfilled, our Saviour was most certainly the person so often spoken of in the Old Testament. For many of the Prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messias, if they were not fulfilled in Christ, in the conditions the Iews have been in since their dispersion, (which fell out exactly according to the prediction of Christ) it is impossible they should be fulfilled at all. So that either the predictions must lose their Divine authority, or they must be accomplished in our Blessed Saviour. For as Tertullian sharply sayes to the Iew, Redde statum Iudaeae quem Christus inveniat, C. Judaeos c. 13.& alium contende venire; let the people of the Iews be in their former condition, and then plead for a Messias to come. For can any thing be more plain then that the Messias was to be born in Bethlehem of Iudea? but where is that now, and how long since the Iews enjoyed any civil Polity there? what is become of the second Temple in the time of which the desire of all Nations should come? Is not Ierusalem already destroyed, and the oblation there long since ceased, which was to come to pass so soon after the Messias, and did accordingly? Is not the Scepter yet departed from Judah, and the Lawgiver from between his feet, and is not Shiloh yet come? What strange unintelligible weeks were those of Daniel, if they were extended to so indefinite a space of time as the Iews pretend? and if indefinite, what certain ground could from thence be gathered of any time wherein their p. 262accomplishment was to be expected? but not to expatiate on those things which are already so largely proved beyond all possibility of contradiction, by the antient and modern learned writers against the Iews: To insist therefore on our present business; are not the Prophecies concerning the miracles which the Messias should work exactly fulfilled in Christ? Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the Isa. 35. 5, 6Isa 35:5Isa 35:6deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an Hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. He must be a great stranger in the history of the New Testament that is to seek for an exact fulfilling of this Prophecy. Nay, and the Iewish Midrasch upon Psal. 146. 8. saith that when Messias comes, V. Grot. in Joh. 9. 32.John 9:32he should open the eyes of the blind; and the Iews themselves often speak of the great miracles which the Messias should do when he appears; and therefore out of their own mouths will they be condemned, when the miracles of Christ make it so evident that he was the true Messias. Hence when Iohn Baptist sent his Disciples to Christ for them to be fully satisfied concerning him, Christ gives this answer to them; he bids them tell him the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the Mat. 11. 5.Matt 11:5dead raised up, &c. as though the mentioning of these miracles was sufficient to make it appear to them who he was whom they came to enquire after. And therefore it is observable that Iohn Baptist himself, though greater then the Prophets, nay then whom there was not a greater born of women Mat. 11. 9, 11.Matt 11:9Matt 11:11by our Saviours own Testimony; yet of him it is said, that he wrought no miracle: of which no account can be …oh. 10. 41.given so probable and rational, as that God in his infinite wisdom was pleased so to order it, that the evidence of our Saviours being the Messias might be made more clear by the miracles which he wrought; that the minds of people might not be distracted between Iohn and Christ; he therefore reserved the glory of miracles wholly to the name of Christ, that there might be no pretence of a competition between iohn and him.

Another reason of the necessity of miracles in our Saviour by way of rational evidence, is, the overthrowing the Sect. 4. 3.power and Kingdom of the Devil in the world. For which p. 263purpose it is observable that the Devil had scarce ever greater power over the bodies of men as well as their souls, then at that time; thence we read of such a multitude of Daemoniacks in the Gospel. For it seems very harsh to interpret those meerly of Epilepticall and Lunatick persons, both because the foreign Mat. 4. 24.Matt 4:24are mentioned distinctly, and that it appears by the primitive Church afterwards how frequent it was to eject the Devil out of possessed persons. Nay so far am I from thinking that the Daemoniacks were meer Lunaticks, that I rather think with Vossius that the Lunaticks were truly Daemoniacks, only they were not constantly under the power of De Idolatr. l. 2. c. 19.the Devil, but as their paroxysmes returned upon them, the Devil loving to fifh in such troubled waters. And thence Mat. 17. 14 Luk. 9. 39.Matt 17:14Luke 9:39the same person is called a Lunatick in one place, who is called a Daemoniack in another; because he did ruere in principiis lunationum, as the Arabick version expresseth it; or as Rusticus Elpidius more fully explains it,

Repserat in medium rabies horrenda furorisLib. 5.

Daemonis afflatu, propria qui peste nocivus

Allidit captas foedo discrimine mentes,

Menstrua deciduos cum Luna recolligit ignes.

Theophylact is of opinion, that the Iews in the time of our Saviour supposed, that the souls of dead men became Daemons, and thence we read in Scripture of the Daemoniacks Mat. 8. 28Matt 8:28among the Tombs: but it is far more probable which Grotius conceives, that the Iews were of opinion, that the souls of dead men did hover up and down about their bodies, and that these were so long under the Devils power, which many of the Iews to this day believe and make use of the instance of the Pythonisse raising Samuel; on which account the Devils to favour an opinion so advantagious to their interest, might appear with greater terror and fury about their burying places, as we see they did in those possessed persons. But on whatever account it was, we finde it evident that about the time of our Saviours appearance, and some time after, the truly foreign were very frequent; whether it were that p. 264the Devil by such frequent possessions of persons, and making them do such strange things, might thereby endeavour to invalidate the evidence of our Saviours miracles (from whence it is probable the Pharisees raised their calumny, that Christ did miracles by Belzebub, because they saw so many strange appearances caused by possessed persons) or whether it were through the admirable providence of God, which might give Satan the greater liberty at that time, on purpose to heighten the glory of our Saviour in dispossessing of him, and thereby to give the highest rational evidence, that his power was of God, which tended so much to the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan.

And hence the Primitive Christians did so much triumph, and as it were insult over the Devil where ever they found Sect. 5.him, making him to remove his lodgings from possessed persons, by a writ of ejection from the name of Christ. Thence Origen rationally concludes that Christ had his power given him from above, because at his very name the Devils forsook the bodies which they had possessed. foreign. Orig. c. Cels. l. 3.And he elsewhere tells us, that even the meanest sort of Christians without any ceremony, but meerly by their prayers, did ordinarily eject the Devil out of mens bodies: foreign. Lib. 7.Ordinary Christians, saith he, most commonly do this, the grace of Christ by its word thereby discovering the contemptibleness and infirmity of the Devils, that in order to their ejection they did not so much as want any learned or experienced Christian. And for this they appeal to the Heathens themselves, as appears not only by the challenge of Tertullian already mentioned, but by the Testimony of almost all of them who have writ against the Heathens in vindication of the Christian religion. Thence Minutius Felix, Haec omnia sciunt plerique, Pars vestrum, ipsos Pl 31. cd. Ouz.daemonas de semetipsis confiteri, quoties à nobis torment is verborum, & orationis incendiis de co…poribus exiguntur. Ipse p. 265Saturnus & Serapis, et Iupiter, et quiequid daemonum colitis, victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur, nec utique in turpitudinem sui, nonnullis praesertim vestrum assistentib…s, mentiuntur. Ipsis testibus eos esse Daemonas, de se verum confitentibus credite; adjuratienim per Deum verum et solum, inviti, miseri corporibus inhorrescunt; et vel exiliunt statim, vel evanesount gradatim, prout fides patientis adjuvat, aut gratia curantis aspirat. Can we now think the Devil should not only forsake his Tyranny over the bodyes of men, but let go so advantagious a pillar of his tyranny over the consciences of men in Idolatroius worship, as the concealing himself was, had he not been forced to it by a power far greater then his own? So Cyprian ad Demetrianum, appeals to him being the Proconsul of Africa, about the same thing (who had written sharply against the Christians) for speaking of the Devils whom they worshipped in their Idols. O si audire eos velles et AdDemetr: s. 12.videre, quando à nobis adjurantur et torquentur Spiritualibus flagris et verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur, quando ejulantes et gementes voce humana, et potestate divina flagella et verbera sentientes, venturum judicium confitentur; veni et cognosce vera esse quae dicimus: and a little after, videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos, et tremere captivos, quos tu suspicis et veneraris ut Dominos. Did ever any of the Heathen Magicians (of which there were good store) extort such things from the Devils as the Christians did meerly by their prayers, and invocations of the name of God and Christ? did they ever make them confess to be what they were, not only in possessed bodyes but in their Temples too? that was beyond the power of their Ephesian letters, or any of their Magical incantations. Did the Devils ever dread so much the name of Socrates or Aristides as they did that of God and of Christ? Of which Lactantius thus speaks, Quo audito De justitia lib. 5. c. …tremunt, exclamant, et urise verberarique testantur, et interrogati qui sint, quando venerint, quando in hominem irrepserint, confitentur sic extorti, et excruciati virtate divininuminis exulant; propter haec verbera et minas, sanctos et justos viros semper oderunt. And even Apollo himself at the name of Christ trembled as much as ever the Pythian Prophetess did in her greatest furies; so Prudentius tells us,

p. 266Torquetur Apollo

Nomine percussus Christi, nec fulmina verbiApoth…os.

Ferre potest; agitant miserum tot verbera linguae,

Quot laudata Dei resonant miracula Christi.

To these we may add what Firmicus saith to the same purpose, Ecce Daemon est quem colis; cum Dei et Christi ejus nomen audierit, contremiseit, et ut interrogantibus nob is respondeat De errore pro…. relig.trepidantia verba, vix se colligit; adhaerens homini laceratur, uritur, vapulat, et statim de commissis sceleribus confitetur. By which Testimonies it appears what power over Satan, when he was in his Kingdom, the Christians by the power of Christ had; not as though the bare name of Christ had so great an efficacy in the ejection of Devils, as Origen seem… to be of opinion (in a discourse about the efficacy of names, unworthy of so great a Philosopher) but that God I.. 1. c. C…ls.might manifest to the world the truth that was contained in that name, he did give a power to such as made use of it, of working miracles by it. And thence we read in Scripture, that some who were not throughly Christians, but yet professed the truth of the Gospel, and that what they did was for the honour of Christ, had a power of casting out Devils and doing many wonderful things through his name.

By these and many other testimonies which might be Mat 7. 22. Sect. 6.Matt 7:22produced out of the Primitive Church, we finde an exact accomplishment of our Saviours promise to his Disciples when he took his leave of them: And these signs shall follow Mark. 16. 17.Mark 16:17them that believe, In my name shall they cast out Devils, &c. This power then in the Primitive Church had a twofold argument in it, both as it was a manifestation of the truth of the predictions of our Saviour, and as it was an evidence of the Divine power of Christ, when his name so long after his ascension had so great a command over all the infernal spirits; and that so evidently that at that time when the Christians did as it were Tyrannize over Satan so in his own territories, yet then the greatest of his Magicians had no power to hurt the bodyes of the Christians, which is a thing Origen takes much notice of. For when Celsus saith from Diogenes p. 267Aegyptius that Magick could only hurt ignorant and wicked men, and had no power over Philosophers, Origen replies, first, that Philosophy was no such charm against the power of Magick, as appears by Maeragenes who writ the story of Apollonius Tyaneus, the famous Magician and Philosopher, who therein mentions how Euphrates and an Epicurean (foreign no vulgar Philosophers) were catched by the Magick of Apollonius (and although Philostratus disowns this History of Maeragenes as fabulous, yet he that thinks Philostratus for that, to be of any greater credit, is much deceived, of whom Lud. Vives gives this true character, that he doth magna Homeri mendacia majoribus mendaciis De trad. disc. l. 5.corrigere, mend one hole and make three) but saith Origen as to the Christians, this is undoubtedly true: foreign. Cont. Cels. l. 6. p. 302.This, saith he, we are most certain of and have found it by experience true, that those who according to the principles of Christianity do worship God over all, through Iesus, and do live according to the Gospel, being constant in their solemn prayers night and day, are not obnoxious to the power of any Magick or Devils whatsoever. Now then if the Devil who had then so much power over others, had none upon the true followers of Christ; and if in stead of that they had so great a commanding power over the Devil even in things which tended most to his disadvantage, not only dislodging him out of bodies, …t out of his Idolatrous Temples; what can be more evident, then that this power which was so efficacious for the overthrowing the Kingdom of Satan, must needs be far greater then the power of Satan is? For it is an undoubted Maxime in natural reason, that whatever is put out of its former place by force and violence, is extruded by something stronger then its self; for if the force on either side were equal, there could be no disposses sing of either; if any thing then be cast out of its former possession unwillingly, it is an undenyable proof there was some power greater then his who was dispossessed. Now we cannot conceive, if there be such malignant spirits as by p. 268many undeniable proofs it is evident there are, that they should willingly quit their possessions to such a doctrine which tends to the unavoydable ruine of their interest in the world; if then the power of this doctrine hath overthrown the Devils Kingdom in the world, whereever it hath been truly entertained, it must necessarily follow, that this power is far above the power of any damned spirits. Now what folly and madness was it in the Heathens to worship those for Gods, which they could not but see, if they would open their eyes, were under so great slavery to a power above them, which could make them confess what was most to their disadvantage in the presence of their great adorers?

Neither ought the many counterfeits and impostures which have been in the world in this kind since the establishment of Sect. 7.Christian Religion (among the advancers of particular interests and designs) make us suspect the truth of those things which were done in the first Ages of the Church of Christ. For first it stands to the greatest reason, that the strongest arguments for the truth of a Religion ought to be fetched from the ages of its first appearance in the world; if then the evidence be undoubted as to those first times, we ought to embrace our Religion as true, whatever the impostures have been among those who have apparently gone aside from that purity and simplicity of the Gospel, which had so great power. Then secondly, if all that hath been done in this kind of ejecting Devils, where Christianity is owned, be acknowledged for impostures; one of these two things must be supposed as the ground of it; either that there was no such thing as a real possession by the Devil, or else there was no such thing as a dispossessing him: If the first, then hereby will be seen a confirmation of our former argument, that where Christianity is owned, by the power of that, the Devil is more curbed and restrained, then where it is not, or else is much overrun with ignorance and superstition. Of the latter, the ages of the Christian Church, from the 10. Century to the beginning of the 16. current, are a clear evidence: Of the first, all those who have been conversant in the places where Paganism or gross Idolatry do yet reign, will bring in their creditable testimonies, how tyrannical the power of the Devil p. 269is yet among them. If it be not so then, where careful endeavours have been used for retriving the ancient p…rity of Christian doctrine and worship, we ought to impute it to the power of him who is stronger then Satan, who whereever he comes to dwell, doth dispossess him of his former habitations. If the second then be entertained as the ground of concluding all things as impostures, which are accounted dispossessions of Satan, viz. that he never is really dispossessed, then it must either be said, that where he is once seized, there is no possibility of ejecting him; which is to say, that the Devil hath an absolute and infinite power, and that there is no power greater then his, which is to own him for God; or else that God suffers him to tyrannize where and how he will, which is contrary to divine providence, and the care God takes of the world, and of the good of mankind; or else lastly, that those persons who pretend to do it, are not such persons who are armed so much with the power of Christ, nor possessed with such a due spirit of the Gospel, which hath command over these infernal spirits. And this in the cases pretended by the great Iuglers and Impostors of the Christian world, the Popish Priests have been so notorious, that none of their own party of any great faith or credit would stand to vouch them. And we have this impregnable argument against all such Impostures, that the matters which they by such actions would give an evidence to, being so vastly different from, if not in some things diametrically opposite to the first delivery and design of the Christian faith, it is inconsistent with the way used for the confirmation of Christian Religion in the first publishing of it, to attest the truth of such things by any real miracles: For so it would invalidate the great force of the evidences of the truth of Christianity, if the same argument should be used for the proving of that which in the judgement of any impartial person was not delivered, when the truth of the doctri…e of Christ was confirmed by so many and uncontrouled miracles. But hereby we see what unconceivable prejudice hath been done to the true primitive doctrine of the Gospel; and what stumbling-blocks have been laid in the way of considerative persons, to keep them from embracing the truly Christian faith, p. 270by those who would be thought the infallible directors of men in it, by making use of the broad-seal of Heaven (set only to the truth of the Scriptures) to confirm their unwritten and superstitious ways of worship. For if I once see that which I looked on as an undoubted evidence of divine power, brought to attest any thing directly contrary to divine revelation; I must either conclude that God may contradict himself by sealing both parts of a contradiction, which is both blasphemous and impossible; or that that society of men which own such things, is not at all tender of the honour of Christain doctrine, but seeks to set up an interest contrary to it, and matters not what disadvantage is done to the grounds of R…ligion by such unworthy pretences; and which of these two is more rational and true, let every ones conscience judge. And therefore it is much the interest of the Christian world to have all such frauds and impostures discovered, which do so much disservice to the Christian faith, and are such secret fomenters of Atheism and Infidelity. But how far that promise of our Saviour, that they which believe in his name, shall cast out Devils, and do many miracles, may extend Mat. 16. 17.Matt 16:17even in these last ages of the world to such generous and primitive-spirited Christians, who out of a great and deep sense of the truth of Christianity and tenderness to the souls of men, should go among Heathens and Infidels to convert them only to Christ (and not to a secular interest, under pretence of an infallible head) is not here a place fully to enquire. I confess I cannot see any reason why God may not yet for the conviction of Infidels, employ such a power of miracles, although there be not such necessity of it, as there was in the first propagation of the Gospel, there being some evidences of the power of Christianity now, which were not so clear then (as the overthrowing the Kingdom of Satan in the world, the prevailing of Christianity notwithstanding force used against it; the recov…ry of it from amidst all the corruptions which were mixed with it; the consent of those parties in the common foundations of Christianity, which yet disagre… fro… each other with great bittern…ss of spirit) though I say it be not of that necessity now, when the Scriptures are conv…yed to us in a certain uninterrupted manner; yet God may p. 271please out of his abundant provision for the satisfaction of the minds of men, concerning the truth of Christian doctrine, to employ good men to do something which may manifest the power of Christ to be above the D…vils, whom they worship. And therefore I should far sooner believe the relation of the miracles of Xaverius and his Brethren, employed in the conversion of Infidels, then Lipsius his Virgo Hallensis and Asprecollis, could it but be made evident to me that the design of those persons had more of Christianity then Popery in it; that is, that they went more upon a design to bring the souls of the Infidels to heaven, then to enlarge the authority and jurisdiction of the Roman Church.

But whatever the truth of those miracles, or the design of those persons were, we have certain and undoubted evidence Sect. 8.of the truth of those miracles, whereby Christianity was first propagated, and the Kingdom of Satan overthrown in the world; Christ thereby making it appear that his power was greater then the Devils, who had possession, because he overcame him, took from him all his armour wherein he trusted, Luke 11. 21, 22.Luke 11:21Luke 11:22and divided his spoils; i. e. disposs…ssed him of mens bodies, and his Idolatrous Temples, silenced his Oracles, nonplust his Magicians, and at last, when Christianity had overcome by suffering, wrested the worldly power and Empire out of the Devils hands, and employed it against himself. Neither may we think, because since that time the Devil hath got some ground in the world again by the large spread of Mahometism, & the general corruptions in the Christian world, that therefore the other was no argument of divine power; because the truth of Christianity is not tyed to any particular places; because such a falling away hath been foretold in Scripture; and therefore the truth of them is proved by it, and because God himself hath threatned that those who will not receive the truth in the love of it, shall be given up to strong de'usions. Doth not this then in stead of abating the strength of the argument, confirm it more, and that nothing is fallen out in the Christian world, but what was foretold by those whom God employed in the converting of it? But we are neither without some fair hopes even from that divine revelation which was sealed by uncontrouled evidence, that there may be yet a p. 272time to come when Christ will recover his Churches to their pristine purity and simplicity; but withall I think we are not to measure the future felicity of the Church by outward splendor and greatness (which too many so strongly fancy) but by a recovery of that true spirit of Christianity which breathed in the first ages of the Church, whatever the outward condition of the Church may be: For if worldly greatness, and ease, and riches, were the first impairers of the purity of Christian Religion, it is hard to conceive how the restoring of the Church of Christ to its true glory, can be by the advancing of that, which gives so great an occasion to pride and sensuality, which are so contrary to the design of Christian Religion; unless we suppose men free from those corruptions, which continual experience still tells the world the Rulers as well as members of the Christian society are subject to. Neither may that be wonderd at, when such uneveness of parts is now discovered in the great Luminaries of the world, and the Sun himself is found to have his maculae, as though the Sun had a purple feaver, or as Kiroher expresseth it, Ipse Phoebus, qui rerum omnium in universo naturae Theatro aspectabilium longè pulcherrimus omnium opinione Propyl. Agonist. ad Oedipum. cap. 2.est habitus, hoc seculo tandem fumosa facie, ac infecto vultu maculis prodiit; diceres eum variolis laborare senescentem: I speak not this as though an outward flourishing condition of the Church were inconsistent with its purity; for then the way to refine it, were to throw it into the flames of persecution; but that the advancement of the flourishing condition of the Church, is not meerly by outward pomp and grandeur, and that the purity of the Church is not inconsistent with a state of outward difficulties, which the experience o… the Primitive Church gives an irrefragable demonstration of. Thus much may serve to shew the necessity of a power of miracles, conjoyned with the Christian Doctrine, to manifest the truth of it by overthrowing the Kingdom of that great Antichrist the Devil, who had usurped so much Tyranny over the world.

The last reason why a power of miracles was so necessary Sect. 9.for confirming the truth of the Gospel, is, because the Gospel was to be propagated over the world without any other rational p. 273evidence then was contained in the miracles wrought for the confirmation of it. Now the admirable success which this doctrine found in the world, considering all the circumstances of it, doth make it clear what certainty there was that the miracles which were wrought were true, and they were certain evidences that the doctrine attested by them was from God. Now this will appear from these two things.

That no rational account can be given why the Apostles should undertake to publish such a doctrine, unless they had 1.been undoubtedly certain that the Doctrine was true, and they had sufficient evidence to perswade others to beleeve it.

That no satisfactory account can be given, considering the nature of the doctrine of Christ, and the manner of its propagation, why it should meet with so great acceptance in the world, had there not been such convincing evidence as might fully perswade men of the truth of it.

I begin with the first, from the publishers of this doctrine 2.in the world: All that I here require by way of a Postulatum or supposition, are onlythese two things, which no man right in his wits I suppose will deny: 1. That men are so far rational agents, that they will not set upon any work of moment and difficulty, without sufficient grounds inducing them to it; and by so much the greater the work is, the more sure and stedfast had the grounds need to be which they proceed upon. 2. That the Apostles or first Publishers of the Christian doctrine were not men distracted, or bereft of their wits, but acted by principles of common sense, reason, and understanding, as other men in the world do: Which if any one should be so far beside his wits as to question, if he have but patience and understanding enough to read and consider those admirable writings of theirs which are conveyed to us by as certain uninterrupted a Tradition as any thing in the world hath been; and by that time he will see cause to alter his judgement, and to say that they are not mad, but speak the words of the greatest truth and soberness. These things supposed, I now proceed to the proving of the thing in hand, which will be done by these three things: First, That the Apostles could not but know how h…zardous an employment the preaching of the Gospel would be to p. 274them. Secondly, that no motive can be conceived sufficient for them to undertake such an employment, but the infallible truth of the doctrine which they preached. Thirdly, that the greatest assurance they had themselves of the truth of their Doctrine, was by being eye-witnesses of the miracles of Christ.

First, That the Apostles could not but understand the hazard of their employment, notwithstanding which they cheerfully undertook it. That men armed with no external power, nor cried up for their wit and learning, and carrying a doctrine with them so contra…y to the general inclinations of the world, having nothing in it to recommend it to mankind but the Truth of it, should go about to perswade the world to part with the Religion they owned, and was setled by their laws, and to embrace such a religion as called them off from all the things they loved in this world, and to prepare themselves by mortification & self-denial for another world, is a thing to humane reason incredible, unless we suppose them acted by a higher spirit then mankind is ordinarily acted by. For what is there so desirable in continual reproaches & contumelies? what delight is there in racks and prisons? what agreeableness in flames and martyrdoms to make men undergo some, nay all of these rather then disown that doctrine which they came to publish? Yet these did the Apostles cheerfully undergo in order to the conversion of the world, to the truth of that doctrine which they delivered to it. And not only so, but though they did foresee them, they were not discouraged from this undertaking by it. I confess, when men are upon hopes of profit and interest in the world, engaged upon a design which they promise themselves impunity in, having power on their side, though afterwards things should fall out contrary to their expectation, such persons may die in such a cause, because they must, and some may carry it out with more resolution, partly through an innate fortitude of spirit, heightened with the advantages of Religion, or an Enthusiastick temper. But it is hard to conceive that such persons would have undertaken so hazardous an employment, if beforehand they had foreseen what they must have undergone for it. But now the Apostles did foreknow that bonds and imprisonment, nay death its self must be undergone in a violent p. 275manner, for the sake of the doctrine which they preached; yet not withstanding all this, they go boldly and with resolution on with their work, and give not over because of any hardships and persecutions they met withall. One of the chiesest of them, S. Peter, and as forward as any in Preaching the Gospel, had the very manner of his death foretold him by Christ himself, Joh. 21. 19John 21:19before his Ascension; yet soon after we find him preaching Christ in the midst of those who had crucified him, and telling them to their faces the greatness of their sin in it, and appealing to the miracles which Christ had done among them, and bidding them repent and believe in him whom they had crucified, if ever they would be saved: And this he did, Acts 2. 22, 23, 38. Acts 3. 14, 15, 16, 19. Acts 4. 5.Acts 2:22Acts 2:23Acts 2:38Acts 3:14Acts 3:15Acts 3:16Acts 3:19Acts 4:5not only among the people who gave their consent to the crucifying of Christ, but soon after, being convented …ogether with Iohn, before the Court of Sanbedrin (probably the very same which not long before had sentenced Christ to death) for a miracle wrought by them, with what incredible boldness doth he to their faces tell them of their murdering Acts 4. 10, 12.Acts 4:10Acts 4:12Christ; and withall, that there was no other way to salvation but by him whom they had crucified! Be it known unto you all (saith Peter to the Sanhedrin) and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Iesus Christ whom ye have crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. What an heroickfreedom of spirit appears in these words! what magnanimity and courage was there now in that person, who durst in the face of this Court tell them of their murder, and that there was no salvation but by him whom they had crucified! Well might they wonder at the boldness of the men, who feared not the same death which they had so lately brought their Lord and Master to.

Neither was this singly the case of Peter and Iohn, but all Sect. 10.the rest of the Apostles undertook their work with the same resolution and preparation of Spirit to under go the greatest hardship in the world sor the sake of the truths they Preached. And accordingly as far as Ecclesiastical history can ascertain us of it, they did all but Iohn (and that to make good p. 276Joh. 2…. 22.John 2:22the prediction of Christ) suffer violent deaths by the hands of those who persecuted them meerly for their doctrine. And which is most observable, when Christ designed them first of all for this work, he told them before hand of reproaches, persecutions, all manner of hardships, nay of death its self which they must undergo for his sake. All that he gave them Matth. 10. 17, 18, 21, 22, 28.Matt 10:17Matt 10:18Matt 10:21Matt 10:22Matt 10:28by way of encouragement, was, that they could only kill the body and not the soul, and therefore that they should fear him only who could destroy both body and soul in hell; all the support they had, was, an expectation in another world, and that animated them to go through all the hardships of this. Where do we ever read of any such boldness and courage in the most knowing Philos…phers of the Heathens? with what saintness and misgiving of mind doth Socrates speak in his famous discourse suppo…ed to be made by him before his death? how Pl. u. Phaed.uncertainly doth he speak of a state of immortality? and yet in all probability Plato set it forth with all advantages imaginable. Where do we finde that ever any of the great friends of Socrates, who were present at his death, as Phaedo, Cebes, Crito, and Simmias, durst enter the Areopagus, and condemn them there for the murther of Socrates, though this would be far short of what the Apostles did? why were they not so charitable as to inform the world better of those grand truths of the being of God and immortality of souls, if at least they were fully convinced of them themselves? Why did not Plato at least speak out, and tell the world the truth, and not disguise his …iscourses under feigned names, the better to avoid accusation and the fate of Socrates? how doth he mince his excellent matter, and playes as it were at Bo-peep with his readers, sometimes appearing and then pulling in his horns again? It may not be an improbable conjecture that the death of Socrates was the foundation of the Academy; I mean of that cautelous doctrine of withholding assent, and being both pro and con, sometimes of this side, and sometimes of that: for Socrates his death had made all his friends very fearful of being too dogmatical. And Plato himself had too much riches and withall too much of a Courtier in him to hazard the dear prison of his soul, viz. his body, meerly for an aethereall vehicle. He had rather let his p. 277soul flutter up and down in a terrestrial matter, or the cage it was p…nt up in, then hazard too violent an opening of it by the hands of the Areopagus. And the great Roman Orator among the rest of Plato's sentiments had learnt this too; for although in his discourses he hath many times sufficiently laid open the folly of the Heathen worship and Theology, yet he knows how to bring himself off safe enough with the people; and will be sure to be dogmatical only in this, that nothing is to be innovated in the religion of a Common-wealth, and that the customs of our Ancestors are inviolably to be observed. Which principles had they been true as they were safe for the persons who spake them, the Christian religion had never gained any entertainment in the world; for where ever it came, it met with this potent prejudice that it was looked on as an innovation, and therefore was shrewdly suspected by the Governours of Common-wealths, and the Preachers of it punished as factious and seditious persons; which was all the pretext the wise Politicians of the world had for their cruel and inhumane persecutions of such multitudes of peaceable and innocent Christians. Now when these things were foretold by the Apostles themselves before their going abroad so plainly, that with the same saith they did believe the doctrine they Preached to be true, they must believe that all these things should come to pass, what courage and magnanimity of spirit was it in them thus to encounter dangers and as it were court the slames? Nay and before the time was come that they must dye, to seal the truth of their doctrine, their whole life was a continual peregrination, wherein they were as so many Iobs in pilgrimage, encounterd with perills and dangers on every side; of which one of the most painful and succesful, S. Paul hath given in such a large inventory of his perils, that the very reading of them were 2 Cor 6. …. 5, 8, 9.2 Cor 6enough to undo a poor Epicurean Philosopher, and at once to spoil him of the two pillars of his happiness, the quietness of his mind and ease of his body. Thus we see what a hazardous imployment that was which the Apostles went upon, and that it was such as they very well understood the di…iculty of before they set upon it.

Secondly, We cannot find out any rational motive which p. 278Sect. 11.could carry them through so hazardous an employment, but the full convictions of their minds of the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine which they delivered. We find before that no vulgar motives in the world could carry them upon that design which they went upon; Could they be led by ambition and vain glory who met with such reproaches where ever they went; and not only persecutions of the tongue, but the sharper ones of the hands too? we never read of any but the Primitive Christians who were ambitious of being Martyrs, and thought long till they were in the flames: which made Arrius Antoninus being Proconsul of Asia when Christians in multitudes beset his tribunal and thronged in to be condemned, say to them, foreign. O miserable people, had not ye wayes enough to Tertul. ad Scapul. c. 5.end your lives at h…me, but ye must croud for an execution! This was a higher ambition by far then any of those mancipia gloriae, those Chamaeleons that lived on the breath of applause, the Heathen Philosophers ever reached to, who were as Tertullian expresseth it, homines gloriae & eloquentiae solius libidinosi, unsatiable thirsters after the honour and eloquence of Apolog. c. 47.the world; but the Spirit of a Christian did soare too high to quarry on so mean a pr…y. When the more sober heathens had taken a stricter notice of the carriages and lives of the Preachers of the Gospel and all their genuine followers, they instead of the common and rude name of impostors, gave them a more civil title of Philosophers, and looked upon their doctrine as a sublimer kind of Philosophy, non utique divinum negotium existimant sed mag is Philosophiae genus, as Tertullian Apolog. c. 46.tells us, because the Philosophers pretended so much to moral vertues which they saw the Christians so excellent in; but as Tertullian there replies, nomen hoc Philosophorum Daemonia non fugat, The Devil was never afraid of a Philosophers beard, nor were diseases cured by the touch of a Philosophick pallium. There was something more Divine in Christians then in the grave Philosophers; and that not only in reference to their lives, and the Divine power which was seen in them, but in reference to the truth and certainty of their doctrine, it being a true character given of both, by that same excellent writer in behalf of the Christians of his time: p. 279Veritatem Philosophi quidem aff…ctant, possident autem Christiani; what the Philosophers desired only, the Christians enjoy, Ad. Nationes. l. 1. c. 4.which was Truth: and as he elsewhere more fully speaks, mimicè Philosophi affectant veritatem, & affectando corrum. punt, ut qui gloriam captant; Christianieam necessariò appetunt Apol. c. 46.& integri praestant, ut qui saluti suae curant. Truth is the Philosophers mistress which by courting he vitiates and corrupts, looking at nothing but his own glory: but truth is the Christians Matron whose directions he observes and follows, because he regards no glory but that to come. And to let them further see what a difference there was between a Christian and a Philosopher, he concludes that discourse with these words, Quid adeo simile Philosophus & Christianus? Graeciae Discipulus et coeli? famae negotiator et vitae? verborum et factorum operator? rerum aedificator et destructor? amicus et inimicus erroris? veritatis interpolator et integrator? furator ejus et custos? As much distance (saith he) as there is between Greece and Heaven, between applause and eternal glory, between words and things, between building and destroying, between truth and error, between a plagiary and corrupter of truth, and a preserver and advancer of it; so much is there between a Philosopher and a Christian. The Heathens might suspect indeed some kind of affinity between the first Preachers of the Gospel and the antient Sophists of Greece, because of their frequent going from place to place, and pretending a kind of Enthusiasm as they did: but as much difference as there is between a Knight Errant and Hercules, between a Mountebank and Hippocrates, that and much greater there is between a Greek Sophist and an Apostle. Socrates in Plato's Euthydemus hath excellently discovered the vanity and futility of those persons under the persons of Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, and so likewise in his Protagoras; their intent was only like the retiaries in the Roman Spectacles to catch their adversaries in a net; to intangle them with some captious question or other; but how vastly different from this was the design of the Apostles who abhord those endless contentions which then were in the Heathen world; and came to shew them that Truth which was revealed with an intent of making them better men!

p. 280We see the Apostles were not carried forth by any mean Sect. 12.and vulgar motives, neither did they drive on any private ends of their own; all that they minded was the promoting of the doctrine which they preached. Nay they accounted no hazards comparable with the advantage which the world enjoyed through the propagation of the Christian Religion. This shewed a truly noble and generous spirit in them which would not be hindred from doing the world good, though they found so bad entertainment from it; yea they rejoyced in their greatest sufferings which they underwent in so good a cause; wherein those Primitive Christians who were the genuine followers of the Apostles, did so far imitate them, that, etiam damnati gratias agunt, they gave the Iudges Tertul. Apol. c. 46.thanks that they thought them worthy to lose their lives in a cause which they had reason to triumph in, though they died for it. And when any of them were apprehended, they discovered so little fear of punishment, ut unum solummodo quod non ante suerint paeniteret, that nothing troubled them so much as that they had been Christians no sooner, as one of Miautius Felix.their number speaks. And when the Heathens usually scoffed at them and called them Sarmentitii and Semaxii because they were burned upon the Cross, one of them in the name of the rest answers, hic est habitus victoriae nostrae, haec palmata vestis, tali curru triumphamus; the Cross was only Tertul. Ap. cap. 50.their triumphant chariot which carried them sooner to Heaven. Now this courage and resolution of spirit which was seen in the first planters of Christianity in the world made all serious and inquisitive persons look more narrowly into those things. which made men slight so much the common bug-bears of humane nature, sufferings and death.

Quis enim non contemplatione ejus concutitur, adrequirendum … … …quid intus in re sit? quis non ubi requisivit accedit? ubi accessit patiexoptat? These sufferings made men enquire; this enquiry made them believe; that belief made them as willing to suffer themselves as they had seen others do it before them. Thus it appeared to be true in them, … q…que crudelitas, illecebra magis est sectae; plures …fficimur qu…ties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum; The cruelty of their …nemies did but increase their number; the harvest of p. 281their pretended justice was but the seed-time of Christianity, and no seed was so fruitful as that which was steeped in the blood of Martyrs. Thence Iustin Martyr ingenuously saith of himself, that while he was a Platonick Philosopher, he derided and scoffed at the Christians; but when he considered their great courage and constancy in dying for their profession, he could not think those could possibly be men wicked and voluptuous, who when offers of life were made them, would rather choose death then deny Christ. By which he found plainly that there was a higher spirit in Christianity then could be obtained by the sublime notions and speculations of Plato, and that a poor ignorant Christian would do and suffer more for the sake of Christ then any of the Academy in defence of their master Plato. Now since all men naturally abhor sufferings, what is it which should so powerfully alter the nature and disposition of Christians above all other persons, that they alone should seem in that to have forgot humanity, that not only with patience, but with joy they endured torments and abode the flames? What! were they all p…ssessed with a far more then Stoical Apathy, that no sense o… pain could work at all upon them? or were they all besotted and infatuated persons that did not know what it was they underwent? …t is true some of the more blind and wilfull Heathens derided them as such; but who were the more infatuated, let any sober person judge; they who slighted and rejected a doctrine of so great concernment, which came attested with so much resolution and courage in the professors of it; or they who were so far perswaded of the truth of it, that they would rather die than deny it? dicimus & palam dicimus, et vobis torquentibus lacerati et cruenti Tertul. A… cap. 2…vociferamur, Deum colimus per Christum. They were not ashamed to believe in the blood of Christ even when their own blood ran down besore their eyes, and confess Christ with their mouths when their bodies were upon the rack. Certainly then there were some very powerfull and convincing arguments which buoyed up the spirits of true Christians in that deluge of sufferings which they were to swim through; it must be a strong and well grounded faith which would hold out under so great tryals, and they could not be to seek for p. 282the most perswasive motives to faith, who were so ready to give an account to others of the hope that was in them, and to perswade all other persons to the embracing of it. With what face and confidence otherwise could they perswade men to embrace a doctrine so dangerous as that was, had there not been motives sufficient to bear up against the weight of susferings, and arguments perswasive to convince them of the undoubted certainty of that doctrine which they encouraged them to believe?

Now that which appears to have been the main ground of satisfaction to the Primitive Christians as to the truth and Sect. 13.certainty of the doctrine of Christ, was this, that the doctrine of the Gospel was at first delivered to the world, by those persons who were themselves eye-witnesses of all the miracles which our Saviour wrought in confirmation of the truth of what he spake. They were such persons who had been themselves present, not only to hear most of our Saviours admirable discourses when he was in the world, but to see all those glorious things which were done by him, to make it appear that he was immediately sent from God. Let us now appeal to our own faculties, and examine a little what rational evidence could possibly be desired, that the doctrine of the Gospel was true, which God did not afford to the world? What could the persons who were the auditors of our Saviour desire more as an evidence that he came from God, then his doing such things which were certainly above any created power either humane or Diabolical, and therefore must needs be Divine? What could other persons desire more who were not present at the doing of these miracles, but that the report of them should be conveyed to them in an undoubted manner by those persons who were eye-witnesses of them, and made it appear to the world they were far from any intention of deceiving it? Now this makes the Apostles themselves in their own writings (though they were divinely inspired) appeal to the rational evidence of the truth of the things in that they were delivered by them who were eye-witnesses of them. There St. Peter speaks thus to the dispersed Iews, foreign p. 2832 Pet. 1. 16.2 Pet 1:16foreign. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty. The power and coming of Christ which the Apostle speaks of, was not as some improbably conceive, either his general coming to judgement upon the world, or his particular coming upon the Nation of the Iews; but by an Hendyades, by his power and coming is meant his powerful appearance in the world, whereby he mightily discovered himself to be the Son of God. Now this saith the Apostle, was no foreign, not like the Heathen Mythology concerning the foreign & foreign of their Gods among them (which were so frequently believed among them that Dionysins Antiq. l. 2. pag. 128.Halycarnassaeus condemns the Epicureans, because they did deride foreign the appearances of their Gods in the world) now saith the Apostle, assure your selves this is no such appearance of a God on earth as that among the Heathens was; for saith he we our selves who declare these things were foreign, we fully understood this foreign this great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, for we saw his foreign, that great majesty which attended him in all which he spake or did; we saw all those foreign the great Acts 2. 11.Acts 2:11things of God, which were manifest in him, all those mir… culous operations which were wrought by him. Therefore as this was a great confirmation of the faith of the Apostles themselves that they saw all these things, so we see it was of great concernment to the world in order to their belief that the Gospel was no cunningly devised fable, in that it was delivered by such who were foreign eye-witnesses of what they declared. To the same purpose St. Iohn speaks ad conciliandam fidem, to make it appear how true what they delivered was, in the entrance of his Epistle; That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with 1 Joh. 1, 2, 3.1 John 1:21 John 1:3our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us) That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. We see what great force and weight the Apostle layes upon p. 284this, that they delivered nothing but what they had seen and heard; as they heard the doctrine of Christ, so they saw the miracles which he wrought in confirmation of it. St. Luke likewise in the beginning of his Gospel declares that he intended to write nothing but what he had perfect understanding of from such persons who had been foreign eye-witnesses, Luke 1. 1, 2, 3.Luke 1:1Luke 1:2Luke 1:3and instruments themselves in part of what was written, for that is meant by foreign: and those things which were written, he saith were foreign, things which are abundantly proved to be true; for being matters of …act, there could be no stronger proof of them, then by such who were eye-witnesses of what they spake. And this we find the Apostles themselves very cautious about, in the choice of a new Apostle in the room of Iudas. Wherefore of these Acts 1. 21, 22.Acts 1:21Acts 1:22men which have companied with us, all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day, that he was taken from us, must one be ordained to be a witness of his resurrection: For, because Christ was mightily declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, (as that which was the great Seal of our Saviours being the Son of God) therefore we find the Apostles so frequently attesting the truth of the resurrection of Christ, and that themselves were eye-witnesses of it. This Iesus, saith Peter, hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. And again, And killed the Prince of life, whom Acts 2. 32.Acts 2:32God hath raised up from the dead, whereof we are witnesses; and both Peter and Iohn to the Sanhedrin; For we cannot 3. 15.but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And the …. 20.whole Colledge of Apostles afterwards, And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God …. 32.hath given to them that obey him. In which words they give them that twofold rational evidence which did manifest the undoubted truth of what they spake; for they delivered nothing but what themselves were witnesses of, and withall was declared to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost in the miracles which were wrought by and upon believers. Afterwards we read the sum o… the Apostles Preaching, and the manner used by them to perswade men of the truth of it, in the words of Peter to Cern…lius and his company, How God p. 285annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were 10. 39, 40, 41, 42.oppressed of the Devil, for God was with him: And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Iews and in Hierusalem, whom they stew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he com…anded us to …reach unto the people, that it is be which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead. By all which we see what care God was pleased to take for the satisfaction of the world in point of rational evidence, as to the truth of the matters which were discovered concerning our Saviour Christ, because he made choice of such persons to be the preachers and writers of these things who were the best ab…e to satisfie the world about them, viz. such as had been eye witnesses of them.

Now in order to the making it more fully evident what Sect. 14.strength there was in this Testimony given by the Apostles to the miracles of Christ, we shall more fully manifest the rational evidence which attended it in these following propositions. Where the truth of a doctrine depends upon a matter of fact, the truth of the doctrine is sufficiently manifested, if the matter of fact be evidently proved in the highest way it is capable Prop. 1.of. Thus it is in reference to the doctrine of Christ; for the truth of that is so interwoven with the truth of the story of Christ, that if the relations concerning Christ be true, his doctrine must needs be Divine and infallible. For if it be undoubtedly true, that there was such a person as Christ born at Bethlehem, who did so many miracles, and at last suffered the death of the Cross, and after he had lain three dayes in the grave rose again from the dead, what reason imaginable can I have to question, but that the Testimony of this person was certainly Divine, and consequently what ever he preached to the world was most certain and undoubted truth: So that if we have clear evidence as to the truth of these passages concerning our Saviour, we must likewise believe his doctrine, which came attested with such pregnant evidences of a Divine commission which he had from God to the world: p. 286No Prince can think he hath any reason to refuse audience to an Embassador, when he finds his Credentials such as he may rely upon; although himself doth not see the sealing of them; much less reason have we to question the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel, if we have sufficient evidence of the truth of the matters of fact concerning Christ, in such a way as those things are capable of being proved.

The greatest evidence which can be given to a matter of fact, Prop. 2.is the attesting of it by those persons who were eye-witnesses of it. This is the Foundation whereon the firmest assent is built, as to any matter of fact; for although we conceive we have reason to suspect the truth of a story, as long as it is conveyed only in a general way, by an uncertain fame and tradition, yet when it comes to be attested by a sufficient number of credible persons who profess themselves the cye-witnesses of it, it is accounted an unreasonable thing to distrust any longer the truth of it; especially in these two cases. 1. When the matter they bear witness to is a thing which they might easily and clearly perceive. 2. When many witnesses exactly agree in the same Testimony.

1. When the matter it self is of that nature that it may be fully perceived by those who saw it: i. e. if it be a common object of sense. And thus it certainly was as to the person and actions of Iesus Christ. For he was of the same nature with mankind; and they had as great evidence that they conversed with Iesus Christ in the flesh, as we can have that we converse one with another. The miracles of Christ were real and visible miracles, they could be no illusions of senses, nor deceits of their eyes; the man who was born blind and cured by our Saviour, was known to have been born blind through all the Countrey, and his cure was after as publike as his blindness before, and acknowledged by the greatest enemies of John 9. 26.John 9:26Christ at the time of its being done. When Christ raised up the dead man at Naim, it was before much people, and such Luke 7. 12.Luke 7:12persons in probability who were many of them present at his death. But least there might be any suspition as to him, that he was not really dead, the case is plain and beyond all dispute in Lazarus, who had been to the knowledge of all persons thereabouts dead four dayes; here could be no deceit at all p. 287Joh. 11. 39.John 11:39when the stone was rowled away, and Lazarus came forth in the presence of them all. And yet further the death and passion of our Saviour was a plain object of sense done in presence of his greatest adversaries. The souldiers themselves were sufficient witnesses of his being really dead when they came to break his bones, and spared him because they saw he was dead already. At his resurrection the stone was rowled away from the Sepulchre and no body found therein, although the Sepulchre was guarded by souldiers, and the Disciples of Christ all so fearful, that they were dispersed up and down in several places. And that it was the same real body which he rose withall, and no aëreall vehicle, appears by Thomas his serupulosity and unbelief, who would not believe unless …e might put his hands into the hole of his sides, and see John 20. 25, 27.John 20:25John 20:27in his hands the …rint of the nails; now our Saviour condeseending so far as to satisfie the incredulity of Thomas, hath made it thereby evident that the body which our Saviour rose from the grave with, was the same individual body which before was crucified and buried in the Sepulchre. And we sind all the Apostles together upon our Saviours appearance to them after his resurrection, so far from being credulous in embracing a phantasm instead of Christ, that they susp…cted that it was either a meer phantasm, or an evil spirit which appeared among them; upon which it is said, they were terrified Luke 24. 37.Luke 24:37and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit. Which our Saviour could not beat them off from, but by appealing to the judgement of their senses, Handle me and see, for a spirit 39.hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have, and afterwards more fully to convince them, he did eat in the midst of them. Now the more suspitious and inc…edulous the Apostles themselves 43.at first were, the greater evidence is it how far they were from any design of abusing the world in what they after preached unto it, and what strong conviction there was in the thing its self, which was able to satisfie such scrupulous and suspicious persons.

2. When many witnesses concurr in the same Testimony. Nothing can disparage more the truth of a testimony, then the counter witness of such who were present at the same actions, but when all the witnesses fully agree not only in the p. 288substance, but in all material circumstances of the story, what ground or reason can there be to suspect a forgery or design in it; especially when the persons cannot by any fears or threatnings be brought to vary from each other in it! Thus it is in our present case, we find no real dissent at all mentioned either as to the birth, miracles, life, death, or resurrection of Iesus Christ, all the witnesses attest the same things, though writing in different places, and upon different occasions; no alteration in any circumstance of the story, out of any design of pleasing or gratifying any persons by it. Most of our Saviours miracles, not only his Apostles but the people and his very enemies were witnesses of, whose posterity to this day dare not deny the truth of such strange works which were wrought by him. And for his resurrection, it would be very strange that five hundred persons should all agree in the same thing, and that no torments or death could bring any of them to deny the truth of it, had there not been the greatest certainty in it.

There can be no reason to suspect such a testimony which is given by eye-witnesses, but either from questi…ning their knowledge Sect. 15. Prop. 3.of the things they speak of, or their fi…elity in reporting them. Now there is not the least ground to doubt either of these, in reference to those persons who gave testimony to the world concerning the person and actions of our blessed Saviour.

For first, They were such as were intimately conversant both with the person and actions of Iesus Christ; whom he had 1.chosen and trained up for that very end, that they might be sufficiently qualified to acquaint the world with the truth of things concerning himself after his resurrection from the dead. And accordingly they followed him up and down wheresoever he went, they were with him in his solitudes and retirements, and had thereby occasion to observe all his actions, and to take notice of the unspotted innocency of his life. Some of his Disciples were with him in his transfiguration, others in his agony and bloody sweat, they heard the expressions which came from his mouth; in all which he discovered a wonderful submission to the will of God, and a great readiness of mind to suffer for the good of the world. Now therefore the first p. 289thing cannot at all be questioned, their means of knowing the truth of what they spake.

Neither secondly is there any reas…n to suspect their fidelity 2. 1in reporting what they knew: For, 1. The truth of this doctrine wrought so far upon them, that they parted with all their worldly subsistence for the sake of it: Although their riches were not great, yet their way of subsistence in the world was necessary; they left their houses, their wives and children, and all for Christ, and that not to gain any higher preferments in this world (which had they done, it would have rendred their design suspicious to the curious and inquisitive world) but they let go at least a quiet and easie life, for one most troublesom and dangerous. So that it is not, how much they parted withall, but how freely they did it, and with what chearfulness they underwent disgraces, persecutions, nay death its self for the sake of the Gospel. Now can it be imagined, that ever men were so prodigal of their ease and lives, as to throw both of them away upon a thing which themselves were not fully assured of the truth of? It had been the highest folly imaginable, to have deceived themselves in a thing of so great moment to them, as the truth of the doctrine which they preached was; because all their hopes and happiness depended upon the truth of that doctrine which they preached. And as Tertullian observes, non fas est ulli de suâ religione mentiri; for, saith he, he that sayes he worships any thing be sides what he doth, he denyes what he doth worship, and transfers his worship upon another, and thereby doth not worship that which he thus denyes: Besides, what probability is there men should lye for the sake of that Religion which tells them that those which do so shall not receive the reward which is promised to those who cordially adhere unto it. Nay, they declared themselves to be the most miserable of all persons if their hopes were only in this present life. Can we now 1 Cor. 15. 19.1 Cor 15:19think that any who had the common reason of men, would part with all the contentments of this world, and expose themselves to continual hazards, and at last undergo death its self for the sake of something which was meerly the fiction of their own brains? What should make them so sedulous and industrious in preaching such things that they could say necessity p. 290was laid upon them, yea wo was unto them if they preached not the 1 Cor. 9. 16.1 Cor 9:16Gospel, when yet they saw so many woes attending them in the preaching of it, had there not been some more powerful attractive in the beauty and excellency of the doctrine which they preached, then any could be in the ease and tranquillity of this present world? Thus we see the fid…lity of the Apostles manifested in such a way as no other witnesses were ever yet willing to hazard theirs. And therefore Origen deservedly 1. 3. C… sam. p. 127condemns Celsus of a ridiculous impertinency, when he would parallel the relations of Herodotus and Pindarus concerning Aristeus Proconnesius with those of the Apostles concerning Christ: For, faith he, did either of those two venture their lives upon the truth of what they writ concerning him, as the Apostles did to attest the truth of what they preached concerning our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ?

2. The fidelity of the Apostles is evident in their manner of Sect. 16.reporting the things which they deliver. For if ever there may be any thing gathered from the manner of expression, or the foreign concerning the particular temper and disposition of the person from whom it comes, we may certainly read the greatest fidelity in the Apostles from the peculiar manner of their expressing themselves to the world. Which they do,

1. With the greatest impartiality: not declaring only what was glorious and admirable to the world, but what they knew would be accounted foolishness by it. They who had sought only to have been admired for the rare discoveries which they brought to the world, would be sure to conceal any thing which might be accounted ridiculous; but the Apostles fixed themselves most on what was most contemptible in the eyes of the world, and what they were most mocked and derided for, that they delighted most in the preaching of, which was the Cross of Christ. Paul was so much in Love with this, which was a stumbling block to the Iews and foolishness to the Greeks, that he valued the knowledge of nothing else in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and him crucified. Nay 1 Cor. 2. 2. Phil. 3. 8. Gal. 6. 14.1 Cor 2:2Phil 3:8Gal 6:14he elsewhere saith, God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ. What now should be the reason that they should rejoyce in that most which was most despicable to the p. 291world, had not they seen far …reater truth and excellency in it, then in the most sublime speculations concerning God or the souls of men in the School of Plato or any other heathen Philosophers? That all men should be bound in order to their salvation, to believe in one who was crucified at Hierusalem, was a strange doctrine to the unbelieving world: but if the Apostles had but endeavoured to have suited their doctrine to the School of Plato, what rare persons might they have been accounted among the Heathen Philosophers! Had they only in general terms discoursed of the Benignity of the Divine nature, and the manifestations of Divine goodness in the world, and that, in order to the bringing of the souls of men to a nearer participation of the Divine nature, the perfect Idea of true goodness, and the express image of the person of God, and the resplendency of his glory had vailed himself in humane nature, and had everywhere scattered such beams of light and goodness, as warmed and invigorated the frozen spirits of men with higher sentiments of God and themselves, and raised them up above the faeculency of this terrestrial matter to breath in a freer air, and converse with more noble objects, and by degrees to fit the souls of men for those more pure illapses of real goodness, which might alwayes satisfie the souls desires, and yet alwayes keep them up till the soul should be sunning its self to all eternity under the immediate beams of Light and Love: And that after this Incarnate Deity had spread abroad the wings of his Love for a while upon this lower world, till by his gentle heat and incubation he had quickned the more plyable world to some degree of a Divine life, he then retreated himself back again into the superiour world, and put off that vail by which he made himself known to those who are here confined to the prisons of their bodies: Thus, I say, had the Apostles minded applause among the admired Philosophers of the Heathens, how easie had it been for them to have made some considerable additions to their highest speculations, and have left out any thing which might seem so mean and contemptible as the death of the Son of God! But this they were so far from, that the main thing which they preached to the world, was, the vanity of humane wisdom without Christ, and the p. 292necessity of all mens believing in that Iesus who was crucified at Hierusalem.

The Apostles indeed discover very much, infinitely more then ever the most lofty Pl—tonist could do, concerning the goodness and Love of God to mankind; but that wherein they manifested the Love of God to the world, was that he gave his Joh. 3. 16.John 3:16only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that herein was the Love Rom. 5. 8.Rom 5:8of God manifested, that while we were yet sinners, Christ dyed for us. And that this was the greatest truth and worthy of all 1. Tim. 1. 15.1 Tim 1:15acceptation, that Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. They never dreamt of any divine goodness which should make men happy without Christ: No, it was their design to perswade the world that all the communications of Gods goodness to the world were wholly in and through Iesus Christ, and it is impossible that any should think otherwise, unless Plato knew more of the mind of God then our blessed Saviour, and Plotinus then Saint Paul. Can we think now that the Apostles should hazard the reputation of their own wits so much as they did to the world, and be accounted bablers, and fools, and madmen, for preaching the way of salvation to be only by a person crucified between two thieves at Hierusalem, had they not been convinced not only of the truth but importance of it, and that it concerned men as much to believe it, as it did to avoid eternal misery? Did Saint Paul preach ever the less the words of truth and soberness, because he was told to his face that his Learning had made him mad? But if he was besides himself, it was for Christ; and what wonder was it if the Love of Christ in the Apostle should make him willing to lose his reputation for him, seeing Christ made himself of no reputation, that he might be in a capacity to do us good? We see the Apostles were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, because they knew it was the power of God to salvation, and therefore neither in their preaching or their writings would they omit any of those passages concerning our Saviours death, which might be accounted the most dishonourable to his person. Which is certainly as great an evidence of their sidelity as can be expected; which makes Origen say that the Disciples of Christ writ all p. 293things foreign with a great deal of candour and L. 3. c. Cels.love of truth. foreign; not concealing from the world those passages of the life of Christ, which would be accounted most foolish and ridiculous.