Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion, Religious treatise · Section 2 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
Wherein we ſhall prove that thoſe Books can never be ſuppoſititious.
WHen I examin the Books of the New Teſtament, all the doubts I ſtrive to raiſe concerning them, amount only to theſe three, I. Whether thoſe Books were not compoſed by ſome Impoſtor, who probably might have aſcribed them to the Apoſtles? II. Whether thoſe Books, ſuppoſing they were compoſed by the Apoſtles, were not afterwards corrupted by the Chriſtians? III. Whether the Apoſtles the pretended Authors of thoſe Books, did not themſelves fill them up with many fictions for their Maſters honour, and the advantage of their Religion? It is but juſt we ſhould examine whether theſe three ſuſpicions are well grounded or no.
And Firſt, it is certain that in taking away the evidence of the Books of the New Testament, we overthrow that of all other Books, and call in queſtion the account of all things paſt. For who will warrant me that Cicero's Orations are his own, if I can't reaſonably aſſure my ſelf that the Epiſtles of St. Paul were written by St. Paul himſelf? But hold! Perhaps it was eaſier or more advantageous to counterfeit the Books of the New Teſtament than thoſe of Humane Learning. This is what we muſt a little enquire into.
And I. the facility there is in Counterfeiting the the works of an Author, wholly depends upon the ſeveral Circumſtances of time, place, and perſons, upon the ſubject matter of that Book, the temper of mens minds, their different notions, and their various intereſts which muſt be carried on in it. Now to counterfeit Books of Humane Learning ſeems infinitely more eaſy in all theſe reſpects, than to counterfeit thoſe of the New Teſtament.
I. Becauſe they who counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning, may take as much time as they pleaſe for it; but here we know not what time can be imagined the Books of the New Testament were forged in. If we look back from age to age, we find the Chriſtians had thoſe Books continually before their eyes, and that they were quoted by the moſt ancient Fathers, who looked upon them as Sacred and Divine.
II. It is eaſy to counterfeit Books of Humane Learning, becauſe there are generally but few people that intereſs themſelves at all in them, at leaſt but very indifferently: but it would have been a very difficult matter to counterfeit thoſe Books which compelled men to ſuffer Martyrdom, as the Books of the New Teſtament did. If a man that lends out his money ſeeks the beſt ſecurity he can for it; what then muſt that perſon do, or rather what muſt an infinite number of perſons do, who utterly renounce all things for the ſake of the Goſpel?
III. There has been found ſome who have counterfeited Books of Humane Learning: but none ever known that were willing to die in defence of their forgery. Now none here can be ſuſpected to have forged the Books of the New Teſtament, but only thoſe who ſuffered Death in defence of the Chriſtian Religion, and conſequently to confirm the Truth of theſe matters of fact on which Chiſtianity it ſelf is founded.
IV. A man may very well counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning, but not always, nor in all circumſtances, and 'twould be very ridiculous in a man to forge Letters that muſt have been written not long ago to whole Societies, or Epiſtles that muſt have been depoſited in the hands of an infinite number of perſons, and in very many different places. Now this muſt needs be affirmed of all the Epiſtles of the Apoſtles, which make up a very conſiderable part of the New Teſtament. And how could the Church of Rome have poſſibly been made to believe, that St. Paul wrote an Epiſtle to her; or the Church of Corinth, that ſhe had received two Epiſtles from him, and ſo of the reſt unleſs it had been ſo.
V. This argument is ſo much the more conſiderable, ſince he that grants one point in this matter, unavoidably grants the whole: and if you ſhould agree with me, that perhaps one ſingle Epiſtle among all thoſe of the New Teſtament was not forg'd, you muſt grant the ſame thing of them all; or at leaſt it will be to no purpoſe for the Incredulous to to cavil thereupon. For what if I ſhould grant the four Goſpels to be forg'd, does not the Book of the Acts of the Apoſtles contain, nay does it not neceſſarily ſuppoſe the ſame eſſential matters of fact, related to us in the Goſpels? ſhould I grant the ſame of the Book of Acts, are not the Epiſtles of St. Paul ſufficient to inform us, that Jeſus Chriſt wrought ſeveral miracles, roſe again from the Dead, and aſcended into heaven, and that the Holy Ghoſt deſcended upon the Diſciples on the day of Pentecoſt? and that's as much as I deſire. In a word, ſhould I grant all the Epiſtles of St. Paul to be the works of another man, I need but receive thoſe of St. Peter, or thoſe of St. John, to prove the ſame thing. There being never an Epiſtle in all the New Teſtament, but what mentions or implies thoſe eſſential matters of fact, without which there can be no ſuch thing as Chriſtianity in the World.
Let us now ſee whether we can perſwade our ſelves that all the Books of the New Teſtament, without excepting one fragment, or ſingle Epiſtle amongſt them, are forg'd; and whether we can entertain ſuch a ſuſpicion which no Heretick, no Impious, or Incredulous Perſon ever entertained.
But how is it poſſible all the Epiſtles of the Apoſtles ſhould be forg'd, ſince they muſt have been committed to an infinite number of Perſons, as they were really in the begining of Chriſtianity, and ſince Tertullian tells us, that in his time they carefully preſerved in ſeveral Churches the Originals of thoſe Epiſtles which the Apoſtles had wrote to them?
Again, in what time, and on what occaſion could this Forgery have been made? Was it during the lives of the Apoſtles? No: For could the World conſider thoſe Books as Sacred and Divine, which the Apoſtles themſelves forg'd. Was it then immediately after the Death of the Apoſtles? Do we owe it to Clemens, Polycarp, and the other Doctors of that Age? By no means: for thoſe Diſciples of the Apoſtles ſeparated themſelves as ſoon as thoſe great Lights of the World were extinguiſhed. Polycarp went to Rome, to decide a controverſy with a Biſhop of Rome, occaſioned in the Church about the time wherein they were to celebrate the Feaſt of the Chriſtian Reſurrection, or Paſſover. Thoſe two great men differed much in that point, but yet they both greed unanimouſly to receive the Writings of the Apoſtles, and to look upon them as the true ſtandard of their Faith and Manners. Moreover, what Probability is there that ſo great a number of Churches could have been induced to receive ſo many falſe Epiſtles, ſo ſoon after the Death of the Apoſtles, and when there was ſo many Perſons yet living who had converſed with them? In truth, this is ſo extravagant a Notion that we hold our ſelves not at all obliged to refute it.
But it may be objected that the Primitive Chriſtians queſtion'd the Authority of ſome Epiſtles, ſuch as the Epiſtle to the Hebrews, whoſe Author was never certainly known, the ſecond Epiſtle of St. Peter, that of St. Jude, &c. I grant it: but then I preſume that this conſideration makes for us, ſince it cannot be conceived that the Ancient Primitive Chriſtians ſhould diſpute ſo long about ſome Epiſtles in particular, had the reſt altogether been as liable to ſuſpicion.
But may we not reaſonably imagin that during thoſe ſtrange diſorders which followed the deſtruction of Jeruſalem, ſome Chriſtians either perfect cheats, or but partly perſwaded of that Faith, might have compoſed the Books of the New Teſtament, and ſo after having inſerted in them whatever ſtories they pleaſed, aſcribed them to the Apoſtles, to gain the greater veneration and reſpect for their fictions? No certainly, becauſe the devaſtation of Jeruſalem hinder'd not but that there might be very numerous Churches at Rome, at Antioch, at Theſſalonica, Philippi, &c. whom it would have been impoſſible to have perſwaded that the Apoſtles had wrote them ſome Epiſtles which muſt have been already depoſited in their hands. And beſides that, it appears plainly that the Books of the New Teſtament were compoſed before the deſtruction of Jeruſalem, becauſe Jeruſalem and the Church eſtabliſhed at Jeruſalem is often mention'd therein, without the leaſt hint that Jeruſalem was then utterly deſtroyed. Beſides how could it come into any mans mind to forge ſuch Books after the deſtruction of Jeruſalem, whoſe deſign was only to humble the pride of the Jews, to induce them no longer to hate the Heathens as being ſtrangers, and to perſwade them that tho God as yet ſuffered the carnal worſhip of their Law, they ought not to expect to be juſtified by that. This I ſay was the end of the New Teſtament, and eſpecially the Epiſtles of St. Paul, who ſeems earneſtly to deſire to unite the minds of the two Nations. And Heaven having ſufficiently declared it ſelf againſt the Jews by the deſtruction of their City, the confuſion of their Tribes, and Families, and that general diſperſion which made them Tributaries to all other Nations, there was no need of any further reaſons to prove that the Jews were not the only Nation called to the Knowledge of the true God. 'Twas enough that this proof was evidently written by the hand of God in the juſt puniſhment of that people.
In the mean while, 'tis neceſſary to obſerve that by ſhewing that the New Teſtament was compoſed before the deſtruction of Jeruſalem, I ſhew alſo that it is as ancient as the Apostles themſelves: which affords us one determination very advantagious to our Cauſe. So that this objection being very favourable to, inſtead of proving any thing againſt us, nothing hinders but that we paſs on to the conſideration of the ſecond ſuſpicion we were willing to entertain concerning the Books of the New Teſtament.