SECT. I.

I. That every Imposture must have for its end some carnal interest, is a thing so plain and evident, that I suppose it will not need much proof. For to im­pose a cheat upon mankind, and in a matter of that great importance, as all that have any Religion hold that to be, is a thing of that difficulty to compass, and of that danger to attempt, that it cannot be conceived, why any one should put himself upon such a design, that doth not propose some very valuable advan­tage to himself in the success. To cheat one Man is not always so easie a matter, or is it without its mischiefs and incon­veniences in the discovery. But to en­terprize a cheat upon all mankind, and in a thing of that importance, as the in­troducing of a New Religion, and the abo­lishing of the Old one (to which so many both by custom and education will be always zealously affected, be it what it will) must be an undertaking of the grea­test difficulty and hazard imaginable. [Page 9] For whoever engageth himself in such a plot of Imposture, must unavoidably meet with many strong oppositions to struggle with in the management of it, which will continually put his thoughts upon the rack to find out devices to surmount them, and his body to incessant pains and labour to bring them into Execution; and for the effecting hereof, he must have some confidents to assist him, some to help for­ward the design, whom he must trust with the secret of it; and the more he hath of such, the more he hazards all to a disco­very. And all this while his mind will be fill'd with anxious cares, and his thoughts distracted with many uneasie and affrighting apprehensions (as is usual with Men on wicked designs) about the success, and every failure will expose him to that terrible revenge from those he attempts to declude, as such a villainy whenever detected, most justly deserves. This was Mahomet's case all the while he was propagating his Imposture at Mecca, and so it must be of every other such Impostor also. And when a man puts himself upon all this, the nature of the thing manifestly leads us to conclude, he must propose something to himself here­by which may make him amends for all [Page 10] in the result. For when so much is put to hazard, men do not use to do it for nothing. There must always be some great interest in the bottom of such a design, something that the undertaker values at a more than ordinary rate to make him engage in so exceeding diffi­cult and dangerous an enterprise. For where-ever the venture is great, it must be taken for granted there is an end propo­sed, which in the estimation of the ven­turer is equivalent thereto. What it was that put Mahomet on his Imposture the foregoing History of his life sufficiently shews, it was his ambition and his lust. To have the soveraignty over his Country, to gratify his ambition, and as many wo­men as he pleased to satiate his lust was what he aimed at, and to gain himself a party for the compassing of this was the grand design of that new Religion which he invented, and the whole end and rea­son of his imposing it on those he delu­ded thereinto. And whoever pursues the like method must certainly have some such end in it, it being totally incredible that any one should take upon him the trouble, fatigue and danger of carrying on such a cheat only for cheating sake. But here we challenge all the enemies of that [Page 11] holy Religion which we profess, to find out any thing like this in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, any thing that savours of worldly interest either in him the first Founder of our Faith, or in any of his holy Apostles, who were the first Propagators of it. Vaninus, one of the most zealous Cham­pions of Impiety that ever appeared a­gainst the Christian Cause (for he died a Martyr for it) hath attempted this: but after the most accurate and diligent search which so keen an Adversary could make, he was forced to give up the Point; and plainly acknowledge, that in the whole series of the History and actions of our Saviour, he could not find any thing that he could charge with secular interest or design to blast him or his Religion with. And if you will renew the same attempt, though you extend the inquiry much farther, even to his Apostles, and all the rest of his Disciples, who first preached this holy Religion to the World, and take in to your assistance all the enemies of it; after the strictest scrutiny that you can make, you will never have any better success herein.

For had our Saviour's design been to seduce the People for his own interest, he must have taken the same course, that [Page 12] other Seducers do. He must have flattered them in their humors, and formed his doctrines to their fancies; courted those that were in greatest authority and esteem with them, and made it his business most­ly to preach against and decry those who were least in their favour, and studi­ed and practised all other such arts of popularity, whereby he might best in­sinuate into their good liking, and gain that interest with them, as might be suffi­cient to serve his purpose and obtain the end proposed. These were the methods whereby Mahomet first propagated his Imposture, and these are they which all others must take, whose purpose it is to deceive the People. But our Saviour in every particular acted contrary hereto, which sufficiently proves that he had no such design to compass. For he freely preach'd against whatever he found blame­able in the people, spared not their most beloved errours, or framed his doctrines to indulge them in any one evil practice how predominant so ever amongst them, and was so far from courting those in the greatest authority and esteem with them, that he was most sharp and bitter against them above all others, whom they most idolized, I mean the Scribes and Phari­sees; [Page 13] For he on all occasions detected their Hypocrisies, and laid open their evil practices, and in the severest manner re­buked and condemned them for their ini­quity therein, even to the preferring and justifying before them the wicked Publi­cans, who for their exactions and oppres­sions upon the people in their gathering the publick Taxes were held among them the most hated of men and the worst of sinners. And therefore, though his Mi­racles often drew their admiration and their applause on the one hand, his do­ctrines and his preachings as fast alienated them from him on the other; so that those very same Men, who, for the sake of the former, followed him often in multitudes, and were ready to acknow­ledge him to be the Messias, were as vio­lently set against him at other times for the sake of the latter, and at last crucified him on the account thereof. And is it possi­ble to conceive, that he, who took all those courses so contrary to the humour of the people, without regarding how much they tended to exasperate them a­gainst him, should have any interest or design of his own to serve himself of them?

When our Saviour took upon him to [Page 14] be the Messias that was promised, had he done it only as an Impostor to promote a secular interest and design of his own, he would certainly have assumed that chara­cter according to those Notions in which the Jews expected him. For in this case the expectation of the people must have been the grand motive to the Imposture, and their looking for such a Messias to come the main inducing reason of his putting himself thereon, and therefore to be sure, had he been an Impostor, he would have offered himself to them no otherwise than just such a Messias, as their notions of him would have him to be; and there are two special reasons which in this case would have determined him hereto. 1. Because those notions offered to him the highest secular interest, that could be at­tained unto: And, 2. Because the suiting of his pretensions exactly according to them, would have been the readiest and most likely way for him to carry the in­terest, whatever it was, which you may suppose him to have aimed at.

And, first, the notions which the Jews had of the Messias, offered him the high­est secular interest that could be attained unto; and therefore to be sure, when he took upon him to be that Messias, had [Page 15] he done it only as an Impostor for a secu­lar interest, he would have laid hold of that interest offered, and under the chara­cter which he assum'd most certainly have claim'd all that, which according to those notions the Messias was to have. For this was nothing less than a most glorious se­cular Kingdom, the expectations of the Jews being then concerning this matter the same as they have ever since continu­ed amongst them; that the Messias *The Messias shall come and restore the Kingdom of the House of David to the ancient state of its former Dominion, and shall rebuild the Temple, and gather together the dispersed of Israel; and then shall be re-established all the Legal Rites and Constitutions as in former times: and Sacrifi­ces shall be offered, and the Sab­batical Years and Jubile's obser­ved according to every Precept delivered in the Law. Mai­monides in Yad Hachazekah in Tract. de Regibus & Bellis eo­rum, cap. 11. §. 1. was to be a Secu­lar Prince, who was to de­liver them from their ene­mies, and restore the King­dom of David at Jerusalem, and there reign in great glory and splendour over the whole House of Israel. And what greater or more desirable interest can this World afford, than such a state of advancement? And what is there that is more valued and esteemed in the opinion of all mankind, than the attainment thereof? And at that time when our Saviour first appeared on his Mission, there was the most favourable juncture, that could offer it self, for his set­ting up for all this: For then the People [Page 16] of the Jews being fallen under the Yoke of the Roman Government, and also grown very impatient under it, entertained a ge­neral expectation of the speedy Coming of the Messias, under that character of a Temporal Prince, which they had conceited of him, to deliver them from this bon­dage, and by conquering those who sub­jected them thereto, again restore the Kingdom of Israel. And these hopes had then taken that possession of their minds, and they were all so full of them, that every one stood in a manner ready and prepared to join with him, whosoever should take upon him to be the person, as sufficiently ap­peareth not only from ¶Mark 15. v. 43. Luke 2. v. 38. &c. 24. v. 31. Acts 1. v. 6. From all which places compa­red together, it appears, that there was among the Jews, in the time of our Saviour, a ge­neral expectation of the speedy Coming of the Messias, and that their notion was of a temporal deliverance and a temporal re­storation of the Kingdom of Israel to be effected by him. And this expectation was it which made the multitude so ready to join themselves to Theudas, and after to Judas of Galilee, of whom mention is made Acts 5. v. 36, 37. and af­ter that to an Egyptian Jew, Acts 21. v. 38. on their pre­tending to be the persons, from whom this deliverance was ex­pected. the Scriptures, but also from the History which (*)Josephus not only makes mention of Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, and the Egyptian, of whom we have an account in Scripture, Antiq. lib. 20. c. 2. &c. 6. but also of several others who on the same pretences found the multitude ready to join themselves unto them. Antiq. lib. 20. c. 6. & 7. & de Bello Judaico lib. 7. c. 31. As did also Barchosbas in the reign of Adrian the Roman Emperour. And what Maimonides delivers of the doctrine of the Jews con­cerning this matter, might give any man an handle to offer at it. For, saith he, the Messias is not to be known by Signs or Wonders (for he is to work none) but only by conquest. And therefore his Words are. If there ariseth a King of the House of David, who is studious of the Law, and diligent in ob­serving the precepts of it, as was David his father; that is, not only of the Law, which is written, but of the Oral also, and inclineth all Israel to walk therein, and repairs the breaches, and fights the bat­tles of the Lord, this person may be presumed to be the Messias. But if he prospers in what he un­dertakes, and subdues all the neigh­bouring Nations round about him, and re-builds the sanctuary in its former place, and gathers together the dispersed of Israel, then he is for certain the Messias. Mai­monides in Yad Hachazekah Tract. de Regibus & Bellis eo­rum, c. 11. §. 4. Jose­phus wrote of those times. And therefore had our Sa­viour, by taking upon him to be the Messias, aimed only as an Impostor at a Se­cular interest, What rea­son can be given, why he should not with the name of the Messias, have also [Page 17] claimed this grand interest of a Kingdom, which accor­ding to the opinion of all those, who expected a Mes­sias, belonged thereto? or why he should not in so favourable a juncture, as was then offer'd for it, have possessed himself thereof? But he was so far from do­ing either of these, that he waved both, and not only omitted this opportunity of possessing himself of this Kingdom, but also renoun­ced and disclaim'd the whole thereof. For instead of lay­ing any pretence to it, he set himself to confute those very notions which gave it unto him, and to convince the People that they were mistaken in them, and there­by overthrew all that which offered unto him the high­est Secular interest which the Men of this world use to aim at. And not only so, but advanced in the stead of those Errours, such [Page 18] Doctrines concerning the Messias, as were not only without all manner of worldly interest in them, but all levelled directly opposite thereto. For he taught them, that the Kingdom of the Messias was not a Temporal, but a Spiritual Kingdom; that he was not to be a Judge and a Ruler over them in the Secular affairs of this World and the pomp and glory thereof, but to govern and direct their hearts within by the power of his holy Spirit, in order to conform them to that Law of Righteous­ness, which might fit them to reign with him in the Kingdom of everlasting Glory hereafter. And therefore when the Jews being convinced by his wonderfull Works that he was the Messias, would have taken him by force and made him their King, he withdrew from among them to disap­point the design. And when interroga­ted by Pilate, he told him his Kingdom was not of this World. And had he aimed at any such thing, he would never have taught such Doctrines of himself, which so directly overthrew all that which gave him the most favourable advantage of at­taining thereto. Had he offered at more of this World's interest than the Notions of the Jews invested him with (if it were possible more could be had than those [Page 19] gave their Messias;) or if he had joined thereto, the enjoyment of carnal pleasure as Mahomet did, there might then have been some ground of charging him of dif­fering from those Notions for the serving of his own interest; but when the change was on the quite contrary hand, and in­stead of being that reigning and glorious Messias, amidst the highest pomp and splen­dour of this World, as the Jews would have had him to be, he declared himself only for such a Kingdom, as had nothing of this World in it, and whose greatest perfection lay in its greatest opposition thereto; he that will say that there was any thing of this World in his thus stripping himself of all the pomp and glory of it, or that there could be any design of interest for himself, where all manner of self-interest is thus renounced, must reconcile contradictions, and make the nature of one extreme to consist in the other, which is most directly oppo­site thereto. Had he, when he took upon him to be the Messias, done it only for a worldly interest, this great interest of reigning, so obviously offered it self unto him under that character, that it cannot be conceived how he should ever have a­voided it. The power, and glory, and [Page 20] riches of a Kingdom, are too great baits of allurement to the worldly-minded Man, ever to be refused by such an one, after he had assumed that character, which in the generally-received Notion of it, in­vested him with them. Or can it be imagined, since these are the only things which could make that character at all desirable to an Impostor, why any Man should run the great hazard and trouble of being such in the assuming of it, but for the sake of them? All those false Christs, who have been real Impostors, and have in several Ages started up to de­lude the World with this pretence have ever with the name of the Messias, claim­ed also this Kingdom, which the Jews a­scribed thereto; and that in every such scene of deceit, which hath opened in the World, hath always appeared to have been the bait, which allured those wret­ches to act that part therein. And had our Saviour been such an one as they, he must certainly have taken the same course. For to do otherwise, would have been to do the wickedness without the tempta­tion, and to run the hazard without that which was to reward the success. But he having been so far herefrom, that he did not only renounce this Kingdom, but [Page 21] all manner of other worldly interest what­ever; this plainly shews he could have no design upon this World by that Mission which he undertook, or had any other reason for his entering on it as the Messias, but that he was really that person, whom God by his holy Prophets had so often promised, and at length, in fulness of time, accordingly sent to bring life and salvation unto us.

2. Had our Saviour, when he took upon him to be the Messias, done it only as an Impostor for a Secular interest, he would have assumed that character ac­cording to those notions in which the Jews expected him, because this would have been the readiest and most likely way for him to carry that interest, what­ever you may suppose it to be. For the eager expectations of that People being then for such a reigning Messias, as they had drawn a Picture of in their own fancies, his only way to have gotten them to own and receive him for the Messias, was for him exactly to have humour'd them here­in, and proposed himself to them just such an one as they would have had him to be. And had his intent been only to se­duce them under that character, in order to serve himself of them for a Secular in­terest, [Page 22] this method is that which is so obviously necessary in such a case, that it could not have been avoided. For to do otherwise, would evidently have been to put the matter in a most certain me­thod totally to miscarry, and make the whole design impracticable. To come to them as their Messias, under a character totally differing from that in which they expected him, would be sufficient to make them, for that very reason, never to re­ceive him. Although humility and the debasing of a Man's self, may in other ca­ses be a means to court Popularity, and procure the favour of the People, it could never have served in this; nor would our Saviour's taking upon him the Character of the Messias, so vastly lower as to this World, than the general opinion then gave it unto him, have been of any stead to him in order thereto; but quite the con­trary. For the Jews had then framed their notions of the Messias they expected, for their own sakes rather than his; suitable to those worldly interests they were most in love with, and those notions went cur­rant through the whole Nation, as the true and exact description of him, by which he was to be known at his coming: And therefore for any one to propose [Page 23] himself to them, as the Messias, under a character totally disagreeing herefrom, would have been the readiest way for him to be told, that he was not there­fore the Man; and this, instead of being a means to seduce them to him, become such a reason for their rejecting him, as no art of Imposture would ever have been able to master. And this indeed proved the main cause, that notwithstanding our Saviour's Miracles, the Jews, who daily saw them, were still hardned in their a­version against him; and it continues with them to this day the grand stum­bling-block of Infidelity, which they can­not get over. For they looked for a Mes­sias, that was to subdue their Enemies, and deliver them from the slavery of the Romans, and by the establishment of a Temporal Kingdom over them advance the state of their Nation to the highest pro­sperity, and their Law to the highest per­fection of observance, which both were capable of. But he proposed himself un­to them as a Messias, which had nothing to do with this World, or any of the in­terests of it; and instead of the Temporal Kingdom they expected, claimed only a Spiritual; and instead of the outward Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law [Page 24] which were all fulfill'd and done away in him, taught them only to worship God in spirit and in truth. And what could more displease and alienate from him, Men so eager upon this World, and the glory and riches of it, than thus instead of conquest over enemies, extent of power, and a most flourishing state of prosperity, which they dreamt of, to preach to them of Mortification, Repen­tance, Self-denial, and those other Chri­stian Virtues, in the encrease of which the true prosperity of Christ's Kingdom only consists; and instead of their Tem­ple, and the outward pomp and splendour of the worship there performed, which they so much valued themselves upon, and so zealously affected, thus to propose to them the Worshipping of God without all this, only in that Spiritual manner, which under the numerous Rites of the Mosaical Law they had not been accusto­med to have any great regard unto? For this was to baulk them of the hopes they most delighted in, and put a baffle upon them in those eager expectations and most earnest desires which their hearts had long dwelt upon. And how ill they were able to brook this, will appear by this instance in the Gospel Joh. c. 6., That those very same Men [Page 25] who, on the seeing of his Miracles, were so firmly convinced of his being the Mes­sias, that they would forthwith have ta­ken him by force, and declared him their King, the next day after, on his preaching to them of spiritual things, and offering thereby to withdraw their minds from the perishable things of this World, to fix them on those which endure to everlast­ing life, murmured against him, and would no more endure him. For their hearts were after a Messias, that should found them a Temporal Kingdom, and make them great and glorious, and powerfull therein; and to set up a Spiritual Kingdom instead here­of, was not only to deprive himself of the grandure of the other, but them also of the portion which they expected therein. And no one certainly that intended a worldly interest by such an undertaking, would ever have projected it in such a method as this, which was so totally in­consistent with it. For this would be to renounce in the very act the end which he proposed, and make the attainment of it impracticable by the very means whereby he pursued it; It would be to wave the highest interest in this World to pursue after another, which no one can imagine what, and thereby totally [Page 26] alienate those from him, by whom alone he could hope in such a design as this to attain any at all. And therefore had a worldly end and a worldly interest been all that our Saviour aimed at in his taking upon him to be the Messias, whom the Jews expected, he would never so much contrary to that interest, and so much contrary to that most obvious means of carrying on such a design, have assumed that character in a manner so much differ­ing from that, under which they expected him; Or could he by such a method of procedure ever have made any thing of the attempt among them, had he not on his side the power of God, as well as his Mission, to make him successfull there­in?

Had his business only been to deceive the People for the advancing of some se­cular interest of his own, he would ne­ver have attempted it in so unlikely a way of succeeding, as that of abolishing the Mosaical Law, to which the whole nation of the Jews were then so zealously addicted, that they could not bear the least word, which might seem to derogate either from the excellency, which they conceived of it, or that opinion which they then had, and still retain, that it [Page 27] was to be immutably observed by them to the end of the World. The case of Ma­homet with his Men of Mecca was quite otherwise, he found no such zeal in them for their old Religion to struggle with, they themselves were then grown so weary of it, that the generality of them had in a manner totally exchanged it for no Religion at all at that time Mahomet first began to propagate his Imposture among them, they having then for the most part given themselves up to the opinions of the Zendikees, who in the same man­ner as the Epicureans among the Greeks and too many now-a-days among us, ac­knowledged the Being of a God, but deny­ing his Providence, the immortality of the soul, and a future state, did at the same time deny all manner of necessity of paying any worship unto him. And no wonder then if such Men, who placed their All in this World, were easily brought over to a Sect, whose chief aim was at worldly prosperity and worldly pleasure in the Religion which they profes­sed. This Mahomet was well enough aware of before he started his new Reli­gion among them, and it seems to have been the greatest encouragement which emboldned him to venture on that at­tempt. [Page 28] However since they still retained the outward form of their Religion after they had deserted the substance of it, he found even from hence that opposition to his design, that to make it go down, he was forced to retain all those Rites and Ceremonies in his new Religion, which they had been afore used to in their old; and in order hereto he chose to make some dangerous alterations in his first establish­ments, as particularly in that of the Kebla rather than ruffle his Arabians by abolish­ing what he found them through long usage and custom any way affected to. For his business being to deceive the peo­ple, his care was to offer at nothing, which might be difficult to go down with them, and so must it be of every other de­ceiver who takes upon him to act the like part. But in every particular it was quite otherwise with our Saviour, and those whom he first preached his Gospel unto. For the Jews having undergone several terrible scourges from the hand of God for the neglect of that Law which he had given them, were from their former too much disregard of it then grown into the contrary extreme of being with exceeding superstition and bigottry too much de­voted to it. They then looked on it with [Page 29] the same veneration, as they still do, to be an immutable Law never to be altered, That the Messias himself on his coming should not make the least change therein, but that the glory of his Kingdom should chiefly consist in the perfection of its ob­servance, and the exact performance of the worship it prescrib'd, and for any one to advance any doctrine contrary hereto was reckoned no less than Act: 6. v. 13. Blasphemy among them. And therefore had our Saviour only consulted flesh and bloud in the Mission which he undertook, had he had no other design therein than a Secular interest and a worldly end, he would ne­ver have opposed himself against the vio­lent current of such predominant opini­ons, as he found then reigning among them, whom he first preached his Gospel unto, or ever durst have offered at the abolition of that Law, which they were so violently bigotted unto. Had he come to deceive them as a Seducer, the very na­ture of the thing must necessarily have directed him to a quite contrary method; that is, to sooth and collogue with them whom he came to impose upon; to have contradicted no opinion they were vio­lent for, or opposed any doctrine which they were zealously affected to, but to [Page 30] have studied their humours, and learnt their notions, and so framed and suited all his doctrines according thereto, as might best take to draw them over to the end designed. To have done otherwise would have been to set Priest and People against him, as an enemy to their Religion, and a Blasphemer of their Law. And, as our Saviour found it so in the result, so it must have been obvious to any one in his case to have forseen it from the begin­ning. And therefore since notwithstand­ing this he took this method so contrary to the whole end and design of one that intends a cheat upon the people, and without having any regard to that zeal with which the Jews were then so violent­ly bigotted to their Law, or that rage of resentment, which they were ready to express against whatsoever in the least should derogate from it, did boldly preach unto them such Doctrines, as totally disannull'd it, this manifestly proves he could have no interest of his own to serve upon them in this undertaking, or that he had any other reason for his entering on it, but that he was sent of God so to do.

The grand and fundamental doctrine of the Religion, which Jesus Christ left [Page 31] his Church, was that of his death and pas­sion whereby he made atonement for our sins and delivered us from the punish­ment which was due unto us for them. By this means only he proposed to save us, that is from Sin, the Devil, and eter­nal Death, and by this conflict only did he undertake to subdue these our enemies for us, and on that conquest to found us a Kingdom, which should make us holy and righteous here, and for ever blessed with him in glory hereafter. This was the whole end and purpose of our Savi­our's Mission; this he frequently foretold to his Disciples, and on this was founded the whole Religion which he taught them. And can any one say he could have a de­sign of Secular interest for himself in such a Religion as this, which could have no being, but by his dying for it, or any reason for its establishment among men till he had laid down his life for the com­pleating of it? To say there was any thing of worldly interest in this would be to charge it on his cross, and place it in that bitter and ignominious death which he underwent thereon. Men sometimes put their lives to great hazard for the in­terests of this World, but for a Man purposely to design death for such an end [Page 32] and part with this World in such a man­ner as Christ did for the sake of any thing that this world hath, is a thing which was never yet heard of, and is in it self so con­trary to the most obvious dictates both of reason and nature, that no one can be so absurd as to imagine it possible for any man so to do.

But that which I know you will say in this case is, That it was not Christ him­self, but his Disciples after his death, that made this a part of his Religion; That he intended no such thing in the underta­king he entered on, that it should end in his death, and be compleated by his Crucifixion; but that this hapning unto him, those who kept up his Party, and propagated his Religion after him, foisted this thereinto, to salve the ignominy of his Death, and serve themselves of it, for the better carrying on of their designs thereby. And if so, then the Imposture must be shifted from him to his Disciples; and in this case the same inquiry must still be made, What advantage could they propose to themselves herefrom? For if Christ's having no self-design or worldly-interest in the Religion which he taught be of any force to acquit him of being guilty of Imposture therein (as it must [Page 33] with every Man of unprejudiced reason,) it must also be of force to acquit them of the same charge who propagated it after him. And what worldly interest is it which they could possibly have in this matter? If you say Empire, how impro­bable is it, that a few poor Fishermen without any manner of foundation either of poor riches or interest with others, for the carrying on of such a design, should ever frame in their thoughts the least imagination tending thereto, especially at that time when the Roman Empire be­ing in its utmost heighth and vigour had the major part of the then known World united under its command to crush the greatest attempts of this nature, which might be made against it? If riches and honour be alledged as their end, I must desire you to tell me, how this could be a means to gain them? or whether any one of them ever attained to either there­by? If we examine into the accounts, which we have of their lives and actions we shall find them journeying about the world from place to place in great pover­ty and under all the difficulties and pres­sures of it to discharge that Apostleship which was committed unto them, and in every place where they came to be load­ed [Page 34] with contempt, oppression and persecu­tion for the sake of that Religion which they taught. Had riches and honour been the end proposed for all this, certainly after having experienced by the ill success how improper means they had taken in order thereto, some of them would have desisted from the enterprize, and no lon­ger have pursued a design, which could not answer its end. But you cannot bring us an instance of any one of them that did this. No, they still went on in the work, which they had undertaken, and without being wearied by the pover­ty they laboured under, or in the least discouraged by that contempt scorn and persecution, which they every-where met with, all constantly persevered to preach that Gospel, which they had received, even to their lives end; and not only so, but most of them laid down their lives for the sake therefore, which they would ne­ver have done, if they had not for that Ministry a much higher reason, than all the honour and riches of this world could ever amount unto. All that can be said of any worldly interest for them in their preaching up that Religion which they propagated is, That they were thereby made Heads of the Party which they drew [Page 35] over thereto. But alas, what advantage could this be unto them to be thus made Heads of a contemned, oppressed and per­secuted Party of Men, who were every­where sought out for bonds, imprison­ments and death. To head such a Party what is it, but to expose a Man's self to the greater danger, and set himself up to receive the first strokes of every persecu­tion, which was levelled against it? For in this case, those who head the Party are most sought after, and the ring-leaders of it are ever made the first and the most sig­nal examples of every severity, which is designed for its oppression. And this was all that the Apostles got by heading that Party, which they converted to the Chri­stian Religion; and what of worldly in­terest could be found therein? If the head­ing of a Party be of any advantage to a Man, it must be then only when it brings him honour, or power, or riches, or some other worldly enjoyment. But to head such a Party, as the first Christians were, could bring neither of these there­with; but on the contrary, poverty, con­tempt, oppressions, and persecutions were all the fruits, as to this world, which the Apostles of our Saviour reaped thereby. And certainly on these terms, to head a [Page 36] Party, could never have been the reason to make them enter on that undertaking; or if it had, they could never under such discouragements have long continued therein.

SECT. II.

II. And thus far having examined the first mark of Imposture, and I hope suffici­ently shown it cannot belong to that holy Religion which we profess. I shall now proceed to the second; that is, that it must always have wicked men for the Authors of it. For thus to impose upon mankind a false Religion is the worst of cheats, and the highest injustice which can be done either to God or Man: to God, because it robs him of the worship of his Creatures, either by diverting it to a false object, or by directing it to him in such a false way, as cannot be accepted of before him; And to Man, because it deprives him of his God, by putting him upon such a false Religion as must necessarily alienate both his mer­cy and his favour from him. And to do this, is such a consummate piece of ini­quity, that it is impossible any one can arrive thereto without having first corrup­ted himself to a great degree in all things [Page 37] else. For such an one must have cast off all fear of God, as well as all regard of Man, before he could ever offer at so great a Wickedness against both. And when a Man is come to this, to be sure he will stick at nothing, whereby his lusts may be gratified, or any carnal interest serv'd which he sets his heart upon, but will make the corruptions of his mind appear in all the actions of his life, and be thoroughly wicked in every thing where his own interest, or his own de­signs do not put a restraint upon him. And that Mahomet was such an one, the History of his Life, which I have laid be­fore you, sufficiently shows. But whoever yet charged *All that the bitterest ene­mies of Christianity have ever objected against our Saviour, save a fabulous story of his Birth, amounts to no more than this, That he was a Magician, which was an invention, framed on­ly to salve his working of Mi­racles (which they could not deny) in such a manner as to make them give no reputation or authority to the doctrines which he taught. Jesus Christ, or his holy Apostles with any thing like this? not Celsus, not Por­phyry, not Julian or any other of the Heathens, or the Jews who were the bit­terest enemies of Christi­anity and the greatest op­posers of it. And to be sure could they have found any such accusa­tion against any of them, they would never have spared to have made the ut­most use of it they could for the blasting [Page 38] of that Religion, which they taught. For it is a popular Argument, which would have served their purpose among the peo­ple more than any other they could have offered unto them. And we see with what success the various Sects among us serve themselves of it every day, no ar­gument being more prevalent amongst the unthinking Multitude for the beating down the reputation of any profession of Religion, than the ripping up of the faults of those that teach it. To examine into all the Labyrinths and abstruse Speculati­ons of reason and argument, which may be brought for or against any Religion, is an operose business, which all have not ca­pacities for, and few care to attend to. But of Good and Evil every Man is judge, and where they find the Teachers of any Reli­gion to be wicked and naught, it is an in­ference which they are all apt too preci­pitately to run into, that the Religion must be naught also, and without any further examining into it condemn it so to be. And I find there is nothing, which you your selves are more greedy to lay hold of for an argument against our holy Christi­an Religion, than the faults which you observe in some of our Ministers, whose business it is to promote it. And there­fore [Page 39] if the faults of the present teachers of Christianity be apt thus to afford so po­pular and prevalent an argument against it, how much more would the faults of the first founders and propagaters of it have done so, had there been any such to object against them? And had there been any such, so keen and searching Adversaries, would never have suffered the discovery to have escaped them, or ever fail'd to have objected it for the serving of their turn to the utmost they were able; and it can be owing to nothing, but their most unblamea­ble innocency, that they have been se­cured herefrom. To say that they could not have that knowledge of their lives and actions, as was sufficient for them to dis­cern their faults, and observe their mis­carriages, will not solve the matter. Though Mahomet acted his Imposture so many hundred miles within the remoter parts of Arabia, among a people, who by vast desarts were in a manner cut off from the converse of the rest of mankind, where very few or none of any other nation ever came to spy out his actions or observe his doings, and where he had none else to be witnesses of them, but those only who all imbraced his forgery, and became [Page 40] zealously addicted to it; yet all this could not serve to conceal his faults, or hide his monstrous wickednesses from being observed and recorded against him. The foregoing History gives you a large Ca­talogue of them, and they are vouched by the authority of some of the most au­thentick writers of his own Sect. But Christianity had not its birth in such an obscure hole, nor did the first Founder of it, or those who propagated it after him, make their first appearance among such rude and illiterate Barbarians, as that Im­postor did: but on one of the openest stages in the world, at Jerusalem, and in the Land of Judea, and not in an age, when as formerly that Nation separated it self from all others, and had no con­verse with any but themselves; but when they had scattered themselves abroad and mingled with all other Nations, and also were forced to admit all other Nations to mingle with them by being made a Pro­vince of the Roman Empire, which brought not only Souldiers and Merchants of other Nations among them, but also opened the gate to all others, as they should think fit, to come and reside among them: And the Temple at Jerusalem being that, where all of the Jewish Religion worship­ped; [Page 41] this constantly brought thither from all Nations those who professed it, which made a very great resort thither from all Parts of the World, especially at their three great Festivals. And therefore just after our Saviour's sufferings at the time of Pentecost next following, we are told that there were then at Jerusalem Acts 2. v. 9, 10, 11. Par­thians, Medes, and Elamites, and the dwel­lers of Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, and Cyrene, with the Strangers of Rome, Cretes, and Arabians. So that to be sure nothing could be hid or concealed, which was done on so open a stage of the World, and in the sight of so many Nations as were then present upon it; nor is it possible if those who then first delivered the Chri­stian Religion to the World, had been such wicked persons, as Mahomet was, and all other Impostors must be, it could ever have escaped their observation. And if it had at Jerusalem, there were other oc­casions enough given for a fuller disco­very afterwards. For the holy Apostles after our Saviour's death, did not confine themselves to Jerusalem and the Land of Judoea only, but dispersed themselves throughout the whole Earth, and at Rome, at Athens, and in many other celebrated [Page 42] Cities appeared openly, teaching the Reli­gion which they had received, and form­ing Churches of those whom they had converted thereto, and thereby exposing their Lives and Actions publickly to the view of the whole World, made all Man­kind in a manner witnesses of what they did. And Christianity was not such an acceptable thing to the World, as to move the Men of it to be so candid and good-natur'd to the first Authors of it, as to conceal their faults and hide their wick­ednesses, had there been any such in them. No, it was that which was against the lusts and pleasures, and the other evil courses of this World, more, than any o­ther Religion, which was ever taught therein; and this put the World as much against it, and all that adhered thereto; and therefore we find them to be a Party of Men not only every-where spoken a­gainst, but also every-where hated, oppo­sed, and persecuted to the utmost. And when so general an Odium was risen a­gainst them, and both Jews and Gentiles conspired together therein, to be sure there were not wanting abundance that made it their business to pry into their actions, and examine their practices with all that spight, unfairness, and ill inter­pretation [Page 43] of things, as is usual in such ca­ses. And could they by all this search, inquiry and strict observation, have found any thing to charge upon Christ or his Apostles, which might cast a blot upon the Religion which they taught, to be sure we should have heard enough of it. For those, who propagated their Odium against this holy Religion to the next succeeding Ages, to that excessive degree, in which the Primitive Christians experienced it in those terrible Persecutions which they underwent for three hundred years together, would certainly have pro­pagated therewith all the Accusations they were a­ble against those who were the first Founders and Tea­chers of it. And, to be sure, when The main things which Celsus and Julian objected in their books against the Christian Religion are preserved in the Answers which Orig [...]n wrote to the former, and St. Cyril of Alexandria to the latter, but the books themselves are peri­shed, as are also those of Por­phyry written by him in fifteen Tomes on the same Argument; for they being full of virulent Blasphemies, Theodosius the Em­perour by a Law caused them every-where to be burnt, and destroyed; but a great many remains and fragments of them are still preserved in the Works of Eusebius, and something of him also in St. Hierom in Prae­fatione ad lib. 1. Comment. in Epist. ad Galatas. Celsus lived in the second, Porphyry in the third, and Julian in the fourth Century after Christ. Celsus, Por­phyry, and Julian, and o­ther bitter Opposers of Christianity, as well Jews as Heathens, took Pen in hand to write against it, we should have been told enough of it. But nothing of this ap­pearing in any of their Wri­tings, or any of the least [Page 44] memorial of it being to be found in any Record whatsoever against them; this manifestly proves that they are even in the judgment of their bitterest Enemies totally free of this charge, and conse­quently being just and righteous persons, (and of Christ and St. James one of his Apostles His words of our Saviour are, that he was a wise man (a title not given in those days but to such as were also good) and that he was a worker of Mi­racles, and a teacher of Truth, lib. 18. c. 4. And of James he hath these words. These things (i. e. the destruction of Jeru­salem, and the calamities that attended it) fell by way of just vengeance upon the Jews for James the Just, who was the Brother of Jesus called Christ, because the Jews had murdered him, being a most righteous Man. It must be ac­knowledged that this passage is not now extant in Josephus, but it is quoted by Eusebius in the Second Book of his Ecclesiastical History, c. 23. and also by Origen in his Second Book against Celsus, which would never have been done by them, had it not been extant in the Copies of his Works which were then in use, however it came to be omit­ted since. For to have falsely alledged such a testimony to the ene­mies of Christianity, especially to one so acute and sharp as Celsus was, would have given them too great an advantage against it. But what is still extant in Josephus, amounts to the same thing; for speaking of his being put to death by Ananias the High-Priest, Antiq. lib. 20. c. 8. he says, That all good men were offended at it; which sufficiently ex­presseth him to be a good man also. For why else should they be so concerned for him? Jose­phus, though a Jew, parti­cularly attests, that they were so) they could never be guilty of so great a wick­edness both against God and Man, as to have imposed a cheat upon us in that Re­ligion, which they deliver­ed unto us.

SECT. III.

III. And if they had been such wick­ed persons, as thus to have imposed upon us a false Religion for their own interest, both their wickedness and the interest which they drove at, must necessarily have appeared in the very contexture of the Religion it self, and the Books of the New Testament; in which it is contained, would have as evidently proved both these against them, as the Alcoran doth against Mahomet? every Chapter of which yieldeth us manifest proofs both of the wicked affections of the Man, and the self-ends which he drove at for the grati­fying of them.

For, first, when a Man proposeth an end of self-interest, and invents a new Religion, and writes a new Law on pur­pose for the obtaining of it, it's impossi­ble, but that this End must appear in the Means, and the Imposture, which was in­vented of purpose to promote it, must discover what it is. For in this case the new Religion and the new Law must be calculated for this End, and be all formed and contrived in order thereto, otherwise it can have no efficiency for the obtain­ing [Page 46] of it, nor at all answer the purpose of the inventor for the compassing of what he proposed; and if it be thus calculated, ordered and contrived for such an End, that End cannot but be seen and disco­vered in those Means. For the End and Means prove each other; that is, as the nature of the End proposed shows us what Means must be made use of for the ob­taining of it, so do the nature of the Means which we use, discover what is the End which they drive at. And as far as the Means have a tendency to the End, so much must they have of that End in them; and it is not possible for him that useth the one, long to conceal the other. And therefore nothing is more obvious and common among us than by the courses which a man takes to discern the end which he would have. As Mahomet invented his new Religion to promote his own ends, so the Alcoran in which it is contained sufficiently proves it, there being scarce a leaf in that Book which doth not lay down some particu­lars, which tend to the gratifying either of the ambition or the lust of that Mon­ster who contrived it. And had the first Founder of our holy Christian Religion, or they who were the first propagators of it [Page 47] any such end therein, the Books of the New Testament, in which it is written, would have as palpably shown it. But here we challenge all the enemies of our Faith to use their utmost skill to make any such discovery in them. They have already gone through the strict scrutiny of many ages, as well as of all manner of adversaries, and none have ever yet been able to tax them herewith. For instead of being calculated for the interest of this World their whole design is to withdraw our hearts from it, and fix them upon the interest of that which is to come. And therefore the doctrines which they incul­cate are those of mortification, repentance and self-denial, which speak not unto us of fighting, bloodshed, and conquest, as the Alcoran doth, for the advancing of a temporal Kingdom, but that recouncing all the pomps, and vanities, and lusts of this present World, we live soberly, righ­teously, and godly in the presence of him that made us, and instead of pursuing after the perishable things of this life, we set our hearts only on those Heavenly riches, which will make us great, and glorious and blessed for ever hereafter. For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World, so neither do those Books, in which are [Page 48] written the Laws of this Kingdom, sa­vour any thing thereof. The Mammon of this World, and the Righteousness which they prescribe us, are declared in them to be totally inconsistent. The Old Testament indeed, as being under the Dispensation of carnal Ordinances, which were the sha­dows only of those things after to come under the Gospel, treated with Men suita­bly thereto. And therefore we find much of this World both by way of promise as well as threat to be proposed therein. But it is quite otherwise with the New: For in that Revelation being given to the perfecting of righteousness, all things were advanced thereby from Earth to Heaven and from flesh to spirit. And therefore as the whole end of it is to make men spi­ritual, so are we directed thereby to look only to spiritual and heavenly Blessings for the reward hereof. Had our Saviour proposed victory, or riches, or carnal pleasures to his followers, as Mahomet did, then indeed his Law would have suf­ficiently savour'd of this World to make Men suspect, that he aimed at nothing else thereby. But he was so far herefrom that instead of this the whole tenour of his doctrine runs the quite contrary way, we Being told of nothing else through the [Page 49] whole New Testament, but of tribulations, afflictions, and persecutions, which shall attend all such as to this World who faith­fully set their hearts to become his Dis­ciples, and the experience of all ages since hath sufficiently verified the prediction. And indeed the very Religion, which he hath taught us, is of that holiness, that ac­cording to the course of this wicked World it naturally leads us thereinto. And how then can it be said, that any thing of worldly interest can be contained either in this Religion, or those holy Books in which it is written?

I cannot deny, that there are some Men so crafty and cunning in pursuing their interest, that it shall not easily be discer­ned in the Means what it is which they drive at for their End. But how great a compass soever such may fetch about to the point which they aim at, or in what by and secret paths soever they make for­ward towards it, yet if the Means, which they make use of, have any tendency thither, they can never be so totally blended, but there will always appear in them enough of the End to make the dis­covery to any accurate observer, and at length when the plot grows ripe for Exe­cution, and the designer begins to offer at the putting himself in possession of [Page 50] what he proposed (as all such designers must at last) the whole scene must then be laid open, and every one will be able to see thereinto. And therefore if you will have it that the Holy Apostles and Evangelists, who were the first penners of the New Testament, were such cunning and crafty men, as to be able thus art­fully to conceal their designs in those Books, which you suppose they wrote of purpose to promote them (which cannot reasonably be imagin'd of men of their education and condition in the World, they being all, except St. Paul and St. Luke of the meanest occupations among the people, and totally unlearned) yet if they contrived those Books with any tendency towards those designs (and it cannot be conceived how otherwise they could help forward to the obtaining of them) it is impossible, they could thus have passed thorough so many ages, and all the strict examinations of Heathens, Jews, Atheists, and all other Adversaries, who have so strenuously endeavoured to overthrow their authority, and no discovery be made hereof. For supposing at first under the mask of renouncing the world they might a while conceal their designs for the in­terest of it (which is the utmost you can say in this case,) yet this could not last [Page 51] long: For if this were all they designed by teaching that holy Religion, and writing those Books in which it is contained, some­time or other they must have put those designs in execution, otherwise they would have been in vain laid; sometime or other they must have endeavoured by them to obtain what they aimed at, otherwise the whole projection of them would have been to no purpose; and if they ever did so (as to be sure they would, had this been their end) then, as it happens in all other stratagems of the like nature, with how much artifice soever they might con­ceal what they intended in the contri­vance, all at last must have come out in the execution, and when they began to put them selves in possession of the end they aimed at, or at least made any offer towards it, the whole cheat must then have been unmask'd, and every one would have been able to see into the depth there­of. But when did our Saviour, or any of his holy Apostles by vertue of any of those doctrines delivered down unto us in the Books of the New Testament, ever put themselves in possession of any such worldly interest? or when did they ever make the least offer in order thereto? Have any of the ancient enemies of our holy Religion (and it had bitter ones [Page 52] enough from the very beginning) ever recorded any such against them? or have any other ever since from any good autho­rity, or any authority at all, ever been able to tax them herewith? or is it possible their names could have remained untainted of this charge amidst so many Adversaries, who have now for near Seventeen hundred years stood up in every age to oppose that holy Religion which they have delivered unto us? had they in the least been guilty hereof? Nay, hath it been as much as ever said of them, that they practised, as to this world, any otherwise than they taught, or ever dealt with the interests of it in any other manner, than totally to renounce them? or had they at all any other portion in this life, than that of persecution, affliction, and tribulation as it is foretold in those holy Books that they should? And what then can be a greater madness, than to suppose that men should lay such a deep design, as that of inventing a new Religion, and undergo all that vast trouble and danger, which they did, to impose it on the world for the sake of a worldly interest, and yet never put themselves in possession of that inte­rest, or ever make the least offer towards it?

If you say that the whole end of the Religion was only to gain the party, and [Page 53] [...]hat the steps to the interest were to be made afterwards, I still go on to ask, who can tell us, after the party was gain'd, of any such steps that were ever made, or of any the least offer tending thereto? Were not the first Christians for many ages [...]fter the first founding of our faith, what [...]hey ought still to be, men that used this world as if they used it not, who lived in [...] without being of it, and did truly, what [...]hey vowed in their Baptism, renounce all [...]he Pomps, and Vanities, and Lusts thereof, [...]aithfully to observe that holy Law which [...]hey had receiv'd? And in this they per­ [...]ever'd so steadily, that even [...]heir very enemies admired [...]he righteousness of their [...]ves, and (*)Plinii Epist. lib. 10. Ep. 97—Hanc fuisse summam vel cul­pae suae vel erroris, quod essent soli­ti stato die ante Lucem conveni­re, carménque Christo quasi De dicere secum invicem, seque Sacra­mento non in scelus aliquod obstrin­gere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent, ne fi­dem fallerent, ne depositum appel­lati abnegarent. In like man­ner they were also vindicated by Serenius Granianus, Procon­sul of Asia, in his Epistle to the Emperour Adrian Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. 4. c. 8, & 9. By Antoninus Pius in his Epistle to the Commons of Asia. Justin Martyr Apol. 2. and even by the Heathen Oracles themselves. Euseb. in vita Constantini, lib. 2. c. 50, & 51. bore witness [...]hereto, and the cruellest [...]ersecutors could never [...]eat them therefrom, but [...]hey still went on in the [...]bservance of their holy [...]eligion without having [...]ny other design therein, [...]han to practise that righ­ [...]eousness which it taught, [...]nd for three hundred years [...]ogether stood firm thereto [...]gainst also those terrible [Page 54] storms of persecution which were rise [...] against them, till at length by the hol [...] ness of their lives, and the constancy [...] their sufferings, they made a conquest ove [...] their very persecutors, and brought ove [...] the World unto them. And are not ou [...] Principles still the same, and also, thank be to God, notwithstanding the Corrupt [...] ons of the present age, the practice to [...] of many thousands still among us, wh [...] I doubt not will be as ready to underg [...] the same sufferings, those primitive Christ [...] ans did, when ever God shall try them fo [...] that holy Religion which they profess, [...] they now are to observe the righteousn [...] thereof. But supposing this had been [...] otherwise, and the Mammon of this Wor [...] and not the Righteousness of God we [...] really the end for which our Religion w [...] designed, yet to renounce the World [...] gain a Party, and afterwards make u [...] of this Party to gain the World, is a pr [...] ject so unfeasible, that the former part [...] it must necessarily have overthrown t [...] latter, whenever it had been attempt [...] For when men had been drawn over to [...] party under the specious pretence of [...] nouncing the World, and been instruct [...] and firmly fixed in this principle, to ma [...] those very same men afterwards to ser [...] [Page 55] their turn for the gaining of a worldly interest would be to make their doctrine and their practice so monstrously inter­fere, as must necessarily have broken all into pieces, and destroyed the whole de­sign. Certainly, had they any such de­sign, they would never have thus posses­sed their Disciples with such principles a­gainst it by the Religion which they taught them; and in that they did so, I think nothing can be a more evident Demon­stration, that they could never intend any such end thereby. Mahomet knew well enough, this was not a way to carry what he designed, and therefore openly owned in his Religion, what he aimed at thereby, and made his Law to speak for that Empire and Lust, which he desired to enjoy, and so when he had made his Religion to obtain, he gained by vertue thereof the whole which he projected by it, and became possessed of the Empire of all Arabia for the gratifying of his Am­bition, and as many Women as he pleased for the satisfying of his Lust, which were the two Ends he drove at in the whole Imposture. And had Jesus Christ and his Apostles had any such design in the Religion which they taught, they must in the same manner they made their Religion speak [Page 56] for it, or else it could never have served their purpose for the obtaining of it. And if their Religion had ever offer'd at any such thing, it must necessarily have appeared in the Books in which it is written.

And 2dly. if they had been so wicked, as thus to impose upon the World a false Religion for the promoting of their own interest, as that interest must have appear'd in the contexture of the Religion it self, and in those Books in which it is written, so al­so must their wickedness. For Words and Writings being the outward expressions of our inward conceptions, there is that con­nection between them, that although the former may often disguise the latter they can never so totally conceal them, but every accurate observer may still be able through the one to penetrate into the other, and by what a man utters, whe­ther in speech or writing, see what he is at the bottom, do what he can to prevent it. There are indeed some that can act the Hypocrite so cunningly, as to dissem­ble the greatest wickedness under words, writings and actions too that speak the quite contrary. But this always is such a force upon their inclinations, and so violent a bar upon their inward passions and desires, that nature will frequently [Page 57] break through in spight of all art, and even speak out the truth amidst the high­est pretences to the contrary. And there is no Hypocrite, how cunningly soever he may act his part, but must this way very often betray himself. For wicked­ness being always uppermost in such a Man's thoughts, and ever pressing for­ward to break forth into expression, it will frequently have its vent in what that Man speaks, and in what he writes, do what he can to the contrary; the care caution and cunning of no Man in this case being sufficient totally to prevent it. Furthermore, there is no Man thus wic­ked, that can have that knowledge of Righteousness, as thoroughly to act it un­der the Mask with that exactness, as he who is truly righteous, lives and speaks it in reality. His want of experience in the practice must in this case lead him into a great many mistakes and blunders in the imitation. And this is a thing which generally happens to all that act a part, but never more than in matters of Religion, in which are many Particulars so peculiar to the Righteous, as none are able to reach them, but those only who are really such. And supposing there were any that could, yet there will ever [Page 58] be that difference between what is natu­ral and what is artificial, and between that which is true, real and sincere, and that which is false, counterfeit and hypo­critical, that nothing is more easie than for any one, that will attend it, to discern the one from the other. And therefore were Jesus Christ and his Apostles such persons as this charge of Imposture must suppose them to be, it's impossible, but that the Doctrines which they taught, and the Books which they wrote, must make the discovery; and the New Testa­ment would, as a standing Record against them in this case, afford a multitude of instances to convict them hereof. That the Alcoran doth so as to Mahomet, no­thing is more evident; a strain of Rapine Bloodshed and Lust running thorough the whole Book, which plainly proves the Author of it to be altogether such a Man, as the charge of Imposture must necessa­rily suppose him to be. And were the first Founder of our holy Religion, or the Writers of those Books, in which its Do­ctrines are contained, such Men as he, both their Doctrines and their Books would as evidently prove it against them. But here I must again challenge you, and all other the Adversaries of our holy Re­ligion, [Page 59] to shew us any one particular in it, that can give the least foundation to such a charge, any one word in all the Books of the New Testament, that can afford the least umbrage or pretence thereto. Let what is written in them be tried by that which is the Touchstone of all Religions, I mean that Religion of Nature and Rea­son, which God hath written in the hearts of every one of us from the first Creati­on; and if it varies from it in any one particular, if it prescribes any one thing, which may in the minutest circumstance thereof be contrary to its Righteousness; I will then acknowledge this to be an ar­gument against us, strong enough to over­throw the whole Cause, and make all things else that can be said for it, totally ineffectual to its support. But it is so far from having any such flaw therein, that it is the perfectest Law of Righteousness, which was ever yet given unto Mankind, and both in commanding of Good, as well as in forbidding of Evil, vastly exceeds all others that went before it, and prescribes much more to our practice in both, than the wisest and highest Moralist was ever able without it to reach in speculation. For,

[Page 60]1st. As to the forbidding of Evil, it is so far from indulging, or in the least al­lowing us in any practice that savours hereof, that it is the only Law which is so perfectly broad in the prohibition, as adequately to reach whatsoever may be Evil in the practice, and without any ex­ception, omission, or defect, absolutely, fully, and thoroughly forbids unto us, whatsoever may have but the least taint of corruption therein; and therefore it not only restrains all the Overt-acts of iniquity, but also every imagination of the heart within, which in the least tends thereto, and in its Precepts prohibits us not only the doing, or speaking of Evil, but also the harbouring or receiving into our Minds the least thought or desire thereafter, whereby it so effectually pro­vides against all manner of iniquity, that it plucks it up out of every one of us by the very roots, and so makes the Man pure, and clean, and holy altogether with­out allowing the least savour of Evil to be remaining in him; and every one of us would be thoroughly such, could we be but as perfect in our Obedience to this Law, as it is perfectly given unto us. And,

[Page 61]2dly. As to the commanding of Good its prescriptions are, That we imploy our Time, our Powers, and all other Talents intrusted with us to the best we are able, both to give Glory unto God, and also to show Charity unto Men; and this last not only to our Friends, Relations, and Benefactors, but in general to all Man­kind, even to our Enemies, and those who despightfully use us and persecute us; and hereby it advanceth us to that highth of perfection in all holiness and goodness, as to render us like the Angels of Light in our Service unto God, and like God him­self in our Charity to Man. For it directs us in the same manner as the Angels to worship and serve our God to the utmost ability of out nature, and in the same manner as God to make our goodness to Men extend unto all without exception or reserve, as far as they are capable of re­ceiving it from us.

And can any Man think it possible that a Religion, which so thoroughly and fully forbids all Evil, and in so high and perfect a manner prescribes us all Good, could ever be the product of a wicked mind? The fruit is too good to proceed from so corrupt a root, and the effect vastly above the efficiency of such a cause ever to pro­duce [Page 62] it. For can it possibly be imagin'd, that a wicked Man could either have in­clination to do so much for the promo­ting of that Righteousness, which all his passions and desires so violently run coun­ter unto, or if he would, that such an one could ever be so well acquainted with all the ways thereof, as so exactly to pre­scribe them? If it be so difficult for such an one to conceal his inclinations in his expressions; if it be so hard for him, when he vents himself into Words or Writings, not to let loose something in them of what he really is (as I have already shown) how can any copy be drawn from such a Mind, but what must in some fea­ture or other resemble the Original, or any thing at all proceed from thence, but what must carry with it some savour of the iniquity thereof? Set but such a one to write a Letter, and he will scarce be able to do it without putting so much of his passions and his temper into it, as that we may read from thence what he is, as every Man's experience may tell him, that corresponds with such; and how much more then may we be assured will he lay himself open, when he hath the large scope of a Book to express himself in, and especially when that book is of such [Page 63] a nature, as gives him the fullest occa­sion, and the most inviting opportunity so to do? And what book can be more such, than that which is to propose a new Law to Mankind? In the writing of such a book, if ever, certainly the wicked Man will show himself, and in the same man­ner, as Mahomet did; conform his Laws to his own inclinations, and prescribe such rules of living to others, as may best ju­stifie him in those which he himself fol­lows. And although he should not in­tend any such thing, though he should not design so to do (and it is hard to ima­gine of such a Man, that he should not,) yet at least the prevailing bent of his pas­sions, and the corruption of his judgment which always follows therefrom, must necessarily lead him thereinto, it being, morally speaking, altogether impossible, but that the wicked Man must appear in what the wicked Man doth, and the deeds, words, and writings which proceed from such an one, must in some measure savour of what he is. And therefore if there be nothing in the Law of our holy Religion (as I hope I have fully shown, that there is not) which can make the least disco­very of any such thing, nothing that can afford the least pretence for such a charge [Page 64] against it, where so large a scope is given for it; this sufficiently proves, that nei­ther the first Founder of the Christian Re­ligion, nor those who first wrote it in the Books of the New Testament, in which we now have it, could possibly be wicked Men and consequently not such Impostors as you would have them to be.

But here I know it will be objected, that there is no necessity, that all Impo­stors should be as wicked as Mahomet; and therefore though Jesus Christ and his Apostles were no such wicked Persons, yet however they may be still Impostors for all that. For, first, it hath hapned that very just and good Men have had recourse to Imposture to bring to pass and establish their most commendable designs, as we have an instance in Minos King of Crete and another in Numa King of Rome, both which, to give the greater authority to their Laws, pretended to have had them by divine Revelation. And, secondly, you will say, it's possible, a Man may be an Im­postor by Enthusiasm, and mistake, and falsely impose things for divine Revelati­on, not out of a wicked design to deceive others, but that he is really deceived here­in himself. And if in these two Cases a [Page 65] Man that is not wicked may be an Im­postor, you will urge, That though Jesus Christ and his Apostles were not wicked Men; yet this will not prove them not to have been Impostors, because it's possi­ble, that in one of these two Cases they might have been such.

In order to the clearing of the first of these Objections, I desire you would con­sider these Three following Particulars.

1. That in every Religion there are these two Parts to be observed, very di­stinct from each other. 1. The Religion it self; And, 2. The Means whereby it is promoted, and propagated among Men.

2. When the Imposture is only in the former of these two, and a true Religion; or at least one, that is really believed to be such, is promoted by means of Impo­sture; that is, by feigning a divine Reve­lation, where there is none, or by coun­terfeiting Miracles, or by any other such means tending to deceive Men thereinto; this amounts to no higher than a pious fraud, which out of an over-hot and in­considerate zeal some Men have made use of for the promoting of the best Ends. [Page 66] And such Men, for the sake of such Ends, may still be denominated good and righ­teous in the main, how much soever they may have been out in making use of such means to promote them.

3. When the Imposture is in the End, as well as in the Means; and not only the Revelation pretended, but also the Re­ligion it self is all false, counterfeit, and feigned; this amounts to such an Impo­sture, as is totally wicked without any mixture of good therein. In the former Case, where the Imposture is only in the Means, there is a good End designed, and therefore something still from whence the person using it may be denominated Good; but where the Imposture is in both, it is Wickedness all over, without any thing at all in it to exempt him from being perfectly wicked, that maketh use thereof.

Which Particulars being premised, my Answer to the Objection is as follow­eth.

1. I do acknowledge it to be related by (*)Plato in Minoe & in primo Dialogo de Legibus. Di­onysius Halicarnassaeus, lib. 1. Strabo, lib. 16. Valerius Maxi­mus, lib. 1. c. 2. Au­thors of good credit, that Minos King of Crete, when he first framed the Laws of [Page 67] his Country; to give them the greater authority, used to retire into a Cave on Mount Dicta, and from thence to bring them forth to his Cretans, as if they had been there delivered to him by Jupiter: And that Numa, when he founded the Laws of Rome Plutarchus in vita Numae & Dionysius Halicarnassae­us, lib. 1., practised the same art pretending to have received them from the Nymph Egeria, that so he might pro­cure them to be received by the Romans with the greater veneration. And by this device they both obtained there End in bringing very rude and barbarous People to submit to those good Orders and Rules which they prescribed for their living civilly, peaceably, and justly together. But this, although it were a fraud in the Means, yet as far as it related only to a political End, belongs to another matter, and doth not at all fall within that argu­ment of Religion, which we are now treating of.

2. As to the Laws of Numa, I acknow­ledge that they reached not only Matters of State, but those of Religion also, and that the whole method of the old Roman Religion was regulated and stated by them; but that Numa founded any new Religion, is what I utterly deny. For Numa left no other Religion behind him in Rome at [Page 68] his death, than that very same Heathe­nism, which he found there at his first coming thither to be King. For the City having been then but newly founded, and the People made up of a Collection of the refuse and scum of divers Nations there gathered together, they were as much out of order in matters of Religion, as in those belonging to the Civil Govern­ment, and all that Numa did, when he came to reign over them, was to make Laws to regulate both; and therefore, as he founded several wholsome Constituti­ons for the orderly governing of the State, so also did he for the regular worshipping of the Gods then acknowledged among them, without making any essential al­teration in the Religion afore practised by them. For had he done so, then the Religi­on of the Romans must have differed from the Religion of the other Cities of Italy, which we find it did not. For they com­municated with each other in their Wor­ship, as they did also with the Greeks. And in truth the old Roman Religion was no other, than the Greek Heathenism, the same which was practised in Greece, and in all those Countries which were plan­ted with Colonies from thence, as al­most all Italy was at that time. And [Page 69] therefore the Romans, as well as the rest of the Cities of Italy, looked on Delphos as a principal place of their worship with the same veneration that the Greeks did, and had frequent recourse thither on Re­ligious accounts, as the Roman Histories on many occasions acquaint us. And this Religion Numa, while he lived among his Sabines, being accurately versed in, and also a diligent practicer of it, on his coming to Rome, and finding the Romans all out of order in that little which they had of it (for during the Reign of Romu­lus, they minded little else but fighting, and therefore had not leasure, or perchance any great regard, for this matter) he not only instructed them more fully in it ac­cording as it was received in the Neigh­bouring Nations, but also framed several rules and constitutions for their more re­gular and orderly practice of it, which did no more make the old Heathenism of the Romans to be a new Religion, than the body of Canons given us by King James the First, for the more orderly regulating of our Worship and Discipline, makes our Religion a new Christianity. Only Numa, the better to make his Constitutions to obtain among those barbarous people for whom he made them, pretended to have [Page 70] been instructed in them by a divine Per­son, and in this he practised a pious fraud, but was by no means guilty of such an Imposture as we are now treating of. For he taught them no new Religion, but only the very same Greek Heathenism, which he had received with the rest of the People of Italy from their forefathers, and really be­lieved to be that very true Religion, where­by God was to be served, and therefore notwithstanding the deceit he made use of, he might from the end, which he pro­posed and which he really effected there­by to the civilizing of a very barbarous sort of people, be still reckoned a just and good Man; and to give him his due, he really was one of the most excellent Per­sonages of that age in which he lived, and first sowed among the Romans the seeds of that vertue, with which they so eminently signalized themselves for so many Ages after. But,

3. Jesus Christ and his Apostles took on them not only to be Messengers sent of God, but also to teach a new Religion to the World; and therefore, if they were Impostors, they must be so in the largest and fullest sense, both in respect of the Religion it self, as well as the means where­by they promoted it. And in this case [Page 71] there could be nothing to excuse them from being altogether as wicked as I have alledged. Where the Religion is true, or really believed so to be, there is a pious intention in the end, which may speak some goodness in him that useth fraud to promote it; and such a goodness, as great­ly exceeds the obliquity of the fault which he committed about it; and therefore, although he cannot on the account of the Good be excused from the Evil (for it is always a scandal to Religion to be promo­ted by Falsehood,) yet still he must be reckoned more commendable from the one, than faulty from the other; and in this case there will still be room enough left from the goodness of the End design'd, and the Piety of the intention, to denomi­nate the Man good and righteous in the main, notwithstanding the fault commit­ted in using such means to bring it to effect. But where the Religion is all For­gery and Falsehood, as well as the means of promoting it deceit and fraud, the Im­posture then becomes so totally and per­fectly wicked without the least mixture of good therein, as must necessarily denomi­nate the Authors and first Propagators of it to be perfectly wicked also.

[Page 72]If you say, that such a perfect Imposture as this can have any good End, for the sake whereof the Authors of it may be freed from that charge of Wickedness which I lay upon them, that good End must be either the honour of God, or the benefit of Men. But how can God be more dishonoured, than by a false Religion? or how can Men be more mischiev'd than by having the practice of it imposed on them, whereby they must thus constant­ly dishonour, and consequently offend and lose the favour of him that made them? An Imposture in this case hath that aggravation from the object it is about, as well as from the perfection of iniquity which is in the act, that supposing it could be made productive of any good End, that good would be so vastly over­balanced by the Wickedness of the Means that it would be of no weight in compa­rison thereof, or at all avail to the render­ing of those, that shall make use of it, less wicked than I have said. But when a Man can thus far proceed in Wickedness towards God, as to be the Author of con­stant dishonour unto him in a false Wor­ship; and towards Men, as to ensnare them into all that mischief, which must be consequential hereto; it must necessa­rily [Page 73] imply such a thorough disregard of both, as every good intention in respect of either must be inconsistent with. And therefore, if it be possible that such a wicked Imposture can ever be made the Means to a good End, it is scarce to be conceived, how they who are so wicked, as to be the Authors of it, could ever intend any such good thereby.

But further, If the Authors of such an Imposture, as we are now treating of, can be less wicked, than I have said, on the account of any good, which you pretend they may design thereby, I desire to know, among what sort of Men you will place them, while you thus plead their excuse. For they must be one of these three; that is, either Atheists, Deists, or Believers of an instituted Reli­gion.

1. If you say they are Atheists, that word alone contains enough to prove them perfectly wicked, whatever can be said to the contrary. It is indeed agree­able enough to the Principes of this sort of Men, that such an Imposture, as we are treating of, may laudably be made use of to a good End. For they hold, that all Religion is nothing else but a device of Politicians to keep the World in awe. But [Page 74] if the Atheist be the deviser, what inten­tion of Good can the device carry there­with? None certainly towards God, since he utterly denies his Being; or can it in this case have any towards Men, since by denying him, for whose sake it is that we are to do good to others, he casts off there­with all the reason and obligation, which he hath, abstractive of his own interest, of doing any such at all. All the good therefore that such an one can aim at, must totally center in himself to advance his own enjoyments and gratifie his own lusts in all those things which his corrupt affections carry him after; and to enjoy these without restraint of Laws or fear of punishment being that alone, which is the real and true cause that makes any Man deny that supreme and infinitely good and just Being, whom all things else prove; whoever is an Atheist, must be perfectly wicked before he can be such; and what is there which can, while in that impie­ty, ever give him a better character afterwards?

2. If you say they are Deists, such as you profess your selves to be, your main Principle is against all instituted Religion whatever, as if God were dishonoured, and Man injured by every thing of this [Page 75] nature practised among us; and can you then think, that any who are thus per­suaded, can without being first corrupted to a great degree of Impiety, as well as Hypocrisie, ever become themselves so contrary to their own Sentiments, on any pretence whatsoever, the Authors and Teachers of such a Religion among us?

3. But if you place them among those who are Believers of an instituted Religion, they must abolish that which they believe to be true, before they can introduce that by Imposture which they know to be false. And this must be the case of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, if they were such Impo­stors as you hold them to be. For they were educated and brought up in the Jew­ish Religion, which they believed to be from God, and the whole Tenour of the Religion which they taught supposeth it so to be; and that it was the only true way whereby God was to be worshipped by them, till they delivered their new Revelations, which totally abolished this Religion, and established the Christian in its stead; and therefore if those Revelati­ons were not true and real, as they pre­tended they were, but all forged and counterfeited by them, as you say, they must abolish a Religion, which they be­lieved [Page 76] to be true, to make way for that, which they knew to be false, and there­by become wilfully and knowingly, ac­cording to their own belief, the Authors of leading Men from saving Truths, into damning Errours, to the utter destruction of their Souls for ever; and also of de­priving God of that acceptable Worship, whereby he was truly honour'd according to his own appointment, to introduce in its stead a false superstition of their own devising, which must be constant disho­nour unto him as long as practised among us. And if Jesus Christ and his Apostles were such Impostors, as all this imports; and such they must be, if they were Im­postors at all; they must be guilty of that impiety towards God, as well as that in­justice towards Men herein, as must ne­cessarily suppose them the wickedest of Men before they could arrive hereto; and therefore if they were not such wicked Men, this abundantly demonstrates, they could not be such Impostors, as you charge them to be.

As to the second Objection, That a Man may be an Impostour through Enthu­siasm and Mistake, and falsely impose things for divine Revelations, not out of [Page 77] a wicked design to deceive others, but that he is herein really deceived himself; and that therefore there is no necessity, that all Impostors should be such wicked persons, as I have alledged; my Answer hereto is,

1. I do acknowledge that Enthusiasm hath carried Men into very strange con­ceits and extravagancies upon the founda­tion of a Religion already established, as we have instances enough hereof in the Anabaptists of Germany, the Quakers here with us, the (*)They were a sort of Ma­hometan Enthusiasts in the East, who followed the Light with­in them in the same manner as the Quakers with us, and there­fore were called Batenists from the Arabic word Baten, intus. And on this Principle did all the Villainies imaginable, pre­tending an impulse thereto from this Light within them. Batenists among the Mahometans, and in some of the Recluses of the Church of Rome. But that Enthusiasm could ever go so far, as to fansie a divine Revelation for the establishing of a new Religion, and upon such a fansie propagate that Religion in the World, as if it came from God, is that which I cannot believe; and there is no instance, that I know of, that can be gi­ven hereof. But,

2dly. Allowing it possible, this Ob­jection then, as applied to the case in hand, must suppose Jesus Christ, and his Apostles, to have been deceived by Enthu­siasm [Page 78] into the Religion which they taught; and that therefore, although they were by no means such wicked Men, as a wil­full Imposture must suppose them to be, yet still they might be Impostors by mi­stake; and being by Enthusiasm so far de­luded, as to think that to come to them from God by divine Revelation, which had no other birth, but from their own wild fancies, might preach it to Men as such, not out of a wicked design to de­ceive, but that they were really herein deceived themselves. But is it possible for any Man to conceive, that so grave, so serious, and so wisely a framed Religion as Christianity is, could ever be the spawn of Enthusiasm? Whatsoever is the pro­duct of that, useth ever to be like the Pa­rent, wild and extravagant in all its parts, often disagreeing with all manner of Rea­son, and often as much with it self. But Christianity is in all its parts as rational as it is good, giving us the justest Notions of God, the best Precepts of our duty to­wards Him, and the exactest Rules of li­ving honestly and righteously with each other, and hath a thorough conformity to it self in every particular of it; on which account it hath been approved and admired for the excellency of its compo­sure, [Page 79] and the wisdom of its constitutions, even by the best and wisest of those who never submitted thereto; and therefore al­ways carries with it Marks and Evidences enough in the very Nature of it, suffici­ently to prove it vastly above the power of such a Cause ever to produce it.

3. The Founder and first Teachers of Christianity gave such evidences for the truth thereof, as Enthusiasm could never produce. For can Enthusiasm raise the dead to life again, cure all manner of dis­eases, and work such other Miracles, as Christ and his Apostles did? Had they by Enthusiasm been mistaken in the Doctrines which they taught, certainly God would never have wrought such wonderfull Works by their hands, as give testimony thereto.

4. Several of the principal Articles of our Faith depend upon such matters of fact, as allow no Room for Enthusiasm to take place in them; as that of the Resur­rection of our Saviour from the dead, his Ascension into Heavem, and the descent of the Holy Ghost in the gift of Tongues. For in such things as these, which Men see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and feel with their hands (as one of the Apostles did the very Wounds of our Savi­our [Page 80] after his Resurrection) no Enthusiasm can ever lead Men into a mistake. For can it possibly be said that it was only by Enthusiasm that five hundred Men together saw Christ after he was risen again from the dead? or that it was by Enthusi­asm that his Apostles saw him ascend up into Heaven from Mount Olivet in the pre­sence of them all at noon-day? or that it was only by Enthusiasm, that the same Apostles on the day of Pentecost received the gift of Tongues by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, so as to be able to converse with all the several Nations then at Jerusalem in their own Languages, without ever having learned any thing of them? To say that Men could any way be mistaken in such things as these, will be to deny the certainty of sense, and overthrow the foundations of all manner of knowledge whatever. It must therefore be said as to these particu­lars, as it must also of all the Miracles of our Saviour, which give Testimony to the Doctrines which he taught, That his Apostles, who testified them unto the World, and upon the credit of them built up that Religion which they delivered unto us, did either see them really done as they relate, or they did not see them. [Page 81] If they did see them, no Enthusiasm could ever make them be mistaken therein; and if they did not, they must be altogether as bad Impostors, as Mahomet himself in testi­fying them unto us; and what but as great Wickedness as his could ever in­duce them so to do?

SECT. IV.

IV. The next Mark of an Imposture is, That it must unavoidably contain in it several palpable falsities, whereby may be made appear the falsity of all the rest. For whoever invents a Lye, can never do it so cunningly and knowingly, but still there will be some flaw or other left in it, which will expose it to a discovery; and no Man who frames an invention, can ever secure it herefrom without two quali­fications, which no Man can have; and they are, 1st. A thorough knowledge of all manner of Truths; And, 2dly. Such an exact memory, as can bring them all present to his Mind, whenever there shall be an occasion. For to make the Lye pass without contradiction, he must make it put on a seeming agreement with all o­ther Truths whatever. And how can any one do this without knowing all Truths, [Page 82] and having them also all ready and pre­sent in his mind to consider them in order thereto? And since no Man is sufficient for this, no Man is sufficient so to frame a Lye, but he will always put something or other into it, which will palpably prove it to be so. For if there be but any one known Truth in the whole scheme of Na­ture with which it interferes, this must make the discovery; and there is no Man that forgeth an Imposture, but makes himself liable this way to be convicted of it. This is the method whereby we distinguish supposititious Authors from those which are genuine, and fabulous Writers from true Historians. For there is always something in such, which disa­grees from known Truths to make the dis­covery, some flaw always left in spight of the utmost care and foresight of the Forgerer, that betrays the cheat. Thus Annius's Imposture of his Berosus, Manetho and Megasthenes became detected, and so also we know the Tuscan Antiquities of Inghiramius to be a cheat of the like na­ture. And by the same rule is it that we re­ceive Sallust, Tacitus and Suetonius for true Historians, and reject others as Writers of Fables, and of no authority with us: And if we examine the Alcoran of Mahomet [Page 83] by the same method, nothing can be more plainly convicted of Falsity and Im­posture, than that must be by it. For al­though in that Book he allows both the Old and the New Testament to be of divine authority, yet in a multitude of instances he differs from both: I mean not in mat­ters of Law and Religion, for here his de­sign is to differ; but in matters of fact and history, which if once true, must ever­more be the same. They have a fetch indeed to bring him off, by saying that the Jews, and the Christians cor­rupted those holy Books, and therefore where he re­lates things otherwise than they do, he doth there re­store Truth, and not vary from it. But certainly this will not hold, where, by a very gross blunder, he makes the Virgin (*)Alcoran, c. 3. where ob­serve, that through all that Chapter in every place, where the French, and out of that the English Translation of the Alco­ran hath Joachim, in the Origi­nal Arabic it is Amran, and from thence this Chapter in the Original is called Surato'l Am­ran, i. e. the Chapter of Amran. But in both these Translations it is called the Chapter of Joa­chim. For Mahomet mistaking the Virgin Mary to be the same with Miriam, the Sister of Moses, makes Amran to be her Father. But Ryer, the French Translator very imprudently taking upon him to correct the Impostor's blunder, puts Joachim in the place of Amran, and thereby gives us a false Version, where it is very material in order to the exposing of that Imposture to know the true. And the English Translator follows him herein. Mary the Mother of our Savi­our, to be the same with Miriam, the Sister of Moses. For this would be to put the Gospel so close upon the heels of the Law, as to al­low no time for the taking [Page 84] place of this latter, before it would have been totally abolished by the former. But which most discovers his Imposture, are the monstrous Mistakes, which he makes in the Moral part thereof. For he allows Fornication, and justifies Adul­tery by his Law, and makes War, Rapine and Slaughter to be the main part of the Religion which he taught; which being contrary to the Nature of God, from whom he says he received it, and contrary to that Law of unalterable and eternal Truth, which he hath written in the hearts of all of us from the beginning; the ob­vious Principles of every Man's reason convict him of falsehood herein, and thereby manifestly prove all the rest to be nothing else, but an abominable Im­piety of his own invention. And were the Religion of Jesus Christ, as delivered to us in the New Testament, an Imposture like this, it must have the same flaws therein, that is, many falsities in matter of fact, and more in doctrine, and all his Prophe­cies would be without Truth in the Ori­ginal, or Verification in the Event. And when you can make out any one of these particulars against it, then we will be ready to say the same thereof that you do, That all is Cheat and Imposture, and [Page 85] no credit or faith is any longer to be gi­ven thereto.

And 1st. as to the matters of fact con­tained in the History of the New Testament whoever yet convicted any one of them of falsehood? or whoever as much as en­deavoured it in the age when the Books were first written, when the falsehood might have been best proved, had there been any such in them, and the doing hereof would have so much served the designs of those bitter enemies of the Christian Cause, who from the first did the utmost they could to suppress it? What Relations of matters of fact pass uncontra­dicted and uncontroll'd in the Age in which they were transacted, and among those who thought themselves greatly concerned to have them believed false, this must be taken for an undeniable argument of their truth. And this Argument the History of the New Testament hath on its side in its fullest strength. For the Books were written and published in the very age in which the things related in them were done, yet no one then ever contra­dicted or convicted of falsehood any one passage in them, though Christianity had from the very beginning the Professors of all other Religions in most bitter enmity [Page 86] against it, who would have been most ready and glad so to do, could they have found but the least pretence for it. And had any of those Relations been false, there were then means enough undeniably to have convicted them of it. For those things, which are related of Jesus Christ and his Apostles in the History of the New Te­stament, are not there said to have been done in Corners where none where present to contradict them, but upon the open Stage of the World, and many of them in the sight of thousands; and therefore had they not been really done, or done other­wise than related, there could not have wanted witnesses enough to make proof hereof. And most certainly those who so bitterly opposed Christianity from the first would have found them out, and made use of their Testimonies to the utmost for the overthrowing of the Cause they so vi­olently opposed, and had they done so to be sure we should have had those testimo­nies in the mouths of all its enemies ever since. For they would have yielded them the strongest and the most prevail­ing argument they could possibly have urged against it. The false pretences of [...] Impostors have been detected by [...] who lived in their times, and the [Page 87] true History is given of them instead of the false ones which they gave of them­selves. And had Jesus Christ and his Apo­stles been like Impostors, and the things related of them in the Books of the New Testament false and forged, it is not possi­ble to conceive, especially in the circum­stances above-mentioned, how they could have escaped the like discovery; but cer­tainly in this case, amidst so many witnes­ses, who could have proved the falsehood, and so many enemies who were eager to detect it, all must have come out, and eve­ry false Narrative would have been shown to be such, and the true one given in its stead, and we should have heard enough hereof from the adversaries of our holy Re­ligion through every age since. And that this was not done, when there was such bitter opposition against the Christian Re­ligion from the first propagating of it, and it would have been so strong an argu­ment against it, can be assigned to no other cause, but that the things related were so evidently and manifestly true, as not to afford the least pretence for the contradicting of them. But this is not all we have to say in the case. For it hath not only hapned that none of those matters of fact have ever been contra­dicted, [Page 88] or proved false by any of the first enemies of Christianity, who were best able to have done so, had there been that Imposture in them which you alledge; but on the contrary many of them have been allowed true, and attested by them. For two of the most surprizing particulars related in the Gospels are confirmed by the Testimony of Heathen Writers, I mean the murder of the Innocents by Herod at Bethlehem, and the wonderfull Eclipse of the Sun, which hapned at the death of our Saviour, contrary to the nature of a Solar Eclipse, when the Moon was in the Full. Saturnal, lib. 2. c. 4. Macrobius tells us of the former and Vide Chro­nicon Eusebii, & Origenis contra Celsum librum secun­dum, & Tract. ad Matthaeum 35. Phlegon Trallianus of the latter. And that which is the most important part of all, and bears the greatest Testi­mony to the truth of the whole was al­lowed and acknowledged on all hands both by Jews and Heathens even in their bitterest opposition against the Christian Cause, I mean the account which is given in those sacred Books of the Miracles of our Saviour. For both of them have yielded to the truth hereof; only the Jews say, that he wrought them by vir­tue of the Tetragrammaton, or the sacred Name Jehovah, stolen by him out of the Temple (which the ridiculousness of the [Page 89] Fable they relate concerning it sufficient­ly confutes) and the Heathens by Magic Art. And therefore Philostratus and Hie­rocles finding no other way to overthrow the authority, which those Miracles gave his Religion, confronted against him the History of Apollonius Tyanoeus, whom they pretend by the same Art of Magic to have done as wonderfull things, and by this means endeavoured at least to invalidate those miraculous Works of his, which they could not deny. And,

2dly. As to the Prophecies of our Savi­our, the truth of their event in every par­ticular proves the truth of him that pre­dicted them. For, did he not come from God, how could he have this wonderfull Knowledge, as thus to fore-tell things to come? Were he not of the Secrets of the Almighty, how could he so certainly have fore-shown, what in after-times he would bring to pass? If it were only by guess that he did so, how possibly could all things so exactly fall out in the event, that nothing should in the least happen other­wise than as he predicted, especially since as to most of them it cannot be as much as said, that there was any place for hu­mane sagacity, or the least probable con­jecture to help him to any fore-sight there­in? [Page 90] For how improbable was it that the Religion which he taught should, against the bent of the whole World, have made so great and speedy progress therein, as he fore-told that it should? or that such instruments, as he imployed in this work, a company of poor, ignorant, and con­temptible Fishermen, should ever have been able to have effected it? without the extraordinary Providence of God o­ver-ruling the hearts, as well as the power of Men; a thing in the ordinary course of humane affairs, so unlikely to succeed, could never have been brought to pass; or could our Saviour have any manner of ground from the nature of the thing, so much as to guess at so strange an event, and therefore could never have so punctu­ally foretold it; but that being sent of God to begin this work, he foreknew all that he would do for the perfecting of it. And the same is to be said of what he further predicted of this holy Religion as to its con­tinuance among us to the end of the World, of the calling of the Gentiles there­into, and the rejecting of the Jews, of the great calamities which should attend that people (as accordingly they have through all Ages since) and particularly of that great and terrible calamity, which [Page 91] was to fall upon them in the destruction of Jerusalem, and accordingly hapned about forty years after; which he so ex­actly fore-told, not only as to the time (for he said it should be before that Matt. c. 24. v. 34: generation should pass away) but also as to all other the most considerable circum­stances of it, that nothing can be a more exact and perfect Comment on the 24th. Chapter of St. Matthew, and those o­ther passages in the Gospels, where this dis­mal destruction is fore-told, than that History of Josephus, which gives us an ac­count how it was brought to pass. And that part of the Prophecy, which relates to the final destruction of the Temple, fore-telling, that one stone should not be left upon another, hath been so exactly verified, that notwithstanding several attempts, which have been made for the re-edifying of it, it could never be effected; no, not as far as the laying of one stone upon another in order thereto, even to this day. And when Julian the Apostate, out of design to confront this Prophecy, and give the lie thereto, imployed both the Power and the Treasure of the Roman Empire for the rebuilding of it, Heaven it self inter­posed in an extraordinary manner to make good what he had predicted to be the e­stablished [Page 92] purpose of the Almighty, which nothing was able to alter, and by a mira­culous Fire destroyed the Work as fast as it was built, and at length forced the Un­dertakers totally to desist therefrom. For the truth whereof, I will not referr you to the Testimony of Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, Chrysostom, or any other of the Christian Writers, who relate it, but to one whom you cannot suspect of serving the interest of the Christian Cause herein, he be­ing as much an Adversary thereto as any of you; I mean Ammianus Marcellinus, who was an Heathen Writer, and then served under Julian in his Wars in the East, at the same time when this hapned. His Words concerning it (lib. 23. c. 1.) are as follow­eth— Ambitiosum quondam apud Hierosoly­mam Templum, quod post multa & interne­civa certamina, obsidente Vespasiano postea­que Tito, oegre est expugnatum, instaurare sumtibus excogitabat immodicis, negotium­que maturandum Alypio dederat Antio­chensi, qui olim Britannos curaverat pro Proefectis. Cum itaque rei idem fortiter in­staret Alypius, juvaretque Provincioe Re­ctor, metuendi globi flammarum prope fun­damenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum, exustis aliquoties operantibus, inac­cessum, hocque modo Elemento destinatius [Page 93] repellente cessavit inceptum: i. e. ‘Julian having a design to re-build with extra­ordinary expence the Temple of Jeru­salem, formerly a very stately Stru­cture (which, first Vespasian, and after Titus, laying siege thereto, was, after many bloody Conflicts, at length, with difficulty, taken and destroyed) com­mitted the care of the business to Aly­pius the Antiochian, who formerly had been Proprefect of Britanny, to be with all speed expedited by him. But while Alypius was diligently pressing on the Work, and the Governour of the Pro­vince helping him therein, dreadfull Balls of Fire breaking forth from the Foundations of the Building, did by their frequent Eruptions make the Place unaccessible, the Workmen be­ing several times destroyed by the Fire, as they went to their Labour; and by this means the Element still per­sisting as of purpose to obstruct it, the Work ceased.’ And it hath never since been again attempted, even to this day, nor is there now left the least re­mainder of its Ruins, to show so much as the Place where this Temple once stood? or have those who Travel thither, any other Mark whereby to find it out, but the [Page 94] Mahometan Mosque, erected on the same Plat by Omar, the second Successour of Mahomet; and which hath now continu­ed for above a thousand years to pollute with the worst of Superstitions, that sa­cred Ground on which it was formerly built. Had our Saviour been an Impostor, and foretold all these things without any knowledge of the Counsels of him who was to bring them to pass, something certainly must have hapned in the event of so many particulars, as would have given the Lye to his Predictions, and you the opportunity of convicting him there­of by plain matters of fact falling out contrary to them. And although this could not have been done at first, but possibly such Prophecies as these might have imposed for a while on the credu­lity of many; yet we that have passed the time of their completion, could ne­ver be deceived thereby; but by the Event must plainly know, Whether what he foretold be true or false, and from thence have enough to make a judgment also of the truth of him that predicted them. And therefore had our Saviour, like Mahomet, invented his Religion to de­ceive the World; if he intended it should have continued, he must have taken the [Page 95] same course that Mahomet did, and ne­ver ventured at any Prophecy at all, that he might not be confuted by the Event, and so lose his whole design. If you an­swer, That our Saviour fore-told future Events after the same manner, as the Pharisees said he wrought his Miracles; that is, by the Prince of the Devils, you ascribe that knowledge to the wicked one which is above his reach to attain unto. The Oracles, which he gave in the Hea­then Temples, only prove him able to cheat Mankind with dubious and dark Answers, but never clearly to inform them of the future Purposes of the Al­mighty. And indeed, how ever can it be imagin'd, that such an accursed one, as he that is cast off at the greatest distance from God (who alone governs all the Works of his Creation, and by the Wis­dom of his Providence orders every Event that attends them) should ever be so pri­vy to his Counsels, as to be able to fore­know any thing that he determines con­cerning them; unless it be, where he himself is imployed as an Executioner of his Justice to bring it to pass. But all our Saviour's Predictions were clear and full, fore-telling things to come, in the same manner as Historians relate them when [Page 96] past, without ambiguity in the words, or perplexity in the matter, or the least room left for evasion of deceit in them, and were all as exactly fulfill'd in their appointed time; and we have the conti­nuance of his Gospel, the spreading of it through all the Nations of the Earth, the rejection of the Jews, the calamities of those people in a continued Exile, and the total destruction of their Temple, stand­ing Evidences hereof, even to this day. And how could all this have ever hap­ned so exactly, according to his Word, but that he was that holy and blessed One, who had the Counsels of the Al­mighty communicated unto him, and was sent by Him on purpose to declare unto us as many of them, as were necessary for us to know, in order to the attaining of everlasting life. And,

3dly. As to the Doctrinal part of his Religion; what can be more worthy of God, than the notions which he gives us of him, and the worship which he directs us to render upon him? and what more worthy of us and perfecting of our nature than that Law for the conduct of our lives which he hath delivered unto us? and what can be more holy, pure, and per­fect than the Precepts thereof? Here the [Page 97] sublimity and vast extent of the matter give scope large enough for the wisest of Men to bewilder and lose themselves in errour and mistake, and yet convince us but of any one such in the whole extent of our Religion, and that alone shall be suf­ficient to prove the Imposture, you would charge it with, and I will yield you all you would have for the sake thereof. But it is so far herefrom, that I durst make you your selves the judges, whether it delivers any thing else unto us of the nature and excellencies of God, but what the reason of every man (although barely that alone through that cloud of ignorance and errour which the Fall hath over-spread us with, could never clearly make the discovery) must now, when thus discover'd, ever justi­fy and admire? whether it prescribes us any one particular relating to his worship, but what is most agreeable to those his excellencies? and whether the Precepts and Laws therein laid down unto us for the governing of our lives and conversations be any other, than what do all correspond so exactly with every thing which the rational dictates of our nature direct us to, that they take them all in without omission or defect, and improve them to the utmost with errour or mistake in [Page 98] the least circumstance that belongs unto them? If you say, that all this might be attained to by humane wisdom and study; I answer, supposing it could, yet looking on our Saviour barely as a Man, and his holy Apostles without any other assistance, than that of their own natural endow­ments, how possibly could they reach so high? To do this requires that vast com­pass of knowledge in all the things of Nature, Law, and Morality, as it is not possible to conceive Men of their educa­tion and low imployments in the World could ever have arrived unto. If you examine what other Men have done by humane wisdom and study only, you will find those of the most elevated Genius and sublimest Understanding could never with their utmost industry and search attain unto what you suppose herein, or that the highest knowledge of Men could ever reach that perfection in any of the particulars above-mentioned, in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ delivers them unto us. For what blunders and absurdities do the wisest of the Philosophers lay down concerning the Deity? what errours and follies have they taught and practised concerning his worship? and what mi­stakes have those, who exalted Morality [Page 99] to the highest pitch among Men, made therein? Plato in his Common-wealth al­lowed the common use of Women. Ari­stotle asserts it to be natural and just for the Greeks to make War upon the Barbari­ans for no other reason but that they are so, and both he and Tully place Revenge among their virtues. And whoever had vaster capacities for humane knowledge, or ever went higher by the abilities of na­tural reason and understanding only in the search thereof, than those Men? Yet still being no more than Men, they could not avoid putting something of the infirmities of Man even into that, wherein they made appear their highest perfections, errour, mistake and ignorance being so natural unto all of us, that neither the greatest, the wisest, nor the best among us can be totally free therefrom. And there­fore had Christ and his Apostles no other help in the Doctrines which they taught, but that which is humane, they must also in like manner have put that which is humane thereinto, and the infirmities, mistakes, and errours that attend humane nature would have appeared in all that they delivered unto us. But the doctrines, which they taught, and the Books in which they de­livered them unto us being so totally free from all such errours and mistakes, as [Page 100] I have already shown that they are, this directs us to look higher than Man for the Founder of this Holy Religion, and the Original Author of those Books in which it is contained, and necessarily prove, that only he who is infinite in knowledge and infinite in all other perfections could thus give us a Law so exactly like himself, thoroughly perfect in the whole, and in­fallibly true in every particular thereof.

SECT. V.

V. Another Mark of Imposture is, That where-ever it is first propagated, it must be done by craft and fraud; and this is natural to all manner of cheats. For the end of such being to deceive, craft and fraud are the means whereby it is to be effected. In this case a Lye must be made to go for a Truth, and an appearance for a reality; and to compass this a great deal of Art must be made use of, both to dress up the Cheat, that it may appear to be what it pretends, and also to cast such a mist before the eyes of Men, that they may not see it to be otherwise, and that especially where the cheat is an Imposture in Religion. For whoever comes with a new Religion to be proposed to the World, must find all men so far prejudiced and [Page 101] pre-possessed against it, as they are affected to the old one they have before professed, and therefore when Men are educated, or any otherwise fixed and setled in a Religi­on (and all mankind are in some or other) they are not apt easily to forego it, but it must be something more than ordinary that must bring them over to another contrary thereto. When the new Religion really comes from God (as the Jewish Re­ligion first, and after the Christian did) it brings its Credentials with it, the power of Miracles to make way for its reception. For when Men find the Om­nipotency of God working with it, they have from thence sufficient evidence given them from whom it comes, and there is need of no other means to induce them to believe, but that the Religion, which God doth in such a manner own and at­test, must be from him. But where there is no such power accompanying the new Religion to gain credit thereto, the defect hereof must be made up by somewhat else to draw over the people to its belief, and this is that which must put all Impostors upon craft and fraud in order to the compassing of their ends. But that Jesus Christ and his Apostles made use of no such craft or fraud to in­duce Men into the belief of that holy Reli­gion, [Page 102] which they taught, and consequent­ly could be no such Impostors, will be best made appear by going over all those ways of craft and fraud, which Mahomet served himself of, and, by showing you that none of them can possibly be said to have been practised by any of them. For Ma­homet being one of the craftiest cheats that ever set up to impose a false Reli­gion on mankind, and the only person that ever carried on his wicked design with success, you may be sure he left no Art or Device unpractised, which could possibly be made use of with any advan­tage for the compassing of it. And there­fore by proving unto you that none of those methods of craft and fraud, which were made use of for the first propagating of Mahometism, were ever practised in the first preaching of Christianity, I shall suf­ficiently prove that no craft or fraud at all which is anyway practicable on such occa­sions, can ever be charged thereupon. For,

1. Mahomet made use of all manner of insinuation both with rich and poor for the gaining of their affection, thereby to gain them to his Imposture also. But our Saviour Christ, and his Apostles did quite the contrary, freely convincing all Men of their sins without having regard to any thing else but the faithfull discharge of [Page 103] the Mission on which they were sent; which instead of reconciling men to their persons, provoked the World against them, and they sufficiently experienced it from the ill usage which they found therein.

2. Mahomet, the easier to draw over the Arabians to his Party, indulged them by his Law in all those passions and cor­rupt affections, which he found them strongly addicted to, especially those of Lust and War, which those Barbarians above all the Nations of the Earth were by their natural inclinations most violent­ly carried after, and therefore he allows them a plurality of wives, and a free use of their female slaves for the satisfying of their Lust, and makes it a main part of his Religion for them to fight against, plunder, and destroy all that would not be of it. But Jesus Christ and his Apostles allowed no such practices, but strictly prohibited all manner of sin, how much soever in reputation among men, even to the forbidding of many things till then allowed and held lawfull among those who where called God's own people, and therefore instead of seeking the favour of Men by indulging them in their lusts and sinfull practices, they laid a much stricter restraint upon them than was ever done before.

[Page 104]3dly. Mahomet, to please his Arabians, retained in the Religion which he taught them, most of those Rites and Ceremonies which they had been accustomed to un­der that which he abolished, and also the Temple of Mecca, in which they were chiefly performed. But Jesus Christ with­out having any regard to the pleasing of Men, abolished both the Temple and the Law, which the Jews were so bigotted unto, and also the total worshipping of God by Sacrifices, without being at all influenced to the contrary by that extra­vagant fondness, which he knew the whole World had then for them.

4. Mahomet, when he found any of his new Laws not so well to serve his return, craftily shifted the scene, and brought them about to his purpose by such altera­tions, as would best suit therewith; and therefore when his making his Kebla to­wards Jerusalem did not so well please his Countrymen, he turned it about again towards Mecca, and order'd all his Pilgri­mages thither, as in the time of their Ido­latry. And the like changes he made in many other particulars according as he found his interest required. And this is that which every Impostor must do. For interest being the end, which all such [Page 105] aim at, it is impossible that they can so well lay their designs in order to it, but that emerging changes in the one will frequently require changes in the other also. But Jesus Christ never made the least alteration in any of the doctrines or precepts which he delivered, but what he first taught both he and his Disciples immutably persisted in without at all re­garding how violently all the interests of the World ran counter against them here­in. And what can be a more certain evi­dence that none such was the bottom which they were built upon.

5. Mahomet under pain of death forbad all manner of Disputes about his Religion, and nothing could be a wiser course to prevent its follies and absurdities from being detected and exposed. For they being such as could never stand the trial of a rational Examination, they must all have soon been exploded, had every man been allowed the free use of his reason to inquire into them. But Christ and his Apostles direct the quite contrary course. For our Saviour bids the Jews search the Scriptures for the trial of those truths which he taught them, (John 5. v. 39.) And the Noble Beroeans are commended, that they did so, before they would re­ceive [Page 106] those doctrines of the Christian Re­ligion, which were preached unto them, Acts 17. v. 11. And St. Paul gives us this general rule, first to prove or try all things, and then to hold fast that only which we find to be good, 1 Thess. 5. v. 21. It is only errour and falsehood that desires to shelter it self in the dark, and dares not expose it self to an open view and trial. But Truth being always certain of its own stability, makes use of no art to sup­port it self, but dares venture it self abroad on its own foundation only, and boldly offers it self to every Man's search; and the more it is sifted and examined into, the more bright and refulgent will it al­ways appear. And since Christianity from the first ever took this course, (as it still doth where-ever purely professed) and instead of prohibiting Disputes about it, invites all Men to search and examine thereinto; this sufficiently argues, how certain the first Teachers of it were of its Truth, and that no cheat or Imposture could ever be intended thereby.

6. Mahomet made choice of a People first to propagate his Imposture among, who were of all Men most fitted to re­ceive it; and that on two accounts: 1. Because of the indifferency which they [Page 107] were then grown to as to any Religion at all; And, 2. Because of the great ig­norance they were in of all manner of Learning at that time, when he first vent­ed his Forgeries among them, there being then but only one Man among all the In­habitants of Mecca that could either write or read. For who are more fit to be im­posed on, than the ignorant? and who can be more easie to receive a new Reli­gion, than those who are not prepossessed with any other to prejudice them against it? The Papists, who, next Mahomet, have the greatest claim to Imposture, as to those errours which they teach, very well understand how such a Cause is to be served by both these Particulars; and therefore make it their business, as much as they can, to keep their own People in ignorance, and pervert all those they call Hereticks to Atheism and Infidelity, that so having no Religion at all, they may be the better prepared again to receive theirs. And that there are so many Atheists now among us, it is too well known, how much it is owing to this their Hellish ar­tifice against us. But all was quite con­trary as to those whom Christ and his A­postles first preached our holy Religion un­to. Our Saviour did not chuse such ig­norant [Page 108] Times to come among us in, or a People so indifferent in Religion, first to manifest himself unto. For the Jews were so far from being weary of that Religion, which they had so long professed, when he first appeared in his Mission among them, that they were then grown into the contrary extreme; a very extravagant bi­gottry and superstition concerning it; so that nothing was more difficult, than to withdraw them from it; nor could any thing be more offensive to them, than an offer tending thereto; and so it continues with them, even to this day. And the case was not much otherwise as to all the rest of Mankind; the Gentiles being then grown almost as tenacious of their Idola­try, as the Jews of their Law; and Learn­ing was in that Age among both at the highest pitch, that ever it was in the World; and consequently, Men were ne­ver less disposed, than at that time, to re­ceive a new Religion, or ever better able to defend their old. And therefore had Christianity been an Imposture, it could never have escaped in such an Age as that a full detection, or ever have been able to have born up against it; such inquisi­tive Heads and piercing Wits, as were then in the World, would have sifted it [Page 109] to the bottom, dived into its deepest Se­crets, and unravell'd and laid open the whole Plot, and the prejudiced World would immediately have crushed it to pieces thereon, so that it should never more have appeared among Mankind. But the truth of our holy Religion was such, that it boldly offered it self to this trial; and it seems to have chosen such an Age as this, first to come into the World of purpose to undergo it, that so it might be the better justified there by. And justi­fied by it it was; for although it were opposed by the utmost Violence of the prejudiced World, they could get no ground of it; though it were through­ly examined and diligently searched into by the acutest and subtilest Wits of those Ages in which it first appeared, they could never discover any fraud, or make out the least flaw therein; but in spight of both it triumphed by its own naked Truth on­ly over all manner of opposition, and by God's Mercy continues still so to do, even to this day. That a cheat and a fraud in a thing of this nature should be impo­sed on Men totally ignorant and illiterate, or that such as they, when void of all man­ner of Religion, (as the Men of Mecca for the most part were when Mahomet began [Page 110] his Imposture among them) should be easie to imbrace a new one, is no hard matter to conceive; but that an Imposture should be received, and obtain such prevalency over Men in so learned and discerning an Age, as that wherein Christianity first ap­peared in the World, or that they who where then so zealously addicted to the Religion, they had been educated in, whe­ther Jews or Gentiles should ever have been induced to forsake it for a new one, founded only on a cheat and fraud, is what morally speaking, we may very well rec­kon impossible.

7. Mahomet offered at no Prophecies, that he might not run the hazard of be­ing confuted by the Event. But Jesus Christ delivered many clear and plain Pro­phecies, several of which respected that very Age in which he lived, and were all in their proper time as plainly verified by the completion of them.

8. Mahomet offered at no Miracles in publick, although continually called up­on and provoked to it by his opposers. For not being able to work any true ones or would not hazard himself to a disco­very by those which were Counterfeit. And therefore all those things which he would have go for Miracles; that is, his [Page 111] Converse with the Angel Gabriel, his Jour­ney to Heaven, and the Armies of Angels that helped him in his Battles, are only related by him as things acted behind the Curtain, of which there was no other witness but himself alone, and conse­quently there could be no witness on the other side ever to contradict them. But Jesus Christ and his Apostles having the real power of working Miracles did them openly in the sight of thousands, where all manner of opportunity was given to every spectator to examine into them, and try whether they were true or no; and therefore had there been any cheat or fraud in them, it is not possible to conceive how they should have escaped a discovery. And yet no such discovery could ever be made, which was so con­vincing an argument of their truth and reality, that even the bitterest enemies of our holy Religion from the first yielded in this particular, and both Jews and Hea­thens allowed all those miraculous Works, which are related of our Saviour and his A­postles in the Books of the New Testament to have been really and truly wrought by them, as hath been afore-observed. And indeed the evidence was too manifest to be denied, since those very blind that re­ceived [Page 112] their sight, those dumb that were enabled to speak, those deaf that were re­stor'd to their hearing, those lame that were made to walk, and those dead that were raised again to life, lived many years after to be as standing Monuments of the truth of those things, which no one could con­tradict. And therefore the Opposers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ have all along rather chosen to invalidate the authority of those Miracles, than deny the truth and reality of them.

For they allowing the matters of fact object that there are other Powers lower than the divine, that are able to bring them to pass; and therefore, although those Works were wrought, they do not yet prove either the persons or the doctrines which they taught to come from God, and consequently can give no such evidence, as that which we insist upon from them for the truth of that Religion which we profess; That others by Magick Art have done the same things; That the Scriptures themselves tell us so of Jannes, and Jambres, and Simon Magus; and profane Writers of Apollonius Tyanoeus, Apuleius, and others; that both Moses and Jesus Christ knew this very well, and therefore forewarn'd their Disciples against [Page 113] it, telling them that false Prophets should arise, who should show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the very Elect; and that they should take care not to hearken to them. And therefore, say they, if signs and wonders can be wrought by false Prophets, how can they be evidences for the true? Or how can we at all rely upon them for the verifying of any do­ctrine which they deliver unto us? Or if those Miracles, which were wrought by them who are sent of God, be only true Miracles, and all others false ones, how shall we distinguish the one from the o­ther, so as by them to discern, whether the doctrines be of God or no?

But these Difficulties will be easily re­moved, and the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles, as they are allowed to be truly wrought by them, so also will they as truly prove the Doctrines which they taught to come from God, if you will but consider these following Parti­culars.

1. Miracles are works done, which are strange and amazing to us, as being brought to pass out of the ordinary road, and in a manner which we cannot com­prehend; and these are of two sorts: [Page 114] 1. Such as exceed only the Power of Man to effect them; and these we call signs or wonders; And, 2. Such as exceed the Power of any created Being whatso­ever; and these only are properly Mira­cles.

2. Where-ever such Miracles are wrought, as are of this last sort, God alone must be the Author of them; and therefore, where­ever such are found, they manifestly prove the Power of God co-operating with the Persons, at whose word they are done; and with whomsoever it doth thus co­operate, it necessarily demonstrates their Mission from him, and puts such an Au­thentick Seal to the Truth of the Do­ctrines which they teach, as cannot be denied.

3. Where-ever a creating Power is ne­cessary to the effect produced, or the sta­ted Laws of Nature are altered, there it is certain none but God himself can be the Author of the Work done. For he alone is able to create; and he having created all things according to his infinite Wis­dom, and given to each their proper Es­sence and Operations, he allows none but himself to alter the Natures of them, or change that Course which he hath put them into.

[Page 115]4. But within the Laws and Powers of Nature, there are abundance of things, which exceed the Power of Man to effect, and therefore seem as Miracles to us, which may be produced by other created Beings, and these are evil spirits as well as good.

5. To the producing of these effects, evil spirits as well as good are enabled two manner of Ways: 1. By their greater Knowledge of the Powers of Nature; And, 2. By the greater Agency which they have to apply them to effect. For,

6. There are a multitude of things in Nature, that those Spirits know the Na­ture of, which we do not. For their Abi­lities of knowing are vastly above ours, as not working by the dull Tools of Earth and Clay as we do, and their Experience exceedingly greater, as having known the Works of God from the beginning, and by long Observation pried deep into the Secrets of them. If a Chymist or a Mathematician, by his Skill in the Powers of Nature, can do many things, which to the ignorant and unlearned shall seem as Miracles, (as we often find) how much more can those knowing Spirits do so, whose Knowledge of the Powers of Na­ture [Page 116] is vastly more above all ours put to­gether, than the highest and perfectest of ours is above that of the most ignorant that lives among us. But,

7. As those Spirits have a vastly grea­ter Knowledge of the Powers of Nature than we can have, so also have they a vastly greater Power to apply them to effect. For they are of a much greater agility in their motion, of a much finer substance to penetrate into things, and actuate them into operation; and also of a much stronger agency or power to work than we have, and which, no doubt, they are endowed more or less with, according to the different orders and degrees in which God hath created them; and by both these together, that is, their greater Knowledge of natural Causes, and their greater Power to apply them to effect, can they do a great many things within Nature's limits, which exceed all the Pow­ers of Men to effect, and seem as mira­culous and wonderfull unto us, when ever brought to pass.

8. Good Spirits never work those Mi­racles, but in subserviency to the divine Will, as they are necessary for the effect­ing of those things which God hath or­dained by their Ministry to bring to pass. [Page 117] And to them those Miracles mentioned in Scripture, which exceed not the Power of such created Beings, may be referred as the immediate Authors of them; it not being likely that God would interpose his immediate Power, excepting only in such cases, as where there was need of it. For why should the Lord himself put his hand to that work, which may as well be discharged by the Ministry of his Ser­vants?

9. Evil Spirits having in a great mea­sure the same Knowledge of Natural Cau­ses as the good, and the like Power to bring them to effect can also work the like wonders, and by God are often per­mitted so to do, both for the trial of Men, and also for other good Causes, which to him of his infinite Wisdom seem fitting; and we have a plain in­stance of it in the Case of Job.

10. Evil Spirits have not only this Power of working the like Wonders, which Good Spirits do, but also another, which Good Spirits will never make use of; that is, by juggle, delusion, and de­ceit to imitate those true and proper Mi­racles, which none but God himself can really effect. And thus by the delusion of the Devil was a cheat put upon Saul [Page 118] in the raising of Samuel to him from the dead. For really, to raise Samuel from the dead, none but God could, and there­fore that appearance, which Saul saw, was no more than a false appearance, contri­ved by the Devil to put a cheat and de­lusion upon him. And of this same sort may we reckon the Miracles which Jan­nes and Jambres wrought in imitation of Moses. For to turn a Rod into a Serpent and Water into Blood, or to cause Frogs to come up upon the Land (in which three Particulars they did the same thing by their inchantments, that Moses did by the hand of God) are Works, which, if really done, require the creating Power to bring them to effect, which none but God hath; and therefore in this case the Devil acted for them, not by his effect­ing, but only by his deluding Power. And such Miracles the Scripture calls [...]; i. e. Lying or false Miracles, 2 Thess. 2.9. which are not really wrought, but only made so to appear by the juggle and delusion of Satan.

11. Those cheats and delusions of the Devil, whereby he imitates the true and real Miracles of God, which he cannot work, are only in transient Effects, like those of Jugglers upon a Stage, never in [Page 119] such as are lasting and permanent. And where the Effect is totally transient, God's Works are often so far above the Devil's Imitation, that even in these there will be still a multitude of Particulars, where­in he can have no power, as much as by juggle or delusion, to do any thing like unto them.

12. Whatsoever signs or wonders are wrought by Magicians or false Prophets, must be referred to one of these two Heads; that is, that they are either the Devil's Works, or the Devil's Delusions: and the Scriptures, which tell us of Ma­gicians and false Prophets working such signs and wonders, do in many places re­ferr them hereto.

13. Those signs or wonders which are really wrought by the Devil and his Evil Spirits, are to be distinguished from those which are wrought by the Power of An­gels or Good Spirits, by these following Marks: 1. That Angels or Good Spirits never work those Wonders, but in subser­viency to the Will of God, for the pro­moting of Truth and Righteousness; but the Devil and his Evil Spirits only for the promoting of Errour and Wickedness. 2. Angels or Good Spirits never co-operate in the production of those Wonders with [Page 120] any Prophet or Teacher, but such only as being sent of God, are good and righteous Persons; but the Devil and his Evil Spi­rits only with such, as not being sent of God, are Evil like themselves. 3. Angels or Good Spirits never exert their Power to work these Wonders, but in things se­rious and grave, whereby either the Good of Men or the Honour of God is promoted; but the Devil and his Evil Spirits do it mostly in things mischie­vous both to God's Honour and Man's Good, or else in such trivial and foolish matters, as are beneath God or his holy Angels to be concerned in. And by the same Marks also may we distinguish God's Miracles from the Devils Juggles, and those wonderfull Works which the Hand of the Almighty really effecteth from those false Appearances, which the Devil makes in imitation of them to put a cheat and a delusion upon us. Which Particulars being premised, the Answer to the fore­going Objections will be as followeth.

1. We do acknowledge that abundance of very wonderfull Works may be effected by Powers lower than the divine, and that not only by Good Spirits, but also by Evil.

[Page 121]2. That therefore such Works alone are never sufficient proof of a divine Mis­sion, unless corroborated by such concur­ring circumstances, as prove them not to be from Evil Spirits, but only from Good.

3. That where-ever such wonderfull Works are done at the word of a wicked Man, or to a wicked purpose, (i. e. either to influence to a wicked practice, or to give credit to some false doctrine) or else in such mean and trivial cases as are be­neath the Majesty of God, or his Mini­string Spirits to be concerned in, there we may be sure that he that doth those Works, how much soever he may pretend to a divine Mission, is only a false Pro­phet; and that it is not by the Power of God or his Good Spirits, but only by the Power of the Devil and his Wicked Spirits that they are wrought; and against those Wonders is it, and the Workers of them, that Moses warneth the Jews, and Jesus Christ his Disciples, that they should be aware of them.

4. Where they, who work those Won­ders, are holy and righteous Men, and do not teach any Doctrine contrary to the certain Dictates of Natural Religion, or the Revelations of God afore given unto us, and [Page 122] the Wonders which they work are in such serious and grave Matters, as are not un­worthy of God, or his Ministring Spirits to be concerned in, there we have no rea­son to suspect Satan's Power in the effect­ing of them; and therefore such Works may, although not of themselves alone, yet with these concurring circumstances be sufficient proof of the truth of any Doctrine which they give testimony un­to. For although they cannot be proved to be immediately from God, because pro­duceable by inferiour Beings, yet with these circumstances accompanying them, they must at least appear to be the Works of his Ministring Spirits, who can bear testimony to nothing, but what is from God, whose Will they are in all things subservient unto.

5. As such Works, which the Devil and his Evil Spirits can do, are not of self-sufficient proof to a divine Mission, so neither are such which he can by juggle or delusion imitate, because Men may be deceived by the one as well as the other; and therefore the same con­curring circumstances are necessary to these also, and by the same Marks are they to be tried, whether they be of God, or no.

[Page 213]6. But where the Works are such, as no created Being can either really pro­duce, or by juggle or delusion imitate, there those Works do of themselves alone prove a divine Mission, and give an au­thentick Seal of undeniable Truth to eve­ry Doctrine thus revealed unto us.

7. Although therefore it should be al­lowed, that some of the Miracles, which Christ and his Apostles wrought, might be produceable by Powers lower than the divine; yet since they who did them were most holy and righteous Persons, and did not teach any Doctrine, contrary either to the Dictates of Natural Religion, or the Re­velations of God afore given unto Men; and the Miracles themselves were not in such mean and trivial cases, as are related of Apollonius Tyanoeus, and others like him; with these circumstances they sufficiently appear to be, if not immediately from the hand of God, yet at least from his Mini­string Spirits, and their Works; since all done in subserviency to the divine Will, do as thoroughly prove a divine Mission, where-ever they evidently appear to be theirs, as those of God himself. That Christ and his Apostles were most holy and righteous Persons, and taught no Doctrine, which was in the least contrary [Page 124] to the Dictates of Natural Religion, hath been afore shown; and how far their Mi­racles were from being in mean and trivial matters, the Works themselves make evi­dent: And it is as certain, that no Doctrine of theirs ever contradicted in the least any divine Revelation afore-given unto Men. For Jesus Christ and his Apostles every­where allow both the Law and the Pro­phets to be from God. Had they taught any thing which would have charged a falsehood on either, they must then in­deed have been said to contradict divine Revelations afore-given, and would there­by have fallen under that character and mark of false Prophets, which I have above laid down; but they were so far from this, that the Law and the Prophets were the ground-work, which they founded all their Doctrines upon. For the Law con­tained in Types and Shadows and the Pro­phets in their Prophecies and dark Sayings, what-ever the Gospel hath in substance and reality since clearly delivered unto us, and laid down all that in the first Rudiments, which Christ and his Apostles afterwards built up into perfection in that holy Reli­gion, which they have given unto us. And therefore, although the Gospel hath abolished the Law, it was not by contra­dicting [Page 125] or condemning it, but by per­fecting and fulfilling it in that manner, as all the Prophets fore-showed that it should.

8. But the Miracles of Jesus Christ and his Apostles were most of them undeniably such, as could not be produced but by the immediate hand of God himself, as necessarily requiring the creating Power to effect them; and also of that permanency, as allowed no room for juggle or delusion to take place in them. For what other Power but that of the Almighty could raise a Man, who had been four days dead, again to life? Or what other hand, but that of the Creator himself, could make him see, who had been without the natural organs of Sight from his very birth? Or what but the same Power, which first formed Man of the dust of the Earth, could restore him in so many instances, as our Saviour and his Apostles did, to health and perfection, when the very Parts and Vessels necessary thereto were thorough­ly perished; and in so miraculous a man­ner, with a word of their mouth, bring back total privations again to their for­mer habits? Or what craft of Satan can reach as much as to an imitation of such wonderfull Works as these, which left be­hind [Page 126] them for many years after, effects of lasting permanency in the persons cured, not only to be Monuments of the things done, but also undeniable evidences of the truth and reality of them? It would be too long to go over all the Miracles of this na­ture, which Christ and his holy Apostles did for the confirmation of those holy Truths which they taught. These already men­tioned are sufficient to show, that some of their Miracles at least were such, as are above the Powers of all created Beings either to effect or imitate; and therefore these certainly must be allowed to be from God alone without possibility of Imposture deceit, or delusion in them; and in that they are so, they must necessarily prove the Mission of them, at whose word they were done, to be from him also, and con­sequently become a witness to the truth of every Doctrine delivered by them, as firm, certain, and infallible, as the Ve­racity of God himself, which can never err or deceive for ever. And so much of the fifth Mark of Imposture.

SECT. VI.

VI. No Imposture, when entrusted with many Conspirators, can be long concealed. For what Plot or Conspiracy have we ever known or heard of, which hath been thus managed, and hath not had some false Brother or other to discover it? especi­ally if there be any great Wickedness in­tended by it, or any great Danger attend­ing the execution of it (as mostly is in such designs.) For then if the thing it self doth not work the Conscience into an abhorrence, the fear of the Conse­quence may at least deterr from it; and it seldom fails but one of these two, in all such cases, drives some or other into a discovery; and in this Age of Plots we have instances enough hereof. And what Plot can be more wicked than to impose a false Religion upon Mankind? and what can be more dangerous than to attempt it? What hath been already said, suffici­ently proves both these Particulars; and therefore if the first planting of Christia­nity were such a Plot; certainly one of these two, that is, either the Wickedness, or the Danger, would have wrought some or other into a discovery of it. For they [Page 128] were not a few that were admitted there­into. They were at least 1 Cor. 15.6. five hundred that were in that, which you must call the greatest secret of it; I mean the Re­surrection of our Saviour from the dead: For that is the main Article of our holy Christian Religion; the truth of which proves all the rest, and without which all the rest must have fallen to the ground, and our whole Faith become 1 Cor. 15.17. vain. And therefore had but any one of these five hundred, who are asserted to have been the Witnesses of it, discovered the thing to have been only a Conspiracy of Impo­sture between them, this discovery must have laid open the whole design, and put a total end thereto. And were not the thing certainly true, which they attested, it is scarce to be conceived, but that some or other of them must have done so. A­mong the twelve Apostles, one was found a Traytor to his Master; and how much more then may we expect that there should have been one such among five hundred? and especially in a case where all ought to have been so; that is, to dis­cover a Plot against the Souls of all Man­kind, and deliver the World from being imposed on thereby. Among so many it scarce happens, but some or other prove [Page 129] false to the best Cause; and how hard is it then to conceive, that in such a num­ber none should be found to betray the worst? And can we call it any other than the worst, if it be such an Imposture, as you would have it to be? Were Christia­nity really such, and this Doctrine of the Resurrection of our Saviour totally the Forgery of those who attested it, so many as five hundred could never have all kept the Secret; or if they should out of love to their own invention, or any self-ends which they might have therein, be incli­ned so to do; yet punishment, pain, and torture, use to extort the most hidden de­vices, and make the most obstinate offen­ders, the closest designers, and the most reserved plotters of mischief to come to a Confession. And what punishments, what pains, what tortures did those first Wit­nesses of this main and fundamental Ar­ticle of our Faith go through for the sake of that Testimony which they did bear thereto? and yet did any one of them ever flinch from it? did any one of them ever retract, what he had attested concerning it? Prove but this, and then you will say something to make out the Charge, which you lay against it. But they were so far here-from, that they all persisted in [Page 130] it to the last; and not only so, but were every one of them ready to shed their blood for a witness to the truth of what they asserted, and a great many of them actually did so, and all the terrours, threats, and tortures of the Persecutours were not able to deterr them herefrom. And what greater evidence then can there be given to any truth in the World, which depends upon matter of fact, than that which Christianity hath from the Testimo­ny of those Men, in so great a number and such a manner bearing witness thereto?

SECT. VII.

VII. The last Mark of an Imposture is, That it can never be established without force and violence. For if it hath wicked Men for its Authors, worldly Interest for its End, Falsity and Errour for its Do­ctrines, and receives its Rise from the craft and fraud of its first Promoters, as I have already shown, the search of the in­quisitive will soon find it out, and Man­kind will not long bear the Imposture, un­less they be over-ruled by Violence, and have all Objections against it silenced with the Sword at their Throats. This was the Method which Mahomet took to establish that false Religion, which he in­vented. [Page 131] For he prosecuted with War all that would not submit thereto, and made it no less than Death for any to gain-say it, or as much as raise the least dispute against any of the Doctrines of it. And without his doing this, the reason of all Mankind must have appeared against it, and it could never have stood. And the Romanists have learnt from him to take the same course, as to those Doctrines of Imposture which they have super-added to the Christian Religion. For they declare all those to be Hereticks, and prosecute them with Sword, Fire, and Faggot, that refuse to receive them; and thus by the Power of their Dragoons and their Inquisi­tions they have established, and still keep up those gross errours in their Church, which neither Reason nor Religion can ever support, and the same must be done as to all other falsities imposed on mankind before they can have any firm footing among them. For it is only force and vio­lence, that can cram such things down men's throats, which their reason and their judgment must ever renounce. The unthinking multitude may for a while be carried away by the craft of the Impostor and by the arts of Hypocrisie and Delusion be made easie to swallow any forgery [Page 132] that shall be offered [...]nto them, but when the heat of the firs [...] zeal is over, and the matter comes to be examined into by rea­son, and coolly scanned through by the inquisitive, Imposture cannot stand the Test, but mu [...] soon be laid open, blasted and exploded thereon. And therefore unless it be accompanied with force to suppress this inquiry and hath power on its side to compell Men to acquiesce there­in, how much soever it may delude Men at first, it can never obtain any lasting establishment among them. And this hath been the case of all the Impostors which have ever yet appeared in the World without this power to back them, and how great progress soever any of them may have made in the first heat, they have all at length been detected, and exploded, and sunk to nothing for want of this sup­port on their side to keep them up. For nothing but truth can of it self alone stand the Test of ages upon its own bottom only. Falsehood and errour are too weak for such a Trial, and therefore unless sup­ported by some external strength and fenced thereby against all assaults of op­posers they must necessarily fall to the ground and again come to nothing, and where education or the force of long re­ceived [Page 133] custom is not strong enough for this (and neither can in the first propa­gating of an Imposture) there the sword must come in to over rule all, or nothing of this nature can be established among Men. But Jesus Christ and his Apostles in­stead of making use of any such force to establish the Religion which they taught, had all the force and powers of the World in opposition against it, and yet in spight of the World it at length prevailed over the World by the dint of its own truth only, and after having stood the assault of all manner of persecutions, as well as other oppositions for three hundred years together carried the victory over the fier­cest of its enemies, and made the greatest of them, even the Roman Emperours them­selves to submit thereto, and all this while it had sharpned against it, not only the Sword of the Superiour Powers, but also the tongues of the slanderers, and the wits of all the learned of those times. But how much soever it was oppressed by the first of these, blackned by the second, and sifted and searched into by the last, it stood all these Trials without losing any thing thereby, but at last came out of them all, like Gold out of the Furnace, still of the same weight, fineness, and [Page 134] purity, without receiving from that fire, which consumeth all things else, the least wast or diminution thereof. Had it been false and owed its Original only to Deceit and Imposture, it would have needed all those means of Violence for its establish­ment and support, but since it thus stood not only without them, but also in spight of them; when all armed on the adver­saries side for three Centuries together in bitter opposition against it, what greater argument can we have for the truth there­of? For can you think that Falshood and Imposture could ever have held out with such steady and unshaken constancy for so many years, as Christianity thus did? or that it is possible for any sort of Men so long to have born all this for the sake of a Lye? Falshood can have no founda­tion for such a Constancy, or Imposture any reason to engage Men thereto. The interest of this World is ever the bottom and foun­dation of all such Forgeries; and therefore, as soon as punishments, and persecutions make it to be no Man's interest to be for them, they ever fall of themselves for want of that foundation on which they afore-stood. But Christianity having come into the World contrary to all the inte­rests of it, and in its very infancy thus stood [Page 135] the shock of all the powers thereof engaged in persecution against it, as I have menti­oned; and not only so, but also prospered and became established in the midst of the hottest assaults thereof, this plainly shows that it had another kind of founda­tion on which it was built, a foundation of Truth and Righteousness, and not only so, but a foundation that was laid and fix'd in such a manner by the hand of God himself as never to be shaken. For what truth of it self alone could ever have made its way into the World in such a man­ner as the Christian Religion did, or ever have gained against all the powers thereof such a prevalency over it without some ex­traordinary assistance conducting and hel­ping it therein? The strongest Truths we know are crush'd by such means of vio­lence, as that encountred with, and even first principles themselves have been over­powered by them. And therefore that Christianity should thus enter the World, and thus from its first Entry bear up against such long and terrible Trials of persecution and oppression, as it met with, without the least flinching under them, must be owing to somewhat more than its own bare truth. And what but the hand of God himself backing and strengthening it [Page 136] in the conflict, could be sufficient to give it such a victory therein? For that a few poor Fishermen, the Disciples of a Cruci­fied Master, should without power, learn­ing, or reputation, or any other of the interests, or favours of the world on their side, be able to introduce a new Religion into the World directly opposite to all the interests, pleasures, and prevailing hu­mours of it, as Christianity then was, and that this Religion in spight of all the po­wers, cunning, malice, and learning of the World joyned together in most fierce opposition, and bitter persecution against it for three hundred years together should not only bear up, but also at length pre­vail over the World, and subject the high­est powers therein to the obedience of its Laws is an event so strange and wonder­full, and morally speaking so far above the possibility of all ordinary means to bring it to pass, as plainly manifesteth the extraordinary working of God himself therein. And for my part had Christian Religion no other Miracle to bear witness thereto, this alone would be Miracle enough to me sufficiently to convince me of the truth thereof. At least since it thus entered into the World, and thus became established in it, it must be allow­ed [Page 137] to be so far differing from an Imposture in that method of violence which that needs for its establishment, as to be totally opposite thereto, and in this particular (as I hope I have shown of all the rest) not to have the least mark or character thereof.

And thus far having laid before you all the obvious marks of Imposture, and pro­ved that none of them can belong to Christianity, I hope what hath been said will sufficiently inferr the conclusion, which I have undertaken to make out unto you, That our Holy Christian Reli­gion cannot be such an Imposture, as you would have it to be, but really is that sacred truth of God, which you are all bound to believe.

It is too common with mankind to frame their judgments according to their inclinations, and upon very slight grounds hastily to run away with Idea's of things, when they correspond with the prevail­ing bent of their affections, which, when­ever put into a true light before them, must all appear to be false and wrong taken. And this I reckon to be your case. Your inclinations strongly leading you into Infidelity, you would fain have Christianity be an Imposture, and there­fore have over-easily and hastily been in­duced [Page 138] on very weak grounds to believe it so to be. And that you may be unde­ceived in so dangerous and destructive an errour, I have endeavoured in the easiest and most familiar manner I could think of, to put this business in a true light before you. 1. By letting you see what an Im­posture is in that true picture, which I have drawn of it in the Life of him who was really and truly such an Impostor, as you would have Jesus Christ to be; And, 2. By examining into the Marks and Pro­perties which naturally belong to every such Imposture, and showing of each of them that they cannot belong to that ho­ly Religion which we profess. And I hope, when you have considered all this tho­roughly, you will see how much you have been deceived in those Opinions, which you have so precipitately given up your selves unto.

You cannot but be sensible how great the stress is, which we lay on this matter, and how very ill your case must be, if we are in the right and you in the wrong; and therefore the thing is of sufficient im­portance to deserve your most serious con­sideration, and that in such a manner as to make you lay aside all those ground­less prejudices and wrong byasses which [Page 139] may obstruct an impartial inquiry; and if you will be pleased, for the sake of your own Souls, to do thus much, I am con­tent to leave the success of what I now offer unto you, to God's grace, and your own judgments.

As to the particular reasons which you may alledge for your disbelief of our ho­ly Christian Religion, whether they be Ob­jections drawn against it either from Hi­story, Philosophy, or the inconsistencies which you imagine you find in the Books of holy Writ in which it is delivered down unto us, it is not my purpose now to enter in­to any Disputes with you about them. That which I at present purpose, is not so much to consider those premisses, as the conclusion which you pretend to draw here­from, That Christianity must therefore be an Imposture, and from the nature of such an Imposture, and the nature of our holy Christian Religion laid in a true light, and compared together with each other to evi­dence unto you the inconsistency of this Charge; and if what I have now said can be of any force to let you in to a clear sight of this matter, it will be totally needless for me to meddle any further. For all those Objections, which you pre­tend to have been the particular Reasons [Page 140] of your Infidelity, have been already abun­dantly answered and confuted by others. But the opinion which you have conceit­ed that Christianity is an Imposture, having so far pre-possessed your judgment, as to influence it against all things of this na­ture that can be proposed unto you, it will be in vain to offer any thing farther as to those particulars, till this prejudice be removed; and were it once removed, what hath already been said in answer to them, will be abundantly sufficient to give you full satisfaction. Although this me­thod may seem illogical thus to assault the Conclusion without medling with the Pre­misses from which you pretend to have deduced it; yet it is no other, than what you your selves have necessitated me unto by taking up the Conclusion first, and the Premisses afterward. Had you indeed first began with those Reasons which you of­fer for your Infidelity, and been really by the conviction of them led into this Con­clusion, That Christianity is an Imposture, it would then have been proper and fit­ting that I should have begun there too, and no otherwise have endeavoured to overthrow the Conclusion, but by first over­throwing the Premisses from whence you deduced it. But since it is well known [Page 141] that the Conclusion hath been of greater force with the most of you to make you assent to the Premisses, than the Premisses to prove the Conclusion; and it is only the fond conceit you have taken up in com­pliance with ill-company or worse inclina­tions, that Christianity must be an Impo­sture, that hath made any of those argu­ments seem so conclusive with you, which are brought to prove it; this makes it necessary for me to begin my endeavours for your conviction at that same point, where you first began your Infidelity, and to attack the Conclusion in the first place, before any success can be expected to­wards the setting you right as to any thing else. For as long as you are wil­fully bent out of a meer fondness for In­fidelity to hold Christianity to be an Im­posture, this will make every Argument seem strong to you that is brought to prove it, and every Solution insufficient which is given thereto, and render all means for your Conviction utterly ineffe­ctual unto you. And therefore this being in truth the first Errour which hath influ­enced your Mind to all the rest, this must be first removed; and if what I have said can be of any force in order hereto, by letting you see how much you have been [Page 142] mistaken herein, this I hope will remove that prejudice, which hath hindered you from seeing the strength of those Argu­ments, which have been already offered for your Conviction as to all other parti­culars of that Infidelity which you have given up your selves unto, and make you clearly discern how much you have been mistaken in them also, and thereby be­come the means of delivering your Souls from that terrible danger, which you ex­pose them unto; the accomplishing of which is the whole End, Scope, and De­sign of the Discourse, which I now offer unto you.

But here perchance it may be asked, and I think it reasonable to give you sa­tisfaction herein, Why I have set forth un­to you an Imposture by so foul a picture as that of Mahomet? And to this I have these two Answers to return? 1. Because I have none other to do it by, Mahomet being the only Impostor, who could ever prevail so far, as to establish his Imposture, and make it a standing Religion in the World; and had it not gone so far, it could not have been such an Imposture, as you would have Christianity to be, or at all fit to be compared with it in the Ar­gument now before us. And, 2dly. How [Page 143] foul soever the Picture of Mahomet may be, we have no reason from the nature of the thing ever to imagine that any o­ther Impostor can have a fairer, till you bring us an instance thereof. And these two I hope may be sufficient to clear me from acting any way unfairly in this mat­ter, as if I had made choice of the Life of so wicked a person as Mahomet therein to picture out an Imposture unto you only to make it appear in the foulest dress it is capable of, the better to advantage thereby that Cause which I handle.

But to the first of these Answers, I fore-see this Objection will be made: If Mahomet be the only Impostor that ever established his Imposture in the World, how then hath it come to pass, that there have been so many false Religions among Mankind? To which I reply, Not by Im­posture, such as Mahomet's was, and such as Christianity must be, if it be such an Imposture as your charge against it suppo­seth, but by corruptions insensibly grow­ing on from that Religion, which was first true. The first Religion which God gave unto Man was that Natural Religion, which he imprinted on his very Nature, when he first created him, and as much of that as escaped that ruin, with which [Page 144] the fall overwhelm'd him, was that where­by God was worshipped and served by him afterwards; only with this addition, That whereas Man in his innocency ad­dressed himself to God immediately of him­self alone, and in his own Name, he could never after his fall from it have any more access unto him, but through a Mediator; God's infinite purity and greatness on the one hand, and Man's infinite guilt and vile­ness on the other after that fatal miscariage of our first parents did put them at so vast a distance the one from the other, that in the nature of the thing there could be no other way thenceforth of maintaining any Communion between them; and therefore had not this way been found out again to bring Man to God, he must totally have been estranged from him for ever after. But God of his infinite Mercy having resolved not thus to cast us off, he appointed us a Mediator as soon as we had fallen, and promised to send him in his appointed time to take our Nature upon him, and therein pay down that price of redemption for us; by virtue whereof, his Mediation should always be sufficient to obtain mercy, and par­don, and acceptance for us. And this is that which was meant by God ▪s promising [Page 145] immediately after the Fall, that the seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head; which being farther explained by After-Revelations; the whole Religion of God's people after that was to offer up their Wor­ship unto him through hope in this Me­diator, and all the Idolatry, Polytheism, and other false Worships which after arose in the Heathen World, were all by such corrupt deviations therefrom, as the su­perstitions of Men, the unfaithfull way of transmitting divine Revelations by tra­dition only, and the decay of all divine Knowledge, occasioned thereby, in process of time, introduced among them. For when Mankind began to encrease after the Flood, and they were taught from Noah their Forefather thus to worship God through hope in a Mediator, as the know­ledge of those divine Truths which he delivered to them began to decay, and Superstition to encrease among them they began to determine themselves to such Mediators, as their own imaginations led them to phancy, and some chose Angels and others Men deceased for this office; and in process of time erected Temples and Images unto them, and honoured them with divine Worship in order to render them the more helpfull and beneficent un­to [Page 146] them. The Babylonians or Chaldeans, who were the first formed State after the Flood, looked on Angels to have been the Mediator's God had appointed, through whom they were to come unto him; and for this reason directed their Worship to the Sun, and Moon, and the rest of the Planets, which they fansied to be the Habitations (a)Hence Aristotle seems to have had his Doctrine of the Intelligences moving the Spheres; and Plato that which he taught of the Stars being living Bodies. For it was the Opinion of the Ancient Chaldeans, as it is of the Sabii now, who are descen­ded from them. That there was in each Star an Angel in the same manner as our Souls are in our Bodies, and that the Stars are animated by these An­gels, and hence have all their Motion, and also that influence which they are supposed to have over this World, and for this reason was it that they worshipped them., where those Angels dwelt; and also erected Images un­to them, into which they reckoned their influence and divine power did de­scend, & remain with them, when those Luminaries themselves were set and dis­appeared in their Horizon, so that their notion was to make their addresses thro' the Images to the Planets, and through the Planets to the Angels that dwelt in them, and thro' the Angels to God himself, whom they acknowledged to be the one supreme Being, who was the Creator and Gover­nour of all things. And this was the first Idolatrous Religion, which was established in the World, and long prevailed over a great part of it, and is still preserved in [Page 147] the East among the Sect of the Sabians even to this day. But the Persians not liking the Worship of the Planets by Ima­ges, would endure no other symbol to re­present those glorious Luminaries by, but fire only, of which they reckoned them to be Constituted; and therefore where­ever they prevailed, they destroyed all Images out of the Temples, and placed fire in their stead: And from hence the Magi or the Worshippers of Fire had their Ori­ginal. But from their having one Sym­bol, they speedily came to the asserting but of one Deity represented by it, which they would have to be Light, and that of the mixture of this and Darkness all things in this World were compounded; that Light was the cause or principle of all Good, and Darkness the cause or prin­ciple of all Evil; and therefore under the Symbol of Fire they worshipped Light as their God, but detested Darkness in the same manner as we do the Devil. And from hence Manes the Heretick had his two Principles, which he would have in­troduced into the Christian Religion. But above both these they acknowledged a supreme God, in respect of whom their God Light, was but an inferior Deity, or a God Mediator, by whom they were to [Page 148] have access unto him. And this Religi­on obtained through all Persia, and other Parts on the East of it, and doth there remain even unto this day among the Persees in India, and the Inhabitants of the Province of Kerman, on the Southern Coast of Persia But the Practice of the Babylonians or Chaldeans in worshipping their Gods Mediators by Images obtained in all the Western Parts of the World. For they holding, that they were to have access to God through Angels as their Mediators, and to the Angels through the Planets, and to the Planets through the Images which they erected to them, did give to those Images the names of the Pla [...]ets, and under those names paid di­vine Worship unto them, which Idolatry passing from Babylon or Chaldea into A­rabia, and from thence to the Egyptians and Phoenicians was by them carried in­to Greece, and from thence spread it self into all Parts on this Western-side of the World, as that of the Magi did on the Eastern. For the chief Gods of the Greeks as well as the Names by which they were called, came from the Egyptians and Phoenicians, and were no more than the Images, by which the Babylonians worshipped the Sun, Moon, and other Planet [Page 149] with the Names of those Planets given unto them. Afterward indeed they ad­ded to their number other Deities also, which were originally either some of the fixed Stars, or else the Souls of Men de­parted, as of Bel or Belus among the Ba­bylonians, Abraham and Ismael among the Arabians, Orus and Osiris among the E­gyptians, Aesculapius and Hercules among the Greeks, and Romulus or Quirinus a­mong the Romans. For it early began a Custom among all the Worshippers of Images, as well Greeks as Barbarians to Deify Men departed, reckoning those who lived justly and righteously, or had made themselves eminent by any great and worthy Actions in this life, to have those habitations allotted them in the Heavens above, where they were in a Capacity to be Mediators to God for them; and therefore they offered divine Worship to them as such. And this was it that gave occasion to so many Apotheo­ses's or Deifications among them, and so vastly encreased the number of their Gods in all the Idolatrous Parts of the World, and also the various Methods of Super­stition whereby they paid their Worship unto them. Yet they all still held to their notion of one supreme God, and rec­koned [Page 150] all the others to be no more than God's Mediators under him. And this one God, whom they held to be made of none, and to be the Maker or Father of all things else that are, was among the Chaldeans of old (as still among the Sa­bians, who are the remainder of them) called Deus Deorum, and among the A­rabs, Allah Taal, i. e. the high or supreme God; and agreeable hereto, among the Greeks, was there also their [...]; i. e. One supreme God, who was the Father both of Gods and Men. And thus far in answer to your Question have I given you an account how all the false Religions in the Heathen World had their Original; and herein I have been the longer for the sake of two Reflecti­ons which are obvious for you to make hereon.

1. That the Notion of a Mediator be­tween God and Man was that which did run through all the Religions that ever were in the World, to the Coming of Jesus Christ, and was the Fundamental Principle which prevailed in every one of them as to all the Worship which was practised in them, which could no other­wise become so universal among Man­kind but by a Tradition as universally [Page 151] delivered unto them. And what can bet­ter account both for this Tradition, and also the Ʋniversality of it, than what is delivered unto us in Scripture of our being descended from one common Parent, who on his Fall from the favour of God having had this promise of a Mediator made unto him, through whom we might be again reconciled unto him, transmit­ted it to all his posterity.

2dly. That the mistakes and errours about the Worship of God, and the Ser­vice we owe unto him, which Men are apt to run into, when left to the conduct of their own light only, are monstrous and endless, and therefore evidently de­monstrate the necessity of divine Revela­tions. For if God doth expect from us an account of our Actions, it is necessary he should give us a Law for the rule of them; and if the Law of our Reason alone be in­sufficient for this (as from the continual errours and endless absurdities, which mankind, when left to themselves, have ever hitherto run into, it doth evidently appear that it is:) this demonstrably proves the necessity of another to sup­ply its defect, and that in our case we must have a Revealed Religion as well as a Natural, or else we can have no cer­tain [Page 152] certain Knowledge of the Will of God, or any of those duties of Worship and Ser­vice which we are to perform towards him. And if this proves the Necessity of such a Revealed Religion (as I think it undeniably must to every one that be­lieves God will account with us for what we do;) all that I have farther to offer is, That you would thoroughly examine and consider that holy Christian Religion, which we profess, and compare it with all the other Religions, that are in the World; and if it do not appear vastly above them all, the worthiest of God for him to give unto us, and the worthiest of us to ob­serve, and that not only in respect of the honour given to him, but also of the improvement and perfection brought to our own Nature thereby, I will be con­tent that you shall then persist to believe it an Imposture, and, as such, reject it for ever.