or down to any Man in the World. And therefore it is worth no Man's while to enquire into it, either to Oppose or fuftify the Truth of thefe Relations. BUT our very Souls and Bodies, both this Life and Eternity, are concern'd in the Truth of what' is related in the Holy Scriptures; and therefore Men wou'd be more inquifitive to fearch into the Truth of thefe, than of any other Matters of Fact; Examine and fift them narrowly; and find out the Deceit, if any fuch cou'd be found: For it concern'd them Nearly, and was of the last Importance to them. How unreasonable then is it to reject these Matters of Fact fo fifted, fo examin'd, and fo attefted as no other Matters of Fact in the World ever were; and yet to think it the moft highly Unreasonable, even to Madness, to deny other Matters of Fact, which have not the thoufandth part of their Evidence, and are of no Confequence at all to Us, whether True or Falfe! VII. THERE are feveral other Topics, from whence the Truth of the Chriftian Religion is evinced to all who judge by Reason, and give themselves leave to confider. As the Improbability that Ten or Twelve poor illiterate Fisher-men fhould form a Defign of converting the whole World to believe their Delufions; and the Impoffibility of their effecting it, without Force of Arms, Learning, Oratory, or any one vifible thing that could recommend them! And to impofe a Doctrine quite oppofite to the Lufts and Pleafures of Men, and all worldly Advantages, or Enjoyments! And this in an Age of fo great Learning and Sagacity, as that wherein the Gospel was firft preach'd! That thefe Apoftles fhould not only undergo all the Scorn and Contempt, but the fevereft Perfecutions, and moft cruel Deaths that could Le inflicted, in Atteftation to what themselves knew [25] knew to be a meer Deceit and Forgery of their own contriving! Some have fuffer'd for Errors which they thought to be Truth; but never any for what themselves knew to be Lies. And the Apoftles muft know what they taught to be Lyes, if it was fo, because they spoke of thofe things which they said, they had both feen and beard, had look'd upon, and handled with their Hands, &c. As iv. 20. I fob. I. i. . Neither can it be faid, that they, perhaps, might have propos'd fome temporal Advantages to themfelves, but mifs'd of them, and met with Sufferings inftead of them: For, if it had been fo, it is more than probable, that when they faw their Difappointment, they would have difcover'd their Confpiracy; efpecially when they might not have. only fav'd their Lives, but got great Rewards for doing of it; that not one of them fhould ever have been brought to do this! BUT this is not all: for they tell us, that their Mafter bid them expect nothing but Sufferings in this World. This is the Tenure of all that Gospel which they taught. And they told the fame to all whom they Converted. So that here was no Difappointment. FOR, all that were Converted by them, were Converted upon the certain Expectation of Sufferings, and bidden prepare for it. Chrift commanded his Difciples to take up their Crofs daily and follow him, and told them, that in the World they should have Tribulation: That whoever did not forfake Father, Mother, Wife, Children, Lands, and their very Lives, could not be his Difciples: That he, who fought to fave his Life in this World, fhould lose it in the next. Now, That this defpifed Doctrine of the Cross fhould prevail fo Univerfally against the Allurements of Flesh and Blood, and all the Blandihments of this World; against the Rage and Perfecution of all all the Kings and Powers of the Earth, muft fhew its Original to be Divine, and its Protector Almighty. What is it elfe, could Conquer without Arms, Perfuade without Rhetorick; overcome Enemies; difarm Tyrants, and fubdue Empires without Oppofition! VIII. WE may add to all this, the Teftimonies of the moft bitter Enemies and Perfecutors of Chriftianity, both Jews and Gentiles, to the Truth of the Matter of Fact of Chrift, fuch as Jofephus and Tacitus; of Which the Firft flourish'd about Forty Years after the Death of Chrift, and the Other about Seventy Years after: So that they were capable of examining into the Truth, and wanted not Prejudice and Malice fufficient to have inclin'd them to deny the Matter of Fact itself of Chrift: But their Confeffing to it, as likewife Lucian, Celfus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apoftate; the Mahometans fince, and all other Enemies of Chriftianity that have arisen in the World, is an undeniable Atteftation to the Truth of the Matter of Fact. IX. BUT there is another Argument more ftrong and convincing than even this Matter of Fact, more than the Certainty of what I fee with my Eyes: and which the Apoftle Peter call'd a more fure Word, that is, Proof, than what he faw and beard upon the Holy Mount, when our Bleffed Saviour was Transfigured before him and two other of the Apoftles: For, having repeated that Paffage as a Proof of that whereof they were Eye Witnefes, and heard the Voice from Heaven giving Atteftation to our Lord Chrift, 2 Pet. i. 16, 17, 18. He fays, ver. 19. We have alfo a more fure Word of Prophecy for the Proof of this Jefus being the Meffiab, that is, the Prophecies which had gone before of Him, from the Beginning of the World; and All exactly fulfilled in Him. MEN, MEN may difpute an Impofition or Delufion upon our outward Senfes, but how that can be Falfe that has been fo long, even from the Beginning of the World, and fo often by all the Prophets, in feveral Ages foretold; how can this be an Impofition, or a Forgery? THIS is particularly infifted on in the Method with the fews: And even the Deifts must confefs, that that Book we call the Old-Teftament, was in the Hands of the Jews long before our Saviour came into the World. And if they will be at the Pains to compare the Prophefies that are there of the Meiab, with the Fulfilling of them, as to Time, Place, and all other Circumftances, in the Perfon, Birth, Life, Death, Refurrection, and Afcenfion of our Bleffed Saviour, will find this Proof what our Apoftle here calls it, a Light fhining in a dark place, until the Day dawn, and the Day-ftar arife in your Hearts. Which God grant. Here is no poffibility of Deceit or Impofture. OLD Prophefies, (and all fo agreeing) cou'd not have been contrived to countenance a new Cheat: And nothing cou'd be a Cheat, that cou'd fulfil all these. FOR this therefore I refer the Deifts to the Method with the Jews. I defire them likewife to look there, Sec. XI. and confider the Prophefies given fo long ago,of which they fee the Fulfilling at this Day, with their own Eyes, of the State of the Jews, for many Ages paft, and at prefent, without a King, or Prieft, or Temple,or Sacrifice, fcattered to the four Winds, Sifted as with a Sieve, among all Nations; yet preferved, and always fo to be, a diftinct People from all others of the whole Earth. Whereas thofe Mighty Monarchies which Oppreffed the Jews, and which Commanded the World, in their turns; and had the greateft Humane Profpect of Perpetuity, were to be extinguifh'd, as they have been, even that their Names fhould be blotted out from under Heaven. As likewife, That as Remarkable of our Eleffed Saviour, concerning the Prefervation and Progrefs of the the Chriftian Church, when in her Swadling Cloaths, confifting only of a few poor Fisher: Men. Not by the Sword, as that of Mahomet, but under all the Perfecution of Men and Hell, which yet fhould not prevail against Her. BUT though I offer thefe, as not to be flighted by the Deifts, to which they can fhew nothing equal in all prophane Hiftory, and in which it is imposible any Cheat can lie, yet I put them not upon the fame Foot as the Prophefies before-mention'd of the Marks and Coming of the Meffiab, which have been fince the World began. AND that General Expectation of the whole Earth, at the Time of His Coming, infifted up. on in the Method with the Jews, Sect. V. is Greatly to be Notic'd. BUT, I fay, the foregoing Prophefies of our Saviour, are fo ftrong a Proof, as even Miracles wou'd not be fufficient to break their Authority. I mean, if it were poffible that a True Miracle could be wrought, in contradiction to them. For that would be for God to contradict Himself. BUT no Sign or Wonder, that could poffibly be folv'd, fhould shake this Evidence. Ir is this that keeps the Jews in their Obftinacy. Tho' they cannot deny the Matters of Fact done by our Bleffed Saviour, to be truly Miracles, if fo done as faid. Nor can they deny that they were fo done, because they have all the Four Marks beforementioned. Yet they cannot yield! Why? Be caufe they think that the Gospel is in contradiction to the Law, Which, if it were, the Confequence would be unavoidable, that Both cou'd not be True. To folve this, is the Bufinefs of the Method with the Jews. But the Contradiction, which they fuppofe, is in their Comments that they put upon the Law; efpecially they expect a Literal Fulfilling of thofe Promifes of the Reftauration of Ferufalem, and outward Glories of the Church, of which |