Defigning Men, upon the Credulity, at firft, of fimple and unthinking People, till, their Numbers encreafing their Delufions grew popular, came, at laft,to be eftablifh'd by Laws; and then the Force of Education and Cuffom gives a Byafs to the Judgments of after Ages, till fuch Deceits come really to be believ'd, being receiv'd upon Truft from the Ages foregoing, without examining into the Original and Bottom of them. Which thefe our modern Men of Senfe, (as they defire to be efteem'd) fay, That they only do, that they only have their Judgments freed from the flavish Authority of Precedents and Laws, in Matters of Truth, which, they fay, ought only to be decided by Reafon; tho' by a prudent Compliance with Popularity and Laws, they preferve themfelves from Outrage, and Legal Penalties; for none of their Complexion are addicted to Sufferings or Marty, dom.

Now, Sir, that which you defire from me, is, fome fhort Topic of Reafon, if fuch can be found, whereby, without running to Authorities, and the intricate Mazes of Learning, which breed long Difputes, and which thefe Men of Reafon deny by wholefale, tho' they can give no Reafon for it, only fuppofe that Authors have been Trump'd upon us, Interpolated, and Corrupted, fo that no ftrefs can be laid upon them, tho' it cannot be fhewn wherein they are fo Corrupted; which, in Reafon ought to lie upon them to prove, who alledge it; otherwise it is not only a Precarious, but a Guilty Plea: And the more, that they refrain not to quote Books on their fide, for whofe Authority there are no better, or not fo good Grounds. However, you fay, it makes your Difputes endlefs, and they go away with Noife and Clamour, and a Boaft, That there is nothing, at leaft nothing Certain, to be faid on the Chriftian fide. Therefore you are defirous to find fome One Topick of Reafon, which fhould demonftrate the Truth of the Chriftian Religion, and at the fame Time diftinguish

ftinguish it from the Impoftures of Mahomet, and the Old Pagan World: That our Deifts may be brought to this Teft, and be either oblig'd to renounce their Reafon, and the common Reafon of Mankind, or to fubmit to the clear Proof, from Reafon, of the Chriftian Religion, which must be fuch a Proof, as no Impofture can pretend to, otherwife it cannot prove the Chriftian Religion not to be an Impofture. And, whether fuch a Proof, one fingle Proof (to avoid Confufion) is not to be found out, you defire to know from me.

And you fay, that you cannot imagine_but there must be fuch a Proof, becaufe every Truth is in itself Clear, and One; and therefore that One Reafon for it, if it be the true Reafon, muft be fufficient; and, if fufficient, it is better than many z for multiplicity confounds, especially to weak Judg

ments.

Sir, you have impos'd an hard Task upon me,' I wish I could perform it: For tho' every Truth is One, yet our Sight is fo feeble, that we cannot (always) come to it directly, but by many Inferences, and laying of Things together.

But I think, that in the Cafe before us, there is fuch a Proof as you require, and I will fet it down as Short and Plain as I can.

II. Firft then, I fuppofe, that the Truth of the Doctrine of CHRIST will be fufficiently evinced, if the Matters of Fact, which are recorded of him in the Gofpels be True; for his Miracles, if True, do vouch the Truth of what he delivered.

The fame is to be faid as to Mofes. If he brought the Children of Ifrael thro' the Red-Sea,in that miraculous manner, which is related in Exodus, and did fuch other wonderful Things as are there told of him, it muft neceffarily follow, that he was fent from GOD: These being the ftrongeft Proofs we can defire, and which every Deift will confefs he wou'd acquiefce

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acquiefce in, if he faw them with his Eyes. Therefore the ftrefs of this Caufe will depend upon the Proof of these Matters of Fa&t.

1. And the Method I will take, is, Firft, To lay. down fuch Rules, as to the Truth of Matters of Fact, in General, that where they All meet, fuch Matters of Fat cannot be falfe. And then, Secondly, To fhew that all thefe Rules do meet in the Matters of Fact, of Mofes and of Chrift; and that they do not meet in the Matters of Fact of Mahomet, of the Heathen Deities, or can poffibly meet in any Impofture whatsoever.

2. The Rules are these,

1. That the Matter of Fact be fuch, as that Mens outward Senfes, their Eyes and Ears may be Judges of it.

2. That it be done Publickly, in the Face of the World.

3. That not only publick Monuments be kept up in Memory of it, but fome outward Actions to be perforin'd.

4. That fuch Monuments and fuch Actions or Obfervances be Inftituted, and do commence from the Time that the Matter of Fact was done.

3. The Two firft Rules make it impoffible for any fuch Matter of Fact to be impos'd upon Men, at the Time when fuch Matter of Fact was faid.to be done, because every Man's Eyes and Senfes wou'd contradict it. For Example; fuppofe any Man fhou'd pretend, that Yefterday he divided the Thames, in Prefence of all the People of London, and carried the whole City, Men, Women, and Children, over to Southwark on dry Land, the Waters Standing like Walls on both fides: I fay, it is morally

rally impoffible that he could perfwade the Peo ple of London, that this was true, when every Man, Woman, and Child, could contradict him, and fay, That this was a notorious Falfhood, for that they had not feen the Thames fo divided, or had gone over on dry Land. Therefore I take it for granted, (and I fuppofe, with the allowance of all the Deifts in the World) that no fuch Impofition could be put upon Men, at the Time when fuch publick Matter of

Fact was faid to be done.

4. THEREFORE it only remains, that fuch Matter of Fact might be invented fome time after, when the Men of that Generation, wherein the Thing was faid to be done, are all paft and gone; and the Credulity of after Ages might be impos'd upon, to believe that Things were done in former Ages, which

were not.

AND for this the Two laft Rules fecure us as much as the Two firft Rules, in the former Cafe; for whenever fuch a Matter of Fact came to be invented, if not only Monuments were faid to remain of it, but likewife that publick Actions and Obfervances were conftantly us'd ever fince the Matter of Fact was faid to be done; the Deceit must be detected, by no fuch Monuments appearing, and by the Experience of every Man, Woman, and Child, who muft know that no fuch Actions or Obfervances were ever us'd by them. For Example; Suppose I fhould now invent a Story of fuch a Thing, done a Thousand Years ago, I might perhaps, get fome to believe it, but if I fay, that not only fuch a Thing was done, but that from that Day to this, every Man, at the Age of Twelve Years, had a Joint of his little Finger cut off; and that every Man in the Nation did want a Foint of fuch a Finger; and that this Inftitution was faid to be part of the Matter of Fact done fo many Years ago, and vouch'd as a Proof and Confirmation of it, and as having defcended without Interruption, and been conftantly practis❜d,

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practis'd, in Memory of fuch Matter of Fact, all along, from the Time that fuch Matter of Fact was done: I fay, it is impoffible I fhould be believ'd in fuch a Cafe, becaufe every one could contradict me, as to the Mark of cutting off a Joint of the Finger; and that being part of my original Matter of Fact, muft demonftrate the whole to be falfe.

III. LET us now come to the Second Point, to fhew, that the Matters of Fact of Mofes, and of Chrift,have all thefe Rules or Marks before-mention'd; and that neither the Matters of Fact of Mahomet, or what is reported of the Heathen Deities, have the like; and that no Impoftor can have them all.

1. As to Mofes, I fuppofe it will be allow'd me, That he could not have perfuaded 6c0000 Men, that he had brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, fed them 40 Years without Bread, by miraculous Manna, and the other Matters of Fact recorded in his Books, if they had not been true. Becaufe every Man's Senfes that were then alive, muft have contradicted it. And therefore he muft have impos'd upon, all their Senfes, if he could have made them believe it, when it was falfe, and no fuch Things done. So that here are the First and Second of the above-mentioned Four Marks.

For the fame Reafon it was equally impoffible for him to have made them receive his Five Books as Truth, and not to have rejected them, as a manifeft Imposture; which told of all thefe Things as done before their Eyes, if they had not been fo donc. See how pofitively he speaks to them, Deut. Xi. 2. to Ver. 8. And know you this Day, for I fpeak not with your Children which have not known, and which have not feen the Chaftifement of the Lord your God, his Greatness, his mighty Hand, and his fretched-out Arm, and his Miracles, and his A&ts, which he did in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the King of Egypt, and unto all his Land, and what he did unto

the