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Jay in behalf of his common Swearing, it being his ufage to fwear by Jupiter, at all turns? Or how can you excufe him from Idolatry in Sacrificing to the Sun? And where was his Juftice in adjudging another Man's Poffeffion to his Adverfary, because he was a wifer Man, and a more devout Worshiper of the Gods? Phil. lib. 2. cap 15.

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As for the Argument of Hicrocles, who afferts, That Apostles the Gospel is lefs to be believed than this Hiftory, because this more crediwas wrote by learned Men, but that by illiterate Men and PhiloftraFuglers. I fay, that it is only a malicious Cavil, for we tus, because defy the whole Tribe of Infidels to find any Juggle in Unlearned. the Gefpel Hiftory; a Book, which is full of plain unaffected Relations of Matter of Fact. But any body, but who can digeft Sir John Mandevil's Travels, or Orlando Furiofo, will be fick of Philoftratus. And I must farther add, that this Moralift is very much out in his Logick to fay, That an Hiftory is at all the more questiona ble, because it was wrote by a plain illiterate Man. if it had been wrote by a Man of Letters, by a cumming Sophift, who had been used to counterfeit Stiles, to feign Letters and Speeches, and to make Epopopæia's; a Man might be apt to fufpect that all was forged by the Wit of this Scholar, who could make all the Parts of a Romance hang together, and look like a true Hiftory; but no reasonable Man can fufpect fuch a Fraud to be plaid fuccefsfully, by uneducated Publicans or Fishermen. And Laftly, as for the Story of Abaris which you story of A- • mention, it is one of the Pythagorick Tegalo? cylar, or wonderful Tales, which that Sect, as we obferved before, above all others, were fond of; and is altogether as ridiculous as our common People's Talk of Witches riding upon Broomfticks.

When Celfus compares Abaris with Chrift, Origen asks the queftion, What was Mankind benefited by Abaris's riding upon an Arrow? It was not worth the while, that Om nipotence fhould exert it felf, for fuch an idle Miracle. But when (fays he) we fay our Jefus was taken up into Glory, I fee an Institution of Religion, the Author of which God AlG g2

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mighty by his Miracles does recommend; that Men contending for this, not as for human Difciplines, but as for a Divine Doctrine, they may dedicate themselves to God over all, and do all things to please him.

Phil. Having now done with the Life and Actions of Chrift, I beg leave to speak a Word or two of his Apoftles. For my part, I am not fatisfied of the Sincerity of their proceedings, and I'm apt to fufpect, that they put a Trick upon the World in coining a number of ftrange Stories to amufe Mankind, the better to make the Doctrine they preached to be believed. There is a great Itch in Mankind after Applause and Admiration; and I doubt not, but that thefe Men were fet mightily agog to be Ringleaders of a new Sect; and when they found the People fo very forward to believe what they faid, they would be fure not to be wanting in Variety of ftrange Tales to impofe upon their Credulity. And this I take to be a fair Account of many of those repeated Miracles, which they vouched, to fupport the Doctrine of their Mafter.

The AtoCred. You call in question the Truth of Matters of files not Fact, which paffed above 1600 Years ago, which to be Counter- fure were examined when they were firft reported; feits. which were acquiefced in by unprejudic'd Men; and the Belief of which great Part of the World have ftood in Poffeffion of, ever fince. It is ufually a difficult thing, to prove Matters of Fact of fo long ftanding; and 'tis hardly ingenuous to defire the Proof of what was well look'd into at firft, and has fo long a time been unquestioned. Suppose your Great-Grandfather had loft an Estate by a Suit of Law in Queen Elizabeth's Time, thro' the pofitive unexceptionable Evidence of his Adverfary's Witnesses, and that none of your Family had ever queftioned the Poffeffor's Title fince; Do you think it fair for you, now to arraign the Integrity of thofe Witneffes, which your Predeceffors, at that Time, were better able, and altogether as willing to do, if they had any Pretence for

* Celfus apud Origen. lib. 1. Judeus apud Limborch in difput.cum Erud. Jud. p. 133. Blount's Notes on Philoft. p. 28.

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it? If the Apoftles had been fuch Cheats as you imagine, how come People, fo long after, to discover the Impofture, which the fews and Heathens, who lived at the fame Time with them, were not able to do? If this were fo, how comes it to pafs, that they, who had fuch advantageous Opportunities to examine into the Matters of Fact, do believe fuch lying Stories; and that fuch a late Progeny of Mankind should be fo lucky, to find out the Cheat? But because the incredulous may receive all poffible Satisfaction, which the moft obftinate and unreafonable of them may require; let us confider, what Satis faction a Man can poffibly require, of the Certainty of Matters of Fact done fo long ago, in Relation to the Reporters of them. I know the ufual Way is, to have recourfe to unexceptionable Hiftory of the Time, when they were faid to be done; but becaufe I fhall have occafion to prove the Authority of the Holy Scriptures hereafter; I shall wave that now, and only fpeak of the first great Witneffes of the Chriftian Religion, and the Credibility of what they attested.

If a Man was to lay his thoughts together, and penfively to confider, what he would defire in order to his Satisfaction, That the Witneffes of Matters of Fact fo long ago fpoke true; he could not defire more than this: That the Men, who reported thofe Things, were fuch good honeft Men, that they would not tell a folemn Lie; that they were Men of Understanding enough, to know the full Truth of the Things they related; that they had not Learning or Cunning enough to frame an intricate Impofture; that they were of fuch a Number, that they could not all be deceived, and their Agreement in their Reports fuch, that they could not be Deceivers; that they fhould receive no Advantage by their Relation; that the Time and Place, where they faid this was done, were eafily to be examined into; And lastly, That they did conftantly perfift in what they faid, fo as to be willing to fuffer, or die, for the Truth of it. A Man would be very unreasonable to require half thefe Qualifications, for every Teftimony he affents to; but where

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they are all found, a Man must be a Sceptick, who does not give his affent to a Matter, fo attefted. Now the Apofiles have all thefe Qualifications in the Teftimony they give of our Saviour's Doctrine and Miracles.

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1. They appear to be honest and good Men. Good Men. main Defign was, To perfuade Men to lead good and boly Lives; To teach them to leave off Idolatry and Polytheifm and to ferve the One and True God; not to place their Helinefs in ceremonious Actions, but in Acts of Piety and Charity. And, in the whole Course of their Lives, they were never taxed with any remarkable Wickedness; but contrariwife, they were noted for being eminently Exemplary for Devotion, Mortification, and Self-Denial. Now why fhould not the Teftimony of fuch Men be believed? What though the Matter they relate be very ftrange and unufual, as that our Saviour did fuch wondrous Miracles in Confirmation of his Doctrines, and rofe again from the Dead? Yet it is more incredible, that fo many honeft and good Men fhould, on a fudden, abandon all Shame and Honefty, and turn Liars and Cheats.

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2. The Apostles were very good Judges of the Matters they knew they reported, and were fure they understood them so well, the matters that they could not be deceived in them. If they had rethey rela- lated Things which they did not understand, their Teftimony was not to be valued. Indeed, if fome ordinary Mechanicks were to make Report of the Obfervations of a Learned Mathematician, they might, by Mistake, represent an Aftronomer for a Conjurer; because Mathematicks was a Thing as much above their Understanding as Necromancy. But fuch Mechanicks were as good Judges of what they heard, or felt, or faw, as the best Philofopher in the World. They faw dead Men raised to Life, blind Men have their Eyes, and lame Men have their Limbs reftored them; they, feveral times, faw and handled Chrift after his Refurrection, and viewed him when he was caught up into Heaven. These were Matters of Fact, which required no great Capacities to be Judges of the Truth of; and if Men had but their Senfes and common Understandings, it was enough,

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3, Neither had the Apostles Learning and Cunning enough, Because not to carry on fuch an intricate Impofture of so many Parts, as nough to this must confift of. It required a greater Compafs of Un- carry on derftanding to frame fuch an excellent Syftem of Mora- fuch a lity, to give fuch an extraordinary Account of the Satis- Cheat. faction for the Sin, and of the Nature and Office of a Mediator; to feign the Life and Actions of a Meffias, which fhould fo exactly correfpond with the old Prophecies, and the Types, and Prefigurations of the Mofaical Law; to fuit fuch Rewards and Punishments in another Life, which fhould be fo agreeable to Reafon, and fo worthy of God. Such poor illiterate Men, were no more able to contrive fuch a wife and noble Inftitution, than they were to frame a World. The Actions of our Saviour are so various, and fo depending one upon another; there is fuch a Correfpondence between his Prophetick, Prieftly and Kingly Office, that it is not in the Power of the Wit and Learning of Man, to draw up fuch a rational Scheme of a Mediatorship; much lefs could it be done by thofe unlettered Men, who first preached and attefted these things.

4. There might be fome Exception against the Teftimony of Beecause the Apoftles, if there had been but one or two Wineffes of fed the all Winef what they declar'd. Suppofe a cunning Man might de-fame. ceive one or two fimple ones, or their own Fancy might impofe upon them; and that the fame might polibly lay their Heads together to atteft a Falfity, and make the Parts of it hang pretty well together, Yet this is impoffible to be fuppofed in fuch a Number, as attefted the Miracles and Doctrine of Chrift. He had Twelve chofen Difciples, who preached the Gospel throughout all the World, in the fame uniform Way; fo that all thefe could never have agreed upon a Cheat, and have carried it on after the fame Manner. 'Tis hard to get fo many into fuch an ill Defign; but 'tis yet harder to fuppofe, that none of them all fhould vary in the Relation of the Falfity. Some of them would certainly have been found clashing in their telling fuch a long tham Story, which the cunningeft Man could hardly have told twice the fame way. But these

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