IV.

which they had been bred, and the impressions which had ART. gone deep in them, it could be no slight matter that could overcome all that.

The Jews expected a conqueror for their Messias, who should have raised both the honour of their law and their nation, and so were much possessed against one of a mean appearance; and when they saw that their law was to be superseded, and that the Gentiles were to be brought into equal privileges with themselves, they could not but be deeply prejudiced both against the person and doctrine of Christ.

The Philosophers despised divine inspiration, and secret assistances, and had an ill opinion of miracles: and the herd among the Gentiles were so accustomed to pomp and shew in their religious performances, that they must have nauseated the Christian simplicity, and the corruption of their morals must have made them uneasy at a religion of so much strictness. All sorts of men lay under very strong prejudices against this religion; nor was there any one article or branch of it, that flattered any of the interests, appetites, passions, or vanities of men, but all was very much to the contrary. They were warned to prepare for trials and crosses, and, in particular, for a severe and fiery trial that was speedily to come upon them.

There was nothing of the way or manner of impostors that appeared in the methods in which the Gospel was propagated. When the Apostles saw that some were endeavouring to lessen them and their authority, they took no fawning ways: they neither flattered nor spared those Churches that were under their care: they charged them home with their faults, and asserted their own character in a strain that shewed they were afraid of no discoveries. They appealed to the miracles that they had wrought, and to those gifts and divine virtues of which they were not only possessed themselves, but which were by their ministry. conferred on others. The demonstration of the Spirit, or 1 Cor. ii. 4. inspiration that was in them, appeared in the power, that is, in the miracles which accompanied it, and those they wrought openly in the sight of many witnesses. An uncontested miracle is the fullest evidence that can be given. of a divine commission.

A miracle is a work that exceeds all the known powers of nature, and that carries in it plain characters of a power superior to any human power. We cannot indeed fix the bounds of the powers of nature; but yet we can plainly apprehend what must be beyond them. For instance, we do not know what secret virtues there may be in plants

G

ART. and minerals: but we do know that bare words can have IV. no natural virtue in them to cure diseases, much less to raise the dead: we know not what force imagination or credulity may have in critical diseases; but we know that a dead man has no imagination; we know also, that blindness, deafness, and an inveterate palsy, cannot be cured by conceit: therefore such miracles as the giving sight to a man born blind, speech to the deaf and dumb, and strength to the paralytic; but most of all, the giving life to the dead, and that not only to persons laid out as dead, but to one that was carried out to be buried, and to another that had been four days dead, and in his grave; all this was done with a bare word, without any sort of external application: this, I say, as it is clearly above the force of imagination, so it is beyond the powers of na

ture.

These things were not done in the dark, nor in the presence of a few, in whom a particular confidence was put; but in full day-light, and in the sight of great numbers, enemies as well as friends, and some of those enemies were both the most enraged, and the most capable of making all possible exceptions to what was done. Such were the rulers of the synagogues, and the pharisees in our Saviour's time: and yet they could neither deny the facts, nor pretend that there was any deceit or jugglery in them. We have in this all possible reason to conclude, that both the things were truly done as they are related, and that no just exception was or could be made to them.

If it is pretended, that those wonderful things were done by the power of an evil spirit, that does both acknowledge the truth of the relation, and also its being supernatural. This answer taken from the power of evil spirits, is sometimes to be made use of, when extraordinary things are well attested, and urged in proof of that which upon other reasons we are assured is false. It is certain, that as we have a great power over vast quantities of gross and heavy matter, which by the motion of a very subtile body, our animal spirits, we can master and manage: so angels, good or bad, may, by virtue of subtile bodies, in which they may dwell, or which upon occasion they may assume, do many things vastly above either our force to do, or our imagination to apprehend how it is done by them. Therefore an action, that exceeds all the known powers in nature, may yet be done by an evil spirit that is in rebellion against its Maker, and that designs to impose upon us by such a mighty performance. But then the measure, by which we must judge of this, is by consider

IV.

ing what is the end or design driven at in such a wonder- ART. ful work: if it is a good one, if it tends to reform the manners of men, and to bring them off from magic, idolatry, and superstition, to the worship of one pure and eternal Mind: and if it tends to reform their actions, as well as their speculations and their worship; to turn them from immorality, falsehood, and malice, to a pure, a sincere, and a mild temper; if it tends to regulate society, as well as to perfect the nature and faculties of every single man ; then we may well conclude, that no evil spirit can so far depart from its own nature, as to join its forces, and cooperate in such a design: for then the kingdom of Satan could Matt. xii. not stand, if he were thus divided against himself; according 25, 26. to what our Saviour said, when this was objected against the miracles that he wrought.

These are all the general considerations that concur to prove the truth of the history of the Gospel, of which the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are the two main articles; for they being well proved, give authority to all the rest. As to the Resurrection in particular, it is certain the Apostles could not be deceived in that matter: they saw Christ frequently after he rose from the dead; they met him once with a great company of five hundred with them they heard him talk and argue with them; he opened the Scriptures to them with so peculiar an energy, that they felt their hearts set on fire, even when they did not yet perceive that it was he himself: they did not at first either look for his resurrection, nor believe those who reported him risen: they made all due inquiry, and some of them went beyond all reasonable bounds in their doubting: so far were they from an easy and soon-imposedon credulity. His sufferings and their own fears had so amazed them, that they were contriving how to separate and disperse themselves, when he at first appeared to them. Men so full of fear, and so far from all hope, are not apt to be easy in believing. So it must be concluded, that either the account which the Apostles gave the world of Christ's resurrection is true, or they were gross impostors; since it is clear, that the circumstances and numbers mentioned in that history shew there could be no deception in it. And it is as little possible to conceive, that there could be any imposture in it: for not to repeat again, what has been already said, that they were under no temptations to set about any such deceit, but very much to the contrary; and that there is no reason to think they were either bad enough to enter upon such a design, or capable and skilful enough to manage it; they being many of them illiterate

IV.

ART. fishermen of Galilee, who had no acquaintance at Jerusalem, to furnish them with that which might be necessary for executing such a contrivance: the circumstances of that transaction are to be well examined, and then it will appear, that no number of bold and dexterous men, furnished with all advantages whatsoever, could have effected this matter.

Great numbers had been engaged in the procuring our Saviour to be crucified: the whole Sanhedrim, besides multitudes of the people, who upon all occasions are easily drawn in to engage in tumultuary commotions: all these were concerned to examine the event of this matter. He was buried in a new sepulchre lately hewed out of a rock, so that there was no coming at it by any secret ways: a watch was set; and all this at a time, in which the fullmoon gave a great light all the night long: and Jerusalem being very full of people, who were then there in great numbers to keep the Passover, that being the second night of so vast a rendezvous, it is reasonable to think, that great numbers were walking in the fields, or at least might be so, some later, and some earlier. Now if an imposture was to be set about, the guard was to be frighted or mastered, which could not be done without giving the alarm, and that must have quickly brought a multitude upon them. Christ's body must have been disposed of: some other tomb was to be looked for to lodge it in: the wounds that were in it would have made it to be soon known if found.

Here a bold attempt was to be undertaken, by a company of poor irresolute men, who must trust one another entirely, otherways they knew all might be soon discovered. One of their number had betrayed Christ a few days before; another had forsworn him, and all had forsaken him and yet these men are supposed all of the sudden so firm in themselves, and so sure of one another, as to venture on the most daring thing that was ever undertaken by men, when not a circumstance could ever be found out to fix upon them the least suspicion. The Priests and the Pharisees must be thought a strange stupid sort of creatures, if they did not examine where the Apostles were all that night: besides many other particulars, which might have been a thread to lead them into strict inquiries, unless it was because they believed the report that the watch had brought them of Christ's rising again. When they had this certain reason to believe it, and yet resolved to oppose it, the only thing they could do, was to seem to neglect the matter, and only to decry it in general

as an imposture, without going into particulars; which ART. certainly they would not have done, if they themselves had IV. not been but too sure of the truth of it.

When all this is laid together, it is the most unreasonable thing imaginable, to think that there was an imposture in this matter, when no colour nor shadow of it ever appeared, and when all the circumstances, and not only probabilities, but even moral possibilities, are so full to the contrary.

The Ascension of Christ has not indeed so full a proof: nor is it capable of it, neither does it need it; for the resurrection well proved, makes that very credible. For this we have only the testimony of the Apostles, who did all attest that they saw it, being all together in an open field: when Christ was walking and discoursing with them, and when he was blessing them, he was parted from them they saw him ascend, till a cloud received him, and took him out of their sight. And then two angels appeared to them, and assured them, that he should come Acts i. 11. again in like manner as they had seen him ascend. Here is a very particular relation, with many circumstances in it, in which it was not possible for the Apostles to be mistaken; so that there being no reason to suspect their credit, this rests upon that authority. But ten days after, it received a much clearer proof; when the Holy Ghost was poured out on them in so visible a manner, and with most remarkable effects. Immediately upon it they spoke with divers tongues, and wrought many miracles, and all in the name of Christ. They did often and solemnly disclaim their doing any of those wonderful things by any power Acts iii. 12, of their own: they owned that all they had or did was 16. derived to them from Jesus of Nazareth, of whose resurrection and ascension they were appointed to be the wit

nesses.

Christ's coming again to judge the world at the last day is so often affirmed by himself in the Gospel, and is so frequently mentioned in the writings of his Apostles, that this is a main part of his doctrine: so that his Resurrection, Ascension, together with the effusion of the Holy Ghost, having in general proved his mission, and his whole doctrine, this is also proved by them. Enough seems to be said in proof of all the parts of this article; it remains only that somewhat should be added in explanation of them.

As to the Resurrection, it is to little purpose to inquire, whether our Saviour's body was kept all the while in a complete organization, that so by this miracle it might be