which defcends to us from former Ages, we fee with other Mens Eyes, and hear with other Mens Ears; and though the Teftimony of others may often fail us, and is fubject to a double Inconveniency, through the Incapacity and Unfaithfulness of Witnesses, yet, as in the former cafe, fo here, when all Circumftances are weigh'd and confider'd, and after the utmost Trial, no Reafon can be found to with-hold our Affent, but all things stand undifproved, and no juft Scruple appears, but only a bare Poffibility of being deceiv'd; and this arifing, not from any Defect, but that of humane Nature it felf, here God's Goodness and his Truth muft needs interpofe, to take away that only Impediment, which otherwife muft unavoidably hinder any thing from ever being known to be infallible.

The only Certainty which we can have, that our Senfes are true, is this, That God will not fuffer them to be deceived, where the Difpofition of the Medium, and Distance of the Object, and all other Circumftances are rightly qualified: because that would be inconfiftent with his Attributes of Juftice, Goodness and Truth, but it would be inconfiftent with these Attributes, not upon the account of our Bodies; for they would be provided for as well, though our Senfes were deluded; we should fee, and hear, and taite, juft as we do now, though we were never so much deceived in thefe Senfations: therefore the Truth, and Goodness, and Justice of God, are engag'd not to fuffer us to be deceiv'd, in respect to our Souls, not in regard to our Bodies and if we have no Certainty that our Senfes do not deceive us, but because God would not fuffer fuch a Cheat to be put upon us, as we are intelligent and rational Beings; we have the fame and much greater Reafon to conclude, that he would not fuffer us to lie under fuch a Delufion in reference to our eternal Intereft. If God would not fuffer our Minds unavoidably to lie under a temporal Delufion

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Delufion of no great Confequence, have we not much more Reason to conclude, that he would not fuffer us unavoidably to be deceiv'd by any means whatsoever, in reference to our eternal Intereft? For in this cafe, to be deceiv'd is to be destroy'd, and to fuffer it is a thousand times worse, than if he should fuffer all Mankind at once not only to be deceiv'd by their Senfes, but to be poifon'd by that Deceit : And therefore the special Providence and particular Care of God must be concern'd to prevent it. If we have nothing to object but the Imperfection of humane Nature, we may rely upon God that this fhall never mislead us, in a matter of fuch Confequence, whether the Imperfection be in our own Senfes, or in the Testimony of others. In short, the Miracles related in the Scriptures will as effectually prove a Divine Revelation to us, as they could to those that saw them; but the Difference is, that they believ'd their Senfes, and we believe them; and all things confider'd, we have as much Reason to believe upon their Evidence, as they could have to believe upon the Evidence of their Senfes.

Let us confider Hiftory as a Medium, by which these Miracles become known to us, and compare this Medium with that of Sight. If a Man would be fceptical, he might doubt whether any Medium of Sight be fo fitly difpofed, as to reprefent Objects in their due proportion, and proper Shape, he might suspect that any Miracles which he could fee, were falfe, or wrought only to amufe and deceive him, and there would be no way to fatisfy fuch a one, but by telling him, that this is inconfiftent with the Truth and Goodness of God. So in this other Medium of Hiftory, which to us fupplies the want of that of Sight; a Man may doubt of any Matter of Fact, if he pleases, notwithstanding the most credible Evidence; but in a Matter of this nature, where our eternal Salvation is concern'd, we may be fure, God will not fuffer

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Mankind

Mankind to be deceiv'd without all poffibility of difcovering the Deceit. The Circumftances have all the Marks of Credibility in them; and therefore, if they be duly attended to, cannot but be believed, and the Doctrine which they are brought in evidence of, being propounded to be believed, under pain of Damnation, requires that they should be attended to, and confider'd and that, which is in its Circumstances most credible, and in its matter is fuppofed neceffary to Salvation, must be certainly true, unless God could oblige us to believe a Lye. For not to believe things credible, when attended to and known to be fuch, is to humane Nature impoffible, and not to attend.to things propofed as from God of neceffity to Salvation, is a very heinous Crime against God; and to think that God will fuffer me to be deceiv'd in what I am obliged, in Honour and Obedience to him, to believe upon his Authority, is to think he can oblige me to believe a Lye.

But it may be Objected; If this be fo, how comes it to pafs, that they are pronounced bleffed, who have not feen, and yet have believed, John xx. 29. which feems to denote, that a peculiar Bleffing belongs to them, because they believe upon lefs Evidence. I anfwer, that they are there pronounced Bleffed, who had fo well confider'd the Nature and Circumstances of things, the Prophecies concerning the Meffias, and what our Saviour had deliver'd of himself, as to believe his Refurrection upon the Report of others; not because others might not have as fufficient grounds for their Belief, as thofe who faw him after his Refurrection, but the Evidence of Senfe is more plain and convincing to the generality of Men, tho' Reafon proceeds at leaft upon as fure and as undeniable Principles. A Demonftration, when it is rightly perform'd, is as certain, as the felf-evident Principles upon which it proceeds, though it be fo far removed from them, that every one cannot difcern the Conne

xion. Demonstrations may be far from being easy and obvious, but are oftentimes, we know, very difficult and intricate, which yet, when they are once made out, are as certain as Senfe it felf. The Bleffing is pronounced to him, who believes not upon lefs Evidence, but upon that which at first seems to be lefs, which is lefs obfervable, and lefs obvious to our Confideration, but not lefs certain, when it is duly confider'd. For which Reafon our Saviour, after he had wrought many Miracles, that were effectually attested by fufficient Witneffes, required Faith in those who came to be heal'd of him, because the Teftimony of others was the means, which in Ages to come, was to be the Motive of Faith in Chriftians, and he thereby fignified to us, that there may be as good Grounds for Faith upon the Report of others, as we could have from our own Senfes, and generally those who came in Unbelief, went away no better fatisfied. Wherefore it is faid, that in his own Country, because of their Unbelief, he could do no mighty work, fave that he laid his hands upon a few fick folk, and healed them, Mark vi. 5. he could not do his mighty Works, because they would be ineffectual, and would be lost upon them, and he could do nothing infignificant or in vain; if they would reject what had been fo fully witness'd to them, they would not believe, whatever Miracles they should see him do.

It is very remarkable, that amidst all his Miracles, our Saviour directs his Followers to Mofes and the Prophets, and appeals to the Scriptures for the Authority of his very Miracles, and that even after his Refurrection, he inftructs his Difciples, who faw and difcours'd with him, out of the Scriptures, to confirm them in the Truth of it, Luke xxiv. 26, 27. He requires the Jews to give no greater Credit to his own Miracles, than that which he implies, they already gave to the Writings of Mofes, fo as firmly and ftedfaftly to believe that he came from God, And we

having all the Helps and Advantages which the Jews had to create in them a Belief of the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, and many more and greater Motives (if it be poffible) to believe thefe of the New, must therefore have fufficient means to excite in us that Faith which our Saviour required of those who faw his Works, and heard his Doctrine; which certainly was a Divine Faith, and all the Faith, which if it be accompanied with fincere and impartial Obedience, is required in order to Salvation.

Upon the whole Matter, I conclude, that the Truth of the Christian Religion is evident even to a Demonftration for it is as demonftrable that there is a God, as it is that I my felf am, or that there is any thing elfe in the World; because nothing could be made without a Maker, or created without a Creator; and it is as demonftrable, that this God being the Author of all the Perfections in Men, muft himself be infinitely Perfect; that he is infinitely Wife, and Juft, and Holy, and Good; and that according to thefe Attributes he could not fuffer a falfe Religion to be impofed upon the World in his own Name, with fuch manifest Tokens of Credibility, that no Man can poffibly difprove it, but every one is oblig'd to believe it.

In the Margin of Page 229, the following Citations out of Justin Martyr, Tertullian and S. Chryfoftom, were, through mistake, omitted,

Κώμη ἢ τὶς δεν — ἐν ᾗ ἐγέθη Ιησές Χριςός, ὡς καὶ μαθών διαθε ἐκ τ' ἀπογραφών - γυομθύων ἐπὶ Κυριπίε 7 υμετέρα is infaía TSNTE Qoutes les Juftin. Mart. in Apolog. ad Antonin. Pium. De cenfu Augufti, quem teftem fideliffimum Dominicæ Nativitatis Romana Archiva cuftodiunt. Tertull. adv. Marcion. 1. 4. c. 7. Καὶ τοῖς αρχαίοις τοῖς δημοσίᾳ κειμβροις Κώδιξιν ἐπὶ ἡ Ῥώμης έξεςιν υχόντα, καὶ τ καιρὸν τ απο Γραφῆς μαθόντα ἀκριβῶς εἰδέναι ἢ βολόμενον. Chryfoft in. Chrifti Natal. Tom. 5. Edit. Sav.