A

SHORT AND EASY METHOD

WITH THE

DEIST S.

I.

SIR,

IN

N anfwer to yours of the third inftant, I much condole with you your unhappy circumstances, of being placed amongst fuch company, where, as you say, you continually hear the facred fcriptures, and the hiftories therein contained, particularly of Mofes, and of Chrift, and all revealed religion turned into ridicule, by Men who fet up for fenfe and reason. And they fay that there is no greater ground to believe in Chrift, than in Mahomet; that all these pretences to revelation are cheats, and ever have been among Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, and Christians; that they are all alike impofitions of cunning and 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 established by laws; and then the force of education and custom gives a bias to the judgments of after ages, till fuch deceits come really to be believed, being received upon trust from the ages foregoing, without examining into the original and bottom. of them. Which thefe our modern men of fenfe, (as they defire to be esteemed) 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 reason; though 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 martyr, dom.

Now, Sir, that which you defire from me, is some short 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 these men of reafon deny by wholefale, though they can give no reason for it, only fuppofe that authors have been trumped upon us, interpolated and corrupted, so that no stress can be laid upon them, though 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 disputes endless, and they go away with noife and clamour, and a boast, that there is nothing, at least nothing certain, to be faid on the Chriftian fide. Therefore you are defirous to find fome one topic of reafon, which should demonftrate the truth of the Chriftian religion, and at the fame time, diftinguish it from the impostures of Mahomet, and the old Pagan world: That our Deifts may be brought to this teft, and be obliged either to renounce their reafon, and the common reafon of mankind, or to fubmit, to the clear proof from reason, of the Christian religion; which must be such a pre, as no imposture can pretend to, otherwise it cannot prove the Chriftian religion not to be an impoftare. 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 itfelf clear, and one; and therefore that one reafon for it, if it be the true reafon, must be fufficient; and if fufficient, it is better than many; for multiplicity confounds, efpecially to weak judgments.

Sir, you have impofed an hard tafk upon me, I wish I could perform it. For though every truth is one, yet our fight 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 fhort and plain as I can. II. First, 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 through 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 must neceffarily follow, that he was fent from God: These being the strongest proofs we can defire, and which every Deift will confefs he would acquiefce in, if he faw them with his eyes. Therefore the stress of this cause will depend upon the proof of thefe matters of fact.

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 fact cannot be falfe. And then, fecondly, to fhew that all these 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, and the heathen deities, or can poffibly meet in any impofture whatsoever.

2. The rules are thefe, 1ft. That the matter of fact be such, as that men's outward fenfes, 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 public monuments be kept up in memory of it, but fome outward actions to be performed. 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 first rules make it impoffible for any fuch matter of fact to be imposed upon men, at the time when such matter of fact was faid to be done, because every man's eyes and fenfes would contradict it. For example: Suppose any man should pretend, that yesterday 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 impoffible that he could perfuade the people 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 seen 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 such public matter of fact was said 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 impofed 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 first rules, in the former cafe; for whenever fuch a matter of fact came to be invented, if not only monuments were laid to remain of it, but likewife that public actions and obfervances were constantly used 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 must know that no fuch actions or obfervances were ever ufed by them. For example: Suppofe I fhould now invent a ftory 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 joint of fuch a finger; and that this inftitution was faid to be part of the matter of fact done so many years ago, and vouched as a proof and confirmation of it, and as having defcended, without interruption, and been conftantly practifed, in memory of fuch matter of fact, all along, from the time that such matter of fact was done: I fay, it is impoffible I fhould be believed in fuch a cafe, because 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 demonstrate the whole to be falfe.

III. Let us now come to the fecond point, to fhew that the matters of fact of Mofes, and of Chrift, have all thefe rules or marks before mentioned; 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 allowed me, that he could not have perfuaded 600,000 men, that he had brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea; fed them forty years, without bread, by miraculous manna, and the other matters of fact recorded in his books, if they had not been true. Because every man's fenfes that were then alive, must have contradicted it. And therefore he must have impofed upon all their fenfes, 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 impofture; which told of all these things as done before their eyes, if they had not been fo done. See how pofitively he speaks to them, Deut. xi. 2, to verse 8. "And know you this day, for I fpeak not with your children, "which have not known, and which have not feen the chaftife"ment of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, "and his ftretched-out arm, and his miracles, and his acts, "which he did in the midft of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of "Egypt, and unto all his land, and what he did unto the army of

66

Egypt, unto their horfes, and to their chariots; how he made "the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued "after you; and how the Lord hath deftroyed them unto this "day: And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, "the fons of Eliah, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened ❝her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their housholds, and "their tents, and all the substance that was in their poffeffion, in "the midst of all Ifrael. But your eyes have feen all the great "acts of the Lord, which he did, &c."

From hence we must fuppofe it impoffible that these books of Mofes (if an impofture) could have been invented and put upon the people who were then alive, when all these things were faid to be done.

The utmost therefore that even a fuppofe can ftretch to, is, that these books were wrote in fome age after Mofes, and put out in his name.

And to this, I fay, that if it was fo, it was impoffible that thofe books fhould have been received as the books of Mofes, in that age wherein they may have been fuppofed to have been first invented. Why? Because they speak of themselves as delivered by Mofes, and kept in the ark from his time. "And it came to "pafs, when Mofes had made an end of writing the words of "this law in a book, until they were finifhed, that Mofes com"manded the Levites who bare the ark of the covenant of the "Lord, faying, take this book of the law, and put it in the fide "of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may "be there for a witnefs against thee," Deut. xxxi. 24, 25, 26. And there was a copy of this book to be left likewife with the king. "And it fhall be, when he fitteth upon the throne of his