part of his Life there and the greatest Infidel that I know of, never pretended yet to disbelieve, that there was fuch a Perfon as our Saviour Chrift. But all Men think themselves as well affured of things of this na ture upon the credit of others, as if they had feen them themselves. For how doubtful and intricate foever fome things may be, for want of knowledge or credit in the Relaters, yet there are other things delivered with that agreement and certainty on all hands, that to doubt of them would be as unreasonable, as to doubt of what we our felves fee and hear.

And if our Saviour's Refurrection, for inftance, be of this nature, we can with as little reafon doubt of it, as if we had lived at that time, and had converfed with him after his Refurrection from the Dead. But we have as great affurance that he was alive again after his Crucifixion, as that he ever lived at all; and we have at least all the affurance that there was such a Perfon as Chrift, that we can have, that there once lived any other Man at that distance of time from us. We can no more doubt, that our Saviour was born in the Reign of Auguftus Cafar, and was crucified under Tiberius, than that there were once fuch Emperors in the World; nay, we have it much better attested, that Christ was born, and was crucified, and rofe again, than that there ever were fuch Princes as these two Emperors for no Man ever made it his business to go about the World to certifie this, and to teftifie the truth of it at his Death. But the Apostles themselves, and their Disciples and Converts, and innumerable others ever fince, from the beginning of Christianity, have afferted the particulars of the Life, and Death, and Refurrection of our Saviour, under all Dangers, and Torments, and Deaths; and have made it their great aim and defign, both living and dying, to bear Teftimony to the Truth of the Gofpel. So that a Man may as well doubt of any Matter of Fact that ever was done

before his own time, or at a great distance from him, as doubt of these Fundamentals of the Chriftian Religion; and yet there is no Man, but thinks himself as certain of fome things at least, which were done a long time ago, or a great way off, as if he had been at the doing of them himself.

Indeed, in fome refpects we seem to have more evidence than those could have that lived in the beginning of Christianity; for they could fee but fome Miracles, we have the benefit of all; they relyed upon their own Senfes, and upon the Senfes of fuch as they knew and conversed with; we upon the Senfes of innumerable People, who fucceffively beheld them for the space of divers hundred Years together: So that whoever will not believe the Scriptures, neither would he believe, though one rofe from the dead; that is, though the greatest Miracle were wrought for his Conviction. This was faid of the Old Teftament, and therefore may with greater reafon be faid of That and the New both.

And we have befides, one fort of evidence, which thofe that lived at the first planting of Christianity, could not have; for we fee many of those Prophecies fulfilled, which our Saviour foretold concerning his Church; we know how it fprung up and flourished, and from what fmall and unlikely beginnings it has fpread it felf into all corners of the Earth, and continues to this day, notwithstanding all the malice of Men and Devils to root it out, and destroy it. The continuance and fuccefs of the Gofpel under fo improbable circumstances, was Matter of Faith chiefly to the first Christians, but to us is Matter of Fact, and the Object of Senfe: they faw the Work indeed profper in their hands, but their Faith only could tell them, that it should flourish for fo many Ages, as we know it has already done. This is a standing and invincible proof to us at this distance of time, and has

the

the force of a two-fold Argument, the one of a power of Miracles, the other of Prophecies: we know that a miraculous Power has been manifested in conquering all oppofition, and in a wonderful manner bringing thofe things to pafs which to humane Wisdom and Power are altogether impoffible. And the fulfilling hereby of Prophecies, is a vifible confirmation to us of the truth of those Miracles, which, by the Testimony of others, we believe to have been done by the Prophets, whofe Prophecies we fee fulfilled. And fince it must be acknowledged that things may be fo well attested, that we may with as much reafon doubt of the truth of our own Senfes, as of the Authority, by which we are affured of the truth of them, and muft turn Scepticks or worse, if we will not believe them; we may conclude as well upon the account of these Prophecies, which we our felves fee fulfilled, as upon all other accounts, that the Historical Evidence in proof of the Christian Religion, amounts to all the certainty that a Matter of Fact is capable of, not excepting even that of Sense it self.

II. Let us now apply all this to the Refolution of Faith, and give an account how a divine and infallible Faith may be produced in us. Humane Testimony is the Motive, by which we believe the Scriptures to contain God's revealed Will: this certifies us, that fuch Miracles were wrought, and fuch Prophecies delivered, as give to the Scriptures the full evidence and authority of a Divine Revelation. If therefore it be enquired, why we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? The Anfwer is, upon the account of the Miracles and Prophecies, which concurring with all other requifite circumftances in a Revelation, confirm the Truth of them. If it be ask'd, how we know that these Prophecies and Miracles are true and effe&tual, and not feigned, or infufficient; I anfwer, be caufe we have them fo related and attefted, that conCc 2 fidered

fidered barely as Matter of Fact, they have all the credibility that any Matter of Fact is capable of, and therefore may as fafely be relied upon, as any thing which we do our felves fee, or hear. If it be farther urged, that for all this I may be deceived, fince all Men are fallible, and no Man is infallibly affured that there is fuch a place as Rome, who never faw it; tho' no Man neither can any more doubt of it, than he can doubt whether there be any fuch place as London, who lives in it. I acknowledge, that there is a bare poffibility of being deceived in all humane evidence, but yet I deny that we can poffibly be deceived in this cafe, because, though the evidence it felf be humane, yet the things which it concerns are of that nature, that God would never fuffer the World to be thus long impofed upon in them, without all poffibility of finding out the Truth. So that here we refolve our Faith into the divine Authority, by reafon of the fame Miracles, by reafon whereof the Eye-witnesses of them did refolve theirs into it, but they believed these Miracles as feen by themselves, and we believed them as feen, and witneffed by others; but both they and we believe them as the Works of God himself.

It might have been alledged, if we had feen those Miracles, that we might poffibly be deceived; and fo indeed we might, if we could not have fecurely relyed upon God's Truth and Goodness, that they were defigned by him to confirm the Doctrine, for the fake of which they were wrought; and we may with equal fecurity rely upon the fame Truth and Goodnefs for the certainty of the Hiftory of them, as we could have done for the fufficiency of them to the purpofe for which they were wrought, though they had been performed in our fight, fince it is as impoffible to find out any deceit in the account given of them, as it would have been for us to find any in the Miracles themselves at the time of their performance.

Humane

Humane Teftimony is the conveyance and the means of delivering the Truths contained in the Holy Scriptures down to us; and we, who could neither fee the Miracles nor hear the Doctrines at the first hand, have at this distance of time the truth of them afcer tained by a continued fucceffive Teftimony, till we arrive at fuch as were immediate witnesses of them. Now thofe that faw and heard all things which are delivered to us in the Scriptures, could not esteem their Senfes infallible, but they notwithstanding believed our Saviour and his Difciples to be fo, of whom yet their Senfes only could give them means of afsurance, that they were infallible. They knew their Senfes might deceive them (or that they might be mistaken concerning the Objects of Senfe) but-nevertheless, they believed that our Saviour and the Apoftles could not deceive them, upon this only ground, that their Senfes or their Reason, by deduction from Senfe, told them fo. There was not one Man of them perhaps, but had often obferved his Senfes mifreprefent Objects to him, and yet in this cafe upon the fole Testimony of their Senfes, they grounded an infallible Faith because, though their Senfes had mifreprefented Objects, yet it was in a wrong medium, at an undue distance, or by reafon of fome indifpofition of the Sense it felf, and ftill their Senfes, or rather their Reason by the help of their Senfes, difcovered that their Senfes had led them into mistakes. But in the present cafe, when the Object was placed in open and frequent view, to the greatest advantage, when it was publick and expofed to multitudes, when all agreed in the fame opinion concerning it; and when the matter was of infinite importance, here they had reafon to conclude, that the God, who framed their Senfes, would not suffer them to be fo hurtful to them, as they must needs have been, if they had been deceived by them. In like manner, in the Teftimony, Cc 3

which