were no fuch Life, yet would the fancy of it be mighty pleafing in Diftreffes and Calamities, and ferve to bear us up under the greatest burthens; and should we find nothing of that nature when we come to die, to be fure there would be no body to laugh at us.

They reprefent God as infinitely merciful to wretched Men, and willing to accept of thofe that repent and turn, and fincerely fear him, and to make them everlastingly happy; and yet that Men may not prefume, and turn the Grace of God into wantonnefs, they represent him Juft withal, that will take Vengeance on those who provoke his Patience, and mock his Compaffion, and abuse his Mercy into contempt of his Laws. They represent him as a very reasonable Mafter that lays upon his Servants no more than they are able to bear, and expects returns anfwerable to the Favours he bestows on them; and fuch Services as are, in fome measure, proportionable to the means he hath afforded them, which is no more but what we expect from our Servants. All which is highly racional; and I muft needs imagine, fince no Men that ever lived in the World could give the World fuch exact Rules for the improvement and advancement of a rational Soul as thefe Writers do, that they must have had fome divine Spirit to guide them, especially fince the education,breeding and converfation of fome or most of them, gave them no advantages of Learning or Philofophy, nor any opportunity of improving their Intellectuals, by reading fuchWritings as acute and quick-fighted Men had dispersed thro' the World. To exalt

the

the Soul,and to elevate it above Senfe,and Earth, and Dross,and Dung, and to be admitted to familiarity with its Maker, feems to be the very drift and defign ofthis Book; and if it were not Divine, or Infpired, it might however deserve the reputation of maintaining the greatest and most generous defigns that ever were carried on by Mankind.

But fure its Original is more than Human; and the Perfons who delivered these things had certainly a Divine Commiffion. When I look either upon Mofes and the Prophets in the Old, or upon Jefus and his Apoftles in the New Teftament, Men, who were the chief Promulgers of the Truths delivered in these Books, methinks there appears fomething extraordinary in them, and I cannot but fee the Finger of God that did direct and help them: If I believe any thing that I never heard or faw my felf, I have the greatest reafon in the World to believe that that Mofes, whom both Jews and Heathens call the great Leader and Captain-General of the Jews, was infpired from above when he gave his Law to the whole Nation of the Jews. That he wrought those stupendious Miracles which are recorded in Scripture, the Jewish Nation hath firmly and conftantly believed ever fince they were wrought; and how 600000 Men, before whom they were wrought, and who did feed upon many of those Wonders, and who have delivered the real performance of thofe Miracles down to their Pofterity, and fo imprinted the belief of it on the hearts of their Progeny, that neither Sword, nor Fire, could

ever make them deny it, even by the Testimony of their greatest Enemies; How, I fay, this vait multitude of Men could be mistaken in those Miracles, and give credit to this Law, obferve every Punctilio of it, undergo all that tedious Service he injoined them, endure the pain of Circumcifion, negle&t their fecular and neceffary Affairs to attend that laborious Worship, and all upon the account of thofe Miracles, if they had not been confident of the truth and reality of them, is altogether unaccountable to a rational Man. These Miracles he could never have wrought without a fupernatural Power; nor can I imagine any other reafon, why God fhould honour him with that fupernatural Power, but only to confirm the Law and Statutes he gave to the Jews, and to teftifie unto them, and to affure them, that they came from God, and that the Punishments threatned would certainly attend the wilful neglecters of that Law.

That the Prophets foretold things, fome 200, fome 300, fome 500 Years before they came to pafs, is fo evident from the History of Jofias, Cyrus, and the Meffias, who was to come, that he muft profefs himselfa ftranger to all History, that denies it; for I find the Jews had those Prophecies by them many Years before they were fulfilled, and therefore cannot be supposed to have forged those Prophecies, after the things pretended to be foretold by them,were come to pass.

But had we no other Testimony, that the Writings of the Old Teftament are infpired, and of Divine Original, but that of Jefus, and his Apostles (provided we can prove, that these

came

came with Divine Authority) there would be enough to fatisfie any Perfon that doth not delight in difputing against Light and Reason.

That we owe the Doctrine of the New-Tefiament to this Jefus and his Apostles, the whole Chriftian World hath unanimously believed for 1600 Years together; and I must needs fuppofe there could not have been fuch a ftir in the World, for fo many Centuries, about the Religion of Jefus, if there had not been fuch a Perfon in the World. But in this I find the whole World agree; That there was such a Perfon, not only Chriftians, but their greatest Enemies, both Jews and Heathen, do confefs. This the prophanest Men alive will believe, as firmly at least as they do, that there were fuch Perfons as William the Conqueror, or Richard the Firft, Second, Third, &c. This Jefus, as he doth aver and maintain, That God fpake by Mofes and the Prophets of old, fo he could not but be himself a Perfon fent from God to reform the World,and to let them know the Will and Pleasure of the Almighty concerning their everlasting Happiness.

For I find, he wrought fuch Miracles, Works fo exceeding Art and Nature, that they were the wonder and confusion of the World; Nor do I, upon Examination, perceive that the Jews deny it; only they give out, that being well skilled in the Art of Magick, and dealing with the Devil, he made all that ftir and noise in the World, and drew fo many Followers after him, which to any Man in his Wits feems the filliest Plea imaginable; for his Doctrine, Life, Miracles, all tended to the deftruction of the

Devil's Kingdom. His firft Work was to forbid Idolatry, and to pull down the Worship of Devils, and to encourage real Goodness, and Piety, and abhorrency, not only of all Evil, but of all appearance of Evil; and, if Satan caft out Satan, he is divided against himself, and how then fball his Kingdom ftand? Matth. 12. 26.

I find, that the Art of Magick, in those days, was in great requeft with all the Grandees of the Jews, and they arrived to great Perfection in it. And if this Jefus wrought his Miracles by that Art, Why could not thofe Great Masters of Magick imitate those wonderful Works? Not to mention, that at his Crucifixion, when they alledged all that Malice or Hell could fuggeft againft him, none of his Adverfaries, whatever fome of them had done before, durft be fo abominably impudent, as to charge him with that black and difmal Crime. Indeed his Design, Words, Actions, Behaviour, and Deportment, were all fo directly contrary to this black and hellish Art, that a Man feems to be given up to the Devil that can have but the leaft Inclination to believe it. Nero certainly had the greatest Advantages of any Man that ever lived, to know the utmolt reach of Magick; for as his extream Viciousness and Debauchery made him the Devil's Darling, fo he had all the Magicians in the World to teach, and to inftruct him; yet with all the Tricks and Juggles that either Men or Devils could furnish him withal, I do not find that he was able to cure a cut Finger.

As great an Enemy as Julian the Apoftate was to the Chriftian Religion, as much as he hated

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and