for its Enemies, they neither had the Boldness, Power, or Will to write ofit as the former had done: They would not do it, left they should wrong their own Caufe, and dishonour their own Religion: And they could not do it, because they themselves were not fo well acquainted with the Miracles of Chriftanity, having always been afraid to converfe with the Chriftians, and esteemed the Belief of those Men a very forrowful and dangerous Persuasion; fince by profeffing their Religion, they were fure of getting nothing but Torments, and Death it felf. Laftly, they durft not prefume to write things as they really were, tho' they had been never fo well acquainted with them, because their own Writings would accuse them of having embraced Chriftianity, a Crime which was so severely punish'd in those days, that it would unavoidably have brought upon them certain Death and Ruin, or at least, after their Death, Shame and Infamy upon their Families.

But thirdly, it may be asked why the Apostles who had Power to heal the Sick, and raise the Dead, did not raise all the Dead to Life again, nor heal all the fick that were in Judea, because then all the World would have been forced in fpite of themselves to believe in Jefus Chrift. We anfwer, That this Question is much like what the Murtherers of Jesus Chrift faid to him upon the Crofs, He faved others, let him fave himself, let him come down from the Cross and we will believe in him. Nay it is all one às if a Man fhould fay, If there be a God, why does he not fhew and manifeft himself after a fenfible manner, by Speaking to men immediately from the higheft Heavens? and then they would all be forced in fpite of themselves to acknowledge him.

But God does not defire us to acknowledge him against our own Inclinations; and confequently, he is not obliged to manifeft himself as we in our extra

vagant Defires would have him, but as it feemeth best to his infinite Wisdom, Had Chrift or his Apoftles raised all the Dead they found to Life again, we fhould then, contrary to the Defign of the Almighty, have had no other Faith but what depended entirely upon our Senfes. It is enongh that they healed almost an infinite number of Sick People, and raised not only one, but feveral Dead Men to Life: So much indeed was abfolutely neceffary to confirm the Truth of their Calling. Because they were not only to make Men believe in a crucified Saviour, and adore him as the Son of God, but alfo to oblige them, for the Confirmation of their Faith, to undergo Martyrdom. More than this would have been but fuperfluous, because they were not obliged to alter the Oeconomy of Faith, but only to perfect it, not to make Men believe against their own Inclinations, but conformably to the Lights of their own Understanding.

But tho' I should grant all these Difficulties to be greater than they really are; yet we ought to regulate our fpeculative Opinions by fome Arguments drawn from matters of fact, and not on the contrary, regulate the Arguments drawn from matters of fact by any fpeculative Opinions. And this is fuch a general Maxim, that it holds good in all respects.

Many Difficulties arose at first about the Belief of the Antipodes. Some pretended that fuch an Opinion was contrary to Reafon; others affirmed, it could never be reconciled to the Principles of Religion: And both Parties raised several notable Objections against it. But as foon as the thing was evidently proved from undeniable matter of fact, all their Ob jections and Difficulties were turned into Ridicule. Some Philofophers have pretended to prove by guments, that Motion is impoffible have daily Experience that there is

Motion, we let these Philofophers talk on, and chufé rather to believe our own Senfes.

And I dare affirm (without begging any Excuse for the Boldness of my Affertion) that there never were, nor never will be any matters of fact, against which we might not raise several plausible Objections and confiderable Difficulties that are meerly speculative. Some are daily raised against the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, against the Attraction of the Loadfrone with Iron, the Source or Head of the River Nile, against Comets and Meteors, nay even against the peopling of the World, and the Propagation of Mankind. We readily grant the Incredulous, that feveral confiderable Difficulties may be raised against the Mysteries of Religion, as we see there are no less confiderable ones daily raised even against the Myfteries and fecret Operations of Nature. But I ftill affirm, that we must renounce the Evidence of Senfe, if we prefer any Difficulties of meer Speculation before those Arguments which are taken from undeniable matters of fact.

Tho' we should argue only upon the Nature of Things, and the Principles of Natural Religion, it would appear, if we compare the Obscurities which cause those Difficulties,with the Evidences which clear them, that the latter would gain more upon our Belief than the former; and this Truth we think we have fufficiently proved in our firft Part of this Work. But tho' we fhould meet with nothing else but Difficulties in those natural Principles, without any Lights at all to clear them, yet ought we to banish all Scruples and Doubts that arise meerly from Speculation, the better to embrace the Opinion which proceeds from the Arguments drawn from undeniable matters of fact, unless we have a mind to be guilty of an Abfurdity not to be met with; which is wholly contrary to common fenfe and Reafon.

But

But having thus evinced the Truth of the Essentials of our Religion, namely, those matters of fa& contained in the Writings of the Apostles; it remains only, that we make Men further sensible of them, by laying down a few short Remarks which we shall make on feveral places of the New Teftament, whose whole Purport fhall be either to perfwade us that the Apostles did really teach all these matters of fact, or assure us that they fincerely believed the things which they declared, or else to make it appear, that they could not have been impofed upon in thofe matters of fact. For from those three principles is formed the Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion.

SOME

REFLEXIONS

ON THE

Gospel according to S. Matthew.

Hapt. II. 1. Now when Jefus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, behold there came Wifemen, &c. Those Wife-men were of all Nations the firft that came to pay their Homage to Jefus Chrift. The Priests and Elders amongst the Jews being confulted concerning the Birth of the Meffias, freely owned he was to be born in Bethlehem, and were quite of another Opinion than the Modern Jews, who pervert the Mean. ing of the Prophecy of Micah Chap. 5. As to what concerns us we affirm that the Hiftory of the coming of the Wife-men could not be falfely invented. I. Because it agrees admirably with the Prophecy of Balaam, Numb. 24. 17. where he Cries out, I fhall fee him, but not now, I shall behold him, but not nigh: There fhall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter fhail rife out of Ifrael. A Star of the Wife-men, indeed, and a Scepter of Jefus Chrift. II. The Evangelift could not have made the whole City of Jerufalem believe, that they were troubled and aftonight at the Coming of those Wife-men: and much lefs perfwaded the Inhabitants against their own publick Knowledge, that Herod had fo barbaroufly

fhed