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that Christ rose again, and that ever such miracles were done. I ask therefore,

Quest. 7. Whether it be possible, that so many and so wise and godly men (as their writings prove them) should give up their lives and all that they had and could have hoped for in this world, to persuade the world that they saw Christ risen, if it were false; and to draw them to believe a falsehood that tended to the worldly ruin of them all?

Quest. 1. And is it possible that if they had been so bad and mad, that so many thousands would have believed them when their own frequent miracles, language, &c. were the witness of their fidelity to which they openly appealed ? and this in the very age and place where all these things might easily be confuted if untrue? If I should pretend to convince the world by language not learned, and by other miracles and gifts which I never had, would countries, or any sober persons believe me? or should I not be the common scorn? Would the churches of the world have been planted by pretended miracles that never were? Would they all have given up estates and lives upon an evident lie? It was easy for them all to see and hear whether these things were done or not. And therefore he that seeth those churches which were the proper effects of miracles, may know the cause; a real effect had a real cause.

Quest. 9. Was it possible that so many hundred or thousand persons, dispersed about the world on a sudden, could without coming near each other, agree both upon one and the same false doctrine throughout, and on the same practices to deceive the world?

Quest. 10. Is it possible that among so many thousands, that torments, or death, or common ingenuity, would not have forced some to have repented, and opened the deceits of all the rest?'

Quest. 11. Is it possible that so many heretics that did fall from them and set against the true apostles, would none of them have disclosed the deceit, if really the miracles had not been done?'

Quest. 12. Is it possible that none of the Jews, their bitter enemies, nor any of the learned Romans of that age, would have discovered the fraud, and by writing confuted matters of fact, being public, and if false, so easily confuted?'

Where are the books that ever any one of them wrote to dis

prove any of these miracles? If you say the Christians burnt them; give us the least proof of it if you can. When did any Jew complain of such a thing? Nay, how could the dispersed, persecuted Christians destroy the writings of their reigning enemies? The writings of Jews and Romans then written remain to this day, and had fuller human advantages of preservation than any that are against them. No Jews or Romans complained, or to this day complain of such a thing, nor tell us of any such writings of theirs, that ever were in the world.

Quest. 13. Nay, the Jews confessed the miracles themselves, and had no shift left for their unbelief, but by blaspheming the Holy Ghost, and saying that they were done by the power of the devil.

Quest. 14. All the dispersed churches and Christians of the world, have universally concurred in delivering us down these matters of fact, and the writings that contain them; and this as a thing that they grounded all their hope of salvation on, and for which they contemned this present world. And the enemies that gainsaid their doctrine, did not gainsay these matters of fact. Could this be feigned?

Quest. 15. Have I not fully manifested in my book against Infidelity (to which I must again dismiss you), that there is a full and infallible evidence, that this Scripture was written by the apostles and evangelists, and these miracles done, as there is that any of the statutes of this land are the current statutes of those parliaments that are said to make them? And your lands and lives are held by the credit of these statutes.

A word or two to the objections of a masked infidel of this country. Clem. Writer.

Saith he, Men be not commanded to believe these statutes on pain of damnation. Therefore the case is not like.'

Answ. But men are commanded to obey them upon pain of death; and believing is prerequisite to obeying; therefore the case is like. Death is the utmost penalty that man can inflict; or if there be greater, it all runs on the same foundation. And sure that evidence that proves men culpable for breaking men's laws must prove him culpable for breaking God's. You have no other eyes to read the laws of God, than those by which you read man's laws. And doth it follow that God must not condemn you for breaking

his laws, when men do but hang you for breaking theirs? Sure God's laws and man's may be printed in the same character, and read with the same eyes, and both have the same natural means of delivery, and yet the sin and punishment differ as the authority doth.

Object. But (saith he) can the miracles confirm the Scripture, when it is the Scripture that reports the miracles?' Answ. 1. Cannot a statute tell you what parliament made it, and what matters of fact were the occasion, and also what shall be your duty upon pain of death? so that the makers and facts shall give force unto the law, and yet the law reveal the maker and facts? Do not church constitutions do the same? The Scripture hath two parts: the history and the doctrine. May not the history confirm the doctrine, and that doctrine oblige us to our duty?

2. But you suppose that the miracles and facts can only be known by a divine belief of the history. But this is false. The common evidence that all statutes, histories, and actions in the world have to make them certain to posterity (as Cicero's or Virgil's writings, or Cæsar's reign, &c.), the same have the books and miracles of Scripture to us. And by these we can know them' de facto' to be such, before we believe them by a divine faith. And as the Scripture is a history that hath the same evidence as the best of histories have, so it may concur with abundance of other evidence (which I have recited in my " Determination against Infidelity." and in my "Key for Catholics,") to prove the facts; and then those facts will fully prove the truth of all the doctrines which they attest, and consequently, we shall add to our human faith and knowledge, a divine faith concerning the history itself.

Object. 3. But (saith this writer) if God had meant that the Scripture should be a law to all, he would not have writ it in a language which they understand not.'

Answ. 1. Any thing will serve to make an infidel, when the mind is corrupted and deplorate. Were they no laws which the Romans wrote in Latin, for the government of all the nations in the Roman world? It was enough that the rulers of the provinces caused them to be so far understood by the people as was necessary to a righteous government. I mean those laws that were added to the proper laws of that people.

2. Was there any one language then that all the world

understood? And was it not enough that God appointed the ministerial office purposely to preserve and publish this Gospel to the world from generation to generation? And is not translating (whether by voice or writing) a part of that preaching or explication? Did not the ministers of Christ preach the same doctrine to the world then, in the several languages of the nations where they came? And were not the Scriptures presently translated according to the use of the churches? Upon how silly a pretence then would your imperial majesty impose it on the God of heaven, to write his word in as many languages as are in the world, if he would be believed?

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I will trouble you with no more such wretched cavils. These three are the main strength of three pamphlets written against the holy Scriptures and me, by this apostate. Their sum is, Man is man; therefore we are not sure that Scripture is true, or that God is God.' I mean,' Man cannot understand the minds of others but by signs. All signs whether words or deeds, have some ambiguity, or liableness to misunderstanding; therefore nothing can be known concerning God or man by signs.' These are not his words; but the true scope and life of all the writings of him and all the infidel seekers.

If you chide me for troubling the Christian reader here with so much against infidels and brutists, I answer, 1. I did it because that sort increase, and threaten the land. 2. Because the strengthening of the belief of the best Christians is the removing the cause of all their weakness and complaints. 3. And principally, because when once the certain truth of another life is manifested, he must be a bedlam or worse that will not be godly, or that will open his mouth any more against a holy life. What! is it possible for a sober man to believe that he is so near an everlasting joy or misery, and yet to neglect it, and oppose them that make it their chiefest care and labour to prepare for it? The brutist hath drowned his reason; and the careless professor laid it to sleep; the malicious, ungodly professor of Christianity fights against it, and only the serious, holy Christian doth use it for his everlasting good.

CHAPTER IV.

Holiness is best for all Societies.

READER, if thou be but a man that hast the free use of thy reason, I have already removed the greatest impediment out of thy way, and said enough by confuting thy infidelity, to prove that godliness is the better part. Thou hast nothing left now to say against it, but what fighteth against reason in the open light, and therefore I shall find an easier task with thy understanding in all that follows, though with thy corrupted will and concupiscence the conflict yet may be as strong.

Well! if yet thou art not resolved, that diligent, serious godliness is that good part that all should choose, and better than all thy worldly pleasures, I shall now discover it to thee in these particulars.

I. I shall shew you that godliness is best for all societies. II. That it is best for every person. And 1. It is the safest way. 2. It is the most honest way. 3. That it is the most gainful way. 4. That it is the most honourable way. And 5. That it is the most pleasant and delightful way. Yea, that there is no other true safety, honesty, profit, honour, or delight but what is to be found in this way. I lay not only all the reputation of my understanding, but all the hopes and happiness of my soul upon the proof of this point. If I prove it not, I will confess myself a fool and undone for ever. But if I prove it, let the ungodly make this sad confession, and choose the better part while they may have it.

I. And first, That Godliness is the best for all societies (that are just) I prove thus :

1. Godliness doth unite or centre all societies in the only Head and Centre of unity; that is, the blessed God himself. A commonwealth will never have peace in a state of rebellion against their sovereign (unless he be one that they can overcome). Nor soldiers in a state of mutiny against their general. Nor scholars in shutting out their master. God is the only Sovereign of the whole world. The godly all unite in him. Ungodliness is rebellion against him. The rebels are always in his power. There is no peace nor safety therefore, nor any unity, but an agreement in rebellion for a while

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