X. millibus subvenerit nemo; et plena sint omnia misero- CHAP. rum, infeliciumque delubra? What matter is it to shew one or two cured, when thousands lie continually in the temples perishing for want of cure? yea such as did Esculapium ipsum precibus fatigare, et invitare miserrimis votis, that could not beg a cure of Esculapius with all their earnestness and importunity. de Morbis 3. In the quality of the diseases cured. The cures among the heathens were some slight things in comparison of those performed by Christ; the most acute, the most chronical, the most malignant of diseases, cured by a touch, a word, a thought. A learned phy- Gul. Ader. sician hath undertaken to make it evident, from the Evangel. circumstances of the history, and from the received principles among the most authentic physicians, that the diseases cured by our Saviour were all incurable by the rules of physic; if so, the greater the power of our Saviour, who cured them with so much facility as he did. And he not only cured all diseases himself, but gave a power to others, who were not at all versed in matters of art and subtlety, that they should do miracles likewise, sine fucis et adminiculis, without any Arnob. fraud or assistance. Quid dicitis, O mentes incre- tes, l. i. dulæ, difficiles, dura! Alicuine mortalium Jupiter ille Capitolinus hujusmodi potestatem dedit? When did ever the great Jupiter Capitolinus give a power of working miracles to any? I do not say, saith he, of raising the dead, or curing the blind, or healing the lame; sed ut pustulam, reduviam, papulam, aut vocis imperio, aut manus contrectatione comprimeret: but to cure a wart, a pimple, any the most trivial thing, with a word speaking, or the touch of the hand. Upon this Arnobius challengeth the most famous of all the heathen magicians; Zoroastres, Armenius, Pamphilus, Apollonius, Damigero, Dardanus, Velus, Julianus, and cont. Gen II. Arnob. BOOK Bæbulus, or any other renowned magician, to give power to any one to make the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, or bring life into a dead body; or, if this be too hard, with all their magic rites and incantations, but to do that, quod a rusticis Christianis jussionibus factitatum est nudis, which ordinary Christians do by their mere words: so great a difference was there between the highest that could be done by magic, and the least that was done by the name and power of Christ. cont. Gen- X. 10, 12. 6. Where miracles are truly Divine, God makes it evident, to all impartial judgments, that the things done exceed all created power. For which purpose we are to observe, that, though impostures and delusions may go far, the power of magicians further, when God permits them; yet when God works miracles to confirm a Divine testimony, he makes it evident that his power doth infinitely exceed them all. This is most conspicuous in the case of Moses and our blessed Saviour. First Moses, he began to do some miracles Exod. vii. in the presence of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, turning his rod into a serpent: but we do not find Pharaoh at all amazed at it, but sends presently for the magicians to do the same, who did it, (whether really or only in appearance is not material to our purpose ;) but Aaron's vii. 19, 22. rod swallowed up theirs. The next time the waters are turned into blood by Moses. The magicians they viii. 6, 7. do so too. After this, Moses brings up frogs upon the land; so do the magicians. So that here now is a plain and open contest, in the presence of Pharaoh and his people, between Moses and the magicians, and they try for victory over each other; so that if Moses do no more than they, they would look upon him but as a magician; but if Moses do that, which, by the acknowledgment of these magicians themselves, could X. viii. 19. be only by Divine power, then it is demonstrably evi- CHAP. dent that his power was as far above the power of. magic, as God is above the Devil. Accordingly we find it in the very next miracle, in turning the dust into ciniphes, (which we render lice ;) the magicians are nonplust, and give out, saying, in plain terms, This is the finger of God. And what greater acknow- Exod. ledgment can there be of Divine power, than the confession of those who seemed to contest with it, and to imitate it as much as possible? After this, we find not the magicians offering to contest with Moses; and in the plague of boils, we particularly read that they ix. 11. could not stand before Moses. Thus we see, in the case of Moses, how evident it was that there was a power above all power of magic, which did appear in Moses. And so likewise in the case of our blessed Saviour; for although Simon Magus, Apollonius, or others, might do some small things, or make some great show and noise by what they did, yet none of them ever came near the doing things of the same kind which our Saviour did, curing the born-blind, restoring the dead to life after four days, and so as to live a considerable time after; or in the manner he did them, with a word, a touch, with that frequency and openness before his greatest enemies as well as followers, and in such an uncontrolled manner, that neither Jews nor heathens ever questioned the truth of them. And after all these, when he was laid in the grave after his crucifixion, exactly according to his own prediction he rose again the third day, appeared frequently among his disciples for forty days together; after which, in their presence, he ascended up to heaven, and soon after made good his promise to them, by sending his holy Spirit upon them; by which they spake with tongues, wrought miracles, went up and II. BOOK down preaching the Gospel of Christ with great boldness, cheerfulness, and constancy; and after undergoing a great deal of hardship in it, they sealed the truth of all they spake with their blood, laying down their lives to give witness to it. Thus abundantly, to the satisfaction of the minds of all good men, hath God given the highest rational evidence of the truth of the doctrine which he hath revealed to the world. And thus I have finished the second part of my task, which concerned the rational evidence of the truth of Divine revelation, from the persons who were employed to deliver God's mind to the world; and therein have, I hope, made it evident that both Moses and the prophets, our Saviour and his apostles, did come with sufficient rational evidence to convince the world that they were persons immediately sent from God, BOOK III. CHAP. I. OF THE BEING OF GOD. I. The principles of all religion lie in the being of God, and im- I. 1. HAVING in the precedent book largely given a CHAP. rational account of the grounds of our faith, as to the persons whom God employs to reveal his mind to the world; if we can now make it appear that those sacred records, which we embrace as divinely inspired, contain in them nothing unworthy of so great a name, or unbecoming persons sent from God to deliver, there will be nothing wanting to justify our religion, in point of reason, to be true, and of revelation, to be Divine. For the Scriptures themselves coming to us in |