IX.

insipientem, peccatorem; continuo et æquus, et pru- CHAP. dens, et innocens erit. In which words that elegant. writer doth, by a rhetorical scheme, set out the remarkable alteration which was in any who became true Christians, that although they were passionate, covetous, fearful, lustful, cruel, unjust, vicious; yet upon their being Christians, they became mild, liberal, courageous, temperate, merciful, just, and unblamable, which never any were brought to by mere philosophy; which rather teacheth the art of concealing vices, than of healing them. But now when Christianity was so effectual in the cure of those distempers, which philosophy gave over as beyond its skill and power, when it cured them with so great success, and that not in a Paracelsian way, for them to relapse afterwards with greater violence, but it did so thoroughly unsettle the fomes morbi, that it should never gather to so great a head again; doth not this argue a power more than philosophical, and that could be no less than Divine power which tended so much to reform the world, and to promote true goodness in it?

Thus we have considered the contrariety of the doc- XXIV. trine of Christ to men's natural inclinations, and yet the strange success it had in the world, which in the last place will appear yet more strange, when we add the almost continual opposition it met with from worldly power and policy. Had it been possible for a cunningly devised fable, or any mere contrivance of impostors, to have prevailed in the world, when the most potent and subtle persons bent their whole wits and designs for suppressing it? Whatever it were in others, we are sure of some of the Roman emperors, as Julian and Dioclesian, that it was their master-design to root out and abolish Christianity; and was it only the subtlety of the Christians which made these persons give

II.

BOOK over their work in despair of accomplishing it? If the Christians were such subtle men, whence came all their enemies to agree in one common calumny, that they were a company of poor, weak, ignorant, inconsiderable men? And if they were so, how came it to pass that by their power and wisdom they could never exterminate these persons, but as they cut them down they grew up the faster, and multiplied by their subtraction of them? There was something then certainly peculiar in Christianity from all other doctrines, that it not only was not advanced by any civil power, but it got ground by the opposition it met with in the world. And therefore it is an observable circumstance, that the first Christian emperor, (who acted as emperor for Christianity,) viz. Constantine, (for otherwise I know what may be said for Philippus,) did not appear in the world till Christianity had spread itself over most parts of the habitable world; God thereby letting us see, that though the civil power, when become Christian, might be very useful for protecting Christianity, yet that he stood in no need at all of it as to the propagation of it abroad in the world. But we see it was quite otherwise in that religion which had Mars its ascendant, viz. Mahometism, for, like Paracelsus's dæmon, it always sat upon the pummel of the sword, and made its way in the world merely by force and violence; and as its first constitution had much of blood in it, so by it hath it been fed and nourished ever since. But it was quite otherwise with the Christian religion: it never thrived better than in the most barren places, nor triumphed more than when it suffered most; nor spread itself further than when it encountered the greatest opposition: because therein was seen the great force and efficacy of the doctrine of Christ, that it bore up men's spirits under the greatest

IX.

miseries of life, and made them with cheerfulness to CHAP. undergo the most exquisite torments which the cruelty of tyrants could invent. The Stoics' and Epicureans' boasts, that their wise man would be happy in the bull of Phalaris, were but empty and Thrasonical words, which none would venture the truth of by an experiment upon themselves. It was the Christian alone, and not the Epicurean, that could truly say in the midst of torments, Suave est et nihil curo, and might justly alter a little of that common saying of the Christians, and say, Non magna loquimur, sed patimur, as well as vivimus; the Christians did not speak great things, but do and suffer them. And this gained not only great reputation of integrity to themselves, but much advanced the honour of their religion in the world, when it was so apparently seen that no force or power was able to withstand it. Will not this at least persuade you that our religion is true, and from God? saith Arnobius: Quod cum genera Arnob. 1. ii. pœnarum tanta sint a vobis proposita religionis hujus Gentes. sequentibus leges, augeatur res magis, et contra omnes minas atque interdicta formidinum animosius populus obnitatur, et ad credendi studium, prohibitionis ipsius stimulis excitetur ?. Itane istud non divinum et sacrum est, aut sine Deo, eorum tantas animorum fieri conversiones, ut cum carnifices unci, aliique innumeri cruciatus, quemadmodum diximus, impendeant credituris, veluti quadam dulcedine, atque omnium virtutum amore correpti, cognitas accipiant rationes, atque mundi omnibus rebus præponant amicitias Christi ; that no fears, penalties, or torments, were able to make a Christian alter his profession, but he would rather bid adieu to his life than to his Saviour. This Origen Origen. likewise frequently takes notice of, when Celsus had 1. i. p. 22. objected the novelty of Christianity. The more won-1. ii. p. 110.

P. 45. cont.

cont. Cels.

Vid. etiam,

BOOK derful it is (saith Origen) that in so short a time it II. should so largely spread itself in the world; for if the cure of men's bodies be not wrought without Divine providence, how much less the cure of so many thousands of souls, which have been converted at once to humanity and Christianity, especially when all the powers of the world were from the first engaged to hinder the progress of this doctrine; and yet, notwithstanding all this opposition, ἐνίκησε, μὴ πεφυκώς και λύεσθαι, ὡς λόγος Θεοῦ, καὶ γενόμενος τοσούτων ἀνταγωνιστῶν ἰσχυρότερος, πάσης μὲν Ἑλλάδος, ἐπὶ πλεῖον δὲ τῆς βαρβάρου ἐκράτησε, καὶ μετεποίησε μυρίας ὅσας ψυχὰς ἐπὶ τὴν κατ ̓ αὐτὸν beoré Belav. The word of God prevailed, as not being able to be stopped by men, and became master over all its enemies, and not only spread itself quite through Greece, but through a great part of the world besides, and converted an innumerable company of souls to the true worship and service of God. Thus we have now manifested, from all the circumstances of the propagation of the doctrine of Christ, what evidence there was of a Divine power accompanying of it, and how useful the first miracles were in order to it.

СНАР. Х.

THE DIFFERENCE OF TRUE MIRACLES FROM FALSE.

I. The unreasonableness of rejecting the evidence from miracles, because of impostures. That there are certain rules of distinguishing true miracles from false, and Divine from diabolical, proved from God's intention in giving a power of miracles, and the providence of God in the world. II. The inconvenience of taking away the rational grounds of faith, and placing it on selfevidence. Of the self-evidence of the Scriptures, and the insufficiency of that for resolving the question about the authority of the Scriptures. III. Of the pretended miracles of impostors and false Christs; as Barchochebas, David el-David, and others. IV. The rules whereby to judge true miracles from false. 1. True Divine miracles are wrought to confirm a Divine testimony. V. No miracles necessary for the certain conveyance of a Divine testimony: proved from the evidences that the Scriptures could not be corrupted. VI. 2. No miracles Divine which contradict Divine revelation. Of popish miracles. VII. 3. Divine miracles leave Divine effects on those who believe them. Of the miracles of Simon Magus. VIII. 4. Divine miracles tend to the overthrow of the Devil's power in the world: the antipathy of the doctrine of Christ to the Devil's design in the world. IX. 5. The distinction of true miracles from others, from the circumstances and manner of their operation. miracles of Christ compared with those of the heathen gods. X. 6. God makes it evident to all impartial judgments, that Divine miracles exceed created power. This manifested from the unparalleled miracles of Moses and our Saviour. From all which the rational evidence of Divine revelation is manifested, as to the persons whom God employs to teach the world. HAVING thus far stated the cases wherein miracles CHAP. may justly be expected as a rational evidence of Divine. authority in the persons whom God employs by way of peculiar message to the world, and in the prosecution of this discourse manifested the evidences of Divine authority in Moses and the prophets, and in our Saviour and his apostles; the only remaining question

The

X.

I.