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THE

REASONABLENESS and CERTAINTY

OF THE

Christian Religion.

F

PART II.

ROM what has been already difcourfed, it appears, that these things are requifite in a Divine Revelation: I. Antiquity. II. Promulgation. III. A fufficient Evidence, by Prophecies and Miracles, in Proof of its Authority. IV. The Doctrines delivered by Divine Revelation must be Righteous and Holy, confiftent with the Divine Attributes, and futable to their Condition to whom it is made, and every way fuch as may answer the Design of a Revelation.

A

CHAP. I.

The Antiquity of the Scriptures.

S it is evident from the Divine Attributes, that God would not fo wholly neglect Mankind, as to take no care to difcover, and reveal his Will and Commandments to the World; fo, when there was

fo great a neceflity of Divine Revelation, in order to the Happiness of Mankind, both in this World and the next, it is not to be believed that he would defer it fo long, before he made known his Will, as till the date of the firft Antiquities amongst the Heathen. It cannot be denied, that fome Books of the Scripture are much the ancienteft Books of Religion in the World; for it were in vain to pretend that the Works in this kind (or indeed in any other) of any Heathen Author can be compared with the Pentateuch, for Antiquity. And the Antiquity of thefe Books is one confiderable circumstance, whereby we may be convinced that they are of Divine Revelation. For if God would not fuffer the World to continue long in a state of Ignorance and Wickedness without a Revelation, we may conclude, that he would not fuffer the Memory of it to be loft; aud therefore a Book of this nature, which is fo much the ancienteft in the World, being conftantly received as a Divine Revelation, carries great Evidence with it that it is Authentick. For the firft Revelation, as hath been proved, is to be the Criterion of all that follow; and God would not fuffer the ancientest Book of Religion in the World to pafs all along under the Notion and Title of a Revelation, without caufing fome Difcovery to be made of the Imposture, if there were any in it; much less would he preferve it by a particular and fignal Providence, for fo many Ages. It is a great Argument for the Truth of the Scriptures, that they have stood the Teft, and received the Approbation of fo many Ages, and ftill retain their Authority, through fo many ill Men, in all Ages, have made it their endeavour to difprove them but it is still a farther Evidence in behalf of them, that God has been pleased to fhew fo remarkable a Providence in their prefervation.

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The Account we have of Divine Revelation, in the Writings of Mofes, is from the Creation of the World;

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for he relates the Intercourfe which from the Beginning past between God and Man, and this might be deliver'd down either by Writing or by Tradition, till Mofes's time. For Methuselah living with Adam, and Shem with Methuselah, Ifaac with Shem, and Amram the Father of Mofes living with the Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob, the Hiftory of the Creation, and of the Manifeftations which God had been pleas'd to make of himself to their Fore-fathers, could not be unknown to that Age: fuch a Pofterity could not but be zealous to preserve the Memory of fo great Honours and Bleffings; and their living in Goshen, feparate from the Egyptians, did much contribute to the Prefervation of their Antiquities; for there they liv'd in expectation of a Deliverance, and of feeing the Prophecies fulfill'd that were made to their Fore-fathers concerning it. The famous Prediction made to Abraham, Gen. xv. 13. could not be forgotten in fo few Generations for the coming out of Egypt, was, as it was there foretold it fhould be, in the Fourth Generation, reckoning from Ifaac, the firft of the promis'd Seed, to Mofes, exclufively, Exod. vi. 16.

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Mofes feems to refer to fome things that happen'd near the Beginning of the World, as well known in his own time, as Gen. iv. 22. where he fays, the fifter of Tubal-Cain was Naamah: For no probable account can be given, why Naamah fhould be mention'd, but because her Name, was then well known among the Ifraelites, for fome reafon which it doth not concern us to be acquainted with, but which fery'd to confirm to them the reft of the Relation. Some have deliver'd, that Naamah, by her Beauty, entic'd the Sons of God, or the Pofterity of Seth, to commit Idolatry, Gen. vi. 2. And fo Gen. xi. 29. we read, that Haran was the Father of Ifcah, as well as of Milcah; and Gen. xxxvi. 24. this was that Anah that found the Mules (or the Hot-Baths, or that fell

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upon the Emims, or Giants, mention'd Deut. ii. 10, 11. however the word be understood) in the wildernefs, as he fed the Affes of Zibeon his father. In the Catalogue of the Kings of Edom, none of their Wives are mention'd, but the Wife of Hadar, and we are told, that her Name was Mahetabel, and that fhe was the Daughter of Matred, the Daughter of Merahab, Gen. xxxvi. 39. Why fuch Particularity, but because these Names were then famous? Thefe, and fuch like Particulars, must have been preferv'd, and commonly known among the Ifraelites, and were therefore inferted to ferve as Epocha's, and Notes of Remembrance, for the better understanding the rest of the Hiftory., The Story and manner of Life of Nimrod was convey'd in a Proverb; Wherefore it is faid, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lard, Gen. x. 9. And the Remembrance of Abraham's offering up his Son, was retain'd both by the Name of the Place, and by a Proverbial Saying; And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is faid to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be feen, Gen. xxii. 14. And there is

no doubt to be made, but that there were other the like Remembrances of the most remarkable Tranfactions. Reafons are affign'd of the Names of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Seth and Noah, of Melchifedek, of Abraham and Sarah, and Ifaac and Jacob. The Names of all the Patriarchs imported fomething remarkable in their Signification, and were defign'd to preferve the Remembrance of what had come to pafs. The Names of Places likewife were appointed for Memorials, Gen. xix. 22. xxviii. 19. xxxi. 49. xxxii. 30. And the Sepulchres of the Dead were historical Monuments for the Information of Pofterity. Abraham purchas'd Macpelab for a Burying-place, and when Jacob bury'd Rachel near Bethlehem, he erected a Pillar to her Memory, Gen. xxiii. 17. xxxv. 20. It may perhaps feem ftrange

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to fome Readers, that the Digging of Wells should be particularly taken notice of, and that the Names given them fhould be fo carefully recorded by Mofes, Genef. xvi. 14. xxi. 31. xxiv. 62. xxv. II. xxvi. 20, 21, 33. But as Wells in thofe Countries were more rare, and of more necessary use and benefit, than in colder and moifter Climates; fo they ferv'd as fo many Memorials to Pofterity, of what had befallen their Forefathers, and the Names of them ftand register'd by Mofes, in Confirmation of the Truth of what he wrote. But the Flood being the greatest Epocha of Time, the History of this is above all defiver'd with most Exactness: the Dimensions of the Ark, the Height of the Waters, and not only the Year, but the Month and Day, when the Waters were brought upon the Earth, and when it became dry, are punctually fet down, Gen. vi. 15. vii. 11, 20. viii. 13, 14.

Jofephus has prov'd, that Authors of all Nations agree, that in ancient Times Men liv'd to the Age of about a Thousand Years; and fome are known to have liv'd to a very great Age in latter Times. But however, it had been more ferviceable to Mofes's purpose, if he had had any other Design but Truth, that Men fhould not have been fo long-liv'd. For when he had fo much scope for his Invention, (if it had been an Invention of his own) he would never have fix'd the Creation of the World at the Distance of fo few Generations from the time in which he wrote, but would rather have made the Generations of Men more, and their Lives fhorter, that fo he might the better have conceal'd his Fictions in obfcure and uncertain Relations, which must be fuppos'd to be deliver'd through fo many hands down to that Age. Of the Ten Patriarchs before the Flood, all but Noah liv'd foon enough to fee Adam and the other Patriarchs their Progenitors; and Noah himself was old enough to know all of them, but Adam, Seth,

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