not (without making God acceffary to the Fraud) have banter'd our Credulity, and impos'd upon us falfe and romantick Fables and, confequently, that the many Faults and Abfurdities, complain'd of by fome, cannot be in the Writings themselves, but are too probably in the Hearts of the Complainers : For, *if our Gofpel, i. e. the Beauty and Excellency of our Gofpel be hid, fays the Apostle, it is hid to them that are loft, in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds of them which believe not, left the Light of the glorious Gufpel of Chrift (who is the Image of God). Should Thine unto them.

An Otjection.

SECT. II.

Of the Infpiration of the Evangelical

Writers.

UT why fhould we conceive fo

we

B great a Notion of the glorious

"Gospel of Chrift, as you call it, when, (( upon Examination, we find it not near fo good, as fome humane Com"pofitions? At the best, 'tis but a fim"ple Narrative of a plain Man's Life, "with

* 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.

"with fome Occafional Epiftles from a "few of his Followers, written in a "negligent Stile, and confused Method; " and is there any thing in all this, "that a Person of a tolerable Capacity

may not perform? To fuppofe that "the Writers of thefe Things needed a Supernatural Affiftance, or that the "Spirit of God either fuggested the σε Matter, or fuper-intended the Diči46 on, when they were recording them “to Posterity, is vain and idle, if not "profane and blafphemous; especially "confidering that the very Writers "themselves, by the Errors and Offences of their personal Conduct, their Inconfiftences, if not Contradictions in "feveral Inftances, their Mifquotations "of fome Paffages in Scripture, and their doubtful and indiffinate manner of expreffing others; by their giving Dire"tions in Matters of a trivial Nature, "their exhorting their Followers to the

means of acquiring Knowledge, their confulting with one another in difficult "Questions, and their frequent Declara

tions, that themselves both fpake and “ wrote according to their own Senti"ments, (all inconfiftent with a Divine Inspiration,) give us fufficient Reason "to think, that, in their Compofitions, "they were actuated no otherwise, "than

C 3

"than common Authors are,who are left << to the Exercife of their own Facul"ties and Inventions. For, to say no

thing of the need which St. Peter had " (even after the Defcent of the Holy "Ghoft) a of a Vifion, to rectify his "Notions about Preaching the Gospel

b

to the Gentiles; who can imagine, "that his grofs Diffimulation at An"tioch, (even after this Vision had in"ftructed him better,) fhould be any "Indication of a Divine Principle refi.

ding in him? The Spirit of God is "certainly the Spirit of Truth and Harmony; but when the Evangelifts "relate feveral Actions of our Savi"our's Life, nay, even his Genealogy at "their first setting out, in a different, "if not contradictory manner; when "Matthew tells us, that his being cal"led a Nazarene was predicted, though

te

с

no Word like it is to be found in any "of the Prophets, d and under Fere"miah's Name mifcites a Paffage in the "Prophet Zechary; and when John "fpeaks in fuch dubious and uncertain "Language, as about the firft Hour of "the Day, and as it were two hundred "Cubits,&c. (which he certainly would "not have done, had he known bet

b

f

* A&s XV. 7. Gal. ii. 11. • Ch. ii. 25. * Ch xxvii. 9. Ch. xix. 14. f Ch. xxi. 8.

«ter)

"ter) how can we fuppofe, that Men, "endowed with the infallible Spirit of "God, fhould commit fuch Blunders,

or labour under fuch Uncertainties? " "Tis below the Dignity of the third "Perfon in the Trinity, one would "think, to concern himself about a "Cloak and Parchments, or the little "Salutations, which St. Paul fends to "his Fellow-Converts and Familiars

i

h

nor can we conceive why he fhould "fo ftrictly enjoin Timothy to give At"tendance to Reading, and Meditation, " (which a miraculous Infusion certain"ly vacates) or why the other Apo"files fhould difpute and confer toge"ther, before they came to a Refolu❝tion at the Synod of Jerufalem; if "each of them fingly had been fuffici❝ently inspired to determine the Que"ftion. But the plain Truth is, the "Apoftle to the Gentiles is fo far from "arrogating to himself any fuch mira"culous Gift, that, in fome Cafes, he "pretends to be no more than a com

1

k mon Adviser, But to the reft fpeak “ I, not the Lord; and about fuch and "fuch a Matter, I have no Commandment from the Lord, but give my Judg"ment only: Words, that but badly.

C 4

com

Anfwer

ed, by fhewing

from

"comport with a Perfon, who pretend to "have the Spirit of God abiding in him. "And therefore we may fafely conclude, "that whatever Encomiums may be ແ given to the Writers of the Gospel in "other Refpects, no implicit Faith can "be due to their Authority, upon the "Account of their Inspiration.

That God, who is a Spirit, can speak as intelligibly to the Spirits and Minds of Men, as Men can speak to the Ear, Scripture is obvious to our firft Reflections on the that the Divine Attributes; and that there was Apoftles were ac- fome Neceffity for God's communicatually in- ting himself to the Apoftles in this manfpir'd.

ner, the Difficulty of their Province, which was to preach the Gofpel to all Nations, and all Languages, feems to imply. When Mofes was fent to Pharaoh, and, for fear of the Face of fo great a King, was ready to retract, God, to encourage him, gives him the Promife, that he would be with his Mouth, and with Aaron's Mouth, and would teach them what they should fay: And, in like manner, when our Saviour tells his Dif ciples, that they should be brought before Governours and Kings for his fake, for a Teftimony against them and the Gentiles; he bids them take no thought how,

or

Exod. iv. 12, 15. "Mart. x. 18, &c. Mark

xiii. 9, &c.

.