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xviii. 20.) It is told (Acts ii. 41.) that three thousand at one time; and (Acts iv. 4.) that above five thousand at another time, were converted, upon conviction of what themselves had seen,-what had been done publicly before their eyes, wherein it was impossible to have imposed upon them. Therefore here were the two first of the rules before mentioned.

Then for the two last: Baptism and the Lord's Supper were instituted as perpetual memorials of these things; and they were not instituted in after ages, but at the very time when these things were said to be done; and have been observed without interruption, in all ages through the whole Christian world, down all the way from that time to this. And CHRIST himself did ordain apostles and other ministers of his Gospel, to preach and administer the sacraments; and to govern his Church and that "always, even unto the end of the world."* Accordingly, they have continued by regular succession, to this day: and, no doubt, ever shall, while the earth shall last. So that the Christian clergy are as notorious a matter of fact, as the tribe of Levi among the Jews. And the Gospel is as much a law to the Christians, as the book of Moses to the Jews and it being part of the matters of fact related in the Gospel, that such an order of men were appointed by CHRIST, P and to continue to the end of the world; consequently, if the Gospel was a fiction, and invented (as it must have been) in some ages after CHRIST; then, at that time when it was first invented, there could be no such order of clergy, as derived themselves from the institution of CHRIST; which must give the lie to the Gospel, and demonstrate the whole to be false. And the matters of fact of CHRIST being insisted on as being true, no otherwise than as there was at that time, (whenever the Deists will suppose the Gospel to be forged,) not only public sacraments of CHRIST's institution, but an order of clergy, likewise of his appointment, to administer them: and it being impossible there could be any such things

*Matt. xxviii. 20.

• Compare PALEY'S Evidences of Christianity, Prop. II. chap i. "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." John xx. 21. "Lo I am with you always," &c. Matt. xxviii. 20.

before they were invented, it is as impossible that they should be received when invented. And therefore, by what was said above, it was as impossible to have imposed upon mankind in this matter, by inventing of it in after ages, as at the time when those things were said to be done.

3. The matters of fact of Mahomet, or what is fabled of the deities, do all want some of the aforesaid four rules, whereby the certainty of matters of fact is demonstrated.

First, for Mahomet, he pretended to no miracles, as he tells us in his Alcoran, c. 6. &c. and those which are commonly told of him pass among the Mahometans themselves, but as legendary fables; and as such, are rejected by the wise and learned among them as the legends of their saints are in the church of Rome. See Dr. PRIDEAUX's Life of Mahomet, p. 34."

"The following passages of the Koran furnish direct proofs of what we allege: The infidels say, Unless a sign be sent down unto him from his Lord, we will not believe; thou art a preacher only.* Again; 'Nothing hindered us from sending thee with miracles, except that the former nations have charged them with imposture.'t And lastly; "They say, Unless a sign be sent down unto him from the LORD, we will not believe: Answer, signs are in the power of God alone, and I am no more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for them, that we have sent down unto them the book of the Koran to be read unto them?' Besides these acknowledgements I have observed thirteen distinct places, in which Mahomet puts the objection, 'Unless a sign' &c. into the mouth of the unbeliever; in not one of which does he allege a miracle in reply. His answer is 'that God giveth the power of working miracles when, and to whom, he pleaseth;'s that 'if he should work miracles, they would not believe;'ll that 'they had before rejected Moses, and Jesus, and the Prophets, who wrought miracles ;'¶ and that the Koran itself was a miracle.***" PALEY'S Evidences, Part II. Chap. ix. Sect. 3. where see more on the same subject.

$ The miracles ascribed to Mahomet are thus reckoned up by PRI DEAUX: "That he did cleave the moon in two; that trees went forth to meet him; that water flowed from between his fingers; that the stones saluted him; that he fed a great company with a little food; that a beam groaned at him; that a camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton told him of its being poisoned, &c."-What is the nature of these miracles? One is manifestly copied from a miracle twice performed by CHRIST: the remainder are not merely trivial—they are ludicrous and

*Sale's Koran, chap. xiii. p. 201. ed. quarto.

Chap. xxxix. p. 328-
Chap. iii. xxi. xxviii.

§ Chap. v. x. xiiii. twice.
Chap. xvi.

† Chap. xvii. p. 232. Chap. vi.

But, in the next place, those which are told of him, do all want the two first rules before mentioned. For his pretended converse with the moon, his Mersa, or night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven, &c. were not performed before any body. We have only his own word for them. And they are as ground- | less as the delusions of Fox and Muggleton" among ourselves.

The same is to be said (in the second place) of the fables of the Heathen gods; of Mercury's stealing sheep, Jupiter's turning himself into a bull, and the like; besides the folly and unworthiness of such senseless pretended miracles. And moreover, the wise among the Heathen did reckon no otherwise of these but as fables, which had a mythology, or mystical meaning in them,

contemptible. What is the authority on which they are related? That of persons "who are reckoned among the Mahomedans themselves fabulous and legendary writers. Their learned Doctors renounce them all" says PRIDEAUX, and in proof quotes ABULFARAGIUS, p. 104; PoCOCKII Spec. Hist. Arab. p. 191, 192; HOTTINGER Hist. Orient. Lib. II. c. vi. The common resource of Mahomedans for miraculous proof of their impostor's mission, is the Koran. Its style, say they, is of all miracles the greatest. Mahomet taught them the argument, and after him they have faithfully repeated it. The manner in which the work was composed, would destroy the force of the argument, if it ever could possess any. See PRIDEAUX, p. 34-46. That it has any foundation in extraordinary excellence of style in the Koran, is denied by PFEIFFER, Critica Sacra, c. xvi. R. 441. Whatever beauties the Koran may possess (as some it unquestionably does possess) may be easily accounted for by reference to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, from which they are all either borrowed, or imitated.

A visionary enthusiast, from whom the sect of Quakers, or Friends, had its rise, about the year 1640. He pretended to extraordinary revelations, visions, &c., derived from the immediate impulses of the Deity. His ravings are published in the Journal of George Fox, 2 vol. folio, London, 1694.

" A fanatic who excited considerable attention in England about the middle of the 17th century, by his pretensions to miraculous powers, and the spirit of prophecy. He gathered together a small band of followers, called after him, Muggletonians. Their principal peculiarities were strange contortions, which they regarded as the operations of the HOLY SPIRIT upon their bodies; and their raving and intolerant denunciations of all other religious creeds. Muggleton was a tailor by trade, and died at an advanced age in 1690. Several of his works attracted so much notice, as to be burned by the hangman, by order of the House of Commons.

of which several of them have given us the rationale, or explication. And it is plain enough that OVID meant no other by all his Metamorphoses.

It is true, the Heathen deities had their priests: they had likewise feasts, games, and other public institutions in memory of them. But all these want the fourth mark, viz. that such priesthood and institutions should commence from the time that such things as they commemorate were said to be done: otherwise they cannot secure after ages from the imposture, by detecting it at the time when first invented, as hath been argued before. But the Bacchanalia, and other Heathen feasts, were instituted many ages after what was reported of these gods was said to be done, and therefore can be no proof. And the priests of Bacchus, Apollo, &c. were not ordained by these supposed gods: but were appointed by others, in after ages, only in honour to them. And therefore these orders of priests are no evidence to the truth of the matters of fact which are reported of their gods.

IV. Now to apply what has been said. You may challenge all the Deists in the world to show any action that is fabulous, which has all the four rules or marks before mentioned. No, it is impossible. And (to resume a little what has been spoken of before) the histories of Exodus, and the Gospel, never could have been received, if they had not been true; because the institution of the Priesthood of Levi, and of CHRIST; of the Sabbath, of the Passover, and of Circumcision; of Baptism, and of the Lord's Supper, &c. are there related as descending ali the way down from those times, without interruption. And it is full as impossible to persuade men that they had been circumcised or baptized,— had circumcised or baptized their children,--had celebrated passovers, sabbaths, sacraments, &c. under the government and administration of a certain order of priests, if they had done none of these things, as to make them believe that they had gone through seas upon dry land, seen the dead raised, &c. And without believing these, it was impossible that either the Law or the Gospel could have been received.

And the truth of the matters of fact of Exodus and the

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Gospel, being no otherwise pressed upon men than as they have practised such public institutions, it is appealing to the senses of mankind for the truth of them; and makes it impossible for any to have invented such stories in after ages, without a palpable detection of the cheat when first invented; as impossible as to have imposed upon the senses of mankind, at the time when such public matters of fact were said to be done.

V. I do not say, that every thing which wants these four marks is false: but, that nothing can be false which has them all.

I have no manner of doubt that there was such a man as Julius Cæsar, that he fought at Pharsalia, and that he was killed in the senate house. And many other matters of fact of ancient times are true, though we keep no public observances in memory of them.

But this shows that the matters of fact of Moses and of CHRIST, have come down to us better guarded than any other matters of fact, how true soever.

And yet our Deists, who would laugh any man out of the world as an irrational brute, that should offer to deny Cæsar or Alexander, Homer or Virgil, their public works and actions; do, at the same time, value themselves as the only men of wit and sense, of free, generous, and unbiassed judgments, for ridiculing the histories of Moses and of CHRIST, that are infinitely better attested, and guarded with infallible marks which the others want."

VI. Besides that the importance of the subject would oblige all men to inquire more narrowly into the one than the other. For what consequence is it to me, or to the world, whether there was such a man as Cæsar; whether he beat, or was beaten at Pharsalia; whether

▾ This truth is set in a very strong light in a late work, which, professedly examining into the nature of historical evidence, whether sacred or profane, concludes with a chapter showing that the evidence for the sacred writings, and their contents, is stronger than that in favour of any profane history whatsoever.-TAYLOR on the Transmission of Ancient Writings, 8vo. London, 1827. The same author carries out the subject more fully, and with equal ability, in his still later work on the Process of Historical Proof, 8vo, London, 1828.

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