182 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. proveth the gospel by these five ways of evidence: 1. By all the prophecies, types, and promises of Christ in the OldTestament, be- fore Christ's coming. 2. By the inherent impress of God's image on the person and doctrine of Christ ; which,propria luce, showeth itself to be divine. 3. By the concomitant miracles of Christ: read the history of the gospel for this use, and observe each histo- ry. 4. By the subsequent gift of the Spirit to the apostles and other Christians, by languages,wonders, and multitudes of miracles, to convincethe world. 5. By the undeniable and excellent workof sanctification on all true believers throughall the world, in all gene- rations, to this day. These five are the Spirit's witness, which fully testifieth' the certain truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Quest. Buthow are we sure, who, ourselves, never saw the per- son, miracles, resurrection, ascension of Christ, that the history of . them is true ? Ans. I. We may be sure that the spectators were not deceived. II. And that they did not deceive them to whom they reported it. III. And that we are not deceived by any miscarriage in the historical tradition to us. I. It was not possible that men that were not mad, that had eyes and ears, could, for three years and a half, believe that they saw thelame, the blind, the deaf, and all diseases, healed, the dead rais- ed, thousands miraculously fed, &c., and this among crowds of people that still followed Christ, if the things had not been true. One man's senses may be deceived at someone instance, by some deceitful accident; but that the eyes and ears of multitudes should be so oft deceived, many years, in the open light, is as much as to say, no man knoweth any thing that he seeth and heareth. II. That the disciples who received the apostles' and evange- lists' report of Christ, were not deceived by the reporters, is most evident. For, 1. They received it not by hearsay, at the second hand, but from the eye and ear witnesses themselves, who must needs know what they said. 2. They heard this report from men of the same time, and age, and country, where it, was easy to examine the case, and confute it, had it been false. 3. The apostles appealed to crowds and thousands of witnesses as to many of Christ's miracles, who would have made it odious, had it not been true. 4. They sharply reproved the rulers for persecuting Christ, which would provoke them to do their best to confute the apostles for their own justification. 5. Christ chose men of no great human learning and subtlety;
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