0 F T H E H 0 L y s c R I p T u R E s. ' xvif ment. for the univerf.1l Church, which from the. Beginning thereof until thefe Times proteired the Chrifl:ian Religion to be divine, did and doth alfo profefs that thefe Books are of God: And the feveral primitive Churches which firfl: received the Books of the Old Tef\ament, and the Gofpels, the Epifl:les written from the Apoftles to them, their l'afl:ors or fome they knew, did receive them as the Orades of God, and dehvered th.em afterw;rds under the fame Title to their Succeffors and other Churches: And all the Paftors and Doctors, who being furnifhed with Skill both in the Languages and Mat– ters, have tried and fearched into them, and all pious Chriftians, who by Experience have felt their divine Operation, on their own Souls, have afferted the fame. So that whoever rejects the Bible, obliges himfelf to believe no other Books in the 'World what– foever; for fince none of them have any fnch great and univerfal Atteftations, if he Jhall credit them, and not this, it will 1hew apparent Difingenmty and pee·vifb Obfli– nacy. And fecondly, He that does credit the Author of this Book,. with the fame Cre– dit wherewith he credits other Authors, whom he fuppofes Men of common Honefty that would not knowingly write an Untruth, cannot then refufe to receive this as a Book dh•ine and infallible, upon as good Terms of Credibility, as he believes any the beft human Author in its kind to be true; becaufe they themfelves tell us that it is fo, (which were it otherwife, without moft apparent Falfhood they would not do;) they affirming that God himfelf infpired them to write it, and that it was no ProduCt of their own, but every Part of it the genuine Dictate of the Holy Ghoft. And this Argument is abundantly reinforced and ftrengthened from the Confidera– tion of that glorious Company of Martyrs, thofe innumerable Multitudes, who in the Flames and Rage of Perfecution, have with the Lofs of their Lives maintained the Scriptures to be the facred Word of God, and had the fame in fuch Veneration, that in the primitive Ages the 'l"raditors, (Deliverers up of their Bibles to the Heathen to be defttoyed,) were always efl:eemed as bad as profeffed Apoflates. Since therefore they did fa confrantly, and with fuch Hazards affirm this Truth, what 1hadow of Realon is there to fufpeCl: fuch .a Cloud of Witniffes of Folly, Weaknefs, Credulity, Wicked– nefs, or Conlpiracy amongft themfelves, which fuch a diffufed Multitude was abfo– lutely uncapable of? Nor can we fuppofe that popular Eflcem on Earth, and Vain-glory could be the Ground upon which they fuffered, fince they gave up their Lives for a Re– ligion, which both utterly condemned fuch Vanity, and was every where in the World at that Time odious and deteftabk, and whofe l'rofellion brought nothing bur outward Shame and Contempt. • · XIII. But the Doctrines and Matters of Fact in the Scriptures, which if true, its divine Original will be undeniable, are not only avouched by ·its own Votaries, but many mofl: confiderable Parts of it acknowledged by its Enemies: As appears by this brief Induction of Particulars. The Creation of the vVorld is intimated by Ovid in his Metamorpbojis, lib. 1. The extraordinary long Liws of the Patriarchs in the firft Ages of the World, by Manetho the Egyptian, Berofus the Chaldean, and others; who add, '!"hat they were ordered to live fo long that they might jludy Sciences, and invent Arts, efpr cially that they might obferve the celejlial Motiom, and enrich the World <vith the Know- . ledge of Aflronomy; wberein, fay they, they would have done little good, if they had lived lefs than .fix hundred Years, becanfe the great Year, as they call it, is fo long in going about and coming to a Period. The Flood is mentioned by the fame BerojitS, whofe Words are recited by 'Jofephus, lib. r. Antiq. cap. 4· Of Noah, under the Notion of bifront– ed 'Janus, becaufe he lived in both \'l'orlds, we read in Berofus and Herodotus: And of the Ark failing over America, and the letting forth of Birds that found no dry Ground, in Polyhijlor, and others. Of the Dejlruflion of Sodom; -or the afphaltic Lake, we have fame Account in Pliny, lib. 5· cap. r6. and 'Juflin, lib. 36. That there was fuch a Man as Mofes, fuch a People as the Ifraelites ; that this Mofes was their Captain, and led them our of Egypt, wrote their Story, and gave them Laws, is teftified by the moft:' ancient Records of the Egyptians, Phcenicians, Chaldemzs, and Grecians. .And Manetho, fpeaks very particularly both of their Coming into Ii.gypt, and Departure thence. Of Circumcijion, Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and 'I'acitus, lib. z. Of the Coming of the Ifrae/ites into Canaan, Procopius, lib. 4· Of Solomon, we read in Dionyjius CaJ– jius; of the Slaughter of Senacherib, in Herodotus, lib. 2. The great Roman Hiftorian ., 'l"acitus, in his Annals, fpeaking of the Chri(hans being perfecured by Nero, on Pref · tenc.~:
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