460 1Jhe`Prejuçláces á aintt Ghrá/tianitÿ confider'd. Vol. brought to the Heathen World, and they had not feen things themfelves; there- fore he enabled thofe who were the Witneffes of thefe Things to the World, to work as great miracles as he had done. And when they faw thofe who gave Te- ftimony to our Saviour's Miracles, do as great and !range Things themfelves, as they tettify'd of him, there was no reafön any longer to doubt of the Truth of their Teftimony. So that though the Prejudice of theHeathen againft Chriftia- asity was very great, yet the Evidence which God gàve to it, was !tong enough to remove it. The Do&rine of Chrilianity was fuch as might have recommend- ed it felf to impartial Men, by its own Reafonablenefs: But meeting with violent Prejudices in thofe to whom it was offer'd, God was pleafed to give loch a Con- firmation to it, as was fufficient to bear down thofe Prejudices. Secondly, Another Objeaion again! Chrilianity, was the Plainnefs and Sim- plicity of the Do&rine. They expe&ed fome deep Speculations in Natural or Moral Philofophy ; they make full Account, a Teacher fent from Heaven would have intimated them in,the profoundeft Points, and Difcours'd to them about the fir! Principles of Things, and the Nature of the Soul, and the Chief End of Man, with a Subtilty and Eloquence infinitely beyond that of their greateft So- philters, and able tobear down all Oppofition and Contradi&ion : But inlead of this, they are told a plain Storyof the Life and Miracles of Jefur Chrífi, and of his Dying upon the Crofs, and riling from the Dead, and afcending into Heaven; and a few plain Precepts of Life; and all this deliver'd without any Ornaments of Art, or infinuationof Eloquence, to gain the Favour and Applaufe of thofe to whom they related thefe Things. But now, this truly confìder'd, is fo far from being any real Obje &ion again! the Chriftian Do&rine, that it is one of the greatel Commendations that can be given of it : For matter of Fa& ought tobe related in the mo[t plain and liimpie, and unaffected manner; and the lets Art and Eloquence is ufed in the telling of a Story, the more likely it is to gain Belief. And as for our Saviour's Pre- cepts, how plain foever they might be, I am fore they are a Colle&ion of the mol excellent and reafonable Rules of a goodLife, and the freeft from all Va- nity and Folly, that are to be met with in any Book in the World. And can any thing be more worthyof God, and more likely to proceed from him, than fo plain and ufeful a Do&rine as this? The Language of Law is not wont to be fine and perfwafive, but fhort, and plain, and full of Authority. Thus it is among Men: And Curtly it is much fitter for God to fpeak thus to Men, than for Men to one another. -.thirdly, It is objected, That theDo&rine of our Saviour and his.Apofiles wanted Demonftration ; they feemed to impofe too much upon the Underftand- ings of Men, and to deliver things too Magifterially, not demonftrating Things from Intrinucal Arguments, but requiringBelief and Affent without Proof. This the Apofile St. Paul readily acknowledgeth, that in Preaching the Gofpel to the World, they did not proceed in the way of the Heathen Orators and Philo- fophers, r cor. 4. 4. My Speech and my Preaching was not in the enticingWords of Man's Wifdom: but in Demmnffration of the Spirit and of Powers that is, they did not go in the way of Human Eloquence and Demonftration : but yet their Do- &tine did not want its Evidence and Demonftration, though of another kind. They did not go about to bewitch Men by Eloquence, not to entangle their Mindsby fubtil Reafonings, the Force of which very few are capable of:. But they offered to Men a fenfible Proof and Demonttration of the Truth of what they delivered, in thofe !range and miraculous Operations, to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghoft. And this-was a fenfibleEvidence, even to the mean- eft Capacity, of a Divine Aflìfance going along with them, and giving Telimo -" ny to them. I appeal to any Man, whether the Refurre&ion of legs all from theDead, and his Afcending into Heaven, be not a clearer Demonftration of anotherLife after this and more level to the Capacities of all Mankind, than the fineft and fubtileft Arguments that can. be drawn from the Immaterial Nature of theSoul, its-power ofRefledtion upon it felf, and Independency'up'on`Yhe Body;as toCome ofits Operation; which yet areforce of thechiefeft Arguments that 'Phi lofophy,affords, to prove the Immortality of our Souls. Fourth-
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