AN INSTANCE OF MORAL DEMONSTRATION, ÖR, A CONJUGATION OF PROBABILITIES, PROVING THAT THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST IS FROM GOD. FROM BISHOP TAYLOR'S DUCTOR DUBITANTIUM. AN INSTANCE OF MORAL DEMONSTRATION, OR A CONJUGATION OF PROBABILITIES, PROVING THAT THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST IS FROM GOD. SECT. IZ. THIS difcourfe, of all the difputables in the world, fhall require the fewest things to be granted; even nothing but what was evident, even nothing but the very fubject of the question, viz. that there was fuch a man as Jefus Chrift; that he pretended fuch things and taught fuch doctrines: for he that will prove these things to be from God, must be allowed that they were from fomething or other. But this poftulate I do not ask for need, but for order's fake and art; for what the hiftories of that age reported as a public affair, as one of the most eminent tranfactions of the world, that which made fo much noise, which caused so many changes, which occasioned so many wars, which divided so many hearts, which altered fo many families, which procured fo many deaths, which obtained fo many laws in favour, and suffered fo many refcripts in the disfavour of its felf; that which was not done in a corner, but was thirty-three years and more in acting; which caufed fo many fects, and was oppofed by fo much art, and fo much power, that it might not grow, which filled the world with noife, which effected fuch great changes in the bodies of men, by curing the diseased, and fmiting the contumacious or the hypocrites; which drew fo many eyes, and filled fo many tongues, and employed fo many pens, and was the care and the question of the whole world at that time, and immediately after; that which was configned by public acts and records of courts, which was in the books of friends and enemies, which came accompanied and remarked with eclipfes and stars and prodigies of heaven and earth; that which the Jews even in fpite and against their wills confessed, and which the witty adverfaries intending to overthrow, could never so much as challenge of want of truth in the matter of fact and story; that which they who are infinitely concerned that it fhould not be believed, or more, that it had never been, do yet only labour to make to appear not to have been divine: certainly, this thing is fo certain that it was, that the defenders of it need not account it a kindness to have it presupposed; for never was any story in the world that had so many degrees of credibility, as the ftory of the perfon, life and death of Jefus Chrift and if he had not been a true prophet, yet that he was in the world, and faid and did fuch things cannot be denied; for even concerning Mahomet, we make no queftion but he was in the world, and led a great part of mankind after him, and what was less proved we infinitely believe; and what all men say, and no man denies, and was notorious in itself, of this we may make further inquiries whether it was all that which it pretended, for that it did make pretences and was in the world, needs no more probation. : 13. But now whether Jefus Chrift was fent from God, and delivered the will of God, we are to take accounts from all the things of the world which were on him, or about him, or from him. Confider firft his perfon: he was foretold by all the prophets he, I fay, for that appears by the event, and the corre fpondencies of their fayings, to his perfòn: he was described by infallible characterisms which did fit him, and did never fit any but him; for when he was born, then was the fulness of time, and the Meffias was expected at the time when Jefus did appear, which gave occafion to many of the godly then to wait for him, and to hope to live till the time of his revelation: and they did fo, and with a spirit of prophecy which their own nation did confefs and honour, glorified God at the revelation: and the most excel-` lent and devout perfons that were confpicuous for their piety did then rejoice in him, and confefs him; and the expectation of him at that time was fo public and famous, that it gave occafion to divers impoftors to abuse the credulity of the people in pretending to be the Meffias; but not only the predictions of the time, and the perfect fynchronisms did point him out, but at his birth a strange ar appeared, which guided certain Levantine princes and fages to the inquiry after him; a strange star which had an irregular place and an irregular motion, that came by defign, and acted by counfel, the counsel of the Almighty Guide; it moved from place to place, till it stood juft over the house where the babe did fleep; a ftar of which the Heathen knew much, who knew nothing of him; a ftar which Chalcidius affirmed to have fignified the defcent of God for the falvation of man; a ftar that guided the wife Chaldees to worship him with gifts (as the fame difciple of Plato does affirm, and) as the holy Scriptures deliver; and this ftar could be no fecret; it troubled all the country; it put Herod upon strange arts of fecurity for his kingdom; it effected a fad tragedy accidentally, for it occafioned the death of all the little babes in the city and voifinage of Bethlehem: but the birth of this young child, which was thus glorified by a ftar, was alfo fignified by an angel, and was effected by the holy Spirit of God, in a manner which was in itself supernatural; a virgin was his mother, and God was his father, and his beginning was miraculous; and this matter of his birth of a virgin was proved to an interested and jealous perfon, even to Joseph the supposed father of Jesus ; it was affirmed publicly by all his family, and by all his disciples, and published in the midst of all his enemies, who by no artifice could reprove it; a matter fo famous, that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jefus to be the Meffias, by the force of a prophecy in Isaiah, "a virgin fhall conceive a fon," they who: obftinately refused to admit him, did not deny the matter of fact, but denied that it was so meant by the prophet, which if it were true, can only prove that Jefus was more excellent than was foretold by the prophets, but that there was nothing less in him than was to be in the Meffias; it was a matter fo famous, that the Arabian physicians, who can affirm no fuch things of their Mahomet, and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the holy Jefus, endeavour to elevate and leffen the thing, by faying, It is not wholly beyond the force of nature, that a virgin fhouldconceive, fo that it was on all hands undeniable, that the mother of Jefus was a virgin, a mother without a man. This is that Jefus at whofe presence before he was born, a babe in his mother's belly alfo did leap for joy, who was also a perfon extraordinary himself, conceived in his mother's old age, after a long barrennefs, fignified by an angel in the temple, to his father officiating in his priestly office, who was alfo ftruck dumb for his not prefat believing all the people faw it, and all his kindred were |