after he had been Four Days dead, to testify to the World, that Jefus was the Great Embaffador that God had fent, that all Mankind were to receive and obey him.

And left all this fhould not be convincing enough; left it should be faid ftill, One that fhould rife from the Dead, and come and preach to us, would leave the greater Impreffions upon us; Jefus himfelf did rife from the Dead, and did come and preach to the World, and that in a far more convincing Manner than the Ghost of Lazarus would have done, if the Rich Man had had his own Wish. For Jefus told his own Death before-hand, and foretold alfo his Refurrection: And if God meant not to lay an invincible Temptation before Mankind to believe a Falfhood, it had concerned his Providence to have hindred this Refurrection, if Jefus had been any thing elfe than what he pretended to be: But he did rife after Three Days, according to his Prediction, and converfed upon Earth with his Followers for Forty Days together; fhewing himself not only to a few particular Difciples, but to great Crowds of them, Five hundred at a Time, and after this, to the Sight of his Friends, he took his Leave of the World, and afcended up into Heaven. And for a Teftimony how God approved him there, he fent down the Holy Spirit upon his Difciples, who, for many Years together, enabled them to do our Saviour's Miracles over again, in Confirmation of his Doctrine.

If now, to come to our Argument; if thefe Five Brethren of the Rich Man be fuppofed to be alive when all thefe Things came to pafs if they had the Opportunity of being prefent at many of thefe Paffages, and of fatisfying themselves of the reft, (as certainly, fuppofing the Matter of Fact to be true, none that lived at that Time, and in that Country, but had this Opportunity :) If they heard this Jefus that was fent from God at the First, and that was fent from God the Second Time, after he was dead, teftifying against their Sins, forewarning them of the Judgment to come, and affuring them of Eternal Rewards if they would repent: I fay, if they were Witnesses of thefe Things, I will appeal to all the World, whether they had not greater Means of Conviction offered to them, than if any Ghost had appeared to them from the Dead; or any particular Miracle had been vouchfafed them for the bringing them over to Virtue and Sobriety.

But I believe no Body will much doubt of this; for indeed the Matter will not bear a Difpute. But here is the Queftion; Whether we that live at this Diftance from our Saviour, have the fame Means of Conviction? And, Whether one now appearing from the Dead to us, would not be of greater Force to perfuade us, than the standing Revelation of the Gospel, as we have it now conveyed to us?

This therefore leads me to my Second Propofition upon this Head, which, if it can be made out, will wholly take away all Controverfy in this Matter. And it is this;

That

That we at this Day have as great Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Chrift's Revelation, and confequently as great Motives from thence to perfuade us to reform our Evil Lives, as thofe that lived in the Times of our Saviour.

It is true indeed, we want the Evidence of Senfe in these Matters which they had; and upon that Account it must be acknowledged, that they have the Advantage of us. But this we fay, notwithstanding, that if we take all things together, and weigh them impartially, we shall find that that Want is abundantly fupplied to us in other Respects.

For Firft of all, Our Saviour's Gofpel, and all the Evidences of it I have been now speaking of, were timely and faithfully recorded, and are as faithfully transmitted down to us. So that though we did not fee or hear those Things, yet we have a certain and exact Account of them; and fuch an Account as was never yet queftioned by any Adverfaries that lived in thofe Times, when fuch a Question was most reasonably to be made; and fuch an Account as appears, by all the Evidences that a Thing of that Nature is capable of, to have been written by Eye-witneffes, and such Witneffes as were honeft undefigning Men; and. not only fo, but they fealed with their Blood the Truth of what they reported. And this fame Account was religioufly received by all Chriftians, in all Places, without Contradiction in those very Times, and was shortly after tranflated into a Multitude of Languages; fo that it is scarce poffible it should in

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any

any confiderable Matter be corrupted. And from that Time to this, in a continual Succeffion, there have been Men that have fuffer'd Martyrdom for the Atteftation of it and in the firft Ages after Chrift, when they had the best Opportunities of examining the Truth of thefe Things, many Thousands did fo.

Now I fay, though according to the ordinary Proverb, Seeing be believing: Yet next to Seeing an univerfal, well-grounded Tradition, which hath visible Effects attending it, hath the moft Force to gain Belief. Nay, I do not know whether there be fo much Difference between the Evidence of the one and the other, as one would think at firft. Sure Iam, there are many Cafes in which we do as firmly believe Matters of Fact upon the Credit of Tradition, and the permanent Effects that do accompany it, as if we ourselves had been present and feen them with our Eyes. Which of us, for Inftance, doth make any more doubt of the Story of William the Conqueror, his fubduing this Kingdom, or of Henry the Eighth his cafting off the Pope's Supremacy, than he doth of the Revolutions that have happened in his own Time? And yet thefe Matters of Fact are no better attefted than the Hiftory of our Saviour, and his Miracles and Doctrines.

But Secondly, Though thofe that lived in our Saviour's Time had Evidence of Senfe for the Truth of what they believed concerning him and his Doctrine which we have not:

yet

yet this is to be confidered, that they laboured under far greater Prejudices against his Religion, than we now do; and confequently, all that fenfible Proof which they had of the Truth of it, would not be more effectual for the convincing of them, than that Proof we now have, though it be lefs, ought in reafon to be for the convincing of us.

They that were the Hearers and Spectators of what our Saviour faid and did, had mighty and inveterate Prepoffeffions to ftruggle with. They were educated in a quite different Religion, and fo muft be fuppofed to have entertained several Notions and Principles which would very difficulty be rooted out; and, indeed, for the effecting of it, there needed little less than an Almighty Power. But it is not fo with us; we, by our Education, are already difpofed and prepared for the receiving Chriftianity. We have no previous Engagements to alienate our Minds from it; nay, it is our Intereft to be of that Religion, rather than any other. So that certainly a lefs Evidence for the Truth of it, will be as convincing to us, as a much greater would have been to thofe, to whom our Saviour firft preached. Nay, I am very confident, that this Thing being duly confider'd, it will appear, that our Arguments for Chriftianity drawn from Tradition, will be more convincing to thinking Men among us, than thofe Argu ments they had from Senfe and Experience could be to them.