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but upon the conviction of the outward senses of all those who did receive it; as before demonstrated. And, therefore, this topic which I have chosen, does stand upon the conviction even of men's outward-senses. And since you have confined me to one topic, I have not insisted upon the other, which I have only nam

ed.

XII. And now it lies upon the Deists, if they would appear as men of reason, to shew some matter of fact of former ages, which they allow to be true, that has greater evidence of its truth, than the matters of fact of Moses and Christ; as no other matters of fact of those times, however true, have, but these only and I put it upon them to shew any forgery that has all these: marks.:

This is a short issue. Keep them close to this. This determines the cause all at once.

Let them produce their Apollonius Tynæus, whose life was put into English by the execrable Charles Blount ;* and compared, with all the wit and malice he was master of, to the life and miracles of our blessed Saviour.

Let them take aid from all the legends in the church of Rome, those pious cheats, the sorest disgraces of Christianity; and which have bid the fairest, of any one contrivance, to overturn the certainty of the miracles of Christ, and his apostles, and the whole truth of the gospel, by putting them all upon the same foot; at least,.. they are so understood by the generality of their

Who became his own executioner.

devotees, though disowned and laughed at by the learned, and men of sense among them.

Let them pick and chuse the most probable of all the fables of the heathen deities; and see if they can find, in any of these, the four marks before mentioned.

Otherwise, let them submit to the irrefragable certainty of the Christian religion.

XIII. But if, notwithstanding of all that is said, the Deists will still contend, that all this is but priestcraft, the invention of priests, for their own profit, &c. then they will give us an idea of priests far different from what they intend : for then we must look upon these priests, not only as the cunningest and wisest of mankind, but we shall be tempted to adore them as deities, who have such power as to impose, at their pleasure, upon the senses of mankind, to make them believe, that they had practised such public institutions, enacted them by laws, taught them to their children, &c. when they had never done any of these things, or ever so much as heard of them before: and then, upon the credit of their believing that they had done such things as they never did, to make them further believe, upon the same foundation, whatever they pleased to impose upon them, as to former ages I say, such a power as this, must exceed. all that is human; and, consequently, make us rank these priests far above the condition of mortals.

2. Nay, this were to make them outdo alt that has ever been related of the infernal powers; for though their legerdemaim has extend

ed to deceive some unwary beholders, and their power of working some seeming miracles has been great; yet it never reached, nor ever was supposed to reach, so far, as to deceive the senses of all mankind, in matters of such public and notorious nature as those of which we now speak To make them believe, that they had enacted laws for such public observances, continually practised them, taught them to their children, and had been instructed in them themselves, from their childhood; if they had never enacted, practised, taught, or been taught such things.

3. And as this exceeds all the power of hell and devils, so is it more than ever God Almighty has done, since the foundation of the world. None of the miracles that he has shown, or belief which he has required to any thing that he has revealed, has ever contradicted the outward senses of any one man in the world much less of all mankind together: for, miracles, being appeals to our outward senses, if they should overthrow the certainty of our outward senses, must destroy, with it, all their own certainty, as to us; since we have no other way to judge of a miracle exhibited to our senses, than upon the supposition of the certainty of our senses, upon which we give credit to a miracle that is shown to our senses.

4. This, by the way, is a yet-unanswered argument against the miracle of transubstantiation and shews the weakness of the defence, which the church of Rome offers for it, (from whom the Socinians have licked it up, and, of late,

have gloried much in it amongst us) That the doctrines of the Trinity, or incarnation, contain as great seeming absurdities as that of transubstantiation for I would ask, Which of our senses is it which the doctrines, of the Trinity,or incarnation, do contradict? Is it our seeing, hearing, feeling, taste, or smell? Whereas, transubstantiation does contradict all of these. Therefore, the comparison is exceedingly short, and out of purpose. But to return.

If the Christain religion be a cheat, and nothing else but the invention of priests, and carried on by their craft, it makes their power and wisdom greater than that of men, angels, or devils; and more than God himself ever yet shewed or expressed, to deceive and impose upon the senses of mankind, in such public and notorious matters of fact.

XIV. And this miracle, which the Deists must run into, to avoid those recorded of Moses, and Christ, is much greater, and more astonishing, than all the Scriptures tell of them.

So that these men, who laugh at all miracles, are now obliged to account for the greatest of all; how the senses of mankind could be imposed upon in such public matters of fact.

And how then can they make the priests the most contemptible of all mankind, since they make them the sole authors of this the greatest of miracles?

XV. And since the Deists (these men of sense and reason) have so vile and mean an idea of the priests of all religions, why do they not recover the world out of the possession and government

of such blockheads? Why do they suffer kings and states to be led by them; to establish their deceits by laws, and inflict penalties upon the opposers of them? Let the Deists try their hands; they have been trying, and are now busy about it. And free liberty they have. Yet have they not prevailed, nor ever yet did prevail in any civilized or generous nation. And tho' they have made some inroads among the Hottentots, and some other the most brutal part of mankind; yet are they still exploded; and priests have, and do prevail against them, among not only the greatest, but best part of the world, and the most glorious for arts, learning, and war.

XVI. For as the devil does ape God, in his institutions of religion, his feasts. sacrifices, &c. so likewise in his priests; without whom, no religion, whether true or false, can stand. False religion, is but a corruption of the true. The true was before it, though it followed close up on the heels.

The revelation made to Moses, is elder than any history extant in the heathen world. The heathens, in imitation of him, pretended, likewise to their revelations. But I have given those marks which distinguish them from the true: None of them have those four marks be fore mentioned.

Now, the Deists think all revelations to be equally pretended, and a cheat; and the priests of all religions to be the same contrivers and jugglers and, therefore, they proclaim war

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