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who liv'd since the Preaching of the Gospel, should approve of such Barbarous Cruelty. 2 Hierocles, who, as Lactantius informs us, was well acquainted with the Scriptures, was contented to say, that it is natural and answerable to the Ends of Marriage to bring up all, or at least, most Children; which was a great Concession in a Philosopher. Solon, who was as Famous for his Philosophy as for his Laws, and the Legislator to that State, which was the Seat and proper Soil, as it were of Philosophy, by an express Law a indemnified all that killed their Children, and the Philosophers were ever true to these Principles.

I have insisted upon this the more, not only because it is an evident instance of the infufficiency of Heathen Philofophy, but because fome Readers may be as difficult to believe a thing, which must needs seem very Monstrous to Christians, asb Lipfius's Friend was, to whom he wrote a long Epistle, to convince him that this was the Practice of Heathen Nations, and agreeable to the Judgment of their Philosophers: So that many of the Adversaries of the Christian Faith, may perhaps owe their Lives to that Religion which they Blafpheme.

I have purposely avoided too curious an Enquiry into the Lives of the Philosophers, and rather chose to cast a Veil over what not only their Enemies but their Friends have faid of

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Fragm. apud Stobæ. Serm. 73.

• Sext. Empiric. Pyrrh. Hypot. lib. iii. c. 24.

Ad Belgas, Cent. 1. Epift. 85.

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them. The Practice of Men is generally worse than they confess it ought to be; they never live above their Rule and Profession; it is well, if in most things they do not fall much short of it; and if their Principles be bad, what must we expect from their Examples? But the Actions of the Philosophers concerned those with whom they lived, our Business is with their Writings; and I need not fear the Censures of Learned and Judicious Men in any thing I have said of them; for they will acknowledge it to be Truth, and others ought to be told so, that they be no longer willing to change the Bible for the Works of Philosophers, which they commonly read and understand as little as they do the Bible it self.

The utmost that Philosophy could reach, was no farther than to uncertain Hopes and doubtful Arguments. But our Saviour and his Apostles taught with Authority, and not as did the Philofophers; The Words which they spake, they - were Spirit, and they were Life ; They came with full Power, and had their Credentials from Heaven to produce, which are the same that we now alledge for the Authority of their Commiffion. And what can be more certain than plain Matter of Fact, which is clearly prov'd by undeniable Circumstances, and by Witnesses beyond Exception, and which is of that Nature, that all the Divine Attributes are engag'd for the Truth of it? It is strange that Men should pretend to fetch their Infidelity from the Depths of Philofophy, and the Oracles of Reason; as if

any floating, confus'd Notions, might not serve for Objections. But it is to the advantage of a bad Cause, to involve it in tedious and unneceffary Difputes, to make Digressions into doubtful Points of Criticism and Philosophy, to amuse the Reader, and draw him off from the main Question: Whereas a good Cause may commonly be brought to a clear and short Iffue. The present Controverfie will admit of all kinds of Learning, but has no need of it. My Business therefore has been to free this Matter, as much as may be, from all the Intricacies of Learning, to reduce it to plain Circumstances of Fact, whereof every Man may be capable of making a true Judgment, and to bring it to that very Cafe, in which St. John argues; He that believeth not God, hath made him a Lyar, because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son, 1 John v. 10. But, he that hath received his Testimony, hath set to his Seal that God is true, I John iii. 33.

And how can we forbear to adore the Wifdom and Goodness of God, who, by the wonderful Dispensations of his Providence, has not suffered himself to be without Witness in any Age or Nation? If Idolatry spread it self from Egypt into many other Parts of the World, as Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have shewn, we have the more reason to admire the Wisdom of Divine Providence, in appointing Egypt to be the place where the People of Ifrael did fo

Herod. lib. ii. c. 43, &c. Diod. Sic. lib. i.

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long sojourn, and where so many signal Miracles were wrought to give a check and stop to Idolatry in the very Source and Fountain of it, if Men had not been beyond all measure obstinate in their Folly and Disobedience.

And the fame Goodness of God has not been wanting to any Nation of the World. For, d tho the Law of Mofes was peculiarly designed for the People of Ifrael, yet provision was made for the receiving of all such as were willing to become partakers of it, to the observation even of their ceremonial and typical Service; none besides the Ifraelites were required to observe it, but neither were any excluded from it. And by the constitution of the Jewish Law and Government, as well as by the Providence of God in all his Dispensations towards that People, effeCtual Care was taken that all the neceffary Points of Religion, which concern Mankind in general, should by them be communicated to the rest of the World. But the Christian Religion was, by its original Institution and Design, equally extended to all Nations, and was foon propagated all over the World. Nations but lately known to us, have been constant Objects of the Divine Care, and had early Discoveries made to them of the reveal'd Will of God, as I have proved at large by the Testimonies of Protestants as well as of Papists. And it is very ob

* Οὐδὲ τὸ διὰ Ἰκδαίος μόνος ὁ νόμο ζῶ, ἐδὲ δὲ αὐτού μόνος οἱ προφῆς ἐπέμποντο, κι δρὶ ἐκδαίων ἐδιώκοντο, πάο σης ἢ ἡ οἰκκμθύης ἦα διδασκάλιον ἱερὸν ὁ πτὶ θεκ γνώσεως, με και ψυχίω πολλίας, St. Athan. de Incarnatione Verbi Dei, fervable,

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servable, which Varenius has remark'd, that the Jesuits, in some places at least, have preach'd the Substance of Christianity without the Mixture of many of those Doctrines, which are peculiar to the Roman Communion; and he owns that their Success has been very great.

III. It was the Opinion of a converted Mandarin, That those who had any occafion to hear the Law of God, or to read the Books which treat of it, and did not judge it to be true, wanted Brains, and were void of Understanding. And it might well be thought incredible, if we did not find it true in Experience, that when Christianity has gain'd so much upon Heathens, and & Turks have become its Proselytes and Martyrs, even in Constantinople it self; it should notwithstanding grow into Contempt among profess'd Christians, who dispute every Article of the Faith into which they were baptized, and every Commandment, which they have undertaken, and folemnly vow'd to obey.

But do they not prove what they pretend? As little of that as may be; but they say it, and say it often and confidently, and perhaps sometimes wittily, and this must pass for Proof. But do Men love, or will they endure to be talked or jested out of any thing that is dear to them but their Souls? Let the Wit be what they please, or can fancy it to be, certainly they must be much too fond of it who can be con

• Varen. de Relig. in Regn. Japan. c. v.

Semed. Hift. of China, Pt ii. c. 13.

• Ricaut. Hift. of the Ottom. Emp. I. ii. c. 11, 12.

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