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A Short Method, &c.

SIR,

YOU request of me some short topic of REASON, which shall demonstrate the TRUTH of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION, that our deists may be obliged to renounce their reason, or submit to a clear proof, from reason, of the divine original of christianity, and this proof you wish may be such as no imposture can pretend to.

In complying with your desire, I will take it for granted, that the truth of the doctrines of Christ will be sufficiently established, if the matters of fact recorded of him in the gospels are true; for his miracles, if real, are undeniable testimonies of the TRUTH of his RELIGION. And no one, it is presumed, will deny, if Moses conducted the children of Israel through the red sea, in the miraculous manner recorded in the book of Exodus, and performed those supernatural works ascribed to him in the scriptures, that his misson was divine ;* for these facts afford us as am ple testimony of it as can be required, and which every disbeliever will confess he would acquiesce in, had he personally beheld them; it must, therefore, be of the utmost importance to prove those matters of fact.

To effect which, I beg leave to premise such rules, with respect to the truth of matters of fact in general, that when they all concur, such matters of fact cannot be false. And also, to shew, that all these rules unite in the matters of fact of Moses and of Christ; and that they do not agree, in matters of fact of the heathen deities, of Mahomet, nor of any other impostor.

* See Warburton and Lord Forbes, on the divine legation of Mosca.

The rules are these. First, that the matters of fact shall be such, as the reality of them may be ascer tained, by external evidence. Secondly, that they shall be performed puplickly. Thirdly, that not only public monuments shall be maintained in memory of them, but that some external deeds shall be performed. Fourthly, that such monuments, deeds, or observances, shall be instituted and commence from the period in which the matters of fact shall be transacted.

The two first rules render it impossible to impose fictions on men for matters of fact; because every man's senses would detect the imposition. Should a person, for example, declare, that yesterday he divided the Thames, in the presence of all the citizens of London, and conducted them to Southwark, on dry land; and that, in their passage, the waters stood as walls, on each side of them; would it be possible he could persuade the inhabitants of this city, that this declaration was a fact? Would it not be contradicted by each of them? No fallacy, therefore, of this kind, could have been imposed on men at the time when public matters of fact were said to have been transacted.

It remains to be considered, whether such matters of fact might not be invented in some succeeding period, when the men of a former generation were extinct ; and whether, through the credulity of after ages, men might not have been induced to have believed, that actions were done in former ages which were not performed? But against such deception, the two last rules effectually secure us; for whenever such matters of fact should have been invented, if not only monuments were said to remain of them; but also, that public actions and observances had been constantly used, since the matters of fact were said to have taken place, the deceit must have been detected through the non-appearance of these monuments, and from the experience also of all those in whose presence the matters of fact were said to have been transacted; as they must have been sensible that by them no such actions, nor observances had been noticed.

Should I, for instance, invent a fiction, purporting, that a certain event took place a thousand years ago. I might, perhaps, prevail with some persons to credit it. But should I also affirm, that from the period of this event to the present day, every youth of a particular nation, at the age of twelve years, had suffered a dissection of a joint of a certain finger, and that, therefore, every man in the nation was now destitute of a joint of such finger; and that this institution was said to have been part of the matter of fact, done so many years ago; appealed to as a proof and confirmation of it, and as having been constantly practised, in memory of such matter of fact, to the present time: Let it be asked, whether, in such a case, it would be possible I should be believed? Should I not be contradicted by every man, of this nation, who should not thus have lost a joint of his finger? And the deprivation of which having been a part of my original matter of fact, would it not demonstrate the whole to be false?

I proceed now to shew, that the matters of fact of Moses and of Christ, have all the rules or marks above-mentioned. With respect to Moses, it is imagined it will be granted, that he could not have persuaded six hundred thousand men, that he had brought them out of Egypt, through the red sea; sustained them with food, in a wilderness forty years, in a miraculous manner; and also, of divers other facts contained in his books, had they been false. He certainly must have imposed upon all their senses, if he could have prevailed with them to have given their assent to these things, had they been unfounded in truth. Here then we perceive an agreement of the first and second of the four marks.

For the same reason, it would have been equally impossible for him to have caused these people to have received his five books. as true, which declared, that all these things had been transacted in their presence, had they not been founded in truth. His language to them is very explicit. And know you this day, said he, for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastise

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ment of the Lord your God; his greatness; his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm; and his miracles; and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharoah, the King of Egypt, and unto all his land; and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you; and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day; and what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Rueben; how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their housholds, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel; but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord," Deut. xi. 2, 8.

Will it be said, that these books were written in some age subsequent to that in which Moses lived, and that they were published under the authority of his name? But such an imposition could not have succeeded; because mention is made, in these books, that they were written by Moses, and, by his command, deposited in the ark. "And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites who bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying; take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee," Deut. xxxi. 24, 26. A copy also of this book, was to remain with the King." And it shall be, when he siteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites; And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them," Deut. xvii. 18, 19.

It is thus manifest, that this book of the law, declares itself to be, not only an history of the Israel

ites in the days of Moses, but also the permanent and municipal law and statutes of the Jewish nation, obligatory upon the king as well as the people.

In whatever age, after Moses, it may be supposed this book was forged, it is impossible it could have been received as genuine; because it could not then have been found; neither in the ark, nor with the king, nor in any other place; and when first invented, all the Israelties must have known, that they had never heard of it before, and, therefore, could not have believed it to have been the book of their statutes, and the invariable law of their land, which soon after their departure from Egypt they had received, and by which they uniformly had been governed.

Could any man, at the present period, invent a book of statutes, or acts of parliament, for England, and cause it to be imposed upon the English nation as the only book of statutes they had ever known? As impossible would it have been to have caused the books of Moses, had they been invented in any age after him, to have been received for what they mention themselves to be; the statutes and muncipal law of the Jews; and to have persuaded these people, that they had owned and acknowledged these books from the days of Moses to the time in which they should have been invented. For such a deception to have obtained, the Israelites must have been brought to have believed, that they had owned books before they had the least knowledge of them! The whole nation also, must, in an instant, have forgotten their former laws and government, if they could have received these books as their former laws! Let it be asked, if ever there was a book of forged laws thus imposed on any nation ? With what reason, then, can it be supposed, that the book of the jewish laws, if spurious, could have been imposed on the jews? Why will deists suppose an occurrence to have happened to these people, which, it is confessed could not have happened to any other nation.

But the books of Moses, it may be remarked, have a much greater evidence of their truth, than any other

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