A Collection of Tracts on Various Subjects

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: tit upon the world, and there was no need ofzfecond, or third, or fourth hifrory toferve thefe purpofes. Thirdly, The difagreement of thofe hiftories with refpedl to fome faffs, or the circum- Jiances which attended them, plainly prove, that they were not written by divine infpira- tion. Thus Matt, xxvii. 5. And he, viz. Judas, cajl down the pieces of Jifoer in the temple, and departed and went and hanged him- Jelf. Acts i. 17, 18. For be, viz. Judas, -was numbred with us, and had obtained part of this tninijlry. Now this man purchafed afield with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, burjl afunder in the midjl, and all his bowels gtijhed out. Here we fee, tho' both thefe hiftorians agree, that the traytor Judas came to an untimely end; yet they very much differ in their accounts about the -way and manner by which he came to that end -, the one affirming that he hanged himfelf, and the other faith that he fell down headlong, and burfting 'afunder in the midjl, his bowels gufhed out. Now fuppofing there may be fome poffible way found out for the reconciling thefe hiftorians; yet that would be but mere fuppojiti- on or guefe work, which might, or might not be the truth of the cafe. And can it rea- fonably be fuppofed, that fuch a wife and good being as God is, if he condefcended- to become an hiftorian, or to dictate to perfons the fubject matter of an hiftory (which comes to the fame), that he would give two different rent accounts of a facl, and then leave it td men to rack their inventions, to find out a way to reconcile that difference? no furely; What I would obferve is, that as God is om- niprefent, and confequently omnifcient, and as fuch hath the moft perfect knowledge of all things; fo it is naturally impofiible that he fliould err, and it is morally impofiib...