Present State of the Republick of Letters Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1729 Excerpt: ...very points where they have been esteem'd by their adverfaries to argue weakly and absurdly. It is plain, that when Jesus appear'd, his first preaching was an appeal to Prophecy; The king kingdom of heaven is at band: And then he declared himself to be that Son of Man, to whom the Kingdom he preach'd was given. If-the question then were, When will this Kingdom come? Time alone can shew that. But if the question be, How shall we know that Ton are what you pretend to be? What sign jhezveji thou? The answer was by an appeal to Miracles, which proved that God had sent him. This Method carries with it strict Evidence. For first, Here is Prophecy; then an Appeal to that; and then such Works as no man by his own powers can do: which since they are done, must necessarily imply the attestation of a superior Being to the truth of what such a man testifies. As this is the Evidence we have for the Truth of Christianity, it /hews the natural method of going about its proof; and they that proceed in any other, seem to darken and obscure, instead of clearing up this most important Controversy. In this method the Enquirer, who knows whether thure be such Prophecies, is only to search whether the Fact referr'd to is true; after he is fatisfied of the reality and existence of the Prophecy. Nor does it signify much in this cafe, in order to a full and rational Conviction, whether the Prophecies that are appeal'd to, are many or few, when their Accomplistjment is fully manifest; any more than to demonstrate or prove the truth of a proposition in Mathematicks or Philosophy, it is not of any importance, whether many arguments and demonstrations are brought, or a few; since it is not the number of the arguments, but the nature and evidence of the proof, that determines the assent...