Constantinople and continued at Nice The Pope sent his Legates thither The Council of the Iconoclasts was condemned They are detested a Persons who led by the Example of the Saracens accused the Christians of Idolatry It was decreed that Images should be worshipped in Remembrance and for the Love of those whom they represented which is called in the Council a relative Worship and an honorary Adoration and Salutation opposed to the supreme worship and Adoration of Latria or entire Subjection which the Council reserved to God alone Besides the Legates of the Holy See and the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople there appeared there the Legates of other Patriarchal Sees which were then oppressed by the Infidels Some disputed their Mission with them but that which was not at all contested was that far from disavowing them all the Sees accepted of the Council without shewing any Contradiction and it was received by all the Church The French encompassed with Idolaters or new Christians whose Ideas they were afraid to meddle with and on the other hand being harrassed with the equivocal Term of Adoration hesitated a long while Amongst all the Images they would only pay an Honour to that of the Cross absolutely different from the Figures which the Heathen believed were full of the Divinity They kept however in an honourable place and also in their Churches the other Images and hated the Iconoclasts What other Difference there was it made no Schism The French owned at last that the Nicene Fathers required to Images but the same kind of Worship all Proportions observed as they themselves paid to Relicks to the Book of the Gospel and to the Cross and that Council was honoured by all professing Christianity under the Name of the seventh general Council Thus have we seen the seven general Councils which the East and the West the Greek and the Latin Churches received with an equal Reverence The Emperors convoked those great Assemblies by the Soveraign Authority they had over all the Bishops or at least over the Chief on whom the rest depended and who were then Subject of the Empire The publick Carriages were provided by the Order of the Princes They assembled the Councils in the East where they made their Residence and they commonly sent thither their Commissaries to keep the Peace The Bishops so assembled brought with them the Authority of the Holy Ghost and the Tradition of the Churches From the beginning of Christianity there were three principal Sees which had the precedency of all others that of Rome that of Alexandria and that of Antioch Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Conc. C. P. 1. Can. 3. Conc. Chalced. Can. 21. The Nicene Council allowed the Bishop of the Holy City to have the first place The second and the fourth Council raised the See of Constantinople and would have that the second So that there were five Sees which afterwards were called Patriarchal The Precedency was given to them in the Council Among those Sees the See of Rome was always look'd on as the first and the Council of Nice regulated the others upon that Conc. Nic. Can. 6. There were also Metropolitan Bishops who were the Chiefs of the Provinces and who went before the other Bishops It was very late ere they began to be called Archbishops but their Authority was never the less When the Council was formed the Holy Scriptures were propounded the Passages of the antient Fathers Witnesses of Tradition were read It was Tradition which interpreted Scripture They believed its true Sence was that which the past Ages had owned it to be and none thought they ought to explain it otherwise Those who refused to submit to the Decisions of the Council were cursed with the Anathema After they had explained the Faith they regulated the Ecclesiastical Discipline and made Canons that is to say the Rules of the Church They thought the Faith did never change and tho' the Discipline might receive several Changes according to difference of Times and Places yet as much as possibly we can we ought to labour after a perfect imitation of Antiquity But the Popes were only there by their Legates in the first general Councils but they did however expresly approve of the Doctrine and there was but one Faith in the Church Constantine and Irene religiously executed Years of J. C. 787 the Decrees of the VII Council but the rest of their Conduct was intolerable The young Prince whom his Mother had persuaded to marry a Lady he could by no means love gave up himself to reproachful Applications and being weary of paying any longer a blind Obedience to the Imperiousness of his Mother he indeavoured to remove her from the Affairs which hitherto she had managed in spight of him Alphonso Years of J. C. 793 the Chaste reigned in Spain The perpetual Continence of that Prince deservedly conferred on him that famous Sirname and rend'red him worthy to release Spain from that infamous Tax of a hundred Maids which his Uncle Mauregate had granted to the Moores Seventy thousand of those Infidels slain in a Battle with Mugait their General signalized the Valor of Alphonsus Constantine did also indeavour to make himself famous against the Bulgari but the Success did by no means answer his Expectations He at last brought down all Irene's Power and being unable to govern himself as much as to suffer the Empire of another he repudiated his Wife Maria to marry Theodote who Years of J. C. 795 was one of her Maids of Honour His Years of J. C. 796 incensed Mother heightened the Troubles Years of J. C. 797 which were caused by so great a Scandal Constantine fell by her Artifices She gained the People again to her by lessening their Taxes and brought the Monks and the Clergy into her Interest by a shew of a visible Piety At length she was proclaimed sole Empress The Romans scorned her Government and so went over to Charlemagne who subdued the Saxons repressed the Saracens destroyed the Heresies protected the Popes drew over the Infidel Nations to Christianity re-established the Sciences and Ecclesiastical Discipline assembled famous Councils wherein his profound Learning was admired and the effects of his Piety and Justice was not only felt in France and Italy but it extended it self into Spain England and Germany and indeed where not To conclude in the DCCC XII Epoeha Charlemagne Or the re-establishment of the new Empire Year of our Lord that great Protector of Rome and of Italy or to speak more properly of all the Church and of all Christendome was chosen Emperor by the Romans without his ever dreaming of it and Crowned by Pope Leo III. who had engaged the People of Rome to that Choice became the Founder of the New Empire and of the temporal Greatness of the Holy See The End of the first Part. TO THE Dauphin YOVR Highness sees the twelve Epocha's which I have followed in this Abridgment I have chained to each of them the
perswade a whole Nation even the old Men who had seen that Prophet and had always looked for that miraculous Deliverance which he had foretold them of Esdras and Nehemiah could not have written the History of their Time some other must have done it in their Name and those who have made all the other Books of the old Testament would have been so esteemed by Posterity that the other Falsifyers would have gained little Credit to their Imposture No doubt but they would have been ashamed of so many Extravagancies and instead of saying that Esdras had of a sudden brought to light so many Books so different one from the other by the Characters both of Stile and Time one must affirm that he might have inserted into them the Miracles and Predictions which made them to pass for Divine An Error more gross still than the former since that those Miracles and those Predictions are so interspersed in all those Books so often inculcated and repeated with such different turns and so great a variety of powerful Figures in a word they have so constituted the whole Body of them that if we have ever but so much as opened those holy Books we must see that it was a great deal more easy perfectly to make a new Model of them than to insert in them those things which the Incredulous are so much puzled to find there And tho' it should be granted them whatsoever they ask yet the miraculous and divine Parts are so much the Foundation of those Books that they must be yet acknowledged whatsoever Aversion any may have to them And admit that Esdras might have added afterwards the Predictions of those things that had already happened in his time yet those which were fulfilled since which you have seen in so great a number who should superadd them God it is possible might have bestowed on Esdras the gift of Prophecy that so the Imposture of Esdras might seem the more probable and they might rather have a false one to be a Prophet than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel Or else every Age might have had a prosperous Counterfeit who might impose upon the Faith of a whole Nation and that new Impostors thro' an admirable Zeal of Religion might have continually been adding to the divine Books after that the Canon might have been closed that they might be spread abroad with the Jews over all the Earth and translated into so many strange Languages Would not this have been out of eagerness of Desire to establish the Religion the way utterly to destroy it Would a whole Nation so easily suffer a Change of what they verily believed to be Divine whether thro' Conviction of Reason or thro' the power of Error Could any one hope to persuade Christians nay or Turks to add but one single Chapter either to the Gospel or to the Alcoran But perhaps the Jews might be more docile than other People or not so Religious as to preserve their holy Books What Monsters of Opinions must come into their Minds to make then willing to shake off the Yoke of divine Authority and not to regulate their Sentiments no more than their Manners but by their distorted Reason Let none say that the discussion of these Matters is perplexing and troublesom For if it should be so they must either lay the Charge of it on the Authority of the Church and the Tradition of so many Ages or else push on the Examination to the utmost Extremity and never believe they can be rid of it but say they require still more time than will be given to their Salvation But certainly not to turn over the Books of both the Testaments with an endless Labour we need only read the Book of Psalms where are collected so many antient Songs of Gods People to see there in the most divine Poetry that ever was the immortal Monuments of the History of Moses of that of the Judges and Kings imprinted by Song and Measure in Men's Minds And for the new Testament The bare Epistles of St. Paul so Lively and Original so strong as to time both of the Affairs and Motions which then were and in short of so pointing a Character those Epistles I say received by the Churches to which they were addressed and from thence communicated to other Churches will be sufficient to convince all honest Minds that every thing in the Scriptures which the Apostles have left us is according to the Original So likewise do they support one another with an invincible Force The Acts of the Apostles are but a continuation of the Gospel their Epistles suppose it necessary but that all may agree together both the Acts and the Epistles and Gospels do every where own the antient Books of the Jews St. Paul and the other Apostles are continually alledging what Moses hath said Act. 3.22.7.31 32 c. Rom. 10.5.19 what the Prophets have said and writ after Moses Jesus Christ calls to witness the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms as Witnesses who all depose the same Truth When he hath a mind to explain his Mysteries Ibid. 27. John 5.46 47. he begins at Moses and all the Prophets and when he tells the Jews that Moses wrote of him he lays down for a Foundation what was most certainly believed among them and brings them back to the very Spring Head of their own Traditions But however we will see what can be opposed to this so acknowledged an Authority and to the Consent of so many Ages For since in our days Men have been so presumptuous and daring as to print in all sort of Languages Books against the Scriptures we ought not to dissemble or conceal what they alledge for the decrying its Antiquities Therefore what say they to justify the Pentateuch's being supposititious and what can be objected to a Tradition of three thousand Years standing upheld by its own Power and by the course of things Nothing of Consequence nothing that is positive nothing that is of weight and substance Some little Chicaneries and Quarrels they have at Numbers Places and Names and such Observations that in all other matters are reckoned at most but as vain Curiosities uncapable of reaching the stress of the Case are here alledge to us by way of Decision of an Affair the most serious that ever was There are say they Difficulties in the History of the Scripture No Question to be made on 't which yet there would not be weâ—e the Books less antient or had they been supposititious and made as they are so bold to say by a cunning and industrious Man If they had not been so Religious as to give it us as they found it but had taken the liberty to correct it where it did not please them There are Difficulties which arise by length of time when places have changed their Name or Condition when Dates are forgot when Genealogies are no further known when there is no remedy for the Faults which a Copy
they began to extend themselves beyond the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 124 Alpes and Sextius a Conqueror of the Gaules Years of Rome 630 called Salii established in the Town of Aix a Colony which bears its Name to this day The Gauls defended themselves but ill Fabius subdued the Allobroges and all the Neighbouring People And the same Years be ∣ fore J. C. 123 Year that Grypus made his Mother to drink Years of Rome 631 the Poison which she had prepared for him Years be ∣ fore J. C. 121 Gallia Narbonesus was reduced to a Province Years of Rome 633 and received the Name of the Roman Province Thus the Roman Empire was greatned and by little and little possest it self of all Lands and Seas of the known World Yet the Face of the Commonwealth did not look so fair and beautiful abroad by her Conquests but that it was full out as much disfigured by the outragious Ambition of her Citizens and hy her civil and intestine Wars The most Illustrious of the Romans became the most Pernitious to the publick Weal The two Gracchi by their Flatteries to the People began the Divisions which never ended but with the Republick Caius the Brother of Tiberius could not indure the Thoughts that they had caused so great a Man to be killed in so sad and tragical a Manner And being animated with Revenge by the Motions which he fancied the Ghost of Tiberius inspired him wâ—th he put all the Citizens into Arms one against another and just upon the Point of destroying all he was cut off by a Death resembling that he was resolved to revenge Money did all things at Rome Jugurtha Years of Rome 635 King of Numidia stained with the Murther Years of Rome 640 of his Brothers whom the Roman People Years of Rome 641 protected defended himself much longer by his Gifts than by his Arms And Marius Years be ∣ fore J. C. 106 who at last absolutely Conquered him Years of Rome 648 could not for all that come to the Command Years be ∣ fore J. C. 103 but by his stirring up the People against Years of Rome 651 the Nobless The Slaves once more armed themselves in Sicily and their second Revolt cost the Romans as much Blood as the first Marius beat the Teutons the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 102 Cymbrians and the other People of the Years of Rome 652 North who got themselves into Gallia Years be ∣ fore J. C. 100 Spain and Italy The Victories he obtained Years of Rome 654 were an Occasion of proposing new Partages and Divisions of Land Metellus who opposed it was yet notwithstanding forced to give way to Time and the Divisions Years be ∣ fore J. C. 94 had not ended but by the Blood of Saturnus Years of Rome 660 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 88 a Tribune of the People Whilest Years of Rome 666 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 86 Rome protected Cappadocia against Mithridates Years of Rome 668 King of Pontuâ— and so great an Enemy Years be ∣ fore J. C. 91 submitted to the Roman Forces with Greece Years of Rome 663 which had then fell into the same Interests Italy continually engaged in Arms by so many Wars kept up either against the Romans or with them did put their Empire into great Danger by an universal Revolt Rome at the same time felt her self torn by the Fury of Marius and Sylla one of whom had made both the South and North to tremble and the other was the Conqueror Years of Rome 666 both of Greece and Asia Sylla Sirnamed Years of Rome 667 the Happy seq was too much so against his Country which his Tyrannical Dictatorship Years be ∣ fore J. C. 82 put into Slavery He could willingly Years of Rome 672 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 79 resign the Soveraign Power bâ—t he could Years of Rome 675 not prevent the Effect and Consequence of a bad Example Every one would Rule Years be ∣ fore J. C. 74 and Govern Sertorius a zealous Associate Years of Rome 680 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 73 of Marius cantoned himself in Spain and Years of Rome 681 there made a League with Mithridates Against so great a Captain Force was in Vain and Pompey could no ways reduce that Party but by sowing the Seeds of Division among them So that there was not a Man even down to Spartacus the Gladiator but who thought he might aspire to the Command Years be ∣ fore J. C. 71 of the whole This Slave was as Years of Rome 683 great a Trouble to the Pâ—etors and the Consuls as Mithridates was to Lucullus The War of the Gladiators became a Dread to the Roman Power Crassus could hardly end it and he was forced to send against them Years be ∣ fore J. C. 68 Pompey the Great Lucullus got the better Years of Rome 686 in the East The Romans past the Euâ—hrates But their Invincible General against the Enemy could not keep his own Souldiers within their Duty Mithridates who tho' often beaten yet never lost his Courage rallied and the Happiness of Pompey seemed necessary to determine that War Years be ∣ fore J. C. 67 He had newly purged the Sea of the Pyrats Years of Rome 687 that infested them from Syria even to Hercules his Pillars when he was sent against Mithridates His Glory seemed then to be raised to the height He brought that Valiant Years be ∣ fore J. C. 65 King into an absolute Submission Armenia Years of Rome 689 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 63 whither he was gone for Refuge Iberia Years of Rome 691 and Albania which sustained him Syria torn by his Factions Judea or the Division of the Asmonians did not leave to Hyrcanus II. Son of Alexander Janneus but a Shadow of Power and at last all the East But he had not had wherewithal to triumph over so many Enemies without the Consul Cicero who saved the City from the Fire which Catiline followed with most of the greatest Roman Nobless prepared for it That terrible Party was ruined by the Eloquence of Cicero rather than by the Arms of C. Antigonus his Collegue The Liberty of the People of Rome was in no greater Security Pompey Reigned in the Senate and his great Name made him absolute Master Years of Rome 696 of all Deliberations Julius Caesar by subduing the Gaules seq brought to his Country the most advantagious Conquest that ever it had had So great a Service put him into a Condition of Establishing his Dominion in his Country He was resolved first to equal and then to out-doe Pompey The immense Riches of Crassus made him believe that he might share the Glory of those two great Men as he did share their Authority He rashly engaged in the War against the Parthians which was fatal to himself and Years be ∣ fore J. C. 54 to his Country The Arsacidae proving Years of Rome 700 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 53 Conquerors by their cruel Railleries insulted
the whole by relation to each of its two parts so the divine Word whose Virtue sustains the whole is united in a particular manner or rather it becomes himself by a perfect Union that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary that which makes him to be the Son of God and Man both together begotten from all Eternity and yet begotten in time always living in the Bosom of his Father and yet dead upon the Cross for our Salvation But where God finds himself mixed Comparisons drawn from humane things are never but imperfect Our Soul is not before our Body and something fails it when ever it is separated from it The Word perfect in it self from all Eternity is only united to our Nature for its Honour That Soul which presides over the Body and makes several Changes in it it self suffers from it in its turn If the Body be moved at the command and according to the Will of the Soul the Soul is troubled the Soul is afflicted and influenced a thousand ways either tormenting or pleasing according to the Dispositions of the Body so that as the Soul raises up the Body to it self in the governing part so it is cast down below it by what it suffers from the Body But in Jesus Christ the word presides over all it keeps all under its Dominion So Man is raised and the Word is not cast down by any thing Immutable and unalterable it rules and governs Nature which is united to it in all things throughout From thence it comes that in Jesus Christ Man absolutely submissive to the inward direction of the Word which raises it up to it self has only divine Thoughts and Motions All that he thinks all that he wills all that he says all that he conceals within all that he shews outwardly is animated and inspired by the Word led by the Word worthy of Word that is to say worthy of Reason it self of Wisdom it self and of Truth it self Wherefore every thing is Light in Jesus Christ His Conduct is a Rule his Miracles are Instructions his Words are Spirit and Life It is not given to all to understand these sublime Truths nor perfectly to see in himself that marvellous Image of divine things which St. Austin and the other Fathers have thought so certain Our Senses govern us too much and our Imagination which will be concerned in all our Thoughts does not suffer us always to stay upon so pure a Light We do not know our selves we are ignorant what vast Riches we constantly carry about with us because we search not to the bottom of our Natures and only the most inwardly discerning Eyes can perceive them But as little as we do pry into that Secret and observe in our selves the Image of the two Mysteries which make up the Foundation of our Faith that is sufficient to raise us up above all and nothing of Mortality can affect us any more Also Jesus Christ calls us to an immortal Glory and it is the Fruit of the Faith we have for the Mysteries That God-Man that incarnate Truth and Wisdom which makes us to believe such great things upon its single Authority promises to us the clear and happy Vision of it in Eternity as the certain Recompence of our Faith In this way is the Mission of Jesus Christ infinitely advanced above that of Moses Moses was sent to rouse up sensual and brutish Men by temporal Rewards Since that they were become all Body and all Flesh it was necessary for him at first to captivate them by their Senses and by that means to inculcate into them the Knowledg of God and the horror of Idolatry to which Mankind had so prodigious an Inclination That was the Ministry of Moses But to inspire Man with more exalted Thoughts and by a full Evidence to convince him of the Dignity Immortality and eternal Happiness of his Soul this was reserv'd to be the Work of Jesus Christ In the times of Ignorance that is to say those which were before our blessed Saviours days what the Soul knew of its Dignity and Immortality led it for the most part to Error The worshipping of dead Men did almost make up all their Idolatry Almost all Men sacrificed to the Manes that is to the Souls of the Dead Those antient Errors do discover to us indeed how great was the antient Belief of the Souls Immortality and shows us that we ought to place it among the first Traditions of Mankind But Man who spoil'd all things had strangely abused it since the Soul carried him out to sacrifice to the Dead Nay they went at last to that excess as to sacrifice living Men to them they killed their Slaves and even their Women to make them go and serve them in the other World The Gauls did so with many other People And the Indians observed by the Heathen Authors among the first Defenders of the Souls Immortality Cas de hell Gall. 6. have also been the first Introducers of those abominable Murders in the World under the pretence of Religion The same Indians used to kill themselves to forward the Happiness of the future Life and that deplorable Blindness continues still to this day among those People so dangerous is it to teach the Truth in any other way or manner than what God hath instituted and clearly to explain to Man all that he is before he knew God perfectly 'T was the want of knowing God which made most of the Philosophers not to believe the Immortality of the Soul without believing it at the same time a Portion of the Divinity nay a Divinity it self an eternal Being uncreated as well as incorruptible and which had neither beginning not end What shall I say of those who believed the Transmigration of Souls who made them skip from Heaven to Earth and then from Earth to Heaven again from Beasts into Men and from Men into Beasts from Happiness to Misery and from Misery to Happiness and those Revolutions never to have any end nor any certain order How sadly was the Divine Justice Providence and Goodness darkened amidst so many fuliginous Errors And how necessary was it to know God and the Rules of his Wisdom before he knows the Soul and its immortal Nature Wherefore the Law of Moses gave only to Man the first Notion of the nature of the Soul and its Felicity We saw the Soul at first made by the Power of God as well as the rest of the Creatures but with this particular Character and Distinction that it was made after his Image and by his Breath that it might understand to whom it was obliged by its being and also that it might never fancy it self to be of the same nature with the Body not formed by its order and concurrence But the Consequences of this Doctrine and the Marvels of the future Life were not then universally unfolded This great Light and Discovery was not to be till the coming of the Messiah God had scattered some few
those that looked for him and there was not between them one moments Interruption that People were dispersed over all the Earth the Gentiles ceased not to gather together and that Church which Jesus Christ hath built upon a Rock not all the Powers of Hell have ever been able to overthrow O what Consolation is this to the Children of God! But what Conviction is here of the Truth when they see that Pope Innocent the Eleventh who now most deservedly fills the first See of the Church we are continually ascending without any interruption even to St. Peter made by Jesus Christ the Chief of the Apostles from whence by running back to the Priests that served under the Law we go up even to Aaron and Moses from them to the Patriarchs and so to the beginning of the World what Course what Tradition what marvellous Connexion and Chain is here If our Minds which are naturally uncertain and by their doubtfulness become the Shittlecock of their own Reasonings have need in the Questions which concern our Salvation to be fixed and determined by some certain Authority what greater Authority is there than this of the Catholick Church which reunites in her self all the Authority of passed Ages and the ancient Traditions of Mankind to its first Original Thus the Society which Jesus Christ looked for during all past Ages at last founded upon the Rock and where St. Peter and his Successors were to preside by his Orders justified it self by its own Course and bore in its eternal duration the Character of the Hand of God 'T is also this Succession that no Heresie no Sect no other Society than only the Church of God was able to give to it self The false Religions could imitate the Church in many things and especially in saying as she did that God founded them but that Discourse in their Mouth was only a Discourse in the Air. For if God hath created Mankind and if in creating him after his own Image he hath never disdained to instruct him how to serve and please him Every Sect that doth not shew its Succession from the beginning of the World is not of God Here fall prostrate at the feet of the Church all the Societies and all the Sects that men have set up both within and without Christianity As for Example The false Prophet of the Arabians had the cunning to say that he was sent from God and after he had deceived the People most grosly ignorant he knew how to make his advantage of the Divisions of his Neighbourhood to extend into it by force of Arms a Religion that was wholly Sensual but neither has he dared to suppose that he was the Saviour expected nor could he in short give either to his Person or to his Religion any real or apparent Unity with past Ages The expedient he found to free himself from that was new For fear lest they should search into the Scriptures of the Christians for Testimonies of his Mission like to those which Jesus Christ found in the Scriptures of the Jews he pretended that both the Christians and the Jews had falsified all their Books His ignorant Followers believed him on his own word six hundred years after Jesus Christ and he declared himself not only without any precedent witness but also without any attempt either of supposing or of promising any one sensible Miracle which might authorize his Mission either by himself or any of his Followers So likewise the Heresiarchs who have founded new Sects among the Christians have had the Art to make the Faith more easy by denying the Mysteries which passed our Senses They were able to dazle men by their Eloquence and by a seeming shew of Piety to move them by their Passions to ingage them by their Interests to gain 'em over by Novelty and Libertinism either by that of the Mind or else by that of their Senses In a word they could easily either deceive themselves or deceive others for there is nothing more Humane but besides that they could never boast they had done any Miracle in Publick nor reduce their Religion to positive Facts whereof their Followers were Witnesses there was always a most unhappy mischief attended them which they could never conceal and that was their Novelty It will always be visible to the eyes of the whole World that they and their Sect which they have established will be detached from that great Body and from that ancient Church which Jesus Christ has founded where St. Peter and his Successors have kept the Primacy in which all Sects have found themselves established The moment of the Separation will be always so apparent that the Hereticks themselves can never be able to deny it and they will never dare so much as to attempt to make themselves to come from the Source by an uninterrupted Succession This is the inevitable weakness of all the Sects which Mankind has set up None can change the Ages past nor give themselves Predecessors nor ever make them to be found in possession The only Catholick Church fills up all precedent Ages by a Course of Succession that can never be disputed with her The Law came before the Gospel the Succession of Moses and the Patriarchs makes but one and the same with that of Jesus Christ to be looked for to come to be acknowledged by a Posterity which is to last as long as the World this is the Character of the Messiah in whom we believe Jesus Christ the same yesterday Heb. 13.8 and to day and for ever Thus besides the advantage which the Church of Jesus Christ hath of being alone founded on miraculous and divine Facts which they have written for all to see without any fear of being falsified as to the time in which they happened there is likewise in favour of those who lived not in those Times one Miracle that always is subsisting which confirms the truth of all the rest that is the Course of Religion which hath been always victorious over the Errors that have crept in which indeavour to destroy it You may add to this also another Chain and that is the visible uninterruptedness of a continual Punishment upon the Jews who have not yet received Christ so long ago promised to their Fathers They nevertheless expect him still and this their expectation which is always frustrated is one part of their Punishment They expect him and discover in their Expectation that he hath always been expected Condemned therefore by their own Books they confirm the truth of Religion they as I may say do carry all the Course of it written on their Foreheads and at one view we see what they have been why they are as we see them and for what they are reserved Thus four or five Authentick Facts and those more clear than the light of the Sun do discover our Religion to be as old as the World And consequently they discover that it hath no other Author than He who made the World
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
Extremities a People otherwise so grave and wise could find â—o Medium The private Interests which made both Parties proceed a great deal farther than they ought in whatever they began for the publick good suffered neither of them to be conducted by moderate Counsells The Ambitions and turbulent Spirits were still stirring up Jealousies to make their own advantages by them and those Jealousies sometimes more concealed and otherwhile more declared according to the times but always strong and violent at the Root was at last the cause of that great Change that happened in the time of Caesar and the others that succeded IT will be very easy to shew to your Highness all the causes of it VII The Successive Changes of Rome explained if after you have throughly understood the humour of the Romans and the Constitution of their Republick you take care to observe some certain principal accidents which although they happened at several distant times yet have a manifest chain of Connexion in them I will give you a collected Series of them for your greater Ease Romulus bred up in War and reputed the Son of Mars built Rome which he populated with an amassed Company of Shepherds Slaves Robbers who came to seek for freedom and impunity in the Isle he had laid open for all Comers and some also came that were better qualified and more Civilized He bred up that People wild in their Nature to undertake all things by force and by that means they got themselves Wives whom they Married By Degrees he established order Dion Hal. 2. and restrained luxurious Minds by most sacred Laws he began by Religion which he looked on as the Foundation of all States He made it as serious as grave and as modest as the Darknesses of Idolatry could then permit him Strange Religions and Sacrifices which were not established by the Roman Customs were forbidden Afterwards that Law was dispensed but the intention of Romulus was that it should be kept and something of it was always retained He chose out of all that number of People the better sort to form the publick Council which he called the Senate He made it to consist of two hundred Senators whose number was likewise afterwards augmented and from them came the noble Families that were called the Patricii The Senate was to examine and propose all matters some of them it regulated Soveraignly with the King but the most general were referred to the People who decided them Româ—lus in an assembly which he had called of all the People upon the Plain at the Marsh Capreae where upon a sudden there arose a great Tempest was cut to pieces by the Senators who judged him too imperious and the desire of Independance began then to appear in that Order To appease the People who loved their Prince and to give a great Idea of the Founder of that City the Senators proclaimed that the Gods had snatched him up to Heaven and caused Altars to be erected to him Numa Pompilius the second King in a long and profound Peace compleated the formation of their Manners and the regulating of Religion upon the same foundations which Romulus had laid Tullus Hostilius by severe Rules Established the Military Discipline and the orders of War which his Successor Anâ—us Martius accompanied with sacred Ceremonies thereby to render the Militia Holy and Religious After him Tarquin the Antient to make Creatures to himself encreased the number of the Senators to three Hundred where they stuck fixed for some Ages and began the great Works which were to conduce to the Publick weal. Servius Tullius projected the setting up a Republick under the command of two annual Magistrates which should be chosen by the People In hatred to Tarquin the proud the Royalty was abolished with horrible Execrations against all those who should go about to re-establish it and Brutus made the People to swear to keep themselves eternally in their Liberty The Memoires of Servius Tullius were followed in that Change The Consuls chosen by the People among the Patricii were equalled to Kings excepting that they were two who had between them a regular turn of Commanding and they changed every Year Collatinus being named Consul which Brutus as having been with him the Author of their Liberty tho' he was the Husband of Lucretia whose Death had been the cause of the Change and he being interessed more than all others to revenge the outrage which she received because he was of the Royal Family became suspected and was expelled Valerius substituted in his place at his return from an Expedition where he had delivered his Country from the Veientes and the Etrurians was suspected by the People to affect Tyranny by reason of a House he had caused to be built on an Eminence He not onâ—y ceased from Building but he became wholly popular altho' a Patrician and made the Law which permitted Appeals to the People and attributed in some Cases to them Judgment of the last Ressort By that new Law the Consular Power was weakened in its Origine and the People enlarged their Rights By reason of the Violences executed for Debt by the Rich upon the Poor the People that rise up against the Power of the Consuls and Senate made that famous Retreat at the Mount Aventinus There was nothing but Liberty spoke of in those Assemblies and the People of Rome did not believe themselves to be free Dion Hal. 2. if they had not lawful Ways of resisting the Senate They were forced to allow them particular Magistrates called the Tribunes of the People which might assemble them and help them against the Authority of the Consuls either by Opposition or Appeal Those Magistrates to keep up their own Authority were continually buzzing of Jealousies and creating Divisions between those two Orders and always were flattering the People by proposing that the Lands of the Conquered Countries or the Price that would be the product of their Sale should be divided among the Citizens The Senate with great Zeal and Earnestness perpetually opposed those Laws that would be so ruinous to the State and would have the Price of those Lands adjudged to be put into the publick Treasury The People suffered themselves to be conducted by their seditious Magistrates and yet had notwithstanding so much Reason and Equity as to admire the Vertue of the great Men that resisted them Against those domestick Dissensions the Senate found no better Remedy than to be continually raising Occasions for foreign Wars They prevented those Divisions from being pushed on to Extremity and reunited those Orders in the Defence of their Country Whilest Wars succeeded and Conquests increased Jealousies were still kept awake The two Parties wearied by the many Divisions which threatned the Ruine of the State agreed to the making of such Laws as might be for the quiet of them both and to establish the Equality which ought to be in a free City Each of the Orders pretended that the establishment