retire a while into your private Closets and there make use of that reason and those Principles which were born with your Souls These would soon furnish you with sufficient Proofs and evincing Arguments Mark I beseech you in what significant Terms a heathen Philosopher rebukes you Mentiuntur qui dicunt non esse Deum etiamsi enim interdiu negant noctu tamen et sibi dubitant Which is hardly to be turn'd into English without losing a great part of its emphasis They lie who say there is no God! for though in the day time they deny him yet in the Night and being alone they doubt concerning Him How is it possible that it should ever enter into the thoughts of Men of Reason and common Understanding That those glorious Bodies of the Sun Moon and Planets together with that Numberless number of fixed Stars and those of such prodigious Magnitudes should all be produced by meer Fortune or Chance Vain man would fain be wise but which of your Leaders who darken their Counsels by words without knowledge can tell me how the great Bodies before-mentioned of the Sun Moon and the other Planets are suspended in the vast Expanse and by what extrinsick or intrinsick Powers they have performed their several and respective Motions and served for Signs and for Seasons and Measured time for so many thousand Years Is there any of you who knows the Ordinances of Heaven or can set the dominion thereof in the Earth Which of you can bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loose the Bands of Orion Or to come nearer to our own Terrestial Globe Who is he that gathers and holds the Wind in his fists Who is he that has bound the Waters in a Garment Who is that has established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if you can tell me Which of you can give a clear Account of those black and grisly Clouds when they seem to be rent and torn by the Thunder-Claps as if their substance were of molten Brass or the Lightning that shoots through the Hemisphere and in its passage tears and rends one sturdy Oak and leaves another untouch't Passes by one stately Edifice and takes away part of another and how it should pull out massy Barrs of Iron and again strike them into Stone walls to the Depth of many Inches with other prodigious Effects Of which I am sure you can give but very slender Reasons No more than of the Treasure of the Snow the Hail or Hoary Frost Or of Hurricanes Deluges or Earthquakes Alas poor dull Philosophers the wisest of you all know not how any grass pile or the least hair of your heads grows and yet are so presumptuous to dispute and question Divine Providence O foolish and perverse Atheists who hath bewitch't you to make mock of Moses and the Prophets to divide our blessed Saviour and his Apostles and to make the Holy Scriptures a meer Humane Artifice for Soveraign Princes to keep their Subjects in Obedience and to preserve to Ecclesiastick Prelates their vast Revenues and to Inferior Priests their Tythes and Maintenance In the first place we are as well assur'd that the Books of the New Testament were writ by the first Divulgers of Christianity which were soon afterwards Translated into Latin Syriac and other Languages and Copies thereof dispersed and publickly preach't in most parts of the habitable World and so transmitted to us without any notorious depravations as we are sure that in our Statute Books are faithfully Recorded the several Laws which have been Enacted in all the King 's and Queen's Reigns from William the Conqueror to this present Age and much more sure then you or any private Man can be of the Conveyances Hands or Seals of his Ancestors from time to time whereby he holds his Lands and Possessions We have no more reason to doubt that there was a Jesus born in Bethelem than that there was at that time a Herod at Jerusalem or an Augustus Caesar at Rome The wonderful Star that appear'd at Christ's birth is mentioned by Macrobius And a great Enemy to Christianity speaks of the coming of the Magi from the East to Jerusalem and Julian the Apostate Confesses the appearing of a New Star though he trifles about the manner of its appearing The Ecclipse at Christ's Passion was left upon Record among the Heathen As for the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and for their being most carefully preserved through-out all Ages till the coming of our Saviour Jesus at which time they were publickly read in all the Synagogues we need no better Evidence than the universal Consent of his Implacable Enemies the Jews We read in the 31st of Deuteronomy that when Moses had made an end of writing the Words of the Law in a Book untill they were finished That He commanded the Levites which bore 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 And we may reasonably judge that the rest of the Canonical Books when written were also here laid up Besides the King was to keep a Copy for his own use 17. Deut. 18. And the Priests that were to expound the Law must needs have Copies of it themselves So in an ordinary way it might be preserved by multitudes of Copies some of which might escape in the hands of good and pious Men in Idolatrous Times Whence it will follow That we have no reason to think that the Book of the Law which was lost for a great while and after the Captivity found by Hilkiah and by him given to Saphan the Scribe who carried it to King Josiah was the only Copy of the Law that was preserved 2 Kings 22. 8. During the Captivity those Books which were already written were undoubtedly in the hands of the Prophets and Priests some of whom as Jeremiah and Gedaliah staid in their own Land others as Daniel and his Companions were carried away Captives And we are sure that Daniel had these Books and out of them gathered the number of Years the Captivity was to last 9 Dan. 2. where it is thus written viz. In the first Year of Darius the Son of Ahasuerus of the Seed of the Medes c. I Daniel understood by Books the number of Years whereof the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish Seventy Years in the Desolations of Jerusalem Josephus saith That Cyrus was moved to restore the Jews by reading the Prophesy of Isaiah where it is foretold 210 Years before his time that he should be raised up for that Work After the Captivity these Books were kept in a great number of Copies of which every Synagogue had one at least In this interval Ptolomy Philadelphus procured the Translation of the Seventy the authentick Edition of which was kept in the famous Alexandrian Library about the Year of
the World 3465. As for the Books of Moses they were in one entire Volume long before the Captivity and it is probable that the rest of the divinely inspired Psalms and Prophesies that were written before the Captivity were laid up with them After the Captivity the Jewish Historians relate that the great Synagogue of which Ezra was President and at which Haggai Zâ—chariah Malachi and Nehemiah assisted compiled the Books of the Old Testament as we have them now divided into three parts and as they continued in our Saviour's time who himself refers to the Old Testament as consisting of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms and of each of these three parts they appointed certain Sections to be read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day Now that their Collection contained the same Books the Old Testament now consists of 22 in number is clear from Josephus contra Appionem quoted by Eusebius That these Books were kept with a Religious care we have the celebrated Testimony of Philo the Jew who wrote a little after the Ascension of Christ who saith That a Jew would rather suffer an hundred Deaths than allow the least alteration in one Letter of the Law And Buxtorf tells us in his Comment Masoreth Of their particular care in numbring the very Letters of every Book In the next place our blessed Saviour's miracles were so numerous so openly performed and before so many thousand Spectators both of the Jews and other Nations of which many were his implacable Enemies who wanted neither Learning Subtilty nor Malice to have soon discover'd any fraudulent Practices and those Miracles being such as could not be perform'd by Men or Devils or any thing less than a supernatural and Almighty Power it being never known since the World was created that the Devil ever open'd the Eyes of those that were born blind or fed so many thousands of hungry Persons with five Loaves and a few small Fishes or with the speaking of two or three Words raise Men out of their Graves who had been dead and buried four days there will be lest no reasonable or plausible Pretext for any sceptical Unbeleiver to call in question his divine Power I do believe that the Devil is a Spirit of wonderfull knowledge and mighty power and able when ever God permits him to blind the Eyes of us Mortals and so to counterfeit real Miracles as for a while Pharaoh's Magicians did in appearance perform some of Moses's Miracles and that which is no small help to the performance of his Sorceries and Witchcrafts and other of his diabolical practices he has undoubtedly a perfect knowledge of the Sympathies Antipathies and secret vertues that are either in the Bodies of all sorts of Animals and Plants or else in Minerals and inanimate things which if they should be publickly known or divulged Humane Society would be very much confounded if not utterly destroyed Who can give a rational accout of Straws jumping to the jett Or the Dust of Iron to the Load-stone Or of the needles turning to the North. What reason can any Philosopher give why the bark of a Tree in Peru should be a ready Cure for a Fever or Ague Or why the Skin of an Eele or Snake should give present ease to the violent pain of the Cramp Or which is yet more wonderfull why a small bit of Wood being cut and taken at such a criticall hour or minute and being gently rubbed upon a fresh wound should immediately staunch the Blood though issuing forth with great violence and perform the Cure in a few hours space the Wound being only wrapt up close and kept warm without any chyrurgical Operations I my self have seen and practised many strange Experiments of other kinds which I think not at all convenient here to publish And look upon it as an effect of God's wonderful Providence Mercy and Goodness that the Books which Solomon wrote concerning Plants and Herbs were concealed from or at least not made common or publick in future Ages And that several Experiments which some later and learned Authors such as Paracelsus Agrippa and others have published to the World have either been misunderstood or not at all believed As for the Miracles done by Moses there are two things very considerable and worth our notice First though the Magicians by the Devil's assistance did in appearance turn the Rods into Serpents and Water into Blood and bring up Frogs upon the Land of Egypt yet it is manifest that they were in no wise able to undo Moses's Miracles or to remove any of the Ten Plagues which would certainly have been a most acceptable Service to K. Pharaoh who had so much a do to bring his hard and stubborn heart to intreat Moses to beseech the Lord his God for the speedy removal of the Frogs the Flies the Hail and the Locusts Again it is no less observable That the Magicians counterfeited no more than two or three of Moses's Miracles and when they attempted to proceed they were forced to desist and confess it was the power and Finger of God Neither was the Devil with all his Magick-Arts able to help them to produce so vile and despicable a Creature as a Lowse or to give them afterwards a Receipt to cure their Boils and Blains which Moses had fixt upon their bodies so that they were no longer in a condition to stand before Pharaoh and his Servants neither do we hear any more of their appearance in all those Transactions whereas Moses went on triumphantly with his Miracles till he had safely landed all the Israelites on the other side of the Red-Sea and left Pharaoh and all his Host overwhelmed with the returning Waters and become dead Carkasses Reflections If God should permit real Miracles to vouch diabolical Delusions or indeed suffer any of the Devil's Magick-Arts to stand in competition with his own Almighty works upon such extraordinary Occasions of either revealing or confirming any new Truth or Doctrine it would soon overthrow throw Christian Religion But we always find the contrary throughout the Holy Scriptures Pharaoh's Magicians were soon put to silence Their Rods were swallowed up by Aaron's Rod They were at a Non-plus in producing a Lowse and at last were forced to withdraw and disappear with shame and disgrace The priests of Baal though they cut and mangled their flesh with sharp knives and from morning to Evening made bitter Cries were not able to bring down Fire from Heaven upon their Altars The Sorcerer Elymas was by St. Paul struck blind at Salamis and St. Peter more than once publickly baffled the famous Sorcerer Simon Magus So that whatever was done by Pharaoh's Magicians which is one of the most remarkable Instances of the Devil's power and Enchantments or whatever was at any time after done by any of his Sorcerers does not in the least derogate from any of our blessed Saviour's Miracles or the Miracles afterwards performed by any of his Apostles or Disciples which
and Delusions and Idolatrous Worship of divers kinds so as to make sure of them in the main and always hold them fast within his Clutches Thus in the foregoing Instance of the Tunquineses the Hermite Chacabout left behind him Ten Commandements which he enjoined his Followers to observe with all manner of strictness viz. First Not to Kill Secondly Not to Steal Thirdly Not to defile their Bodies Fourthly Not to Lye Fifthly Not to falsify their Words Sixthly To restrain their inordinate Desires Seventhly Not to do Injury to any Man Eighthly Not to be great Talkers Ninthly Not to give way to their Anger Tenthly To labour to their utmost to get Knowledge Besides all this They who designed to lead a Religious Life must renounce the Delights of this Life be Charitable to the Poor overcome their Passions and give themselves up to Meditation He taught moreover That after this Life there were Ten distinct Places of Joy and Torment and that the Contemners of these Laws should feel Torment proportionable to their Offences without any End of their Torments That they who endeavoured to fulfil his Law and had failed in any point should wander in divers Bodies holding Transmigration of Souls for the space of Three Thousand Years before they entred into Happiness But that those who had perfectly Obeyed his Laws should be rewarded without suffering any Change of their Bodies And that he himself had been Born ten times before he enjoyed the Bliss that he possessed not having in his first Youth been illuminated with that Knowledge which he afterwards attained Reflection As for his Ten Commands and his other Instructions immediately following one would think at first sight that this Impostor had collected them out of the Holy Scriptures save only that there is not a Word therein that has the least regard to a Saviour or Messias But alass that subtil old Serpent and Prince of Darkness who is so perfect a Hater of the Saviour of the World and of Humane Race makes it his principal Care and Caution to keep all his Subjects and Vassals from the least Knowledge of those divine Mysteries which relate to the holy JESUS For my part I am apt to believe altho' so many Ages have past since the Martyrdom of the blessed Apostles among the Pagans and Barbarians who undoubtedly converted very great numbers of them while they lived amongst them that some of these Converts left behind them many pious Instructions to their Children who also left the same to their Children and so from Generation to Generation which in process of time were corrupted by Satan's Artifices being confounded and intermingled with a great number of foolish and extravagant Traditions Of this I shall here take the freedom to mention one famous Instance There were about fifteen Years since as a Traveller assures me who was himself in those parts and probably are to this day living above Twenty thousand Families of a certain People who call themselves Christians or Disciples of St. John from whom they pretend to have received their Faith their Books and Traditions These people inhabit at present at Balsara about ten days Voyage from that place where the River Tigris divides it self into two Arms the one running through the ancient Chaldaea and the other towards Mesopotamia in view of which stands an old Wall of about a League in compass which the Chronicles of that Country say was the Ruins of the ancient Babylon upon which Wall six Coaches may go abreast being made of burnt Brick each Brick ten Foot square and three Foot thick These Christians of St. John anciently lived by the River of Jordan where St. John baptized and so from him they took their Name But since the time that Mahomet conquered Palestine although he had given them his Hand and Letter of Privilege not to be molested his Successors resolved to extirpate them ruining their Churches burning their Books and exercising all manner of Cruelties upon their Persons which obliged them to retire into Mesopotamia and Chaldaea and for some time they were under the Patriarch of Babylon from whom they separated about 175 Years since and then removed into Persia and Arabia and the Towns round about Balsara Their Creed is full of Fables and soul Errors They never Baptize but in Rivers and only upon Sundays But before they go to the River they carry the Infant to Church where there is a Bishop who reads certain prayers over the head of the Child from thence they carry it to the River with a train of Men and Women who together with the Bishop go up to the knees in Water then the Bishop reads again certain prayers out of a Book which he holds in his hand which done he sprinkles the Infant three times saying Beesme brad Er-rabi Kaddemin Akreri Menhal el Gennet Alli Koulli Kralek which is in English In the Name of the LORD first and last of the WORLD and of PARADISE the high Creator of all Things After that the Bishop reads something again out of his Book while the Godfather plunges the Child all over in the water after which they all go to the Parents house to feast If any tax their Baptism for insufficient in regard the Three Persons of the Trinity are not mentioned therein they give no reasonable Answer nor have they any knowledge of that Mystery only they say that Christ is the Spirit and Word of the Eternal Father They believe the Angel Gabriel to be the Son of God begotten upon Light yet will not believe the Eternal Generation of Christ as God although they confess he became Man to free us from the punishment of Sin and that he was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without the knowledge of Man by means of the Water of a certain Fountain which she drank of They believe he was Crucisied by the Jews That he rose the Third Day and that his Soul ascended up to Heaven his Body remaining upon Earth but withal That Christ vanished when the Jews came to take him and that he deluded their Cruelty with his shadow In the Eueharist they make use of Meal kneaded up with Wine and Oil the Wine they make with Grapes dried in the Sun and casting water upon them let them steep a long time and with that they Consecrate the Cup The Arabians under whose Government they live not permitting them the use of ordinary Wine The Words of their Consecration are no other then long Prayers but make no mention of Christ's Body or Blood which they say is not necessary because God knows their intention After the Ceremonies are ended the Priest eats some of the Bread and distributes the rest to the people All their Bishops wear their Hair long with a little Cross wrought with a needle These People believe and say That the Angel Gabriel undertaking to create the World according to God's Command took along with him Three hundred thirty six Thousand Demons and made the Earth so fertile
that it was but to Sow in the Morning and Reap at Night That the same Angel taught Adam to plant and sow and all other necessary Sciences Moreover That the same Angel made the Seven lower Spheres the least whereof reaches to the Center of the World in the same manner as the Heavens do all continued one within another and that all these Spheres are of different Mettals That next the Center of Iron the Second of Lead the Third of Brass the Fourth of Laten the Fifth of Silver the Sixth of Gold and the Seventh of Earth which contains all the rest They believe that over every Heaven there is Water and that the Sun swims in a Ship upon that Water and that the Mast of that Ship is a Cross and that there are a great number of Boys and Girls to guide the Ships of both Sun and Moon Besides they have the picture of a Bark which they say belonged to the Angel Bachan whom God sends to visit the Sun and Moon to see whether they move exactly and keep close to their Duty In reference to the other World and Life to come They believe there is no other World but where Angels and Divels together with the Souls of Good and Bad reside That in that World there are Cities Houses and Churches and likewise that the Evil Spirits have their Churches where they pray singing and rejoycing upon Instruments and feasting as in this World That when any one lies at the point of Death three hundred and sixty Demons come and carry his Soul to a place full of Serpents Dogs Lions Tigers and Devils who if it be the Soul of a wicked Man tear it in pieces but if it be the Soul of a just Man it creeps under the Bellies of those Creatures into the presence of God who sits in his Seat of Majesty to judge the World That there are also Angels who weigh the Souls of Men in a Ballance and those who are thought worthy are immediately admitted into Glory That Angels and Devils are Male and Female and beget Children and that the Angel Gabriel has a Daughter called Sâ—â—ret who has two Sons That the Angel Gabriel has several Legions of Demons under him who are instead of Souldiers and others that are his Officers of Justice whom he sends from Town to Town and from City to City to punish the wicked They hold that Christ left 12 Apostles to preach to the Nations That the Virgin Mary is not dead but lives somewhere in the World though no body knows where and that next to her St. John is to be the chiefest Saint in Heaven and next to them Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom they recount several Miracles and Apocryphal Tales That when St. John came to be of Age his Father and Mother married him and also that he had four Sons which he begat upon the Waters of Jordan and not upon the Body of his Wife That he died a natural Death but commanded his Disciples to Crucify him after his death that he might be like Christ and lastly that he died in the City of Fuster and was buried in a chrystal Tomb brought to that City by a Miracle and that this Sepulchre was in a certain House near the River Jordan They highly adore the Cross because say they we have a Book wherein it is written That every Day early in the Morning the Angels take the Cross and put it in the middle of the Sun which receives its Light from it as the Moon does also hers And that without these Crosses neither Sunnor Moon would give any Light and the Ships they were in would suffer Shipwrack Their Festivals are Three the one is in Winter that lasts three Days in memory of our First Parent and the Creation of the World The Second in August and called the Feast of St John The Third lasts five Days in June during which time they are all Re-baptized On Sunday they do no work They neither Fast nor do any Penance They have no Canonical Books but a great number of others that treat of nothing but Witchcraft in which they believe their Priests to be very crafty and that the Devils are at their beck They suffer no Women to go to Church nor any of the Laity to kill a Hen or any Fowl They eat of nothing drest by the Turks and after a Turk has drunk in one of their Cups they break it to pieces and picture Mahomet and four of his Parents as shut up in Hell and say That all Turks are carried to the same place to be devoured by wild Beasts They all pretend to Salvation by a Promise made by God to Gabriel on their behalf when he framed the World They have a great Antipathy against the blew Colour called Indigo which they will not so much as touch For say they certain Jews dreaming that their Laws should be abolished by St. John told it their Country-men which they understanding and seeing that St. John prepared to baptize Christ in a great rage fetch a vast quantity of Indigo in their Language Nill and flung it into Jordan which continued unclean for some time and had hindred the Baptism of Christ had not God sent his Angels with a large Vessel of Water which he caused them to fill out of Jordan before the Jews had defiled it with Indigo and that for the foresaid bold Attempt to defile the River God particularly cursed that Colour Ejaculation How long O Lord Holy and True wilt thou cease to be avenged of that Prince of Darkness for tyrannizing and triumphing over the poor Heathens and beguiling them with his Sorceries Witchcrafts and Enchantments for so many thousand Years How long wilt thou suffer that Enemy of Souls secretly to divert and please himself by seeing such vast numbers of his Slaves and Vassals to take more pains undergo more hardships and to endure more exquisite bodily Torments in travelling along the Broad way and passing through the wide Gate that leads to endless Woes and Miseries than thou sufferest a great number of thine own Elect and chosen Servants to meet with in the Narrow Way and in their passage through the straight Gate that leads to Eternal Life But to return to my Observations of the Devil's practices When God had covenanted with Abraham that his Seed should be multiplied as the Stars of Heaven and inherit the Promised Land What Stone did Satan leave unturn'd Or what Opportunities did he ever lose of attempting to frustrate God's gracious Designs His first Atchievement was to exasperate Esaâ— to murder his Brother Jacob upon whose individual Person his aged Father had so lately fixt a Blessing and out of whose Loyns were to come forth 12 Tribes whose Posterity were to be as innumerable as the Sands of the Sea hoping that he being once removed the blessed Effects of all God's promises would be utterly vacated and disappointed When Jacob's Family were kindly received by K. Pharaoh and the Egyptians How