his Exhortatory to the Gentiles or Eusebius who in his Praeparatory to the Gospel or Theodoret who in his Books of the Affections of the Greeks write that Plato did translate many things into his out of Moses his Books When Numenius the Philosopher stiles Plato the Moses of Greece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is Plato but Moses speaking in the Attick Dialect Vives in Aust. de civit lib. 8. cap. 11. God planting his word in Judaea the Center of the habitable Earth left all men without excuse who by natural Sentiments finding a Dearth at home did not travel thither to buy Corn so that it is not to be wondred at that inquisitive men should come out of all Nations and hang upon the Skirts of the Jews But towards the rising of the Sun of Righteousness the day Star of the Septuagint arose in the sight of the Gentile Empire Temple light confining it self no longer to that Kingdom of Priests diffused its beams not faintly through the Crannies of verbal Tradition to a few but in their full Lustre to all through its Windows made by this Translation as wide on the out-side as the material Temples were on the inside So that those Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets to which the Apostles appeal'd for the proof of what they taught had been for some hundreds of Years made common to Gentiles and in every man's hand that listed to read them by which means the World is put into a capacity to try by that Touch-stone of what Metal the Gospel was A way of tryal it would never have â—ood to much less have called for had it been conscious to it self of the least Adulterate Mixtures Is it possible by false transcribing to put a cheat upon that man that has the Original in his custody Why the Old Testament is the Original draught of the Messiah The Gospel pretends it self to be the Transscript of that Original And therefore had the Serpent intended to have cheated the World by a false Copy he would have taken Pen in hand before the time of the Apostles before the Original Deed had come to its hands This Argument that never sufficiently praised Apologist for the Christian Faith Tertullian as his use is pithily and strenuously presseth to the Conscience of the Gentiles Apol. advers gentes cap. 18. Nec istae nunc latent Ptolemaeorum eruditissimus quem Philadelphum supranominant omnis literaturae sagacissimus cum studio bibliothecarum Pisistratum ut opinor aemularetur inter caetera memoriarum quibus aut vetustas aut curiositas aliqua ad famâ—m protrocinabatur ex suggestu Demetrii Phalerei grammaticorum tunc probatissimi cui praefecturam mandaverat libros ae Judaeis quoque postulavit proprias scilicet vernaculas literas quas soli habebant Sed ne notitia vacaret hoc quoque Ptolemaeo 〈◊〉 Judaeis subscriptum est sepâ—uaginta duobus interpretibus indultis quos Menedemus quoque Philosophus providentiae vindex de sententiae communione suspexit Affirmavit haec quoque vâ—bis Aristaeus ita in Graecum stilum ex aperto mâ—nimenta reliquit Hodie apud Serapaeum Ptolemaei bibliothecae cum ipsis Hebraicis literis exhibentur Sed Judaei palam lectitant vectigalis libertas vulgo aditur sabbatis omnibus qui audierit inveniet Deum qui etiam studuerit intelligere cogetur credere The Old Testament Scriptures wherein is laid up the treasure of the whole Jewish and from thence of our Religion Quibus the saurus totius Judaici sacramenti collocatus inde etiam nostri Id Ib. paulo inferius are now divulged For the most learned of the Ptolemy ' s Sur-named Philadelphus a diligent inquirer after all kind of literature emulating as I suppose Pisistratus his Library among other memorials which either their Antiquity or rareness commended to publick Fame upon the suggestion of Demetrius Phaleraeus whom he appointed Library-keeper required of the Jews those Books that were writ in their Mother Tongue and no where extant but in their own custody alone But that the World might no longer be destitute of the knowledge of them the Jews yield to Ptolemy ' s request and give Licence to Seventy two Interpreters to translate their Bible for whom Menedemus the Philosopher Menedemus non ille Cynicus Coloti Lampsaceni Discipulus sed Socraticus Phaedonis filius Josep autiq 12. 3. Not the Cynick who was the Scholar of Colotus Lampsacenus but the Son of Phaedon and the Disciple of Socrates that defender of the Doctrine of Providence by reason of those Scriptures agreement with his Opinion had a very great respect Aristaeus also hath affirmed to you these things having left manifest Memorials thereof in Greek Hieron prefat in pentateucham Aristaeus Ptolemaei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Procounaesian whom Strabo condemns as a fabulous and jugling Historian who lived in the Reign of Cyrus and in the fabulous age of Greece though Josephus Eusebius and others stile this man Aristeus Franc. Junii not in locum Tertulliani Ptolemy ' s Library together with the Hebrew Scripture which they translated is at this day to be seen in the Temple of Serapis Serapium templum it a exornatum ut post capitolium nihil orbis terrarum ambitiosues cernat in quo bibliothecae fuerunt inaestimabiles septuaginta voluminum millia Ptolemaeis regibus vigiliis intentis composita bello Alexandrino dum diripitur civitas sub Dictatore Caesare conflagrasse Am. Marcellin lib. 22. The Temple of Serapis so beautified as next to the Capitol the whole world affords not a more stately Piece wherein were Libraries of inestimable value and 70000. Volumes gather'd together by the two Ptolemies was burnt in the Alexandrian War when Caesar was Dictator yet through special Providence if not the whole Library yet at least the Hebrew Testament which the Seventy translated into Greek escaped the fire as is manifest from this Appeal of Tertullian to that Hebrew Copy And if you be unwilling to go so far to inform your selves in the truth of these things 〈◊〉 you may have assurance of it at home for in Rome the Jews read this Translation publickly and as long as they pay their Composition for enjoying this liberty the Vulgar repair every Sabbath to their Synagogues where he that hears may find the true God and he that labours to understand what he hears cannot chuse but become a Christian. § 2. The learned Scaliger with-holds assent to this so currant Story of the Ptolemaean Version conceiving that book of Aristaeus out of which Josephus and from him the Fathers borrowed that story to have been feigned by some Grecizing Jew to get the greater Reverence and Authority to that Translation Scalig. animadvers in Eusebium ad an 1234. We will consider his reasons not so much for the weight of them as for the esteem of the Author to whose inestimable parts some perhaps may not think fit to cast in that Allay which the judicious and impartial
the unreasonableness by a two-fold Argument related not only by St. Jerom in locum but by our Sir Walt. Rawleigh par 1. l. 3. cap. 1. § 2. of the History of the World viz. 1. The Seventy above an hundred years before Antiochus translated Daniel amongst the rest of the Jewish Prophets And 2. Jaddus the High Priest shewed to Alexander the Great that Vision of Daniel chap. 11. 3. A mighty King shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion c. wherein Alexander is presented as the Subduer of the Persian and Erector of the Grecian Empire as himself applied it Joseph Jud. ant l. 11. c. 8. It had been to small purpose to have shewed Alexander the Book had it been untranslated I therefore upon these Testimonies rest so well assured that the Seventy translated the whole Old Testament as I conceive the discussion of that Question needless and cannot strain my Invention to find out Arguments to convince that Generation of men who have Ignorance or Impudence enough to resist the force of these Authorities the least whereof is able to weigh down all Prejudices to the contrary Howbeit though the Churches Champions had hus baffled Porphyry yet the Jew was glad to take take the like Subterfuge from the dint of this Prophecy by ascribing to Daniel less Authority than to Moses and the Prophets reckoning his Book among the Hagiographa composed by Ezra and his Synagogue And when he was beaten thence he had no way to ward off the force of the Christian's arguing from this Prophecy that our Jesus is the Christ but by this distinction viz. That Daniel's Prophecy as also Zachary's points to a Messiah in all points like to our Jesus A Shepherd that was smitten and not able to save himself or Flock a Messiah that was cut off and ejected out of his Kingdom not able to hold that Kingdom he usurped In Dan. vis 8. non erit ejus populus qui eum negaturus est sive ut illi dicunt non erit illius imperium quod putabat se retenturum whereas Christ the Son of God whom they yet expect is described by the Prophets as asking long Life of God and obtaining it for ever as asking and receiving the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession as one that will make his people willing in the day of his power and will come in that Majesty as shall bear down all opposition before it This Jewish Evasion Broughton quotes out of the Talmud in his Concent of Sacred Scripture anno mundi 3535. A clear acknowledment that Daniel's Text prescribes the Time of the Messias and that that time so exactly sutes the coming of the blessed Jesus as neither Jew nor Gentile durst stand a Dispute with the Christian upon that ground but after some Bravadoes and light Skirmishings retreated to such Boggy and Quagmire-fastnesses as these Why do you urge us with the Authority of Daniel a spurious Prophet whose Book was not writ by him whose Name it bears but by some false Jew saith Porphyry by Esdras's College of Elders say the Jews and when the Jew is beaten hence he grants the Argument yields the Christian his Conclusion and so leaves himself no way to escape a total Rout but over the narrow and slender Bridg of this sorry Distinction Our Scriptures foretell of two Messiasses one base and mean like your Jesus the Son of Joseph the Carpenter another high and mighty the Son of David the King who shall repair the decayed Tabernacle of David and sit upon his Throne for ever These were the desperate shifts which the Defenders of the Christian Faith put the Jews to by their demonstrating out of Daniel's Weeks that the Fulness of Time for the appearance of the Messiah was then come when our Saviour exhibited himself being put to this plunge that they must either confess the Divinity of Christ or deny the Divine Authority of their own Prophetick Books or split in two their Messias whom those Books foretell § 2. To shew the unreasonableness of both these Evasions would fall in more methodically in another place yet that my Reader while he is travelling with me through this Prophecy in search of the Christ may not fall under the least discouraging doubt of the Canonicalness of this Book or under the least fear of finding here a Messias who is not the Son of David as as well as the Son of Joseph and the Son of God as well as the Son of David I shall now remove these stumbling-blocks As to the first Evasion viz. the debasing the Authority of Daniel it was a mere Pretence taken up to blunt the Edge of that Prophecy the Dint whereof the Jew was not able to avoid For before the Christian took that Sword into his hand for the Defence of Christ the Synagogue had as high an esteem of him as any other of the Prophets of whose Faith touching this part of the Old Testament-canon Josephus who lived to see the last hour of Daniel's Weeks expired is an impartial Witness who makes this clear and full Confession antiquit 10. 12. viz. Daniel was a most happy man and a most excellent Prophet and after death obtained eternal Memory for his Books which he left writ are at this day read among us this was in the Reign of Domitian after the accomplishment of Daniel's Weeks being such as give full proof of Gods vouchsafing to have familiar Conference with him For he did not only as other Prophets foretell things to come but define the precise time when they were to fall out which have had that Effect in the certainty of Events as hath procured him credit among all sorts of mortal Men there being those Circumstances in his Writings from whence the certainty of his Prophecies may be more clearly gather'd than from any other of our Prophets For the proof of which having instanc'd in his Vision of the four Beasts in his Prediction of the rising of the Roman Empire and the desolations it was to bring upon the Jewish People he concludes thus All these things being reveiled to him by God he committed to Writing and left to Posterity c. Indeed had Josephus been silent the Book it self speaks Daniel to be the Pen-man of it where the Angel bids him seal the Prophecy which sure was not a Blank which Ezra and his Companions were to fill up Nay the Jews silence Mat. 24. 45. Mar. 13. 14. when Christ quoted Daniel's Prophecy gave Consent that he was the Author of that Book which had they conceived not to have been his Writing but the Tradition of the Elders they would not have failed to have bid our Saviour who had so frequently rebuked them for adhering to Tradition wash his own hands of that Crime which he objected to others Touching their other Subterfuge their distinguishing of Messias a man inferiour to Solomon in Wisdom may judg it a sufficient Evidence that that
Works of Christ and their Magi will be discust in its proper place I am now only to shew what inconvenience the Learned Gentile was put upon while he is forc'd upon making this Exception as not having the face to deny the Matters of Fact 1. By the Evidence of Christ's great Works he is convinc'd that Christ was a good an holy Man for none but such were privileged with a Power of doing such Works as he did By the same Evidence he must confess that Christ is God for he profest himself to be one with and equal to the Father and a good man will not lye 2. Again if Christ were an holy Man and by his Holiness had attain'd the Magick Art he would have communicated the Principles of that Art to others for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good man is a common good communicative of his profitable knowledge The Pagan here was driven to this Reply That Christ did write Books of the Magick Art and dedicated and delivered them to St. Peter and Paul They could not saith St. Austin have pitch'd upon a more ridiculous answer the falshood thereof laying open to the youngest Catechumen who can tell these gray-beards that Christ was ascended into Heaven before St. Paul became his Disciple But they had seen the Memories of those two Apostles celebrated together and had heard them spoken of as the prime Apostles the one of the Circumcision the other of the Incircumcision and therefore they joyn'd them in this Fable as the likeliest persons by whose hands Christ might diffuse the Principles of the Magick Art through the World of Jew and Gentile Or they might take up this Conceipt from the Helcesaitae of whom Eusebius thus writeth St. Origen in Psal. 80. mention'd a kind of Hereticks called Helcesaitae who gave out that they had a Book which fell down from Heaven which who so heard and believed the doctrine thereof should receive an otherwise Remission of sins than that which Christ dispensed This should be a Book of Magick by that Title in Justinian's Codex de maleficis mathematicis o◠Incantationes quibus utebantur where amongst others that Heresie of the Helcesaitae is condemned Euseb. hist. lib. 6. cap. 31. § 5. But the mischief of mischiefs that the Jew has brought upon his own and his fellows Causes in his not being able to resist the Truth of the Evangelical History is this That hereby he has afforded the Christians of this last Age an even ground to play with them upon at all other Weapons in all the remaining Controversies touching that Subject 1. It being confest that the Doctrine of the Gospel was deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles and witnessed to by such wonderful Works as are therein reported for the determining of this Question whether those Works are truly and properly Miracles and sufficient indications that the perpetrators of them were commission'd by God as his Embassadors to treat with man we of this Age are every way as well instructed as they that were or as we our selves could have been had we been Eye-witnesses of them whether Pompey or Caesar had the better Cause it being supposed that Antiquity has given us the true state of it may as well and perhaps more impartially be resolved by Modern Civilians than by Cato or Cicero though there may be more danger of mistake in resolving this Case than ours for the precise Rules that Lawyers are in that case to proceed by are not the universal Maximes of Right but as they are confin'd limited and manacled by the then Laws of the Roman State where that might have been just or unjust two thousand years ago that would be the quite contrary now in respect of those mutations have in the interim befaln their Politicks But in our Case we are to walk by standing and fixed Principles in Nature of eternal Verity nothing can be a Miracle or not a Miracle now that would not have been so three thousand years ago State-maximes are not like the Laws of Medes and Persians unalterable but the Covenant which God hath made with Day and Night the Ordinances of Sun Moon and Stars cannot be broken but by the immedate hand of him that made them Jer. 32. 26. 33. 20. And therefore we who live now are better abilitated to judge when the interposition of that hand suspends the operation of those Ordinances than they who lived before us saving the advantage they had of us by means of the first Traditional Learning communicated either by God to Adam or by Adam to the Patriarchs or acquired by those long-livers before the Flood the length of whose Age allowed them so large a time to conn those Lessons which the hand of creating Omnipotencie had writ in the Volume of the Universe and deliver'd by their survivour Noah to the Generations after the Flood the benefit whereof the Devil did not so much envy to humane kind as he did the Tradition of Religion and therefore that was better preserv'd than this Though our own be but a Pigmey-experience yet it stands upon the Giants Shoulders of the experience of former Ages by means of which upper ground we daily make new Discoveries and take out new Lessons out of the Book of Nature facile est inventis addere To say nothing of the Modern helps we have Of Scripture-physicks by which many of the old Philosophers mistakes are discover'd and we lighted to a clearer discovery of Nature than Nature could make of her self Of Accademies where we enjoy all imaginable expedients of Arts towards the perfecting our Minds in the knowledge of Natures Laws and Learning to judge when those Laws are either suspended or improved beside or beyond their own Line the benefit of which opportunity would yet be improved if we would subordinate Philosophy to Divinity in point of Authority and Use of Authority in preferring the Light of the Sun to the blaze of that Candle of the Lord within us of Use in studying natural Ethicks and Physicks to the end we may know where Nature ends as to both and where Grace and the God of Nature begins to out-do those ordinary Powers that are planted either in the great World or its Epitome 2. The Truth of the Gospel-Narrative yielded If upon due examination but any one of those mighty Works therein reported to have been done do undoubtedly appear to be a Miracle we may we must without the least haesitancie rest assured of the Infallibility of the Evangelical Doctrine For Gods Faithfulness and abhorrencie of Falshood will no more consist with his setting one Seal to a Lye than a thousand The Magicians vying with Moses in some of those Wonders he wrought before Pharaoh did not prejudice his Divine Commission seeing Moses did some things in confirmation thereof which they could not imitate but confess'd to be the Finger of God 3. Any one Action of Christ proved irrefragably a Miracle will seal to the Truth of the whole Body of Gospel-doctrine
the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato's Sentences entenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John's Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato's Sentence under the Rose CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviours Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry's Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. CHAP. VI. God the Light Man's Reliever § 1. Plebean Light mistaken for the true All-healing Light Joves and Vaejoves Mythology an help at a dead lift § 2. Wisdom begotten of God Man's Helper the Fathers Darling § 3. Made Man Sibyls maintain'd as quoted by Fathers Come short of Scripture-Oracles § 4. Virgil out of Sibyl prophesied of Christ. The Sibyllines brought to the Test. Tully's weak Exceptions against the Sibyllines § 5. Sibyl's Songs of God Redeemer the Eternal Word the Creator Apollo commends Christ. Local Saviours exploded CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry's Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham's departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of the Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christs Blood § 7. Mans Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the world by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how CHAP. VIII The Gospel calculated to the Meridian of the Old Testament § 1 In its Types § 2. Its Ceremonials fall at Christs feet with their own weight The Nest of Ceremonies pull'd down That Law not practicable § 3. Moses his Morals improved by Christ by better Motives Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4. It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul's Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School CHAP. IX Gospel-History agrees with Old Testament-prophecy § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophecies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob's Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor his Pole-money to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligation void They return to Aegypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah's God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel's Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel's Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel's second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book Book III. THE ARGUMENT 3 We have as good grounds of Assurance that the matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles were done and delivered accordingly as they are therein related as we have or can have of the Truth of any other the most certain Relation in the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose Names they bear then any Man can have that he is his reputed Fathers Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks CHAP. II. The Suffrage of Adversaries to the testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples Civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny's information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximnus hated them for CHAP. III. The Substance of Christian Religion as it stands now in the Gospel is to be found in the Books of its Adversaries § 1. The Effigies of the Gospel is hung out where it is proscribed § 2. Hierocles attempting to outvie Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christs Doctrine may be traced out by the footsteps of the Hunters who pursued it CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found
industriae consiliique 〈◊〉 c. Eutropius l. 6. A person of such vast industry and contrivance as he enquired of his Subjects scattered through his large Dominions and sent the most skilful of them to search what was the Virtue of every Root the Property of every Plant that grew in such variety of fertil Climes By which means he grew to that skill in the Botanick Art as he composed Commentaries upon that Subject I had almost said from the Cedar to the Hyssop which Pompey in rummaging amongst his Treasures found and received with very great delight Plutarch Pomp. This Princely Philosopher who tam Marte quà m Mercurio both at pen and pike excell'd all Kings not only of his own but former Ages Just. hist. l. 47. flourish'd not above 60 years before the Virgins Conception Alsted cron Medicorum About the same time the Natural History of Animals was so well improved as Aelian who lived under Adrian in the Preface to his History of Animals makes an Apology for his writing upon that Subject after so many famous Authors and bids his Readers expect nothing new from his Books but stile and method 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A while after Mithridates still nearer Christs time began the Secta Methodica of which Themison Laodicaeus was the Institutor his immediate Successors were Dioscorides an acquaintance of Mark Antony and M. Antony himself is reported by Scribonius in his Epistle to the Lantgrave of Hess to have emulated the ancient Egyptian Kings in the knowledge of Physical Operations Antonius Musa Physician to Augustus Antipater Thessalus â—rallianus Scribonius Agathinus Magnus all under Tiberius who by help of that Library which Lucullus in emulation of Mithridates had erected at Rome Plutarch Lucull whence Tully confessed he borrowed his most refined philosophical Notions rendred that Age the most learned of all Ages Sleidan Clav. l. 1. and lick'd the Off-spring of the Empiricks then come to its full growth into form platting their scattered Flowers into Garlands setting their Woods into orderly Rows Nature seeming ambitious not only to strow the way before that Root and Off-spring of David that Rose of Sharon with Roses but to adorn the Temples of the God of Nature at his Incarnation with Wreaths of Flowers framed by men of such skill in that Art as none of their Progenitors equall'd Apollo and his Son A sculapius not excepted for the Father was a mere Jugler and the Son drove a pedling Trade at Epidaur with Water-germander and Swallow-wort Tertul. Apol. ad gent. cap. 23. The latter of those Herbs bears his name indeed as if he had first found out its Vertues but Tarquilius quoted by Mornay de ver Christianae Rel. cap. 22. pag. 388. will not allow him the honour of that but saith Chiron taught him the properties of that and the other Simples Neither have any of their Successors exceeded them or better merited the surname of Great than one of them Agathinus did who had the honour of that Title conferred upon him in an age wherein nothing was reputed so but what really was great Albertus indeed bore away the compellation of Magnus but that was when the World was such a Pigmy in liberal Science as whosoever therein attain'd to the ordinary Stature of Man was accounted a Giant Sect. 2. Before the World had learnt to spell the Characters of Nature it was a matter of no great difficulty to impose upon her Credulity whatever any Craftsmaster pretended to read to her out of that Book Be it for instance that Berenices her devoted hair was conveighed out of Venus Temple where it was offered for her husband and brother Ptolomies Victory into the Zodiack and there placed ad caudam Leonis Conon the Mathematician can perswade the credulous people that he can point them to the brightness of her golden locks sparkling out in seven Stars which to this day retain the name of Berenices hair Hyginus Poetic astronom tit Leo. pag. 217. Or that while the Moon was under an Eclipse she was assaulted with charms threatning to hale her head-long from her Orb except her ears were stopt with the louder noise of Trumpets and Cymbals Cantus è curru lunam deducere tentant Et facerent si non aera repulsa sonant Propertius This was enough to sound the females especially as partaking most of the ductile spirit of our Mother Eve of that Hemisphere wherein the Eclipse was visible to their Kettle-Drums or the more shrill Trumpet of their clamorous Tongues Una laboranti potuit succurrere Lune An effect of ignorant Zeal no less ridiculous than that which in Aug. de Civit 10. 16. Vives reports of his own knowledge concerning that grave Senate which at that time that barbarous ignorance had almost put out the eye not only of Religion but of common sence and that Maxime Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion had reduc'd Germany to a zeal without knowledge to do the world right solemnly sentenc'd that Ass to be ript up whom his wise Master had accused to have drunk up the Moon he having seen her shadow at the lips of the wiser beast of the two while he was a drinking and she immediately sculking behind a cloud and there continuing till the Executioner freed her from the belly of the Ass. And yet such doctrine past for currant before the knowledge of that upper was descended from the father of lights upon the lower world not only among the vulgar but such as past then for great men and sublime wits elevated above the ordinary pitch such were those famous philosophising Poets Stefichorus and Pindar as Pliny affirms Pliny natural Hist. lib. 2. Viri ingentes supra mortalium naturam in defectibus stellarum scelera aut mortem aliquam paventes syderum Quo in metu fuisse Stefichori Pindari sublimia ora palam est Yea whole armies at first dismay'd at the sight of an Eclipse as a Prodigy have by a favourable interpretation of that Prodigy by help of their inscience of the natural cause been animated to that height of courage as they have defeated their late formidable adversaries Plutarch Dion Thus Milthas the Augur cheated Dions Army trembling at the omen of the Moon Eclipse hapning at the instant of their offering sacrifices for the success of that battle they were the next day to ingage in by assuring them it portended the diminution of the Syracusian Dionysius there being nothing below the Moon so gay and splendid as that Peacock-feather'd King The same Plutarch in his book de Superstitione tells how Nicius the Athenian General an Eclipse hapning when he was about to ingage the enemy counted it so ominens as he durt not think of fighting but sate still till the enemy had surrounded him and taken or slain 40000 of his army Sect. 3. I shall not force the Moon beside her well-known seasons nor my discourse beyond its due bounds by inserting here St. Austins De Civitate 3. 15. observation
if the world understood what he did she should be worshipt as a Goddess rather than either Juno or Minerva for she is not saith he in any laudable thing inferiour to the best of the Poetical Goddesses The greatest part of his third Book de Nat. Deorum he spends in exploding the Stoical and Poetical Divinity If the Planets must therefore be concluded Deities because of their regular motion let 's take Tertian and Quartan Agues into the number of Gods If Jupiter and Neptune be Gods are not their Brethren so too Orcus Acheron Cocytus Styx Phlegeton c why next are not Charon and Cerberus reputed Gods Nostri quidem Publicani cùm essent agri in Boeotia deorum immortalium excepti lege Censoriâ negabant immortales esse ullos qui aliquandò homines fuissent Our Sequestrators when the Law of the Censors had excepted the Lands in Boeotia belonging to the immortal Gods would find no such lands alledging that the Deities there having been once mortal men could never turn into immortal Gods Thus though Socrates his death over-awed those in whose memories the fate of that Philosophical-proto-Martyr was fresh yet length of time having pretty well digested that cold flegm and crude fear which Socrates his Aconite had bred in former Ages the whole company of the then modern Philosophers except Epicurus his herd of Hogs began about our Saviours time to prick up their bristles and proclaim their dislike of that fabulous Divinity that had in former times obtain'd credit in the world In which Age thus well secured from seduction by the most plaufible and insinuating fables for the Apostles to assault the world with naked and plain stories of one Jesus of Nazareth born at Bethlem King of the Jews c. and of things as much exceeding humane belief as any the most unlikely fictions of the vainest Poets would have been the most sottish attempt that ever was undertaken by the most insensate changelings had not the adventurers been themselves throughly perswaded of the truth of those unlikely stories and perfectly instructed with a power to demonstrate the truth thereof to others St. Paul's disputing at Athens the great Mart of Learning concerning the Living God his offering to prove to the Philosophers face that Jesus of Nazareth is that God by a bare telling by babling over as they at first reputed it the History of Christ had been ground enough for Agrippa's charge Paul thou art beside thy self if his own consciousness to its truth and the irrefragable demonstrableness thereof to others by Gods Hand and Seal set to it had not animated him to that attempt Could that chosen vessel hope to vend his commodities had they been adulterate among such cunning Merchants his Gemms had they been but Bristol-stones among such knowing Lapidaries Would he have shown his Treasures of Wisdom to an Age so inquisitive and so happy in its inquest after Wisdom had they not been such as would abide the severest scrutiny even of them that had tryed all former stuffs of the same nature in appearance and exploded them as spurious of them whom the authority of Homer the antiquity of Hesiod the reverence of Orpheus or the fear of Municipal Laws could not impose silence upon when they saw the world imposed upon in matters of Religion by popular fictions The light of Natural Knowledge even in Divine things had never shone brighter neither had the windows of mens minds been ever set more wide open receive in the beams thereof than when the Gospel was first exposed to the world Had not therefore this Eaglet been the genuine Off-spring of supernatural light it would not have ventur'd to out-face this noon-day-sun of Natural Knowlege For that which we read in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun the Ancients read posuit in sole Tabernaculum he hath set his Tabernacle in the Sun and some of them expound it to be a Prophecy of the Apostles publishing the Gospel the summ whereof is the Tabernacling of God in man in the clearest day of Humane Knowledge that had till then shined out upon the world or as the Prophet paraphraseth when men should run to and fro as dissatisfied with former science falsly so call'd and by that disquisition and canvassing of old traditions increase in Knowledge Christ did not shuffle in his Doctrine in the dark but produc'd it when all kind of Humane Literature was improved to that Giantick stature as none before that reached to and whoever since have stood Candidates for the repute of excellent Humanists have not by a general vote obtain'd the honour they stood for except they have been found imitators or emulators of that Age. Among Poets he bears away the Laurel even at this day as the best Lyrick Heroick Satyrist Comick Tragick c. who approacheth nearest those that then flourish'd Horace Virgil Ovid Juvenal Terence Seneca c. Among Orators he hath the general applause that shoots nearest the mark which Pliny set himself who was so far from taking as an opprobrie what M. Regulus objected against him that he was Tully's Ape as he gloried in his being esteem'd an emulator of so unparallel'd a precedent protesting that the eloquence of his own Age was too low a lure for him to fly at Plin. secund lib. 1. ep 5. Among Politicians he 's reputed the craftiest that most resembles Tiberius he the solidest that writes best after the copy of Augustus Among Patriots Cato's among Historians and Martialists Caesar's transcripts are the only men of account in our modern Calculations of mens deserts As for Divine Philosophy the Platonick which attain'd to its full growth about our Saviours time Aristotle being then and many hundred years after scarce taken notice of till in the Reign of Severus Aphrodisaeus brought him into credit hath ever been in St. Austin's judgement de Civit. 8. 4. non quidem immeritò excellentissimâ gloriâ claruit of best esteem and such as all other Sects must strike top-sail to in those Seas Aristotle indeed justly carries away the name of Daemon for his universal insight into all things yet he must yield to Plato the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his surpassing Knowledge in things Divine Now it was against the Sun of Platonick Philosophy shining out in his greatest splendour that the Primitive Church held up the Gospel It was in this Galaxie they shed the milk of the Word had it therefore not been sincere the whiteness of this milky way would have bewrayed the adulterate mixture This observation Tertullian urgeth to the Gentiles in his Apology Apolog. 21. cap. Christus non rapaces feros adhuc homines multitudine tot Numinum demerendorum attonitos efficiendo ad humanitatem temperavit ut Numa sed jam expolitos ipsae urbanitate deceptos in agnitionem veritatis oculavit Christ did not temper to humanity wild and savage men by amazing them with a multitude of Deities whose favour must be purchast as
Apostles used is not only plain in it self but acknowledged by thee and Epist. 19. Sed insinuare digneris à quibus Judaeis c. Be pleased I pray thee to tell me by what Jews this Translation could possibly be corrupted so as to disfavour the Christian Cause Not by those who before the Advent of Christ translated it for they had no temptation The Jews indeed since the propagation of Christianity may be thought to have had a good will either to substract or to adulterate those Texts in the Old Testament out of which we fetch convincing Arguments in defence of our Faith But how is it possible they could have an opportunity seeing the Translation of the Seventy is not only dispers'd through the World but by reason of Christ's and his Apostles making their quotations out of it is so tenaciously adhered to by all Christian Churches as they cannot endure to hear what recedes from it in the least tittle Of which he gives this notable Instance Epist. 10. That a certain Bishop reading out of St. Jerom's Translation in the History of Jonas haedera instead of cucurbita the people were so incens'd as they had like to have proceeded to the Deposition of their Bishop for corrupting sacred Writ By such Solidity of Arguments I say St. Austin maintains the preheminency of the Authority of the Septuagint against St. Jerom as that learned Father pleads his own old age for an excuse for his not answering them But the excellent Vossius hath lately so well managed this Province so irrefragably maintained the Authority of the Septuagint as all that can be said after him is but labour in vain Neither indeed did I intend to stand by the Seventy any longer than I might signifie to the Sheep of Christ that they may without fear graze upon it and find that pasture which greater Cattel of a far larger size than the Modern breed and whose weight would have sunk it down had it not been firm Land have found there and may chew the Cud of that Observation for the defence whereof we have made this too large Digression Were it not that the allowing the matter to have fallen out as Scaliger fancieth rather than as Josephus relateth would render the whole Story juiceless For say as he states the Case that the Jews of Egypt being brought to a necessity of disusing their own tongue and of learning Greek procured this Translation for their own use this will make little or nothing to the proof of that Position which the Patrons of the Christian Cause have with one mouth affirmed viz. That the knowledge of the Law of Moses was the forerunner of the Knowledge of Christ among the Gentiles to whom it would still have been a Book sealed up had it been confin'd to the Cabinet of the Synagogue But as Josephus tells the Story it affords a most substantial Basis to that universally receiv'd Opinion that the Day-break Glimmerings of the Law of God did out of Judea appear brighter and brighter to the Gentiles till at last the whole Body of it arose visibly in the Septuagint as the Day-star to the Sun of of Righteousness Volebat Deus gentes non multos post annos vocare per Evangelium quocirca curavit codicem sacrum maturè in vulgarem linguā converti quo legi passim posset ab omnibus per orbem gentibus Bullenger in Daniel par 2. tab 4. If God had a purpose to conveigh the knowledge of his Will to the Gentiles by that Translation would he have put that Candle under the bushel of the Jewish Synagogue and not rather have set it on the Pharos of Ptolemy's Library If the Law was to be the Gentiles Schoolmaster unto Christ where could it have set up School better than there where was the greatest frequency of learned men from all parts of the World drawn thither as soon as that Translation was finish'd by the beneficence of that Philomuse as Tertullian advers Valentin cap. 12. stiles Philadelphus in Junius his emendation of the corrupt Reading of that passage of whose bounty to proficients in Learning not only himself in his Letter to Eleazar the High Priest at his dismission of the Seventy Joseph Ant. but Aelian in his various History lib. 13. cap. 13. gives testimony affirming that though he exceedingly delighted in Converse with Learned men yet he took more pleasure in sowing his Temporals upon them than in reaping their Spirituals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after his death by the fame of his Library where Learning kept open house for all comers Can. cron lib. 2. Communia fuerant omnibus discere volentibus c. and flourished in the days of his Son Euergetes no where in all the World more than it did there A place so beautiful saith Am. Marcell lib. 22. as it was second to none in the whole World but the Roman Capitol and its greatest Ornament being a Library of seventy thousand Volumes all preserved there entire till in the Alexandrian War in the Dictatorship of Caesar while the City was a pillaging the Temple was set on fire and the greatest part of the Books burnt Now from the beginning of Philadelphus unto our Saviour's Birth that is from the year of Rome built 469. to the year 751. were almost 300 years Bullinger in Daniel during which time the Old Testament had been communicated to the Gentiles before the coming of him to whom it pointed § 6. Lo here how candidly how open-heartedly the Blessed Jesus dealt with the World dispersing his Picture before he came to call her beloved that had not been beloved that at his congress with her there might not be error personae or that the World might not have this to plead that she had or ever she was aware or had well considered the Person suffered a surprizal upon her Affections sending the Septuagint as the Prologue to his and his Apostles Acts to communicate to the Expectants the Argument of the ensuing Poem and communicating the old Grounds of that new Ditty which was to be sung at his and their appearing on the Worlds Stage an argument it was no newly devised Fable but an old Plot and a certain Expedient whereby the mistakes of the Actors might have been discern'd had they committed any Would Christ have given the World an opportunity to take the length of his foot that was to come by the Sandal of Moses and of judging whether that Sandal fitted his foot when he was come if he had intended to delude it I appeal to all Histories for an instance of any Religion but Christ's that durst abide the Test much less appeal to the Principles of another Religion then in being when it self stood for acceptance and acknowledged by the Candidate to be in force The Roman Pagan-Religion durst not stand a trial by the Books of its Founder Numa Pompilius but cried away with them to the fire as soon as they were produc'd The Papal Church supprest her
Senatus nè legantur quidem libri 4. That Caesar's using this stratagem to procure to himself the Title of King by an Argument drawn from the danger would otherwise accrew to the Romans si salvi esse vellemus that is by threatning them with an expectation that some Nation or other would have the wit to take hold of the opportunity and now that the whole World was expecting the accomplishment of that Prophecy would tender a Person to the Romans themselves to be their King if they did not in this particular get the start of other States and therefore it would be their wisest course to change the name of Dictator into that of King this strategem I say of Caesar was looked upon by Cicero to be of that consequence tendency to the over-turning of that Form of Government under which that City had grown up to those dimensions of Greatness and to the Introduction of Monarchy as that Commonwealths-man thinks it worth the while to obviate those Pretences by invalidating the Authority of all Oracles and by charging the Antistites to whose custody those Oracles were committed that they would as the better Ages before them had done still keep them still secret and not permit the People of Rome to be sollicited by Arguments drawn from thence to think of changing the Government and bringing in a new Form To dispatch at once this Point of the Sibylline Oracles I find a great deal of pudder about them both under Augustus and Tiberius which I think must be imputed to Julius his troubling those waters in his fishing for the Title of King out of them Tacitus annal lib. 6. 125. which in effect he obtained for he came into the Senate in Scarlet after the guise of the Alban Kings The Senate gave him the Title of Redeemer and ordered a temple to be built and dedicated to Liberty with this Inscription on his Ivory Statue The Unconquerable God and that his Image should be erected in the Capitol by the ancient K. standing upon the Globe of the World with this Inscription Semideus est Dion 43. Hinc illae lacrymae in Tully And truly when I diligently read through his two Books of Divination he seems to have had no other Scope in his whole Treatise than to prevent those destructive as he thought Alterations of Polity which the belief of Sibyls Prophecy and the Eastern Fame would incline the City to if their great Commanders were suffered to tread in Caesar's steps and to urge the belief of them upon the Senate and their Authority in order to the restoring of the so long-since exploded Kingly Government § 6. But Tully washeth the Ethiopian while he seeks to eradicate the belief of this Prophecy out of the minds of the People or to disswade the Great Ones from giving out themselves for the persons pointed at in this Oracle For though Augustus rejected the Title of Lord as also that of Emperour and made shew once of deposing the Imperial Crown yet in those pretensions to humility this Politick Prince set his face counter to the Stairs towards which he rowed and as to his ambition of the Universal Crown his History is far more fertile of such like stratagems than Julius's Suetonius reckons no less than 17 Prodigies which spoke Augustus to be a person design'd by Heaven for that Universal Monarchy or something equivalent to it I shall name those only which bear manifest prints of the Oriental Prophecy The Velitri had an old Tradition that a Citizen of theirs should in process of time gain the possession of the whole World quandóque rerum potiturum the very words whereby both Suetonius and Tacitus express the sence of the Eastern Oracle the Devil being in this God's Ape and by this animating them to wage War with the Romans till their striving for a dead Horse as the Jews in Vespasians Wars had brought them to the brink of ruin and would utterly have destroyed them if they had not at last been perswaded that that Respond portended the Sovereignty of Augustus who was educated though not born amongst them Suet. Octav 94 Penè ad exitium suicum populo R. belligeraverant serô tandem documentis apparuit ostentum illud Augusti potentiam portendisse Observe still how the Roman writers stretch the Sence of Oriundus Julius Marathus relates and Suetonius from him that some Months before the Birth of Augustus a Prodigy was seen at Rome and heard to declare that Nature was teeming with one who should be King of the Romans Prodigium Romae factum publicè quo denunciabatur Regem pop R. naturam parturire c. at which the Senators were so dismaid as a Vote had like to have past upon the same score that Herod slew the Bethlemitish Children to put to death all the Males that should be born that year but that the Senators whose Wives were big bellied in hope that their Issue might attain that honour hindred the promulgation of it His Mother Atia made report which Suetonius saith he read in Asclepiades Mendetes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how Apollo cuckolded her Husband Octavius by his Proxie a Dragon sacred to him creeping into her bed and committing with her while she was celebrating his nightly Rites Augustum natum mens◠decimo ob id Apollinis filium existimatum c. Of the truth whereof she produced this Evidence that from that time she had a Mole in form of a Dragon imprest so in grain upon her Body as it could not by any art be obliterated in remembrance of which and in token that Nero was of Apollo's Line his Mother Agrippina made him wear a Bracelet of Snake-Skin on his Right Arm which those whom Messalina sent to murther him in his Bed thinking to be a Snake indeed they ran away affrighted not daring to lay violent hands upon him whom they deemed by that sight to be under Apollo's Protection Sueton. Nero 6. An exact Transcript of those Lines in the Oriental Prophecy that describe him that was to be King of Nations to be the Son of God only we may observe here the prints of his cloven Foot whose Interest it is to disturb the right order of Sacred Prophecies by jumbling together into one Mass its most Heterogeneal Parts by joyning in this Omen in one Person the Womans and the Serpents Seed The same Atia while she was with Child of Augustus dreamt that she saw her Entrails trailing round about the Earth and the whole Circumference of Heaven and her Husband that he saw a Sun-beam dart out of her Womb Suetonius Octav. 94. Explicari per omnem terrarum caelique ambitum Fancies injected into them from those Passages in the Eastern Prophecy that delineate the King of the Jews in Colours borrowed from the Sun sending forth his Light drawing out his Line to the ends of the World P. Nigidius on that Day wherein Catiline's Conspiracy was discust observing his Father Octavius to come tardy to the
or Man thou cryest out Satan and namest him whom we call the Angel of Malice the Crafts-master of all Errour the Defacer of the whole World by whom Man at first was circumvented to break the Law of God whereby he became obnoxious to Death and drew all his Posterity into the same Condemnation Thou knowest therefore thy Destroyer and though Christians only and those Sects that depend upon the Mouth of God have learn'd to know the whole Story of him yet thou also hast some inkling of him for else thou wouldst not hate him § 2. The Soul conscious of Eternal Judgment Articl 4. There is one Article of our Religion wherein we expect thy Determination so much the rather because it respects thine own state and concernment We affirm that thou continuest in Being after thou hast paid back the debt of Life That thou expectest the Day of Judgment and to be sentenc'd to Eternal Torment or Happiness according as thy works have been in the Body of which that thou maist be capable we affirm that thou expectest the restoring to thee of thy pristine Substance the same Body the same Memory This Faith we introduc'd not but found in the World for this Principle of the Soul's Existence after death the Gallick Druides that most uncult Tribe of Divines retain'd as Caesar witnesseth in his lib. 6. de bello Gallico and Strabo in his 4. Book of the Gauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the same Opinion the same Strabo witnesseth the Indian Brachmans to be lib. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sentiments of the Souls Immortality Barbarism it self could not raze out of the minds of some Thracians saith Pompon Mela lib. 2. de Thracibus Alii redituras putant animas obeuntium alii etsi non redeant non extingui tamen sed ad beatiora transire And as to that of the Bodies Resurrection Tacitus lib. 5. hist. 5. speaking of the Jews saith that in hope of the Resurrection they as also the Egyptians used not to burn but to interr their Corps Corpora condere quà m cremare è more Aegyptio eadémque cura de inferis persuasio These as well as we think it not equal to pass a Doom without the Exhibition of the whole Man which in thy fore-past Life was at work either to bring forth death by sowing to the Flesh or life by sowing to the Spirit This Christian Doctrine though much more becoming than that of Pithagoras for it does not translate thee into Beasts though more full and plain than that of Plato for it restores to thee the dowry of thy Body which point the Platonicks waver'd in Non novi quam utilitatem ex ipsa capiamus â—â—orum enim nulla est commemoratio neque sensus esse posset si simus prorsus quae gratia hujus immortalitatis est habenda Athengus dipnos. 11. 22. though more acceptable than that of Epicurus for it defends thee against annihilation yet merely for the name we give it undergoes the Censure of being vain stupid and temerarious But we are not ashamed of it if thou beest of the same Opinion with us As thou declarest thy self to be when making mention of a wicked man departed this Life thou call'st him poor wretched man not so much for that he has lost the benefit of a temporal Life as for that he is inroll'd for punishment for others when they are deceased thou call'st happy and secure therein professing both the incommodity of Life and benefit of Death Those deceased whom thou imprecatest thou wishest to them heavy earth and to their ashes torment in the other World to them to whom thou bearest good will when they are dead thou wishest rest to their bones and ashes If there remain nothing for thee to be expected after death no sense of pain or joy nay if thou thy self shalt not then remain Why dost thou lye against thine own head Why dost thou tell thy self that something attends thee beyond the Grave Yea why dost thou at all fear death if thou hast nothing to fear after death If thou answer'st Not because it menaceth any thing that 's evil but because it deprives me of the benefit of Life I reply yea thou wilt give answer to thy self That sometimes Death quits thee of the intolerable inconveniences of Life and sure in this case the loss of good things is not to be feared that being recompensed with a greater good to wit 〈…〉 st from inconveniences That certainly is not to be feared that delivers us from all that is to be feared Whence come such amazing fears dreadful apprehensions sinking thoughts to attend guilty Conscience but from the innate Notion of Judgment to come Whence proceeds it that se judice nemo nocens absolvitur a guilty Soul arraigns it self That self-consciousness to the closest Villany binds the Malefactor over to the general Assize that the guilt of innocent Blood though never so secretly shed looks so gastly in the face of the Murderer rings so loud speaks so articulately in the ears of Conscience as some have conceived the very Birds of the Air nay the callow Sparrows in the Nest to reveal the matter as it befel to Bessus should be such a load such a weight upon the Soul as to make it melt in its own grease with struggling under it Mentem sudoribus urget What makes them most stubborn and contumeliously set against entertaining the thought of Eternal Judgment tremble at the voice of Thunder as if in that rumbling noise they heard the sound of the Judges Charriot-wheels and in the Lightning saw a resemblance of that fire shall go before him and consume round about him Caligula out-braved God and Tiberius slighted him yet ad omnia fulgura pallent when they heard his voice they were afraid Excellent is the Note that Tacitus makes upon those Passages in Tiberius his Epistle to the Senate Quid scribam vobis Patres conscripti aut quomodò soribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore Dii me Deeque pejùs perdant quà m perire quotidiè sentio si scio If I can tell Fathers what I may write or how I may write or what I may not write at this time let the Gods who I perceive are destroying me daily destroy me worse Adeò facinora flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant Neque frustrà Plato affirmare solitus est si recludantur trannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ità saevitia libidine malis consultis animus dilaceratur So do impious men comments Tacitus torment themselves with the guilt of their own villanies as Plato had reason to say that if the Minds of Tyrants were exposed to open view they would be seen smiting and tearing themselves for as mens Bodies are with scourges so are their souls torn with the guilt of cruelty lust and ill-advised actions That is as the same Plato de republ saith when they perceive
Writings said he would speak of all things she acts her part here so poorly as she deserves to be hiss'd off the Stage and make way for Religion Such things as these we rather desire to know than do know saith Velleius in Ciceron de natura Deorum lib. 1. Quae talia suxt ut optata magis quà m inventa videantur Sciscitor cur mundi aedificatores repentè extiterint innumerabilia ante saecula dormirent non enim si mundus non erat saecula nulla erant saecula dico non ea quae dierum noctiúmque numero annuis cursibus conficiuntur sed fuit quaedam ab infinito tempore aeternitas quam nulla temporum circumscriptio metiebatur spatio verò qualis ea fuerat intelligi non potest quòd nè in cogitationem quidem cadit ut fuerit tempus aliquod nullum cùm tempus esset Isto igitur tam immenso spatio quaero Balbe cur Pronoea vestra cessaverit Velleius in Cicer. de nat deor l. 1. that is in brief why was the World made no earlier Cicero's Eloquence never stammer'd so his Inventions were never so nonplus'd as when he would describe the Order and Method of the Creation of the World in his Book de Universitate where he becomes so vain in his Imagination and plays the fool so with Philosophical Wisdom as I wonder not that Velâ—eius should say à Philone didicistis nihil scire Ye Philosophers have learn'd of your Masters to know nothing in Cicer. de nat deorum l. 1. Or that Cotta should tell Balbus after his large Discourse of Providence Non igitur adhuc intelligo hoc esse credo equidem sed nihil docent Stoici I am not one jot wiser for all thy reasons I believe indeed what thou sayest is true but the Stoicks do not teach the reason of it Upon which Lactantiuss observes Tullius expositis horum omnium de mortalitate immortalitate animae c. sententâ—â— harum inquit sententiarum quae vera sit Deus aliquis viderit Lactan. de div praem 7. 8. And hath this Note upon Anaxagoras who affirm'd the Snow to be black Hic est ilie qui se idcirco natum esse dixit ut solem coelum videret qui in terra nihil videbat sole lucente de fals sap l. 3. cap. 23. This is be that said he was born to contemplate the Sun and Heaven and yet he could not in the clear Sun-shine see what lay at his foot § 4. Moses a better Philosopher than Cartesius or any of the Mechanicks But Religion no sooner drops from her sacred Lips the first word we read in Moses and the Eagle-wing'd Evangelist In the beginning was the Word all things were made by it than she is received with general acclamations And by that time she had utter'd Let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the Fowl of the Air c. Reason her self claps her hands and cries plaudite that natural Logick that 's every man's Birth-right adores this rising Sun whose resplendent Beams discover those latent Reasons her self could not grope out and welcoms these discoveries with with a thankful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as great an exuberancy of joy as Pythagoras conceiv'd when upon his finding out some Philosophical Experiment he sacrificed a whole Oxe to the Muses He had been more just had he crown'd the Fountain whence he drew better Conclusions than the rest of Philosophers to wit the sacred Philosophy of Moses Cicero de natura deorum l. 3. pag. 149 Ingenuously confessing that had she not ploughed with God's Heifer she should never have found out these Riddles of his Providence Tatianus amongst the reasons he gives why he embrac'd the Christian Faith names this for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rational account which that gives of the Creation of all things Indeed it were to be wished that Moses his Philosophy were more studied as that which is the only Expedient fully to satisfie inquisitive minds For though the old and modern Mechanick Philosophy be of excellent use to inform us of those Causes which partake most of Matter and live next door to our Senses yet whoever follows them home will see them make doubles before they come to their seat at a stand in their progress through intermediate to the prime and only independent Cause and not able to joyn the inferiour Links of the Chain to that upper part of it that 's fasten'd to Jupiter's Chair How much more rationally is the Sun's Motion for instance deduced to the power of the divine Fiat to the force imprest upon it by that Omnipotent hand out of which it first came than either to those intelligences which Aristotle invented to move it as a Dog in a Wheel or such Jack-pullies and Weights of I know not what Atoms which our modern Wits have fancied for the Springs of his Motion After the same manner that that which Proclus calls the Soul of the Universe wheels about the Primum mobile staret si unquam stantem animam reperiret as he is quoted by Macrobius in som. Scipionis 1. 17. Of such whimsical Philosophers well saith Lactantius Multò sceleratiores qui arcana mundi hoc coeleste templum prophanare impiis disputationibus quaerunt de fals sapien l. 3. cap. 20. If it be accounted sacrilege to profane Temples of Wood and stone how much more impious are they who labour to prophane the secrets of Nature and this heavenly Temple the Universe with their godless Disputations I wonder that the Doctrine of Atoms blusheth not to see that variety and yet constancy of the admirably disposed Colours in Birds and Flowers that it is not overcome with smelling that variety of scents issuing from Herbs of different kinds which can with no more reason be deemed to be the Effects of the blind fortuitous Concourse of Atoms than the first Propunder of this Hypothesis could expect that that Basket of Herbs which his Wife threw up to the roof of his Hall should fall down in the form of a well-order'd Sallad into a dish she set on the floor We may believe that the Painter's Pencil thrown in a rage at the lips of the picture of an Horse might perchance supply the defect of Art and make the lively representation of Foam with the same degree of certainty as we believe the blind man caught the Hair But he that would attempt to perswade us that the whole Horse was drawn after that manner must first repute us more doltish than Asses To whom can I better resemble these Kitchin-Doctors than to Children at a Puppet-play who minding the various motions of the Images and fancying a spring thereof within themselves independent to that hand which behind the Curtain puts them upon and directs them in those Motions beat their brains and set their fancies a work to find out the Causes of such strange Effects and after all the fluctuations of their mind produce nothing but froth
Idols and evil Spirits be true they counterfeit the presence of God and therefore command their Worshippers to be just that themselves may be thought to be good but because they are in their nature bad they are prone to do evil and to lead us to evil Porphyry de sacrif pag. 314 315. out of Plato tells us that as heat cannot cool us so the Divine Nature that is all Justice can do no unjust thing and therefore concludes That all those Spirits that either themselves commit or tempt us to commit immoralities though they would make the World believe they are Gods and their Prince the highest and holiest God are no better than Devils Plutarch in his Pelopidas reports That while the Theban Army lay encamp'd in Leuctra resolved to give battel to Cleombrotus and the Spartan forces Pelopidas was terrified with a Vision of Scedasus Daughters there ravish'd and slain by certain Spartans against whom when their Father could not obtain Justice at the hands of the Spartan State pouring out dreadful execrations upon them he slew himself upon his Daughters Grave These Pelopidas thinks he hears groaning about their Sepulchres and cursing the Spartans and their Father commanding him to sacrifice a yellow-hair'd Virgin if he desired to obtain victory over the Spartans Pelopidas communicates this Vision and Command to his Prophets and Associates by whom notwithstanding the allegations of the examples of Menaeceus Macaerias Pherecides Leonidas Agesilaus and Agamemnon in favour of it that Command was judged so barbarous as it was impossible it could procede from or the fulfilling of it be acceptable to any of the Gods for those that delight in human blood and slaughter are infernal Fiends c. Thus Salacus King of Aethiopia is commended for interpreting that Dream wherein he was counsel'd to assemble the Aegyptian Priests and to cut them off by the middle as proceeding from the diabolical injection of some Demons that envied his happiness and desired to make him obnoxious to the just displeasure of the Gods for so sacrilegious an Act chusing rather to lay down the Egyptian Crown which he had then wore 50 years and return into Aethiopia than to hold it at that price the Vision set upon it Herodot Eutyrpe 163. Lo here the point of this Objection turn'd against those that framed it for Jove was so far from gaining by his Viciousness the repute of being a God as the Vices of his Namesakes imputed to him dethron'd him from that Heaven to which his own Vertue had of old exalted him while they knew and believed no other of him but that he was the Founder of their Commonwealth that he gather'd them being formerly dispers'd like savage Beasts into human Societie that he taught them by Precept and Example the Trade of Vertue they ador'd him for a God But when they hear the Poets tell Stories of his Murders Incests Rapes c. they conclude him if those Stories be true a wicked Demon. Yea Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Venus and Harp of all Philosophy in his Treatise of Superstition Moral tom 1. pag. 389. strenuously maintains the Point That those who deny the Being of God are not so impious as they that conceive him to be such as the Poets feign him I had rather saith he men should in their discoursing of me say there never was any such man as Plutarch than say I was such a man as the superstitious account God to be sickle mutable prone to anger desirous of revenge for the least injury and that from these misconceits of the Gods men grew into the Opinion that there were no Gods Would God this Christian Age had not too sad experience of the truth of this Aphorism For since the Pulpit hath been made a Stage for Mimicks who are train'd up to no other Art wherein they are more dexterous than that of making Mows and wry Faces upon the Establish'd Religion of misrepresenting the Christian Faith and the Authour of it by fathering upon the Spirit their nonsensical uncharitable blasphemous Prattlings upon God the Father such inhumane and bloody Purposes and Decrees as make him look out of their Dress more ill-favour'd than the blackest Fiend upon God the Son the Institution of a Religion more barbarous than the Worship of Moloch this Stage-play Divinity hath brought in Atheistical Contempt of God and the Ministery But I dare not give my just Zeal its full scope in this place I now alledge this only to shew That the Law of Honesty Vertue and Morality is so deeply imprest upon the Human Soul as rather than Men who are not altogether brutified will be led to Acts of Injustice upon the suggestions of a Divine Command they will deny the Divinity of that Command and chuse rather to worship no God at all than one that 's represented with such Properties as bid defiance to common Honesty CHAP. IV. Christian Religion concords with the highest Philosophical Notions § 1. Divine Knowledg communicated from the Church to travelling Philosophers Our Religion elder than Heathenism by Heathens confession § 2. Christian Articles implied in Pagan Philosophy's Positions Man's happiness through Communion with God and Conformity unto God § 3. This Conformity and Communion effected by God-man God manifest in the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato ' s Sentence sentenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John ' s Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato ' s Sentence under the Rose § 1. The Church gave life to received none from the Philosophers THe Apostles however illiterate might perhaps spin out of their own bowels a course-spun Warp which might fit to an hairs-breadth the home-spun Woof of vulgar Conceptions But then how came they to a Doctrine so exactly suting the more refined Notions of the most eminent Philosophers Quis docuit psittacum suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they were men of crazy or but vulgar Brains whence learn'd they to dogmatize to Grecize in their divine Philosophy so profoundly to distil a Doctrine so absolutely Philosophical as it either ecchoeth to what was taught in the most learned Schools or is such as the most sagacious Wits were hunting after but could not start and must ecchoe to upon its Proposals or recede from their own Principles Hence that of R. Obad. Caon in Psal. 45. Kings Daughters were among thy honourable Women id est opiniones sapientùm Nationum exterarum that is the opinions of the wise Gentiles And that of Lactantius Quod si extitisset aliquis qui veritatem distersam per singulos per sectásque diffusam colligeret in unum ac redigeret in corpus is profectò non dissentiret à nobis Lactant de divino
praemio 7. 7. If the Truth dispers'd among several Persons and scatter'd among several Sects were by any man collected into one and digested into a body it would without doubt not dissent from us When Apollodorus offer'd to Socrates a precious and gorgeous Tunick and Pall to put on when he drank the poyson and to be wrapped in when he was dead Socrates turning to Crito Simacus and Phaedo what an honourable opinion saith he hath Apollodorus of me if he think to see Socrates in this Robe after I am dead if he think that that which will then lay at his feet is Socrates I know not my self who I am Aelian var. hist. 1. 16. This Socratical Aphorism Tully expresseth thus Mens cujusque is est quisque Is one Egg more like another than this of the Schools to that of the Gospel where Jesus concludes Abraham to be still living from Moses his stiling God the God of Abraham so many years after his decease That of Abraham he left behind him in his Sepulchre is not Abraham but that of him that still lives But it would require an Age to transcribe by retail those numerous Philosophical Axioms which speak the Language of Scripture so perfectly as the whole matter of controversie betwixt the Fathers Apologizing for and the Philosophers contending against our Religion was brought by mutual consent to this point Whether the wise men of the World receiv'd those Doctrines from our Scriptures or the Pen-men of the Scripture from their Schools Celsus in Origen contends earnestly that whatsoever was solid in the Christian Religion was borrowed from the Philosophers by whom it was better and clearlier delivered He instanceth in our affirming God to dwell in light inaccessible this saith he is no more than what Plato teacheth in his Epistles that the first Good is ineffable In our Saviour's commending Humility This is Plato's Doctrine saith Celsus teaching in his Book of Laws that He who would be happy must be a follower of Justice with an humble and well-composed mind In Christ's saying 'T is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven what is this saith he other than that of Plato It is not possible that a man can be very rich and very good From the fame Fountain Celsus will have Christ to draw that saying Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadunto life and few there be that find it and that our Doctrine of the fall of Angels and their being reserved in chains was derived from the Poet Pherecides and Homer vide l. 4. col 9. The Patrons of the Christian Cause on the other hand contended that the waters of the Academy were drawn from the wells of the Sanctuary that the Sun of knowledg arose in the East and thence displayed its Beams over the World St. Ambrose proves that Plato borrowed of David in Psalm 35. And upon that in Isaiah 40. For she hath received at the Lords hand double to her iniquity saith he Plato eruditionis gratiâ in Aegyptum profectus ut Mosis gesta Legis praecepta Prophetarum dicteria cognosceret c. in psalm 118. serm 18. St. Austin quotes St. Ambrose proving from Chronology that the Grecians borrowed of the Jews not è contrà and thence commends the reading of Secular History de Christiana Doct. lib. 2. cap. 28. and in his Epistle to Polinus and Therasias writes thus Libros Ambrosii multùm desidero quos adversùs nonnullos imperitissimos superbissimos qui de Platonis libris Dominum profecisse contendunt dilligentissimè copios ssimè scripsit Aug. Epist. 34. And not barely affirm'd it but brought in evidence for the proof of it either from common Principles of Reason or the Authority of heathen Chronologers St. Origen thus Contra Cels. lib. 6. cal 1 2 3 c. Moses was long before the most ancient of your Philosophers and therefore they must borrow light from him but it was impossible he could light his Candle at theirs before they were lighted and the Apostles were the unlikeliest men in the World to understand your Philosophers The same Father Origen contrà Celsum lib. 1. cal 13. in answer to Celsus objecting Moses his Juniority to the Heathen Theologues saith that Hermippus in his first Book of Lawgivers declared how Pythagoras translated his Discipline from the Jews into Greece and that there was extant a Book of Haecateus in which he so approves of the Jewish Philosophy as Herennus Philo in his Commentar de Judaeis questions whether it be the genuine Book of Haecateus whose name it bears it seeming to him improbable that an Heathen Philologer would write so much in their commendation St. Austin in his eighteenth Book de Civitate from Chap. 2. to the end of that Book demonstrates by Chronology that our Prophets were elder than their Philosophers And in his 8. 11. de Civitate Dei affirms Plato to have transcribed the description of the first matter in his Timaeus mentioned also by Cicero and thus translated Mundum efficere volens Deus terram primo ignemque jungebat When God was about to frame the World he first joyntly made the matter of Fire and Earth from that of Moses In the beginning God made the Heaven and Earth Gen. 1. 1. Plato by Fire understanding Heaven And his notion of the Air upon the Water to have been Plato's mis-conception of that of Moses The Spirit moved upon the Waters And his Dogma in Phaedone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Every right Philosopher is a lover of God to have been derived from the sacred Fountains where nothing flows more plentifully than such like Doctrine But that which made this most learned Father almost believe altogether that Plato had read Moses was his observing Plato to have been the first Philosopher who called God by that name which God reveal'd himself by to Moses in his Embassy to Pharaoh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am that I am or That that is A name appropriated to God by Plato in his Timeus calling God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ever-being and so familiar with the Platonicks as in their Master's stile they superscribed their Treatises concerning God with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of him that is A name saith St. Austin I find in no Books before Plato save in those where it is said I am that I am This was modestly said of that cautious Divine for the truth is Alcimus writes to Amynthas that some Philosophers had got that Notion by the end before Plato naming Epicharmus and quoting those words of his at which Plato lighted his Candle and Plato himself in his Sophista confesseth little less But it comes all to one as to our Argument for Epicharmus was a Pythagorian and that Pythagoras the circumcised Philosopher received that and all his other refined Notions from Moses his Writings or by discourse from the Jewish
and Egyptian Priests at first or second hand Isocrates Busiridis laud. pag. 539. gives as pompous a proof as is to be met with any where Of the Religion of the Egyptians saith he I could commemorate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many and great things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the observing of which I am neither alone nor first but many both of this and the former Age among whom is the Samian Pythagoras who travelling into Egypt became their Disciple and brought Philosophy and Religion into Greece and Clemens Alexandrinus Stromat lib. 1. as full and clear one as can be required who out of the Pagan Records affirmeth Pythagoras to have been circumcised in Egypt that he having thereby liberty of going into their holy places might the better learn their mystical Theology and that he learned there to call his School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of the same importance with Synagogue The same assertion is made by Justin Martyr in paraclesi ad gentes By Eusebius in praeparat Evang. And before them by Aristobulus Judaeus in his Epistles to Ptolemy Philometer lib. 1. quoted by Eusebius to wit that Plato did transfer many things into his out of the Jewish Writings upon which saith Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was not for the Jews only but that Nation was the sacred School of the whole World concerning the knowledg of God and the way of spiritual living Clemens Alexandrinus from their own stories sheweth that the Grecians did not only borrow their best Notions from the Jewish Scriptures but the manner of expressing them sententiously A mode of teaching what Plato commendeth as that which all the Greeks press after but none attain'd to but the Spartans That they so esteem'd the form of uttering moral Rules in Proverbs in imitation of Solomon as they father'd such Sentences as came nearest that Model upon several Authors as if they thought many of their wisest men must have put their heads together for the production of one so compact a Sentence as we have thousands of in Scripture each one striving who should bear away the honour of being reputed its father as the Cities of Greece strove for Homer That which was thought worthy to be set over the Gates of Apollo's Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some attributed to Chilon Chamaelio in his Book of the Gods ascribes it to Thales Aristotle to Pythias That other Nè quid nimis some father upon Chylon Strato in his Treatise of Inventions upon Stratodemus but Didimus upon Solon Stromatum lib. 1. There is scarce a Sentence of note either in the Poets or Philosophers but what the same Clemens in the same Treatise patterns in our Scriptures and demonstrates the Gentiles to have had theirs from thence not è contrà by computing the ages of the Founders of every Sect and finding them by their own reckoning to be younger than Moses by many hundreds of years Xenophon the Author of the Eleatick is said by Timaeus to have lived in the Reign of Hieron the Scicilian Tyrant by Apollodorus in the time of Darius and Cyrus so that this Sect is younger than most of the Prophets Thales the Father of the Ionicks is said by Eudemus in his history of Astrology to have fore-told that Eclipse which happen'd at the Battel betwixt the Medes and Lydians in the reign of Cyaxeres the father of Astiages to whom agrees Herodotus in his first Book this Cyaxeres was contemporary with Salmanassar who carried the ten Tribes captive so that the Kingdom of Israel was standing upon its last legs before this Sect had got foot For the stating of Moses his age he brings the Testimony of Appion one who so far disgusted the Religion of Moses as he wrote that Book against it which Josephus answers who making mention of Amasis King of Egypt alledgeth the Testimony of Ptolomeus Mendesius a Priest who wrote the History of the Egyptian Kings in three Books and saith that in the raign of Amasis the Jews under the conduct of Moses came out of Egypt which Amasis was contemporary as he saith to Icarus And of Dionisius Halicarnassaeus who in his Chronicles affirms the Argolicks who derive their Pedigree from Icarus to be the most ancient of the Grecians then whom the Atticks who come of Cecrops are younger by four Generations as Tatianus saith and the Arcadians who come of Pelasgus nine And the Photioticks who come of Deucalion fifteen and the Wars of Troy twenty that is five hundred years So much is the subject of Homer younger than Moses Now Homer is the most ancient Heathen Author and was therefore Aelian var. hist. 13. 22. painted by Galaton spewing Grecian Learning and all other Poets licking up his Vomit A posture wherein bating the homeliness of the conceipt Moses might with more reason be drawn For whatsoever material divine Truth the heathen World had except the remains of the first Tradition by Noah and his sons were but the fragments of his loaf the crums they gathered up under the table of Shew-bread Hence Eusebius spends the whole tenth Book de preparat Evangel in accusing the Ethnicks of Ingratitude for hating the Jews from whom they learn'd the liberal Sciences and of Theft for challenging those Ethick Precepts for their own which they stole out of the Hebrew Books And the eleventh Book in proving the Platonick Philosophy to have been fetch'd out of Egypt and Judea and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writ over the Portal of the Delphick Temple spoken of by Plutarch to have been borrowed from Moses his History of God's giving himself this name I am that I am And the twelfth in instancing what Platonick Sentences concur with Moses Besides those Pagan Authors quoted by Clement we have Herodotus Terpsicore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ionians received the knowledg of letters from the Phaenicians hence all Learning is called Phaenician And Eupolemus libro de Judaeae Regibus ait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses was the first wise man And for the juniority of most ancient Heathen Writers we have the Testimony of the same Herodotus who in the life of Homer collects out of Lesbian and Cumane Antiquities that Homer was born 622. years before Xerxes his invasion of Greece circa finem And of Macrobius in Som. Scip. 2. 10. who affirmeth that there is no Greek History extant which mentions any thing of note above 2000. years by-past for beyond Ninus nothing famous is inserted into Books Abhinc ultra duo retrò annorum millia de excellenti rerum gestarum memoriâ nè Graeca quidem exstat historia nam suprà Ninum nihil praeclarum in libros relatum est Now Macrobius lived under Theodosius as Johan Isaac by Joseph Scaliger's indication observes ex codice Theodosiani lib. 6. titulo de praepositis sacri cubiculi And was it seems a Pythagorick Philosopher and yet a Gentleman of that Christian Emperour's Bed-Chamber vide Johan Isaaci notas in Macrobium My desire to
the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Son of God by whom he made the World to be in the Order and Degree of a Principle which was all I produc'd it for in this Section but my general Position laid down in the first Section of this Chapter That what the Gospel asserts in Thesi of our Jesus the Platonick School asserted in Hypothesi concerning him that was to relieve Mankind Plato's Doctrine of Purgation came so near ours saith St. Austin de vera Religione cap. 4. as many Platonicks upon that account turn'd Christian Paucis mutatis verbis sententiis aut si hoc non facerent nescio utrùm possent ad ea ipsa quae appetenda esse dixerunt cum istis faecibus viscóque revolare ex Platonis Phaedro de Legibus Timaeo With the alteration of a few words and sentences and if they had not I cannot tell how they could with the Birdlime and dregs of those their Errors which Christian Religion confuteth have flown back to that good they said was to be desired and those their sound Principles which both we and they joyntly hold The only thing they disgusted being the application of those things to Christ they stumbling at the same Stone at which the Jews stumbled the Cross of Christ and taking it in scorn that so mean a man as Jesus of Nazereth should be reputed to be the Saviour to be that Principle that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Son of God that was to enlighten every one that comes into the World out of whose fulness all our wants were to be supplied by the participation of whose Wisdom we are made wise c. For St. Austin when he saith He could not find in their Books that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was come into the World came to his own and his own received him not took upon him the Form of a servant and humbled himself to the death of the Cross. Must not be understood to deny that it was to be found or that himself had found in the Platonick Writings that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order to humane Redemption was to come into the World to assume our nature to be wounded for our Transgressions for whoever it was by one or more that man-kind was to be relieved that one or more must as we have heard the Oracle the God of Philosophers as they stiled him deliver descend from his or their supercelestial place into his Dungeon of Earth and in 〈◊〉 or their assumed body or bodies endure all the miseries of this life c. as Sect. 3. cap. 4. hath been quoted out of which sentence not only of Plato but of all that exchanged not the old Traditional Philosophy for the Kitching-Experiments of Greece whom Jamblicus compares to Ships without Balast for that they had emptyed themselves of what they had received by the old Tradition de mysteriis tit de nominibus sacris we have been all this while boulting the Bran of their conceipted Multiplicity of God-saviours by the Sierce of their more sober and considerate Doctrine poured out into the bosom of their friends sequestred from the Censure of the Vulgar before whom it was not safe to speak all they thought Difficile est negare credo si in concione quaeratur sed in hujusmodi concessu facillimum Cicero de natura deorum lib. 1. It is an hard matter I confess to deny this in the hearing of the multitude but very easie in such a select Assembly of friends and Philosophers And have thereby gain'd from them the unforc'd confession of this Evangelical Truth That man's restauration unto Communion with and Conformity to God cannot be obtained by the Incarnation of separate Spirits or blessed Souls but of God himself descending into the Dungeon of this Earth assuming our Nature and in that Nature suffering what was due to us and delivering to us the Divine Oracles Plato therefore in assigning this effect to a Multiplicity of holy Souls or Spirits coming down from Heaven in several Ages and Countreys was a popular Complyance with the vulgar Errour either out of fear to in 〈…〉 his Master Socrates his fortune or out of design to have the World believe as some of his great admirers did that himself was one of those officious Spirits or if he spake as he thought it was the froth and ebullition of that vanity of mind judicially inflicted upon such as knowing God did not worship him as God That this was his Errour and such an Errour as himself in his lucid Intervals renounc'd and was forsaken in by his own followers hath been sufficiently cleared if the weight of this point and the dissatisfaction of some most deservingly eminent Modern Divines did not make it shake upon its strongest supporters and as it were by its nods becken to us to strengthen it by Buttresses I shall therefore beg my Readers patience which I doubt not but to obtain of him if he can but construe that of the Epigrammatist Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis Sed tu Cosconi disticha longa facis Mart. while I make it yet more manifest CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviour's Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry ' s Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. § 1. POrphyry Aug de Civitat 10. 9. 10. reference from experience confesseth the inability of those reputed good Spirits or God-Saviours to whom the Heathen applyed themselves for cure to gratifie the commerce to them their most severe worshippers in their desired Soul-purgations in that they were often impeded by their Superiours and their Superiours manacled in the Conjurers bands so as they durst not effect the desired Purgations so terrified by the black Witch as the white Witch could not loose them from that fear and set them free to do that good to which their own natures inclin'd them and their most religious Votaries solicited them Whereupon St. Austin facetiously thus explains Ergo ligavit iste iste non solvit O animae praedicanda purgatio ubi plus imperat immunda invidentia quà m impetrat pura beneficentia ubi plus valet malevolus impeditor quà m beneficus purgator animae The Cacodemon it seems could bind and the good Angel could not lose Oh praise-worthy purgation of Soul where unclean Envy obtains that power which pure Bounty cannot where the malicious opposer is of more strength than the liberal purger of the Soul But however ridiculous either the opinion or grownd of it were This Doctrine the Platonicks grounded upon that complaint which a
mirum cùm Daemones c. Mar. 1. 24. Some of their Philosophers as Porphyry writes enquired of their Gods what they could say concerning Christ and that they were forc'd in their Oracles to commend Christ which is not at all to be thought strange seing we read St. Marc. 1. 24. That the Devils confest him to be the Son of God But let us hear Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This King God in the Apostle's phrase the only Potentate and Creator of all things the Earth the Heaven and Sea revere before whom hellish darkness and Demons tremble And therefore Sibyl chides the Grecians for their extreme vanity Lactant. de falsa Relig. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greece why dost thou put thy trust in provincial Presidents who are but men Why dost thâ—â— bring vain oblations to dead men Why dost thou sacrifice to Idols Who injected this folly into thy mind that thou should do these things and neglect the person of the great God This was that Grecian folly which as I said at my entrance upon my discourse upon Plato's reporting his own and those Barbarians Opinion from whom he learn'd his Philosophy Grecizing Moses intermixt the true Tradition with making it speak the Language of his own Country wherein he was not only forsaken by his own School but exploded by the adherents to the Sibylline Books out of which these last-quoted Verses give so express a Reproof of that and so full Proof of the contrary Doctrine that men are to expect salvation and in order to the obtaining of it to put their trust not in many but one Saviour who is the Person of the great God as I shall burden my Reader with no more Allegations nor any further discourse upon that point but proceed to another Hypothesis of the Ethnick Theologues concurring with the Fundamentals of the Gospel and exprest in that forecited passage in Plato viz. CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry ' s Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham ' s departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christ's Blood § 7. Man's Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the World by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how § 1. A Relique of the old Tradition delivered in Paradise and wrapp'd up in those clauses The Serpent shall bruise the heel of the Womans Seed and he shall break the Serpents head the first implying Christ's Passion and the latter his undeceiving the World by delivering true Oracles to the World which had been cheated by the Devil 's false ones Of the first Member of this Tradition we find reserves in the Sibylline Books quoted by Lactantius de vera Rel. lib. 4. cap. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall become miserable contemptible without form that he may give hope afford help to miserable men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall fall into the hands of sinners and infidels who shall with impure hands box him about the ears and spitefully spit upon him and he shall give his most innocent back to scourges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they smite him upon the cheek he shall hold his peace so as Men shall not take him for the Word oe understand why he came to wit to make the dead hear his voice and he shall wear a Crown of thorns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall give him Gall to eat and Vinegar to drink these are the Commons which that inhospitable Generation will allow him By which misusages his face shall be so marred as his own shall hide their faces from him as seeing nothing in him that was desirable that could speak him to be The desire of the Nations for thus sings another Sibyl of the Land of Judea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool that thou art thou canst not know thy own God through the vizour of that contempt thou casts upon him These Responds eccho so distinctly to the Voices of the Prophets and so exactly sute the History of the Gospel as had they all proceeded from one mouth they could not have made a more perfect Harmony That the Writings of the Philosophers are Repositories of the same Doctrine hath been already evidenc'd out of Plato who affirms that it is the Opinion of those Barbarians of whom he learn'd his Philosophy as also of the Brachmans Odrysenans Getes Egyptians Arabians Chaldeans and all that inhabit Palestine That those blessed Souls who leave their supercelestial place and vouchsafe for the relief of Mankind to assume humane Bodies do in order to that undergo all the miseries of this Life To which Isocrates gives his Vote in the name of the greatest part of the World telling us in his Euagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That most of those that were reputed Semidei half-God half-man and those the most famous were reported to have undergone the greatest calamities and that in pursuit of achievements which were more full of danger to themselves than of Immediate profit to others Isocrat Hel. laudatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he giveth instance Orat. ad Philippum in Hercules whom notwithstanding with the same breath he affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have had more Wisdom than Fortitude Now how it could stand with his Wisdom to imploy his Fortitude in those dangerous and painful labours which brought so much hardship upon himself and no profit to others can hardly be resolv'd except he undertook those labours otherwise in vain as Expiations and spent his sweat and blood as Libations as Propitiations to appease the incensed Deity not for his own but his Countries sins for The God-begotten saith Isocrates Busirid laudat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are free from sin and have all Vertues in their perfection By this oblation of himself for others Hercules his labours were beneficial to the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he procured to himself the Surname of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandr Protrept The driver away of evil
are with me are thy people and those of the opposite Party are thy Priests I beseech thee hear not the Prayers of either side against the other Joseph Antiq. l. 14. c. 3. A Jew then could open and stop God's Ear his Prayer was the Key to the divine Treasury of Mercies and Judgments Nay God was wont to hear before they call'd to see their Afflictions and hear their Groans under their Pressures before they made their complaint to God But since their Fathers God hath turn'd them off to the Gods of the Capitol Though the Earth received the blood of 3024730. of them in the Jewish Wars those Wars wherein Christ came to require that Blood at the Father's and Children's hands the guilt whereof they had invoked upon their own heads at his Passion Though 970000. of them were in those Wars taken Captive Joseph Bel. Jud. yet neither the cry of the Prisoners nor the Voice of the Blood of the Slain hath enter'd into the Ears of the Lord of Hosts except it be to make Musick in them while God laughs at their Calamity § 2. Time was when Israel's God awoke to avenge himself upon Belshazar for alienating the Bolls of the Temple from that sacred use to which they had been dedicated and making them either carowsing Cups at a common or Instruments of Libations to Babel's Idols at a sacred Feast for the Jews saith St. Jerom in locum have this Story That Belshazar observing that the seventieth Year of the Captivity that is of the first Captivity being come that yet the Jews were not redeem'd thinking Jeremies Prophecy to have been wind in a Triumph over the Jews hope of Deliverance made a great Feast where he and his Nobles Insultantes Deo Judeorum quòd c. insulting over the God of the Jews as too weak to grapple with their Bell made Drink-offerings of thanksgiving to the God of Babel in the Bolls sacred to the God of Judah whom he blasphemed in Rabsheca's curssed Dialect as being no more able than the Gods of other Nations to deliver his People out of the hands of the King of Babylon But this despised God chalked him up a Reckoning upon the Wall before he rose from Table and made him pay it that night at the price of his Life and Kingdom both which he was deprived of before he went to bed Which Circumstance Xenophon Cyri institut l. 7. c. 22. thus relates When Cyrus his men entered the Royal Palace they found the Guard tippling by Candle-light in the outward Room against whom the Invaders using hostile force the Clamour being heard within the Doors are instantly open'd by the Kings Command to see what was the Cause of that Bustle upon which advantage Cyrus his men rushing into the King's Chamber found the King standing with his Sword drawn whom they forthwith slew God then stirred up the Spirit of his anointed Cyrus to avenge Judah upon Babel while he was but his Unkle Cyaxeres called in Daniel Darius his General and to order the Return of God's Captives and the Rebuilding of his Temple as soon as he came to the Imperial Crown But Vespasian carried captive the holy Utensils of the second Temple The Table of Shew-bread whereon the twelve Tribes in the Tipe of twelve Loaves had stood day and night under the favourable inspection of Israel's God The sacred Lamps Emblems of that manifold and marvellous Light of divine Revelations which that Nation peculiarly enjoyed The holy Veil that which fignified God's discriminating them in point of special favour and intimate Communion from all the Nations of the World And lastly the Book of their Law of the Covenant that God made with their Fathers These saith one of their own Josephus Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 25. Vespasian carried in Triumph after the Images of the Roman Idols to the Temple of Jupiter Capitoline and reposited them either in his Palace or in that Temple of Victory which he built in Memorial of his Conquest of Judah And as Trophies of his Victory not only over the Jews but the God of the Jews if their own Rabbies be to be believed who as they are quoted by Vicars in his Decupla in Psal. 94. 2 3. Compare Nebuchadnezzar with Titus and affirm that as the first gloried over the desolation of the First saying Who is that God that can deliver you out of mine hand Daniel 3. so this second insulted at the desolation of the Second Temple saying The God of the Jews is gone a Voyage by Sea let him land and give me Battel My thoughts are here distracted through plenty of Matter and cannot tell where to begin to pitch their dazell'd Eye whether upon that miraculous Providence whereby in the midst of these Conflagrations which Massy Pillars of Brass could not resist the violence of were preserved such combustible things as the Veil and Book of the Law by whose contrivance it came to pass that in the vast Ruines and Rubbish of the Temple should be found the Table of Shew-bread and the Lamps where so many things were buried of more bulk of more value both in common esteem and in the opinion of the Jews Or upon that secret and to him unseen guidance of the everlasting Counseller that directed Vespasian to single out for his Triumph such sacred Utensils as of all others were most lively Representations of the peculiar Privileges which that Nation had enjoyed under her great King and altogether the perfect Hieroglyphick of that holy State a Corporation consisting of twelve Tribes upon which the Eye of God was always fix'd seperated from all other Kingdoms to be holy unto God as the Holy of Holies was from the Temple by the Veil Living under the fruition of divine Light and in Covenant with God in black and white Or that all-ruling Power that guided the Scribe's hand to give the World an account of the so solemn cancelling of the Bond between God and his sometimes Covenant-people the taking away of the Veil of Partition betwixt that and other Nations the removal of his Lamp from them and them from his favourable Inspection So that henceforth the Shew bread-table whereon they were wont to be presented before the Lord must stand before a God that hath Eyes but sees not their Jehovah having turned over his care for them to the Latian Jove From henceforth the Veil of the Temple whereon were painted Cherubims those Eyes of the Lord that run to and fro through the Earth A Type of that difference which God put betwixt them and the rest of the Inhabitants of the Earth must be hung up in the Capitol as if in scorn God had sent the Idol-watchmen upon that Hill this Type of his to help their eyes that they might look to their new Charge or intended to signifie that now the Capitoline Gods should peculiarly seperate these their new Clients from all their old Worshippers as in truth they did For all other Nations gave them divine honour
thinking they were God's But the Jews are forc'd to homage them whom they knew were no Gods and therefore were holy to these their new Lords after a peculiar way of seperation and different from all the People in the World Henceforth their holy Lamps and Book of their Law must be deposited among the Gentiles in their Metropolis and perhaps in the Emperour's Palace that all Nations upon the Earth might vindicate God's severity against the Fedifrages and proclaim the Equity of his Ways after a Perusal of the Covenant betwixt God and them That the Gentiles might be lighten'd to the acknowledgment of that Lord Christ whom the Jews had rejected to whom Lamp and Law would be more useful than they had been to that blind Generation which by malicious Ignorance had put out its own Eyes § 3. But these wonders that these Utensils should escape the Fire should be singled out for Triumph and a Jewish Priest's committing all this to perpetual Memory which so clearly expresseth God's cancelling his Covenant with the Jews and his calling the whole World to be Witness of his giving them so full a discharge have nothing worthy of admiration in them in comparison of that for which principally I made the premised Allegations viz. That Judah's God should all this while hold his peace if indeed he were at that time Judah's God and had not renounc'd all Relation to those sometimes holy Things holy People nay and holy Name too For the Roman Eagle flutter'd in Triumph equally over all these That he should suffer the Actors of these Tragedies to reign in honour to depart in peace one of their own Priests urgeth this Argument Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 6. cap. 11. God was wont to avenge you on your Adversaries but Vespasian may thank the Jewish Wars for the Empire these Fountains and for instance that of Siloam which were dry to you run so plentifully to Titus as to afford Water enough for his Men for his Cattel and the flowing of the Grounds he has gain'd Therefore I believe God hath left the Temple and is fled from you and takes part with them with whom ye war I shall therefore prosecute this Argument more particularly This I say can never be sufficiently admired that Israel's quondam God should suffer the great-Instruments of their Misery to live applauded as the Delights and Darlings of Humane Kind to die bewailed with no loss sorrowful resentment of the Publick than that which men feel for and express at the loss of their own dearest and most intimate Relations and to be followed to the Funeral Pile with more Praise than Flattery her self could pour out upon living Princes Titus cognomine paterno amor deliciae humani generis Excessit quod ut palà m factum est non secus atque in domestico luctu maerentibus publicè cunctis Senatus tantas mortuo gratias egit laudésque quantas congessit nè vivo quidem unquam atque praesenti Suetonius Titus cap. 1. 11. Vespasian had no Mene Tekel writ against him for that Apparition he saw in his sleep of a pair of Ballances hanging up in the Porch of the Palace with Claudius and Nero in one and himself and Children in the other Scale was a Vision of Peace importing the Translation of the Imperial Crown out of the Julian into his the Flavian Family and the continuance of it in that Family as long as it had remain'd in the former during the Reigns of Claudius and Nero and that with such Felicity as the happy and beneficial Reigns of him and his Sons should counter-ballance the Mischiefs which the World receiv'd by the male-administration of those two last degenerate Branches of the Julian Stock By which Vision and other Portents he was so well assured of his Son's Succession as he was wont to ascertain the Senate That in spight of all treasonable Attempts to the contrary he was sure his Son or no body should reign after him Sueton. Vespasianus cap. 25. Titus indeed complain'd at his death that he had done one act for which he repented and but one Neque enim exstare ullum suum factum paenitendum excepto duntaxat uno Sueton. Titus cap. 10. So far was God from writing such bitter Bills against him that might make his Countenance fall his Joynts shake and his Knees smite against one another as he did against his Fellowblasphemer as he with hands stretched out to Heaven and a naked Breast complain'd to the God of Heaven almost in Job's Phrase I am cut off but not for my iniquity for I do not remember that ever I did any Act to be repented of except one What that Fact was he neither discovered saith mine Authour nor is it easie for any man to tell some thought it was his too much intimacy with Domitia his Brother's Wife but if that had been so that impudent Woman would have boasted of her being nought with so great and good a Man for she was a Woman not shy of keeping her own Counsel in such Cases If I may give my Conjecture I suppose it might probably be his seeking to obtain the Judaean Crown for himself a Design which his Father was jealous he had in his head and for which he incur'd hatred and blame while he served his Father in the Judaean Wars However it could not be his slaughtering and captivating the Jews his sacking their City and Temple his carrying away the holy Spoils for here were such a Multiplicity of Acts as to have confessed himself guilty in those things had been to have accused the greatest part of his Life after he came upon the the open Stage which was in a manner spent in Actions of this tendency And had God for vindicating the Glory of his sometimes-great Name charged upon his Conscience the guilt of his challenging the God of Judah he would have charged it so home as to have made him confess and give glory to God And to speak the naked Truth though the Rabbies put a blasphemous Gloss upon the words of Titus yet he did not thereby intend to affront that God who sometimes had been Judah's God but knowing that he came against Judea at the call and by the conduct of that God to dishearten them and encourage his own men he told them Their God was put to Sea that is he had forsaken the protection of them and their Land their strength was departed from them upon which account he subjoyn'd Let him come and give me Battel that is try if with all your strongest cries you can engage him to take your part who I am sure takes mine against you The words indeed sound like Nabsheca's or Nebuchadnexxar's but the difference of the times make their sence as different from theirs as Light from Darkness The God of Heaven was then God of the Jews and those Nations indivisible and therefore they in the name of their Idols defied the God of Heaven under the name of the God of Israel But
to defend me from mine enemies as to repress their boldness who with impious tongue have boasted against thy Power This Prayer God heard and that night the Parthian Arms are diverted from him to the defence of their own Country of the Invasion whereof Vologesus received the News as Izates was at Prayer so that it is most apparent that Izates was preserved by divine Providence saith Josephus Jud. Anti. l. 20. c. 2. Israel's God was not asleep to any that invoked him but his own Rebels For the Date of these Contingencies see the Story of Vologesus in Tacitus Annal. lib. 15. § 5. Their own Doctors observe that the Psalmist in his Repetition of God's Title and the Churches Imprecation Psal. 94. 1 2 3. O Lord God of revenges O God of revenges shew thy self how long Lord how long shall the wicked triumph hath reference to the destroyers of the First and Second Temple to the Chaldean and the Roman Captivities and so doubtless he hath But what then is become of the answer there given to that Imprecation vers 23. The Lord shall bring upon them their own Iniquity and shall cut them off in their own wickedness for what Nation hath incurr'd excision for its violence against the Captives of the Second Temple Nay their own Prophets wholly overthrow the Foundation of that Fifth Monarchy which they erect the Model of in their Fancy and some Judaising Mungrilchristians help them to daub it but with untempered Mortar in their presenting the Roman Empire by which their second Temple was destroyed with Iron-soles and therefore to stand as long as the World lasts see Sleidan's Reflections upon Daniel's four Beasts in the third Book of his Clavis and Tertullian's Apology contrà gentes cap. 32. Sleidan's discourse I commend to my Reader for its strength of Reason but Tertullian's for its Authority for he lays it down not as his private Opinion but as the Belief of the Universal Church in those primitive and purest Times Upon which was grounded the Custom of praying for the Prosperity of the Roman Empire though then Pagan Est alia major necessitas nobis orandi pro Imperatoribus etiam pro omni statu Imperii rebúsque Romanis quòd vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsámque clausulam seculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani Imperii comeatu scimus retardari Itaque nolumus experiri dum praecamur differri Romanae diuturnitati favemus Besides the Obligation that the Command of praying even for our Enemies of putting up Supplications for Kings and all that are in Authority hath laid upon us we have a greater engagement even that of necessity to pray for the Emperours and the whole estate and prosperity of the Empire of Rome because by the interposition of the Roman Empire we know is retarded that greatest Calamity impending over the whole World and the end it self of the World threatning most dreadful veâ—ations and such as we would not live to see while therefore we pray for the delay of those Calamities which shall attend the last Fate of the World we favour the Diuturnity of the Empire So wide do the Fools Bolts of Euthusiasticks fall of the primitive Mark as they curse the world in praying for the erecting of a Monarchy after the Roman and call for that Fire from Heaven which will consume not only their Hay and Stubble but the whole Fabrick of this inferiour World And no less wide of the Prophets sence falls the Jews Application of these Menacies to the destroyers of their second material Temple which manifestly belong to their own Nation for destroying that Temple wherein the Godhead dwelt bodily and which was raised up in three days for their gathering together against the soul of the righteous and condemning innocent blood Psal. 94. 21. This cannot with the least shadow of Reason be charged upon the Romans for their Eagles in the Jewish Wars gather'd together to the Carcase to a People whose high provocatious and rebellious attempts render'd them fit to be a Prey to publick Justice deservedly the Objects of the Revenger's Sword Never was War more just than that of the Empire undertaken for the chastising of most sturdy Rebels and in the necessary defence of that power that God had set over them as not only Josephus and the sober Party of the Jews then confessed but the thing it self and state of the Case speaks Non equidem recusabo dicere quae dolor jubet Puto si Romani contra noxios venire tardassent aut hiatus terrae devorandam fuisse civitatem aut diluvio perituram aut fulminum ac Sodomae incendium passuram multò enim magis impiam progeniem tulit quà m quae illa pertulerat Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 6. c. 16. I will not refuse to speak what grief compels I think verily if the Romans had not come against those guilty Varlets that Jerusalem would either have been swallowed up off the gaping Earth or overwhelm'd with a Flood or destroyed with Fire and Brimstone as Sodom was for it harbour'd a Generation of men far more wicked than the Sodomites Briefly the Romans were neither unrighteous in the vengeance which their Sword of Justice brought upon that Place and Nation Neither hath God or will God cut off that Empire as long as the World stands But in the mean time we have seen the Jews gathering together against the soul of the righteous against the life of the Lord Jehovah their Righteousness while they were in the Bond of the Covenant and we have seen the Lord cut them off yea the Lord sometimes their God cut them off in and for this their wickedness It is not therefore to be thought strange that they should thus long without audience bellow out their second quousque how long that hitherto they have had no return of their Prayer to the God of Revenges for while they stir him up to revenge his People to render a reward to the proud they do but mind him of their own sin and demerits and solicit him to prolong their just sufferings and never restore to them the departed Scepter § 6. Of the departure whereof as God hath given them all these Demonstrations So almost immediately before its removal he gave them so fair a warning as not only their own but Gentile-historians took notice thereof in that voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us depart hence which was heard in their Temple not as St. Jerom mistakes palpably in contradiction to that Text of Josephus which himself quotes as Scaliger observes and proves by undeniable Arguments at Christ's Passion but at Pentecost Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 12. before the desolation of the Temple of which Tacitus in the Pagan Style thus writes hist. l. 5. Expassae repentè delubri fores audita major humanâ vox excedere Deos the doors of the Temple open'd of their own accord and a voice more than humane was heard signifying that the Gods of that
as Actions that have past over the Stage of the World and as such the Spectators are as competent Judges of them as of any that are brought before them All that is demanded of Tradition is whether it saw Christ and his Apostles doing such things whether it heard them deliver such Doctrines or what it ever heard or saw tending to the disproof of that Relation we call her not to pass judgement upon the Nature or Quality of either Words or Works we summon her to do the part of an Historian not Commentator And what hinders but that she may gratifie us in this as well as in any other Case were not Christs Actions as visible as Caesar's his Words as audible as Cicero's § 4. Having thus stated the Question and assigned to the Witnesses what we expect from them as to the Resolution of it we will call them in and take their depositions 1. Had we nothing to produce but those almost numberless Copies and Translations of the Text into most of the Languages of the anciently-known World those Cart-loads of Commentators Paraphrasts c. upon the Text all agreeing in substance and out of which we may with facility gather not only the Matter but the very Words and every Word of the Gospels this would be a full-measure Proof that the Books of the New Testament as they stand now in the sacred Canon are as faithful a Repository of the Actions and Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles as any Writings whatsoever can be of the Subjects contain'd in them This would be a better Evidence for instance that the History and Doctrine therein contain'd is the genuine Off-spring of those whose Names they bear than any man living can produce to prove that the Books going under the Names of Virgil Horace Cicero are those mens Works whose Names they bear That the Deeds and Conveighances whereby he holds his Estate are those mens Deeds whose Names and Seals are affixt to them or that he is that Man's Child whom he calls Father This comes near enough to the state of the Question and one would think it concern'd the VVorld to repute that Generation of men the bane of Mankind who with their insociable infusions of Suspitions into mens Heads that possible it might be otherwise deprive all men Princes and Peasants of power to make a rational Proof of their Title to what they hold from their Ancestors as their Heirs at Law And the Sceptick cannot in reason expect a more satisfactory Answer to his Misprisions than such like as Plutarch in his Apothegms reports Cicero to have given his Nephew Metellus to whom demanding of Cicero to tell who was his Father it was replyed thus It would be a far harder thing to tell who was thy Father for thy Mother was accounted an errant Strumpet and mine an honest Matron The truth is all the claim that any body can make to him whom he calls Father depends wholly upon the single twine of one VVomans Honesty which be it never so apparent is not to be cast in the Scales with the Fidelity of the immaculate Virgin-spouse of Christ the Apostolical Church But I will wave this odious Comparison partly because I would not create jealousies of this Nature in the Ranters Head to harden him against his poor Mother to whom it is affliction enough to have been the Parent of such a Son and partly that I may not cast the least suspition of dishonour upon our Female-Gentry whose inconquerable Vertue necessitates our Goatish Males to turn Channel-rakers and to scrape off Dung-hills fuel for their Lusts the scum and off-spring of the fordid and Rascal vulgar the scrapings and garbish of the Body Politick such as that Nobleman of the East would hardly have set before the Dogs of the Flock How many courses of Purification must such Lumps of Dirt mixt with the Dregs of English Blood undergo before he that values the Nobility of his own can think them fit for his touch even by the proxy of a pair of Tonges The Bawd washes the Cats face pares her Claws by the transforming power of the exchange dubs her a Gentlewoman and then though all the Castle-sope in Christendom cannot wash out Pusse's stains contracted in the Chimney-corner nor all the perfumers Shops in Level-land take away the Nautious scent of her rank Blood presents her as the great Beauty of the Land an Helen a Venus a Peer for a Prince a Bed-companion for a Peer Issa est purior osculo columbae Issa est blandior omnibus puellis Issa est carior Indicis lapillis Issa est deliciae catella Publii If there be no difference of Blood why do we boast of Nobility If there be why does it not recoil even in spight of the most lustful Titillations into those Vessels we extracted from our noble Progenitors or at least for shame into our Faces fitter Receptacles of it than such common Jakes such unequal mixtures are a kind of Buggery For though in Religion there 's none yet in Nature there 's as great and in Politicks a greater distance between the Cream of Nobility and the Sediments of Vulgar Baseness than there is betwixt this and some ingenious Animals And in Ethicks 't is a less Indecorum to see a Ladies Dog in bed with her than her Groom Publius commits a less Solecism in dallying with his Bitch than with his Laundress Catullus may with less Absurdity bill with his Sparrow than his Maid That our delicate and spruce Gallants who cannot relish Prayer and Fasting which would cure them of this Canine Appetite after strange Flesh of this Orexis after dirty Puddings should be brought to this necessity of feeding their Wolf with such course fare at such three-penny Ordinaries That they who will not lose so much of their height as the bending of their Knees to him who has promised to give his holy Spirit to them that ask would put them to the expence of should by an unclean Spirit be precipitated from the top of Honour's Scale to the foot of the Hangman's Ladder with that Wanton in Petronius Vsque ab Orchestria quatuordecim transilit ut in extrema Plebe quaerat quod diligat amplexus in crucem mittat He leaps down at least fourteen steps from the top of the stairs of Nobility that he may seek a Mistress amongst the basest of the Vulgar and obtain the Embraces of one of Mal-Cutpurse Nymphs who last Assizes held up her hand at the Bar and hardly escap'd the Gallows That our fine-nosed Gentry who can smell State-plots and humane Inventions in the most sacred Religion should not smell the Plot which their own lusts have upon their Honour nor how rank their Mistresses smell of the Dunghill can proceed from nothing but their habituating themselves to such Carrion for want of better fare And that they are fain to feed the Flame of their Green-sickness-lusts with Coal and Cinders must with all thankfulness be ascribed to the Chastity
Town Gamale who with his Companion Sadducus a Pharisee solicited the people to defection saying that the Taxing was nothing else but a manifest profession of servitude It is not to be imagin'd saith Josephus how much these men disquieted the whole Nation while they fill all places with slaughter and plunder and a promiscuous robbing of friends and foes and the murder of the best men under the pretext of asserting the publick Liberty Insomuch as they created such a deadly few'd in the Nation as neither forreign War nor Extremity of Famine could draw the enraged Factions from one anothers Throats till at last the mischief proceeded so far as the Temple of God was consumed with hostile flames for to speak the truth Judas and Sadduck were the Authors of all the succeeding Calamities while to the three old ones of Pharisees Sadducees and Esseans they introduced this fourth Sect of Gaulonites and drew multitudes of such after them as were given to change and affected Novelties which did not only for the present disturb the publick Weal but was the seminary of all future slaughters But for the date of this Insurrection of Judas or as he names him Bel. Jud. 2. 7. Simon of Galilee he sets it down most exactly in Gamaliel's Phrase Jud. Antiq. l. 20. 23. where speaking of two sons of this Judas or Simon James and Simon whom Alexander the Successor of Cuspius Fadus crucified he calls them the sons of that Judas of Galilee qui agente Syriae Censum Quirinio Judaeos solicitavit ad defectionem à populo Romano c. who while Quirinius was making the Tax of Syria solicited the Jews to a defection from the Romans At one breath informing us that Cyrenius began to make that Tax of Syria in Judaea and that after he had laid it there Leaving Coponius to gather it he himself went into Syria to lay it there during which Leavy Judas made Insurrection against Coponius while he was collecting it in Judaea Or as Josephus De Bel. Jud. l. 2. c. 7. yet more clearly expresseth the precise juncture Coponio disceptante Galilaeus quidam Simon nomine defectionis arguebatur quia indigenas increparet si tributum Romanis pendere paterentur dominósque post Deum ferrent mortales While Coponius was reasoning with them about paying their Tax laid by Cyrenius a certain Galilaean Simon by name the Greek hath Judas was convict of making defection because he reproach'd his Country-men as grievously offending God if they should permit Tribute by head to be paid to the Romans or acknowledge mortal Rulers after God had been their King From the whole we learn that there were two Taxings while Cyrenius was Governour of Syria the first as St. Luke stiles that which was made at our Saviour's Birth an enrolling of the whole Empire a Term so equipollent to that of the whole World both in Sacred and Secular Writ as Bartolus pronounceth him an Heretick that will not say the Emperour is Lord and Monarch of the whole World that this first Tax was a mere enrolment of mens Ages Dignities Lineages c. and therefore no wonder if we hear of no commotion in Judaea upon the account of that nor find it mention'd in Josephus the Jews being in that no more concern'd than the rest of the World And least of all that St. Luke should be so ready in drawing the Line of Joseph and by consequence of the blessed Virgin up to David even through those Generations which the Sacred Old Testament-rolls make no mention of notwithstanding that Herod had burnt all the Genealogies he could and durst lay hands on seeing Joseph had now given in an account of his Line into those mens hands out of which Herod durst not have snatcht it if he had lived to an opportunity of attempting it which he did not but deceased within one half year after our Saviour's Birth leaving behind him this new Edition of Judaean Chronology to serve the Christian's use and stop the Worlds mouth from excepting against those Records which were so solemnly delivered to the Custody of the Roman Archives before the name of the blessed Jesus was known or Controversie concerning him raised in the World as St. Chrysostom in his 8. Hom. on St. Matthew observes and Tertullian suggests in his fourth Book against Marchion A providence which St. Luke sets an accent upon in his prefacing the Genealogy of Joseph which he lays down in his third Chapter by giving us this Circumstance of our Saviour's Birth in his second that it fell out at what time Joseph of the House and Lineage of David was gone up with Mary to the City of David Bethlehem there to have his Lineage enroll'd in such a crowd of his more wealthy Kindred who would certainly have excepted against the draught of his Line if they could have found any flaw in it as took up all the Inns in the Town and forc'd this poor kinsman into a Stable And this enrolment made by Roman Officers with the assistance of their Augures to take him sworn to the truth of what he alleaged touching his stock and with other such Formalities mention'd by Dionysius Hallicarn lib. 4. as it was not possible that Forgery could in this case escape undetected Our Josephs name-sake this famous Jewish Historian in the History of his own Life presseth this very Argument against the Calumniators of his Pedigree against whose suggillations he proveth his Extract from the Priests of the first Order and of that Family of Priests who for a long time obtain'd both the High Priesthood and Kingdom of of Juda out of that Succession of his Kindred which was inserted into the publick Tables that is into those Roman Records which were taken of every mans Stock at the universal Taxing for the publick Records of the Jews had been burnt by Herod before Josephus was born and there is no Track in History of transcribing Genealogies after that into any publick Registers but what Augustus caused to be made at the first Enrolment of the Empire Yea what evidence but that which was transcribed out of that Dooms-day-book could be ground sufficient of that triumph which Josephus sings Hanc generis nostri successionem ut est in tabulas publicas relata huc transcripsi parvi faciens calumnias This succession of our Family as it is enter'd in the publick Rolls I have transcribed hither and now I value not the calumnies of busie wicked men For whatever Records he could appeal to besides those were in comparison of them but private and not exempted from possibility of adulteration which that first description left no place for Neither were the Priests enroll'd at the second Tax they being exempted from payment of such Taxes as were at that time levied The second Taxing and under Cyrenius also was this which Gamaliel mentions and Josephus writes at large of as being of Syria only to which Province Judaea then belong'd and therefore pertinent to his subject This being not
an humane body when he read to the World that Anatomy Lecture in his second Book de Natura Deorum where discoursing upon that Subject from the hair of the head to the nails of the toes he makes every pipe of that well tun'd Organ every string of that melodious Lute sound cut the praises of the all-wise Maker one while stiling it the incredibilem structuram so admirable a composure as did we not see it with our eyes we could not be induc'd to believe it were within the compass of wisdom it self to contrive such Engines of speech of Breathing of Digestion Egestion Generation Local Motion c. another while crying out vim quondam in credibilem artificiosi operis divinique testantur would it be credible if it were not sensible that so artificial and Divine Works could be framed § 3. How much greater Wonders of the Divine Science might I shew the Atheist if I ripped up before him that other part of himself If I shewed him the sparklings of the Jewel that 's deposited in this Cabinet the Artificialness of the Spring of all these stupendious Motions whereby in the twinkling of an eye his Mind surrounds the Earth and if he please mounts above the Stars but this his immortal Piece is as far from his knowledge as his care I will therefore not disturb him out of that pleasing Dream and conceipt of Jack-work or Clock-work for his mind is so taken up with Time so fastned to his Trencher Palate and Panch as he can think of nothing but Clocks and Jacks nor wish him to strain his eyes in the reading of so small a Print as that incorporeal Spirit is writ in whereby he lives or should live the Life of a Man nor draw him out of his own gross element of bodily Substances nor pose him with these hard Questions concerning things above his head the ballancings the Bottles of the Clouds the moulten Glass of the Heavens the Treasures of the Snow and Hail the way that parts the Light the Rain-spouts the influences of the Pleiades the time measuring Mazzaroth the Seamans guide Arcturus his Neck inured to stooping would ake if it should stand in an erect posture But only advise him to cast his eye upon that on which he sets his Feet the diverse coloured flowrie or grass-green Carpet of this Earthly Globe and with the same reason he can think that any thing but immense and eternal Wisdom could contrive the providing of so well furnished a Table with all necessary Food and such plenty of delicates the planting of so rich a Garden with such variety of Flowers for Food Physick or Delight with so pleasing a variety of Colours Scent Tastes he may far rather expect that his own Garden should of it self by meer chance of Fortune without the contrivance of the Head or labour of the Hand part it self into most curious Beds and Artificial Knots or that Stone and Timber should by chance lay themselves into the form of a well-built House or that single Letters cast out of a shuffling Box should fall in that order as to make an Elegant Poem Cicer de Natura deor 2. p. 87. Hîc ego non mirer esse quenquam qui sibi persuadeat corpora quedám solida atque individua vi gravitate ferri mundumque ornatissimum pulcherrimum ex eorum corporum concursione fortuita Hoc qui existimat fieri potuisse non intelligo cur non idem putet Innumerabiles unius viginti formae literarum aliquo conjiciuntur posse ex his in terram excussis annales Ennii ut deinceps legi possint effici quòd nescio an in uno quidem versu possit tantùm valere fortuna Have I not reason here to wonder that any man can perswade himself that certain solid and individual Bodies are tost by motion and gravity and that this most adorn'd and beautiful World was made by the fortuitous congress of those bodies He who thinks this possible to be done I see no reason why the same man should not also think that if innumerable Characters of the one and twenty Letters were cast somewhither there might of them falling upon the earth be made the Annals of Ennius so as they might be read whereas I can hardly think that fortune would be able to make one verse after that manner How much more like a man did he discourse who observing Geometrical Figures drawn on the Shore said I see the footsteps of a man easily perceiving that such Figures had not been flung by blind Fortune but drawn by Art If he dare venture to cast his eye so near Heaven as the top of a Tree or the midst of a Bush he may observe those so well timed and orderly Actions of Birds and Bees as cannot but proceed from an higher Reason than that of their particular Natures that Fore-cast to make that ingenuity in making their Nests that Discretion in knowing at first sight their Foes from Friends that Parental care of their young c. may with more reason be admired than they can by the best improved Art be imitated by us men If the Atheist scorn Moses let him if it be but for Recreation read Aelians History of Animals Plutarchs Treatise of the Ingenuity of Birds Beasts Insects Fishes and Bees himself must be what Plutarch denies any of them to be a Brute if he learn not that they received their skill from a mind fraught with infinite Wisdom from a Being of infinite Goodness proportioning every of their properties to the benefit of their own Beings and conservation of their kind If he open but an Ants Nest a whole Colledge of Doctors will accost him and offer to read him a Divinity-Lecture upon this Point the Doctrine whereof they not only carry in their Mouths but lay upon their Shoulders he may see them hording up in Autumn their Winters Provision and first eating the Root-end of every grain of Corn in their Granarie to prevent its Sprouting how gloriously incomprehensible must that Providence and Foresight be that makes those silly Insects thus provident How great that Wisdom which teacheth them this discretion § 4. But while I send the Sluggard the Slow-belly Atheist to the Ant to learn I must not forget to lay open to my Christian Reader those Golden Letters of this great Volume those Spangles that glitter in that our Canopy which is but the Pavement of the upper House of the invisible World whose Influences and Motions are so attempered to the Production and Conservation of Terrestrial Creatures so fitted to our conveniency as it is not possible to imagine how they could have been order's better Though Epicurus made shew he did Nulla inquit dispositio est multa enim facta sunt aliter quam fieri debuerunt Et invenit homo divinus que reprehenderet quae singula si vacaret refellere facilè ostenderem nec sapientem hunc fuisse nec sanum sed hominem quo s 〈…〉 vigente
of his Nurture Nazareth of his greatest Residence in the time of his Ministry Galilee The Confederacy of Herod and Pilate of Jew and Gentile against him the Treason of him that eat of his Bread that dipt in his Dish the Price at which he was sold the Purchase of the Potters Field with that price of Blood All the Puctilio's of his Passion The Piercing his Hands Feet and Side The Distension of his Sacred Body upon the Cross so as one might tell all his bones the Marring of his blessed Face with Buffeting spitting and besmearing with blood trickling down from his Thorn-crowned Head his being numbred with Transgressors his being Crucified between two Thieves the Souldiers dividing his Garments among them their casting Lots upon his Vesture The Jews scornful and malicious deportment towards him hiding their face from him turning their backs upon him rejecting him as not their King when Pilate presented him their giving him Vinegar to drink The very form of words wherewith they taunted him were by Prophecy put into their Mouthes He trusted in God that he would save him let bim deliver him if he will have him Mat. 27. 43. Psal. 22. 8. His making his Grave with the rich his being buried like a noble man for he was before hand by Mary Magdalen anointed against his Burial with most precious Spikenard was perfum'd imbalm'd by Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews wound in fine linnen by Joseph of Arimathea and laid in that new Tomb which that Honourable Person had hewne out of a Rock in his Garden for himself and to make his Funeral more august the Chief Priests and Pharisees contribute a guard of Souldiers to watch his blessed Corps and take order that his Sepulchre be made fast with a hewen Stone filling the mouth and fastned with Cramps of Iron into the sides of his Tomb the most honourable form of entombing All which things the Evangelists do therefore affirm to be done that the Scripture might be fulfilled and our Jesus demonstrated to be the Person of whom those infallible Oracles spake The far greatest and most substantial part of those things not being applicable in truth to the persons that spake them David in his own person suffered not such like things any more then he did not see corruption as Saint Peter argues And therefore as the same Apostle dictates those Prophesies were not of private interpretation that is as Saint Philip in answer to the Eunuchs question resolves the Prophets did not speak those things of themselves but of some other man to wit the Messias 2. Can any thing be imagined more purely contingent than those things Is it conceivable how so long before there could be a Foreknowledge of their Futurity by the Prophets inspection into their Natural Causes The Learned Vossius de Origine idol lib. 2. cap. 48. doth explode the madness of some Modern Astrologers who affirm that all the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles or any body else were the natural and necessary effects of some Conjunctions of Planets and were not ashamed to ascribe to the Horoscope the Birth of Christ of a Virgin and all his stupendious works and those great Changes which have faln out in respect of Religion ascribing the rise of the Jewish to the Conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn of the Chaldean to the Conjunction of Jupiter with Mars the Aegyptian to the Conjunction of Jupiter with the Sun The Mahometan to the Conjunction of Jupiter with Venus the Christian to the Conjunction of Jupiter with Mercury and the Antichristian to Jupiters Conjunction with the Moon all which is to be read in Albumazar lib. 2. de mag conjectul tract 1. dissect 4. Say that such Conjunctions might possibly incline those parts of the World under the Dominion of their Influence to imbrace those several Religions yet he must be of a Facile Faith that can believe it was possible for our Divine Prophets to read their Predictions in the Book of the Starrs who if they had had an everlasting Almanack in their heads from what Positions of the Heavenly Bodies could they have Prognosticated the concentring of so many emergencies upon one man from what Conjunction of Planets or Lincaean inspection into Matters of State a Book more tost and to better purpose than the other by those prudent Judicial Astrologers who had a mind not to shame their Profession could David foresee the agreement of Herod and Pilate who the day before were at enmity and on the day of our Saviours Passion were made Friends and that in order to our Saviours Crucifixion at Jerusalem which according to Gods determinate Counsel revealed to David could not be effected till those Rulers under the Gentile Empire stood up in their Masters quarrel and with the people of Israel took councel together against the Lord and his Christ as the Church dictates Act. 4. 25. 27. From what sowr and crabbed Aspect of the Planets could David foretell their turning of Drink into Vinegar From what influences the distilling of the Blood of God from Christs Head Hands Side Feet In what Ephemeris did the Prophet read that astonishing Darkness that invelopt the Earth Briefly in what Cause but the Will of God revealed to them by himself could they see those strange events that fell out that one Year that acceptable Year of the Lord that one Week that great Week as the Ancients stiled it that one Day that Day of Redemption Let the most expert Astrologer erect a Scheme set up all the Lamps of Heaven in that posture wherein they stood at our Saviours Passion and try if he can by their Light discover the least appearance or likelihood of a reason that in such a juncture such things must fall out by the course of nature That at that time for instance those Prophetick Forms which the Jews used in derision of Christ that had hung as it were frozen at the Prophets lips so many hundred of years should be thawn and drop into the Mouthes of that Generation That the Legs of the Thieves should be broken and not our Saviours That his Side should be pierced and not theirs c. 3. Those Prophecies are so plain and the Application of them in their Effects to the Blessed Jesus so natural as we need not strain courtesie with the Letter it self to wrest it from its most obvious sence in making the Buckle and Thong meet in making the accomplishment kiss the Oracles Here need no Salvoes of the Prophets Credit by understanding them to speak figuratively The Text is so easie as it needs no other Gloss than the plain History of the Gospel the same words the same things which the one foretells to be done the other tells as done Bethlehem answers Bethlehem Nazareth Nazareth Aegypt Aegypt as face answers face David declaring the case of his own soul used the phrase of Broken Bones Metaphorically to shew the dislocation of its Faculties by his great Fall But Moses in describing
in a moment in the same moment that they shall be raised so that there will be no more prius posterius betwixt us than is in a moment neither can they whom that day finds alive rise at all But first in respect of them that are out of Christ as the antients generally and the best modern Expositors gloss upon these Texts Musculus Non soli resurgent qui sunt Christi resurgent omnes sed ii primi sic 1 Thes. 4. mortui in Christo resurgent primum post illas surgent reliqui Not only they that are Christs but all shall rise but they that are in Christ shall rise first and afterwards the rest as the Apostle saith St. Athanasius conceives St. Paul to give to them that are Christs both priority of time as to their Resurrection and change and of place as to their trial and receiving of sentence Oportet namque ut aliquod habeant privilegium justi vel resurgendo nam ut in aera obvià m Christo procedant rapiendi ita primi à mortuis excitantur quemadmodum contra peccatores in terra locis inferioribus hisce judicem ut damnati operiuntur Ex Christoferi translatione in 1 ep ad Corin c. 15. It is meet that the righteous should have the priviledge of rising before Infidels for as they are snatcht up into the Air to meet Christ so they also shall be first raised from the dead whereas on the contrary infidels as being damn'd already shall wait for the judge upon earth and these inferior places 5. That the Saints though they rise before the Infidels yet shall not be judged till the Devil and his Worshippers be cast into Hell is the assertion of Tertullian de Resurrectione carnis cap. 25. Hîc ordo temporum sternitur Diabolo in abyssum interim relegato primae resurrectionis praerogativa de soliis ordinetur dehinc igni data universalis Resurrectionis censuta de libris judicetur The order of time is here laid down The Devil in the mean while being sent back again into the bottomless pit the Prerogative of the first Resurrection that is their being gathered in the air to the place of Judgment shall be put into order and after that they are assembled the Fire of the last Conflagration having changed the world the sentence shall pass out of the books upon them that rose first that is the Saints by calling From these premisses it necessarily follows That all the time that Satan hath allotted him after his loosing to go out again and tempt the World to Gentilism to deceive the Nations after his old wont is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that small season that intervenes betwixt the general Resurrection of the Saints and the Condemnation of Infidels that short space wherein the Saints shall all in a body be waiting at the place of Judgment whither the Angels shall gather them for the appearance of Christ. Against which Hypothesis I cannot imagine what now can be excepted but that it seems to suppose that Infidels after their Resurrection shall be in a capacity to demerit contrary to the common and in my judgment the true Opinion that they will be then as they were since their dissolution in termino But there is no ground of such a suspicion in this case as I state it for I do not make their following Satan with their rebellious Arms a contraction of new guilt because it proceeds from that height of judicial obcecation that divine Justice inflicts upon them as their punishment but an occasion of Gods justifying himself in their condemnation as that which speaks them to have lived and died impenitent for all their willfull rebellions I do not affirm that God inflicts more punishment upon them because of this than what they had deserved before but only takes the opportunity of these Rebels being in Arms to proceed against them and to destroy them altogether as enemies I cannot express my mind in more significant terms than those of Aquinas Sum. 3. q. 90. art 7. Civcs judicabuntur ut cives in quos sine discussione meritorum sententia mortis non feretur sed infideles condemnabuntur ut hostes qui consueverunt apud homines absque meritorum audientia estimari Citizens shall be judged as Citizens against whom the sentence of death may not be pronounced without the discussion of their desert of it but Infidels shall be condemned as open enemies who use among men to be doom'd without hearing That God may not keep his Citizens in suspence and demurr the trial of their cause longer than need he will not appear in his Glory till his Rebels be all in arms that so finding them at his coming in the Field set in Battalia against his Subjects he may cut them off at once § 7. I have but one Argument more against the Chyliasts limitting the Saints Reign with Christ on Earth to a precise thousand of years to try the patience as well as Judgment of my Reader withal to wit the impertinency of the Authorities which they alledge for their Opinion Of which I shall give but two Instances because I would not quite tire my self or Reader 1. They alledge the Authority of the Jewish Doctors whereas the Millenium they speak of is the Septimum Millenarium as Carpenter observes in Plato's Alcinous pag. 322. at the beginning whereof they think God will judge all men and as Mr. Meed proves by several quotations volume 2. pag. 667. Now the seventh day thousand of years is confest by all to last to all Eternity as being the holy Sabbath wherein the Saints shall rest from their six days labour And for any day of a thousand years long before that the antient Jews are wholly strangers so they reckon the three Ages before that by two thousand of years apiece two thousand before the Law two thousand under the Law and two thousand under the Messiah before the eternal Sabbath in which compute they intend not that any of those Ages shall be of so many precise years continuance if they do they have foully mist it in the two already past neither do they mention any innovation of the World after the giving of the Law but the Age of the Messiah that is to begin with their fifth Millenium from the Creation and the Sabbath of eternal rest the seventh Millenium So that if they at any time call the day of the Messias a thousand years they mean by that number about two thousand of precise years that is an indefinite Number 2. How groundless then must be their building their Doctrine of a precise thousand upon those Texts which the Jews first and they from them alledge for first if they be sueh Texts as the Jews do ground their Millenium upon they cannot import a precise Millenium that being more than the Jews conclude from them and perhaps St. John might take up the Jewish use of that term thinking none would be so
vers'd in the Affairs of the World but knows to be as meer Fictions as any of the Poets Fables And of that greatest of Humanists Plutarch who in his Book de Pythiae oraculis brings in Diogenianus suspecting that Apollo's Oracles were meer forgeries because they were given out in such beggarly Verses when he himself upon whom they were father'd was the God of the Poets and in Eloquence did far excel Homer and Hesiod and Boethus comparing those over-religious persons who in spight of their native Draught would invert those Oracles into good and plausible Poetry unto Pauson the Painter who being hired to draw the Picture of an Horse tumbling on his back painted one running at which he storming who had fore spoke that Picture Pauson turns the Table so as presented the heels of the Horse upwards and Bio thus concluding that Argument We ought therefore not to conclude they are good Verses because of Apollo's making but that they are not of Apollo's making because they are naught To these I might add Herodotus the Collector of all such strange stories who gives his Reader a caution not to be over hasty of belief by his stiling his Books by the Names of the Muses and by his frequent sorting such passages as that which he subjoynes to his stories of Rampsinitus whosoever thinks them credible may believe them Euterp and that wherewith he concludes the disapparition of Zamolxis ego autem de hoc neque non credo neque valde non credo Melpomene And Pausanias who in his Corinthiacis makes the same of Aesculapius his raising of men from the dead upon account whereof he was deified dwindle into the pittiful story of his bringing Archias out of a Convulsion Fit which took him as he was hunting for which cure Archias bestowed Divine Honours upon him and built him a Temple at Pergamus But it would be endless to number particulars and it may be enough to invalidate all strange Pagan Stories that the most antient and authentick History in the Gentile World which was thought worthy to be hung up in Apollo's Temple Henry Stephens Fragments of Stesichorus out of Athenaeus the Homerial History of Troy is confuted by Herodotus in his Euterpe § 3. 3. A great part of the Miracles father'd upon Demons are manifestly mis-father'd they are made gay with the Lambs-wool and trick themselves with the Feathers which the eternal Word of the ever-blessed God made to grow For all forreign Miracles that have been delivered by indubitable Tradition and were really such as exceeded the whole power of the Creature were not effected by those Heathen Deities that bare away the praise of them but the products of Israels God To instance in the most eminent of them Diod. Sicul. Bib. 16. reports that the Phocians after they had rob'd the Temple of Delphos discumfited by the Beotians 500 of them took Sanctuary in a Temple of Apollo where by a fire by accident they were all burnt alive and the Temple it self consumed had this been Apollo's doing and not that Gods who equally abhors Sacrilege and such Idols as that sacrilege was committed against he would sure in punishing the Sacrilegious have had a care of his own Temple and not have punish'd it with a greater Sacrilege than they committed When the Ship wherein the Mother of the Gods was was brought from Phrygia and was so stranded in Tyber as all the strength of Men and Oxen that they applied thereto could not make it stir Claudia the Vestal Nun being suspected of Incontinency tying her Girdle to the Ship and praying the Goddess that if she were an immaculate Virgin she would follow her forthwith haled the Vessel to shore this Virgins Statue in memorial of this was erected in Cybel's Temple and stood firm and perfect upon its own base after the Temple had been twice consumed with fire Livii 2. de bello Punico He must be wholly unacquainted with the Legend of this salacious Goddess that can think she had any hand in vindicating the innocency of this Virgin who her self was the veryest Strumpet and impure Drabb that ever liv'd and whose Mysteries wherein her story was represented were so obscene as common Harlots would have blusht to have such obscenities laid to their charge Aust. de Civit. cap. 4. lib. 2. as Cybeles Priests celebrated her memory with It was not therefore through her procuration that Claudia's Chastity was thus miraculously vindicated but by his Providence who hath declared himself the Advocate of oppressed Innocency that filthy Goddess was forc'd contrary to her own Genius to follow the halings of that unjustly accused Vestal who had made her appeal to the Tribunal of the Deity generali complexione in an interpretive and general sence though she mist it in the application Grotius de jure 2. 13. 12. Quia quanquam sub falsis notis generali tamen complexione numen intuetur The same only true God who divides the Flames of Fire protected the Image of Claudia when the Temple of Cybele wherein it stood was consumed with Fire the Goddess not able to secure her own Image and sacred Utensils The greatest part of the Victories the ancient Romans obtain'd were imputed to the favour of this unclean Goddess to whom thanks were return'd when any notable and extraordinary emergent fell out contributing to their advantage Val. Max. lib. 1. cap 1. Matri Deûm â—saepenumerò Imperatores nostri compotes victoriarum suscepta vota Possinuntem profecti solverent It is like that such a Deity who could not endure that any should touch her Mysteries but Gelt Priests would take care of the concerns of that Masculine State and those virile Roman spirits The Army which Xerxes sent to burn and rifle Apollo's Temple was destroyed with Thunder Tempest and Stones rent by the Tempest Diodor. Sicul. Bibl. l. 11. lib. 13. The Athenians having rob'd the Temple at Delos of ten thousand Talents fail'd into Sicily with 200 Triremes and an Army of aboue 40000 fighting men where they were beset with those calamities and so utterly overthrown as not so much as one Vessel escap'd nor not one man to tell those sad news Brennus making the like attempt met with that overthrow of his Army as forc'd him in a desperate mood to fall upon his own Sword The Romans who at the taking of Carthage disrob'd the Image of Apollo of its golden Vest left their hands among the Fragments of the Image Acer sui numinis vindex Apollo Apollo severely vindicated his own Divinity saith Valerius Max. l. 1. c. 1. But with what face could that pilfring God punish so severely that crime whereof himself was more guilty than any man If Apollo and Hercules be all one as Macrobius in Sat. 1. 20. affirms them to be Hercules quid aliud est quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aeris spendor c. And Porphiry confesseth in Euseb. praep 3. 4. Briefly for it would be an endless labour to enumerate all particulars How