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A60477 Christian religion's appeal from the groundless prejudices of the sceptick to the bar of common reason by John Smith. Smith, John, fl. 1675-1711. 1675 (1675) Wing S4109; ESTC R26922 707,151 538

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Doctor Heilin mixeth with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of equal arrogance Heilin Belgium 362. pag. and importance of the effect for it upon every slight critical exception we suffer the credit of those generally approved Historians whose fidelito has pass'd for current and gained the prescription of so many Ages who had better means of detecting the falsity 〈◊〉 we have and as much honesty to put them upon the improvement of those means we shall at the long run turn all faith out of doors except it be of this Article that every modern Mercury is Trismegistus ter maximus omnia solus One with whom wisdom was born and shall dye Job 12. Scaliger's First Objection Hermippus in Diogenes Laertius affirms that Demetrius Phalereus whom Aristeus brings in as the procurer of this Translation was so far out of favour with Ptolemy Philadelphus for perswading his father to dis-inherit him as in the beginning of his Reign he banish'd him what can therefore be more improbable than the report of Aristaeus Answer 1. Should we grant to Hermippus in Diogenes an equality of Authority to Aristaeus in Josephus which to him that considers the disproportion either of time or place betwixt Josephus and Diogenes will seem a very unequal Match yet this would not prejudice the story of Aristaeus as to that Circumstance the learned Critick cavils at If we weigh what Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea affirms in Eusebius Eus. ec Hist. 7. 31. where commending Aristobulus he saith he was one of them who were sent to translate the sacred Scripture of the Hebrews unto the gracious Princes Ptolemaeus Philadelphus and his father Am. Marcellinus also useth the plural number Ptolemaeis regibus vigiliis intentis composita lib. 22. which passages as they fully reconcile the seeming contradictions of the Fathers in their Computations of the time of this Version St. Jerom and Eusebius placing it in the beginning of Philadelphus Irenaeus attributing it to Ptolemy Lagi and Clemens Alexandrinus questioning to whether of them it should be referred are not adverse but divers expressions of the same date viz. the later end of Lagi his Reign in the two last years whereof his Son was his Colleague So it clearly solves the Objection for after Lagi his death possibly Philadelphus at the beginning of his Reign alone might bannish Demetrius and yet in the beginning of his Reign with his Father be so far from discovering his displeasure against him as to hide his grudge from his Father's apprehension whom he could not but think would stand betwixt Demetrius and harm he might very well put him upon that imploy about his Library which was like enough to take up all the thoughts of so bookish a Man and to divert them from being imploy'd about the securing of himself from that fatal stroke he intended for him as soon as his Shield was taken away as soon as the days of mourning for his Father should come But to put it beyond all doubt that the Translation was forwarded by Demetrius Phalereus under Lagi Clemens Alexandrinus states it thus the Scriptures of the Law and Prophets were translated as men say in the Reign of Ptolemy Lagi or as some say in the time of Philadelphus cum maximam ad eam rem contulisset diligentiam Demetrius Phalereus ut verterentur vehementer procurasset after that Demetrius Phalereus had to wit under Lagus used a great deal of diligence towards the effecting of that thing Clem. Storm 1. 110. As if this sagacious and most learned Father had so many hundreds of Years before smelt Scaligers Objection Answer 2. But to answer thus from the Allegation of this Laodicean Bishop may seem to some to have too much of the Laodicean temper in it to be too luke-warm a Reception of so hot a Charge against so great an Authority as the story of the Septuagint comes armed with to gratifie therefore the just Zeal of them that are of that perswasion let us weigh the opposed Testimonies in an equal Ballance In one Scale we find Hermippus in the other Aristaeus say they yet hang in an equal poyse jam sumus ergo pares I can give free lieve hitherto to suspend assent Let then the overweight that is cast into both these Historians cast the Scales 1. The voucher for Hermippus is Diogenes Laertius who about the ear of Christ 145. wrote the Lives of the heathen Philosophers an Author of good credit and judgment where he writes intentionally but every occasional dash of his Pen as this was touching the Septuagint cannot seem with intelligent persons to be of credit sufficient to dash out the authority of Josephus who voucheth Aristaeus his story and not only lived nearer the time of this transaction by almost an hundred years but upon the place where the chief part of it was perform'd a man so peculiarly qualified by all helps imaginable for the giving a full and faithful account of the Jewish affairs as he that knows how well skill'd he was in their Antiquities and how free he stood under the protection of the Roman Emperours and of his own Judgment being a Pharisee and Priest in Judaea and therefore not of the Alexandrian Interest of any temptation to flatter the Jew in general much less the Alexandrian and Greecizing faction and how accurately he discharged that part of the Jewish History the matter whereof fell under the ocular inspection of men then living when he put it forth in so much as Agrippa for his part gives him those Testimonies Josephi vita It appears by thy Writings that thou needest no information in any of these things whereof thou writest and again I have read thy Book wherein thou seemest to me to write History more accurately than any man else And how strenuously he maintains against Appion's Cavils his History of the Jewish Antiquities proving the truth of those passages against which Appion excepts by the Testimony of those Witnesses whom the Graecians themselves esteem most worthy of belief Cont. App. lib. 1. And the self-contradiction of those were alledged against the truth of this History And how well he vindicates against Justus his exceptions his History of the Jewish wars not only in retail but in gross appealing to common sence to judg whether of them were more like to hit the mark of truth Justus who did not publish his History until twenty Years after the writing of it when those Caesars King Agrippa and Captains that managed the Wars were deceased or himself who out of consciousness to the truth of his own History dedicated and delivered it into those Emperour's hands through whose hands the Affairs had past which he wrote of and in whose custody were kept the Journals of all those Proceedings He I say that knows these things and hath the Art to judg of Hercules by his foot or rather of his foot by his body will think that Josephus came not short of the mark he set himself in his Writings exprest thus
and to prevent his being exalted above measure sent Satan to buffet him to infix some pungent Disease in his flesh Dr. Hammond on 1 Cor. 5. 5 reckons St. Paul's buffeting as an effect of God's delivering him unto Satan which caused the like pain as they feel that have a Thorn in their Body or a barbed Arrow stuck in their Flesh or a sharp stake run through their body upon which they are as it were spitted as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word that is here translated Thorn signifies or any other sharp-pointed thing stuck in Man's Body as the Learned Cameron having its derivation from a Verb that signifies to dig or make holes in or bore through a thing affine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pasor circumcirca scalpo the same from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that kind of Worm that consumed Herod which makes me think St. Pau's Thorn might be a spice of his disease and to have been so apprehended by St. Paul himself as also to have been sent in his apprehension as Herod's was as a Judgement of God upon him for his priding himself in that glorious priviledge of being rapt up into the third Heaven Of which sin he suspected himself guilty not so much from any feelings of Prides working in his Soul as of these prickings and gnawings in his Flesh which resentment he could not have express in fitter terms than by the Metaphor of a pricking Thorn which as it creates the same kind of pain and shooting that Worms do so the Word which the Apostle uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes as near the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worm as to that other word signifying a Thorn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all three have their names from the sharpness of their heads or points which makes them apt to prick and pierce Or than by the Metaphor of Satans buffeting which as it implies the Vermination of the Ears of which both Pliny and Celsus affirm the cure to be very difficult Vess●i Etymolog and therefore might occasion St. Paul to suspect that he was punish'd in that Organ through which he had in his Extasie received unutterable words so it alludes to Herod's being smitten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the angel gave Herod a patt Or than by his more than importunate begging the removal of this Thorn his beseeching thrice speaks that veSpan●cy of desire to be quit of this affliction as is scarce consistent with that greatness of Christian Courage he shewed in bearing all other afflictions if he had not apprehended this to have had that poysonful sting of Pride complicated with it as its procuring Cause Hence signanter he prayes not that this thorn but that this thing might be taken away that is the Affliction with its Circumstances of his too much exaltation if he were as Satan suggested really guilty or if not his fear of it for that he was jealous of himself as faln into Herod's sin because he found himself in Herod's Disease and thought he read his sin in the judgement is yet more manifest by the answer that God return'd My grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness and St. Paul's triumph upon that Answer most gladly will I glory in my infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his now reading and repeating the gracious end of God in this Dispensation which answer of God is not a Promise but an adjudging the Victory to St. Paul the Spirits witness to his spirit that that favour which had rapt him up into the third Heaven had prevented his being lifted up above measure in the sence of that Priviledge and that by means of Gods sending Satan to inflict this Disease upon him in which weakness this tenderness of his heart exprest in this godly jealousie and the strength of his Faith exprest in his recumbency upon God not letting his hold go when Satan by these suggestions pull'd so hard were more glorious Effects of God's both Favour to him and grace in him than his preceding Rapture And St. Paul's Inference from this Answer speaks him to have learn'd by this what the purpose of God was in thus afflicting him which he knew not before vide Musculum in locum and to resolve that he would now to chuse be so far from fear of over doing it in boasting as he would glory more in this sickness than in his former exaltation as an occasion of bringing more Glory to God and an indication of a greater Vertue and Strength of Grace But I digress too far only I took occasion from the Parity of St. Paul's and Herod's Disease to vindicate this Text out of the bad handling of those who to the perdition of themselves and millions of their Disciples wrest it to a sence whereby it is given out to speak of Concupiscence or sinful Infirmities whereas it manifestly intends a bodily Disease except we will make God an Author of sin and his chosen Vessel to glory in his shame as themselves do in theirs I return to Josephus who witnesses a better Confession of the Christian Faith and gives a more honourable Testimony of Christ than they do in their Glosses and speaks more consonantly to the Apostolical sence in all those Texts of his we have conferr'd with the Sacred and in all the rest that any way concern the Emergencies specified in the Gospel the comparing of all which would tire my Reader and my self and one would think it should put Impudency her self to the blush to demand more Instances than have been produced or better Evidence for the proof of the Truth of Matters of Fact reported in the Gospel than the Testimony of such an Author yet that the Atheist may know the Church hath in this case more than one such VVitness I shall offer to Examination the Testimony of other Secular Records CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1 Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphall yet true Julian ' s Prohibition of the use of Secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers § 1. OF Phlegon a Pagan Writer under Adrian the Emperour who wrote 16 Books of Olympiads and therein the memorable Accidents that fell out in the space of 229 Olympiads He in his 13 or 14. Book affirms as he is quoted by St. Origen in Cels. l. 2. cal 8. 9. That Christ foretold many things to come which accordingly fell out and from this his foreknowledge of Contingencies is forc'd there to confess that his Doctrine was super-humane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And mentions the Eclipse that happen'd at our Saviours Passion as the same Father
as asserted by the Church in those writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The Holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. CHAP. V. The Truth of the Gospel-History attested by Secular Writers § 1. Old Antagonists did not persist in the denial of any point of Gospel-History save that of Christs Resurrection and the manner of their denying it proves the Truth of it § 2. Josephus his Story of John Baptist accords with Gospel-History § 3. His Text in testimony of Jesus vindicated from the Exceptions of Vossius c. § 4. Josephus his date of Christs and the Baptists Story falls in with Gospel-Chronology § 5. The Stories of Herod Herodias Aretus Artabanus Philip Lysanias in Josephus Tacitus Suetonius timed to Sacred Chronology § 6. The Twin-Priesthood of Annas and Caiphas at Christs Baptism and Passion cleared § 7. The Date of Philip the Tetrarch his Death CHAP. VI. The Date of Christs Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and Baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christs Birth The Priestly Courses the Character of it which from the first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christs Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answered § 6. The taxing of all the world ill-confounded with that of Syria CHAP. VII Josephus his Suffrage to the Evangelists in the Substance of their History of Christ. § 1. He appropriates the Compellation Christ to our Jesus speaks of the Churches growth in a Gospel-stile § 2. Describes Christs Disciples by Evangelical Characters gives the Evangelists Reasons why others did not embrace the Gospel § 3. He peremptorily asserts Christs Miracles how he came to a certain information thereof Appion and Justus would have found it out if he had proceeded here upon presumptions and uncertainties § 4. He describes Christs Miracles after the Evangelical Model § 5. And affirms them to have been such as the Prophets had foretold The Touch-stone of Canonical History § 6. He asserts Christs Resurrection with all its Circumstances CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians Debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He Dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James Martyred in the third a Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Style Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owle § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great died of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symptoms of Agrippa's Disease § 6. A Digression touching St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1. Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphal yet true Julian's Prohibition of the use of secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers CHAP. X. The Adversaries forced upon very great Disadvantages to their own Cause by reason that they could not for very shame resist the Evidences brought in defence of Sacred History § 1. Christ accused of working by the Prince of Devils that Accusation withdrawn in open Court and this Plea put in against him that he made himself a King and therefore was an Enemy to Caesar § 2. Pety Exceptions rebound upon the heads of their Framers § 3. The Modern Sceptick's half-reasons too young to grapple with old Prescription § 4. Christs Works Gods Seal to his Mission § 5. The present Age as able to judge of the Nature of those Works as that was wherein they were done § 6. Atheistical Exceptions against particular points of Religion an Hydra's head yet they all stand upon one neck and may be cut off at one blow by proving the Divine Original of Religion BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT 4. The Divine Original of Sacred Writ is as demonstrable as the being of a God from the Infinity of Wisdom express'd in its Prophecies and of Power in its miracles THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Being of a Deity Demonstrated § 1. The Existence of a Deity demonstrable from the frame of the world the composition of humane bodies § 2. The Garden of the Earth did not fall by chance into so curious and well order'd knots The ingenuity of Birds sings the Wisdom of their Maker c. § 4. The Heavens declare the glory of God CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stamp'd thereon no less manifest Prints of infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torments God might permit the Devil to communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfill'd CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fulfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing vertue the second Temples Dowry CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
occurrs in the writings of one Roman who then turn'd his stile that way than in all the Volumes of preceding Philosophers Then lived Varro so indefatigable a Student and Writer as Terentianus Carthaginensis in his Phaleucick Verses sings of him after this manner Vir doctissimus undecunque Varro Quae tam multa legit ut aliquid Ei scribere vacâsse miremur Tam multa scripsit quàm multa Vix quenquam legere potuisse credamus Gellius reports lib. 5. that he writ 490 Books A man of that profound Learning as Tully transported with the admiration of it in his Academick Questions while he 's commending him for a Divine forgets that himself was an Academick Philosopher and contrary to his profession of hesitancy and suspension of assent to all other propositions speaks positively and confidently of Mark Varro that he was without doubt of all men the most acute and learned Academ Quaest. lib. 1. Cum M. Varrone hominum facilè omnium acutissimo sine ulla dubitatione doctissimo and a little after While we were wandring saith he in our own City as strangers thy Books O Varro did as it were bring us home to our selves that we might at length know where we are and what we are Thou hast open'd to us the Antiquities of our Country the description of the Times the Laws about Holy things the Offices of Priests Domestick Publick Discipline the definitions distinctions properties and causes of ALL THINGS both HUMANE and DIVINE That African Tully St. Austin praiseth Varro in as high a stile as this Roman giving him this Encomium de Civitate 6. 2. Quis M. Varrone curiosiùs ista quaesrvit quis invenit doctiùs quis distinxit acutiùs quis consideravit attentiùs quis diligentiùs pleni●sque conscripsit Who hath with more curiosity inquired into those things concerning Religion and the Divine attributes than Varro who with more learning found them out than he who with greater attention weighed with more acuteness distinguisht with more copiousness and diligence writ of these things than M. Varro But we cannot have a clearer demonstration of the brightness and magnitude of this Star which Providence order'd to arise in the Heathens Hemisphere as an Usher to the Sun of Righteousness than his obtaining while he lived and was obnoxious to the envy of his Emulators by a general vote the Sir-name of the most learned of all the Gown-men and the Virgin-honour to have his Statue in his life-time plac'd in that Library which Asinius Pollio erected at Rome Then lived Scaevola the Pontiff whom St. Austin stiles the most learned Pontiff Vives in Aug. de Civ 6. 2. out of whose Theological polemical writings St. Austin produceth some sound and Gospel-proof Divine maximes To whom Tully a man read as much in Men as Books applyed himself to learn Divinity after the death of his former master in that Science Scaevola the Augur Aug. de Civit. 4. 27. Then lived Caesar who acquitted the Office of High-Priest as dexterously as that of Emperour in his directing the world to time her devotions by reforming the Calender so near the precise Rule prescribed by God to those Luminaries which he hath placed in the Heavens to measure Times as it served the whole World to calculate Seasons by above 1500 years in which large tract of time that Julian Account has not misreckon'd 13 dayes whereas he found the computation so corrupt as he could not bring the hand of his reformed Calender to the right hour of time without the interealation of three months Sueton. Jul. 4. And in the rest of his pontifical administrations not failing the expectations of the Electors who were two to one for him more than all his Competitors obtain'd the Votes of though the other Candidates for that Office so far exceeded him in Age and secular Dignity as Caesar had nothing to commend him to the Electors but his qualifiedness for that function by the worth of his parts Id. Ib. cap. 40. Then lived Cicero as great a Proficient in the Colledge of Augurs as in the Schools of the Orators Witness his Books de Divinatione de somnio Scipionis de Seneciute de Legibus his Paradoxes and Academick questions wherein he traceth the Deity by the foot-steps of the Creature and common Providence more near its seat of inaccessible light than he durst openly or in his own person express and therefore communicates his conceptions upon that subject by way of Romance under borrowed names as Plate had done before him in the like case sed nimirum Socratis carcerem times Lactant. de fal rel 1. 3. both of them skulking under the shades of deceased Philosophers for fear of the impending whip of the Areopagites over Plato of the Imperial Laws over Cicero both of them having heard the sound of the whip laid on Socrates before Plato's on Varro's back before Cicero's face for that Roman Socrates for opening too wide and not running with the common cry had been soundly lasht by the then great Hunter the Roman Nimrod having his Person proscribed his Library rifled and his Books burnt as disfavouring the Religion of that State yet for all this Tully sets this Royal Game and gives the World notice as it were by wagging his tail when he durst not open his mouth where it was squatted against the Apostles should come with their Net Then lived the Learned Cratippus whom Cicero in the Proem to his Offices stiles the Prince of Modern Philosophers but his commending his Son to his Nurture was a commendation of him in fact beyond all the streins even of his Rhetorick Then lived Virgil of whom Vettius in Macrob. Saturn 1. 24. Equidem inter omnia quibus eminet laus Maronis hoc assiduus lector admiror quia doctissimè jus pontificium quasi hoc professus in multa varia operis sui arte servavit si tantae dissertationi sermo cancederet promitto fore ut Virgilius noster Pontifex maximus asseratur Of whose admirable skill in Theology he giveth instances in the third Book of Saturnals to make good this his general commendation That amongst all the praise-worthy qualifications of Maro which in his daily reading of his Works he took notice of he wonder'd at this that throughout the whole Series of his Poems he so learnedly observ'd the Pontifical Law as if he had been Professor of it and if I had time saith Vettius to discourse that point I promise you I could obtain from you an assent to this That Virgil deserves to be accounted worthy of the high Priest-hood Then lived that miracle of humane Divines Seneca the Philosopher the Glory of the Heathen the shame of the modern Christian World who gave the greatest experiment of the power of Stoicism that ever man did in his rooting the sentiments of a Deity and with them Morality so deep in that most barren heart of Nero as those Seeds sown there by him flourish'd and bore excellent fruit for the first
built the two Books De miraculis Martyrum writ by Gregory Turonensis who shuts up his first Book thus It behoves us therefore to desire the Patronage of Martyrs c. and his second thus We therefore well considering those Miracles may learn that it is not possible to be saved but by the help of Martyrs and other Friends of God But Simeon Metaphrastes deserves the Whet-stone from all that ever professed this holy Art of Lying for the advantage of Truth who notwithstanding that in his Preface to the strange Romance of Marina he blames others for forging Stories of the Saints and polluting their true Memorials with most evident Doctrines of Devils and Demoniacal Narratives yet himself splits upon the same Rock and so Shipwracks his Credit with all Intelligent Persons as Baronius himself is ashamed of him in notis ad martyrologium Roman Jul. 13. I need not multiply Instances the World swarms with lying Legends Their avowed Doctrine of Mental Reservation of Equivocation to promote the Cause of Religion casts up as wide a Gulf betwixt Gospel-Tradition and theirs as is betwixt Heaven and Hell the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes Quomodo Deus Pater genuit filium veritatem sic Diabolus genuit quasi filium Mendacium August 42. tract in Johan 8. 44. these introduc'd by Persons that account it meritorious of Heaven to forge the grossest Fables so it be in service of the Church which the Apostle calls speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4. 2. vide Meed in locum Those publish'd by Men who less fear'd dying than lying who chose rather to suffer the cruellest Death to lay themselves obnoxious to the Calumnies of captious Adversaries through their Parasie their Freedom of Speech then to tell the most innocent and officious Lye and therefore the unlikeliest Men in the World to abuse the World with Figments and devised Stories and Persons from whose Hand a Man might with more safety and security have taken a Cup suspected to have Poyson in it than a Cup of Wine from the Hand of the most Divine Philosoper as Apollodorus said of Socrates in comparison of Plato Athenaeus dyprosoph l. 11. c. 22. Christian Religions APPEAL To the BAR of Common Reason c. The Second Book The Apostles were not themselves deluded no Crack'd-brain Enthusiasticks but Persons of most composed Minds CHAP. I. The Gospel's Correspondency with Vulgar Sentiments § 1. The Testimony of the Humane Soul untaught to the Truth of the Christian Creed in the Articles touching the Unity of the Godhead his Goodness Justice Mercy The Existence of wicked Spirits § 2. The Resurrection and Future Judgment Death formidable for its Consequences to evil Men No Fence against this Fear proved by Examples § 3. In hope of future Good the Soul secretly applauds her self after virtuous Acts. This makes the Flesh suffer patiently § 1. WHat Exception can be made against so impartial a Relation of Men possessed with such a mortal Detestation of Forgery made to an Age so well accommodated against Delusion by all internal and external Fortifications imaginable cannot in my shallow Reason be conjectured except it be that of Celsus and his Modern Epicurean Disciples That the Apostles themselves were deluded or which is worse infatuated For who but raving and dementate Persons would have ventured to put off Adulterate Wares to so knowing an Age But then how could they have framed the Doctrine and History of Christ in such a Decorum in so exact a Symmetry of Parts not only among themselves but to the great World as Lactantius argues Abfuit ergò ab iis fingendi voluntas astutia quià rudes fuerunt quis possit indoctus apta inter se cobaerentia fingere cùm Philosophorum doctissimi ipsi sibi repugnantia dixerint haec enim est mendaciorum natura ut coherere non possint illorum autèm traditio quià vera est quadrat undique ac sibi tota consentit ideò persuadet quià constanti ratione suffulta est Lactant de justicia lib. 5. cap. 3. The Apostles had neither Will to feign nor any crafty Design upon the World because they were plain Men and what illiterate Man can have the Art to make Fictions square to one another and hang together seeing the most learned of the Philosophers have spoke things jarring amongst themselves for this is the Nature of Untruths that they cannot be of a Piece But the Tradition of the Apostles because it is true one part falls out even with another and it agrees perfectly with it self and therefore gains upon Mens Minds because it is underpropp'd with that stedfast reason and on every side Squares with Principles of Reason Origen useth this Argument Cont. Cels. l. 3. willing him to consider if it were not the Agreeableness of the Principles of Faith with common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that prevailed most upon all candid and ingenuous Auditors of them For how can that be the Figment of deluded Fancies the issue of shatter'd Brains that 's so well shap'd as it bears a perfect Proportion to and Correspondency with whatsoever hath had the common Approbation of Mankind Being calculated 1. To the Meridian of common Sentiments to the Universal Religion of the whole World to the Testimony of every natural Soul to whose Evidence Christian Religion appeals by her Advocate Tertullian in his admirable Treatise De Testimonio Animae I call in saith he a new kind of Witness yet more known than any Writing more tost than all Learning more common than any Book that 's put forth greater than whole Man that is the All that is of Man Come into the Court Oh Soul whether thou beest Divine and Eternal as most Philosophers think and by so much the rather not capable of telling a Lye Or not Divine but Mortal as Epicurus thinks and so much the rather thou oughtest not to lye for Fear of distracting thy self at present with the Guilt of so Inhumane a Vice whether thou art received from Heaven or conceived of Earth whether thou art made up of Numbers or Atoms whether thou commences a being with the Body or art infused after the Body from whencesoever and howsoever thou makest Man a Rational Creature most capable of Sense and Science But I do not retain thee of Council for the Christian such as thou art when after thou hast been formed in the Schools and exercised in Libraries thou belchest forth that Wisdom thou hast obtained in Aristotle's Walks or the Attick Academies No I appeal to thee as thou art raw unpolish'd and void of acquired Knowledge such a one as they have that have only a bare Soul such altogether as thou comest from the Quarry from the High Way from the Looms I have need of thy Unskilfulness for when thou growest never so little crafty all men suspect thee I would have thee bring nothing with thee into this Court but what thou bringest with thy self into Man but
declaring the Councel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim Deos non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they called according to the Aeolick Dialect God Sios not Theos and Counsel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bi●t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence the Sibyls were so called who were Ten. All whom he reckons up under those Authors who wrote of them severally The first the Persian of whom mention is made by Nicanor who wrote the Gests of Alexander The second Libyssa whom Euripides mentions in Lamiae prologo The third Delphick of whom Chrysippus speaks in his Book of Divination The fourth Cumaea in Italy of whom Nevius in his Punick War and Piso in his annals make mention The fifth Erythraea whom Apollodorus Erythraeus affirms to have been his Citizen and at the Gracians expedition against Troy to have prophesied the overthrow of that City and the lying Pen of Homer The sixth Samia of whom Eratosthenes writes That he had found in the ancient Annals of the Samians that she had prophesied of him The seventh Cumana by name Amalthaea or as some call her Demophile as others Herophile She brought nine Books to Tarquinius Priscus demanding three hundred Philippicks for them a price which the King would not give but taught at the madness of the Woman upon which she burnt three of them in the King's presence and demanded the same price for the remainder at which the King more admired her folly But she persisting upon the same price after she had burnt other three for the three then remaining the King gave it her The number of these Books was increased after the repair of the Capitol because they gathered up and brought to Rome all the Books of any of the Sibyls that could be found either in the Grecian or Roman Cities Vide Tacit. annal 6. The eighth Hellespontica whom Heraclides Ponticus writes to have flourished in the time of Cyrus The ninth Phrygia who prophesied at Ancirae The tenth Tyburtina whose name was Albunea who is worship'd at Tybur as a Goddess The Verses of all these Sibyls are extant and divulged up and down except of Cumana whose Books are conceal'd by the Romans it being unlawful for any to look into them but the Quindecim-viri Their several Books but without distinction of Names saving that Erythraeas Name is inserted in her Verses being more famous and noble than the rest of whose Prophecies Fenestella a most diligent Writer speaking of the Quindecim-viri tells us That C. Curio the Consul made a motion to the Senate that Embassadors should be sent to Erythrae to search out Sibyls Verses and conveigh them to Rome and that P. Gabinius M. Octavilius and L. Valerius being sent upon that errand collected a matter of a thousand Verses out of private Manuscripts Touching Tully's Quotations of the Sibylline Oracles I have spoke before Lib. 1. cap. 9. sect 5. and shall to what I have made there upon that Subject add now these Animadversions That the Sibylline Oracles were not only in being before Christ's time but a moat in the eyes of those who were averse to Monarchy because they were interpreted to point at the erecting an universal Monarchy and to boad that indefinitly and in general before Christ's Incarnation which the Church after his taking of flesh applied to him in particular So as the Church was so far from inventing the Oracles as she did not so much as invent the application of them to the Messias but had that done to her hand by other Heathen Divines who conceived they had respect unto him that was to be born King of the Jews For though I believe the more ancient Times look'd upon them as deliramenta as little better than the dotages of old Women because of their denouncing certain monstrous Miracles without describing either how or when or by whom those things were to be effected of which deficiency both Lactantius after and Cicero before Christs Birth take notice yet when the Eastern Prophecy touching the Messias came to light by means of the Septuagint those Scripture-oracles by their punctual describing of every circumstance gave that light to those more general Sibylline Oracles as they grew formidable to that party that could not endure to hear of a change of the Worlds Government into that form which both of them foretold the rising up of And when the general ones in Sibyl and the more distinct ones of sacred Scripture came to receive their accomplishment their sense grew more plain and the application of them more obvious which till then was unintelligible The voices of the Prophets sounded in the ears of the Jewish people for above fifteen hundred years and yet were not understood till Christ's Doctrine Actions and Passion had commented upon them I do not at all wonder with the learned Dalaeus de usu patr lib. 1. cap. 3. that Ruffinus in zeal to Origen should forge an apology for him under the name of Pamphilus nor that he should father a Treatise of Sextus the Pythagorean Philosopher upon Sixtus the holy Martyr nor that he of whom St. Jerom complains should forge a Letter under his name wherein he makes him confess the Hebrews had by their delusions perswaded him to translate the Bible after that maner he did But rather at his ranking the most ancient Fathers among Forgers for their quoting the Sibylline Oracles and most of all at the reason he gives because Celsus objected that against Christians For had he consulted the place he might have taken notice of Origen's Reply That if Celsus his Epicurism would give him lieve to put himself to the trouble of examining the Authors out of which they made their quotations he would find they did not forge them of their own heads but found them in Authors of high esteem among all Philosophers but those of Celsus his Sect Origen contrà Celsum lib. 7. Calum 16. Besides it is not like that such holy men would support so strong an edifice with so weak a prop of a pious fraud or borrow help from a falshood to evince the Truth If they durst have been so impudently ventrous how easie had it been for their learned Adversaries to have detected the Imposture and silenced the Christian Advocates with reproach and shame as Dr. Heylin in answer to Casaubon Geogr. Marmoricâ pag. 931. If it be question'd how they came into the Christians hands Lactantius inform us out of their own Writers That the Books of all the Sibyls save Cumana were vulgar and in every Man's hand that would reach for them And though Augustus caused a thousand Sibylline Oracles to be burnt which by the number seem to be those very Verses of Erythraea which the Roman Legats collected against which he might perhaps have a pique upon reason of State because of their agreement with that Eastern Oracle which had put the World into those expectations of a change as that wise Prince thought ought not to be cherished as tending toward the keeping of
not many Examples of this inhumane Piety but because I would not let this part of my Discourse pass without the honourable mention of his Name who hath taken such Herculean pains upon this Subject to whose Labours I refer my Reader for fuller satisfaction if he require any after he hath heard Tertullian's Judgment Apolog. 8. à vobis ostendam fieri partim in aperto partim in occulto per quod forsitan de nobis credidistis to wit That the commonness of humane Sacrifices through the Pagan World induc'd them to believe that Calumny raised against the Christians That in their Coventicles they sacrificed a Ghild whose blood they mingled with crums of Bread and so did eat it A Calumny raised upon their mistake of the Christians Commemorative Sacrifice the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. A thing so abhorrent to Nature as no man could deem it possible for another man to grow so inhumane except he who was himself grown so inhumane And therefore saith he of all things our sacrificing Children should not be objected to us as a crime by the Heathens who themselves did immolate Infants to Saturn openly and without controul till Tiberius being Proconsul of Africk nail'd the Priests themselves to those Crosses upon which they used to crucifie Children and now secretly notwithstanding the Imperial Edicts against it Yea in the most religious City inhabited by the Off-spring of pious Aeneas there is a certain Jove whom they appease with the shedding of humane Blood even at this day and that in the most publick place and greatest concourse the Theater In your painting the Christian God as delighting in humane Blood you shape him after the Prototype which you have conceived in your mind of your own Jupiter whom you fancy to be the true Son of his Father Saturn because he resembles him in Severity and will not be appeased but with the Blood of that Nature which gave the offence O Jovem Christianum solum patris filium de crudeliaate And therefore you have no reason to accuse Christians as the only men that represent God as not appeasable but by Christ's making an Oblation of his own Blood for the sins of the World a Sacrifice far more like to be acepted as a Propitiation than those Victims you offer of men condemned to the Beasts and therefore polluted with their own guilt or of innocent Babes who are merely passive and offered against their own Will or of decrepit Persons though willing for since old Age pusheth them forward what merit can their be in chusing to go out at this door where in their passage to their Grave they shall not meet with those Incumbrances of extreme old Age which singly are worse than an hundred deaths or of those who in the prime and flower of their Age do offer themselves Victimes for the benefit of Man-kind since a few more years will put them beyond their choice and bring them under a necessity of dying whereas that Blood which we affirm to have been shed for the sins of the World was the Blood of a spotless Lamb offer'd by Christ himself he was Priest as well as Sacrifice and laid down his Life for no man could take it from him against his will c. § 3. Touching the second branch of this argument That this custom of propitiating the Deity with the oblation of Human blood was not in imitation of Abraham but the corruption of the old Tradition c. though I find great names muster'd against this Assertion yet when I consider that they march under the conduct of the Jewish Rabbins who are ambitious of having the whole World in debt to them this Army of Lions grows less formidable as being led on and headed by such sheepish Captains as R. Salomon Jarchi who upon Jeremy 7. 31. bringeth in God speaking concerning Molech after this manner When I spake to Abraham to sacrifice his Son it entred not into my heart that he should sacrifice him but to make known his righteousness having first fancied that the Heathen in defence of their practice objected the Example of Abraham A thing which no more enter'd into the Pagan's heart than it did into God's to have Isaac sacrificed nor was ever objected to the Jews of which this I conceive is proof sufficient That neither Philo Judaeus nor Josephus nor his Adversary Appion make the least mention of the Heathens imitating Abraham or pleading their imitation of him in their own defence A Calumny from which those great Patrons of Judaism would certainly have quitted their Religion had it then been objected when they wrote of that Oblation Josephus Jud. antiq lib. 1. cap. 14. most copiously and Philo de profugis allegorically neither can it stand with reason that Appion who scraped up whatsoever he could find in Books or invent of his own Brain against the Jewish Religion should omit so material and plausible a Plea if the World had then thought of it The first clear intimation of Abraham's offering his Son that is met with in Pagan Writers is in Porphyry as he is quoted by Eusebius praeparat Evangel 1. 7. where speaking of Saturn he saith the Phaenicians called him Israel and that he had an only Son called Irud which in the Phoenician Language signifies an only Son of the Nimph Anobret whom his father being in some great calamity sacrificed upon an Altar purposely made If I may call that clear which the two eyes of Learning Grotius in dent 18. 10. and Vosstus de idol 1. 18. cannot see how at all it concerns Abraham but that the transscriber of Eusebius meeting with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of Saturn among the Phoenicians as appears by St. Jerom. Phoenicibus Il. qui Hoebraeis El. Jerom. Epist 136. ad Marcellum and by Sanchoniathon himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanchoniathon apud Eusebium prep Evang. 1. 7. El. which self same they call Saturn This note Vossius had from Grotius atque ad hanc conjecturam quam certissimam arbitror in familiari sermone mihi praeire memini divinum virum Hugonem Grotium Vossius Ibid and withal this conjecture that the Immolations mentioned by Sanchoniathon was by Saturn's Wives procuration The Transcriber I say of Eusebius ignorant of this Phoenician use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposed it to be a contraction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to take it in its full strength according to the ordinary reading and the common application of that Name to Abraham of whom came Israel I cannot see how it implies the Heathens deriving their sacrificing of children from Abraham For 1. This was not pleaded by Porphyry against the Jew but Christian nor against the Christian till he had cryed shame of the Heathen World for its barbarous Immolations of innocents for the palliation of the filthiness whereof that indefatigable enemy of the Christian name brings in this story 2. Porphyry's Author Sanchoniathon from whom he hath
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
apprehension of Pagans as they are given out to be in the Gospel at this day viz. A Religion instituted by and a Sect named from Christ a Person of such holiness as he deserved to be numbred in the rank of the best and divinest Philosophers and would have been enrolled amongst the Gods but for fear that the Religion of his Institution would put down all others it containing those excellent Precepts which so civilized the followers of his Doctrine as they were permitted in the Court of this Emperour whence all vicious persons were prohibited and were of that use in the administration of the Affairs of the Empire as this very best of Heathen Emperours took those Rules and Practices of Christians for his Pattern which the Gospel exhibites Should I prosecute the Reigns of the rest of the Emperours who had a favour to Christians though themselves were none It would swell my discourse to too great a bulk I will therefore content my self with two instances more § 3. One out of Pliny who in laying down the Reason why Trajan remitted that persecution which his Predecessors had raised against Christians presents them in their religious Assemblies and civil Converse walking by that Rule of Faith and Manners which is extant at this day in the Evangelical and Apostolical Writings This great Agent of State under Trajan informed the Emperour that by examining those that were brought before him and accused as Christians he had learn'd this to be the sum of their Religion of their Crime or Errour as Pliny calls it That upon stated days they were wont to assemble before day to sing Songs and make Prayers together to Christ as God To bind themselves by the Sacrament not to any mischievous or dishonest action but that they should not commit Thefts Robberies or Adulteries that they should not break their word betray their trust or falsifie their promise that they should not with-hold or deny the pledge when they were call'd to restore it That after the performance of Divine Service their custom was to depart every one home and afterwards to meet together again to take meat in common to keep harmless Love-feasts This saith he I extorted and this was all I could learn by racking them to know the truth In the same Epistle he testifies the wonderful growth and prevailing of the Christian Religion through the perseverance of the Martyrs multitudes professing it of all Ages Orders Sexes in Cities Villages Hamblets Insomuch as the Idol-temples were almost left desolate their Solemnities of a long time intermitted the sale of Sacrifices and Victims in a manner given over by reason there were so few buyers Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 103. Trajano A description of the Religion and State of the Christian Church so exactly answering that which the Gospel gives as if it had been transcribed thence is here drawn out to the life and transmitted to us by the Pencil and Pen of an Heathen employed by the Roman Emperor to take an account of the Religion profest by Christians to inform himself what it was wherein they so far differ'd from the Religions establish'd or allowed by the Imperial Laws as to be therefore universally hated and taken from their mouths that were cognoscendis causis Christianorum Plin. ibid. appointed to take cognisance of the causes of Christians as such brought before them § 4. My last instance here shall be the account upon which Maximinus raised the sixth Persecution as it is laid down by Eusebius and proveable out of Lampridius and Capitolinus Maximinus by reason of that grievous envy wherewith he burned against the Houshold of Alexander where very many Christians converst stir'd up a bitter tempest of persecution against the Christian Pastors because they had taught that Doctrine whereby the Imperial Court had been so much civilized Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 21. This Beast saith Capitolinus who was so cruel as some called him Cyclops others Busiris others Phaleris some Typho and the Senate inade publick and the whole City private supplications that such a Monster as Maximinus might never be seen at Rome so Mortally hated Alexander for his severe Virtue and the strictness of his Court to which he had brought it by converse with Christians and by conforming his Government to their Precepts saith Lampridius in his Alexander as the Vulgar charged him with the murder of Alexander and moreover he put to death all the Ministers of State and Familiars of Alexander Dispositionibus ejus invidens grieving to see so good men in place If now thou wilt seek Reader what kind of Men and Courtiers they were for whose Christian Manners this Monster hated them and persecuted the Christian Doctors for introducing this civilty into the Roman then Pagan Palace and therewithall learn what went for Christian Virtue above 1400 years ago thou wilt find that Maximinus persecuted as Christian those Evangelical Precepts which the Apostolical VVritings commend to us and are not to be found but there or in Books derived from thence And thou needest not go far for a resolution of this enquiry for Lampridius will resolve thee who in answer to that Question of Constantine How Alexander a stranger born of Syrian extract became so excellent a Prince tells him That though he could alledge the indulgence of Mother Nature who is a Stepdame to no Country and the fate of Heliogabalus which might have terrified him from vicious living yet because he would suggest to him the very truth he commends to him what he had already written and Constantine read I suppose touching the favour he had to Christians and his sucking in their Precepts upon the perusal whereof and reflexion upon that saying of Marius Maximus It is better and more safe for the Republick that the Prince himself be evil than that his Friends and Counsellors be so for one evil man may be oversway'd by a multitude of good men but a multitude of bad men can by no means be brought into order by one though never so good a Prince And that Answer which Homulus gave to Trajan when he said that Domitian was the worst of men but had good Friends and Agents He must needs be a worse Prince than Domitian who being a better man than he had committed the administration of publick affairs to men of a bad life He presents it to Constantine as a thing not at all strange that Alexander should prove so good a Prince seing by following his Mother Mammaea's instruction which she had learnt of her Christian Doctors he himself became the best of men Optimus fuit optimae matris consiliis usus and had constituted his Court and adopted familiars of men not malicious not ravenous not thievish not factious crafty consenting to evil haters of goodness lustful cruel circumventors scorners But holy venerable continent religious lovers of their Prince who would neither reproach him nor be a reproach to him who would take no bribes would not lye nor dissemble nor betray their
trust but love their Prince such singly as one of them Catilius Severus he stiles vir omnium doctissimus another Aelius Serenianus vir omnium sanctissimus another Quintillius Marcellus quo meliorem nè historia quidem continet another Fabius Sabinus Cato sui temporis c. And altogether such as gave occasion to the Senate after that by the overthrow of Maximinus the affairs of the Roman Empire were brought to that state wherein Alexander left them to congratulate the new Emperours Maximus and Balbinus with the wish of Scipio Affricanus ut in eo statu dii Rempublicam servarent in quo tunc esset quòd nullus melior inveniretur Julii Capitolini Max. Balbin That the Gods would preserve the Common-wealth in that State wherein it was there being no better imaginable than that which Alexander following those Evangelical Precepts which are at this day given out as the peculiar Doctrine of our Saviour had reduc'd it to for the publishing of which Maximinus hated and persecuted to death the Christian Doctors So that as our ruled Law-cases inform us what is Treason Felony c. So we may inform our selves of the great things of Christs Law by observing what Pagan Judges found to be Christianity and censur'd in them as criminal This is one most unsuspectfull way whereby it hath pleased God to hand down Religion to us upon which gracious Providence let me make these Reflections to enforce it upon our Minds 1. What we meet with in such Records is Christianity confest with a witness t is Christianity writ in the blood of the Professors of it It is Christs Name in Capitals superscribed over his Cross the truely venerable Relicks of Martyrs whose Tombs would speak were the Scriptures silent the preaching of the Cross by men not coming from the dead with it but what is more powerful going to death for it 2. As the Original Testimony of Christian Confessors is in this case very venerable so the Transcript of that Testimonie is very credible it being conveighed to us from them by the hands of most malicious enemies whose wrath the Lord so far restrain'd as to make the remainder of it praise him and serve his Church Had Rome Heathen not been more ingenious than Rome Papal she might either have thrown the Confessions of Martyrs into the fire with their Authors or have left them to Posterity so mangled and dis-figured as we should not have been able to have pick'd one word of the Gospel Religion out of them nor have known any whit better for what they suffer'd than we can now know out of Popish Records what Jerom of Prague John Huss Wickliff and the Waldenses suffer'd for scarce one of forty of those Articles they are charged with being to be found in their own Writings or the most authentick Histories of them This is one part of that Mystery of Iniquity to put Saints into Devils-hoods Fools-coats and Wild-beasts skins that they might have some colour for bayting them which was not working so early as Pagan persecution And through Gods thus restrayning the Heathens malice it comes to pass that we have a true account out of their own Court-rolls what they charged Christians with the Life-blood of the Gospel conveighed to us from the heart of the Martyrs by the hands of Persecutors 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 out-oye Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christ's Doctrine may be traced out by the foot-steps of the Hunters who pursued it § 1. 2. THe Substance of the Gospel is delivered to us in the Polemical VVritings of such as did most hotly and cunningly oppose it As we may learn out of the Thomists confutations of them what are the opinions of the Scotists and out of the Scotists opposing of them what are the opinions of the Thomists bating their mistating the Question and their wresting the Terms of it to serve their own turn so we may gather the main Points of Christianity out of those Authors who set themselves to oppose it saving that here and there they pervert its sence to make it more odious The Effigies of the Gospel though bespattered with their dirty misinterpretations is hung forth there where it is proscribed in those Books where it is condemned I am perswaded by that little I have read and that much I have observed in that little reading looking that way that a man furnish'd with leisure and the conveniencie of Libraries might find out not only the general Sum of the Gospel but the Contents of every Book comprised in the undoubted Canon under the Rubbish of Pagan Controversies and Calumnies against the things therein specified The Roots of every material Gospel-truth that flower and blow within the Pale of Christ's inclosed Garden may be found if we dig there for them in the outward Court or VVaste that has been troden down of the Gentiles The Tables of Christ's Royal Law that hang out bare and to open view on the Pillars of the Church lie buried under the earth tepidae trepidae contradictiuneulae to use St. Austins phrase Of Pagan tepid and trepid Contradiction in the very Temple of the Idolaters in the strong holds of those that have captivated them but as the Philistines did the Ark till we fetch them thence Did we mistrust all the Copies of the Gospel in our own hands we might fetch an undoubted one out of the Enemies Tents and as intire as the Ark and its appurtenances were when David brought it back out of the Land of the Philistines not a Pin wanting in the Tabernacle not a tittle wanting in the Book of Testimony 1. We have a compleat History of the Miracles mentioned in the Gospel in those Pagan Writers whose drift is either to paralel or out-vye Christ and his Apostles in those mighty VVorks were done by them as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by presenting to the fascinated eye of the mind shadows of those substantial VVonders which Christ and his Apostles wrought In their VVritings you may see the Star that guided the Wisemen to our Saviour hear the Angels singing his Genethliacum here you meet with Persons of mean Extract and Education arrived ex tempore to that height of knowledge as the greatest Philosophers have been silenc'd by them as the Scribes Pharisees and Lawyers were by Christ here you have produced Examples of men that have cured the blinde lame possest with a touch with a word with a nod that have raised the dead that have themselves been restored to life after they had been dead not only days but years have been taken up into the Clouds have obtained divine Honours Temples and the repute of Gods This is a
in his Treatise upon St. Matthew chap. 35. affirms and St. Jerom upon Eusebius his Chronicle notes giving this Testimony of that miraculous defection In the fourth year of the 202 Olympiad in the Reign of Tiberius this Olympiad concurrs with the 18 of Tiberius Gualter's Chronolog Bullenger in Daniel happened the greatest and most famous Eclipse of the Sun that ever was the day being at the sixth hour turn'd into night so as the Stars appeared which Eclipse was accompanied with such an Earthquake as many Houses of Nice in Bithynia fell to the ground Of which Earthquake Phlegon out of the History of Apollonius the Grammarian gives this further account that by it were overthrown many and the most famous Cities of Asia which Tiberius afterwards repaired in memorial whereof were stampt those Silver-pieces that had on one side the Image of Tiberius on the other of Asia with this Motto Civitatibus Asiae restitutis one of which Scaliger saw in the custody of William Gorlaeus Scal. in Euseb Chron And Pliny this description Maximus terrae memoriâ mortalium extitit motus Tiberii principatu 12 urbibus Asiae unâ nocte prostratis There was in the Reign of Tiberius the greatest Earth-quake that has faln out in the memory of man whereby in one night 12 Cities of Asia were ruin'd Tacitus this Twelve of the Famous Cities of Asia fell that year by an Earthquake of which many men were swallowed up by which the highest Mountains were levelled the lowest Vallies elevated lib. 2. where he mentions most of the Cities that underwent this sad accident And Seneca this hint upon occasion of that which afterward happen'd in Campania Asia duodecim urbes simul perdidit Asia lost twelve Cities at once by Earth-quake Natur. quest lib. 6. cap. 1. Whether Tacitus have stated this Earth-quake so long before the Passion of our Lord as he seems to do at the first and overlie sight and whether he has then stated it right and might not be mistaken in that as he is frequently in his Chronology or how the stating it so early stands with his interweaving it with the story of Artabanus which fell out so near the latter end of Tiberius I shall leave to the Sceptick to discuss and am content to shake out of the lap of my discourse these Testimonies concerning this Earthquake when he shall have disproved my Opinion that this was it which happen'd at that time when the veile of the Temple rent and the Rocks trembled vide Scal. de emend l. 6. pag. 564. § 2. Of this same miraculous darkness wrote Thallus the Chronographer whose Testimony the most Learned and Ancient Christian Antiquary Affricanus cites in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thallus calls that Darkness which overshadowed the Sun at Christs Crucifixion an Eclipse but without all reason as I conceive for it happen'd at the full of the Moon when she was so far from being perpendicular under the Sun as she was in opposition to him in so much as the Moon her self suffered an Eclipse that day at Sun-setting as Scaliger hath demonstrated by Astronomical Calculation de emendat 6. Of which also as well as of this twofold Heathen Testimony S. Tertullian takes notice in his Apology for the Christian Religion Eodem momento dies medium orbem signante sole subducta est deliquium utique putaverunt qui id quoque super Christo praedicatum non sciverunt At the minute of time when our Lord suffered the Sun in the mid Heaven day with-drew it self so as they that never knew how it had been prophesied of Christ that while that Shepherd was smitten it should be neither day nor night but betwixt both a Nucthemeron of God's own creating thought that diminution of light to have been an Eclipse § 3. The Roman Archives and publick Records Into which was entred and ingross'd amongst other strange accidents this also of darkness in the Reign of Tiberius where this wonder was to be read in Tertullian's time as himself testifieth in his Apology eum mundi casum relatum in Archivis vestris habetis Sane egregium tam celebris diei monumentum Scalig. de emend 6. An excellent monument of so famous a day as that was whereon the darkness was so great and universal as to be thought worthy of an intrado into the publick Records amongst the portentous Contingencies of that Age. But Pilate's Letter to Tiberius concerning our Saviours Crucifixion with what past thereupon at Rome preserv'd till Tertullian's days in the same Records is a more remarkable piece of Roman Antiquity for that Apocryphal Gospel as in point of Time it got the start of the Canonical so it contains the sum thereof viz. That the blessed Jesus through the envy of the Elders of the Jews for the fame he got by his miraculous healing of Diseases stilling the wind and seas raising the dead c. was deliver'd to Pilate to be Crucified that though his Sepulcher by Pilate's order upon the motion of the Elders was watch'd yet his Sepulcher was found empty the third day after which he convers'd upon Earth forty days and then ascended into Heaven Ea omnia super Christo Pilatus Tiberio nunciavit Ter. ap cont gent. 21. upon which information given to Tiberius by Pilate and other Roman Officers that lived in Judaea the place where Jesus exerted those indications of his Divinity the Emperour made a motion in the Senate that Jesus should be Canonized for a God which though upon a Maxime of State the Senate refused to grant yet Caesar persisting in an honourable esteem of Christ prohibited the Jews to persecute Christians upon severe penalties to be inflicted upon those that did disturb them by the Roman Deputies in Judaea and elsewhere where the Jews inhabited for the proof of all which he appeals to the Roman Chronicles Tertul. apol cont gentes 5. upon which Francis Zephirus thus paraphraseth So famous and so many were the Miracles of Christ reported to Tiberius out of Judaea as though the Secular Historians whether out of envy to the Christian name or adulation to the Emperours whose Gests they would be thought alone to admire had not mention'd them yet a great part of them might have been read in the Writings of those who were enemies to the Christian name as long as the Books of Fasts the Acts of the Senate and the Commentaries of the Emperours were extant § 4. The Ed●ssen Chronicles shared with the Roman in the honour of being the Repository of the Evangelicall Stories concerning the mighty works of the blessed Jesus Out of whose Annals extant in the Syrian Tongue in his dayes Eusebius Eccles. hist. lib. 1. cap. 13. translates word for word this Story The fame of Christs Miracles drew infinite numbers of persons to apply themselves to him for cure of their Maladies among whom Abgarus the King of Edessa Tacitus mentions this King of Edessa annal 12. pag. 157. though he miswrite him Abbaras as Scaliger observes
the Name of any God but the God of Israel For all Pagan Stories that commemorate such Mutations are either so manifestly fabulous as they carry their condemnation on their foreheads or else ascribe those strange Effects to Art or at least wise impute them to the true Gods designing thereby to render the person that wrought them more august and conspicuous in the VVorld for a common good as is manifest from the account which both Josephus Suetonius and Tacitus gives of Vespasian's curing a blind man Authoritas quasi majestas quaedam ut scilicet inopiniato adhuc novo principi doceat haec quoque accessit c. Sueton. Vesp. 7. Vespasian coming thus unexpectedly from a new Family to the Empire wanted Authority and as it were a kind of Majesty but this also he obtain'd by Omens and Prodigies Suetonius indeed siath that the blind man was directed in a Dream by Serapis to procure Vespasian to lay Spittle on his eyes and it is no wonder that an Alexandrian should fancy that Serapis injected that motion into him since the chief God in that Country went under that name but that Serapis was so much as invocated by Vespasian when he applyed himself to perform the Cure is not in the least hinted but rather the contrary implyed not only in the Historians silence as to Vespasians applying himself either to that or any other particular Deity but from his mentioning that Alexandrian Deitie's putting the blind man upon the business who was to Vespasian a strange God and therefore not to be invocated by him and from his introducing this amongst other instances as a subsequent to and an accomplishment of the Oracle of the God of Carmel deliver'd to him or at least commented upon by Josephus Apud Judaeum Carmeli Dei Oraculum consulentem ita confirmavere sortes ut quicquid cogitaret volveretque animo quamlibet magnum id esse proventurum pollicerentur unus ex nobilibus captivis Josephus Sueton. Vesp. 5. When he consulted the Oracle of the God of Carmel in Judaea he was confirmed by this answer That whatsoever he purposed and had in his thought he should accomplish though it were never so weighty See my first Book chap. 9. § 8. The third and lowest Degree was the highest that the ambition of Heathen Gods climbed to that is the introducing of a Natural Form into a Subject naturally capable of it in an unusual and extraordinary way In which attempt how far the greatest VVonders they did came short of true Miracles wrought in the Name of Israels God will be evident if we compare them first with such of this Rank which were done in the Name of the one true God and secondly out-vie them with those of the higher Formes the second and first Degrees § 4. To give them more than Huntsman's play we will yield them more than they can challenge by the evidence of their own VVritings grant them a greater power than any Records but those in the Churches custody make mention of Seek their Books from end to end and all we find them say as to this point of the exerting a miraculous power amounts not to the one half of what Moses reports Exod. 7. That the Aegyptian Magicians did by their diabolical Inchantments affront the Messenger of the high God in three of those VVonders he did before Pharaoh the turning of Rods into Serpents of VVater into Blood and Slime into Frogs by an imperceptible celerity when he challenged Aaron to shew his Credentials to make it evident by some Miracle that the God of Gods had sent him upon that Embassie which he delivered in his Name to the King of Aegypt The Contest there was betwixt the God of Israel and the Gods of Aegypt the Question to be Determined whether of them were greatest as is manifest from Pharaoh's demanding who that Jehova was that sent to him to release the People of Israel a People who owed their lives to Aegypt for its sustaining them in the seven years Famine and who had by so long a prescription been Subjects to the Aegyptian Crown from his challenging Moses and Aaron to shew a Sign of their being Commission'd from a God whom Pharaoh was bound to obey and from his summoning the Magicians that they by invocating the names of the Gods of Aegypt should doe the same VVonders which Aaron by divine appointment was commanded to show as Seals of his Mission from a more mighty the Almighty God We will grant I say that after so solemn an Appeal to Miracles after the Litigants had here joyn'd issue Ja●nes and Jambres resisted Moses and stood out a trial by three of the first Miracles Neither will we retract with one hand what we give with the other as some do who blame St. Austin for yielding that the Magicians did more than cast mists before the Spectators Eyes even really turn Rods into Serpents the Waters into Blood and caused Frogs to swarm for it is clear from the facred Text that the Magicians did the like to what Aaron did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew word comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fecit effecit is used Gen. 1. 31. to express Gods making the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the like in appearance but really for they cast down every man his Rod and they became Serpents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew word comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuit whence is derived the name Jehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calvin from the Hebrew appellations given to these that withstood Moses argues that they only fascinated mens Eyes and Aben Ezra will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is render'd in the Text Sorcerer to be no more than a Jugler who transforms things in appearance only but this is to make words fall out with the sentence and bid defiance to the whole series of the discourse and to turn the Emphasis of the divine Miracle into a Plantasme too for if their Rods were turn'd into Serpents only in appearance Aarons could not eat theirs but in appearance only as St. Austin argues The Septuagint better understood both the Matter of Fact which was kept on foot as to the Circumstances of it long after their time either by Oral Tradition or in their Secular Records as appears from St. Paul's naming the Ring-leaders of that Diabolical Crew which opposed Moses and the importance of the Hebrew Phrase than the whole College of the Rabbies and they to prevent all possible mistake through the ambiguity of words st●le the Actors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Inchantments they used sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though they be words of a middle signification yet when they are taken in an evil sence and applied to Magicians or Sorcerers imply the using of the Rites and invoking the aid of evil Spirits being joyn'd in prophane Authors with the most Diabolical of all the black Artists and Arts Goetia