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
affirmed that no miracles are wrought now for even then when I writ that Treatise I knew a blind man who was cur'd at Millain and several others nay there are now so many Examples of the like miraculous Cures wrought in these times as I cannot possibly know them all and yet I know more than I am able to reckon up And the same Father epist. 137. tells us that at the memory of St. Felix at Nola Miracles were then so usually wrought by Invocation of Christs Name as he purposed thither to send Boniface a Priest of his Church and one who accused him of Incontinency the one firmly attesting the other as peremptorily denying conceiving that though in Africa where no Miracles were wrought A thing which he wonders at seeing that Climate abounded more with Religious persons than Italie and I wonder as much at his wondring for that which he alledges as the reason of his astonishment was the reason of the thing he admires and therefore should have put a stop to it because Italy swarm'd more with Pagans than those parts of Africk therefore was that power of working Miracles continued there Tongues and all other supernatural Gifts being not for those that believe but for Infidels One of them might persist in their lie against Conscience yet that the reverence of the very place where the power of Christ had been so manifestly seen would extort from them the confession of the Truth To which he was encouraged by what had happen'd at Millan in the like case where a Thief who strongly denyed he was guilty of a Theft that was laid to his charge when he came to the Church there to swear in the presence of that God in whose Name so many Miracles had been wrought in that very place durst not swear as he had boasted he would but confessed the Fact and restored the goods he had stoln Before I close this point I will give one Instance more of the multitude of Miracles wrought for the Conversion of one peevish Heathen reported by this great Light of the Church who for Learning Judgment and Integrity deserves more credit than the whole Tribe of Pagan Scriblers who in his 67. Epistle gives this account of the Conversion of Dioscorus the Architheater It was not like that this mans stiff neck would be bowed nor his petulant Tongue tamed without a Prodigie It pleased God therefore to smite his only and exceedingly beloved Daughter with a dangerous sickness of whose recovery without Miracle he despairing implores the aid of Christ promising if he might see his Daughter restor'd he would embrace the Christian Faith his request is granted his Daughter recovers but he procrastinates the payment of his vow he hath not long seen her restored to health when Christ retracts the benefit and strikes him blind He vows the second time to become a Christian if he might recover his sight he obtains his sute regains his sight and sets forward toward the receiving of Baptism but they could not get him to learn the Creed till he is surprized with such a Palsey as deprives him of the use of his Tongue upon this he betakes himself to his Pen and writes the Confession of his former Hypocrisie and subscribes to the Confession of the Christian Faith upon which he is restored to the use of his Tongue and to perfect health I am perswaded upon an impartial search here are more indications of a Supernatural power made out for the conversion of this one man than ever God permitted all the Heathen Daemons to shew in proof of all false religions Of which perswasion I make no question but my Reader will be by that time he hath well weighed this example and studied an Answer to that Question of Arnobius To what purpose is it for the Defenders of the Pagan Impiety to shew one or perhaps two cured by Esculapius when none of their Gods relieve so many millions and all their Temples are throng'd with wretched and unhappy Patients who tire Esculapius himself with their Prayers and invite him with their most miserable vowes to help them Quid prodest ostendere unum vel alterum fortasse curatos cum tot millibus subvenerit nemo plena sint omnia miserorum infeliciúmque delubra qui Aesculapium ipsum precibus fatigare invitare miserrimis votis Arnobius And that by that time I have laid down the rest of the differences betwixt those which occur in prophane Authors and those reported in the Sacred Scriptures § 2. 2. For as to the Miracles reported to have been wrought by the God of Israel or by his servants in his name and power they are reported with the greatest Evidence of Truth that matters of Fact are capable of as hath already been demonstrated But the Prodigies said to be done in confirmation of Paganism labour under the burden of a very great suspicion that they are most of them lying Miracles Not one hath been found among the various Sects of Christians or Jews that ever question'd the Truth those of the Old those of either Old or New Testament-relations Though some of their Principles had they seen the tendency of them would have necessitated them to it The Manichees who denied the God of Israel to be the best and greatest God did yet believe that the History of the Old Testament was true The Sadducees who denied the Existency of Angels or Spirits yet owned the Books of Moses wherein the God of Israel is declared to be both great and good by the merciful wonders he wrought by the Ministry of Angels The Arrians denied Christ to be the Eternal God yet confest he did those stupendious works which none but God can do some whereof he professedly did on purpose to manifest himself to be equal to his Eternal Father Monsters of men they deny the Conclusions and yet grant Premisses most necessarily and demonstratively proving those Conclusions But of all those Pagan Writers that have escaped the Teeth of time and made mention of Pagan Prodigies there is not one but hath question'd the Truth of their own Legends so far as by the diligent reading of them I can find To the many instances that have allready been produc'd in my First Book Sect. 3. chap. 5. I shall here add the Censure of that Famous Critick Agellius who in his 9. 4. noct Attic. telling a story how that upon his coming to Brundusium he heard a fellow crying Books to whom he repairing bought the works of Aristaeus Proconnesius Isagonus Nicaeensis Ctesias Onesicritus Polystephanus and Hegesius Authors of great Authority as he stiles them and yet he calleth their Histories of such miraculous Accidents as made most noise and had been most universally believ'd in the Age of Paganism Books full of Miracles and Fables out of which repeating those that had best born up their credit unto his Age he mentions none but such stories of men with one eye of Pigmeis c. as there is no man
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 quà m 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 pleniâ—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
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
taking Sanctuary from his many and importunate Creditors in a Castle of Idumaea bethought himself how he might put an end to his miserable life which hunger would quickly have determin'd had not his Sister Herodias by the instigation of his Wife Cypros obtain'd of her Husband Herod a stipend for him and an Office at Tiberias till his Uncle in the midst of their Cups upbraiding him with it he left him in scorn and betook himself to the Trencher of Flaccus the President of Syria from whose friendship he falling doth with much difficulty and disadvantage obtain of his Mothers Freeman the Loan of 20000 Attick Drams with which he makes fot Italy but is intercepted and arrested by Herennius Capito for 300000. he was indebted to Caesar. Follow him whither you will till he come to the Crown you shall find him immersing himself in Debt And when he comes to that he leaves not his old wont for though then his yearly Revenues were 1200. Myriades yet he outrun the Constable in his Expences his Disbursements did so far exceed his Incomes as he was still forc'd to borrow and take up upon trust Joseph Antiq. lib. 19. 7. But we need no other Instance of his excessive profuseness nor evidence of his being deeply in the Books of the Tyrian and Sidonian Tradesmen than that Description of the Royal Apparel mention'd by St. Luke which Josephus makes viz. He was arrayed in Cloath of Silver so admirably wrought as the Beams of the rising Sun beating upon it it cast so wonderful radiant a splendour as begat veneration in the beholders We will proceed to his external Character Herod the King whereby he is distinguish'd from Herod Antipas the Tetrarch of Galilee who slew the Baptist and simply the King without the addition of Judaea to difference him from Herod the Great in whose son Arebelaus the Kingdom of Judaea expired being annext to Syria and made a Roman Province at the latter end of the Reign of Augustus and administred by the Governours of Syria Jos. ant 18. 15. from which time to the Reign of Caligula the Herodian Family had not so much as the Title of King and when Caligula bestowed that Title upon this Herod Agrippa he made him not King of Judaea but only of those Tetrarchates which he gave him the Tetrarchates of Philip Lysanias and Herod together with some part of those Territories which Archelaus had held And this Herodian Kingdom of the second Edition though it throve to as great dimensions under the favourable influences of Claudius Vespasian Domitian and Trajan upon the Junior Agrippa as that of Herod the Great had done under Julius and Augustus Claudius added to Agrippa ' s Jurisdiction Judaea and Samaria which had of old belonged to the Kingdom of his Grandfather Herod Jos. ant 19. 4. yet it never recover'd that Grandure either to be or to be so much as reputed the Kingdom of Judaea till either Eusebius or St. Jerome miscalled it so to make it comport with their former mistakes about Daniel's Weeks and the Departure of the Scepter Against which mistake both the sacred Historian in giving Herod the Great and Archelaus the formal Title of Kings of Judaea but Herod Agrippa and his Son that only of King and Josephus by giving us the Story at large of both those Kingdoms have given us sufficient Caution have set up so plain VVay-marks as the way-faring Ideot cannot erre if he attend to those palpable differences of those Kingdoms pointed out by those Mercuries nor possibly overlook their perfect Correspondency in that particular For this Herod is not so much as stiled King of Judaea except once by Josephus and that for brevity's sake with the addition of totius Tertium Judaeae totius regni annum agens an t 19. 7. by that distinguishing that his three years Reign from his four precedent under Caius wherein he had only some part of its Territory which under Herod the Great made up the Kingdom of Judaea but not intending thereby that he was in due form King of Judaea for he presents him as coap-mated and check'd by Marsus the Deputy of Syria in his building the walls of Jerusalem and his entertainment of the five Kings whom Marsus commanded forthwith to depart Herod's Court unto their own homes much against Herods will if he could have helpt it Joseph Antiq. 19. 7. § 2. The like agreement there is betwixt St. Luke and Josephus in their dating the remarkable Death of Herod At that time while upon Agabus his Prophecy of a general Dearth the Church of Antioch sent St. Paul and Barnabas with relief to the Christians which dwelt in Judaea St. Luke dates it for having mentioned their Mission he subjoynes the stories of Herod murdering James imprisoning Peter and his own miserable End after which he tells of Paul and Barnabas their return from performing that Ministry and Office of Charity unto Antioch from whence they had been sent which though it do not necessarily inforce this Conclusion that all those things mentioned in that intervall fell out in that order wherein they are related for St. Luke might lay the Actions in the 12 Chapter before the sending out of Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles on purpose that the story of St. Peter might be taken up together and concluded before the Story of St. Paul come in which is to be prosecuted to the end of the Book as Dr. Lightfoot well observes and therefore St. Paul's Mission to the Gentiles might possibly fall out before some part of the story of Herod and yet properly enough be mentioned after Yet this intertexture plainly enough teacheth us that their former Mission to carry the benevolence of the Church of Antioch to the Saints of Jerusalem happen'd before the Commencement of Herod's Story and that this is contemporary with that Famine which fell out in the days of Claudius as St. Luke states it That is Herod's murder of James fell out in the third and his own death in the beginning of the fourth year of the Reign of Claudius as Josephus expresly affirmeth antiq 19. 7. Herod Agrippa died at the age of 54. after he had reigned seven years That is in the Tetrarchate of Philip three years and one in the Tetrarchate of Herod added to that by Caligula And three years more under Claudius who bestowed upon him Iudea Samaria and Caesarea And that Herods murdering of James could not be before the third of Claudius is manifest from Josephus his affirming that Claudius sent not Agrippa into Judaea till after he had sent forth his general Edicts in favour of the Jews not only unto Alexandria but throughout the whole Empire his edictis Alexandriam per totum orbem dimissis moxque Agrippam Jos. ant 19. 5. which bare Date the second year of his Reign chap. 4. 5. l. 19. and of his being Consul the second time which Consulship beginning the First of January it was so near impossibility that those
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 Edâ—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 Jaâ—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 stâ—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
put upon them are a pack of as palpable Untruths as ever were asserted Not one of them wants its mate as we apply them to the blessed Jesus and the things appertaining to his Kingdom But they are barren of Effect and most of them past Child-bearing if they have not brought forth allready those Children which the Christian Church fathers upon them If their Messias be not already exhibited he can never be exhibited in that place at that time and with such other Circumstances as the Prophets assign The Temple which he was to fill with Glory is demolish'd the Polity during the standing whereof Shilo was to come is dissolv'd the Weeks within the compass whereof Messias was to make attonement for sin at the end whereof desolation was to come in like a flood are long since expired The Idols which at the appearance of his glorious Majesty were to creep into holes are already exterminated from off the face of this Earth so that if he has not already appeared it is impossible that at his appearance he should find any Gentile Idols to abolish from off this Earth and from under those Heavens which the Prophet pointed at and taught the Jews to point at during the Babilonian Captivity in making this profession Jer. 10. 11. Thus shall ye say unto them the Gods shall perish from under those Heavens that is which are over Chaldea Let the Atheist search if he can find in all that Tract one Heathen Idol CHAP. X. The Demonstration of Power § 1. Christians Gleanings exceed Pagans Vintage § 2. Christian stories of undoubted Pagan of dubious Credit § 3. Pagan Miracles mis-father'd § 4. Rome ' s Prosperity whence § 5. Wonders among Gentiles for the fulfilling of Prophecies § 6. For the punishment of Nations ripe for Excision § 7. Empires raised miraculously for the common good § 1. VVE have seen the Prints of incomprehensible Wisdom upon the Creatures and thence demonstrated the Being of a God we have seen the like impresses upon the Sacred Scriptures and thence proved that God to be the Author of them who contrived the Universe The next demonstration of a Deity is the impressions of infinite Power stampt upon his Works those Rhetorical Figures sprinkled in the Book of Providence which render the Contents of it more illustrious the divine Eloquence of it more august and specious For as in humane speech the moderate and decent aspersion of new and unusual words add a splendour to it so Miracles add a grace to the divine Eloquence and an Emphasis to that discourse God entertains the World with while he speaks to it by the Dumb Creature Sicut humana consuetudo verbis ità divina potentia etiam factis loquitur sicut sermone humano verba nova vel minus usitata moderate decenter aspersa splendorem addunt ita in factis mirabilibus quodammodo luculentior est divina eloquentia August ep 49. quest 6. In which strain the God of Israel the Father of the blessed Jesus hath as far out-stript all other pretenders to Divinity and Authors of Religions as the Feates of the Artillery Garden are exceeded by the wisest Stratagems of the greatest Captains the products of a Wheel-wright by Archimedes his Engines A blind mans catching an Hare by chance by the success and Achievements of Diana and her Quire of Huntresses or Don Quixots Windmill engagements by the Exploits of Caesar or the Sorcerers Serpents by that of Moses which if we compare together we shall find the stupendious Effects wrought by the Heathen Gods to have been 1. So few as an hundred of those Deities may be allowed to club for the production of one Miracle though no greater than the swelling of a Lake while the Romans besieged the Vejentes Exoptatae victoriae iter miro prodigio Dii immortales patefecerunt Val. Max. 1. 6. 3. a multitude of Gods are fain to joyn hands to open this light door What is this in comparison of the way through the red Sea No less than two durst venture to cast the scales at the Regil-lake on the Romans hands when their Army and the Tusculancs were so equally pois'd as neither would give one foot back It was as much as two of them could do and that on horse back to bring P. Vatinius word to Rome in a whole day of King Perses his overthrow in Macedonia Briefly put together all the miracles that Authors of any credit have father'd upon all their Gods or have reported to have been done in their names and the Miracles wrought by Moses alone in the Name of the God of Israel to prove that he was his Messenger the Miracles wrought by Christ alone in his own Name and Person to prove that he was the eternal Son of Israels God the Miracles wrought by St. Peter alone in the name of Christ to prove his Masters Resurrection and his own Delegation will far out-vie them Nay the after gleaning of Christs Miracles I mean those which were wrought at the Memories of Martyrs as low as the third and fourth Centuries are more than the whole Vintage of Pagan Prodigies deposited in Authors of undoubted credit as in Barnes Cypriani tract 1. cont Demetrianum O si audire eos velles videre quando à nobis adjurantur torquentur spiritualibus flagris verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur quando ejulantes gementes voce humanà potestate divina flagella verbera sentientes venturum judicium confitentur Veni cognosce esse vera quae dicimus Et quia sic Deos colere te dicis vel ipsis quos colis crede aut si volueris tibi credere de teipso loquetur audiente te qui nunc tuum pectus obsedit qui nuno mentem tuam ignorantiae nocte caecavit Videbis nos rogari ab eis quos tu rogas timeri ab eis quos tu times quos tu adoras videbis sub manus nostras stare vinctos tremere captivos quos tu suspicis veneraris ut dominos Certe vel sic confundi in istis erroribus tuis poteris cùm conspexeris audieris Deos tuo's quid sint ad interrogationes nostras statim prodere praesentibus licèt vobis praestigias fallacias suas non posse caelare So plentifully was this sweet and powerful savour of the Ointment of Christs Name poured out in the Age of St. Austin as that Learned Father having in his Book de vera Religione given Reasons why Miracles were not then so frequent as formerly lest he might thereby be understood to deny that the Church retain'd the gift of Miracles in his time upon second thoughts dares not commit that Tractate to the hands of Posterity without this animadversion upon it in the unparallel'd Books of his Retractations lib. 1. cap. 13. I argued indeed saith he in that Book of the true Religion that the Pagans had no reason to expect Miracles now but I never