he ought to be acknowledg'd as King who should be our King indeed and that he was to come out of the East who should have dominion over all We read in Porphyry of the Oracle of Apollo which saith that other Gods are aerial Spirits but the God of the Hebrews is only to be worshipped which saying if the worshippers of Apollo obey then they must cease to worship him if they do not obey it then they make their God a Iyar Add further if those Spirits had respected or intended the good of Mankind above all things they would have prescribed a general Rule of life to Mankind and also given some certain assurance of a reward to them that lived accordingly neither of which was ever done by them On the other side oftentimes in their Verses we find some Kings commended which were wicked men some Champions extol'd and dignified with divine honour others allured to immodest and unlawful love or to the seeking after filthy lucre or committing of Murder as might be shown by many Examples SECT X. Paganisme decayed of its own accord so soon as humane aid ceased BESIDES all that hath hitherto been said Paganisme ministers to us a mighty argument against it self because that wheresoever it becomes destitute of humane force to support it there straightway it comes to ruine as if the foundation thereof were quite overthrown For if we take a view of all the Kingdoms and States that are among Christians or Mahumetans we shall find no memory of Paganisme but in Books Nay histories tell us that even in those times when the Emperors endeavoured to uphold the Pagan Religion either by violence and persecution as did the first of them or by learning and subtilty as did Julian it notwithstanding decayed daily not by any violent opposition nor by the brightness and splendor of lineage and descent for Jesus was accounted by the common sort only a Carpenters Son nor by the flourishes of learning which they that taught the Law of Christ used not in their Sermons nor by gifts and bribes for they were poor nor by any soothing and flattering speeches for on the contrary they taught that all worldly advantages must be despised and that all kind of adversity must be undergone for the Gospel's sake See then how weak and impotent Paganisme was which by such means came to ruine Neither did the doctrine of Christ only make the credulity of the Gentiles to vanish but even bad Spirits came out of divers bodies at the name of Christ they became dumb also and being demanded the reason of their silence they were compelled to say that they were able to do nothing where the name of Christ was called upon SECT XI Answer to the Opinion of some that think the beginning and decay of Religions depend upon the efficacy of the Stars THERE have been Philosophers that did ascribe the beginning and decay of every Religion unto the Stars But this star-gazeing Science which these Men profess to be skilled in is delivered under such different rules that one can be certain of nothing but only this that there is no certainty at all therein I do not here speak of such effects as follow from a natural necessity of causes but of those that proceed from the will of Man which of it self hath such liberty and freedom that no necessity or violence can be impressed upon it from without For if the consent of the will did necessarily follow any outward impression then the power in our soul which we may perceive it hath to consult deliberate and chuse would be given in vain Also the equity of all Laws of all rewards and punishments would be taken away seeing there can be neither fault nor merit in that which is altogether necessary and inevitable Again there are divers evil acts or effects of the will which if they proceeded of any necessity from the Heavens then the same Heavens and Celestial Bodies must needs receive such efficacy from God and so it would follow that God who is most perfectly good is the true cause of that which is morally evil And that when in his Law he professeth himself to abhor wickedness which a force inserted by him into things themselves will inevitably produce he doth will two things contrary one to the other that the same thing should be done and not be done and also that a Man offends in an action which he doth by divine instigation They speak more probably that say the influences of the Stars do first affect the Air then our Bodies with such qualities as oftentimes do excite and stir up in the mind some desires or affections answerable thereunto and the will being allured or inticed by these motions doth oftentimes yield unto them But if this should be granted it makes nothing for the question we have in hand For seeing that Christian Religion most of all withdraws Men from those things which are pleasing unto the body it cannot therefore have its beginning from the affections of the body and consequently not from the influence of the Stars which as but now we said have no power over the mind otherwise than by the mediation of those affections The most prudent among Astrologers exempt truly wise and good Men from the dominion of the Stars And such verily were they that first professed Christianity as their lives do shew Or if there be any efficacy in learning and knowledge against the infection of the body even among Christians there were ever some that were excellent in this particular Besides as the most learned do confess the effects of the Stars respect certain Climates of the World and are only for a season but this Religion hath now continued above the space of one thousand six hundred years and that not in one part only but in the most remote places of the World and such as are under a far different position of the Stars SECT XII The chief Points of Christianity are approved of by the Heathen and if there be any thing that is hard to be believed therein the like or worse is found among the Pagans BUT the Pagans have the less to object against Christian Religion because all the parts thereof are of such honesty and integrity that they convince Mens minds by their own light In so much that there have not been wanting Men among the Pagans also who have here and there said every one of those things which our Religion hath in a body all together As to give some instances true Religion consists not in Rites and Ceremonies but in the mind and Spirit he is an adulterer that hath but a desire to commit adultery we ought not to revenge injuries one Man should be the Husband of one Wife only the league or bond of Matrimony ought to be constant and perpetual Man is bound to do good unto all specially to them that are in want we must refrain from Swearing as much as may be And as for our Food
all shall be Man's happiness after this life SEeing then the Soul is of a nature that in it self hath no ground or cause of its own corruption and seeing also that God hath given us many signs and tokens whereby we ought to understand that it is his will the soul should survive the body what more noble end can be propounded to Man than the state of eternal happiness which in effect is the same that Plato and the Pythagoreans spake of saying that it were good for man if he could become most like unto God SECT XXV Which to obtain Men must get the true Religion NOW what this happiness is and how 't is to be attained Men may search by probable conjectures but if any thing concerning this matter be revealed by God that must be held for a most certain and undoubted truth which since Christian Religion pretends to bring unto us above others it shall be examined in the next Book whether or no Men ought to give credit thereunto and assuredly build their faith thereon The Second Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. To prove the Truth of Christian Religion IT is not our purpose in this Second Book to handle all the Points of Christianity but after our hearty Prayers made to Christ the King of Heaven that he would grant us the assistance of his holy Spirit whereby we may be enabled for such a Work we shall only endeavour to make it appear that the Christian Religion it self is most true and certain Which I thus begin SECT II. Here is showen that Jesus lived THAT there was such a Person as Jesus of Nazareth who lived heretofore in Judaea when Tiberius was Emperor of Rome is not only most constantly professed by all Christians who are scattered over the face of all the Earth but acknowledged by all the Jews who now are or ever wrote since those times Nay the very Pagan Writers that is such as are neither of the Jewish nor Christian Religion namely Suetonius Tacitus Pliny the younger and many more after them do testifie the same SECT III. And was put to an ignominious Death THAT the same Jesus was nailed to a Cross by Pontius Pilate Governor of Judaea is confessed also by all Christians though it might seem very disgraceful to them to be the Worshippers of such a Lord. The Jews also do the like though they are not ignorant that upon this account they are very odious to Christians in whose Dominions they live because their Ancestors were the Men that moved Pilate and perswaded him to pass the sentence of Death upon Jesus The Pagan Writers also now named have delivered the same to Posterity Yea the Acts of Pilate were extant a long time after from whence this might have been proved to which Christians never made their Appeal For neither did Julian himself nor any other adversaries of Christianity ever make doubt hereof So that hence it appears that there was never any more certain story than this which we see may be confirmed not only by the testimonies of some few Men but also by the approbation of several Nations otherwise disagreeing and jarring among themselves SECT IV. Yet afterward was worshipped by prudent and godly Men. ALL which though it be most true yet we see how that thorowout the remotest parts of the World he is worshipped as Lord and that not in our days only or those which are lately passed but ever since the time that this was done to wit ever since the Reign of Nero the Emperor when many People that professed this worship of Christ and Christian Religion were for that cause tortured and put to death as Tacitus and others do witness SECT V. The cause whereof was for that in his life time there were Miracles done by him NOW among such as professed Christianity there were always many Persons who were both judicious and not unlearned Such as to say nothing now of the Jews Sergius Governor of Cyprus Dionysius Areopagita Polycarpus Justinus Irenaeus Athenagoras Origen Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus with divers others who almost all being brought up in other religions and having no hopes of any Wealth or Preferment by Christianity yet became worshippers of this Man that died so ignominious a death and exhibited due honour to him as God Of which no other reason can be given but this alone that they made diligent enquiry as became prudent Men in a matter of greatest moment and found that what was bruited abroad concerning the Miracles wrought by Christ was true and relied upon firm witnesses As the curing and that with his word only and before all the People divers grievous and inveterate Diseases the restoring of Sight to him that was born blind the multiplying of a few Loaves more than once for the feeding many Thousands who could testifie the truth of it the recalling of the Dead to Life again and many more of the like kind The report of which things had then such a certain and undoubted original that neither Celsus nor Julian when they wrote against Christians durst deny there were some Prodigies done by Christ and the Hebrews in the Talmudical Books do openly confess it SECT VI. Which Miracles were not wrought either by the help of Nature or assistance of the Devil but meerly by the Divine Power of GOD. THAT these wondrous Works were not wrought by any Natural Power it is manifest by this very thing that they are called wonders and miracles Nor is it possible by the force of nature that any grievous Diseases and Infirmities should be cured meerly by a Man's voice or by the vertue of a Touch and that even upon a suddain And if such Works could have any way been ascribed to a Natural efficacy it would have been said before now either by those that were professed enemies of Christ while he lived upon Earth or by those that have been Adversaries of his Gospel since his death By the like Argument we may prove that they were not jugling delusions because they were done openly in the sight of all the People amongst whom divers of the Learned sort did malign and bear ill will unto Christ not without envy observing all that he did Add further that the like Works were often iterated and the effects thereof were not transitory but permanent and durable All which being duly pondered it must needs follow as the Jews have confessed that these Works proceeded from a more than Natural or Humane Power that is from some Spirit either good or evil That they proceeded not from any evil Spirit may be proved because that the Doctrine of Christ for the confirmation whereof these Works were wrought was quite opposite and contrary to bad Spirits For it prohibits the worshipping of evil Angels and disswades Men from all uncleanness of affections and manners wherein such Spirits are much delighted And this is also plain for that wheresoever the Doctrine of the Gospel was received and established there followed
Law together with inward and outward admonitions both by threats also and promises Nor doth he suffer the effects of wickedness to spread so far as they might have done whence it is that all kind of government could never yet be subverted nor the knowledge of Divine Laws utterly extinguished or abolished Neither may those delinquences which are permitted to be done amongst Men be thought altogether unprofitable Since that as before we have toucht they may be used either for the punishment of other no less lewd transgressors or for the chastisement of such as sometimes wander from the way of vertue or lastly to exact some worthy pattern of patience and constancy from such as have made good proficiency in the school of piety and vertue Lastly even they whose wickedness seems to be winked at for a time are wont to pay dearly for it at last and to be reckoned withal the more severely because they have been long forborn in so much that it is plain they suffer what God would who have done what He would not SECT XIX Insomuch that good Men are oppressed BUT and if sometimes there seem to be no punishment at all inflicted upon prophane offendors and even some good men which may occasion the weak to be offended are sore oppressed by the insolencies of the wicked who many times make them not only to lead a wearisome and miserable life but also to undergo a disgraceful death we are not presently to banish from humane affairs the Providence of God which hath been proved as we have now said by strong reasons but rather as the wisest sort of Men have thought we should conclude and argue thus SECT XX. The same Argument is retorted to prove that the Soul survives the Body FOrasmuch as God hath an eye unto all Mens actions and in himself is most just suffering such things to come to pass as we see they do therefore we must expect that there will be some future judgment after this life to the end such notorious transgressions may not remain unpunished nor well deserving vertue be unrecompenced with due comfort and reward SECT XXI Which is proved by Tradition FUrther to confirm this truth it must necessarily be admitted that the Souls of Men do survive their Bodies Which most ancient Tradition was derived from our very first Parents for from whence else could it proceed unto almost all civiliz'd People as is plain by Homer's Verses and by Philosophers not only of the Grecians but likewise the Druides in France and Brachmans in India and by those relations also which many Writers have published concerning the Aegyptians and Thracians and Germans In like manner touching God's judgment to come after this life many things we see were extant as well among the Grecians as also among the Egyptians and Indians as we learn out of Strabo Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch whereunto may be added that old tradition of the consumption of the World by fire which was anciently found in Hystaspis and the Sibyls and now also in Ovid and Lucan and the Indians of Siam of which thing the Astrologers have noted this to be a sign that the Sun draws nearer and nearer to the earth Yea when the Canaries America and other forein places were first discovered this same opinion of the immortality of Mens souls and the last Judgment was found among the Inhabitants there SECT XXII Against which no contrary reason can be brought NEITHER can there any reason in nature be given to disprove so ancient and common received tradition For every thing that in this World comes to an end perishes either through the opposition of some more forcible contrary agent as coldness in any subject by reason of the more prevalent power and intension of heat or through the substraction of that subject whereupon it depends as the quantity of the glass when the glass is broken or through the defect and want of the efficient cause as light by the Sun-setting Now none of all these can be said to happen unto the soul of Man Not the first because there is nothing that is contrary to the Soul nay it self is of such a peculiar nature that it is apt to receive such things as are contrary between themselves at the same time together after its own that is after a Spiritual and Intellectual manner Not the second for there is not any subject whereon the nature of the Soul hath any dependence if there were in all probability it should be the humane body but that this cannot be it is manifest because when the powers and abilities of the Bodies are tired in their operations the mind alone doth not by motion contract any weariness Likewise the powers of the Body are impaired and weakned by the redundancy or excess of the object as the sense of seeing by the full splendor and bright face of the Sun but the more excellent objects that the Soul is conversant about as about universals and figures abstracted from sensible matter it receives thereby the more perfection Again the powers that depend upon the Body are only busied about such things as are limited to particular time and place according to the nature and property of the Body it self but the mind hath a more noble object and ascends to the contemplation of that which is infinite and eternal Wherefore then seeing that the Soul depends not upon the Body in its operation neither doth it in its essence for we cannot discern the nature of invisible things otherwise than by their operations Neither is the third way of corruption incident to the Soul there being no efficient cause from which the Soul proceeds by a continual emanation For we cannot say our Parents are such a cause since when they are dead their Children are wont to live But if we will needs make some cause from which the Soul proceeds then we can imagine no other save the first and universal cause of all things which as in respect of its power is never deficient so in respect of its will to be defective that is for the Almighty to will the extinction and destruction of the Soul no Man can ever be able to prove SECT XXIII Many Reasons may be alledged for it NAY there are many strong Arguments for the contrary as namely the dominion given unto Man over his own actions the natural desire that is in him to be immortal the force of conscience comforting the mind for well done actions though very troublesome and supporting it with a certain hope and on the contrary the sting of a gnawing conscience at the remembrance of ungodly and wicked actions especially when the Hour of Death approacheth as if it had a sense of an imminent judgment And this gnawing worm of conscience the most prophane wretches and wicked Tyrants have not been able oftentimes to extinguish in them no not then when they most of all desired it as divers Examples do testifie SECT XXIV Whence it follows that the end of
a kind of God over them SECT VII Against worshipping of things that are no substances WE find also that the Grecians Romans and others worshipped those things which have no subsistence but are meer Accidents of other things For to omit those uncouth Deities the Fever dame Impudence and the like let us name the better sort such were health which is nothing but a right temperature of the parts of the body good fortune which is an event that is correspondent to a Man's desire The affections also such as love fear anger hope and the rest which proceed from the consideration of something that is good or evil easie or difficult are certain motions or passions in that part of the mind which is united to the body by the blood especially not having any absolute power of themselves but are subordinate hand maids to the commands of the will their Mistress at least in their continuance and direction Then for Vertues whose Names are divers Prudence in chusing what is profitable for us Fortitude in undertaking dangers Justice in abstaining from that which is another Man's Temperance in the moderation of pleasures c. they are certain inclinations and propensions in the mind unto that which is right grown up by long exercise and practice Which as they may be augmented in a Man so may they by neglect be diminished nay quite lost and abolished As for Honour whereunto we read there were Temples dedicated it is other Mens judgment or good opinion concerning one whom they supposed indued with Vertue which is often bestowed upon bad men as well as good by the natural proneness there is in Men to erre in their judgment These therefore having no subsistence and therefore not to be compared in dignity and worth with things that do subsist nor having any understanding of Mens prayers or veneration it is most absurd and unreasonable to worship them as Gods when for this very thing He is to be worshipped who can both give and preserve them SECT VIII Answer to the Argument of the Gentiles taken from Miracles done among them THE Pagans for the commendation of their Religion are wont to alledge Miracles but such as in many things may be excepted against For the wisest Men among the Pagans rejected many of these as supported by no testimony of any credible witness but plainly counterfeit and fabulous Other Miracles which they said were done hapned in some secret place in the night before one or two whose eyes the craft of the Priests might easily delude by false shows and appearances of things And there are others which raised great admiration and passed for wonders meerly because they met with those who were ignorant of natural things especially of hidden properties As for instance such a thing might happen if one should draw Iron with the Loadstone among People who knew nothing of its vertue in which arts Simon Magus and Apollonius as many have recorded were very skilful I do not deny but some things greater than these were seen which by Man's power alone could not be drawn out of natural causes and yet did not need a power which was truly divine that is omnipotent but might be performed by Spirits that are placed between God and Men. Who by their celerity efficacy subtilty and diligence can easily carry things far distant from one place to another and compound things that are very different to the working of such effects as shall strike Men with astonishment But that the Spirits whereby this was effected were not good and therefore neither was the Religion good appears already from what hath been said before And from hence also that they said they were compelled to do things even against their wills by the power of certain charms when the wisest of the Pagans agree that there can be no such vertue in words but only a power of perswasion and that no other way than by their signification And it is another token of their wickedness that they undertook to allure and draw this or that body though never so backward to it into the love of such or such a Person Wherein they were injurious to them either in their vain promises or in effecting what they promised for this also is forbidden by humane Laws as a piece of Sorcery Neither need any Man wonder why God suffered some marvels to be wrought by evil Spirits among the Gentiles seeing they deserved to be cheated with such illusions who so long time had forsaken the worship of the true God Moreover this is an argument of their weakeness and impotency that their works never brought any considerable good along with them For if any seemed to be called back to life after they were dead they did not continue alive neither could they exercise the functions of living Creatures Or if it happened that any thing proceeding happily from a divine power did appear to the Pagans yet the same was not foretold should come to pass for the confirmation of their Religion and therefore there might be other causes and far different reasons which the divine efficacy propounded to it self in the doing those things As for example if it was true that Vespasian restored sight to one blind this was done that he being thereby made more venerable might the more easily obtain the Roman Empire to which he was chosen by God that he might be a Minister of his Judgments upon the Jews More such like causes there may be of other wonders which had no relation at all to their Religion SECT IX And from Oracles THE very same likewise in a manner may serve for answer to that which they object concerning Oracles especially what we have said that these Men did worthily deserve to be deluded for contempt of that knowledge which reason or ancient tradition suggested to every one of them Then again the words of the Oracles for the most part were ambiguous and might easily receive an interpretation from any event whatsoever Or if there was any thing more expresly foretold by them yet it is not necessary that it should proceed from an all-knowing mind For it was either such a thing as might be foreseen by natural causes then existing as some Physicians have foretold Diseases that are a coming or else some probable conjecture might be made by that which commonly falls out and usually comes to pass as we read of some persons well skill'd in civil affairs that have made notable guesses at future events Again suppose that amongst the Pagans God sometimes used the ministery of some Prophets to foretel those things which could have no certain cause besides the will of God yet this did not approve or confirm their heathenish Religion but rather overthew it Such for instance are those things in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil taken out of the Sibyls verses where unwittingly the Poet gives us a lively description of the coming of Christ and his benefits So in the same Books of the Sibyls it was that