mention Adam's name Those at Siam reckon with us the World About the Poles six thousand Years has twirl'd That at the first Men liv'd a thousand years In the Caldean Registers appears Egyptians this with some Phoenicians say Nor want there Greeks as positive as they And this may the more easy credit gain Because to after-ages did remain Vast Graves which did the mouldred Bodies shew Compar'd with present of a monstrows hew Pausanias and Philostratus of Greeks And this the Roman Nat'r'list Pliny speaks How God and Angels did with Man converse Till he provok'd their absence for a curse After the Greeks Catallus does relate And the old Giants truly ferine state With Moses Greeks and Latins do agree And in all Nations we some Proofs may see Of what about the Deluge he has shown All time to that old Varro call'd unknown Those things on which the Poets Fictions ground In other Writers are unblended found Agreeing with the Truth in Moses seen Berosus with the Chaldees Abidene Among th' Assyrians did hold forth the same And the pacifick Dove the last does name This Grecian Plutarch Lucian mentions this Who says that Syrian Hierapolis Retain'd the Story of the Ark of old Which the sav'd race of Men and Beasts did hold In Damascene and Molo this you 'l see The last does in the name of Ark agree Apollidorus does transmit to fame Deucalion's Story differing but in name And sev'ral Spaniards do at large attest That in America remotest West The mem'ry of the Flood they plainly trace And preservation of all Mortal Race The Raven forc'd to keep upon the Wing Gen. 8.7 11. And well-come Dove which th'Olive-branch did bring Where Men inhabited before the Flood By Joppe nam'd in Pliny's understood And to this day Tradition does remain Where th' Ark did rest the Flood b'ing in again Mount Ararat on the Armenian Plain The Father of us Europeans here Japhet in Ethnick Authors does appear Ion or Javan the learn'd Grecians own And Hammon Arts to th' Africans had shown Names the Mosaick Writings have preserv'd Josephus too and others have observ'd That many Names of Men and places shew Apparent Footsteps of what there we view Which of the Poets does not proof supply Of the condemn'd attempt to scale the Sky Clouds of Authorities confirm that Fire In which polluted Sodom did expire We might as many Witnesses produce To shew that Circumcision was in use And this continues among Abram's Seed With Isma'elites and Idumean breed The Hist'ry of the ancient Patriarchs too In Philo's Sanchoniatho we view In Hecataeus this and Damascene Berosus and Demetrius may be seen Artap'nus and Eupol'mus we may add This he who wrote the famous Orphics had Some part of this Justin's learn'd Book affords Which from Pompeius Trogus he records Scarce one of them but tells of Moses's fame How he was sav'd from water th' Orphics name And that two Tables he from God receiv'd And Polemon confirms what 's here believ'd Sev'ral of the Egyptian Writers shew How vainly Pharoh's Hoast did Israel's Flock pursue And who that thinks of Moses can believe That he should e're have ventur'd to deceive When with wise Enemies encompast round Who would have noted all the faults they found If former Authors what he wrote controul'd Or 't were oppos'd by a Tradition old Or he of the then present times did tell What Witnesses then living could refel Sicilian Diodore Pliny the young Longinus of sublimity of Tongue Strabo and Tacitus of Moses speak Jamnis and Mambris in their Sorceries weak When they his Credit to impair did seek The Talmud Pliny Apuleius name Some Laws and Ritu'als which from Moses came The golden Pythagorean Verses shew And many of them you elsewhere may view Strabo and Trogus Testimonies give How just how pious the old Jews did live What we of Joshua and others find Early or late to memory consign'd Agreeing with the Jews need not be join'd Since he who will to Moses credit give Whom now it were a shame to disbelieve Must not deny which here we sought to prove That God in a mirac'lous way did move Exceeding all the Laws which Nature knew That he such Acts in after-times did shew As when Elijah and Elisha liv'd Is with less hesitance to be receiv'd Because the Jews were then become more known Their Rites held more in detestation The World then could not but have jealous Eyes And stop the growth of the most speci'ous lies Hazöus and Lycophrones do tell What in the swall'wing Whale Jonas befel Only the name for Hercules they change To whom they us'd t'impute things great and strange The truth of History did Julian force Who ne're t'wards Jews or Christians had remorse To own that God did often Jews inspire And burnt Elijah's Sacrifice with Heav'nly Fire Add to this farther that the Jewish Law All vain pretence to Prophesy did awe It did Obedience to their Kings perswade Yet they that sacred Office fear'd t' invade Esdras and others wiser than the rest That they were less than Prophets still confest This gift some Ages before Jesus ceast But who on many milli'ons could impose With Prodigies they did to all expose Such as the High-priest's Breast-plate did disclose That Light and Truth which thence shone forth to all Continu'd fresh till the first Temple's fall In this such certain Faith have all the Jews As that 't was known to their Fore-fathers shews XVI The same is proved by Predictions To this of Miracles we may subjoyn Another proof of Providence Divine The knowledg of Contingencies to come Which was imparted from above to some When not one cause or sign could then appear To them their Times and Tendencies were clear As th'Orbity of him who should restore Jerico curst by (a) Jos 6.26 1 Kings 16.34 Joshua long before Who should the Temple on Mount (b) 1 King 13.2 2 Kings 23.15 Bethel fire More than three hundred years e're 't was t' expire Esaiah too (c) Esa 44.28 45.1 Cyrus the great does name And his chief Actions since made known to fame Jerus'alem from (d) Jer. 37.11 Caldean force being freed Jeremy saw that they should yet (e) ib. 8. succeed The fate of the Assyrian Monarchy Daniel (f) Dan. 2.32 39.7 5. 8.3 20. did in the womb of Time descry That first to Medes and Persians it should fall Then (g) Dan. 10.20 11.2 3. Alexander should ingross it all Seleucus then and Ptol'omy (h) Dan. 8.9 c. part divide What mischief should from these the (i) ib. Jews betide But chiefly from (k) Dan. 8.23 24. Anti'ochus the Renown'd The truth of these when searching Porphry found To this poor subterfuge he driven was That they were wrote after they came to pass But we as well a warm dispute may raise Who wrote the Books whence Virgil has his Praise The Romans knew not that by surer fame Than had
the Jews for what bore Daniel's name Did not oracular Predictions shew What Mexico should feel and rich Peru Which the relentless Spaniards should subdue To this those many Dreams we may refer Which to Events full Correspondence bear Events which they who dream't could ne're foreknow From any thing observable below These to ascribe unto some casual hit Or nat'ral cause can't thinking Men befit Of these Tertulli'an writing of the Soul Brings many Instances beyound controul Of Sp'irits assuming vehicles of Air Which Men not only did discern but hear Authors by no means credulous declare Such Spectres in America have been In Mexico and Sina often seen And those fire Ord'eals with old Germans known As in their Histories and Laws are known Prove an Almighty Power the just does own If less exertions of the Power Divine XVII The Objection that Miracles are not now seen answered For Miracles and Prophecies now shine The force of what is prov'd it can't impair Since 't is enough that once such things there were If they have been less frequent than before God in great Wisdom these his Works forbore Nor is it fit to violate the Laws Printed on Nature but for weighty cause As when the Jews in a small Corner clos'd Were to maintain a Worship all expos'd Or that the Truths in Christian Doctrine found Were to enlighten all the World around Such times are well becoming God to show That Nature 's but his Hand-maid here below XVIII And Wickedness obtains such licence Some question whether Providence presides Seeing how Sin flows in with mighty Tides As if 't would deluge all the World again Which Providence if any should restrain But th'answer's easy since Man's Will is free And God alone good by necessity To bridle and keep in our Sins by force Were to make Man no better than an Horse Bate that of freedom we are not bereft No proper means are unattempted left A Law is made our wild Desires to chain And none for want of Knowledg can complain Inward and outward Admonition's joyn'd And Threats and Promises to bend the Mind That very Wickedness that 's suffer'd here Has limits set by God's o're-ruling Care In vain it strives to swell beyond its bound To force th'enclosures of the sacred Ground His Church hem'd in with the tempestuous deep His Pow'r does from an Inundation keep Civil Societies his Influ'ence share Else the mad Multitude no Laws would bear And ev'n that Mischief which does license get Has some good end by his appointment set To punish or correct those Souls that stray Out of the Paths of Vertue 's narrow way Or else a glori'ous is Specimen to give How nobly the Adult in Vertue strive ' Gainst those Temptations which in Crouds arrive While Pati'ence does its perfect work maintain And constancy unto the last remain And they whose Punishment has been delay'd For this forbearance have large int'rest pay'd Thus they who disobey'd th' Almighty's Will Against their own his purposes fulfil If Wickedness unpunish'd long appear XIX That the Just are often opprest The weak still suffer'd Violence to bear In sorrow long to draw their hated Breath And die at last an ignominious Death As if their Innocence had no regard Man is not therefore from God's Care debarr'd For no Man knows how God exerts his Pow'r In inward Blessings th' ill can ne're devour Besides before was prov'd an Aid Divine Wherefore we with the wise in the belief should joyn That since God knows our Acti'ons and is just XX. This Argument is retorted to prove that Souls survive the Bodies Yet sometimes seems to authorize distrust A future Judgment needs must be behind Where Sinners their due Punishment may find And all egreg'ious Vertue here unblest Exalted to a state above the rest May meet full Recompence for all its Pain For this we must believe that Souls remain XXI Which is confirmed by Tradition When loosned from the Body's cumbrous Chain And this belief so general is known That we it's rise must from first Parents own This Homer sings in Verses ever new And this the Gauls as well as Grecians knew Their learned Druids this most fully taught And this the Brachmans with the Indians thought Aegyptian Thracian German Sages all Upon this Truth with one consent do fall For proof we might unquestion'd Authors call In Strabo Plutarch and Laertius see How the Aegyptians Indians too agree In the expecting of the Day of Doom After this Life is to its period come Histaspes and the ancient Sybills spake What Conflagrati'ons shall the World o're-take Ovid and Lucan both this thought pursue This at Siam the savage Ind'ians knew Of this Astronomers a Proof have found In that the Sun draws nigher to the ground Parts farthest off at first discov'ry prove That we can no where from these Truths remove Canaries yield this Fruit the Western Shoar Largely enriches with this Golden Oar. XXII Nothing in Reason against it Nor can one Argument in Nature found This old Tradition so extensive wound For if we any thing observe to fail 'T is either that what 's mighti'er does prevail In its own Nature contrary to that As Cold does through the force of Heat abate Or the removing that in which it stands As when a Glass is fallen from our hands And into several little peices broke The form is perisht which at first it took Or else 't was from deficience in the cause As Light does vanish when the Sun withdraws But none of these can of the Soul be said For nothing contrary to that was made In this does its peculiar b'eing delight Things to each other the most opposite At once it 's intellectu'al Pow'r receives This for the first The second who believes For on what Subject can the Soul depend If we for this the Body should commend How happens it that when the Body 's tyr'd The Soul to farther Action still is fir'd Without least lascitude from thence acquir'd An Object also that too much excels All the weak forces of the Body quels And thus the feeble Organs of our sight Cannot endure the Sun's prevailing Light The nobler Objects entertain the Mind Its force is stronger Pleasure more refin'd As when its Thoughts from matter it abstracts And about lofty Universals acts The Body's forces cannot but embrace Things which are circumscrib'd by time and place For that 's the Body's Nature while the Mind To what 's eternal and immense is joyn'd Since then the Body don't its Acti'ons give It 's Essence how can it from thence receive The Natures of the things we ne're discern We can but by their Operations learn Nor more to this can we ascribe the way Mention'd the last as reason of decay For no efficient cause we can invent Which failing all the reasoning Pow'r is spent For this the Parents you can ne're assign For then their Deaths would cut off all their Line No other cause 't is
wondrous Works of Christ to name Which no less Author than a God proclaim As with new Life informing Breathless Clay And who besides can of th' Amighty say He does or suffers Wonders without cause For no wise Maker of well-founded Laws Would without weighty Reason make them vain But then who can another Reason feign Than what our Saviour did himself declare That God thereby did Testimony bear Unto those sacred Doctrines which he taught By those that saw them what else could be thought They being such as we observ'd before As 't were a scandal to the God w'adore And impious to believe he would impose On Men so perfectly resign'd as those This was the cause why many of the Jews Who Moses for their constant Guide did chuse About that time when Jesus here did move Receiv'd him as a Master from above Such were the Nazarens and Ebio'nites Zealous Asserters of the Jewish Rites Christ's Miracles like Confirmation have VI. Christ's Resurrection prov'd by credible Testimonies From his return to Life out of the Grave This has not only been for Truth receiv'd But a chief Article to be believ'd By all who e're Christ'anity profest But it for certain needs must be confest All could not this matter of Faith have thought Unless the Men who first Christ's Doctrine taught Had full perswasi'on in their Hearers wrought But evidently this could ne're have been Without asserting what themselves had seen None moderately wise would e're have chose A Faith which to such Dangers did expose Unless they had affirm'd it's Truth who saw This great Foundation of the Christian Law But that it always was affirm'd is shown By other Writings fully as their own And as in Books as clearly 't is reveal'd They to five hundred Witnesses appeal'd Who saw our Saviour come to Life again But how durst any so appeal that feign And who could on such Multitudes prevail To cheat the World with a fictitious Tale Nay were the Twelve all who had this maintain'd They were enow full Credit to have gain'd For no Man would for nothing be a Knave Honours 't is sure thereby they could not have For those were at the absolute dispose Of Jews and Heathens who did them oppose Nor could they have by this encreast their store Thro' it they lost what they had gain'd before Nor could one benefit of Life invite To cheat the World with any cunning slight Their very preaching as full well they knew To Labours Hunger Thirst and Prisons drew Then Fame with their own Sect could never tempt Plain Men from all degrees of Pride exempt So many Inconveniencies to bear For the thin diet of that pop'ular Air Nor could they hope that Doctrine would succeed With Nature still intent upon it's need When all Authority on Earth oppos'd But as they with God's sacred Promise clos'd This may be added that whatever Fame They might propound by preaching up Christ's Name They had no expectation it could last For so with Clouds God's Purpose was o'recast They thought the World did to it's Period hast Which is in theirs and other Writings plain The sole Objection which can yet remain Is that they ly'd for their Religion's sake Which no Man that had duly weigh'd would make For either their Religion true they thought Or what they knew to be a Falshood taught But had they not believ'd it to be best They would not have forsaken all the rest Among which Safety lay and Honour too Nor had profest it barely as 't was true Unless they that Profession needful knew For nothing else could free them from the Guilt Of all the Blood through that Professi'on spilt But if they that believ'd not true alone But best and necess'ry for them to own After the Founders Death to be receiv'd This could not have obtain'd had he deceiv'd Declaring his own rising from the Dead No Men whose Understandings were not fled Finding their Expectations frustrate there Would to that Faith still holy Rev'rence bear Then all Religions chiefly Christ's deny To blemish sacred things with any Lie Religion therefore such an one besure Could never this officious Lie procure The Men besides were such as their worst Foes For nothing but simplicity expose Nor had such Wit enough so well to feign And who would do it for the sake of pain Which that Profession certainly would gain I'th'utmost Tortures Malice could invent Many for this out of the World were sent How much soever some might chuse to bear For an Opinion which they valu'd dear Who can imagine Men with Sense indu'd Not one alone but a great multitude Should make themselves subject to certain Woe For what themselves had known to be untrue But then their Lives and Writings which they left Shew that they were not of their Wits bereft What may confirm the Evidence of those Who the first Witnesses for Christ arose Serves for St. Paul as much who did declare That rapt above the Regions of the Air Whether with strengthned Rays of mortal sight Or meerly by an intellectu'al Light The Soul being sep'rate from the Body's Chain He saw where Christ does with his Father reign All that the Jews could teach he had acquir'd Nor greater honour need to have desir'd Than what he might expect in his old way When on the other side for this he lay Expos'd to th' utmost hatred of his Friends Nature depriv'd of all its darling ends Travels and Labours all his worldly Meed And a reproachful death was to succeed VII Answer to the Objection that Christ's Resurrection seems impossible VVho can assent to proofs so clear delay Unless that 't is impossible he say That is a contradiction does imply Which we of this may with good grounds deny At the same time to be alive and dead VVere contradicti'ous but when life is fled Back by the Pow'r that gave it to be brought Can never sure impossible be thought As Plato writes to Eris this befell Heracl'des this does of a VVoman tell Of one Herodotus does this relate And this says Plutarch was anothers fate VVhich shews that VVise-men thought that it might be If that 't was possible we then agree For Christ to breath again with living breath After its be'ng extinguisht once in death And that 't was so in fact 's so fully prov'd That his Resurrection evinces the Truth of his Doctrine That it the Jewish Rabbi Becai mov'd But as his Followers and others shew He held forth to the World a Doctrine new This must by needful Consequence be true Since he maintain'd 't was by divine Command For with God's Justice it can no way stand Or Goodness either to exalt so high One who in so momentous things would lie Had he been such an one who would believe That he the certain notice should receive Both when and how he should from Life retire And have his Reins new fill'd with active Fire Himself declaring that all this was wrought For Confirmat'ion
The Universe shall under him be blest And find the Father in the Son exprest The unforc'd Earth shall ready Tribute bring At the Nativity of thee its King The blushing Berry with green Ivy twin'd Th' Egypti'an Bean with Herbs of sov'raign kind The Pails with fatning Goat's Milk shall run o're Nor shall the Herds fear when the Lions roar All sorts of new-sprung Flowers thy Cradle strew Courting thy Infant Tears before the Morning Dew Serpents shall die the Poison's force decay And wild Assyrian Roses cloath the way But when the Hero's Praises and the Deeds Th'enlightned Youth of his dread Father reads And knows the grounds from whence true Fame proceeds Corn shall enrich the Field where none did sow And chearing Grapes on common Bushes grow From the hard Oak shall roscid Hony flow Yet there some remnants of old Fraud shall be Which shall again provoke to try the Sea A num'rous Neighbourhood with Walls t' enclose And vex the passive Earth with fur'wing Ploughs Of a new Tiphys Stories shall be told Another Argos shall cull'd Hero's hold Fresh Wars shall be begun another Troy Shall an Archilles feel sent to destroy But when thou shalt in Years become mature The Sailer shall no more rough Seas endure No Ships shall coast about for Foreign Ware All things within it self each Realm shall bear Plough-shares no more shall tear the fertile ground No Pruning-hooks the bleeding Vines shall wound The lab'ring Ox shall from the Yoak be free Nor shall we Wool dy'd with false Colours see A nat'ral Purple or becoming Red Shall as he stalks along the Ram bespread Lambs a more orient Red shall sweetly stain Such times as these the steady Fates ordain Working th'agreeing Links of the sure Chain Enjoy thy sacred Honours now in peace Thou darling Son o'th'Gods Jove's great encrease See! how the tott'ring World expects thy hand Made to support the Heav'ns the Sea and Land Nature behold puts on a chearful Face Finding thy Season rowling on apace Oh! that my Life and Spirit might suffice To praise the Glories to which thou shalt rise While full of thee I should not fear to vie With Orpheus were the Muse his Mother by Nor Linus tho Appollo did inspire His raptur'd Son with all his holy Fire Should Pan ev'n in his own Arcadia sing Arcadia should to me the Lawrel bring By Smiles the knowledg of thy Mother gain Thou perfect Recompence of all her Pain Learn by the Smiles where Parents don't rejoyce No God or Goddess made that House their choice SIcilides Musae paulo major a canamus Non omnes arbusta juvant humilesque myricae Si canimus sylvas sylvae sint Consule dignae Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas Magnus ab integro saeclorum vertitur ordo Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna Jam nova Progenies Coele dimittitur alto Tu modo nascenti puero quo ferrea primum Desinet ac toto surget gens aurea Mundo Casta fave Lucina tuus jam regnat Apollo Teque adeo decus hoc aevi te Consule inibit Pollio incipient magni procedere menses Te duce siqua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Irrita perpetuâ solvent formidine terras Ille Deûm vitam accipiet Divisque videbit Permistos Heroas ipse videbitur illis Pacatumque reget Patriis Virtutibus Orbem At tibi prima puer nùllo munuscuba cultu Errantes heder as pà ssim cum baccare tellus Mistaque ridenti colocusia fundet acantho Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta Capellae Vbera nec magnos metuent arment a Leones Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni Occidet Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum At simul Heroum laudes facta parentis Jam legere quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus Molli paulatim flavescet campus aristâ Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uvae Ep durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella Pauca tamen suberunt veteris vestigia fraudis Quae tentare Thetin ratibus quae cingere muris Oppida quae jubeant telluri infindere sulcos Alter erit tum Tiphys altera quae vehat Argo Delectos Heroas erunt etiam altera bella Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles Hinc ubi jam firmata virum te fecerit aetas Cedet ipse mari vector nec nautica pinus Mutabit merces omnis feret omnia tellus Non rastros patietur humus non vinea falcem Robustus quoque jam tauris juga solvet arator Nec varios discet mentiri lana colores Ipse sed in pratis aries jam suave rubenti Maurice jam croceo mutabit vellera luto Sponte suà sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos Talia saecla suis dixerunt currite fusis Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae Aggredere ô magnos aderit jam tempus honores Chara Deûm soboles magnum Jovis incrementum Aspice concexo nutantem pondere mundum Terrasque tractusque maris Coelumque profundum Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia seclo O mihi tam longae maneat pars ultima vitae Spiritus quantum sat erit tua dicere facta Non me carminibus vincet nec Thracius Orpheus Nec linus huic mater quamvis atque huic pater adsit Orphei Calliopea Lino formosus Apollo Pan Deus Arcadiâ mecum si judice certet Pan etiam Arcadiâ dicet se judice victum Incipe parve puer risu cognoscere matrem Matri longa decem tulerant fastidia menses Incipe parve puer qui non risere parentes Nec Deus hunc mensâ Dea nec dignata cubili est APPENDIX Concerning Prophcies and Predictions particularly the Sibyls and the foregoing Translation of what Virgil rehearses out of the Cumaean Sibyls Verses 1 Thes 5.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Despise not Prophesyings Or rather reckon not as if there are no true Prophecies CHAP. I. Of the Importance of Prophecies for confirmation of the Christian Religion how the Sibyline Verses were preserved and the Primitive Christians justified in their Appeals to them Their Authority confirm'd by a Passage cited as St. Paul's by Clement of Alexandria OF all the Arguments excellently urg'd by Grotius and but enervated by my Rythms there is none which seems more undeniably to enforce the belief of a Deity and the Religion which Christ Jesus taught Mankind than the Evidence that there have been at least in some Ages of the World such Predictions as have manifested a fore-knowledg of those future Events of which it was impossible to have the least intimation from any Cause or Sign appearing only by natural Light and that such an one as the blessed Jesus had been fore-shewn and was accordingly expected about that time when he first convers'd among Men. Numbers not injudicious may be impos'd upon with appearances seemly miraculous either by a Confederacy flight of hand or natural Magick in applying the occult