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A53904
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Naaman vindicated as well from the idolatries of the house of Rimmon in Syria, as from the abuses of the atheists and hypocrites in England / by Richard Pearson, priest of the Church of England.
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Pearson, Richard, 1641?-1710.
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1700
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Wing P1013; ESTC R28783
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86,525
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92
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learned Puffendorff in a late Treatise of his Intituled THE NATURE OF RELIGION IN REFERENCE TO CIVIL SOCIETY informs us of one Adrian Hutuyn a Civilian in Holland who in a Book called A POLITICAL EPITOMY among many other wild Extravagancies has as to this Point also exactly Copied after the Leviathan But I shall forbear producing any particulars or making any farther Remarks upon this Author It being enough for my present purpose only to observe thus much viz. That his very choice of such a Master is a plain Indication of the Temper and Inclinations of the Scholar And since we hereby know what kind of Spirit he is of this alone may suffice to enable us to give his Writings also a suitable Entertainment And indeed as I said at first had we no other Arguments to prevail upon us methinks we should be sufficiently secured from the danger of this Infection by the meer â—orrour and Extreme Prejudice which we may justly conceive whilst we consider the notorious ill Characters of the several Authors and Promoters of this Doctrine whose bare Names set over it should methinks be at the same time both a sufficient distinguishing Title to the Poison and consequently in some Respect a very good Antidote too Since what else but mischief can be expected from the so known Enemies of Christianity and all Religion and whose Behaviour in all other Points as well as this was so very unlike to that of those who any way deserved the Name of Christians Which is the Second thing I shall now Consider viz. CHAP. VIII How quite contrary was the Example of our Blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles as well as the Practise of all the genuine Primitive Christians NOW as to the Example of that great Author and Finisher of our John 18. 37. Faith our ever Blessed Saviour he expresly declares of himself To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth Which end and design of his he fully made good and executed to the last by laying down 1 Tim. 6. 13. his most precious Life upon that very Account whilst he Witnessed that excellent Confession before Pontius Pilate spoken of by the Apostle upon which he received his Sentence of Condemnation And what was that Truth and that Confession No other than what is the very Foundation of all Christianity and at the same time so shamefully denyed by our Socinians who yet have the Face to call themselves Christians viz. That he was the true Messiah or really GOD-MAN For upon his asserting this grand Truth That he and his Father were one the Jews took up Stones to Stone him and directly Charge him with Blasphemy in that he being as they supposed a meer Man made himself God as we find John 10. 30. 31. 33. And so Mat. 26. 63. When the High-Priest with the Jewish Sanhedrim sitting in Judgment on him had adjured him by the living God to tell them whether or no he was the Christ the Son of God Jesus answered him THOU HAST SAID that is Thou hast hit on the very Truth or I am really the Son of God Which he also immediately farther confirms with a Threatning infinitely more terrible than Thunder and Lightning or Ten thousand Earthquakes enough to have dashed them into a Fit of Trembling and Consternation far beyond that of Belshazzar himself when he saw the Hand-writing upon the Wall For it follows Nevertheless I say unto you Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the Right-hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Where this Word Nevertheless does not immediately relate to any thing either before or afterwards expressed but to something that is to be supply'd or understood As if he had said Notwithstanding or Although I very well know that you will not now believe this my Confession yet hereafter to your unconceivable Sorrow and Confusion you shall be fully Convineed of the Truth thereof whether you will or no when you shall see as most certainly you shall see me coming in all the Majesty of Heaven to Judge the World And here now begging a little Digression from my Subject I cannot forbear adding That those Persons who after the Advantage of such powerful Arguments which the Jews at that time wanted towards the Confirmation of this Truth by Christs Resurrection Ascension and sending of the Holy-Ghost and by the so sudden and miraculous Propagation of the Gospel all the World over can yet find in their Hearts to deny and even deride the real Divinity of our Saviour are far more inexcusable than the very Jews themselves must in their Hearts think him and do by Consequence no other than call him I tremble to think of it a meer Liar and Deceiver They do in effect agree with the Jews in their Charge of Blasphemy against him justifie their Actions in his Condemnation and Crucifixion and would in all probability whatsoever they may think to the contrary have readily joyned with them in the same had they but Lived in their Time and Circumstances But I return to my proper Business in hand by next Considering How well the Apostles also followed this Example of their great Master in not dissembling the Truth nor being ashamed of the Gospel nor terrified from the open Confession of their Faith upon all occasions notwithstanding all the Dangers and Threatnings that might have prevailed upon them to the contrary And indeed had we no other Evidences to this purpose our bare Observation that the World is not still Pagan as the greatest Atheist cannot deny but that it once was so that we now have or know any thing of the Gospel this alone of it self is an undeniable Proof and even a sensible Demonstration of that matter Since all this under God must needs be wholly owing to the undaunted Courage and Constancy of those first Planters without whose Light and faithful Preaching of the Word we must still have continued to sit in Darkness and in the shadow of Death So that even the greatest Infidels in all other Points must yet from the visible effects thereof easily enough give Credit to those particular Relations of the Gospel concerning the Apostles Behaviour of this kind viz That being first Beaten and Imprisoned for Preaching Christ and afterwards strictly charged by the Rulers that they should no more speak to the People of that Name they boldly answered * Acts 4. 19 20. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye For we cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen And so when some of the Brethren endeavoured to disswade St. Paul from his intended Journey to Jerusalem in prospect of the imminent Dangers that would there attend him his Answer was * Acts 21. 13. What mean ye to weep and to break my Heart For I am ready not to be bound only but also
extraordinary Punishments divinely inflicted upon the contrary Offenders AND first then tho' the Scripture had not otherwise as it does so expressly commended that of the three Children who chose to be cast into a fiery Furnace rather than by bowing down their Bodies before it seem to Worship the Golden Image which Nebuchadnezar had set up yet what better Argument could we have of Gods immediate Approbation of that Action than his so miraculous Preservation of them The like Miracle we also find in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning Polycarp the Bishop of that City who being upon the like account condemned to be burnt to Death as soon as the Pile of Wood was well kindled the Flames rose up round about him at a distance in the manner of a great Arch or like the Sails of a Ship when filled with the Wind Whilst he remained in the midst untouched and without harm Which being taken notice of with Admiration and seeing that it was impossible to put an end to his Life by Fire one of the Executioners was commanded to run him thorow with a Sword Pontianus who for refusing to Sacrifice suffered at Spoleto under the Emperor Antoninus after he had been almost all other ways miserably Tormented was then thrown to the Lions in the Theatre who would not so much as once touch him After that he was thrust into Prison there to be Starv'd to death But being unexpectedly fed by the ministry of an Angel for several days the Judge commanded boyling Lead to be poured all over his naked Body and still when this also could not kill him they at last put an end to his Life by cutting off his Head Eusebius in like manner tells us of a great many Christians suffering under Dioclesian in the City Tyre of Phenicia who having been Euseb Hist l. 8. c. 7. exposed to Lions Bears Leopards and other ravenous Beasts never received the least harm from them tho' when tryed with any other Persons the beasts sell greedily to their Work Which tho' it justly caused Amazement in all Beholders yet their cruel Persecutors not suffering them to escape so put them all to the Sword and then cast their Bodies into the Sea The like to this we also read happening to Elutherius Caecilia Eustratius and many others in the several Martyroligies who tho' they were all suffered to die at last by one sort of death or another that so the Rewards of their Constancy might no longer be deferred were yet first wonderfully preserved from so many kinds that it might thereby sufficiently appear both how able the same Divine Power was to have still preserved them from any violent death at all and how miracuously Heaven owned their Cause and so how altogether inexcusable was the Obstinacy of those who would not be convinced thereby But still most Remarkable is that of one Theodore who underwent all sorts of Torments for half a day together with such strange Chearfulness and Alacrity that Sallust the Prefect to whom Julian the Apostate had given that unacceptable Employment being perfectly amazed thereat and utterly despairing of Success remanded the Man to Prison and going to the Emperour honestly advised him to leave off such Cruelties since otherwise he would only procure still greater Honour to the Christians and to himself nothing at all but Disgrace and Shame thereby Afterwards this Theodore was set free and went to Antioch When being asked If he felt any Ruffin lib. 1 c. 36. Pain when in the burning hot Brazen Instrument He answered That at the first he did feel some But soon after one in the Form of a young Man standing by him continually wiped off his Sweat and bathed him with cold Water with which he was so admirably comforted and delighted that after he was released and set down he could not chuse but be troubled thereat We want not also very grave Authors and of unquestionable Credit one of them too far enough from being any e Procop. Hist Vandal Friend to the Cause who tell us of a great many Persons under the Arian Persecution who had still the Miraculous continuation of the Gift of Speaking even after they had had their Tongues pluck'd out Now tho' thus to be preserved from so many Deaths and Inconveniences or not to be sensible of any Pain at all under the hands of such exquisite Tormenters is a Thing astonishing to consider of yet for Men so to behave themselves as all the rest of the Martyrs did even under the greatest Sense of Pain is to be look'd upon as neither much less Admirable nor less to our present Purpose But yet concerning that supernatural Courage with which they bore their Torments I shall not need to bestow much time having already tho' to a different Purpose produced so many Instances of Extraordinary Constancy which may equally serve also as so many Arguments of an Extraordinary Divine Support and consequently of God's immediate Approbation too of the particular Causes for which and manner after which they suffered The Consequence of both which was indeed so apparent to those who impartially weighed the Matter that several of the Judges themselves and many of their very Tormenters were so powerfully convinc'd thereby as to become immediately Censessors and Martyrs their own selves But waving all these Examples both as already sufficiently well known to most and as too numerous to be here particularly related I shall at present content my self with one Example onely of a little different kind which may well serve for all the rest since it is such as I think nothing in all History can go beyond it It happen'd in the Persecution in Aegypt carried on by the Emperour Maximinus and was there also presented to the World in the Person of a young and tender Virgin the Beautiful and Virtuous Fotamenia who escaping the double Trap laid for her by the Complotment of her lustful Master and the wicked Judge Nobly scorn'd to save her Life as She was offered by denying Christ either with her Mouth or by the future unsuitable ill Life she was tempted to Whereupon she was presently condemn'd to be put stark naked into a great Brass Vessel full of boiling hot Pitch there ready prepared for that purpose But the heavenly Creature hearing this Sentence Thus apply'd herself to the Judge Since you are resolved said she That I shall die this sort of Death Let me entreat nay let me Conjure you by the very Head of your Emperour which to you I perceive is of all Things most dear and sacred That you would not make an End of me presently nor all at once but let me in leisurely and by degrees one Part after another That so you may plainly perceive and know what Torments and how patiently too that God whom I worship and you know not both can and will enable me to undergo for His sake Which Request of hers being both Pallad in Lausiac c. 1. easily granted