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cause_n	believe_v	ghost_n	holy_a	1,385	5	5.2286	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44932	The spirit of prophecy a treatise to prove, by the wayes formerly in use among the Jews, in the tryal of pretenders to a prophetic spirit, that Christ and his Apostles were prophets : together with the divine authority of christian religion and the Holy Scriptures, the insufficiency of human reason, and the reasonableness of the christian faith, hope, and practice, deduced therefrom, and asserted against Mr. Hobbs, and the Treatise of Hvmane Reason / by W.H.	Hughes, William, b. 1624 or 5.	1679 (1679)	Wing H3346; ESTC R19799	183,906	298

Argument into this form and the strength of it will be evident Those whom God employes to prophesie are Fellow servants But you and your brethren the Apostles as well as I God employes to prophesie therefore we are Fellow-servants St. John could make a doubt of nothing in this Argument but the Assumption whether he and the rest of the Apostles were sent to prophesie Yes sayes the Angel that you are for the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy Hereby to me it seems apparent that the Testimony of Jesus here signifies that which the Apostles gave unto him and would you know why this is called the Testimony of Jesus not of the Apostle● concerning him then observe that this Testimony of Jesus may be considered two wayes viz. Strictly or Largely if abstractly or strictly in it self then it is little or nothing else but the Record they gave of Christ or the Doctrine they taught concerning him and this is said to be the Testimony of Jesus because he is the principal thing it treats of but if it be considered largely it comprehends not only the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning Christ but also the Strength Power and Authority whereby they taught it Thus considered it is the Testimony of Jesus not only because they gave it to him but also because they received it from him For he gave them not only Command to bear this witness of him i. e. to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every creature but also Strength and Power so to do for he first opened their Vnderstandings that they should understand the Scriptures and afterwards he e●dued them with Power from on high by sending the Promise of the Father i. e. the Spirit upon them to lead them into all Truth and enable them to speak it to all Nations whatsoever and this was done so eff●ctually as that men of every Nation under Heaven heard them speak in their own Language and this surely in it self considered was no small matter of Testimony to our Jesus The Apostles we know were ignorant and unlearned men that understood but little of Scripture less of Foreign Languages yet hereby on a sudden they were enabled exquisitely to understand the one and to speak the other of all sorts and doth it not surpass the Power of Nature to make so stupendious a change as this was What Creatures can make Men Wise Holy and Learned in an instant It is a work of Wonder that falls within the compass of little less than Omnipotent Power and Wisdom Surely therefore the Author of it was God and if so then Jesus to whom the Apostles were thereby enabled to give Testimony was at least a Man approved of him On that account therefore their Doctrine or rather their Preaching or Promulgation of the Gospel by it may well be called the Testimony of Jesus And this Testimony of Jesus my Text tells us is the Spirit of Prophecy The truth and Essence of Prophecy saith Maimonides is nothing else but an Influence from God by the Mediation of the active Intellect operating first upon the Rational afterwards on the Imaginable Faculty This Definition is thought somewhat too scanty and obscure to express the nature of Prophecy in its full Latitude it is therefore conceived that by a little alteration of its Definition by another Rabbi we may have a more adequate and clear conception of its nature viz. that it is an Influence from God upon the Rational Faculty either by the Mediation of the Fancy or otherwise and by this Influence whether by the Ministry of an Angel or otherwise a man attains to such knowledge as by his Natural Abilities would be unattainable In these Definitions of Prophecy we have nothing at present to observe but that wherein they both do agree namely the general Nature of it which they make to consist in Influence from God Prophecy is not an Ignis fatuus of a disturbed Fancy but an Impression of Divine Light thence perhaps it was that in old time the Prophets were called Seers not because or at least not so Properly because of their Fore-sight of things Future as of their Visions those Images or Appearances of things as Visible which by Divine Influence were represented on the stage of their Fancy to the sight of their Understandings And afterwards the Prophets were called Men of God because God was pleased immediately to reveal himself unto them and so the word rendred Prophet denotes one that receives what he saith from God It seems then that all Prophecy truly so called hath its descent from Above it is not of any Private interpretation or rather of a mans own starting or suggestion for it comes not by the Will of Man but Holy Men of God did thereby speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost We Christians therefore believe the Holy Ghost spake by the Prophets and that Prophecy is a Gift of the Spirit For which cause no doubt it was that Justin Martyr intitles him the Spirit of Prophecy But when we consider that the Spirit of Prophecy as in my Text is affirmed of the Testimony of Jesus it seems most probable that it therein signifies not his Person but his Gift not his Essence or Subsistence but an Effect produced by him which is here called by his Name Thus the Spirit of a sound Mind the Spirit of Wisdom and Meckness the Spirit of Knowledge the Spirit of Grace and the Spirit of Prayer signifie Effects Works or Gifts which the Spirit of God produceth in the Souls of Men. So here in my Text the Spirit of Prophecy by an ordinary Metonymy of the Cause for the Effect is put for the Gift or Ability to prophesie which the Holy Ghost wrought in some of Gods Ministers This Gift the Angel had when he spake to St. John and so saith he had St. John too and the rest of the Apostles in their Testimony of Jesus i. e. in the Record they gave of Christ or in the promulgation of the Doctrine they taught concerning him from whence it apparently follows that the Angel here speaking and they were Fellow-servants But it is not this their Association with Angels which I now intend to discourse of but the Reason and Cause of it viz. their Gift of Prophecy It is we see here avouched by an Angel that the Apostles in the Promulgation of the Gospel were indued with the Gift of Prophecy or in short that they were Prophets and if they in their Testimony of Jesus were Prophets much more was He himself by whose Spirit they gave it to him a Prophet all then that remains for me to do will be to prove that Christ and his Apostles were Prophets Hereof methinks none can doubt but those that are slow of heart to believe the Holy Scriptures for therein we first find it fore-told to the Jews that God would raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto

it was a more heinous sin to transgress them than the Written Law yea that whosoever dissents from his Teacher doth as much as if he dissented from the Divine Majesty and sinned against the Holy Ghost and for that Cause was guilty of Death viz. by the Scourge of Rebellion which was a sort of Punishment by cudgelling inflicted for the Breach and Contempt of Traditions Since I say they had these and many other such prodigiously wicked and cruel Inventions to uphold the Authority of their Traditions and Dictatorship it is no marvel if they proceeded against those that spake lightly of them as if Malice were the fittest Affection Vengeance and Cruelty the best Behaviour towards them Yet evident it is that Christ did not spare them but as the Prophets of old so did he detect the Hypocrisie and sharply reprove the faults of their Elders He did demonstrate the Vanity of their Righteousness and expose the cunning Wickedness of their Traditions He discovered the impiety of their Magisterial Dictates and freely unfolded the Mysteries of their Iniquity He pulled off the Guilding and Paint of their seeming Devotion and uncovered the Rottenness and P●trefaction of their Hearts He despised the Pageants of a Pompous Formality and set at naught the Ceremonies of their External Performances without inward and real Goodness Though the People did rage and the Rulers take Councel together against him yet he did constantly affirm that God had sent him and as the Prophets before him so did he undauntedly shew the People their Transgressions and the House of Jacob their Sins And in so doing he strived to retrive the Law and the Prophets to rescue them from false Glosses and Misconstructions to discover the Insufficiency of Traditions and Pharisaical Righteousness to inculcate the necessity of Morality and so to reduce the Jews to the Practice of Piety in all Holiness of Living and Fervours of divine Worship in Spirit and in Truth without their numerous Ceremonies or at least their mighty Confidence in their Priviledges and Performances which both he and his Apostles taught them to place in our Lord Jesus a stumbling Block and Rock of Offence unto them and was not this a great and strange Undertaking Such as loudly speaks the Greatness of their Minds and the Bravery of their Courage Which was not in the least abated but rather increased by Opposition in their Lives it did assist them to bear all Sorts of Afflictions and to endure the rudest Contradictions of Sinners against them and at their Deaths it did not forsake them for though after some solemn Mockeries of Justice enough to move ones Indignation they were cruelly Murdered and barbarously Butchered yet their Patience and Charity those truest Signs of M●gnanimity in Sufferings were conspicuous and admirable insomuch that They only of all Teachers may be compared with the Prophets or rather preferred before them for Fortitude Whereof also the Apostles gave abundant evidence among the Gentiles whom they found dead in Trespasses and sins prone to nothing so much as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life i. e. Sensual Pleasures Riches and Honours these things they did not only love and live in but in a sort adore and dei●ie for not only Gods Creatures and Men that were famous in their Lives nor only the Fancies and Fictions of Poets but their own Lusts and Passions called by other names were also enrolled among their Gods Venus and Cupid Mars and Baccbus were the Names of deified Concupiscence Wrath and Drunkenness although they forbad these Vices and made Laws against them yet their Causes as Theodoret tells them they saluted as heavenly Gods and gave divine Worship unto them And was it not a sad and direful Apotheosis whereby Enmity against God was advanced to his Throne the grossest Superstition and Un●leanness established for Religion for in their Festivals and Solemn Ceremonies of divine Worship all manner of Vice and Wickedness was appointed to be committed such filthiness as the most salacious would almost blush at in a Closet was committed in open Pomp and Ostentation insomuch that almost all the Sacred Games but especially the Bacchanals were as one calls them the Cause and Seed-plots of the greatest Wickednesses If the Ethiopian may change his skin and the Leopard his as soon as those do good who are accustomed to do evil although their Religion teach them to do the one and eschew the other how hard is it for those to do good who have been not only accustomed but taught to do evil and that under pain of Transgression against Conscience or at least the Laws and Customs of their Country if they omit it Especially considering their most wicked and filthy Practice could plead Prescription in the Examples of their Fore-fathers and Noble Heroes yea also it had the Power and Policy the Stratagems and Devices of the Devil the Cunning Guile and Craft of his Agents the Force and Authority of Civil Powers to countenance and uphold it in despite of all Opposition Was it not then an hard thing for any much more for a few private men and strangers such as the Apostles to turn them from Darkness unto Light from the Power of Satan unto God yet they undertook to do it and pursued it all their dayes although they very well knew that not only Labours travels and hardships of divers kinds but also Bonds and Afflictions of all sorts and degrees stripes and Imprisonments yea and Death it self would abide them in so doing Yet none of these things could trouble their Minds nor discourage their Attempt nothing could make them retract their Resolution or abate their Endeavours as they were able to promote it which to me seems a demonstration of Prophetick Fortitude viz. that that same Courage and Magnanimity whereby the Prophets were acted in the discharge of their Office did assist them in promulgating the Gospel Of the Prophetick Riches of Christ and his Apostles Sect. 4. And as in Wisdom and Fortitude so also in the Riches of the Prophets i. e. in all Moral Vertues but especially Contentment Christ and his Apostles were equal yea superiours unto them Hereof we need no other demonstration than the designed End of their Doctrine which as we before saw was the Promotion and Establishment of the most Elevated Vertue and Immaculate Purity but if any farther proof of it be desired we may find it in St. Paul by whom we learn that the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation which words are but a Periphrasis of the Gospel teacheth us that denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live sob●rly righteously and godly in this present World To this end both the Precepts and Institutions the Promises and the Threats of the Gospel are so extraordinary subservient as that they loudly speak the Holiness as well as Wisdom of its first Teachers It is no way probable that Lovers of Vice should so

Endowment with Goods both of Wit and Fortune 3. Sequestration from the common and profane manner of living 4. Convenience of Place and that they make proper to their own land 5. Seasonableness of time because say they all times are not equally apt for the reception of Prophecy 6. Divine Disposition or the free Gift and Suggestion of God The nece●sity of all these is deservedly questioned not only by Christians but also by some of the Jews themselves insomuth that as far as I can find there is no one of them that hath spoken distinctly of them all as Requisites to Prophecy Yet one Maxim there is pertinent to this Subject whereunto they all seem to yield Assent and that is That Prophecy rest●th on none but the Wise the Strong and the Rich. This saying among the Jews is perhaps thought worthy of all acceptation yet by some Christians it is est●●med more wo●thy of rej●ction not only because the Holy Ghost hath not tyed his Gifts to such requisites but also because it s●ems to savour of a design to k●ep P●ople in unb●lief of Christianity Such we know is the m●lice of the Jews against the Son of God as that their Rabbies labour what they can to hinder the growth of our Christian Faith to that end they have taught such Principl●s and Magisterially dictated such Sayings and Rules to the People as are apt to prepossess their Minds and fortifie their unbelieving Hearts with such Pr●judices as make them impregnable by all the Weapons and Strength of our Christian Warfare Such as these are those Fundamental Articles of their Faith concerning the Perpetuity and Immutability of the Law of Moses and the time of the coming of the M●ss●as which Opinions seem formed almost on purpose to hinder the Faith of Christ and to stop its Course among Men. And in mine appr●hension the Rule now under debate may be thought like unto them for while men believe that Prophecy rests on none but the Wise the Strong and the Rich how hard is it for them to believe that Christ and his Apostles were Prophets The reason is because in their Birth and Bodies their Education and Fortunes th●re seems little or nothing that may d●nominate them so qualified but much otherwise For this reason were there no other we Christians have just cause to qu●stion this Rule of their Rabbies but moreover we are sure that it is not universally true and indeed the Jews themselves confess as much for they except Moses and Samuel Amos and Jonas from it whereunto they might have added Deborah and Elisha whereof the former although a Prophetess yet being one of the Weaker Sex surely was not so strong as this R●le would have the Prophets and Elisha was called from following the Plough and so not likely to have been so Wise and Learned as this Rule pret●nds the Prophets should And then as for Riches we may well say with Vorstius there is nothing more foolish and unsavoury than to joyn matt●r of Money with the Prophetick Office or Spirit His reason is manifest because 't is certainly appar●nt that many if not most of the Prophets were sometimes reduced to such Pove●ty as that they endur●d hunger yea perhaps cold and nakedness th●ough their Want and pentoy yet still the Spirit of Pr●phecy rested on them By these their conc●ssions and Observations it plainly appears that this their Rule according to the most common acceptation of the words among the Vulgar is not universally true there is no indispensible nec●ssity of those things which that se●ms to make requisite for the R●ception of Prophecy I am therefore inclined to think that that Opinion concerning the Election of Prophets which M●imenides ascribes to the Vulgar is the onely true one namely that God chuseth and sends whom he pleases without regarding whether they be wise and learned ignorant young or old and if so then we may conclude with Hottinger that this Rule is not worth a nut-shell or else we must find out some s●nse wherein it may be admitted but admit it I think we may not unless it be on these two conditions 1. That the Prophet's Wisdom distinct from that they had by Rev●lation be not thought alwayes to consist in humane Learning acquir●d by s●udy but in their natural Sagacity or Prudence improved by Experience or otherwise and that their Strength was not alwayes that of the Body but the Fortitude of the Mind and lastly that their Riches be not those of the World but of Virtue and probity of Manners 2. That these things even thus understood be not made necessary Antecedents of Prophecy but concomitant Attendants on it they are not necessary for the Gift of Prophecy but convenient for the Office of a Prophet In this sense and this only the Jews perhaps may justifie their Rule and we may allow it some measure of Admittance and in this sence we are not unwilling that the Spirit or Gift of Prophecy which we assert to have been in Christ and his Apostles should be tryed by it in order whereunto it will not be amiss to take a distinct Survey of the Prophets Wisdome Strength and Riches By the Prophets Wisdom Maimonides understands humane Learning and Knowledge acquired by Study This therefore saith he is our foundation without without Study and Perfection no man can Prophesie and that the possibility of it depends thereon But was Samuel perfect in his Childhood had Elisha and Amos been so studious as to arrive at Perfection before God took the one from holding the Plough and the other from following the Flock It seems not although therefore Maimonides was a Master-builder in Israel yet he laid his Foundation in the Sand otherwise it could not have been so easily shaken We are not of his mind that Fools and Sons of the Earth can possibly Prophesie no more than an Ass or a Frog or the possibility of Prophecy hath a dependance on Study and Perfection acquired by it We dare not so to limit the Almighty or set bounds to Omnipotence yet we think it becoming the excellency of Prophecy and convenient for the Office of a Prophet that the Person inspired should be one of no contemptible Natural Parts and Prudence Not that Natural Sagacity or any acquired Endowments could conduce by way of Efficiency to the Gift of Prophecy but yet they might and did by way of Anticipation although they were not absolutely needful in order to the Production or Reception of the Spirit of Prophecy yet they were convenient to anticipate and prevent the Prejudices which otherwise would arise against the Persons of the Prophets How hard a thing was it especially if their age were such as ours to make men believe that the God of Infinite Wisdome would Inspire men of shallow Intellectuals and incompetent Apprehensions Prophecy is one of the highest degrees of Perfection whereof in this Life our humane Nature is capable and how hardly are we perswaded

two 1. Because the Apostles Power was no other than that of Our Saviour to invite men to imbrace the Kingdom of God which they themselves acknowledged for a Kingdom not present but to come and They that have no Kingdome can make no Laws It is very true They that have no Kingdom can make no Laws yet since as the same Page tells us God is the Soveraign of all the World they that have no Kingdom may Proclaim his Laws and this was the Office of the Apostles as Prophets or men Inspired by God and sent to Preach the Gospel Their calling of M●n to Christianity derived not its Authority Originally from them but from God that sent them and send them he did not barely to invite Men unto it but also in His Name to Command them to receive it for now God Comm●●deth all Men every where to repent and this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ Under these two heads of Repentance towards God and of Faith towards our Lord J●sus Christ St. Paul comprehends all Invitations that can be to Christianity and since they both are thus plainly and Emphatically commanded it is a strange over●ight or worse to say the Prec●pts of the Gospel are no Commands And yet more strange and worse than so it is to say 2. We read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin but th●t they died in their sins that is that their sins against the Laws to which they owed obedience were not pardoned And therefore of Infidels St. John ●aith not the wr●th of God shall come upon them but the wrath of God remaineth upon them and not that they shall be condemned but that they are condemned Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of Faith is Remission of sins unless we conceive withall that the dammage of In●idelity is the Retention of the same sins But do we not read that when Christ sent forth His Disciples by two and two He gave them Order that in whatever House or City they were not received and heard they should shake off the dust under their feet for a ●estimony against them and withall assuring them that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and G●m●r●●a in the day of Judgment than for that city And do we not read of Jerusalem whose Houses were le●t desolate because the Inhabitants would not be gathered unto Him and do we not read that This is the cond●mnation that light is come into the world and men love Darkness rather than light and do we not read that he who believeth not shall be Damned and do we not read that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in fl●ming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and do we not read of the Comforter who was to come and reprove the world of sin because they believe not on him It is well known that if we turn to our Bibles we may read all these things therein how strange then is it and horrid to say we read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin Is that no Sin which will make Eternal Judgment more severe and intolerable to otherwise the best of Cities than to Sodom and Gomorr●a is that no Sin for which God destroyed Jerusalem and cast off the ●eed of Abraham his Friend and the Children of Jacob his chosen Is that no Sin for which above all things the World is condemned Is that no Sin for which Men shall be damned Is that no Sin for which they shall suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire Is that no Sin for which the Holy Ghost reproves the World of Sin Who so blind in his apprehension or so perverse in his judgment as to think it is not even he that writ it I verily think did it with but at best a trembling Assent unto it His Allegations of Scripture and Reason to prove it are so impertinent and insufficient as that they rather conclude the contrary For what though St. John speaks in the present Tense and faith not the Wrath of God shall come but that it abideth upon him that believeth not and that he is condemned already Doth it thence follow that Infidelity is no sin who would not rather thence conclude that it is yea and that so great an one as that the Unbeliever shall as certainly be punished for it as if Gods Wrath were actually Inflicted or Eternal Condemnation had actually passed upon him this Construction of the Evangelists words is certainly far more probable than the other because He there assigns the Reason of the Unbelievers Condemnation which is not because he had sinned against the Laws of Nature and the Civil Laws of State but because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God Since then this is the moving Cause or Reason of his Condemnation it is here evident that this is his sin Nor doth the Reason that the Leviathan alledgeth to the contrary enforce any other conclusion for it cannot be conceived that the Retention of sin is the dammage of Infidelity unless we conceive withal that Infidelity doth displease God nor can we conceive it to displease Him unless withal we conceive it to be a Sin And indeed when we well consider it we cannot possibly methinks conceive it to be any other for very evident it is that Christ Crucified is either a Rock of Offence or Foolishness unto it it sets at naught the Counsel of God in contriving and despiseth the Riches of His Grace in effecting the Redemption of the World by Him it counts the Blood of the Covenant an Unholy or Trivial thing not worth minding and does despite unto or at least resists the Spirit of Grace it makes God a Lier and all the Witnesses to Christianity it impudently chargeth with Falshood in short it frustrates the whole Gospel and breaks the Commandment of God and therefore it is a great sin Nor indeed can it possibly be otherwise because it is a Notorious transgression of the Gospel and the Gospel is a Law Namely the Law of the Spirit of Life and the perfect Law of Liberty Nor can it be thought that these Apostles do improperly style the Gospel a Law for a Law being little or nothing else but an Ordinance and Preception Promulgated for the common Good by Him that hath the Care of the Community it is very easy to discern that the Gospel hath in it the Nature of a Law because all the parts of its Definition are very agreable thereto it concerns Me at present to take Notice only of its Obligation and this is so inseparable from a Law as that it receives its Name therefrom and indeed the most Essential difference of a Law

endanger so great a loss for so small Pleasure or Profit as seem to be had thereby For in the Tract but now mentioned we find that those only of the Israelites who deny the Resurrection or the Descent of their Law from God or the Being of a Deitie or those that read Heretical Books or pretend to cure Diseases by Inchantment or expound the name Jehovah in the vulgar Language these I say and these only of all the Israelites should be excluded from eternal Life And were not the people very much obliged to their Rabbies for removing the Cherubims and flaming Sword which kept the Way of the Tree of Life against all other unhallowed Sinners yes verily that they were especially considering that if any of them were so ill-advised as to hazard this their Right to Heaven yet had they no cause to dispair of its recovery for either by Repentance in this life or by a twelve Months Penance in Purgatory and the Prayers of Survivors the Exemption might be taken ●ff and they recover their Portion in the World to come And what more likely than these Traditions to evacuate the Commandments When a Rewa●d is s●●ured to All who will work When Eternal Happiness is entailed upon All who will regard the Necessity of Holiness or take Care to follow it 'T is true indeed Antigonus Socensis forbad his Discipl●s to serve God on Condition of receiving Reward and required them to do it without any such Exp●ctation t is also true that for this he was applauded by divers of their Seraphick Rabbies yet the effect of it was fatal to the Truth in some and of no Force on the Practice of most of the Jews and for that Reason divers of their Wise men that liked his Opinion yet blamed the Publication of it they therefore thought it better to permit the vulgar to enjoy their Opinion that Good was to be done for Hope of a Reward and evil to be eschewed for fear of Punishm●nt But since they were assured of a Portion in Heaven they had not much Reason to fear the Torments of Hell For if their Traditions were true it was a very easie Matter for them to keep the Law the Pr●c●pts whereof they distinguished into two Sorts whereof they called the one Commands the other P●●hibitions The Commands they say a●e two hundr●d forty eight just so many as according to the Anatomy of the Rabbies there are Members in a mans Body but the Prohibitions are three hundred sixty five viz. as many as there are dayes in the Year or as they say there are Veins in the Body of a man and th●refore say th●y if any one Member of a mans Body doth every day fulfill one of the Commands and omit one of the things prohibited it will thence come to pass that not only the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses shall be by them most excellently kept every Year throughout all Ages Though perhaps we Christians may laugh at and despise this their Obedience yet it seems they thereby did supererrogate as well as obey for Abravanel assures us it was an approved Opinion of their Wise men that Whosoever of the Israelites did any one Precept of the Law which is in his Power he should th●reby merit the chief Reward i. e. The Life of the World to come And what more apt than such a Perswasion to make men partial and languid in the Practice of Moral Vertue And so indeed we find them for the Religion of the most Devout and Strictest Sects among them did either degenerate into Formality or else evaporate in Hypocrisie It was dry and sapless dead and lifeless a meer Contexture of Ceremonies and External Performances a Sceleton or at best but a Carcass without any heat or Life of Divine Love in it a form of Godliness without the Power a shew of Piety a Device to seem religious without being so a meer bodily kind of Drudgery and Servility yet were they as confident of its Goodness and as fondly proud of the Advantages they thought they had thereby as if in very Deed it had b●en that which was required by God and confirmed by Miracles supported by Prophets and professed by their Forefathers throughout all preceding Generations and so obstinately did they adhere to it as that the severest calamities of War could not make them cease from it for Josephus reports that when Pompey was got into their City and Aristobulus his Faction had took Sanctuary in the Temple with a Resolution to defend it they would not oppose his raising of Bulwarks or Towers or planting his Engines against it on the Sabbath day because as they thought their Law allowed them not to resist an Enemy upon the Sabbath day unless he were actually ●●ghting against them the most imminent and th●eatening Preparations for War were not in their Judgment sufficient to warrant their Work or Acts of Hostility on that day Yea such was their Zeal for their Tradi●iona●y Religion as that when the Romans had taken the Temple and were killing whomsoever they met therein yet it being one of their dayes of Fasting Survivors would not desist from the exercise of it neither the Fear of Death nor the Dreadful fight of dead and dying Multitudes could affright them from Acts of Divine Worship but judging it better to die than to forsake their Altars or omit any thing prescribed by their Laws they were ready to suffer whatever the Conquerours thought fit to inflict And again afterwards when Pontius Pilate had brought the Effigies of Caesar into the City they grew so troublesome with their Importunity to have it removed as that Pilate threatened them with Death if they would not depart and be quiet whereupon casting themselv●s down before him and making bare their Throats they say●d unto him they could sooner endure Death with Pleasure than dare to suffer the Wisdom of their Laws to be sc●ssed at Since then their Zeal for their Religion was thus preposterous and servent it seems to me more than probable that they were apt thereby to be transported into Fury and Madness at Reasons and D●monstrations made by private men of its Shortness and Vanity yea that they could not with Patience bear those that did but so much as gently suggest it as appears yet more probable by the Explication their Gemara giv●s of Epicures viz. That they are those who contemn the Disciples of their Wise men and for that cause if they are Israelites they shall lose their Portion in the World to come What then think ye thought they of those who had the courage to cast Contempt on the Dogmata and Traditions of the Wise men themselves were they not looked on as Blasphemers o● God and Enemies to the Law of Moses Yes doubtless that they were for since the Jews were thorowly instructed not only to attribute a Divine Original and Authority to the Traditions of their Elders but also to believe that