the Twenty fifth of December some the Twenty sixth of December some the Twentieth of April some the Seventeenth of April and some the Sixteenth of May. There was yet another Feast amongst them called by us Epiphany mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus The Author observes they kept no other Saints days nor did they call 〈◊〉 Apostles Saints but plain Matthew 〈◊〉 c. only they celebrated the Anniversaâ—â— of their own Martyrs praising their Actions and exhorting one another to Imitation the Place of their Meeting was at their Graves and Tombs Lastly our Author observes that their Festivals were not times of Revelling Drunkenness Gluttony c. but in Acts of Piety Charity and Religious Employments X. In the Tenth and last Chapter our Author comes to consider the Ceremonies of the Primitive Church for instance when they Baptized in some Churches the new Member had Milk and Hony given to him and in some Places before they prayed they washed their Hands they had Exorcism before Baptism and Unction after and innumerable more such Ceremonies which crept in partly by a Misunderstanding some Texts and partly by being amongst the Superstitious Heathens Yet the Churches retain'd their own Liberty and Customs without imposing or being impos'd upon by one another I shall give only one of those many Instances that our Author has brought for his Purpose 't is out of a Fragment of an Epistle written by Irenaeus and other Bishops of France wherein they affirm that Victor was in the right with respect to the time of Easter that it ought to be celebrated as he said on the Lords Day but that yet he had done very ill to cut off from the Unity of the Church those that observed it otherwise that it had never been known that any Churches were Excommunicated for a disagreement in Rites an Instance of which there was not only in the time of Easter its self but in the Fast that preceded it Some fasted one day others more some forty hours which variety of Observations began not first in our Age but long before us in the times of our Ancestors who yet preserved Peace and Unity amongst themselves as we now do for the Diversity of Fasts commended the Unity of Faith And as for this Controversie concerning the time of Easter the Bishops which governed the Church of Rome before Soter viz. Anicetus Pius Higynus Telesphorus and Xystus they never celebrated it the same time with the Asiaticks neither would they permit any of their People so to do but yet they were kind and peaceable to those who came to them from those Parishes where they did otherwise observe it and never any for this Cause were thrown out of the Church even their Predecessors though they did not keep it yet they sent the Eucharist to those that did keep it and when in the times of Anicetus blessed Polycarp came to Rome and there were some Controversies between them they did not separate from one another but still maintained Peace and Love And though Anicetus could never perswade Polycarp nor Polycarp Anicetus to be of each others mind yet they Communicated one with another and Anicetus in Honour to Polycarpus permitted him to Consecrate the Sacrament in his Church and so they departed in mutual Love and Kindness and all the Churches whether observing or not observing 〈◊〉 same Day retained Peace and Unity amongst themselves Apud Euseb. Lib. 5. Cap. 24. Pag. 192 193. After all our Author concludes with a most passionate Exhortation to Love and Peace amongst our selves protesting that in this Treatise he has not been byass'd by any Party or Faction whatever but has endeavour'd a plain full and impartial discovery of Truth leaving every one to their Liberty as to the Judgment they shall make of it He says he has left out many Ancient things and handled mostly those Points that are now in dispute amongst us He has taken a great deal of pains in citing his Authorities all along In short he has out-done all that ever have Wrote in this kind before him and yet with a Spirit of so much Modesty and Humility that every Party may see their Errors without having any cause to be angry withe their Exposer He has given a Table of the Fathers Names which he has made use of as also their Ages and Countries that we may thereby be able to ghess at the Original of some Customs amongst them and the Places where they were chiefly practised St. Clementis Epistolae duae ad Corinthâ—os Interpretibus Patricio Iunio Gottifredo Vendelino Iohan. Bapt. Cotelerio Recensuit Notarum Spicilegium adjecit Paulus Colemesius Bibliothecae Lambethanae Curator Accedit Thomae Brunonis Canonici Windesoriensis Dissertatio de Therapeutis Philonis His subnexae sunt Epistolae aliquot singulares vel nunc primum Editae vel non ita facile obviae London Impensis Jacobi Adamson 1687. in 120. Pag. 377. 1. THese Epistles of St. Clement which were known only by some Citations of the Ancients were published the first time more than forty Years ago by Patricius Iunius who found them joined to the end of the New Testament in the famous MS. of Alexandria This Learned Man added to them a Latin Version and Notes William Burton Translated them into English in 1677 and added likewise Remarks of his own much larger than those of Iunius The Edition of the latter being soon become scarce it was imitated at Helmstadt in 1654 and Iochim Iohn Maderus added to it a new Preface since that time the Edition hath appear'd in Twelves by Dr Fell Bishop of Oxford and that of Mr. Cotelier in Folio Here is a fifth which we owe to the Care of Mr. Colomies who hath compared the precedent Editions with the MS. whence they have taken them and hath shew'd that the Learned Iunius was some times mistaken and had in the Reading this MS. put a wrong Sense upon many things we shall give an Example hereof after we have made some little mention of a small Dissertation which Mr. Colomies placed before St. Clement Entituled De Clementis ejus Epistolarum tempore Vandelini Divinatio This Vandelin was Tutor to the famous Gassendus and died Chanon of Ghent He believes that St. Clement was near the Age of St. Iohn the Evangelist and lived as long as he dying the third Year of the Reign of Trajan at Chersone in Pontus whither he was banished The Ancients all agree that St. Clement was Bishop of Rome but they do not agree upon the time he was so nor upon the Order which ought to be given him in the List of the first Bishops of this City Baronius himself confessed that he was not well assured of the order of the Succession of these Bishops until the Year CLXXIX Vandelin undertakes in this Dissertation to resolve the Difficulties by the means of the old Breviaries and Martyrologies after which he speaks of the time in which the Epistles of St. Clement were written As his
the Gauls The conduct of Victor pleased not all the other Bishops who exhorted him in their turn to have sentiments conformable to a Peace Unity and Love to our Neighbours There are still of their Letters adds Eusebius wherein they reprehend Victor with eagerness enough Amongst these Bishops was Irenaeus who in the Letter which he Writ upon this Subject in the Name of the Brothers over whom he presided among the Gauls maintains also that one Sunday must be Celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord yet he advertiseth Victor with much gravity that he ought not to cut off from the Communion whole Churches of God who observe a Tradition and Ancient Custom It will be some difficulty to believe that Bom found in this Affair a Proof of the Authority of the Pope Notwithstanding it is the conclusion he draws from it and grounds 1. Upon that the Bishops who were displeased at this Excommunication would undoubtedly have acted with more haughtiness against Victor if he had not been their Superior whereas they speak unto him with a mildness which marks well that they contested not the Right of Excommunicating the Churches as not being of his Jurisdiction but that they only found fault with the use he made thereof the cause of the Excommunication not being of consequence enough according to them 2. That notwithstanding they were deceived in that and that Victor did well to use this rigour because Blastus one of the principal Patrons of the Opinion of the Asiaticks would have introduced Iudaism under this pretence 3. That the Church approved of the Conduct of Victor in condemning the Bishops of Asia to whom was given the name of Quartodecimal Hereticks 4. That Irenaeus himself hath not doubted of the Superiority of the Bishop of Rome seeing he saith elsewhere That all the Churches must to wit all the Faithful of what place soever they are come to this Church in which the Apostolical Tradition hath been preserved by those who came to it from every Part because of its more powerful Principality Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio To this Episcopius Replies That the Answer of the Bishops of Asia and the Letter of Irenaeus would not be very respectful if Victor had been the Chief of the Church that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly to give a contrary order and those of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acerbius perstringere are not invented to express the submission of a Subject to his Prince and that if these Bishops could take it ill that their Judge a pretended Soveraign and Infallible should banish from the Church and exclude from Heaven so great a number of Churches for so slight a cause they have therefore thought that he might be mistaken in his Decisions upon matters of Faith and that they had a right to examine them 2. That the Heresie of Blastus justifies not the proceedings of Victor seeing the Asiaticks looked not upon the Celebration of the Passover as a necessary Observance and which should precisely be applyed to such a day that they were contented that Victor and other Bishops should Celebrate it on Sunday if they had their Reasons for it but that they having not the same proofs thereof believed themselves not obliged to abandon the Apostolical Tradition It hath not been remarked that our Professor answereth the passage of Irenaeus because we need only to read it throughly to shew that there is no mention there of the Right of the Bishop of Rome in the Decision of Controversies but only of the Characters which they in the time of Irenaeus did acknowledge Apostolical Thereupon he saith That it must be sought for in the places where the Apostles have established Bishops but because it would be too long to make an enumeration of all the Apostolick Churches he stops at one of the most ancient and greatest which is the Church of Rome As this City was the Capital of the Empire Principalitas Potentior and that for that Reason the Inhabitants of divers Provinces negotiated there and were obliged to come thither Irenaeus concludes that the Apostolical Tradition could not fail of having been faithfully kept there since that if the Christians of a Province or of a City had been minded to corrupt it the Christians of other places who were at Rome would have opposed it it being improbable to suppose that so many different Nations would agree to abandon in so little a time the Doctrine of the Apostles II. Bom often alledged passages out of St. Augustin for the Authority of Popes that gave occasion to Episcopius of citing him the 22d Canon of the Council of Millan where St. Augustin was Secretary and another Canon of the 6th Council of Carthage where this Bishop also assisted both which prohibited the drawing Ecclesiastical Causes of the Diocess of Africk on the other side the Sea whether they regard the Inferior Members of the Clergy or the very Bishops That the Deputies of the Pope having represented to the Assembly That this Canon destroyed the Priviledges which the Council had granted to the Patriarch of Rome in permitting Ecclesiasticks to appeal unto him in Judgments had against them by the Ordinaries the Bishops of Africk were extreamly surprized and said all Unanimously That they never heard of such Priviledges Thereupon these Deputies related three Canons which they said to be of the Council of Nice the Fathers of Carthage to Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch and the Authentick Copies of this Council where not finding these three Canons they Writ to the Pope That the Right of Appealing which he pretended to in quality of Supream Judge and belonged not to him by virtue of the Council of Nice seeing the Three Canons upon which he grounded his pretentions were not to be found in the Originals The Exceptions are reduced to this 1. That the Council of Millan prohibits but the Inferior Clerks to Appeal beyond the Sea and that this is evident because Pope Innocent to whom the Synod of Millan submitted all their Decrees as to the Head of the Church approved the Canon in question 2. That there is no reason to believe that the Copy of the Council of Nice which was kept at Rome was supposed but that there is much more likelyhood that those of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria were defective seeing the Manuscript upon which Ruffinus Writ his History was so and that there are several Canons of this Council cited in that of Calcedonia and in St. Ambros St. Augustin and Ierome which are not found in this Historian 3. That the Decrees which are accused of Supposition have been cited by other Popes before Zozime as Iulius speaks who living but Twenty years after the Council of Nice could easily have been convinced
by a very plain way Why was not Iesus pleased to render the way more easy and did not tell us where we should find such a Judge We are therefore obliged to look for him saith Episcopious and this Disquisition must necessarily aim at either of these two things Either that each particular Society of Christians and even each Member of this Society attribute to it self the Power of Soveraign judging of Controversies or that the Universal Church to wit the Body of all those who profess the Gospel hath at all times right to chuse such a Judge The first cannot be granted because every one looking upon himself as Infallible no body would submit himself to the Decisions of his Neighbour The second is naturally unpracticable for before the Universal Church can choose a Supream Judge of Controversies it must needs have cast it's Eyes upon divers Subjects capable of fulfilling this Charge and examined carefully their capacity And how shall it make this Examination All the Christian Societies must concur in this Election But how should they agree thereupon and whom could they choose who should not be suspitious or uncapable of this Employment Seeing all Christians have already taken Parties and those who are not Christians understand not our Disputes Add to this that tho Men would be decided by the ordinary Judges of the Roman Church there would still a Party of Male-Contents remain If the Pope was chosen France would appeal to the General Council if a Council was assembled Italy would not accept on 't until it had been confirmed by the Pope and this Bishop would only do it upon condition that this Ecumenick Council would acknowledge it self beneath him which is contrary to the pretensions of France The impossibility of this Design is an evident proof according to our Author that God will not have his Church to be governed after the manner of the Kingdoms of the Earth where one is obliged to submit without knowing for what because there is but the Body and some transitory Goods in question But the Kingdom of God extending it self over the Soul and Conscience Men must be instructed convinced and persuaded Men must read pray meditate and live Christianly to obtain the Grace of distinguishing Truth from Falshood In vain would Scripture teach us these Truths and exhort us to these practices if there were an infallible Judge All this would be useless neither is it of great me amongst those who believe they have one All the World knoweth the ridiculous explications the Roman Doctors gave to Scripture before Protestants had put it into the hands of the People and no body is ignorant of the many Truths which have been discovered since it hath been believed that every one should instruct himself in the Will of God by his Word It is true that there have arisen Disputes which are the unavoidable consequences of Examination But if Christians applyed themselves only to Scripture and that instead of deciding of their Differences when Scripture is not clear thereupon they supported each other with a mutual Charity we should soon see them become both more wholsome in their Opinions and more reformed in their Manners It is a consequence very clear and very easie to comprehend but such as apparently will never be justified by Experience V. The last writing of Bom is a small Treatise to prove that St. Peter hath been established Head of the Catholick Church where this Priest relates the common Passage of Controvertists Thou art Peter c. Feed my Sheep c. The Answer of Episcopius is not complete but that which there is on 't appears more than sufficient to refute all the Objections of the Missionaries The first Reason would be even enough which is that although his Adversary had clearly proved his Thesis he would do nothing for all that if he did not shew that the promises made to St. Peter regard also his Successors whereas most of the Fathers have taken them for personal Priviledges as Tertullian in his Book of Chastity c. 21. who speaks thus to Pope Zephirin If because the Lord hath said to Peter Vpon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and all that thou shalt bind or unbind upon Earth shall be bound or unbound in Heaven If I say for that cause you imagine that the power of unbinding or binding is passed unto you to wit to all the Churches founded by Peter Who are you that overturn and change the clear intention of the Lord who hath conferred this personally on Peter Vpon thee saith he I will build my Church and I will give thee the Keys and not to the Church and all that thou shalt unbind and not that they shall unbind 2. After having shewed that these Priviledges are not personal it should be proved that they regard only the Bishops of Rome excluding those of Antioch 3. That they regard them all without exception and without condition to wit That all and every one of the Popes are infallible as well in Fact as Right against the Experience and the Sentiment of most of the Doctors of the Roman Communion 4. It should be defined what the Catholick Church is and shewed by formal passages that these Terms denominate the Body of Pastours which is called the Representative Church which is impossible Whereas it is very easy to shew that the Church signifieth in Scripture only the People in opposition to Pastours And in this sense there is nothing more absurd than all that is said of the Power of the Church and it's Priviledges seeing it is but the Body of the Pope's Subjects and Roman Clergy and that Subjects who are far from making Decisions must submit and obey their Lot 5. After all this it should be still proved that the Priviledges given to St. Peter and the Bishops of Rome his Successors import not simply a Primacy of Order and some Authority in things which regard the Discipline and Government of the Church which Protestants could grant without doing a prejudice to their Cause but they do moreover mark a Primacy of Jurisdiction of Sovereignty and Infallibility in matters of Faith which is impossible to be proved by Scripture and all the Monuments we have of Antiquity and which is even contradictory seeing the belief of a Fact or Truth is persuaded and forceth not it self Have not Roman Catholicks much Grace to accuse Protestants of Obstinacy because they refuse to embrace a Hypothesis which supposeth so many dubious Principles whereof most are contested even amongst the Divines of Rome and to ask them to obey the Church without distinctly telling them what this Church is or in what consists the Submission which is required of them or how far it ought to be extended An Abridgment of Universal History The First Part containing the Ecclesiastical History in Two Books by Henry le Bret Provost of the Cathedral Church of Montauban in 125. 3 Volumes At
Term Consubstantial when as they freely acknowledg'd the Divinity of the Son of God He approved not of the Disputes at that time upon the Subject of the Hypostasis because he look'd upon those that received Three into the Trinity and those that admitted but of one to be of the same Opinion and only to differ in the manner of Expressing St. Basil was not so moderate for accoding to his Opinion those were Sabellians that said the Father and Son were two in Thought and one in Substance The Demi-Arians or Homoiousians that was those that would not acknowledge that the Son was Consubstantial with the Father and that said nevertheless that he was like him in all things c. the same in Substance were no more Hereticks than those that maintan'd the Three Hypostases in the Judgment of St. Basil St. Hilary of Poictiers of Philaster and even of Saint Athanasius who confesses in his Book of the Synods that Basil of Ancyra and those of his Party differed from those who made a Profession of Consubstantiality as to the name only Some of these Demi Arians are placed in the number of Saints in divers Martyrologies as Euseb. of Caesarea and Euseb. of Emissa and Pope Liberius also being a Catholick receiv'd them into his Communion St. Hilary of Poictiers although a great Defender of the Nicene Faith was not free from Error for to Answer to the Objections that the Arians drew from such passages of Scripture as proved that Jesus Christ was subject to fear sorrow and grief he fell into such an Opinion as made the Humanity of our Saviour a Fantom he maintained that Jesus Christ sustained not really either Fear or Grief but that these Passions were only represented in him To explain what the Son of God says of himself That he was ignorant of the day of Iudgment Mark 13. He says it ought not to be understood in the Letter as if Jesus Christ had been effectively ignorant of this Day but in this Sense that he knew it not to discover it to Man He had an other very very particular Error that he advanced in the Twentieth Canon upon St. Matthew that Moses and Elias should come with Jesus Christ near the time of Iudgment and that they should be put to death by Antichrist contrary to the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews for he says that Jesus Christ being rais'd from death shall dye no more He was of the Opinion also that Predestination was subsequent to Merit and that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was separated from his Humanity in the time of his death As to the rest the Roman Catholicks which complain that some Protestant Refugees have spoken too freely of those that have deprived them of their Goods and reduced them to the utmost Misery may read what St. Hilary says of Constantius That neither he nor the Bishops of his time received the thousandth part of the evil Treatments that the Reformed have suffered Mr. du Pin thinks the Errors of Optatus of Milan small and pardonable although he believed that Hereticks ought to be Rebaptized and seems to give Free-Will the Power not only of willing and beginning a good Action but also of advancing in the way of Salvation without the Assistance of the Grace of Jesus Christ. He approves not however of the Allegorical manner whereby this Bishop explains many Passages of Scripture giving them a very distant sense from what they naturally have and applying them to such things as they have no Relation to This defect says our Author that might be suffered in a Sermon appears intolerable in a Treatise of Controversie where all the Proofs ought to be strong and convincing But Optatus had to do with Enemies that did the same and who abused Passages of Scripture to injure the Church and give Praises to their own Sect. After having complain'd of the loss of Apollinarius's Works the most Learned of all the Christians Authors in Humanity this Loss is attributed to his Errors or rather the Zeal of the Catholicks which have had such an Horror to the Books of Hereticks that they have not even preserv'd those that regarded not their Heresie and that might have been useful to the Church Wherefore continues du Pin we have almost no Books of the Ancient Hereticks remaining Many Men believe that the Disputes with the Heterodox have been the Cause of the Catholicks inventing Solutions which have afterwards pass'd into Opinions such is the Doctrin of the Infallibility of the Church which was not regarded till towards Luther's time Some in this Rank place Original Sin which begun in the Seventh Age to be more acknowledg'd than before according to Mr. du Pin. They speak also more of Grace than they did in the preceding Ages and notwithstanding much was always attributed to Free Will It 's surprising that Titus of Bostres whose Arguments are solid and subtil had not recourse in his Treatise against the Manicheans to Original Sin which he might have made use of as a general Solution to almost all their Difficulties For we may easily apprehend why Man is inclined to evil why he suffers why he is subject to hunger to grief sickness miseries and to death it self where once we have admitted Original Sin Neither doth this Author speak of the Grace of Iesus Christ and he seems to have supposed that Man can of himself as well do good as evil The Disciples of St. Augustin will not find Dydimuss of Alexandria much more Orthodox since he maintains that Predestination is nothing else but the Choice which God hath made of those that he foresaw would believe in Jesus Christ and would Act according to it He likewise believed with his Master Origen that the Incarnation of the Son of God was beneficial to Angels as well as to Men and that it took away the Guilt of their Transgressions As to the Sentiment of the Eternity of Spirits he speaks on 't without condemning or approving it In Truth it would be absurd and impious to fix Eternity to any other Being than God if by this word was understood an Absolute Eternity or Existence by it self but if we suppose that the Souls of Men were Spirits created a long time since which have offended God and which he sends into mortal Bodies there to do Penance for their Faults this Hypothesis perhaps would be instrumental to discover many Difficulties in Divinity which have hitherto appeared Unexplicable All the World hath heard of the Catechumens of the Ancient Church that few well know what they were 1. When an Infidel presented himself to be admitted into the number of Christians they begun to instruct him in private but he was not suffered to enter into the Church nor to assist at publick Exhortations 2. Afterward when he was believed to be well undeceived of his old Errors he was permitted to go to the Church but only to hear Sermons
the Pope grew obstinate in his Sentiment they would rather quit the Priesthood than Marriage and that Gregory who despised men should take the care of providing himself with Angels to govern the Church These good men without doubt spake with much sincerity and it may be if those who have endeavoured to blacken the conduct of the Reformers in that they have introduced anew the Marriage of Priests would let nature speak they would not say less But it is a great unhappiness and a great prejudice at the same time against the deluders of Virginity to live in a Church whereof they are constrained to defend all the Sentiments unless they would dishonour and destroy themselves In fine the Authors of the time of Hildebrand and those who have written since give him several times the name of Antichrist and it cannot be denied at least but that it is he who hath established the excessive authority of Popes and who the first durst to maintain that they have the power of deposing Kings and to change what they please in the Canons It is no more than may be seen in the Decretals of the Edition of Rome whereof Vsher cites divers scandalous articles He also gives the History of the quarrels which this Pope had with the Emperor Henry IV. and relates all the evil that hath been said of the first And with this he ends the first part of his work which was to have extended to the time in which the Devil hath been let loose II. As it is in the Apocalypse that a thousand years being past the Dragon was to be unloos'd for a little time Vsher begins his second part by the explication of this place and remarks that according to the maxim of Aristotle nothing being called great or little but by relation to another thing the time in which the Dragon was to be unchain'd should be short in comparison of the time during which he had ravaged the World before he had been put in Chains Roman Catholicks demand of Protestants where the Church was then if the Pope was Antichrist Vsher answers that the Church was then in the state in which some Antients and divers Catholick Authors have said that it would be under the Reign of Antichrist St. Augustin in his XX Letter which is directed to Hesychius saith that the Church appear'd not because of the excessive cruelty of the Persecutors Ecclesiam non apparituram impiis tunc Persecutoribus ultra modum saevientibus Several ancient and modern Authors have spoken to the same effect Vsher takes occasion from hence to make a parallel of the State of the Churches which followed the Council of Nice in the times that the Arians were the strongest with that wherein the West was found in these corrupt Ages The Arians reproached others with their small Number and their Poverty as it appears by these words of Gregory of Nazianza Where are those who upbraid us with our Poverty who say that the greatest Number forms the Church and who jeer the smalness of our Flock But as there lived in the Roman Empire several People who were not Arians Vsher conceives that under the Government of the Pope there was a pretty great number of Persons who were not of these opinions To shew that he doth not advance a simple conjecture he gives the History of the Original Opinions of the Vaudois who have rejected several of the Sentiments of the Church of Rome But he speaks more of them in the sequel as being a place wherein he should properly speak of them which obligeth us to pass to the vii Chapter and afterwards we will return to the Vaudois Vsher divides the time during which the Dragon hath been delivered from his Prison into three Periods the first reacheth to the time of Innocent III. The second unto Gregory XI And the third unto Leo X. The first comprehends two Ages taking it's beginning from the year 1000. The State the Western Church hath been in during the first of these two Ages and the complaints that the Authors of that time made against Corruptions which were equally seen in the Ecclesiasticks and People There have been no less complaints made of the Disorders of the twelfth Age as is plain in our Author who relates a great number thereof amongst which is this famous distich of Hildebert Bishop of Mans who saith in speaking of Rome Vrbs foelix si vel Dominis Vrbs illa careret Vel Dominis esset turpe carere fide Happy City if it had no Masters or if those who possess it believed it a shameful thing to want Faith The Popes took great care in that Age to have paid to them from England a kind of Tribute that they called St. Peters pence which Alexander II. in a Letter written to William the Norman saith had been paid by the English ever since they had embraced Christianity It appears by this Letter that the English sent this Money at first to Rome only thro' Liberality but this Liberality becoming a Necessity because the Kings commanded absolutely to do it the Authors of those times looked upon it as a Tribute Therefore Bertold of Constance who lived towards the latter end of the eleventh Age saith that it was then that the Prophecy of the Apocalypse was accomplished which saith That no Person could sell or buy without having the Mark or Name of the Beast or the Number of its Name The Reason of this is that according to the Relation of this Author in his Appendix of Hermannus Contractus towards the year Mlxxxiv William the first King of England rendred his whole Kingdom Tributary to the Pope and suffered none to sell or buy but such as submitted himself to the Apostolick See that is to say before he paid the Rome-scot or penny of St. Peter Notwithstanding this same William refused to swear an Oath of Fealty to Hildebrand and punished Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks who had offended him as he thought fit without having any regard to the Prayers and Exhortations of this Pope Some other Kings of England resisted the Popes likewise with the same vigour and we have proofs that the opinions of Rome were not yet spread every where Here is one that is pretty remarkable which is that Frederick Barbarousse being gone into the Holy Land to fight the Infidels in Mclxxxix Niaetas Choniates observes that the Germans were welcomed by the Armenians because the adoration of the Images of Saints was equally prohibited with the Armenians and Germans Hereby it appears that they had not as yet forgotten in Germany the Council of Francfort It is also remarked that several English Authors who have written after the arrival of the Normans said that the Church had in abhorrence the worship of Images The Doctrine even of Lanfranc concerning the Eucharist which the Normans brought into this Island was contrary to divers ancient Forms and Writings of the English And this is the cause that a long time after the Condemnation of
amputare non posset They were called the Brothers of the War of St. Dominick At that time Innocent established an Inquisition at Thoulouse and in other suspicious places because the Bishops being employed about their temporal Affairs took noâ— care enough to extirpate Heresie St. Dominick was Commissary over Gasconny and established his Order there that they might assist him in the Work there never was before regular and perpetual Inquisitions Another Order of begging Monks was established besides that of the Dominicans to wit the Minor Brothers founded by St. Francis and that of the Augustines as an assistance to the Bishops and Pastors But it soon appeared that instead of helping them they pretended to take the care upon themselves alone which the Pastors were invested with this necessarily caused a great many complaints as our Author sufficiently shews There was particularly a great quarrel in MCCLIII betwixt the University of Paris and the Preaching Brothers which was hard to be appeased because the King favoured the University and the Pope upheld the Monks who pretended to a Right of Teaching Divinity without having any regard to the Laws of the University During this quarrel Iohn of Parma an Italian Monk and General of the Minors published a Book intituled the Eternal Gospel This Book was full of Impieties and of as strange absurdities as those of the Alcoran The Author amongst other things maintained that the Gospel should be abrogated as not being capable of conducting to perfection and that this was reserved to the Order of the begging Monks who in the latter end of the World should teach a Doctrine much more perfect than that of Jesus Christ. This Book was condemned at Rome and the Author was obliged voluntarily to quit his Charge with the least noise that could be not to irritate an Order then powerful enough and which was of great use to the Court of Rome A Book was also condemned which four Doctors of the University of Paris had read against the former intituled De periculis novissimorum temporum It was burned at Anagnia where the Court of Rome then was and at Paris likewise not for any Heresie which it contained saith William de Nangis a Monk of St. Denis who lived in MCCC but because it might give scandal and cause a Sedition among the Monks Since the time of Peter Abailard to wit from the year MCXL the Philosâ—phy of the Age as Trithemus says begun by its vain curiosity to corrupt Divinity The new Order of the begging Monks furnished Doctors which accomplisht its Destruction by the Philosophy of Aristotle and a thousand ridiculous subtilties There was amongst the Franciscans in MCCXL Alexander de Hales who was callâ—d the Doctor of Doctors the source of Life and the irrefragable Doctor He commented on the first four Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard and summed up all the heads of Divinity by order of Innocent IV. About the same time Gaultier Bishop of Poitiers made the first work de Quodlibetariis which gave birth to the custom of disputing for and against all sorts of Propositions Bonaventure Sirnamed the Seraphick Doctor was their Contemporary and so much esteemed by Alexander de Hales that he was accustomed to say it seemed to him that Adam had not sinned in Bonaventure Iohn Duns a Scotchman who flourished at the beginning of the IV. Age and who was a Disciple of the same Alexander acquired to himself the glorious Sirname of Subtil Doctor Thomas Bradwardin had towards the middle of the same Age that of Profound Doctor The Dominicans also have not fail'd of having Divines also in their party whereof these are the two chief Albert Bishop of Ratisbone who died in MCCLXXX Sirnamed The Great even during his Life and Thomas Aquinas the Angelical Doctor who was his Disciple There hath besides been in this Order the famous Durand de S. Porcien Sirnamed the most Resolute Doctor resolutissimus There was at the same time a Carmelite named Gilles Romanus who was called the most Profound Doctor Doctorem fundatissimum and a little time after in the Order of Cisteaux Alain des Iles who was named the Vniversal Doctor Vsher hath also collected without much Order divers things concerning the Original and Sentiments of the Vaudois and Albigese and there begins to make the History how they were persecuted from the beginning of the third Age until the year MCCXL As these events are found in divers French and Latin Histories we shall not relate them Here is only an Example of the barbarity of that Age. William le Brebon contemporary Poet saith in his Philippide LXVIII with an Ingenuity particular to himself speaking of the taking and sacking of Beziers 60000 Souls had their throats cut which the inordinate fury of the Vulgar and the indiscretion of the Ribaldorum kill'd without the consent of the Governours making the faithful die with the incredulous and not much mattering which deserved Death or ought to have his Life saved Yet what he saith of the Consent of the Heads of the party is not altogether True Arnold Abbot of Cisteaux since Archbishop of Narbone and Legate of the Pope in this occasion was so much afraid that some Heretick should escape that he ordered the Soldiers to cut off indifferently all those they met He is a witness not to be suspected who tells us it to wit Cesaire de Heisterbach Monk of the same Order in the Diocess of Cologne and who lived in the time this Massacre was Knowing saith he by their Confessions that there were Catholicks amongst the Hereticks they said to the Abbot what shall we do Sir we cannot distinguish the good from the bad But the Abbot and the rest fearing that the Hereticks would counterfeit themselves to be Catholicks only for fear of Death and should return to their old Heresie when the Army withdrew the Abbot I say answered as they tell us kill them for God knoweth those who are his Caedite eos novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus If Vsher could have continued he might perhaps have recovered Authentick pieces to end his History There was one seen a little while since which could have served his purpose and would be of great use to those who would be willing to prosecute his design It is an Original Register of the Inquisition of Thoulouse written and collated by two Notaries of the same Inquisition which contains what it hath done against the Albigeses for sixteen years from the year Mcccvii to the year Mcccxxiii The forms of the Oath are therein which Civil Judges tendred to the Inquisition to defend it and not to protect Heresie directly or indirectly and the Excommunication which was design'd against those who favoured it amongst whom were reckoned even those who accused those Hereticks which were of their acquaintance There is the process of a great number of Persons condemned for Heresie to divers punishments according to the exigency of the case Some of those were condemned
seditious and Innovators and said that they could not have Reason on their side since in the dispute they frighted those that resisted them with the Imperial Edicts but that acting after that nature they persuaded not intelligent persons but the fearful only laborare illam partem rationis inopia quae in disserendo cum terrorem surrogat nullum à prudentibus impetrat sed caecum à meticulosis extorquet assensum He accused Zozimus of having used Prevarication in condemning Pelagius after having approved his sentiments and as to the Synods of Africk he said that those that had been condemned by them could not defend their cause that none can well judge of controverted things if he doth not bring a mind free from hatred friendship enmity or anger that the Bishops of Aâ—rick were not thus qualified having an aversion to the Opinions of Pelagius before they knew them that his sentiments were not to be received but weighed and finally all that hath been usual to be objected to the judgments of great Assemblies A new Council was afterward held in the year CCCCXIX at Carthage composed of CCXVII Bishops where all that had been done in the former against Pelagius was confirmed and in effect to make use of the terms of St. Prosper in his Poem of the Vngrateful An alium in sinem posset procedere sanctum Concilium cui dux Aurelius ingeniumque Augustinus erat But the Episcopal Authority was still upheld in this rencounter by that of the Emperours who in a Letter directed to Aurelius confirmed their precedent Edict and ordered that if any knew in any place of the Empire Pelagius and Celestius kept themselves hidden and discovered them not or did not immediately drive them away he should be liable to the same punishment those Hereticks were And to correct the stubborness of some Bishops who maintained by a silent consent those that disputed in favour of the Heresie or that did not destroy it in publickly attacking it Aurelius should take the care to depose those that would not sign the Condemnation of Pelagianism and should be excommunicated and banished Aurelius had orders to publish this Edict in all Africk and he executed it punctually joyning to it a circular Letter to the Bishops of the Byzacen and Arzugitan Provinces by which he compell'd them to sign the acts of the last Council as well those that had assisted at it as those that could not be present that it might be acknowledged that there was not in Bishops neither dissimulation nor negligence or fearing that by chance there might remain some lawful suspicion of some bidden Heresie The Bishops that were of the same Opinion with Pelagius subscribed the acts but with great difficulty and eighteen of them Writ to the Bishop of Thessaloniâ—a endeavouring to draw the Eastern Bishops on their side That they might the easier ingage them in their own cause they accused their adversaries of Manicheism because the Manicheans maintained also the unavoidable necessity of Sinning and the natural corruption of Man This accusation was the rather more odious that St. Augustin the principal defender of these Opinions had been in his Youth infected with the Opinion of Manicheus and that having abjured them he had attacked them by the same principles whereof the Pelagians had made use when he was come to the Episcopacy On the other side Iulianus Writ to Rome and Celestius sent to Constantinople in the year CCCCXIX to endeavour to win some Proselytes there But after the Imperial Edicts that we have already observ'd they could in no likelyhood have a good issue Celestius was ill received by Atticus who had succeeded to Arsacius substituted next to St. Chrysostom but dead a little while after The Pelagians were also very ill treated according to the relation of St. Prosper at Ephesus and Sicily and Constantius that Honorius had associated in the Empire made in the year CCCCXX an Edict like to that of this Prince against those that should hide Celestius St. Ierome died this year and St. Augustin composed his four books addressed to Boniface Successor to Zozimus and the six against Iulian addressed to Claudius He made therein the Elogium of St. Ierome and assures us that he was of the same sentiments with the Bishops of Africk because it seems he had attack'd the Pelagians tho' on the other hand he did not make use of St. Augustins reasons as it may be seen in the first Tome of this Library p. 21. St. Ierome said that the Commandments of God are possible but that every one cannot do that which is possible not by any weakness of nature which would be injurious to God but the custom of the Soul which cannot always have at the same time all vertues Possibilia praecipit Deus sed haec possibilia cuncta singuli habere non possumus non imbecillitate naturae ut calumniam facias Deo sed animi assuetudine qui cunctas simul semper non potest habere virtutes St. Augustin was so far from this Opinion that in the CXII Sermon de tempore he speaketh thus We abhor the Blasphemy of those who say that God hath commanded Man any thing impossible and that the Commandments of God cannot be kept by eaâ—h in particular but by all in common Execramur Blasphemiam eorum qui dicunt impossibile aliquid homini à Deo esse praeceptum mandata Dei non à singulis sed ab omnibus in commune posse servari here must be understood by the help of Grace Whilst Pelagius remained hidden in the East and was silent Iulian composed four Books against the second of St. Augustin de Concupiscentia Nuptiis having refuted the first in the four whereof we have spoken St. Augustine undertook to answer to the last work of Iulian as he had done to the precedent but he could not end his answer being dead before We have two books thereof with the two books Iulian that he refuteth Printed at Paris by Claudius Menard in 1616. Iulian kept no measure in his Books and seems to have been willing to abuse the Adversaries of Pelagius to vindicate himself of the severe Edicts they had obtained against him But this conduct did him no good seeing Celestinus Bishop of Rome banished him out of Italy with Florus Oroncius Fabius and all the Bishops of the same party It seemeth notwithstanding that Pelagianism did spread it self in spight of all this seeing the Emperour Valentinian to clear the Gauls of it published an Edict at Aquilea in Ccccxxv by which he ordered Patroclus Bishop of Arles to visit divers Bishops that followed the opinions of Pelagius and to declare unto them if in 20. days they they did not retract their Errours they should be banished from the Gauls and deprived of their Bishopricks Iohn Cassienus originally a Scythian that some call an Athenian others a Roman and some a Gaul who had been a Deacon to St. Chrysostome and
which hath been so often fatal to the Church they undertook to become Masters of the Conscience of the People and to put the young Folks from their Imployments or to impose an Oath upon them that all perhaps have not signed without remorse of Conscience Yet some of those who have established this Form are persons of an extraordinary meritâ—â— who I am persuaded have acted in this occasion by a sincere zeal to maintain what they regard as Truth I should only wish they had more Extent and a greater freedom of Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 33 Orations of Themistius 13 of which have been formerly published Dennis Petavius of the Society of Jesus Translated many of 'em into Latin with Annotations To 20 of these Orations are added other Notes and to the remaining 13 are joyn'd the perpetual Observations of John Harduinus a Member of the same Society Paris in Fol. THemistius was a Philosopher of Paphlagonia so Eloquent that he had given him the Sur-name of Euphrades He published Commentaries upon Aristotle when he was very young which were so much esteemed that one of the best Philosophers of Greece quitted his School to go to see him He Taught with so much clearness at Antioch Nicomedia Rome and elsewhere that he out-did all the Philosophers of his time The Romans were so charmed with him that they sent to the Emperor desiring that he would oblige him to live in the midst of them but they obtained not this advantage Themistius chose rather to return to Constantinople where he passed the greatest part of his life He was beloved of Six Emperors Constantius conferred the dignity of Praetor upon him and honoured him with a Brazen Statue Valence had so great a deference for him that in consideration of him he moderated the false zeal which led him to persecute the Orthodox It is assuredly one of the greatest marks of esteem which can be given to a Man for as soon as a Prince hath determined to extirpate a Religion all that retards the progress of this design is uneasie to him and incommodes him extraordinarily they are very powerful Reasons only which can work an alteration of this nature Yet the Discourse of Themistius produced this great effect upon an Emperor animated to the ruin of the Orthodox by the Counsel of some Arian Bishops and by the Intreagues of the Empress This Philosopher represented to Valence That he persecuted without cause Men of worth that it was not a crime to believe and to think otherwise than he did that he should not wonder at this diversity of Opinions that the Gentiles were much more divided amongst themselves than Christians that every one pointed at truth by some place and that it had pleased God to confound the pride of Men and to render himself more venerable by the difficulty which there is of knowing him It is pity that such fine thoughts have been said by a Pagan and that it should be necessary that Christians should learn this Important Lesson from anâ— Idolatrous Man Yet they ought to profit thereby But Mr. Flecher who hath so carefully related this Discourse of Themistius to shame thereby the Memory of an Arian Emperor tells us that the Emperor Theodosius a little while after also took upon him a command which was as a fit subject for a second discourse of Themistius But he was far from doing it because of the charge of Prefect of Constantinople and of Tutor to the Son of Theodosius the Great which this Emperor gave him lest he should cease his Applauses for all the Orders of the Court It is very strange that a Prince who abolished vigorously the Relicks of Paganism and who gave even no very good quarters to the Sectaries of Christianity should trust the Education of his Son to a Heathen Yet it 's true that Theodosius hath done all this for those who say that Themistius was a Christian and Chief of the Sect of the Agnoites who believed that Iesus Christ was absolutely ignorant of the end of the World they confound him with another Themistius a Deacon of the Church of Alexandria who was the head of this Sect under the Empire of Iustin towards the year 519. It signifies nothing to the proof of the pretended Christianity of Themistius to say that he hath cited this passage of Scripture The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord This I say signifies nothing because that besides his citing these words as if he had taken them from the Books of the Assyrians every one knoweth that Longinus hath quoted Moses with Elogies on him without being on that account engaged e're the less in Paganism Themistius must needs have been an honest Man because he always had the Friendship of St. Gregory of Nazianze He had left 36 Harangues Henry Stephen is the first who hath published any of them Father Petau being then at the Colledge of la Fleche made an Edition thereof He added a second much better when he came to Paris but it was yet very imperfect seeing there lacked Sixteen Orations He sought so successfully that he found thirteen whereof he Translated into Latin the considerablest part He left them as a Depositum in the Colledge of Clermont's Bibliotheck and these are they which appeared the first time in the Edition of Themistius that Father Hardouin hath lately given us He is a very learned Iesuit who was brought to Paris to be imployed with Father Cautel to make the Supplement of Dogmata Theologica of Father Petau but this design hath not succeeded so that these two Jesuits have elsewhere endeavour'd by other Works to make their Talent be valued Father Cautel hath set his face another way As for Father Hardouin the Publick hath already known that he worketh upon a Commentary of Pliny in usum Delphini which will be say they a most complete piece and which will be publish'd in a year Moreover he hath a design to publish all the Manuscripts of the Bibliotheque of Clermont which have not been as yet printed and he hath begun by the Orations of Themistius at the intreaty of Father Garnier who dyed an Bologne in Italy the 26 th of October 1681. during the Voyage he made to Rome about the Affairs of his Society In this Edition have been inserted all the Notes of Father Petau upon twenty Discourses of Themistius and many things are very Learned therein There is in particular a gross Error of Appian who saith in the First Book of the Civil War That the Romans have had Kings during 100 Olympiads and Consuls 100 Olympiads also whereas it is certain that Tarquin was banished Rome in the Year 244 after the Foundation of the City 156 years before it had lasted a hundred Olympiads Besides that Appian contradicts himself visibly seeing he places the Dictatorship of Sylla but in the 175 Olympiad Father Petau also pretends That Scaliger was mistaken when he said That the lesser Mysteries were celebrated at
Domestick shewing his Friend in his Masters Library the suppressed Edition of M. de Meaux's Exposition with Marginal Notes which he assured him were Written by the hands of some of the Doctors of Sorbonne the Friend desired to borrow the Book which the Servant consented to So strange an accident made the borrower use his utmost care to get a Copy of the First Edition but there was such care taken to suppress it that all he could do was but to gather up some loose Leaves whereof he almost made an entire Book and copyed what he wanted out of M. Turenne's Original which he then restored to the Servant it is this same Copy which Mr. Wake has with his Certificate that gather'd it and compared it with the Mareschal's Copy It is not at all likely that Mr. Cramoisi Director of the Printing-House at the Louvre should Print a Book of Importance without the knowledge and good-will of the Author that was a Bishop and Tutor to the Dauphin and a great Favorite at Court and it is more unlikely that Mr. Crà moisi should obtain the King's leave and the Approbation of the French Prelates for a subreptitious Copy And why did not M. de Meaux shew his resentment for a boldness of this nature And how came he to give this Printer not only the Corrected Copy but also all the other Books that he made since We must examin but Fourteen places of the First Edition taken notice of by Dr. Wake to see whether the alteration that M. de Meaux made in it did only concern the exactness and neatness of the style First Edit p. 1. Thus it seems very proper to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church to the Reformers in separating the Questions which the Church hath decided from those which belong not to her Faith Second Edit p. 1. It seems that there can no better way be taken than simply to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and to distinguish them well from those that are falsly imputed to her First Edit p. 7 8. The same Church Teaches That all Religious Worship ought to terminate in God as its necessary end So that the honour which the Church gives to the blessed Virgin and to the Saints is only Religious because this honour is given to them only in respect to God and for the love of him And therefore the honour we render our Saints is so far from being blamable as our Adversaries would have it because it is Religious that it would deserve blame if it were not so M. de Meaux has thought it expedient to blot out the last period and to express himself thus in his common Editions p. 7. And if the honour that is rendred to Saints can be called Religious it is because it regards God In the same place speaking of M. Daille the Author expressed it after a very ingenious manner but little favourable to his cause As for Mr. Daille said he he thought that he ought to keep to the Three first Ages wherein it is certain that the Church then was exercised more in Suffering than Writing and has left many things both in its Doctrine and Practice which wants to be made clearer This Acknowledgment was of importance and the Censurers had reason to note it and has not been seen since All the other Alterations are as considerable as these and Dr. Wake protests he could mention more if he were minded to shew all the places wherein the Manuscripts differed from the common Editions The Author may judge whether these be words or things that M. de Meaux has corrected but as to Father Cresset it may be said that this Bishop has strained his boldness to such a degree that none dares give him the Epithet it deserves Is it possible that this Author should not have heard of a great Volume in Quarto Writ against the profitable advice of the Blessed Virgin since the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay who approved this last Book has caused such long Disputes in France Can it be supposed that M. de Meaux was ignorant that the Opinion of this Jesuit was contrary to his Exposition After M. de la Bastide reproached him with it in his Answer to the Advertisement And that the Author of the General Reflexions on his Exposition and M. Iurieu in his Preservative have made great Extracts out of the Book of The True Devotion Since Mr. Arnaud laughed at Father Cresset in his Answer to the Preservative and Mr. Iurieu refuted his Adversary in the Iansenist convicted of vain Sophistry That Mr. Imbert in his Letter to this Bishop offered to refute the Preservative provided he might be secured that no violence should be done him and that he might have the liberty of saying what he thought In fine after that he himself Answered divers passages of the Preservative in his Treatise of the Communion under both kinds Let us add to all this what M. de Meaux had the confidence to advance in his Pastoral Letter upon the Persecution of France I do not wonder says he my dear brethren that you are come in such great numbers and so easily into the Church none of you have suffered violence either in his Body or Goods And so far from suffering Torments that you have not heard talk of any I hear that other Bishops say the same Let this notorious falshood be compared with the Apology for the Persecution which this Prelate made in a Letter to one of his Friends that I read my self Writ and Signed by his own hand The Original whereof a certain Author proffered to shew him And it will be acknowledged that one may be very hard upon the Catholick Religion without committing so gross a contradiction But why should we stay so long upon the discovering the mystery of the Composition the Gentleman had done it himself without thinking of it Confessing that he weighed all his words and racked his Invention to cheat the simple At least this is what they that understand French will soon perceive in reading this period of his Advertisement In the mean time the Italian Version was mended very exactly and with as much care as a Subject of that importance deserved wherein one word turned ill might spoil all the Work Though one must be very dull to look upon these pious Cheats as a sincere dealing M. de Meaux was so fearful lest he might be thought to abolish some abuses and to labour to reform his own Church that he has lately given evident proofs of the hatred that he always bore the Protestants and which he thought fit to hide under an affected mildness until the Dragoon Mission It was in the History of Variations that he unmasked himself and shewed him what he was by the Injuries and Calumnies which he cast upon the Protestants and has given a Model of the manner how he deserves to be treated There were Three Months past when Dr. Burnet whom this Bishop attacked without any cause made
The Bishop of Worcester maintains that the Pope could not convocate Councils but within the extent of the suburbicary Provinces tho' he denyes not but on certain singular occasions other Bishops have not been invited to these Councils as when Aurelian permitted the Bishops of Italy to assemble at Rome for the Affair of Paul of Samosatus But the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy who acknowledged the Bishop of Milan as chief thought themselves not obliged to be at the Patriarchal Councils of Rome And that which is remarkable is that one of these Councils was of Sentiments very different from him who then was upon the Patriarchal See of this City concerning the Ordination of Maximus to be Bishop of Constantinople Damasus writ twice to Constantinople with much fervour for the deposing of Maximus But St. Ambrose and the Bishops of his Diocess in a Synodical Letter to Theodosius justified the Ordination of Maximus and disapproved the Election of Gregory and Nectairus The Defenders of the pretensions of the Bishop of Rome are asked If this Council acknowledged the Patriarchal Power of this Bishop Mr. Schelstrate saith after Father Lupus That the Power of the Pope gave him the Right of deciding all things consulting only the Bishops who could do nothing without him If that is true it must be granted That the Italick Diocess was without the limits of the Patriarchate of Rome seeing the Bishops of this Diocess sent their Advices to the Emperor without having any respect to the Sentiments of Damasus Dr. Stillingfleet sheweth the independancy of the same Bishops in respect to Rome by the Example of the Council of Capua where St. Ambrose presided without asking so much as the Advice of the Bishop of Rome To prove that the Pope had the Right of calling the Bishops of all the West to all his Patriarchal Councils Mr. Schelstrate relates some Examples of Bishops amongst the Gauls and Great Britain who were at some Roman Councils But he is answered That it is no wonder that some should be found in extraordinary Rencounters and that it doth not follow from thence that the Pope was Patriarch of all the West no more than that Councils of Western Bishops being held at Milan Arles Rimini Sardis and elsewhere prov'd That the Bishops of these Cities were their Patriarchs It ought to be shewn That the Pope convocated the Bishops of the West by vertue of his Patriarchal Authority There was also a great Difference amongst the Councils assembled for the Vnity of Faith and the Discipline of divers Diocesses and the Provincial or Patriarchal Synods câ—nvocated at a certain time to appear before the Metropolitan or the Patriarch This is seen in the Diurnus Romanus where the Bishops of Rome oblige themselves to be present at the Councils of this City assembled at certain times as Garnier sheweth He saith it was thrice a year but no more for the Suburbicary Churches which had no other Primate but the Bishop of Rome The last of the Patriarchal Rights was to receive Appeals of the Provinces of the Patriarchship By these Appeals we must not understand the free Choice that parties can make for one to be an Arbitrator of their Differences but Juridical Appeals from an inferiour Tribunal to a higher one It hath oft fallen out that Bishops have been chosen Arbitrators of a common approbation to make others agree or that Bishops intermedled in the Differences of others without pretending to end them with Authority Our Author brings an Example of a Council of the Italick Diocess who medled with a dissention at Constantinople whereof we have already made mention But to this is opposed That the Bishops of Rome have several times sent Legates throughout all the West to examine the causes of the Bishops and to make Report of â—em For the Letters of the Popes to the Bishops of Thessalonica which are in the Roman Collection are cited to prove this But we have already taken notice what Dr. Stillingfleet's Answer is to that He adds here that the Origine of these pretensions was from this That the Council of Sardis being exasperated against the Eastern Bishops gave the Bishop of Rome the liberty to re-examine some Causes in divers Provinces He took the occasion from thence of sending Legates and that was one of the first steps by which he ascended to so great a Power in the West A Doctor of Sorbone who writ some years ago de antiquis majoribus Episcoporum causis alloweth That in the space of CCCXLVII Years viz. about the time of the Council of Sardis no Example of a Cause can be produced which was referred to Rome by the Bishops who were the Judges thereof It is besides Objected That the Council of Arles attributes to the Pope majores Dioeceses but it hath been seen by the Government of this Council which has been spoken of that it was far from acknowledging the Bishop of Rome for Superiour Besides there are reasons to believe that the place where these words are has been corrupted and tho' it was not so this may signifie another thing except this Bishop had a Diocess more large than his Brethren Dr. Stillingfleet refutes some more Reasons of Mr. Schelstrate of small consequence and relates some places of the Letters of Pope Leo where he presses hard the Canons of Nice against the usurpations of the Patriarch of Constantinople and maintains it was not lawful for any to violate or to reveal the Decrees of this Council from whence it 's concluded that the Churches of England are in no wise obliged according to the Discipline of the first Ages to submit to the Pope After having ended this Controversie our Prelate sheweth there is a great likelyhood that some Bishops of England were at the Council of Sardis But thence an occasion is taken to say that the British Churches having received the Council of Sardis they are obliged to acknowledge the Pope for the Patriarch of the West seeing this Council hath established the Appeals to the Bishop of Rome To see if this Objection be of any force Dr. Stillingfleet examines the Design and the Proceedings of this Council as follows Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria had been deposed by two Synods of Eastern Bishops for some Crimes of which he was accused He could not hope to have this Judgment reverst in the East because the Arian Party was very strong there he made his Address to the Bishops of the West and particularly to Iulius Bishop of Rome as to the Chief He desired that his Process might be reverst and shewed by Letters of divers Bishops of Aegypt that he had not been heard according to the Forms neither at Tyre nor Antioch because of the violence of the Faction of Eusebius Thereupon Iulius having communicated his Design to his Brethren the Bishops of the West writ in their name and his own to the Eastern Bishops That it was just to examine this Cause by
Judges that were not suspected of Partiality and desired them to go to the places where these Judges should be with the Informations they had taken against Athanasius The Bishops of the East would not hearken to it whereupon those of the West received Athanasius Marcellus and other Bishops of their Party into their Communion Those of the East were extreamly affronted at it there were many Complaints on each side and at last the two Emperours Constantius and Constantine agreed to call a General Council at Sardis to decide this Difference There went Bishops to it from all parts but the Western Bishops were willing that the deposed Bishops should be admitted to the Communion and take place in the Council the Eastern would not suffer it and withdrew to Philippopolis where they protested against the Proceedings of Sardis as contrary to the Canons of Nice The Bishops of the West notwithstanding continued their Session and made new Canons to justifie their Conduct The Eastern Bishops complained that the Discipline established at Nice was manifestly violated and the Western Bishops said That there was Injustice done to the deposed Bishops that Athanasius had not been heard in Aegypt and that it was just that all the Bishops of the Empire should re-examine this Affair The Bishops of Sardis had no respect to the reasons of their Brethren they renounced not the Communion of Athanasius and made divers Canons the chief of which are the III. the IV. the V. which concern the Revisal of the Causes of Bishops In the third they declared that the causes should first come before the Bishops of the Province and if one of the Parties was grieved by the Sentence he should be granted a Revision Our Author makes divers Remarks upon two Canons of the Council of Antioch to which its commonly believed that that of the Council of Sardis has some affinity which we have spoken of our Author discovers the Irregularities of the Councils of Antioch and Tyre He also remarks that to obtain the Revision of an Ecclesiastial cause an Address was made to the Emperor who convocated a greater number of Bishops to make this new Examination The Council of Sardis made an Innovation in this for it seems that it took away as much as it could the Right of reviewing these sorts of Causes from the Emperor to give it to Iulius Bishop of Rome in honour to St. Peter He might by the Authority of this Council if he thought fit Convocate the Bishops of the Province to revise the Process and to add Assistant Judges to them as the Emperor used to do Besides this the Fourth Canon enjoyn'd that no Bishop should enter into a vacant Bishoprick by the deposition of him who was in it nor should undertake to Examin a-new a Process until the Bishop of Rome had pronounced his Sentence thereupon The Fifth Canon signifies That if he judges the Cause worthy of Revising it belongs to him to send Letters to the Neighbouring Bishops to re-examine but if he thinks it not fit the Judgment pronounced shall stand This is the Power which the Council of Sardis grants to the Pope upon which our Author makes these Remarks 1. That there was somewhat new in this Authority without which these Canons would have been useless Thus de Marca and he who published the Works of Pope Leo have established this Power of the Pope upon the Canons of the Council of Sardis But an Authority given by a particular Council in certain Circumstances as appears by the name of Iulius which is inserted in the Canon cannot extend it self to the following Ages upon the whole this Authority has changed nature so much that now it passeth for an Absolute and Supream Power founded upon a Divine Right and not upon the Acts of one Council 2. These Canons do not give this Bishop the Right of receiving Appeals in quality of Head of the Church but transport only unto him the Right of a Revision which the Emperor enjoyed before It is a great question if the Council of Sardis had the Power of so doing but there is a great likelihood that the Protection which Constantius granted the Arian Party engaged it thereunto 3. These Canons cannot justifie the conduct of those who should carry Causes to Rome by way of Appeal because they return the second Examination to the Bishops of the Province 4. The Council of Sardis it self took knowledge of a Cause which had been decided by the Bishop of Rome 5. This Council could not be justified by the antient Canons in that it received Marcellus to the Communion he who before had been Condemned for Heresie as also afterwards even by Athanasius himself 6. The Decrees of this Assembly were not universally received as it appeared by the Contestations of the Bishops of Africk against that of Rome seeing the first knew nothing of it some years after as our Author sheweth IV. Arianism being spread every where and afterwards Pelagius and Celestius being gone out of England the Clergy of this Isle were accus'd of having been Arians and Pelagians in those Ages Our Author undertakes to justifie them from these suspicions and afterwards describes the Publick Service of the British Churches But as the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England afford no great matter he hath supplyed them by digressions He immediately refutes I know not what Modern Author who hath been mistaken in some facts concerning the History of Arianism since the Council of Nice at which we shall not make a stay After that there is an Abridgment of this History until the Council of Rimini The Arians being condemned at Nice and vainly opposing the term of Consubstantial thought they could not better save themselves than by yielding to the times They also suffered themselves to be condemned by the Council and to be Banished by the Emperor Arius with Theones and Secondus his Friends Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nice Chief Heads of the Arian Faction Signed as the rest yet without changing their Opinion Afterwards they in like manner endeavoured to hide themselves under Equivocations The Circumstances of this History may be seen as Dr. Stillingfleet relates them in the Tenth Tome of the Vniversal Bibliotheque p. 447. and the following ones Yet there are these differences that our Bishop is larger in Reflections drawn from St. Athanasius concerning the Address of the Arians who expressed themselves almost as the Orthodox of that time to deceive the simple Moreover the Relation which we have cited was not made on design to justifie the Orthodox and to get those of the Arians Condemned but to give an Idea of these confusions without taking any Party whereas the design of our Author is to inform the Publick against the Arians without reprehending any thing whatever in the conduct of their Adversaries And our Author hath not applyed himself so much to the order of years which he doth not mark as hath been done in the Life of Eusebius of Caesarea
of some Member of the Body 2. Such as purge out some particular Humour as it is believed 3. Such as ease or cure certain Distempers tho' we do not know how they operate It 's in this last Sense that the Author takes this way of Speaking Then he goes on and proves that there are Specificks against those which deny that there are any after which he makes it his Business to shew That this agrees very well with those that give Mechanick and Sensible Reasons of the Effects of insensible Particles Here are his chief Reasons to prove that the first are mistaken 1. Because Gallen and all the ancient Physitians and an infinite number of the Modern have constantly assured it And tho' in Matters of Philosophy Authority ought not to be made use of yet great Prejudices are derived hence in favour of Specificks because they are things whereof the fore-mentioned might have had many Experiences Besides this there is no more reason to deny that there are Specifick Remedies than there is to deny that there are Poysons that cause certain Diseases and Symptoms These Poysons act in such small quantities that their Effect cannot be attributed to any sensible cause much less to the first second or third Qualities speaking like a Physitian which they themselves cannot explain clearly It 's well known what terrible Symptoms the biting of a Viper causes tho' perhaps a Pin's-head is a hundred times bigger than the quantity of Venom that it casts in the Wound And Mr. Boyle relates as strange an Example which he says he has learned of an Occulist It is of a Man into whose Eye a Spider let fall a small drop of Liquor which without causing any sensible Pain took away his Sight immediately If there are Poysons which produce in so short a time certain Effects and whereof we cannot understand the Cause it is not improbable but there may be Remedies that may work after the same manner and it is what Experience shews clearly The biting of a Scorpion is quickly cured in putting some of the Oyl of Scorpion or bruising the Body of the Scorpion on the Wound There are Serpents in America which make a noise with their Tayl and for that reason are called Rattle Snakes their biting is very dangerous but is happily cured by an Herb which is for that reason called Serpentaria in that Country Moreover the Kinkina is a Specifick against Agues and especially against the Quartan It 's true they say that Specificks which are taken in small quantities will lose their force by the digestion of the Stomach and that if any Particle has any Vertue left that this Vertue is so little that it is quite insignificant but there is no necessity of a great deal of Matter to act with the greatest Violence It 's true that the Smell of Civet or Musk produces strange Symptoms in Hysterical Fits which are immediately cured by other Smells as of that of Sal Armoniac c. and yet the Particles that cause the Smell and ascend to the Nostrils are not perhaps the hundredth nor the thousandth part of a Grain The Crocus Metallorum makes a great quantity of Emetick Wine without the least diminution of its Weight Quick-Silver communicates to Water by infusion a Vertue against Worms without changing its Taste or Colour and without losing or diminishing its own Weight Mr. Boyle applies himself after this to prove That the Opinion of those that are for Specifick Remedies does agree well enough with the System of insensible Particles in giving a Sensible and Mechanical Explication of the manner that Specificks do Work First of all he supposes a Principle which he has proved in another Work and which is of the greatest Importance that can be both in Natural Philosophy and Physick which is That the Body of a living Man is not to be looked upon as a simple Structure consisting of a lump of Flesh Blood Bones Fat Nerves Veins and Arteries but as an admirable Machine wherein the solid Liquid and spirituous Bodies are disposed with so much Art for the uses they are destined to that the Effect of any Remedy upon Man's Body is not so much to be judged of in relation to the intrinsick Vertue of the Remedy it self as to what comes of the mutual action of the parts of this living Machine in one another and of their position if one may properly speak so when they are once put in Motion This being so one may perceive that according to Mr. Boyle Specificks work sometimes in disposing the Matter which causes the Distemper so that this Matter may be divided with the proper Excrements or be vented by insensible Transpiration As for Example The Blood impregnated with certain Particles may become a proper Menstruum to dissolve the morbifick Matter as Water impregnated with Sal Armoniac is proper to dissolve Brass and Iron and all such Menstruums act by their Figure Bigness or Solidity or by some other such like sensible Property which is manifestly included in our Notion of a Body and not by certain sensible Qualities of their Humidity and Acidity An infinite number of Experiences persuade us that this is so for whereas cold Water dissolves the White of an Egg which the Spirit of Vinegar of Salt or the Oyl of Vitreal coagulates the Spirit of Urine dissolves in a trice the filings of Brass which the Spirit of Vinegar does but slowly and on the contrary the Spirit of Vinegar dissolves Crabs Eyes in a moment upon which the Spirit of Piss had no Effect at all Quick-Silver which is insipid dissolves Gold which Aqua fortis leaves entire and on the contrary Quick-Silver cannot dissolve Iron which Aqua fortis does easily Common Oyl that cannot dissolve a very Egg-Shell dissolves Brimstone which is more than Aqua fortis can do If there was nothing but Humidity and Acidity required for the dissolution of Bodies Aqua fortis and Aqua regalis would be universal Dissolvers whose Force few Bodies could resist They wou'd dissolve all such as are not extraordinary Solid Whereas the quite contrary happens because Dissolvers act by the figure of their Particles it is not always proper to disunite the Particles of all sorts of Bodies Mr. Boyle concludes That since Specificks may work in the same manner in our Bodies that it follows That the Opinion of those who admit them is not at all contrary to our Modern Philosophy Nor does he only place among Specificks such as are taken inwardly but also external Medicines which are applied to the Arms or hung about the Neck as Camphyre Amber-greece c. for these Bodies work by the little Particles that dis-engage themselves from them and enter our Bodies by the Pores 2. Specificks may act in mortifying Humours that are too acid or that are hurtful by some other Excess and they mortifie by the different Figures of their Particles as Alcalis mortifies Acids or in covering the mortified Parts with a kind of cover
in his Wisdom because that would be to allow that we have no Testimony of his Works which should teach us that God is Wise. Yet this is no impediment to Physitians seeking out the mechanical reasons of these effects as nothing hinders but that we may say a Clock hath been made to shew the Hours and to expound at the same time mechanically how its Wheels and its Springs produce this effect Thus Descartes himself after having said that the Immutability of God requires there should be always a like quantity of Motion in matter sheweth how that may suffice to render a Reason of natural effects Altho Mr. Boyle is not of that Number who believe that Descartes had a design to favour Atheism since he finds his proof of the Existence of God to be conclusive he maintains that to say none of the ends which he proposed to himself can be known is to deny that we can see his Wisdom and Goodness in the Creatures and consequently to take from Mankind the proof of the Existence of God which is drawn from the order of the Universe It is moreover to take from Men one of the greatest Reasons which they have of blessing and admiring the supream Being For in fine according to Descartes God perhaps proposed to himself in the Creation none of these admirable effects which are observed in the Universe and if we enjoy any good therein it doth not teach us that he design'd to do us any So that we cannot from thence conclude that God is either wise or a benefactor to us and we have no Reason from thence to admire and praise him II. The second Question is in these Terms Suppose we should affirmatively answer to the first whether the ends of God can be considered in all sorts of Bodies or only in some To resolve this Query we must divide Bodies into inanimate and animate The most considerable inanimate Bodies are the Sun and Stars When we consider their Motions so regulate and so necessary to the Earth And on the other hand we suppose with Descartes that they were produced by an intelligent Being why should we not believe that we may place the use we draw from them amongst the Causes for which this Being created them But there is much wanting in inanimate Bodies to render them as perfect as animate Bodies The Disposition of our Muscle is much more admirable than that of the Celestial Orbs and the Eye of a Fly includes a thousand times more Art than the Body of the Sun Tho there is no absurdity to think that Stones Metals and other Bodies of this Nature are made for the use of Man their inward Disposition is so simple that it might be believed they were formed by the Simple Rules of Motion even as we see that the Cristallizations and Sublimations of Chymistries produce effects sufficiently wonderful But there is no comparison betwixt these sorts of things and Animals as Mr. Boyle proves at large for not to enter into an examination of the entire Bodies of Animals he chiefly applies himself to the structure of the Eye by which it s clearly seen that it was made for to see And this not only in regard to the Eye of Man that it may be proved but we may besides observe particular Dispositions in those of other Animals which render this truth very plain Frogs for example besides what their Eyes have common with ours have also a Membrane or Gristle wherewith they cover them without it's hindering their sight for tho this Membrane is very strong it is transparent and may pass for a kind of Horny Movable These Animals living not only in Water but also upon the Water side where there are often Shrubs and Bull-Rushes and moving themselves by Leaps if they had not these Fenses to their Eyes they would be in danger of putting them out at all times It may be observ'd by holding a Frog so that it cannot turn his Head if one strives to put out it's Eyes 't will soon be perceiv'd that at the very instant it will cover them with this Membrane and that as soon as the danger is over the Frog will draw it back without trouble The same thing is found in several small Birds who Fly and hop in thick Trees and Bushes whose Thorns might easily put out their Eyes without an Horny substance wherewith they cover them We know that Men and the most part of four Footed Beasts and Birds have divers Muscles by means of which they turn their Eyes where they please according to the occasion they have for ' em Flies on the contrary have none but in recompense have on their Eyes which are convex enough a great number of little Eminences capable of receiving the Rays which come from all Parts These Inequalities are particularly observed in the Eyes of Flies which fly upon Flesh by making use of a good Microscope Altho' Bees and other great Flies have immoveable Eyes yet the same thing is not seen in them To these Remarks may be opposed That the Eyes of Men being the most perfect the Eyes of all Animals should resemble it Mr. Boyle answers to that first That since divers Organs of Animals are perfectly well disposed for the Uses for which they are destined we ought to believe at least that it may be the same with Organs whose Structure and Use are not well known to us Secondly we ought not to consider the Eye after an abstract manner and simply as the Instrument of Vision but as the Organ of a certain Animal to whom it ought to serve in certain Circumstances And this far from doing any wrong to the Creator of the Universe renders him on the contrary much Honour if we consider that in the infinite variety of Animals which he hath produced he hath given them such Eyes as were needful to preserve themselves in such places of the Earth as they live in and to nourish themselves after the manner that 's most natural to ' em Thus tho divers Beasts as Horses Oxen and some others have a seventh Muscle to turn their Eyes besides the six which they have common with Men we must not conclude that their Eyes are more perfect than those of Man or that they have any superfluous part For these Animals having their Head stooping to seek out the Forage they eat could not have their Eyes turn'd downwards so long to the ground without great Weariness if they had not this seventh Muscle which serves them for that purpose But Men having no need thereof such another Muscle would but trouble them On the contrary it ought not to be thought that Animals whose Eyes have not all that is observ'd in that of Men are destitute of any part that may be necessary for them Moles for Example have Eyes so little that it is commonly believ'd they have none although those who have made a Dissertation of them have found they had Eyes But being obliged to remain in
Ice he made some fine Powder to take Fire which he had placed in its Focus or Point where the Rays met together It is true that notwithstanding all the Care which may be taken it is impossible to make all the Aerial Matter to evaporate from the Water and to hinder that some Bubbles do not form in the middle of the Ice yet there is always a considerable Part on 't which is perfectly Transparent An Extract of a Letter of Mr. Hugens of the Royal Accademy of Sciences to the Author of the Journal of the Learned touching the Figure of the Planet Saturn THE last Conjunction of this Planet with the Sun happened the twelfth of March past of 22 Degrees 35 Minutes of Pisces and the great Obliquities of this Place from the Zodiack to our Horizon when it riseth is the Reason why it was almost three Months before it was seen in a clear Morning for it was but the fifth of Iune when Mr. Cassini observed it the first Time the Arms of Saturn being already visible and large it was judged they were re-established a long Time before He remarked also upon the North Side of the Descus of Saturn a little Tract of Shadow which agreeth as well as the re-establishment of the Arms with what is mentioned elswhere concerning the Ring with which I suppose Saturn is surrounded But because this Hypothesis is chiefly confirmed by the Observations which have been lately made whereof some have not been as yet published you will suffer me to relate them on this occasion with the Reflections I have made thereupon In the Year 1671. Saturn appeared round without Arms or Handles as I had foretold it fourteen years ago when I published my System though this happened two Months sooner than I expected to wit from the beginning of the Month of May. Afterwards an Intermission was perceived in the round Figure which I had not seen before and it had been hard for me to do it having observed Saturn but for one Year only when I writ these Predictions But you know that as soon as I heard that the Arms were returned which Mr. Cassini observed on the eleventh and fourteenth of August I said that assuredly he would take them up again in a little Time which was also found to be true for about the fourth of November the Arms of Saturn were to obscure that I doubted whether they appeared as yet though Mr. Cassini assures he had seen them the thirteenth of December following after which the round Figure continued until Saturn hid himself in the Beams of the Sun This Last Eclipse of the Arms proveth chiefly the Truth of my Hypothesis seeing it may well be judged it would have been hard for me to foresee this second Change so near the first if I had not known what had been its true Cause Besides that the manner it self wherewith the Arms were lost this second Time was precisely such as I have established in my System for they were seen to lose by little and little their Brightness though they remained always large enough to be seen which was a certain Mark that the Beams of the Sun lighted very obliquely the Surface of the Ring of Saturn which was turned towards us and that at last they lighted no more but the other opposite Surface In the Precedent Apparition of the round Figure from the end of May unto the fourteenth of August the Arms were not become invisible for want of being lighted but because our Sight was very little or not at all raised upon the Surface of the Ring which the Sun looked upon All these Reasons cannot be understood but by those who have taken the Pains to examine attentively what I have written thereof in the System of Saturn and it is for them that I shall adhere yet that as to the Lines of the Equinoxes or of the round Apparition of Saturn which Line is made by the Intersection of the Ring and of the Draught of the Orb of this Planet there have been hitherto no Observations made which oblige me to place it elswhere but at the 20 Degree of Pisces and the Balance which is the situation I have given it in Writing the System Every Time that the Place of Saturn meets in these Places of the Zodiack it ought to appear round and even it is only two Degrees or thereabouts from it For the Observations of the last Year 1671. oblige me to straiten thus these Limits which I had in Times past established six Degrees which I had done to save some Observations of Galileus and Gassandus whose Prospects have been of less effect than I had dared to suppose them According to these last Limitations the Appearances of the round Form of Saturn ought to last less than by my former Predictions so that in 1685. it will not be at the beginning of March but only at the Month of Iuly about the End of the Appearance of Saturn that he shall be seen to lose his Arms which he shall recover in the Month of November and so in the Year 1701. it cannot be seen round but in Iune at the beginning of his Appearance and from the Month of August his Arms will begin to grow again Before I end I shall add That the Table which I have given of the Motion of the small Moon or Star which accompanieth Saturn and which turns round about him in sixteen Days forty seven Minutes hath been hitherto found so conformable to the Observations that I cannot as yet see whether I ought to add to it or diminish from it An Extract of the Registers of the Royal Accademy of Sciences containing some Observations which Mr. Perrault made concerning two remarkable things which were found in Eggs. THE first Observation is upon a little Egg which was found in a great one and was about as large as a little Olive it was also of the Form of an Egg only a little longer in Proportion than Eggs commonly are but the End which is the sharpest in Eggs was so much more in this When it was first found in the big one which inclosed it it had no Shell it was only covered with a hard and thick Membrane which became hard in a very small Time as the Shell of all Eggs. The Matter wherewith it was filled was not Yellow as it is common in other Eggs but White and Serous such as is that of Eggs which are found in an Ostrich when she is near laying or such as are those that are Barren and Corrupted Another Observation is of an Egg in which a Pin was found inclosed and the Place by which it got in was not to be seen This Pin was covered with a whitish Crust of the thickness of the third Part of a Line which gave it the Form of a Bone of a Frog's Thigh Under this Crust the Pin was Black and a little Rusty The great Number of Examples which we have of the easie Penetration which Living Bodies are
like all others of Levin of Wine of Beer c. by the Spirits that agitate it and throw it up He says that the Motion and Agitation of these Spirits ought to have its Periods even independently of all exterior Causes as we see in Critical Days and in all sorts of Fermentations So Winds blow by Gusts and the Surges of the Sea are unequal the tenth being more violent than the others And by that he gives a Reason why Lakes have not a Flux and Reflux the Water being very pure and by consequence have not these Spirits that agitate it from time to time and why Tides are greater in some places than others is more difficult to conceive in his Opinion than the Reason why Vines thrive more in some places than in others The Moon according to his Judgment may determine these Spirits and contribute to their Agitation from whence it comes that the Periods of the Tides agree so exactly with those of this Planet And he pretends 't is as probable as to say That the Moon concurs to the Effects which cause Melancholy in Lunaticks by the Temperament that it produces in the Air which is dispersed every where but he does not think that the Moon excites these Spirits precisely by its Heat for we see that an extraordinary Heat often hinders these Fermentations It may be adds he that it mingles some Spirits with the Light which are devolved with those of the Sea Thus we see 't is not Cold only which produces Ice upon the Water but that certain Vapours mingling themselves therewith assist in the Coagulation An Extract of an English Iournal containing Remarks upon Mr. Plot 's History of Oxfordshire THE Remarks upon Oxfordshire are only the Inventions which many Learned Men of that Province have at divers times made known to the Publick The First is An Instrument invented by Sir Christopher Wren to know the Changing of the Weather which therefore is called the Weather-Clock This Instrument serves also to discover the Cause of the Good or Bad Air and to prevent the mischievous Accidents which proceed from the last The Second is Another Instrument invented by the same Person to know exactly the Quantity of Rain which falls in a Years Time in such a Space of Earth as shall be determined The Third is A Striking Clock invented by Mr. Iohn Iones the Motion whereof is caused by the Air of a Pair of Bellows and this Air has the same Effect as the best Spring in the World The Fourth is A way how to prevent Stacks of Hay from taking Fire and Rats and Mice Eating of Corn. The Fifth is A Mill which Grinds Corn Breaks Stones and does other things all at the same Time The Sixth and Last is Also a Mill which at the same Time makes Cyder and Mustard Grinds Corn and passes Meal through four different Shutters altogether or separately by the Labour of one Man and an Horse An Extract of an English Iournal containing many Experiments made with Phosphorus prepared by Dr. Slare of the Royal Society THere are two Sorts of Phosphorus the Liquid and the Solid which are not materially different being both drawn from the Body of Man That which is Liquid is a Substance mixed with a Liquor which although burning when it is in a Solid Mass cannot spoil nor even heat a Hand how delicate soever it may be when it is washed therewith If this Phosphorus be stopt very close it preserves not its Light much longer nevertheless in one of those Experiments that I have made I observed for five or six different and successive Times a kind of Darting although the Vial was close-stop'd which made me conclude The Experiment was the same with the shining Phosphorus of Dr. Esholt its Darting bearing some Resemblance to Lightning The Solid Phosphorus is not materially different from the Liquid as I have already said being made chiefly of Urine I am convinced one might do as much with the Blood if it could be had as easily and in as great a Quantity since Urine is only the Serum of the Blood passed by the Reins The Substance of this Phosphorus may be made as Transparent as any Rosinous Body and melts in hot Water like Wax When it is covered all over in Water it ceaseth to shine but as soon as any little part thereof escapes and gains the Air it shines again although the Vial was sealed Hermetically I have kept it without Water many Days in a very large Vial and although it always shined its Brightness or Weight diminished not at all or so little that it was not discernable The Pieces of this solid Phosphorus are some of 'em much more inflamable than others Some of 'em one may take in ones Hand without Danger but others that take Fire and burn as soon as ever they are touched if the Hand be never so little warm We have seen a Piece weighing about two Drachms which taking Fire in a Chamber where there was no Candle and distant from us light like a Faggot and burnt the Carpit and Table whereon it was laid This Sort of Phosphorus ought to be managed only by Men of Experience and Wisdom With that which is not so inflamable one may make Characters upon a blank Paper which in the Dark appear like Rays of Light but if it comes near the Fire these same Characters as soon as they are warm change Dark and continue so for as long a Time as good Ink will This Light is very diffusive of it self I have made with this new manner of Pencil above an hundred Characters without wasting a twentieth part of it Half a Grain laid upon my Hand communicated its Brightness to the utmost extent of it and so continued all Night the Hand shining also the next Day A Grain of this Substance exposed to the open Air flamed for seven or eight Days so that during the Day shutting the Windows of my Closet I cou'd always perceive it stiring and when I look'd very earnestly I could see a whitish Flame come out of it into the circumambient Air. After all the Matter was consumed there remained no Cinders but only a little Moisture which had an acid Taste but having left off to consume the more gross Portion there was found much more Moisture which had the Taste of the Oil of Sulphur This made me remember That the greatest part of my Friends who saw this Experiment called it a Sulphurous Flame Indeed it seemed that in all its Proprieties it had more relation to Sulphur than Saline Concretes chiefly because of its inflammability and because it did not destroy itself nor dissolve in Water An Extract of an English Iournal containing the manner how with many singular Experiments of Preserving Fish Butter Flesh Fowls Fruits and Roots in a very good Estate and for a long Time THis is done only by the means of Salt upon which he observes 1. That refined Salt is the best of all to salt Fish
little the better for the very places of Scripture we most frequently alledge because they most commonly respect the Masoretick Bible which we have not room to explain to those who know nothing of these things If therefore such Subjects are fit for Divines to understand then must the Knowledge of the Rabbinical Writings be so likewise 'T is peculiarly incumbent on the Ministry by their Office to defend the Doctrines they teach by the Scriptures But if they are unable to defend the Scriptures the only Evidence and Proof of their Doctrines the Christian Religion with the Doctrines thereof must fall to the ground And yet this Position That the present Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament in the Words Letters Points Vowels and Accents we now enjoy is the same uncorrupted Word of God which was delivered of old by the holy Pen-men of it to the Church This we say cannot well be defended against all Opposers without the Rabbinical Knowledge we speak of And so much for the need of this Knowledge We shall only give some Directions about this Study First He must well understand the Hebrew Bible in the first place who would know the Rabbins before he look after them And for this if he hath no Latin he must get William Robertson's First and Second Gate to the Holy Tongue His Key to the Bible Iessey's English Greek Lexicon c. But we suppose most have the Latine Tongue and such have Grammars and Lexicons enough as Buxtorf's Epitome his Thesaurus His Lexicon And many other Authors especially Bythner's Lyra Prophetica in Psalmos Leusden's Compendium Biblicum Arius Montanus his Interlineary Bible c. Let him read the Hebrew Bible much And then for the Rabbins take this brief Account and Direction The ancient Chaldee Paraphrasts are most of them translated and thereby easie to learn The ancient Cabalistical Writings as the Zohar Bahir c. are both most difficult and least useful Their Oral Law or Traditions were collected after the Destruction of the Temple A.D. 150. by Rabbi Iudah the Holy as they call him This they preferr before the Scripture and suppose it was Orally delivered by Moses to Israel and unlawful to be written but when Ierusalem was destroyed they were constrained to write it lest it should be lost but yet 't was so written as that none but themselves might understand it This Book is called Mishnaioth comprizing all their Religion with the Bible 'T is divided into Two Parts each Part into Three Seders or Books each Seder into many Masecats or Tracts each Masecat into Chapters and Verses A brief Account of the Contents of the Mishna and all the Parts of it is given by Martinus Raimundus in his Prooemium to his Pugio Fidei a very Learned and Useful Book which also gives an Account of the Tosaphot the Gemara and the Commenâ—â—ries thereon which compleat the Talmuds both that of Ierusalem A.D. 230. and that of Babylon Five hundred Years after Christ which Gemara is but a Comment and Dispute on the Mishna which is the Text of the Talmud There are several Masecats or Tracts of the Mishna translated as the Nine first Masecats viz. Beracoth c. So also Masecat Middoth by Le Empereur Sanhedrin and Maccoth by Cock Megillath by Otho Codex Ioma and others But as the very Learned Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil observes He that would know the Mishna must learn Maimonides This Moses Maimonides Physician to the King of Egypt about Five hundred Years ago wrote his Iad Chaseka or Mishna Torah wherein he hath comprized the Substance of the Mishna and Talmud in a pure pleasant plain and easie style if compared with the Mishna and Talmud and yet he that has read him may with ease and pleasure understand all the Mishna And then for the Talmud There is Clavis Talmudica Cock's Excerpta c. This Maimonides of whom the Jews say from Moses the Law-giver to Moses Maimonides there was never another Moses like this Moses Several of his Tracts are translated also as Iesudee Hatorah the First Masecat of all and Deoth Aboda Zara the 1 st entituled De Fundamentis Legis 2. Canones Ethicae 3. Idololatria 4. De Iure Pauperis 5. De Poenitentia c. But most are translated by the excellent Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil as De Sacrificiis one of the fourteen Books which he hath divided this Work into and De Cultu Divino another of the fourteen Books comprizing several Tracts Also his Tracts about Vnleavened Bread about the Passover about a Fast c. As to other Rabbins several are translated as Cosri c. and that on various Subjects as Logick by R. Simeon Physick by Aben Tibbon with Maimonides's Epistle against Iudiciary Astrology So of Arithmetick and Intercalating the Month by Munster and that of Maimonides by Duveil with many other Books as Ietsirah Bachinath Olam c. And of History as Seder Olam Zutha and Seder Olam Rabba Tsemach David c. And as to Rabbinical Commentaries the best and chief are R. Sal. Iarchi or Isaac R. Aben Ezra R. David Kimchi all these upon the Proverbs are translated by Antony Giggeius upon several minor Prophets by Mercer viz. on Hosea Ioel Amos c. on Ioel and Iona by Leusden as also a Masecat on the Misbna called Pirke Abbot Kimchi on the Psalms is likewise translated These Rabbins lived about Five hundred Years ago and do excellently explain the Text where Grammar and Jewish History are necessary But several of the above-mentioned Books being scarce we shall be ready to Translate and Print in two Colums the one Hebrew the other English either any Masecat of the Mishna or any Hilcoth or Tract of Maimonides or the Commentaries of the Rabbins on any part of the Bible if our Bookseller receive Encouragement which with Buxtorf's Great Lexicon Talmudicum and his Book de Abbreviaturis would no doubt enable one that hath read the Hebrew Bible to understand the Rabbins Which is all the Direction we have room to give here and therefore conclude with our hearty Wishes That our Young Students may be mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18.24 2 Tim. 3.15 16. and thereby they will by the Grace of God become Able Divines according to the Old Proverb Bonus Textuarius Bonus Theologus The PROEM Containing the Cause Occasion and Method of the ensuing Debate IN this Introduction we shall take notice of Three things wherein are contained the Cause and Occasion of the following Discourse with the Method of proceeding therein 1. The Weight and Moment of the Subject in Controversie 2. The many Circumstances that render its Consideration at this time necessary and seasonable 3. The Method and Order of manageing the same First As to the Weight and Moment of the Matter in Controversie it is small in quantity about no more than a Point or Tittle but great in quality about no less a Cause than the Keeping or Rejecting of the Bible For 1 st The Old
Post-Talmudical Rabbies It is therefore of the greatest moment to discover the improbability and absurdity of this Novel Opinion which so directly tends to the Overthrow of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures And though some of the Patrons of it do not themselves reject the Bible yet they well know others of them do on this Account So that we must defend the Divine Original of the Points as we desire to maintain the Divine Authority of the Bible And so much for the weight and moment of the Matter in controversie Secondly As to the seasonableness of debating this Controversie at this time there are Six Circumstances that in Conjunction attending it do render it seasonable The First is the Place of it that it is brougâ—t home to our own door We concern not our selves with the Controversies of Foreign Countreys but our own Nation is the Stage where this Opinion of the Novelty of the Points hath been more publickly espoused than would have been suffered in any other Protestant State And therefore Secondly It doth not creep in corners as in other places but hath received the publick Approbation of the Nation so far as to be solemnly espoused in the English Polyglott Bible Wherein Thirdly We have not faint Motions of it but powerful and mighty Efforts by the most Learned among them And this Fourthly is attended with answerable success the generality of the springing Youth embracing it And Fifthly Yet not content with this Victory Success and Credit in England the Patrons of it have of late put forth their greatest strength afresh for the promoting of their Cause in the Vindiciae of Ludovicus Capellus lately published in Answer to Buxtorf de Origine Punctorum And Sixthly Notwithstanding this Opposition to the Truth by the great Champion for the Novelty of the Points and its suitable Success yet there has been no Answer returned to this Treatise as yet that we hear of And it is fit it should be Answered lest this Vindiciae do as much mischief as the former Treatise entituled Arcanum Punctationis Revelatum whereof this last is a Defence that being justly accountable for the Success this Opinion hath had in England as by a brief Narrative of the Rise Progress and Issue of this Controversie amongst us will appear Which in short is this One Elius Lovita a learned Grammaâ—ian and Iew about the beginning of the Reformation fell upon this Conceit That certain Jews 〈◊〉 Tiberias A. D. 500. placed the Points as they had received them by Oral Tradition This he defendeth in his Masoret Hammasoret Preface 3 d. But herein he is contrary to all the Jews either in his time or before or after him And therefore he was answered by them as in particular by R. Sam. Areâ—â—olti in his Arugath Habbosem c. 26. And also by F. Azarias in his Meor Enaim in Imre Birtah cap. 59. And out of the Rabbins by Buxtorfius the Elder in his Thesaurus Grammaticus Print ed in 1609. And in his Tiberias 1620. Thus amongst the Jews the Errour ended where it began even in Elias himself none being left of his Opinion amongst them But it will not so end with Christians several Reformers whether moved by the Authority of Elias the famous Doctor and Master of the Hebrew Tongue of their time or else it may be at first not well examining of it embraced it This Advantage the Papists lay hold on with both Hands for they find their Accounts in it and improve it accordingâ—y Amongst Protestants Ludovicus Capellus becomes the main and greatest Champion for the Novelty of the Points and ex professo defends the same in his Treatise entituled Arcanum Punctationis Revelatum published by Erpenius the Author for some Reasons concealing his own Name at the first This Book was fully Answered and the Truth amply defended by Buxtorf the Younger in his Treatise entituled De Punctorum Origine Antiquitate published A. D. 1648. But at length in the Prolegomena to the Biblia Polyglotta we have this Opinion of Capellus which did but slily creep before publickly owned by Dr. Walton the Compiler of that Bible and defended with Capellus's Arguments whereby Capellus is deservedly answerable for the Success of this Opinion by its Station in the Polyglott Bible upon his Shoulders Hereupon Dr. I. O. writes some Considerations on the Prolegomena aforesaid and by the way Answers the Heads of Arguments brought for the Novelty of the Points But hereunto Dr. Walton returns a Reply entituled The Considerator Considered A. D. 1659. But in the Year 1661. Dr. I. O. in his Treatise De Natura Theologiae doth concisely defend his Opinion of the Divine Original of the Points The like doth Mr. William Cooper defend the Antiquity of the Points in his Domus Masaicae Clavis 1673 And so doth Wasmuth in his Vindiciae S. Hebraeae Scripturae 1664. And thus stood the Cause for some time until now at last Ludovicus Capellus his Vindiciae comes out in Answer to Buxtorf's Treatise De Origine Punctorum as also his former Treatise Arcanum Punctationis Revelatum is reprinted with it together with other Critical Discourses in a large Folio published A. D. 1689. and dedicated to the then Archbishop of Canterbury the rest of the Bishops and all the Clergy of the Church of England By which Dedication is made as bold a Challenge and earnest Invitation to the Defence of the Truth in Controversie as could well he made and together with the foregoing Considerations render it seasonable at this time as the weight and moment of the Subject do make the present Defence thereof necessary Thirdly As to the Method of the ensuing Discourse we have divided the same into Two Parts In the First Part we examine the Evidences for the Opinion that the Points were invented A. D. 500. Or since that time by the Masorites of Tiberias or Others and discover the Improbability thereof In the Second Part we Prove and Maintain the Antiquity and Divine Original of the Shapes of the Points Vowels and Accents against the Cavils and Objections of Capellus and Others But the First of the Two is what we begin withall for several Reasons First Because we are in Possession of the present Punctation as being of Divine Original and have peaceably enjoyed it in all Ages to this time all Translations amongst us being taken out of it 'T is our Inheritance and therefore unfit to call the Antiquity of the Points into question until we first see sufficient Evidence or at least great Probality that they were a Novel Invention Which if of so late date may be more easily proved than what was a Thousand Years before that time And the Rejecting or Answering of the Arguments for their Novel Invention is a Proof of their Antiquity and Divine Original for the Points were placed either since A. D. 500. or between the time of Ezra and A. D. 500. or else by the time of Ezra But we shall here prove in the First place
also Deut. 2.16 with a Comma the sence not making a Period About which matter he saith It is to be admired that the Orderer of the Parasha's should here divide into two Verses that which by the sence seems to be but one And the like is done Deut. 2.16 We know not why 't is done but saith he 't is like Baal Hahapesakoth the Punctator did know the reason why he did so for his Knowledge is larger than ours Hence he adviseth us to follow the Punctator always as in his Book Mosenaim fol. 19. b. And before I expound unto thee all these things already mentioned saith he I must admonish thee that thou dost go after Baal Hataamim the Punctator And whatsoever Exposition is not according to the Exposition of the Accents do not agree to it nor hearken to it and do not mind the words concerning the Ten Verses that one of the Geonim saith do belong to the Verses following or coming after them for they are all right and they are distinguished or divided according as the sence requireth And pag. 198. col 1. disputing against some he saith And moreover if their words were true Lo hajah baal hateamim maphsik beathnak besoph bemillath vejiphol c. the Baal Hateamim who is Hammappesik the Punctator would not have made the Stop or Pause with Athnak in the end in the word Vejiphol Gen. 45.14 So pag. 200. b. He knoweth saith he the Secret of Baal Hateamim the Punctator And elsewhere saith Buxtorf He saith 't is of great moment to keep the way of the Accents Now that Aben Ezra doth not suppose the Punctator or Punctators to be the Masorites appears by this That he treats the Masorites quite otherwise than he hath done the Punctator For First When he speaks of the Masorites he doth not call them Baal hateamim and hammappesik the Punctator but he calls them The Wise Men of the Masora The Men of the Masora and Baal Hammasoret the Author of the Masora And Secondly He often differeth from and opposeth the Masorites but he never opposeth the Punctator And that he oft differs from the Masorites appears by these Instances In Tsakooth 149. concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehinnehhu Jer. 18.3 which the Keri reads divided into two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehinneh hu with Aleph added As he reckons by the Masorites he saith This is not defective of Aleph that is wanting Aleph for it is one word though the Men of the Masora do say it is defective And fol. 150. col 2. Ve taam anishee hammasoret eno taam And the Reason of the Men of the Masora is no Reason So fol. 190. he saith concerning a Masoretick Observation Ein tserik There is not need of it And so of others fol. 191.2 fol 192.1 and elsewhere In the end of the Preface prefixed to the great Bibles thus he saith speaking of the Fifth way of Expounding Scripture which he followeth himself And I will not saith he mention the Reasons of the Men of the Masora why this word is written full and why the other word is written defective for all their Reasons are allegorical their Reasons are only good for Children for sometimes the Writer writeth a word full which he doth to make it plain and sometimes he writeth a word more obscurely by the defect of a letter for brevity sake c. but their Reasons are only good for Children So that we see he contemneth and oft opposeth the Masorites but we shewed before he honoureth and always followeth the Punctator Therefore we conclude that Aben Ezra doth not suppose the Masorites to be the Punctator or Authors of the Punctation Capellus Vind. lib. 1. cap. 1. sect 10. objecteth There might be two sorts of Masorites First the Tiberian Punctators and long after them those that numbred the Letters and counted the Keri Uketib Resp. 1. Neither Aben Ezra nor any other Iew make any such distinction 2. A posse ad esse non valet consequentia 3. 'T would injure the former Masorites for he opposeth and despiseth the Masorites in General and if the Punctators whom he reverenceth so much were Masorites also he would no doubt have excepted them particularly 4. Capellus hath hereby lost his Cause by supposing the Authors of the Punctation or Shapes of the Points were long before those that numbred the Letters seeing the Talmuds made before A. D. 500. do call those that numbred the Letters the Ancients as being long before their time whereas Capellus his Opinion is That the Authors of the Points were not till after the Talmuds Capellus Vind. cap. 1. sect 12. saith If the Masorites restored and corrected the Punctation our Faith is humane if built thereon as much as if they invented it Resp. Not so For no more is required to preserve the Text uncorrupt from Age to Age than humane Care and Industry under the conduct of Divine Providence but the giving forth of the Scripture and the ascertaining the Sence of Scripture requires Divine Assistance and Evidence of Divine Authority Capellus objects sect 13. ibid. Vind. The Masorites had few Pointed Copies to correct by or many If few how came they to differ And if many they were either about great Matters or small If about great Matters then we stand on Humane Authority if about small then 't was not worth their labour Resp. 1. Themselves say nothing can be certainly spoken of those Times by reason of the darkness of the History thereof and therefore they should not press us in this Point 2. How many Pointed Copies were then we matter not but that there were very great and many differences in the Copies we deny the Providence of God watching over his Word to preserve it to the end of Time The Superstitious care of the Jews and the Religious Care of the Christians would not consist with it but some small difference might be suffered to quicken the diligence of those whose duty and concern it was to preserve it which might be well worth their time to Correct and justly deserve the Praise of Posterity for the same Capellus objecteth They must destroy all other Copies besides that which they corrected and this was impossible to be done Resp. No more need for this than for to burn Hereticks and destroy all that differ from us No Truth is Light the shining whereof dispelleth Darkness and so is their Copy universally embraced as the Standard Capellus Vind. cap. 1. sect 17. saith How know we that the Masorites did correct the Copies seeing there is no History of it And if they did correct them 2. It might be fallacious and stuffed with many things in favour of their own Nation 3. Who can believe that these Men chose the best and most genuine sence always and never mistook either by Errour Negligence or Design 4. Who can believe that our present Copies are the same as those which the Masorites corrected Resp. They most need to Answer these Questions
and Masoret Hammasoret Pref. 3. 4. But the most of the Jews affirm that Ezra and the Men of the Great Synagogue first invented and placed the Shapes of the Points to the Text as Elias Levita himself in Masoret Hammasoret at the beginning of Pref. 3. observes and Ephodeus cap. 5. cap. 7. Now all these several Opinions agree in this That the Shapes of the Points were placed to the Text by the Time of Ezra and that they are of Divine Original and Authority therefore which is all we are concern'd to prove And herein we have the universal Consent of the Jews one only Elias excepted as hath been proved in the First Part for had another been of his Opinion either himself or his Followers would have produced him which they have not done to this day Now if we consider this Testimony in all its Circumstances it will appear very full and pertinent First As to its quantity 'T is the universal Consent of all the Jews in all Places Times and Ages Secondly As to its quality they are of all sorts 1. The ancient Caballistical Writers and Philosophers 2. The Talmudists 3. The Grammarians they are the most Learned both ancient and modern Thirdly As to the History and the Age of these Witnesses none are so fit for from them we have received the Hebrew Bible by them it is preserved and they are fittest to give the best Account of their own Affairs Fourthly As to the Form of this Testimony here is their plain loud full and open Voice for the Antiquity of the Points and their deep Silence as to the Novelty of the Points So that in all respects the Testimony is full plain and Authentick § 3. But hereunto it is objected That there are express and mute Testimonies of the Jews against the Antiquity of the Points 1. As to express Testimony 't is said and objected That Aben Ezra R. D. Kimchi Cosri and the Author of Tsak Sephataim together with Elias Levita are against the Antiquity of the Points Resp. We have at large proved in the First Part that all these Testimonies are wrested and that all these Rabbins are for the Antiquity of the Points Elias Levita only excepted which proves the universal Consent of the Jews for the Antiquity of the Points seeing Elias Levita and his Followers cannot pick up one single Iew that doth so much as question or doubt of it Object But the Iews are partial to the Praise of their own Nation and so unfit Witnesses only Elias speaking against their Glory is of more moment than six hundred on the other side Resp. 1. Elias speaks most in his own Cause and for the Glory of his own Nation in ascribing the Punctation to the Masorites A. D. 500. when we say the Jews were rejected and under the Curse of God that as such a time they should be owned of God so as to be able to produce so excellent a Work as the Punctation which is the Rule of all our Translations and Expositions of Scriptures This Opinion is most their interest to espouse and most to their Praise whereas the other Opinion belongs not to their Praise any more than ours for the Christian Church succeeded the Church of the Jews What Ezra did was whilst they were God's Church and People which not the Jews but the Christians now are And Ezra had as much Honour as that did amount to besides as being one of the Pen-men of the Scripture and did not so need it as the poor Masorites who had nothing else to boast of 2. But if the Jewish Nation were herein partial to their own Glory yet still they are fittest to give the best Account of their own Affairs All Nations are partial to their own Praise and yet the Records of every Nation are the best Evidences of their Affairs and their own Transactions § 4. Secondly 'T is objected by Capellus and Others That the Iews preserve the Law which they publickly read in the Synagogue without Points thereby to represent the Autographon of Moses being without Points which 't is said Buxtorf confesseth doth prove that the Autographon of Moses was without Points Vid. Considerat Consid. pag. 242. Resp. Buxtorf doth not confess any such thing but the contrary Vid. Buxâ— de Punct Orig. pag. 49 50. And tells the several Opinions of the Jews about the Law of Moses Some suppose it was Pointed at first Others suppose there were two Copies in Moses's his time one Pointed the other without Points That the Law is judged polluted if one Point be put to it is owned but that it was without Points to represent the Autographon of Moses doth not appear They who would know why the Jews read and keep it without Points may hear what themselves say to it who own the Antiquity of the Points and therefore if their Testimony be good in one thing 't is so in another But the Jews give Three Reasons why the Law is kept without Points in the Synagogue 1. Because of the difficulty of Transcribing Copies so exactly as is required for publick use the least defect rendring it profane which indeed with Points were almost impossible to be done 2. That they might have the liberty of drawing many and divers sences whereas the Points consine it to one only but they wouâ—d have many more mysterious 3. That all Learners might be kept in dependance upon their Teachers and 't is not unlikely but they preserve the Law Unpointed that none might be permitted to read it in the Synagogue until he were able to read it perfectly without Points Moreover if it were so this hinders not but that it might be Pointed by Ezra as Megilla or Esther read without Points which yet they own that Ezra Pointed and is of Divine Authority However the rest of the Scripture is read in their Synagogue with Points and the Law it self is read exactly according to the Punctation to a tittle which sufficiently sheweth their esteem of the Punctation as being of Divine Authority Object 'T is said If the Iews did believe that Moses or Ezra either had Pointed the Law they would not have used it without Points Resp. They all believe that Moses or else Ezra Pointed the Law yet none of them Point it in the Synagogue but give other Reasons why they omit the Points though they read by them And had Elias thought there had been any Argument in this Objection 't is like he would have used it which he doth not but acknowledgeth the Jews own their Antiquity § 5. Thirdly T is objected That the ancient Caballistical Writings make no mention of the Points or their Names nor yet do they draw any Mysteries from them as they do from the Letters which if they had been of Divine Authority no doubt but they would have done Also the Mishna and Gemara yea both the Talmuds are very silent about the Points even there where they had necessary occasion to have made mention of them if they
the word He was not the first that had designed the same tho' perhaps he was that executed it Iustin Martyr tells us of a young Man of Alexandria that being brought before Felix Governor of that City desired of him the Permission of a Surgeon that he might put himself out of the State of ever being suspected of any Impurity Felix refused because the Roman Laws forbid it as the Canons of the Church have done since Iustin related this to shew those that accused the Christians of committing horrible Uncleanness in their Assemblies were only Calumniators Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria highly admired this Action of Origen when first done but afterwards becoming an Enemy to this great Man it passed with him for an enormous Crime Origen was so ill treated for it that it is difficult to determine whether this unkind Usage was not the cause when he was advanced a little in Years that he interpreted the words of Jesus Christ in a figurative manner and condemn'd those who had any way mutilated themselves The Emperor Severus Persecutor of the Christians dying the 211 th Year of our Lord Origen made a Voyage to Rome a place he had always desired to see but continued not there long Demetrius recalling him and obliging him to take again his Employ of Catechist This Charge being too great for one he joyned with himself one Heraclas who had been his Disciple and bestowed his leasure Hours in Learning the Hebrew Tongue for which he was so much the more to be praised as he was the first amongst the Greeks that had dared to engage in so difficult a Work and for which there was then so little help It is supposed that his Master was one Huillus a Jew Patriarch of those of his own Nation Origen had always a great Number of Disciples that he instructed in Humane Sciences and in Religion among which one of the most Illustrious was a Man of Quality named Ambrose with whom he studied the Scripture with an extraordinary Application during many Years Whilst he was in this Occupation Demetrius received Letters from the Governor of Arabia desiring him immediately to send Origen to instruct him in the Faith of the Christians He went thither but soon return'd to Alexandria from whence he was obliged as soon to depart to escape the Fury of Caracalla who had entred into Egypt with an Army designing severely to punish the City of Alexandria that had offended him Origen retired to Cesarea in the Palestine where whilst he was yet but a Laick the Bishop desired him publickly to expound the Holy Scripture to the People But Demetrius caused him soon to return to Alexandria after having complained to Theoctist Bishop of Cesarea and to Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem that they had conferred on him an Employ that was never before given to a Laick altho' these two Bishops produced to him many undoubted Examples thereof They assure us that Mammea Mother to the Emperor Alexander Severus being at Antioch and having heard of Origen sent often for him and had many Conferences with him concerning Religion Being returned to Alexandria he applied himself at the Perswasion of his dear Ambrose to compose Commentaries on the Scripture in the Prosecution of which he generally maintain'd seven Copyists that in Latin are call'd Notarii from Nota to Mark because they wrote in Cyphers as fast as Persons spoke Who invented this manner of Writing is not certainly known some attribute it to Cunius others to Tyro the Freed Man of Cicero and some again to one Aquila a Freed Man of Mecoenas These Notaries were made use of in the Primitive Church to write the Discourses of the Martyrs both in Prison and upon the Scaffold as appears by what Tertullian and St. Cyprian saith on the Fasts of the Church and by Pontius the Deacon in the Life of St. Cyprian where he assures us that it was the Custom to Register all the Acts of the Martyrs By which may be seen how the Interrogations and Answers of the Martyrs were preserved the Debates held in Councils and the Homilies spoken Extempore whereof we have so great a Number and all compleat The Commentaries of Origen were so much esteemed altho' they had much defamed him for his pretended Errors that St. Ierom once a great Persecutor of his Followers after becoming openly of their Number said this in his Defence That he would willingly draw on himself the same Hatred as Origen had done to understand the Scriptures as well as he did and that he laugh'd at those Shadows of Errors that he was accused of which were fit only to fright Children whose Imaginations are weak enough to receive Impressions merely from Appearances Hoc unum dico quod vellem cum invidia nominis ejus habere etiam scientiam Scripturarum flocci pendens imagines umbrásque larvarum quarum natura esse dicitur terrere parvulos in angulis garrire tenebrosis Origen was interrupted in this Work by a Voyage he made into Greece which was at that time troubled by some Heresies He passed through Palestine making a short stay at Cesarea where Theoctist and Alexander ordained him Presbyter without his seeking the least after it and with no other design than to make his Ministry more effectual Demetrius had no sooner heard this News but he thought he had found a fair occasion to discover a Hatred he had long conceal'd for a Person whose Learning and Virtue had render'd him much more Illustrious than himself thinking to cover his Malice under the handsome Pretence of defending Ecclesiastical Discipline Then 't was he reproach'd him with that Weakness committed in his Youth viz. The cutting off that part of his Body which seem'd troublesome to him He caused him to be condemned by two Synods wherein they declared his Ordination void and expell'd him Alexandria But these Proceedings did no Injury to Origen he was very well received wheresoever he went and continued to execute his Office of Priest without any regard at all to the Anathema's of the Synods of Egypt Nevertheless the Insults of his Enemies obliged him to think of quitting Alexandria for ever and entirely to give up his Charge of Catechist to Heraclas whom he had converted to the Christian Religion a Man of a profound Learning and great Virtue One thing which prevailed with Origen to take his Mind more easily off Egypt and to depart from thence with less Regret was as Epiphanius tells us his falling into the Hands of some Heathens that were his sworn Enemies who threatned to kill him unless he would resolve to satisfie the Brutality of an Ethiopian Woman or Sacrifice to the Pagan Gods and that in so strange a Choice he rather preferred casting a few Grains of Incense to a false Deity He adds That Origen after this durst no longer continue at Alexandria But Authors that lived in the same time with him make no mention at all of it nor was this Crime ever
Boldness to call the Holy Ghost a strange God under pretence that he is named God in no place of Holy Writ It is against those that Gregory made his fifth and last Theological Speech In this Discourse speaking of the divers Sentiments which were had thereupon he saith amongst other things That the greatest Divines of the Heathens and those that came nearest to us have had an Idea thereof though they have given it another name having called it the Soul of the Universe and the Soul that comes from without and other such names As for the wise Men of our time saith he some have believed that the Holy Ghost is a Faculty others a Creature some a God others know not where to place him because of the respect they had for Scripture which is not clear upon this Subject Gregory maintains he is a Consubstantial Person to the two others and when he answers his Adversaries who asked him in what Generation and Procession differ'd he fortifies himself in the Incomprehensibility But one of the principal Objections which was made against the Orthodox is that they acknowledged three Gods If there be said they one God and one God and one God how is there not three Gods c. That is replieth Gregory what those say whose Impiety is arriv'd to the heighth and those who are even in the second Rank have good Sentiments towards the Son I have a common answer to give both and another which regards the second only I therefore ask these latter why they call us Tritheists who honour the Son and if they abandon the Holy Ghost they are not Ditheists How do you expound continueth he your Ditheism when this Objection is made to you Give us the means of answering for the answer wherewith you will repel Ditheism will also serve us to defend our selves from Tritheism c. Thus we shall overcome and our Accusers will serve us for Defenders c. But we have a Contestation with these two sorts of Adversaries and a common answer to both of them We have but one only God because there is but one only Divinity and that those who proceed thence relate to one thing only though we believe three The one is not more a God than the other the one is not anterior and the other posterior They are not divided in Will nor separate in Power and nothing is remarked in them that is found in divided things but to say all in one word Divinity without Division is found in three divided Persons as in three Suns turn'd one to another there would be but one mixture of Light When we consider Divinity and the first cause of Monarchy we conceive but one only thing but when we consider those in whom is the Divinity and those that proceeded from the first cause before the beginning of time and who enjoy the same Glory we adore three But they will say is there not one only Divinity amongst Heathens as their most able Philosophers have profess'd All Mankind hath but one Humanity and yet there are several Gods amongst Heathens and not one as there are several Men. I answer That in these things Unity is but in the Thought each Man is divided from the rest by Time by Passions by Power which is not in God c. This is it in which consists the Unity of God as much as I can conceive it If this reason is good we must give God Thanks if not we must seek for a better After that Gregory proposeth to himself an Objection of the Arians which shews still clearer that the Orthodox made not the Unity of God to consist in the Numerical Unity of Divine Essence but in a Specifick Unity of distinct Essences equal and in a perfect consent of Wills The things that are of the same Essence say you are reckoned as in the same order of things and those that are not consubstantial are not reckoned after this manner whence it followeth you cannot but grant that there are three Gods according to your opinion for as for us we are not in the same danger because we do not say that the Persons are Consubstantial The Arians would have it understood that they admitted but one Supream God who created all others that they would say in this regard that there is but one God because God could not be put in the same order and under the same name as his Creatures but that the Orthodox acknowledging three Beings of a Nature perfectly alike they could not deny but that they acknowledged three Gods speaking properly Gregory answers nothing else but that Men often place in the same Rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that are not of the same Species whereof he brings divers Examples drawn from Holy Writ That sheweth that the Arians might be accused as well as the Orthodox of admitting a plurality of Gods but in no wise that the Orthodox did not acknowledge three eternal Spirits although perfectly equal and the same Will A little further in this same Speech Gregory saith That having sought uncreated things something like to the Trinity he could find no comparison that could satisfie him He had well considered an Eye a Fountain and a River but he did not find these things proper enough to express his thoughts by I was at first afraid saith he lest it should seem that I was willing to introduce a certain Flux of Divinity which would have no consistence Secondly Of establishing a Numerical Unity by these Comparisons For an Eye a Fountain and a Sun are one in number although diversly modified I reflected in the Sun on the Beams and the Light but there was yet somewhat to fear on this occasion lest that we should suppose there was a Composition in a nature where there is none such as is the Composition of the Sun and of what is in the Sun and that we should give an Essence to the Father but that we should attribute no distinct Existence to the other Persons from thence making them Faculties which exist in God and which have no distinct Essence The Sun-beams and Light are not other Suns as the Son and the Holy Ghost are other Spirits distinct from the Father but certain Emanations and Proprieties essential to the Sun Finally Gregory found nothing better than to abandon these Images and Shadows as Deceitful and very far from the Originals But Gregory believed the Trinity was revealed by degrees as that Revelation first discovered God the Father without speaking of God the Son but with much Obscurity after that the Son without imposing on Men the Belief of the Holy Ghost fearing they should not be in a State of admitting thereof and finally the Holy Ghost after the Ascension of the Son We may judge by these places of the Doctrin of Gregory and of the Orthodox of his time with whom the Orthodox of ours agree as well for the Terms as they are distant in the Sense We may
Party which is that of the Semi Arians or Homoiousians The Reader will not be displeased to find here a List of these Councils which is made upon the Remarks of Mr. du Pin. Councils against Arius 1. At Alexandria composed of near a hundred Bishops in the Year 322. 2. At Nice in 325 composed of 318 or 270 or 250 Bishops 3. The Third Council of Alexandria where St. Athanasius was absolved in 340. 4. At Rome by the Bishops of Italy in 341 where Marcellus of Ancyra and St. Athanasius were justified 5. At Milan where Ursacius and Valens were received into Communion for condemning Arius in the Year 346. 6. At Sardica in 347 composed of an hundred of the Western Bishops who sent back St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra Absolved 7. At Alexandria in 362 with St. Athanasius where it was declared that the difference upon the three Hypostases were only Disputes of words It was composed of the Bishops of â—gypt 8. At Paris where the Bishops of the Gauls retracted what they had done at Rimini in 362. 9. The Bishops of Italy did as much in another Synod the same Year 10. At Antioch in 363 where the Bishops of Egypt approved the Form of Nice 11. In 370 at Rome under Damasus 12. At Aquilea in 381. 13. At Constantinople in 383. Councils for Arius 1. In Bithynia in the Year 323 Sozom. Lib. 1. Cap. 15. 2. At Antioch where Eustathius Bishop of this City was deposed in 330. 3. At Caesarea in Palestine where St. Athanasius was cited but appeared not in 334. 4. At Tyre where St. Athanasius appeared as accused in 335. It was composed of a hundred Bishops 5. At Ierusalem where Arius and his Party were received to the Communion of the Church in the same Year 6. At Constantinople against Marcellus of Ancyra which communicated with St. Athanasius and who was deposed as convicted for renewing the Errors Paul of Samosetus and of Sabellius in 336. 7. The Third Council of Constantinople where Paul Bishop of that City Defender of St. Athanasius was deposed in 338. 8. At Beziers where the Followers of Arius were reconciled to the Church in spight of Hilary of Poictiers and some other Bishops which were banished in 356. 9. The Third Council of Sirmium where the Father was declared greater than the Son in 357. 10. Another at Melitin the same Year 11. At Antioch in 358 where they condemned these Terms The same in Substance 12. At Constantinople where the Anomeans cunningly condemned Aetius their Head and deposed many Semi Arian Bishops in 360. 13. At Antioch where Melece Bishop of Antioch was deposed and where the Son was declar'd Created out of nothing in 367. 14. At Singedun in Mesia against Germinius a Semi Arian 366. 15. In Caria where they rejected the Term of Consubstantial in 368. Councils for the Semi Arians 1. The Second Council of Alexandria in 324 where nothing was determined against Arius and they treated only of the Terms Substance and Hypostasis against Sabellius where Osius presided 2 3. Two Councils at Antioch in 341 and 342 where they declared they received Arius because they believed him Orthodox where they composed three Forms of Faith in the which they Anathematize those who said there was a time when the Word was not and made a Profession of believing him like to the Father in all things This Council made XXV Canons which are inserted in the Code of the Universal Church 4. Another Council at Antioch by the Eusebians where the word Consubstantial is not found though it be Catholick as to the rest It was held in 345. 5. At Philippolis in 347. 6. The Second Council of Sirmium the Form whereof was approved by Hilary of Poictiers although the word Consubstantial be not in it In the Year 351. 7. At Arles where St. Athanasius was condemned in 353. 8. At Milan in 355 where St. Athanasius was also condemned by Violence 9. At Ancyra where those were Anathematized which held the Son Consubstantial with the Father and those who deny'd he was the same in Substance in 358. 10. The Fourth Council of Sirmium where they approved of the Forms of the Councils of Antioch and of the second Council of Sirmium 11. The fifth Council of Sirmium in 359. 12. At Rimini composed of 400 Bishops where they rejected Terms of Substance and Hypostasis as was done in the fifth Council of Sirmium Notwithstanding they held the Son to be equal to the Father in all things It was also in the Year 359. 13. At Selucia the same Year where forty Anomean Bishops or pure Arians were condemned by 105 Semi Arians 14. At Antioch in 363 where the Term Consubstantial was received in different senses 15. At Lampsaca in 365 where the Anomeans were condemn'd and where the Bishops were re-establish'd which they had deposed 16. Divers Synods in Pamphilia Isauria Lycia and Sicily in 365 and 366. 17. At Tyanes in 368 where the Anomeans were reunited with the Semi Arians In 370 a Synod was held at Gangres the Canons whereof are inserted in the Code of the universal Church and the fourth of which condemns those that say the Communion ought not to be received from the hands of a married Priest The 59th and 60th and last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which Mr. du Pin believes to have been held between the Year 360 and 370 prohibits the Reading at Church any other than Canonical Books and those that were acknowledged for such and those the Protestants receive excepting the Apocalypse The 8th Canon of the Council of Saragossa defends the Vailing of Virgins that have consecrated themselves to Jesus Christ before the Age of forty Years The Bishops of Macedonia willing to confirm a Judgment they had given against a Bishop named Bonosus by the advice of Pope Syricius he answered them That the Council of Capua having sent this Cause to them it belonged not to him to judge on 't and that 't was their business to determin it The most ancient Monument according to Mr. du Pin where the name of Mass is found to signifie publick Prayers that the Roman Church makes in offering the Eucharist is the third Canon of the second Council of Carthage held in 390. At the end of this Volume the Author makes an Abridgment of the Doctrin of the 4th Age as he did in his precedent Book in respect to the three first and he confesses that though nothing was taught in the 4th Age which was not believed in the three first nevertheless the principal Mysteries were much more clear'd and expounded in the fourth The Travels of Mars Or The Art of War divided into three parts c. With an Ample Relation of the Soldiery of the Turks both for Assaulting and Defending A Work inriched with more than 400 Cuts engraven in Copper-plates by Allaâ—n Manesson Mallet Master of the Mathematicks to the Pages of his Majesty's lesser Stable heretofore Ingenier and Serjeant-Major
reason to the Author against the Opinion of Polygamists For it would be a Civil-war as dangerous in the small Domestick State as in a Common-wealth wherein every one would be Master Those which unhappily find that Repenting Marriage claims the Rights Of Palling Ioys and Tedious Nights Will not perhaps think these Arguments convincing As Marriages are commonly the Works of Love or Fortune how can we still apply our selves to the same person when the Heart hath not chosen her or to make our tenderness live longer than the Charms which gave it birth Second Marriages would remedy all and would be a kind of Infidelity and Inconstancy without a crime Besides the Jealousie of several Women animated with a design to please and to be preferred is not without Charms Is it not said That the Patriarch Iacob was rejoyced by the Emulation of Lea which had given Mandrakes to obtain what was due to the Beauty of Rachel Whilst a Woman which hath no Rival keeps the heart of her Husband without any fear of losing it But this is to be understood something more seriously and it is maintain'd that the reasons which favour Poligamy are suggested by the Intemperance and corruption of the Heart And indeed Honesty which is an inviolable Law in good Manners doth not suffer these Extravagant Conjunctions and Immoderate Transports Love who only looks on the heart of the person beloved cannot consent to those new Engagements which divide his Cares and Wishes But Debauchery may be extended to a thousand because it hath but unsetled Sentiments After that the Author enters into a Calculation of numbers to perswade Men what a rashness it is to have several Women at once Iuvenal saith who reckon'd it amongst the Troubles of Marriage that if a poor Husband hath slept quietly all Night nothing is in order the next day and the Wife expresseth nothing but Discontent after a most Terrible manner Si nocte maritus Aversus jacuit tota periit domus All the Infirmities which spring from Debauchery are here marked out as so many Reasons to overthrow Poligamy and we must not forget to take notice of the Pains of the Gout which make Old Men remember the sins of their Youth In fine because Errour seems to have its spring as much from the Temperament as from the Heart Mr. Mayerus prescribes ways how to overcome it He compareth the Flesh to a mad Horse which ought to be tamed by Temperance and Work In the 4th Chapter he answers the great Argument of the Polygamists which is drawn from almost all people who have ever made use of it To end the Dispute of this History the Author observes that the Author of Poligamy was Lamech and his example though a great Libertine was almost generally followed So that the Rabbins maintain that before the Flood they were wiser than we in following Ages because they took two Wives one for Pleasure and Delight and the other only to get Children The Emperors Theodosius Arcadias and Honorius in 393. forbid Poligamy by an express Law It is certain that until then it was very common throughout the whole Empire and with the Nations of the East The Romans which were a little more severe in their Manners did not put it in practice Mark Anthony being seduced by the Charms of Cleopatra was the first who took the liberty of marrying two Wives although some pretend that Caesar had introduced the liberty by a Law which was since renewed by the Emperour Valentinian the I. Whence Polygamists may conclude that it is a natural Law because Grotius confounds the Law of Nations with that of Nature And Mr. Mayerus is of Opinion that the Corruption and Errors of Nations constitute not the Laws of Nations since we have seen some so barbarous as to feed on human Flesh So we must consult the Laws of Nations the most polite and see if they have been enlighten'd by the Gospel and conducted by Reason in the Establishment of their Laws As for Caesar it is not true that he published such a Law but as he was the most voluptuous of all Men it was said of him that he was the Husband of all VVomen and the VVife of all Husbands Suetonius saith that he intended thereby to authorize his Baseness under the vail of a Lawful Polygamy They say the same thing of Valentinian who renewed not the Edict of Caesar as Socrates hath reported it or who did it through the same motive to wit that he abused the Supreme Authority to colour his double Marriage contrary to the Purity of Christianity The Examples of Abraham and the Patriarchs seem to be more pressing and better to fortifie the cause of Polygamists but Mr. Mayerus sheweth that the Patriarchs having no Revelation followed the custom which was in that time Yet their ignorance can be no proof for it and we must not imitate them seeing we have Revelation for a Guide As to Moses it is not agreed on that besides Zipperah he married the Daughter of the King of Ethiopia as Ioseph testifies After that the Author taking all the Passages of Scripture which command Man to be satisfied with one Wife only he clears this matter with a great deal of Learning and attacks the Chimerical Opinion of the Polygamists by most positive Authorities drawn from the New Testament amongst others by the 12 th Chapter of St. Matthew which wholly blots out the strong impression that Examples could make which God had tolerated under the Old The second Dissertation is imployed to speak of unlawful Degrees of Kindred and in which it is not permitted to contract Marriage If we considered nothing but the Law of Nations every one would have a full liberty in his choice The Persons that are the nearest related would not be excluded thence that they might joyn to that of Blood a more tender Union and tye the Knot still closer Gentes tamen esse feruntur In quibus nato genitrix nata parenti Iungitur ut piet as geminato crescat amore Ovid. But God having prohibited us to marry in certain degrees of Proximity no body ought to oppose it To that end Mr. Meyerus gives us a Theological Explication of all the Precepts of Leviticus upon this matter He speaks accidentally of several Questions which spring from those Laws where all the Cases are not expressed The Decision of it might be expected from Lawyers but so many curious things would not be found in them and chiefly concerning the Iews and Karaites whose Opinions are here expounded and which may be read with a great deal of profit Yet we shall stop but at one general difficulty which is to know if the Levitical-Law is a moral and natural Law or simply a Ceremonial one which the Church may pass by Those who extol the power of the Pope stick not at flattering him with this Power excepting in a direct line Some Protestants have embraced the same Party and maintained that these Politick
necessity of eating is pleasing to him which afterwards he prevents and eats between Meals will have Sauces and imploys in them the Mony he at first gave the Poor He gets him Friends who are people of pleasure and Goodfellowship He thinks himself no longer rich enough but seeks after Benefices he is distasted at a Regular Life and in a little time becomes like the Laicks Commixti sunt inter Gentes didicerunt opera eorum For in fine he keeps not Company with them in their Pleasures to Preach Repentance They invite him to divert themselves with him and he strives to be neither Incommodious nor Displeasing He like to them esteems Goodfellowship they Sing they provoke one another to Drink It is indeed a most dangerous Temptation for Ecclesiastical Persons They are too much afraid lest they should pass for Formal Men and interrupt the Pleasures of a good Meal They are too solicitous lest People should complain that they are not contended only to be tedious in their Sermons A Recital of the Conference that Luther had with the Devil given by Luther himself in his Book of the Private Mass about the Vnction of Priests with Remarks upon his Conference at Paris by John Baptista Coignerd 1684. THis is the third Edition of this Work of Monsieur Cordemoi He relates the Dispute that Luther confesses himself he had one Night with the Devil touching private Masses and draws from them most grievous and odious Consequences against the Protestants The Lutherans who have made so great a number of Books ought to oppose him It looks as if he was not willing to destroy the disadvantageous Idea that it represented to the mind when in a Dream or any other manner an Instruction is received from the Devil for as he is call'd in the Evangelist the Father of Lies so there is no great Perswasion necessary to make one believe he never spoke truth But we ought to conclude otherwise when a Spirit is so wicked as himself which delights in the disorder of the World and in committing many Crimes so that nothing is more hateful to him that the Truth that he shou'd be capable to Induce Men to speak the Truth 'T is not wonderful that the Providence of Almighty God who often to his end makes use of second Causes and sometimes employs the Malice of the Devil to the advancement of good Now in part omitting here the Question Whether Luther Preaches the Truth or not It is easily apprehended that 't is possible that an Evil Spirit might at that time believe a Lye would be less proper than the Truth to excite cruel Passions in their minds It is not very likely that any thing was more pleasing to the Devil than the Discord that was caused about the Contest of Truth As for Example The Ten Persecutions of the Ancient Church sufficiently shew The Grand Seignior's Spye and his Secret Relations sent to the Divan of Constantinople discovered at Paris in the Reign of Lewis the Great in Twelves at Amsterdam by Westhein THis Work was Counterfeited at Amsterdam with the consent of the Bookseller of Paris who first Printed it it s composed of many little Volumes which contain the most considerable Events of Christendom in general and of France particularly from the Year 1637. to 1682. An Italian Native of Genoa Marana by Name gives these Relations as Letters Written to the Ministers of the Ports by a Turkish Spy who conceal'd himself at Paris He pretends he Translated it from Arabick into Italian and relates at length how he found them It 's probably suppos'd 'tis the product of an Italian Spirit and an Ingenious Fiction like to that which Virgil made use of to praise Augustus This Poet very often introduces Anchises sometimes Vulcan who to praise this Emperor more artificially begins by little and little and falls by degrees into the Panegyrick which was the Poets main design this is much handsomer than to praise a Prince purely with a prospect of Interest It s thought that the Sieur Marana had no other design than to make an Elogy upon His Most Christian Majesty the better to conceal his Game and to render him something marvellous he puts into the mouth of a Turk that which himself had studied upon the Glorious Actions of this Puissant Monarch but before he hath done makes his Spye say many other things 't is no matter whether it be a Turk or Genoese that speaks to us provided he gives us a good Book The first Book is very agreeable it contains the History of the last Month from the Year 1637. and of the most part of the Year 1638. An Anatomical Bibliotheque Or a New and Copious Treasury of Anatomical Discoveries in which there is a full and exact Description of the whole Human Body which is accurately treated of from the Collections of the Tractates of the most Famous Anatomists Publish'd and Vnpublish'd To which is added an Anatomical Administration of all its parts with divers Curious Preparations A Work very profitable and necessary for Anatomists Physitians Surgeons Philosophers and all Learned Men whatever performed by Daniel le Clerke and Johannes Jacobus Mangetus M. M. D. D. who have supply'd the Tractates Arguments Notes and Anatomico-practical Observations with necessary Indexes and a great number of Copper Cuts Geneva at the expence of Johannes Antonius-Chouet in Folio 2 Vol. 1684. A Title so well Circumstantiated as this seems to leave nothing for the Journalists or the Novelists of the Learned to add It carries the Recommendation and Praise of the Work with it self Nevertheless if we had seen it we wou'd observe many things of this Anatomical Bibliotheque but how can we see it not being yet publish'd but hope it may be soon ready for the Press 'T will be a most useful Work because it unites in one Body many Books of Anatomy that were dispers'd and being joyn'd together from a Compleat Anatomy there are divers pieces of Mr. Malpighi and some Celebrated Authors which never appear'd in the World Those who have endeavour'd to gather so many separated Pieces together and give an account of them as soon as they came out are Mr. Clerk and Mr. Manget Physitians of Geneva which will be very serviceable to the Republick of Letters There was Printed also in Geneva the Research of Truth translated into Latin with a handsome Preface which the Translator had joyned thereto to shew the usefulness of those Principles the Author hath offer'd to give some Advice to them who wou'd read the Work with advantage And in fine 't is to shew that it is impossible to have an exact knowledge of these things if we are not skill'd in the Abstracts of Metaphysicks If any will buy the whole Edition Sieur Iohn Picteat Bookseller at Geneva will sell it at a reasonable Price 'T is in Quarto A Treatise of the Excellency of Marriage of its necessity and of the means of Living Happy therein Where is an Apology
all the Bashfulness and Tractableness of their Sex He tells them that in the best govern'd Monasteries It happens but too often that for want of applying themselves sufficiently to express the first motions of Youthful Vanities and forward of giving them an aversion to ill Books and immodest sights for too tender friendships and the too great love of their Bodies and for the Inclination of shewing such parts as Modesty and Decency require to be covered with the greatest care and exactness These young Scholars have their Hearts full of the World and its desires and with a great impatience of having the full satisfaction of all the pleasures and liberties that they think their Cloysters kept them from or the vigilance of their Mistresses Experience is a very strong Proof of this and all the World acknowledge it whether it really proceeds from what he pretends here that the first Progress of corruption is not repressed with viligance and care enough or whether it be that Nature is more prevailing than all the dexterous endeavours of Art Nature is an inward Master whose Precepts lead a young Disciple very far without the assistance of any one though his Precepts be exposed by contrary ones Then what cannot this Nature do when it is assisted by the Dictates of an outward Master who passionately Caresses and cajoles a young Pensioner but lately come from a Convent 'T is said he does more in an hour than the Reverend Mothers in a 1000 and in 2 or 3 times head to head he blots out all their Repetitions Here is what one may do that works upon Matter naturally well prepared This does not hinder Peoples getting their Children brought up at Convents for it is thought the evil would be the more universal if they were not armed with this defence before they imbarked in the World And moreover it is thought Family Examples should not be suffered to their knowledge This Author shews a great Zeal for the Education of Young Women he would have them to be made to comprehend well that it is but in vain that they flatter themselves with having a Chaste Heart or a love for Purity either in the Cloyster or in the World if they do not love these things in others as well as in themselves and to convince themselves of this Love they ought to keep from all that may lessen it in their own Hearts or in their Neighbours and always forbid themselves the use of these ill Fashions which by Violence and open force made passage for desires and designs opposite to Chastity into the best disposed Hearts He proceeds and says that it is not sufficient to cover what might give scandal to our Neighbour and hurt Chastity but they are to cover it modestly and they must be learned that very often these worldly Ornaments and these cheating Vails that cover without hiding serve only to irritate and multiply in a Thousand different ways the desires and motions of a corrupted Heart and it is for this that the Pope's Edict has in express terms enjoyn'd them They shall cover themselves with a thick and not with a transparent Cloath This takes away all Equivocation which might be made use of to cheat the Governours Vigilance For though according to remark of a certain Ancient A Man cannot well take an Oath if he is not quite naked for when Men are clad with any prejudices c. there are abundance that would not stick to swear any thing So the Pope did very well to mark expresly Cloth not transparent Afterwards the Author shews that the Scripture condemns all Equipage and vanity in Cloathing and that for greater reason it condemns these Nakednesses which shew so much self love and inclination to be the occasion of sin to our Neighbour He does not quote the Fathers which he might many on the same occasions He supposes that those he speaks to have no need of proofs for what he says It must be allowed that the principles of this Morality are agreeable to Christianity nevertheless there are many Casuists who have pardoned Nakedness on many accounts which the famous Voetius reproaches them with in the 4th Volume of his Disputes p. 461. where he takes notice that he knew but one Divine of this Communion which was Alstedius who has said that a Woman might go naked or covered with slight Gause in the Countreys where it is the custom to go so This Clause serves to excusest the Casuists because it is certain that Nakedness loses the greatest part of its Allurement by custom Schookius the constant defender of dissolute Morality against Preciseness for it is so he called the Scrupulous and Austere Morals of Voetius cites upon this Subject among other things which the Minister Iohn Leri remarks upon the occasion of the Womens going quite naked in Brasil which is that Dressing works a greater effect than the most natural simplicity As for the rest This Stranger that gave me the account of the publishing this Book for the Nuns was the occasion that I made an Article of it in my Novels he also was the cause of my speaking of the Factum of the Iansenists For it was thro him that I understood it was published Both these advices came to me at the same time from the same place and with Glosses that have not been found true perhaps People may be willing enough that I should add at the end of this Article the present condition of the Iansenists Process I say then that they published a Second Factum wherein they declared that having the advice of some godly Persons they were willing to end the debate some milder way than by a rigorous Judgment that for this end they Declared to Mr. Internance presenting him a Form of Retractation to be sent to Father Hazart That they were ready to desist from all Pursuits If that Father and Mr. Hoesslaegh Signed this Model and Published it afterwards it s at length here accompanyed with the 19 th Decree of the 12 General Congregation of Iesuits because it might engage Father Hazards Superiours to bring him more Efficaciously to which he could not refuse without renouncing his hopes of safety This Decree speaks in most express Terms how the Superiours of the Jesuits are obliged to impose rigourous Penance on those of their Society who offend their Neighbour through the indiscretion of their Pen and must make them presently lawful satisfaction Mr. Internance has promised to send the Model to Father Hazard and has Named Judges which makes some believe that there is nothing to be hoped for from the expedient that the Plantiffs have offered This is the more manifest by two Letters that this Jesuit has writ to a person of Quality that he is not inclin'd to do what is propos'd to him The first of these Letters contains a very sharp Invective against the Iansenists and a promise to answer in writing the complaints of the Plantiffs The Second shews that Father
whether a Person may receive with 2 Ch. v. 3. n. 22. q. 7. Snakes when kept tame v. 3. n. 23. q. 2. Snakes Water-snake and Land-snake how different v. 3. n. 23. q. 3. Solidity what is it v. 3. n. 24. q. 16. Substance and Body the difference v. 3. n. 25. q. 2. Soul whether it presently enjoys God after Death v. 3. n. 25. q. 7. Souls of learn'd men ignorant whether alike next v. 3. n. 25. q. 8. Saviours Birth why in Bethlehem v. 3. n. 26. q. 6. Scepter why not to depart from Judah Gen. 49. v. 3. n. 26. q. 7. Sins which most destructive v. 3. n. 28. q. 6. Swoon where is the Soul then v. 3. n. 29. q. 3. Saviour and his Miracles how prov'd by History v. 4. n. 1. q. 1. Species in Nature whether any v. 4. n. 1. q. 4. Sleep-walkers a strange Relation of one v. 4. n. 5. q. 2. Such a Serpent as an Amphisbaena or double-headed v. 4. n. 5. q. 6. Seduced into a great Sin Oaths Promises v. 4. n. 7. q. 8. Sweating sickness mentiond Present-state of London v. 4. n. 8. q. 7. Sprinkling Infants why not Dipping in Baptism v. 4. n. 14. q. 5. Secret Sinner whether oblig'd to confess all to a Minister v. 4. n. 16. q. 2. Sympathy and Antipathy how is it v. 4. n. 19. q. 2. Surgeon whether sins in curing the French disease v. 4. n. 23. q. 9. Shipping and Navigation whether improv'd v. 4. n. 27. q. 3. Soul when out of the Body is it active or inactive v. 4. n. 28. q. 5. Soul how long may it be absent from the Body v. 4. n. 28. q. 6. Soul into what place does it go after Death v. 4. n. 29. q. 1. Songs on Moral or Divine Subjects impress virtue v. 5. n. 1. q. 5. Spirits how big are they v. 5. n. 2. q 3. Soul of Woman is it inferiour to Mans v. 5. n. 3. q. 2. Sun is it a Mass of Liquid Gold v. 5. n. 4. q. 5. Sun whether ever totally eclips'd v. 5. n. 4. q 6. Sun what supplies it with heat and motion v. 5. n. 5. q. 1. Suns three appearing at once whether true v. 5. n. 6. q. 8. Specifick cure for the biting of a Viper or Mad Dog v. 5. n. 7. q. 4. Satyrs c. or other discoursing Creatures c. v. 5. n. 7. q. 7. Sons and Daughters of God mentioned Geo. 6.4 v. 5. n. 7. q. 9. Stroke on a Mules back the reason of 't v. 5. n. 10. q. 3. Sun why the spring of Light a Poem v. 5. n. 11. q. 6. Sappho or Mrs. Behn the best Poetess v. 5. n. 13. q. 8. Samaritan Character or Vulgar Heb. the ancientest v. 5. n. 14. q. 2. Solomons meaning in Prov. 30.19 what was it v. 5. n. 16. q. 2. Saints why Pictur'd with Circles v. 5. n. 16. q. 5. Souls are they all equal v. 5. n. 29. q 3. ‖ SVm of the Bible 1. suppl p. 15. Speaking or Writing whether is better 1. suppl p. 25. Speaking or keeping silent which is better 1. suppl p. 27. Sum of the Bible Tome 1. 2. suppl p. 4. Siam the Revolution of that State suppl 2. p. 8. Spain a Relation of a Iurney thither 4 suppl p. 1. Sherlock on Iudgment 4. suppl p. 26. Swifts Letter to the Ahenian Society 5. suppl p. 1. Swifts Ode to the Athnian Society 5. suppl p 2. Selah what is the signification of it 5. suppl q. 4. p. 9. Syllogism about Infan Baptism answered 5. suppl p. 11. Son that has wrong his Father desires to communicate at Easter 5. suppl q. 6. p. 12. Soul of an Emoryo how shall it rise at last 5. suppl p. 14. q. 11. Sun and Clouds when look'd on 5. suppl p. 16. q. 18. Sin whether migt not be ordain'd for Gods Glory 5. suppl p. 16. q. 20. Sin were it ordai'd or all possibilities of Adams standing 5. sup p. 16. q. 21. Souls of Brutes heir Natures 5. suppl p. 25. q. 26. †SYnopsis of tâ— New Polyglot Bible p. 292. Selden othe use and abuse of Books p. 80. Bishop Stillingleets Antiquities of the British Churches p. 135. Stanly's Histry of Philosophy containing the Lives Opinions Actions an Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect p. 190. Sylloge varirum opusculorum p. 467. Seldens Cricks in Divinity p 311. Sprats History of the Royal Society p. 315. T * TOrmâ—â—s of the Torments visible to the Saints v. 1. n. 1. q. 2. Titillation that is the cause of it v. 1. n. 4. q. 9. Transmigâ—tion of Souls v. 1. n. 7. q 6. Thunder it cause and what it is v. 1. n. 8. q. 7. Ten Tribe where they went v. 1. n. 10. q. 2. Time an Eternity their difference v. 1. n. 14. q. 3. Tree whyoes its fruit in grafting c. v. 1. n. 16. q. 12. Toads ar Serpents production in Rocks v. 1. n. 17. q. 8. Tarantiâ— whether such a Spider v. 1. n. 27. q. 4. Truth is to be spoke at all times v. 2. n. 1. q. 14. Time wether any Crisis wherein persons v. 2. n. 9. q. 4. Trade â—nds v. 2. n. 11. q. 5. Tobacc whether good or hurtful v. 2. n. 14. q. 2. Taraâ—la c. real or a Fable v. 2. n. 14. q. 8. Turkâ— Spy his Books whether a Fiction v. 2. n. 17. q. 4. Toad and Spider the Antipathy betwixt 'em v. 2. n. 20. q. 5. Temporals whether they can be made sure v 2 n 28 q 10 Thoughts uneasie and painful in Devotion v. 2. n. 21. q. 2. Trembling at the sight of a Mistress v. 3. n. 4. q. 6. Thunder why more terrible by Night than Day v. 3. n. 8. q. 1. Thunder Lightning and Earthquakes their force v. 3. n. 8. q. 2. Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledg how differ v. 3. n. 17. q 4. Turks and Pagans why so little care of their Conver. v. 3. n. 23. q. 1. Trade which is the best v. 3. n 24. q. 6. Thieves the best way of punishing 'em v. 3. n. 25. q. 3. Thoughts when wicked how know 'em c. v. 3. n. 29. q. 2. Tyburn an account of the antiquity of it v. 4. n. 2. q. 4. Tears sighs c. of greater force to obtain a Lady v. 4. n. 3. q. 4. Thunder what causes the noise v. 4. n. 8. q 9. Trees does the sap descend v. 4. n. 9. q. 2. Trees have they Male and Females v 4 n 9 q 3 Trees whether cutting off the bottom Root v. 4. n. 9. q. 4. Toad in a solid Rock v. 4. n. 9. q 8. Triumphal Arch in Cheapside your thoughts on 't v. 4. n. 12. q. 1. Torments and happiness is there a cessation of 'em during Iudgment v. 4 n. 29. q. 2. Text extant of the old Testament the Hebrew or Septuagint v. 5. n. 7. q. 3. Tears of a Maid red as blood v. 5. n. 9 q. 6. ‖ THomassins method to study Grammar and the Tongues 1 Suppl p. 1.