obtains place § 2. The God of Israel hath his Priests amongst the Gentiles § 3. No acceptable Oblation but what Christians offer tender'd to Israels God § 4. The Gospel hath utterly abolish'd Idols made Virmin-Gods creep into holes § 5. Daphnaean Apollo choakd with the Bones of Babilas Heathen Testimony for the silencing of Oracles the Vanity of their Reasons § 6. Gross Idolatry in the Roman Pale by her own Doctors Confessions and Definitions the Legend of the Golden Calf yet not in the proper and prophetick sence CHAP. VI. Touching the Millenium Revel 20. § 1 Pagan Idol's Fall and Satans binding Synchronize Christianity grew upon the Empire by degrees § 2. Charity 's Cloak cast over the first Christian Emperours § 3. Theodosius made the first Penal Laws against Paganism § 4. Honorius made Paganism Capital then was Satan bound CHAP. VII The Millenium yet to come is a Dream of Waking Men. § 1. The Millenaries shifting of Aera's Apes of Mahometans and Papists Alsted's Boreal Empire § 2. Mr. Meed's Principles overthrow the Faith and Placits of the Ancients Christ will not come to convert but destroy the Jews Satans Binding Synchronizeth with the downfall not of Mahometanism but Gentilism § 3. America though anciently inhabited yet unknown to the ancient Church and therefore implicitly only comprehended in her Faith Hope and Charity § 4. The Millenaries impious and uncharitable Conceptions touching the Gogick-war Their Triumphant Church-Militant § 5. Christ will find more Faith in America than in this upper Hemisphere § 6. Satan's Chain shortned in the lower not lengthened in this upper Hemisphere CHAP. VIII That Satans loosing will not be till the Dawning of the day of Judgment Problematically discuss'd § 1. Elect gathered into the Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat Chancells not all Eastward but all toward that Valley § 2. The Elect secur'd Satan reenters and drives his old Demesne The wicked destroyed as Rebels actually in arms Believers tried as Citizens by the Books of Conscience and Book of Royal Law § 3. Gog. Revel 20. a greater multitude than will meet before the day of Judgment When Prophecies are to be expounded Literally when Figuratively § 4. The Ottoman Army is not this Gogick § 5. The Fire of the last Conflagration carrieth Infidels into the Abyss The Goats are cast into it after they are convict by the Covenant of Grace White Throne New Heaven and Earth Flames of Fire divided § 6. They that are in Christ rise first but Infidels are first judged The Objection from their being in termino § 7. The Jews Septimum Millenarium is the eternal Sabbath The days of a Tree Isa. 65. 28. The Text Paraphrased CHAP. IX The Force of the general Argument from Prophecy urged § 1. Prophetick Events demonstrate the Reveilers infinite science § 2. And Omnipotencie § 3. The Divine Original of the Gospel § 4. Christ Circumstantiated old Prophecies of Jerusalem's Fall § 5. When her Fall was most unlikely § 6. Precognition demonstrates Pre-existence CHAP. X. The Demonstration of Power § 1. Christians Gleanings exceed Pagans Vintage § 2. Christian stories of undoubted Pagan of dubious Credit § 3. Pagan Miracles mis-father'd § 4. Rome's Prosperity whence § 5. Wonders among Gentiles for the fulfilling of Prophecies § 6. For the punishment of Nations ripe for Excision § 7. Empires raised miraculously for the common good CHAP. XI The Deficiency of the false Characters of true Miracles § 1. Heathen Wonders unprofitable § 2. Of an impious Tendency § 3. Not above the power of Nature § 4. Moses and the Magicians Rodds into serpents § 5. The suns standing still and going back The Persian Triplasia § 6. Darkness at our Saviours Passion § 7. Christs Resurrection the Broad-seal set to the Gospel CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity lays the Ax to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and power § 5 Real Exornations before Verbal Encomiums Christian Religion 's APPEAL To the BARR of Common Reason c. The First Book It was morally impossible that the Apostolical Church should delude the World with feigned Miracles or Stories CHAP. I. The Contents The Age wherein the Apostles flourish'd was sufficiently secured against the Impostures of Empiricks by its Knowledge in Physicks Ignorance in Naturals the Mother of superstitious Credulity The Darkness at our Saviours Crucifixion compared with that at Romulus his Death Heathen Records of the Darkness of Christ's Passion Sect. 1. HOW easily how certainly would the fraud have been detected had our Saviour and his Apostles wrought their wonderful Cures and stupendous Works by the Application of Natural Causes That Age wherein they were done being an Age of the most improved Wits in Natural Science that the benign Genius of any Age had till then or hath to this day produced Pliny that great Secretary of Nature so industrious a searcher into her Mysteries as in pursuit of the knowledge of the Causes of Vesuviums Conflagration he made so near an approach to that burning Mountain while the dreadful fragor of that fierce Eruption put the most undaunted Spirits into that fright as they fled as fast and far from it as their heels would carry them as he was stifled with its Sulphureous Steam choosing rather to die in the attempt of seeking out than to live in the ignorance of Natures secrets and to throw himself into its flaming Mouth by which it vented what was in its Heart rather than not to know from what abundance of the Heart it s now opened and gaping Mouth spake This unparallel'd Example for our modern Virtuosi who think they infinitely oblige Humane kind and let them never râ—ap the fruit of their ingenuous labours who grudge them that honour by the Experiments they make at the Expence of so much sweat and with the hazzard of stopping their own breath with the Exhalations of their Furnaces This so diligent an Attender upon Natures Cabinet-council was our Saviour's Contemporary by that compute of his age which his Nephew Plinius Secundus gave to Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. Epist. 16. requesting from him an account of his Unkles death that he might in his History transmit to posterity the memory of so brave an Exploit A little before him in years and not behind him in sagacity after Natures footsteps flourish'd Mithridates King of Pontus whose name to this day is famous in Dispensatories Regum Orientis post Alexandrum Magnum maximus the greatest of all the Eastern Kings after Alexander the Great so potent as he held the Romans in play 40 years and in his ruine involved almost the whole East and North L. Florus Appianus c. having 25 Provinces under his Dominion and understanding as many Languages as well as the Natives so that he answered all Embassadors in their Mother Tongue Agellius noct Att. l. 17. c. 17. Ingentis
Whereas to them that observe what influence the Artificers hand within the Veil hath upon those Engins the whole series of the Causes of those Motions are naked and bare-fac'd Plutarch gives Plato this commendation that finding fault with Anaxagoras for immersing his thoughts too deep into Natural Causes and too eagerly pursuing the necessity of those Effects which happen to Natural Bodies he totally omitted the efficient and final the prime and chief of all Principles and avoiding the other Extreme which some fell into to wit Poets and Divines who only minded the Supreme Cause the rational and voluntary Efficient never came to the Natural and Necessary Causes of things These first ascribing all the second nothing to the Perpessions Collisions Mutations and Mixtures of Natural Beings among themselves Plato waveing these Rocks was the first that joyn'd together the Indagation of both thess sorts of Causes de oracul defect pag. 677. Hitherto appertains that saying of St. Austin De Trinitate l. 3. cap. 2. Itaque licuit vanitati Philosophorum etiam causis aliis ea tribuere vel veris sed proximis cùm omninò videre non possent superiorem caeteris omnibus causam id est voluntatem Dei vel falsis non ipsa quidem pervestigatione corporalium rerum atque motionum sed à sua suspicione errore prolatis The vduity of Philosophers took lieve to attribute these effects to Causes either true but next to hand seing they could not at all discern the supreme Cause of all the Will of God or false and such as were not produced by the pervestigation of Corporeal Matter or Motion but from their own suspicion and errour Were it not that with the Tradition of Religion God hath communicated to Mankind general Maxims to help us in our search into the Nature of things we could never attain to the certain knowledge of any thing And therefore we see all the Grecian Philosophy that was not grounded upon Tradition dwindled at last into Scepticism and veil'd the Bonnet to that of Pythagoras Socrates and Plato who travel'd for theirs into those places where the Tradition had been best preserv'd So true is that Oracle which the Indian Gymnosophist delivered to Socrates in his Reply to the answer that Socrates made to this Question By what means a man might become wise If he consider after what manner it becomes man to live saith Socrates To which the Indian smiling gives this retort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can understand the nature of humane and mundane things that 's ignorant of divine Euseb. praeperat Evang. referente Grinaeo in praefatione ad Irenaeum Upon which Point the golden Tongue'd Lactantius elegantly Veritatem divinae Religionis arcanum Philosophi attigerunt sed aliis refellentibus defendere id quod invenerant nequiverunt quià singulis ratio non quadravit nec ea quae vera senserant in summam redigere potuerunt de divino praem 7. 7. The Philosophers made a shift to touch with the fingers end Truth and the Mystery of divine Religion but they could not grasp them so close as to hold them as to defend what they had found against opposers because Reason did not square to every one of their Placits singly nor were they able to bring into one Sum and subordinate System their true sentiments And it is Fernelius his observation in his Preface de abditis rerum causis that the latter Platonicks Numenius Philo Plotinus Iamblicus Proclus Quicquid de divinis rebus magnificum attigerunt illud à Christianis viris Joanne Paulo Hirotheo Dionysio furtim excerpsisse ut inde abstrusa Platonis dicta clariùs lucidiusque interpretarentur in verum sensum deducerent attain'd to the knowledge of nothing in divine things that was magnificent but what they stole from Christian Philosophers by whose spoils they were enriched with ability more clearly to interpret and deduce to a true sence the dark sayings of Plato But I digress How the World was produced and how man came to be Sovereign of the rest of the Creatures Reason was in pursuit after but could never attain to the knowledge of till Religion prompts her till sacred Writ informs her That God made man after his own Image gave him that Dominion made him Lord of the Universe as being of that Nature of which the Son of God was to assume Flesh into a perpetual Union with himself which being the highest preferment that the Creature is capable of and an Estate which Angels shall never aspire unto speaks it no wonder that God should make his Angels ministring Spirits for the good of Man But we need not now go so far as the Reason of God's disposal 't is enough we have found out Gods disposal as the ground of Man's Sovereignty Weigh this with all besides that ever was said upon this Question and they are lighter than vanity and let Reason use the utmost of her skill in descanting upon this ground she shall never be able to find the least flaw in it § 5. The longest Sword or over-reaching Wit conveigh no Right Self-love prompted Reason to play the part of an Oratour handsomly to declaim probably upon Man's Dominion over Beasts but how he came to command Spirits she could not deem And that his Power over inferiour Creatures should extend it self to the taking away of their Lives though it was practically concluded by all Nations yet I could never see one sound natural Reason produced for it and do here solemnly challenge the profoundest Atheist to give one irrefragable Argument which he is not beholding to Religion for in defence of that Dominion he daily exerciseth over his Fellow-Creatures and for ought he knows if he travel no farther than Athens to learn his Betters what Staff can he find to beat his Dog with that his Skullion may not as well lay about his own Shoulders what can he plead for his Butchering a Sheep that another may not with as much reason urge against his own Throat How will he handle the Knife with which he carves a Capon and not cut his own Hands too unless it be hasted with Scripture Reasons Bar these and abstain from Flesh till Pythagoras be confuted and thou must keep Lent all thy Life be it as long as Metbuselah's wave these Topicks and where wilt thou gather Arguments to Silence Celsus Orig. in Celsum lib. 4. calum 29 30 31. or Plutarch de solertia animalium while they make these Assertions their Theme Some Creatures as Bees and Ants excel Man in the Science of Government others in the Art of Divination others in Religion as the Elephant that they are dearer to the Gods have a more sacred Converse among themselves than Men c. If the Humane Soul were not better distinguish'd from the Bestial by its Original and Fountain by Gods breathing it into us than by its Effects and Productions we should be hard put to it to prove our Superiority of Reason
pieces At the lowest rate it demonstrates to what an height those curious cursed arts were then grown to Can we think that St. Paul would have singled out that place where Satan was inthron'd to have wrought miracles in for the confirmation of the Divinity of the Gospel had they not been special miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Luke stiles them Act. 19. 11 12. Would he have given experiments of the healing vertue conveyed from his body to aprons and handkerchiefs where counter-charming amulets were of that common use as the proverb of Ephesia Alexipharmaca speaks them to have been What would it have profited to have invocated the name of the Lord Jesus over the sick there where were extant such a number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of books teaching how to unravel the Conjurers work had the Apostle not been assured that the vertue of that name and of his own body through that name was both as to cause and effect above every name above any word they could find in their books of curious Arts that name of Judahs Gods imposing having infinitely more power than the word of Ida's Tactyls invention though it came not with that boysterous harshness as did their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Clemens reckons them in the place above quoted Sect. 2. This Image of Diana this counterfeit of the Divine Magia descending from faln Jupiter was not only worship'd at Ephesus and in all Asia but throughout the Roman Empire In whose Metropolis the Sect of those black Philosophers was grown so numerous under Tiberius as his decree to banish them the City had taken effect if the multitude of Families which that hook threatned to extirpate and their promise to give over the practice of those curious arts had not made the Emperour relent Sueton. Tiberius 36. By this connivance Magical operations attain'd to that perfection in Nero's Reign as men could not promise themselves to find their grounds on that side of the hedge next morning where they left them over-night For Pliny lib. 28. reports that at that time an Olive-yard belonging to Vectius Marcellus was by Magick removed one night unto the other side of the high-way A thing so strange as I should hardly give credit to Livies report but that I find Apuleius make mention of it in his Apologie as a thing so usual and ancient as the Laws of the twelve Tables made provision against it by making it capital The naming of Apuleius his Apology brings to mind the occasion of it which was to purge himself of the crime of Magick wherewith he was charged before Claudius Maximus Lievtenant of Africa as Apollonius Thyaneus was of the same crime before Domitian A pair of the fiercest Pagan adversaries to our Religion August de Civitat 8. 19. The Jews indeed had a sharper edge against us and as strange a back as Hell could forge coming not one whit behind the Gentile in his proficiency in the black Art being grown more Samaritan than the Samaritan himself 1. Not only in their charmings by the explication of the Tetragrammaton Jehovah in twelve and in forty two letters to which they imputed that force as they affirm'd with no less blasphemy to their own than our Religion that Moses wrought all his miracles by means of Shemhamphorash the twelve-letter'd explication of the name Jehovah ingraven on the rod of God And that our Jesus by vertue of the same sowed within his skin effected those great works which he performed And that Rabbi Chanina by vertue of the two and forty letter'd name of God did whatsoever he would The Jews father'd this Art upon Solomon who they say left forms of conjurations of the efficacy whereof one Eleazar gave proof before Vespasian and his Sons and their whole Army Josephus being present as himself reports Antiquit. lib. 8. cap. 2. Yea that whosoever knew these explications being modest humble of a middle age not given to anger or drunkenness and wore them about him would be belov'd above and below in heaven and in earth rever'd and fear'd of men and heir of this and the world to come Buxtorf lexic. voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. But in their Wisemens reading certain verses over wounds laying Phylacteries upon sick persons charming away serpents and an evil eye of which practices the Jerusalem Talmudists amongst whom our Saviour converst make frequent mention In particular they tella story in Sotah of R. Meirs being too hard for an Inchantress and in Sanhedrim R. Joshuah out-vying a Samaritane conjurer of Tyberias quoted by Dr. Light foot in his Harmony It were endless to trace Josephus through all those passages where he describes Judaea in our Saviours time to have been over-run with Magical Juglers Under Felix saith he Judaea was again full of Magical Impostors and Seducers of the unskilful vulgar who by their inchantments drew companies into the wilderness promis4ng they would shew them from heaven manifest signs and prodigies at the same time a certain Jew out of Aegypt came to Jerusalem professing himself a Prophet who perswaded the multitude to follow him unto Mount Olivet promising that from thence they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall so flat as through their ruines there should be a way opened into the City Joseph Ant. Jud. 20. 6. Which Aegyptian in another place he styles Magician Jos. 〈◊〉 Jud. 2. 12. Nay he scarce mentions a sticker in the Jewish wars upon whom he sets not this brand that he was a jugling conjurer Such was John the son of Levias c. Josep 〈◊〉 J. 4. 4. Sect. 3. The Primitive Church was so beset with these snares of Hell as she thought good to caution her Catechumens of the danger of falling into them â—not only by informing them that in their renouncing the Devil and all his worship at Baptism they renounc'd Auguries Divinations Amulets Magical Inscriptions on Leaves Witchcraft Incantation and calling up of Ghosts Id. Catech. illuminat 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But by inserting into the Greek Liturgies this form of abrenuntiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I renounce Conjurations Charmes Amulets and Phylacteries St. â—yril Catech. Mystag 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Cat. c. But what need we any other Witness of the infamy of that Age for the then general spreading of this Diabolical Art than the Satyrical reflections which their own Poets made upon it Juvenal in his sixth Satyr Horace in his Epode against Canidia and Virgil in his Pharmaceutria do in the chain of their Golden Verses hale that Cerberus out of his Kennel into so clear a Sun-shine so manifestly discover those depths of Satan and bring to light those hidden things of darkness as the reading of their Poems is enough to initiate their over-curious Readers in those mysteries of iniquity which were then working and the translation of them might lay a temptation before the ductile vulgar to essay the efficacy of their
non debeat accedere Orat. pro Roscio referente Augustino de consensu Evangel lib. 1. cap. 23. Tom. 4. who said That Roscius was so skilful an Actor as of all others he deserv'd to come upon the Stage but so good a man as it was pity he should ever come there And this Constitution perhaps they were induc'd to make upon their reflecting on that mischief which the Grecian contrary custom of honouring Stage-players had introduc'd for it was early in the Age of Poetry and before the Roman Name was known out of the confines of Italy that the liberty of the old Comedians back'd with the esteem they had in that State had prejudic'd the Grecians against the commonly-received Gods Briefly St. Austin has drawn into this short Syllogism the Sum of what both Grecians Romans and Christians assert touching this business The Greeks propound If the Gods that Stage-players represent be Gods indeed they that represent them are worthy of honour The Latins assume But Stage-players are not worthy of the lowest degree of honour of being free Citizens The Christian concludes Therefore those Gods that Stage-players represent are not Gods A Conclusion most necessarily flowing from the Premises but yet the Roman Sages fearing that the Vulgar might not have natural Logick enough to gather this consequence from their excluding Stage-players from the privilege of the City they openly avowed and published this as a sound point of their Divinity That Jupiter in the Scene was not the same with him in the Capitol Thus Varro quoted by St. Austin de Civitate 6. 5. expresses the sence of his Country-men In Poetical Divinity there are many things feigned against the Dignity and Nature of the immortal Gods for here we are taught how one of them is born of Jupiter ' s Head another of his Thigh another of drops of Blood how one play'd the Thief another the Adulterer c. lastly this Theology attributes those things to God which connot befal the most despicable and wretched Man Yea fearing this might not prove Antidote strong enough against that deadly Poyson of their Religion that was propined from the Stage for as St. Austin observes Jupiter was presented on the Stage in the same posture and accoutrements he had in his Temple at last they came to this shift That the Poetical descriptions of the Gods were nothing less than they pretended in the Title-page and common Notion but onely Schemes of Natural Philosophy under their borrowed Names that none might apprehend the Mystery of that Science but their own Scholars to whom they communicated their Key calling the Skie Jupiter the Air Juno the Sea Neptune the Earth in its central parts Pluto in its superficial Ceres c. Thinkest thou say the Patrons of the Pagan Cause in St. Austin de civit 2. 24. that our Ancestors were such arrant fools as not to know that the Poetical Gods were not Gods but only the Gifts and Creatures of God That this was the old Subterfuge of the Romans and of an elder Date than St. Austin and therefore not invented as a Salvo against the Objections of Christians but of common Sense appears from that passage in Philo Judaeus de leg ad Caium 630. where deriding Caligula for attempting to monopolize the honour of all the Gods to himself and shewing how little he resembled Mars I mean not saith he that fabulous one but him by whom we understand natural Fortitude A trick that Philo himself had learn'd and without any appearance of need practis'd in his turning those passages in sacred History into Allegories wherein the Philosophers objected any shew of improbability or indecorum and therefore I wonder not at his seeming allowance of this shift in them And secondly from that speech of Lucius Balbus in Tully's de nat deorum 2. Videtisne igitur ut à physicis rebus benè utiliter inventis ratio sit tracta ad commentitios fictos Deos quae res genuit falsas opiniones errorésque turbulentos superstitiones planè aniles Et formae enim nobis Deorum aetates vestitus ornatus noti sunt genera praetereà conjugia cognationes omniáque traducta ad similitudinem imbecillitatis humanae nam perturbatis animis inducuntur accepimus etiam Deorum cupiditates aegritudines iracundias haec dicuntur creduntur stultissimè plena sunt vanitatis summaeque levitatis You see therefore how from Natural Philosophy well and profitably invented Reason was drawn by head and shoulders to fictitious Deities which thing hath produced false Opinions turbulent Errors and most doting Superstitions For the Shapes Ages Apparrels Ornaments Lineages Marriages Alliances and all other things of the Gods are presented to us and drawn after the similitude of humane frailty They are moreover introduc'd with troubled Minds and we learn their Lusts Sicknesses and raging Passions which things either to say or believe of them is a point of the extremest folly vanity and levity and therefore Piety forceth us to put a mystical interpretation upon the Poets c. But what needed they to have cover'd the nakedness of their Poetical Deities from vulgar eyes with this Mantle had they not suspected the avowing them for such would have hazarded the bringing of their people into an opinion of Socrates who in contempt of that Jove instead of swearing by him chose rather to swear by a Dog a Goat a Goose conceiving the most contemptible Creature of Gods making to have more Divinity in it than that monstrous God of the Poets framing So deeply are the Principles of Vertue and Vice and among those vertuous ones that of honouring Vertue radicated in the minds of all men not debauch'd as rather than Vice shall supplant Vertue of its due reward of honour Jove himself if he appear in its garb shall be ungodded and metamorphosed in the opinion of Mankind into a Devil for such the Pagan Philosophers themselves do with one mouth proclaim all those reputed Gods to be that delight in Blood-shed in Filthiness c. Jamblicus de mysteriis pag. 98. in answer to what Porphyry propounds to the Aegyptian Priest touching the Opinion of those who thought all presages to procede from evil Spirits confesseth that some do to wit such as for their defilements are conformed to impure Daemons to prophane and dissolute Spirits And to his other Question How come the Gods upon wicked mens intreaty to inflict unjust pains upon good men he gives this in answer Id. Ibid. pag. 105. If upon mens imprecations pour'd out to the Gods some adverse things be observ'd to fall out unjustly we must impute it to other Causes which if we cannot find out we must not for all that so much as suspect any thing of the Gods unworthy of the Divine Nature or of that certain science of their goodness which is inbred in our minds and wherein all both Greeks and Barbarians agree with us and a little after If what we have said of
Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4 It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul ' s Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School § 1. THe Gospel is so fram'd as it exhibits to us the Substance of the Law 's Types wherein the things pertaining to the Person Office and Kingdom of the Messias were umbrated without reference to which most of them are such childish and beggerly Toys as the instituting of them is manifestly unworthy of infinite Wisdom and that solemn pomp of signs and wonders that went before them as inducements to the Israelites to receive them with due reverence would be in the most candid Interpretation of impartial Reason no better than the Mountains swelling and going in hard labour to bring forth a ridiculous Mouse From which imputation of folly observed and objected by the Heathens against their Lawgiver the most learned Mythologist Philo Judaeus though he attempt to vindicate Moses yet missing Moses his Scope and not looking to the end of his Law he falls far short of his purpose and makes worse work of it than a Novice-Christian would that has but learn'd this Principle the Law was a shaddow of good things to come but the body that casts those shadows is Christ A Tast whereof he gives us in his Treatise of Circumcision wherein having premis'd how unlikely it is that so severe a Ceremony should be taken up upon weak Grounds he lays down these wise reasons for it 1. The prevention of the growing of the Carbuncle in that part Just as if a man should advise to have the Head chop'd off to prevent the aching of it 2. That that Membrane might not be a receptacle of uncleanness upon the same reason they must not only with the Egyptian Priests shave off their hair which he grounds upon the same reason but slit their Noses and crop their Ears and dismember themselves of other Vessels receptory of Excrements 3. For the procuring of Foecundity of which he saith it is a necessary Cause aiunt enim ità semen rectà ejaculari integrum nec diffluit per sinus preputii As if Nature could not frame her own Tools in a form fittest for the use she intends them And yet these Grounds of Circumcision he saith came to his ears by the Tradition of divine men his Ancestors who most diligently expounded Moses Of the like grain are the Reasons he gives why God prohibited the planting of Groves about the Tabernacle because it was not meet to bring man's or beast's Dung near the Tabernacle to manure the Trees and make them flourish Philo de monarchia 2. Of Gods commanding the Priests to wear linnen while they officiated Because such garments are not made of a matter proceeding from mortal Creatures as woollen are Eadem cum ratione insanit with the same kind of reasons he plays the fool in making the High Priests Apparel a resemblance of the World his Jacinth colour'd Vest tipifies the Sublunary his Pectoral the Celestial Region the two Emeralds on either Shoulder the two Haemispheres the twelve Stones therein the twelve Signs of the Zodiack Its name Rationale does denote that all things comprehended by the Heavens were made and adorn'd upon Principles of the best Reason Thummim or Verity does denote that no lye can come into Heaven Urim or Clarity that all the light which is in the sub-celestial flows from the celestial Bodies The Flowers on the Fringe do tipifie the Earth whence they spring the Pomgranates Water called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their fluidness the Bells the Harmony and Concent of the Parts of the World among themselves Philo de monarch 2. With how much more credit do the Evangelists bring off Moses when they present Christ as the substance of that Mannah that Bread of Heaven that Angel's Food wherewith the Jews were sustained in the Wilderness of that Rock of which they all drank of that brazen Serpent lifted up to heal those who were stung of fiery Serpents of that Pascal Lamb by the sprinkling of whose Blood they were preserved from the stroak of the destroying Angel a Lamb of the Flock without blemish a perfect man of the stock of Abraham and without sin and taken up carried in procession into Jerusalem on the same day whereon their Paschal Lamb was seperated from the Flock his Blood the thing signified by the Blood of Bulls and Goats his Divine Nature by the Goat that was dismist the Scape-goat his human by the Goat that was sacrificed his Body the substance of Tabernacle and Temple wherein the God-head dwelt bodily his Priest-hood as to the offering of the great Propitiatory typified by Aaron's Priesthood as to his Blessing in the vertue of that Sacrifice by Melchisedech's Time would fail me to enumerate particulars See more of them in St. Jerome's Preface to his Exposition of Hosea Velum Templi scissum est ominum Judaeorum secreta patuerunt Verus Helizaeus aquas steriles atque mortiferas sapientiae suae condivit sale fecit esse vitales Marath aqua legis ligno patibuli dulcorata est The Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom to signifie that all the Jews Mysteries were by Christ laid open He being that true Elisha who with the salt of his Wisdom season'd those steril and mortiferous Waters of the Sanctuary and made them healthful It was by the wood of his Cross that the bitter water of the Law was sweetned The Apostles setting the Watch of the Gospel so exactly to the Dial of the Ceremonial Law as to keep touch with all its Minute-shadows their drawing the features and proportion of Christs Face so as to resemble that Image which the glassy Sea of Mosaical Rites reflects So as in those Draughts we see his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace as to himself full of truth as to them and thereby also rendring the Law it self full of Grace and worthy to be esteem'd the progeny of the Divine Mind speaks them to have had their wits about them § 2. The Gospel is perfectly consonant to the Old Testament in respect of its Precepts and Ordinances It hath indeed abolished the Ceremonial Law but without clashing with the Sanction of that Law and upon clear and indubitable Old Testament-principles where we hear God saying he would make a new Covenant with them not according to the Covenant he made with their Fathers when he
the Course of Nature that he can make knots and snarles on Natures Skeane but not unravel them nor untie them that he can rend the seamless coat of her orderly progress but not darn it up again 4. Say he had kept pace with God in these three steps which he manifestly did not yet Israels God outgoes him at the fourth and the rest of the following VVonders he that could turn God permitting him Rods into Serpents could not turn Dust into Lice but his Instruments at that Miracle are forc'd to quit the Field and confess that was the Finger of God He cannot without a toleration from Heaven produce the most contemptible Insect the divine Art out-vies him in the frame of the vilest Animals § 5. VVe have seen the God of this world beaten upon his own Dunghil the Prince of the Air worsted in his own Region outvied by the lowest degree of divine Miracles lagging behind Omnipotency while it lights and walks afoot how less able is he to Lacquy it by its side while it rides triumphing in the production of Miracles of the first and second Rank Such as was the Sun 's standing still in the days of Joshuah and its going retrograde upon Ahaz his Dial at the request of Hezekiah which I instance in as being Accidents indisputable as to Matter of Fact the first being so famously known and universally taken notice of as it occasion'd that Fiction of the VVorld's expending a whole day upon the Birth of Hercules Cujus in ortu mundus expendit diem Senec. Her fur though Asterages turn'd day into night and misapplyed that to the Grecian which belonged to the Phaenician Hercules Joshua and the last being observed as far as Babylon whence Merodac Baladan having heard it was done in favour of Hezekiah sent his Embassadors into Judaea who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land 2 Chron. 31. 31. to congratulate Hezekiah and to enquire concerning the Circumstances of that Miracle so famously known as Dionysius the Areopagite Ep. 7. ad Polycarpum affirms that the Persian Priests and Magi kept up the Memorial thereof in the Rites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the triple Mithra Not because this day was almost as long as three days as Pachymerius and Maximus mis-expound Dionysms for that makes this day longer than that in Joshua whereas the Text Josh. 10. 14. saith there was no day like that equal to it in length before or after it Nor is their Argument so conclusive if we expound it of the Sun 's going back as well as the shadow with St. Austin de mirabil script l. 2. c. 48. and the Fathers generally as that Vatablus Burgensis and Montanus needed by its force have been put to that miserable shift they betake themselves to viz. that the Sun kept its ordinary motion and its shadow only by the Ministry of Angels was made to fall back on Ahaz his Dial. For it might go ten Degrees back and over those ten degrees forward again and so on his daily Course and not make that day from Sun-rise to its Setting 32 hours If the degrees of Ahaz his Dial were either Quadrants or half-hours the Sun might keep his ordinary pace in going back and forward and not reach the length of Joshua's day or he that could make it go back might make it to mend its pace as to redeem so much time that that day might possibly be not much longer than an ordinary one and yet sufficiently miraculous and so conspicuous for the Sun 's going back as the Persians might well take notice of it and celebrate its memorial in the Rites and Denomination of the Triplified Sun because of that threefold course it then took first forward next backward and then forward again So that the authority of Dionysius still stands firm notwithstanding the Learned Vossius his so easie rejecting it upon that mistake which Pachymerius and Maximus led him into as if the Areopagite had affirm'd the Persians to have given that appellation to Mithra or the Sun by reason of its tripling the length of that day when in truth all he affirms of them is that they kept the Memory of this Miracle in the Celebrities of the Triplasia which he might certainly know they did that being a Matter of Fact and which they might do in commemoration of the Suns tripling his Course It is true indeed Dionysius thought that day to be tripl'd and from thence to have arisen that Persick Name but in this being matter of Opinion and an Opinion so directly opposing the Text in Joshua we may safely forsake him and question his judgement But we cannot reject him in what he barely reports as a Matter of Fact without questioning his honesty to wit that the Persians kept up the remembrance of the Suns going back and changing its Course I will not here enter a Debate with our Modern Philosophers about that question whether it be the Sun or the Earth that moves for let it be granted that it is natural to one of them to move in that course that hath been traced above 5000 years and I matter not to whether of them they assign the Task of Motion or bequeath the Privilege of Rest which of them soever it be that moves what Second Cause can be imagin'd to make it once stand still and once to move back ward Did some hooked prominent Atom catch hold of some weightier quiescent Body and forc'd the Earth or Sun to lie at Anchor a whole day or put a stop to one of them as a long Skewer for Kitching-similies are fittest to illustrate their new Kitching-Philosophy stays the Spit from turning if it touch the Drippin-pan What second Cause can be imagin'd of its going back ubi pedem fixit Where set he his foot while he wheel'd one of those Orbs Westward and Eastward backward and forward as we turn a Globe in a Frame Or was it with so great a violence as lasted ten hours driven back by falling foul upon some other Vessel sailing in the Super-lunary Waters through neglect of crying Ware Oars untrain'd curiosity may quest through the Universe before it can set any other Author of this Motion but him that is the Author of Being none could set back this Universal Watch this measure and standard of every Inch of Time none could slacken or hasten the going of it but its Maker § 6. Though it will not be granted me that 't is natural for the Sun to move yet I hope Providence will bless these Lines out of the hands of such Brutes as question whether it be not as natural for the Sun to shine as for Fire to burn whether its Beams of Light flow not necessarily from its very Being as streams from the Fountain I demand then whence proceeded its Opacity and the suspension of its Light at our Saviour's Passion That it was at that time exempted from the Dominion of all second Causes which by their