of Second causes partly Natural partly free Agents amongst whom the highly-exalted and supereminently-divine Soul of Iesus is the chief we discover a power able to effect more then we have declared concerning the Conflagration of the Earth And when this will suffice how over-evidently are we assured of the feisableness of this Atchievement from what S. Peter has suggested concerning the absolute power of the Word of God by whom all things are and who is a perpetual Spectatour of his Works For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world as the Wise man speaks and that which containeth all things has knowledge of the voice And it is as true that all things lye open to his sight and that the Earth is alwayes under the present eye of God Wherefore he that perpetually looks on is it hard to conceive that at last at some solemn period of time he may in a special manner step out into action if need so require and he be invoked thereunto 7. Wherefore the Faithful being gathered from all the corners of the Earth and carried up to Christ their Saviour and joyning with his Legions of Light there being then left in the Earth and in the inferiour Parts of the Aire none but obdurate Adherents to the dark Kingdome which shall now be made more externally dark then ever black pitchy clouds covering the whole face of the Sky and making Night fall upon the Inhabitants of the World even at mid-day in the midst of this sad silent and louring aspect of the Heavens He that in the flesh was heard and answered by Thunder when he prayed saying Father glorifie thy name shall by the same interest in the Eternall God cause such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Starres and discharge such claps of unextinguishable fire that it will do sure execution whereever it falls so that the ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take fire which inflaming the inward exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible murmur under ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be filled with sad remugient Echoes Earthquakes and Eruptions of fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide divulsions of the ground Nor shall the Sea be able to save the Earth from this universal Conflagration no more then the Fire could preserve her from that overspreading Deluge for this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the water quench her devouring appetite but excite it For such is the nature of some Fires as history every where testifieth 8. Wherefore the great channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into smoak and vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire cloud of an unspeakable thickness which shall cause more then an Aegyptian darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking heat and stench will compleat this External Hell a place of Torment appointed not onely for the prophane Atheist and Hypocrite but also for the Devil and his Angels where their pain will be proportionated according to the untamedness of their Spirits and unevenness of their perverse Consciences CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithful 1. I Hope by this time we have prevailed so far as to perswade the Possibility of the Conflagration of the World in that sense we have explained it And truly I know nothing that should keep a man from assenting to it as possible but that dull Fallacie whereby we conclude That nothing can be done but what we have seen done or phansie we could doe our selves And this is the reason that makes the Atheist misbelieve Creation because he himself can make nothing but out of prejacent Matter and a settled course of things causes so deep an impression in our Senses that we can hardly phansie they will ever alter Which makes some men never think of Death especially if they have never been sick a flattering impossibility by reason of so long continuance of life stealing into their hopes as if they should never die And therefore that great Monarch was fain to have one to rub up his memory every day with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember that thou art mortal Well may we phansie then such unalterable Laws of Nature as shall secure the Earth from such a destruction as we speak of when we are led unawares into so favourable a conceit of our own life or fortune after we have for a competent time been well settled in either as not at all to think of the mutability of our condition Wherefore I hope any one that is aware of this ordinary Fallacie will easily recover himself into so much use of his Reason as not to conclude the Conflagration of the Earth impossible because he knows not how to burn it himself or that it will alwaies continue unburnt because it has been unburnt thus long 2. But that which I drive at is to shew that the belief of a Christian is not only of things possible but reasonable which I have in some sort made good already by discovering the manifold treasures of the fiery and combustible principles in Heaven and Earth to which I add further First That Providence ordering all particular corporeal things by number weight and measure it is reasonable that the continuance of this present stage of things be numbred that is have its number of years set so that there be a full pause or Period a last Exiit and Plaudite to this Tragick Comedie 3. Secondly Whatever particular corporeal structure has a Beginning unless it be a Body inacted with a glorified Spirit will also have an End naturally of it self and that which will have an End is subject to decaying And for my own part I question not but that the Earth is of such a nature and that it waxes old by degrees will grow more more dry steril in succession of Ages whereby it
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them also having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that all subterfuge is quite taken away 2. Grotius his Commentary upon this place is very ingenious wherein he supposes Christ to speak to the Thief being a Jew according to the Doctrine of the Hebrews who called the state of the piously-deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Pleasure or Paradise where though they enjoyed not that consummate Happiness which they were in expectation of at the Resurrection yet they were at the present in a great deal of Joy and Pleasure so much indeed that they held none to arrive to it after their death but such as had their Souls well purified before they departed their Bodies whom he parallells to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 12. and therefore there was great cause saith he that our Saviour said This day thereby signifying that he should not be any longer deferred according to the Doctrine of their Rabbins notwithstanding the vainness of his life but upon this his Repentance should immediately be with Christ in Paradise even that very day he spoke unto him 3. Nor need we with S. Austin sweat much in labouring to make that Article of the Apostles Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree with his being in Paradise in the Intervall betwixt his Death and Resurrection For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general as this Expositour makes good signifies nothing else but the invisible state of Souls separate from the Body nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restrain it to a descent into Hell For as for this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is spoken of the whole Person of Christ as it is also of others that enter into the state of the dead by the defixion of our Phansy upon what is most gross and sensible viz. the going down of the body into the grave we are easily drawn to make use of it to express the whole business both of the Bodie 's and the Soul 's receding from amongst the number of the living as Iacob does Genes 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when notwithstanding his Son was not buried but torn in pieces with wild beasts as he thought Wherefore the sense is my Body descending into the Grave with my Soul shall I go unto my Son into the Region of the dead 4. Again Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually signifies to descend or go downwards yet it signifies sometimes merely to vanish or go out of sight and very often as in other words so in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has no signification at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go of which it were easie to give plenty of Examples out of the Septuagint but that I account it needless Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be rendred not that he descended into hell but that he went into the Region of Souls separate or of the Spirits of men departed this life And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears this General sense Grotius makes good not only from the forecited place of Genesis but from the use of the word in sundry Greek Authors as Diphilus Sophocles Diodorus Siculus Iosephus Plato and others That of Plutarch is very remarkable where he expounds that verse of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same Author elsewhere To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating that the Air is that Invisible Region of the dead into which the Spirits of dying men depart And it is confessed of all sides that whereas those other Elements Fire Water Earth are visible that the Air and Aether are utterly invisible and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well contain in it both Hell and Paradise Whence it is plain that Christ might be at the same time both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise as a man may be both in England and in London at once And his Promise to the Thief of the immediate enjoyment of that Bliss was as it were a Proclamation from the Cross to all the World That the Souls of men live and subsist out of their Bodies Which he further demonstrated by reassuming his own and ascending with it up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples 5. Which Truth he seems to me also plainly to suppose in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus as also of the Unjust Steward For Dives his desiring Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to inform them of his sad condition in what trouble and torment he was does manifestly imply That the Souls of the Wicked are in Torment and in Trouble before the Day of Judgment yea immediately upon their Death and That the Souls of the Godly are forthwith in Joy after their departure out of this life as is intimated by the Transportation of Lazarus his Soul into Abraham's bosome and our Saviour's application of the Parable of the Steward exhorting us to be liberal of these worldly goods that when this life and the pleasures thereof fail we may be received into joy everlasting But we need not insist upon what is more obnoxious to the Cavils and Evasions of our slippery Adversaries we having produced already so many and unexceptionable Testimonies of Scripture for the Confirmation of the present Truth viz. That it is no Paganism but sound and warrantable Christianity to assert That the Souls of the deceased do not sleep but do live understand and perceive what condition they are in after death be it good or evil BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. He passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 1. WE have at length passed through the most dark and doubtful part of our journey and have given what Account we were able of the most Obscure and Abstruse points in Christianity We begin now to enter into a more lightsome Region and easier prospect of Truth the day breaking upon us and the morning-light tinging the tops of the mountains from whence we are ascertain'd of a further and a more full discovery of that Grand Mystery we seek after which the Spirit of God in the plain Records of Scripture will afterward so ratifie and confirm that to those that have a judgment to discern it will be secured from all future controversie But in the mean time we are to contemplate the Reasonableness and Intelligibleness thereof from some chief Heads or
could not be so perfect they not living in an Age of such liberty which has tempted all sorts of men to shew themselves in their own colours Besides that what they wrote being onely concerning this Sect of Familisme in Pamphlets apart by themselves the matter was not of such general concernment as to invite or engage men to read But the Subject of this present Treatise being of so Universal and so Weighty importance it cannot fail to prove a more effectual Monitour to the World of the deadly danger that lies under that fair enticing Title of The Family of Love 17. Nor ought my earnest diligence against Familisme embolden you to think me partial or defectuous in that you observe me so eagerly opposing no other Sect for the design of my Discourse leads me not to such Particularities as are controverted amongst Christians that still hold the Fundamentals of our Religion against whom I profess my self eager in nothing so much as in hearty Exhortation that they would not make their Difference of Opinion any breach of Friendship but an exercise of their Christian Charity and tender forbearance one of another not insulting over one anothers supposed ignorance nor forcing one another to external compliance and profession of what they do not believe by harsh Antichristian compulsions but by calme reasoning and kind treating one another with mutuall love and patience which is an exercise more pleasing in the sight of God then the exactest Uniformity of Opinions and Worship that the greatest Formalist can propound or desire This is all that I find my self bound in conscience to be earnest in against such like Sects as these But Familisme is no such Sect nay to speak properly and to yield them their own boast they are no Sect at all I mean of Christians but a totall Apostasy from Christianity as you may easily understand out of what I have writ in the following Discourse And therefore my present purpose being The Demonstration of the Solidity of the Fundamentals of Christianisme as it is apparently comprehended in the Holy Writ it was proper and unavoidable for me to deal with all such as did oppose or undermine those undispensable Truths of our Religion and therefore I had been wanting to the Cause if I had not thus industriously set my self against this dangerous and mischievous Mystery of Unbelief which is ordinarily called Familisme And as I have not spared them so there is no Sect that has stoln away any one Essential of Christianity whether appertaining to Life or Speculation but I have bid them battel and I hope rescued the prey out of their hands and led them Captive into the Truth at least they have not escaped their share of chastisement for their committing of so hainous a crime And this is all that I could in reason attempt unless I would break all the Lawes of Method and make useless Excursions beyond the set limits of my Discourse 18. My forbearing therefore to squable with every petty Sect I hope will be accounted no part of defectuousness But there are other Omissions I must confess that may seem more justly liable to that imputation As for example in that I have not endeavoured to clear the Prophecy of Daniel's weeks to that accuracy as to bring the Passion of our Saviour to the middle of the last week as the Prophecy seems most naturally to imply but have contented my self with that Chronological account of Funccius that suffers it to fall in the last day of the week But as I have already intimated in the place there may be that latitude of the meaning of the middle of the week that it may signifie any time of the week begun and not yet expired In which sense Funccius his account is within a year or thereabout of the exact completion of the Prophecy Which is so near the matter that one may easily suspect that it is some mistake in their computations that it does not happen just according to the Prophecy so little time being easily misreckoned in so large an account Besides it was sufficient for my purpose onely to take notice and to make evident That this Prophecy of Daniel is understood of the Messias and That the weeks are long ago expired For by this alone we may demonstratively conclude That he is already come which was the onely thing pertinent to my present Subject And lastly for thy further satisfaction as the task thou expectedst had been too laborious for me to performe so thou thy self wilt hold it needless when thou shalt understand with what accuracy and solidity it is already perfected by the learned Master of our Colledge Dr. Cudworth in his publick Lectures in the Schools wherein he has undeceived the world misled too long by the over-great opinion they had of Joseph Scaliger and taking Funccius his Epocha has demonstrated the Manifestation of the Messiah to have fallen out at the End of the sixty ninth week and his Passion in the midst of the last in the most natural and proper sense thereof Which demonstration of his is in my apprehension of as much price and worth in Theologie as either The Circulation of the Bloud in Physick or The Motion of the Earth in natural Philosophy as I have already noted in its proper place 19. Again I may haply seem unto thee defectuous in that I have so expressely professed my hope and expectation of Better times in the Church and yet not gone about to produce that copiousness of Arguments that might have befitted the management of so desirable a Truth But I have to answer for my self That that subject was too big for my hands especially being as full already as they could grasp and That the Theory also was not essential to the scope of my present Discourse and lastly That certain friends of mine whose more then ordinary skill and happy rellish of the best and choicest things has made them fit undertakers of so usefull a design will I hope ere long gratifie the world with their excellent performances in that subject The promotion of which Opinion cannot but be profitable to the Church of Christ provided the case be rightly stated namely That these good Times which we expect and hope for will not be the exaltation of this or that Sect. For the childish conceit of some is that the future prosperity of the Church will be nothing but the setting up this Forme or that Opinion and so every Faction will be content to be Millennists upon condition that Christ may reign after their way or mode that is in Calvinisme in Arminianisme in Papisme in Anabaptisme in Quakerisme in Presbytery in Episcopacy in Independency and the like But the true happiness of those days is not to be measured by Formalities or Opinions but by a more corroborated Faith in Christ and his Promises by Devotion unfeigned by Purity of Heart and Innocency of Life by Faithfulness by common Charity by comfortable provisions
would be which would signifie then at large only the adding of further clothing whether within or without but is to be expounded as circumstances require 4. Being thus fitted for the purpose we shall now briefly paraphrase the six first verses of the 15. chap. which they alledge against us thus 1. For we know that if this Earthly and Mortal Body of ours were destroyed that yet we have an Heavenly one whose Author and Maker is God 2. And for this cause is it that we groan so earnestly to be clothed also with our Heavenly Body within this Earthly 3. Because we being thus clothed when we put off our Earthly Body we shall not be found naked nor our Souls left to float in the crude Air. 4. For we that are in these Earthly Bodies groan earnestly being burdened not as if we had a desire to be stript naked of all Corporeity or that we should be presently rid of these Earthly Bodies before God see fit but that we may have a more Heavenly and Spiritual clothing within that mortality may be swallowed up of life 5. Nor do we arrive to this pitch by our own power but it is God who works upon us as I said both Body and Soul and frames us into this condition by the operation of his holy Spirit which he has given as a pledge of our Eternal Happiness 6. And therefore we are alwaies of a good courage not discontented at any thing For whether we be in this Earthly Body it is tolerable as being our usual and natural home or whether we go out of it which is most desirable we shall then go to the Lord our inward man being so fitly clad for the journey 5. That this is the genuine sense of these verses the 16 verse of the Chapter immediately going before will further confirm where the Apostle saith That though his outward man perish yet his inward man is renewed day by day which is Though his Earthly Body be in a perishing and decaying condition yet his Spiritual and Heavenly gets strength and flourisheth every day more and more Now the Resurrection and Attainment of the Heavenly Body being all one it were worth the while to enquire into the meaning of the Apostle Philipp 3. v. 11. where he professes his unwearied endeavours to attain to the Resurrection of the dead where presently it follows Not as if I had already attained it or as if I were already perfected For if he meant not this Inward Spiritual body inveloped in the Earthly he need not tell the Philippians that he had not yet attain'd it But the Point in hand is sufficiently plain already 6. We have seen what weak Demonstrators the Psychopannychites are against the Life and Operation of Souls out of the Body in their appeals to Scripture We shall now see how improbable their aspersion is of the Opinion being a Pagan or Heathenish invention derived as they say merely from the School of Pythagoras and Plato and from thence introduced into the Church CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. as also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 1. AND I think it is not hard for a man to prove that this sinister conceit of theirs is almost impossible to be true For if the ancient Fathers by vertue of their conversing so much with Plato's writings had brought this opinion of the Souls living and subsisting after death into the Christian Religion they could by no means have omitted the Preexistence of it afore which is so explicite and frequent a Doctrine of the Platonists especially that Tenet being a Key for some main Mysteries of Providence which no other can so handsomly unlock and having so plausible Reasons for it and nothing considerable to be alledged against it For is it not plain that the Soul being an Indivisible and Immaterial Substance can not be generated Now if it be created by God at every effectual act of Venery besides that in general it is harsh that God should precipitate immaculate Souls into defiled Bodies it seems abominable that by so special an act of his as Creation he should be thought to assist Adultery Incest and Buggery Of this see more at large in my Trestise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 12 13. But they 'l still urge That it was not the Unreasonableness of the Opinion but the Uncompliableness of it with Scripture that made them forgoe the Preexistency of the Soul though they retained her Subsistency Life and Activity after death 2. But it had assuredly been no hard matter for them to have made their Cause plausible even out of Scripture it self The Jewes would have contributed something out of the Old Testament Menasseh Ben Israel cites several places to this purpose as Deuteronomy 29.14 15. insinuating there that God making his covenant with the absent and the present that the Souls of the posterity of the Jewes were then in Being though not there present at the Publication of the Law For the division of the Covenanters into absent and present naturally implies that they Both are though some here some in other places This Text is seriously alledged by the generality of the Jewes for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls as Grotius has noted upon the place Also Jeremy 1. verse 5. The forenamed Rabbi renders it Antequam formassem te in ventre indidi tibi sapientiam reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel not in Cal. Before I formed thee in the belly I had made thee of a wise ingenie fitted thee to all holy Knowledge c. We will add a third place Job 38. He renders it Nosti te jam tum natum fuisse Knowest thou that thou wast then born and that the number of thy daies are many Then viz. from the beginning of the Creation or when the Light was made a symbol of Intellectual or Immaterial Beings The Seventy also plainly render it to that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that thou wast formed then and that the number
concerning the Contempt of Death that he so gravely imparts to Damis and Demetrius encouraging them to suffer any thing for the cause of Philosophy hypocritical and ridiculous So whifling and ludicrous is every thing of Apollonius if compared with that solid Truth and real Excellency that is discoverable in Christ. BOOK V. CHAP. I. 1. Of the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. Gods upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 1. WE have done with the Passion of Christ we come now to his Resurrection and Ascension and First his Resurrection Concerning which it is observable That our Saviour's eye was fix'd upon nothing more then it He prophesying of it in his life-time under that Parable of destroying the Temple and then raising of it up within three daies meaning the Temple of his body as also in the application of that strange Accident that befell Ionas For as Jonas was three daies and three nights in the Whales belly so the son of man should be three daies and three nights in the belly of he Earth He deferred also the divulging of his Transfiguration in the mount till his Resurrection as not being of any such efficacy to beget Faith in the people till this also had happened unto him 2. Now the grand importance of this so wonderfull an Accident consists chiefly in these Three things First In that it is a very eminent Triumph of the Divine life in the Person of Christ. Secondly In that it is so plain an assurance of a blessed Immortality And Thirdly In that it is so sure a Seal and so clear a Conviction of the truth and warrantableness of all the Miracles Christ did in his life-time 3. That our Saviour Christ was the most illustrious Example of the Divine life that ever appeared in the world cannot be denied by any but such as are blinde and have no eyes to behold that kind of splendour But that the judgement of the world might be the more notoriously baffled God assisted this Divine worth with many strange Miracles that they might more fixedly and considerately contemplate this so holy and lovely a person But the more it seems they looked upon him the more they disliked him the whole World being so deeply lapsed into the Animal life the Jews themselves not excâ—pted that they had no knowledge nor relish of the Divine Nay they had an Antipathy against him as the wise man expresses it He is grievous unto us even to behold His life is not like unto other mens his waies are of another fashion He was made to reprove our thoughts 4. Wherefore they having so settled an hatred against him all the Miracles that he did or whatsoever happened miraculously unto him did but set a more venemous edge of their spleen against him From whence it was easie for them to misinterpret and elude every thing imputing his casting out Devils to a contract with Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils The Testimony from Heaven That he was the Son of God to the delusion of evil Spirits that would lapse them into Idolatry His feeding the multitudes in the Wilderness to Witchcraft and Sorcecery and his raising of men from the dead to the nature of some Lethargical or obstupifying disease that may seem to make a man devoid of life for four daies together The Eclipse of the Sun indeed was a very strange thing if the darkness was in the Sun it self but they might remember at least from the relations of others that it was strangely obscured for a whole year together about the death of Iulius Caesar and so interpret this at the Passion as a mere casual coincidence of things or that some delusive Spirits intercepted the light of the Sun in favour of the great Magician whom they thought just to crucifie betwixt those other two Malefactors 5. But he whom they numbred amongst the transgressours and took to be the vilest of men because he was not recommended by any thing that the Animal life likes and applauds as Nobleness of Birth the power of popular Eloquence Honour Wealth Authority high Education Beauty Courtship Pleasantness of Conversation and the like he is I say notwithstanding this general contempt from men very highly prized by him who is the infallible Judge whose waies are not as our waies nor his thoughts as our thoughts But that he might conform our apprehensions to his own raised Iesus Christ from the dead bringing that passive contemptible Divinity that lodged in him into a deserved victory and triumph exprobrating to the blind world the ignorance of that Life that is most dear and precious to himself making him alive whom they maliciously killed and preparing a way to an universal Homage for him who was universally scorned and became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-scouring of all though his Spirit Life and Nature was of more worth then all the things of the World beside 6. Nor is this Resurrection of Christ only a particular honour and high Testimony given to the person of Christ who was so splendid an Habitation of the Divine life but it is also an assurance of a blessed Immortality to all those that will adventure to follow his Example that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And therefore he is not said here to rise alone but in token of what a general concernment his Resurrection was the Monuments of some lately-deceased Souls flew open and themselves appeared to several in the Holy City Which things were a palpable Prohetical prefiguration of that blessed Immortality that Christ has purchased for all men that believe in him and obey him CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of the some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. the fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 1. THE last End of Christ's Resurrection is the Confirmation of his whole Ministry For assuredly the Jews dealt with him as with some
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
Vengeance shall make use of those Treasuries of Wrath. 10. We might adde further Arguments of Subterraneous fires and the fewel thereof from Earthquakes and hot fountains of which there are some in Peru as the same Writer reports that are so hot that a man cannot endure his hand so long as the repeating of an Ave-Marie There be infinite numbers of these in the Province of Charcas He makes mention also in the same place of several Springs and Fountains that run with Pitch and Rosin Which yet seems nothing so strange as those Thermae Fallopius speaks of in the Territories of Parma whose Water catches fire at a distance and as for hot Fountains they are more ordinary in these known parts of the world then that we need at all insist thereupon See Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundring Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes doe argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not hapned already 1. WE have seen how well stored the Earth is toward this general Conflagration let us now consider what the Heaven or Aire may afford Where letting go other Fiery Meteors we shall only consider some few instances of Comets falling Starres and of Thunder By Comets I understand onely such new Starres as are Sublunary and of combustible matter actually set on fire Of which sort there was one of so huge a magnitude which appeared after the death of Demetrius that it was found no less then the Sun to see to and with the brightness of its fiery shining turned Night into Day But to speak more at large of this Meteor Cardan and other Philosophers would have them either Signes or Causes of great Droughts and they may well be both these sublunary especially such great fiery bodies not being easily fed without wasting much of the kindly moisture of the Aire which makes the season also unwholesome and pestilential But for Droughts it has been observed that after the appearing of these Comets the year has been so excessive hot that it has parched the Corn upon the ground set whole Woods on fire and dried Fountains and Rivers as it hapned in the years 1477 and 1539. 2. The Stellae cadentes are either such as Virgil describes in his Georgicks Saepe etiam stellas vento impendente videbis Praecipites coelo labi noctisque per umbram Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus Oft mayst thou see upon approaching wind Starres slide from Heaven and through the Night 's great shade Long tracts of flaming white to draw behind Which Meteors though they make a great show in the Night yet doe not ordinarily much hurt unless they should light upon the fields of Aricia whose Earth was so combustible that it would take fire upon the falling of any coal Or else they are such kind of Comets as themselves become sometimes falling Starres Which Scaliger affirms to have been found true in his time and Fromondus out of Sennertus writes that the Tail of a Comet in the year 1543 flew off and falling into a River drunk up all the water of it 3. But the Effects of no fiery Meteor are so frequent or so terrible as that of Thunder To which sulfureous Exhalations out of the Earth contribute something as well as moist Vapors for the generating of Rain As is discovered by the great frequency of Thunders about the Vulcanoes we spoke of One notable Effect which Plinie takes notice of is like that of the Tail of the Comet For he saith there is one kind of Thunder quo dolia exhauriuntur intactis operimentis Like to this is that which the above-named Writer recites out of Wolfangus Meurerus that a certain Minister as he was going from Lipsia to Torga was so consumed by Thunder that not a bit of him was to be seen his whole body being dissolved into Vapour and Exhalations and blown away with the wind The closest texture of bodies will not hold when this quick searching Fire assaults them For this Meteor is made of such subtile glib and furiously-agitated elements that they will irresistibly pass whereever they attempt and disjoyn every congeries of Atoms as Lucretius has well described them Quae facile insinuantur insinuata repentè Dissolvunt nodos omnes vincla relaxant Which easily pierce and piercing straightway loose All knots and suddenly break every noose 4. But that is as remarkable as any thing concerning Thunder that the fire thereof is sometimes unextinguishable as it hapned in Macrinus the Emperours time when the Theatre was Thunder-struck in the very day they celebrated their Vulcanalia And such was that fire that fell from Heaven in Aurelius his time by the prayers of a Legion of the Christians which from this effect was called Legio Fulminatrix the Thundring Legion A competent shower of such fire as this that is thus peremptory and importunate what part of the earth is so incombustible that it would not subdue 5. I would not mention that strange and unexpected effect of Thunder whereby it conglaciates or makes rigid fluid or soft bodies which both Seneca and Cardan takes notice of The one gives an instance of hogsheads of wine turned into ice by Thunder the other of certain mowers in the Iland Lemnos who being thunder-struck as they were supping under an Oake their bodies became so hard rigid and stiff as if they had been so many Statues which imitated the same actions they were doing when they were alive one seeming to eate the other seeming to lift a pot to his mouth a third to drink c. I say I would not mention this did it not give some light and credibility to that wonderfull Transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt the thundring and lightning that then fell some of it it seems being attempered to such an effect and directed to strike that refractory woman that she might be not onely a monument of God's wrath upon disobedient curiosities but also of the manner of his executing that signal vengeance upon Sodom and Gomorrha with the neighbouring Cities viz. That it was with thunder and lightning from above as the Text witnesseth and Solinus and Tacitus also agree to and not onely by subterraneous fire breaking forth and the absorption of Earthquakes that swallowed down the Cities as Strabo seems to insinuate 6.
the holy place every year with bloud of others For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation To which you may adde that of Peter For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God And 1 John 2.1 If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins And if he was so in S. Iohn's time why not alwaies Furthermore Romans 5.6 For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly He saies not by the ungodly but for the ungodly which therefore cannot be allegorized but into Nonsense Like that verse 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Is any one reconciled by killing the Holy Life the Mystical Christ in him Wherefore it is plain that in S. Paul's time the Humane Person of Christ was the high Priest who was an Atonement with God by the sacrifice of himself And God has not declared any where that he has or ever will put him out of his Office till his coming again to Iudgement when he shall appear the second time without sin unto Salvation as you heard out of the Author to the Hebrews that is When he shall not bring his sin-offering with him viz. an earthly mortal body capable of Crucifixion but shall appear as a glorious Judge to complete Salvation to all them that truely believe in him and expect his joyful coming at what time he shall finish the Redemption of our Bodies and translate us to his everlasting Kingdome in Heaven 2. And that this Office of a Iudge is assured to his Humane person is plain from what we recited out of the Acts namely That God has given assurance to all men that he will judge the world by the man Jesus in that he has raised him so miraculously from the dead Which is that very Son of man that shall appear on his throne accompanied with his Angels Matth. 25. And assuredly none will deny but that he who sitteth at the right hand of God will come thence to judge the quick and the dead But it is this crucified Iesus that for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Hebr. 12.2 To which truth S. Peter also witnesseth in the Acts. Where that very Iesus whom the Jews delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate is said to be received into Heaven until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the World began This implies that at the utmost fulfilling of the Periods of time he will again appear and finish the Mysterie of Righteousness and perfect Salvation to his people at the last according as he has promised John 6. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Which certainly is to be understood of his Humane person forasmuch as for that very cause he has made him Judge of Life and Death as appears Chap. 5. ver 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so likewise he hath given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man Now when he saith No man can come to me except the Father draw him it is manifest that by the Father is meant the Eternal hidden Deity whose workings and preparations within every mans Soul fit him to join with Christ's humane person the visible Head of the Church of God otherwise if by Christ were here understood the Eternal Word it would not be good sense For that is that which draws not the thing drawn to in this place Again whereas he saies He will raise him up at the last day it is evident that it is not morally or mystically to be understood but literally otherwise it could not be defer'd till the last day but should be done in this Life Nor can it be understood of the day of the service of the Love For then the sense would be That they that believed on Christ some sixteen hundred years agoe should become Familists now or rather some others for them which Promises are insipid and ridiculous Wherefore it is this Son of man to whom God hath also given power to execute judgment And the very same certainly is he that is represented on the great white Throne from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away Rev. 20. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Bookes were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those Books according to their works And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Hell i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here the Region of the dead and the whole frame and phrase of the matter here contain'd doth so plainly import that the Judgment is concerning those that are dead whether drowned in the Sea or buried in their Graves or in whatever other circumstances quitted this mortal life that this truth of Christ's visible coming to Judgment cannot be concealed or eluded by any Allegorical fetches whatsoever 3. Nor have our inconsiderate Adversaries any thing to alledge for their rebellious despising of the Humane person of Christ unless two or three grosly-mistaken places of Scripture Such as Hebr. 11. v. 26. where Moses is said to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Aegypt and Chap. 13. v. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Out of which passages they phansie to themselves such a Christ only as was as well in Moses's time as now and was ever the same from the beginning of the World and ever will be But they plainly in these Texts raise Mountains of Molehills For the simple and genuine sense of the former is nothing but this That Moses bare such reproaches as Christ and the firm professors of Christ bear which he uses as an argument of Patience to the Hebrews from the example of Moses unless you will interpret the place upon the supposition of Christ being the Prefect of Israel before his
the Scripture-learned teach them which is plainly to deny the History of Christ and to profess our selves mere Infidels Out of which Spirit of Infidelity he has so distortedly allegorized all the clauses of the Creed that to such as are not bewitched and besotted by his fanatick blasts to a better opinion of him then he deserves he must needs appear an Infidel Lastly in his Introduction Chap. 9. sect 35. there again he does boldly affirm That it is certainly mere lies what the Letter-learned institute or set forth how clear soever in understanding if they be yet unreformed by the Love and her Service And in the following Section he plainly declares That the Scriptures are not to be taught nor held forth Historically but as Prefigurations of the Promises that are fulfilled in his Service of the Love Whence it is evident he had no belief in the Letter of the Scripture nor of the miraculous History of Christ and of the Predictions concerning him whereby our Faith should be affixed to his Humane Person Against which he useth all diligence imaginable as if not simple Care but an inspired Envy or Satanical Spite against the honour of his Person did actuate him in all his Writings 2. To which purpose I conceive is that Caution in his Introduction That no man bind his heart to any outward thing which he is served with to the Righteousness of life For of all outward things nothing can be more serviceable then the Humane Person of Christ who suffered for us and redeemed us from the wrath to come if we stand faithfull in the Covenant Those places also where he saith That the Godly life is the very Saviour himself and that no man knows Christ nor can confess him unless his shape be in him that is his Life and Image be in him seem intended as justling against the External Person of Christ as also what he saith Chap. 22. namely That no other Foundation may be laid then that Iesus Christ who from everlasting was and is and abideth for ever whereby I doubt not but he intends the exclusion of his Humane Person whose compute began but about 16 hundred years agoe But the most wonderfull sleight he puts him off by is his Mystical meaning of Christ's celebration of the Passeover with his Disciples Which we shall easily understand if we take notice what he means by Flesh in his Writings namely by Flesh is meant the Letter or History In his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Chap. 13. ver 4. Verily therefore they do all erre very much that judge according to their understanding out of the earthly Being or out of the Flesh or Letter God's truth which is Heavenly and Spiritual See also Introduct ch 14. sect 20. Now if you will but read his Evangely chap. 21. sect 3 7 8 10. also chap. 22. sect 5 6. and chap. 25. sect 1 2. you shall find in brief for it were too tedious to write these allegorical Ambages that the right Celebration of the Pascha or Passeover with Christ is That he namely Christ after the Flesh they are his own words should be slain that is that Christ according to the Letter or History should be abolished that he may be entertained only according to the Spirit Which is the great Arcanum of this Sect of the Family Behold saith he this is the right Passeover with Christ and the right Supper which the upright Believers and Disciples of Christ keep with Christ to wit that they depart even so with Christ out of the Flesh that is that Christ according to the History or Letter be crucified or slain in them that is nullified and rejected as a mere Legend or Fable and pass into the Spirit that is the spiritual Mystery of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral of the Fable and out of the Death or Mortality that is out of the dead Letter into the Eternal Life of everlasting Immortality In which sonorous language that you may not promise to your self any such lasting purchase there is nothing meant but the state of Perfection which these Familists phansie to themselves here upon Earth and is everlasting in no other sense then in succession they promising themselves that their Sect will continue for ever and therefore he adds wherethrough sin and all destruction becomes vanquished namely by this state of Perfection wherein sin and every imperfect and destroyable state is swallowed up For they having come to the highest there is no change of things though their persons be mortal according to their own doctrine This Allegorie of the Passeover is so odd a conceit that did I not suppose the Author deeply Fanatical I should suspect it accompanied with a sly jearing and scorn against the History of Christ and to be the product of a scoffing Atheistical Spirit For no Atheist could exercise his wit here with more villainous sliness against the truth of the Scriptures then thus Which makes me sometimes think that he was not simply Fanatical but either Atheistical or possessed by the Devil himself in the mean time not knowing whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was 3. And thus we have had a taste in general how sedulously this Author endeavours to out the Person of Christ. We shall now pursue the matter in two main heads the Office of his Priesthood and his coming visibly to judgment in his Humane person To which is annexed the promise of a glorious Resurrection and Eternal Life in a plain and true sense without any shuffling or equivocating That he makes nothing of the atonement of Christ's personal sufferings he does in my judgment too plainly discover chap. 13. sect 8. of his Documental Sentences where rather then he will acknowledg the usefulness of that Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sins he does pronounce him that sins by violence or Temptation to be guiltless as the ravished virgin Deuteronomie 22 that so there may be no need of Christ's Sacrifice whose personal death and Priestly office he never takes notice of to this purpose As you may observe further Exhortat chap. 20. from sect 19 to the end of the chapter Where although he supposes a mans stumblings and fallings daily very great and terrible before him and that for that cause he is very wofull of heart feels the pricking of sin the darts of death and condemnation of Hell and so is in much anguish and affliction of mind yet is there no application at all of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross nor any help nor comfort at all held out by his sufferings though it was the most proper place that could be to mention them And chap. 24. in the praiers he puts up there in stead of making use of the mediation of that Christ that felt the pains of death on the Cross for us he makes use only of Gods supposed Promise or Covenant he has made with the House of
Divine life over the Animal life 4. Whence it is most reasonable the Chieftain of the Kingdome of Light should be rather an Humane Soul then an Angel 5. His last Assertion an Inference from the former and a brief Description of the General nature of Christianity 41 CHAP. VIII 1. That not to be at least a Speculative Christian is a sign of the want of common Wit and Reason 2. The nature of the Divine and Animal life and the state of the World before and at our Saviour's coming to be enquired into before we proceed 3. Why God does not forthwith advance the Divine life and that Glory that seems due to her 4. The First Answer 5. A Second Answer 6. A Third Answer 7. The Fourth and last Answer 43 CHAP. IX 1. What the Animal life is in General and that it is Good in it self 2. Self-love the Root of the Animal Passions and in it self both requisite and harmeless in Creatures 3. As also the Branches 4. The more refined Animal properties in Brutes as the Sense of Praise natural Affection Craft 5. Political Government in Bees 6. And Cranes and Stags 7. As also in Elephants 8. The Inference That Political Wisdome with all the Branches thereof is part of the Animal life 46 CHAP. X. 1. That there is according to Pliny a kind of Religion also in Brutes as in the Cercopithecus 2. In the Elephant 3. A confutation of Pliny's conceit 4 That there may be a certain Passion in Apes and Elephants upon their sight of the Sun and Moon something a kin to that of Veneration in Man and how Idolatry may be the proper fruit of the Animal life 5. A discovery thereof from the practice of the Indians 6. whose Idolatry to the Sun and Moon sprung from that Animal passion 7. That there is no hurt in the Passion it self if it sink us not into an insensibleness of the First invisible cause 49 CHAP. XI 1. Of a Middle life whose Root is Reason and what Reason it self is 2. The main branches of this Middle life 3. That the Middle life acts according to the life she is immersed into whether Animal or Divine 4. Her activity when immersed in the Animal life in things against and on this side Religion 5. How far she may go in Religious performances 51 CHAP. XII 1. The wide conjecture and dead relish of the mere Animal man in things pertaining to the Divine life and that the Root of this life is Obediential Faith in God 2. The three Branches from this Root Humility Charity and Purity and why they are are called Divine 3. A description of Humility 4. A Description of Charity and how Civil Justice or Moral Honesty is eminently contained therein 5. A Description of Purity and how it eminently contains in it whatever Moral Temperance or Fortitude pretend to 6. A Description of the truest Fortitude 7. And how transcendent an Example thereof our Saviour was 8. A further representation of the stupendious Fortitude of our Saviour 9. That Moral Prudence also is necessarily comprized in the Divine life 10. That the Divine life is the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity but the excellency thereof unconceivable to those that do not partake of it 52 BOOK III. CHAP. I. THat the Lapse of the Soul from the Divine life immersing her into Matter brings on the Birth of Cain in the Mystical Eve driven out of Paradise 2. That the most Fundamental mistake of the Soul lapsed is that Birth of Cain and that from hence also sprung Abel in the mystery the vanity of Pagan Idolatry 3. Solomon's universal charge against the Pagans of Polytheisme and Atheisme and how fit it is their Apology should be heard for the better understanding the State of the World out of Christ. 4. Their plea of worshipping but one God namely the Sun handsomely managed by Macrobius 5. The Indian Brachmans worshippers of the Sun Apollonius his entertainment with them and of his false and vain affectation of Pythagorisme 6. The Ignorance of the Indian Magicians and of the Demons that instructed them 7. A Concession that they and the rest of the Pagans terminated their worship upon one Supreme Numen which they conceived to be the Sun 56 CHAP. II. 1. That the above-said concession advantages the Pagans nothing forasmuch as there are more Suns then one 2. That not only Unity but the rest of the Divine Attributes are incompetible to the Sun 3. Of Cardan's attributing Understanding to the Sun 's light with a confutation of his fond opinion 4. Another sort of Apologizers for Paganism who pretend the Heathens worshipped One God to which they gave no name 5. A discovery out of their own Religion that this innominated Deity was not the True God but the Material world 60 CHAP. III. 1. The last Apologizers for Paganisme who acknowledge God to be an Eternal Mind distinct from Matter and that all things are manifestations of his Attributes 2. His Manifestations in the External World 3. His Manifestations within us by way of Passion 4. His more noble emanations and communications to the inward Mind and how the ancient Heathen affixed personal Names to these several Powers or manifestations 5. The reason of their making these several Powers so many Gods or Goddesses 6. Their Reason for worshipping the Genii and Heroes 62 CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 65 CHAP. V. 1. An Answer to the last Apology of the Pagans as first That it concerns but few of them 2. and that those few were rather of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then pure Pagans 3. That the worship of Images is expresly forbid by God in the Law of Moses 4. That they rather obscure then help our conceptions of the Divine Powers 5. That there is great danger of these Images intercepting the worship directed to God 6. He referrs the curious and unsatisfied to the fuller Discussions in Polemical Divinity 68 CHAP. VI. 1. A new and unanswerable charge against Paganisme namely That they adored the Divine Powers no further then they reached the Animal life as appears from their Dijoves and Vejoves 2. Jupiter altitonans Averruncus Robigus and Tempestas 3. From the pleasant spectacle of their God Pan what is meant by his Pipe and Nymphs dancing about him 4 What by his being deemed the Son of Hermes and Mercury and what by his beloved Nymph Syrinx his wife