their glorified forms Apollonius had discourse with the Ghost of Achilles arising out of his grave apparel'd in a Souldiers coat and of the stature of five at first afterwards of twelve Cubits about Homer's History of the Trojan War till the Lyon-like apparition was by the crowing of a Cock frighted into his hole Idem ibid. Christ cast out Devils so did Apollonius and that of both Sexes one a Male out of a lascivious Youth another a Female which Philostratus calls Empusa for he must be feigned to make the Devils confess their names as well as Christ did that Legion wherewith the Gaderene was possessed He is said to raise a Roman Damsel from death to life Which if they were any thing but mere Fictions his emulous Rival in Philosophy Euphrates then living in Rome would without doubt have put them in against him among those Articles he prefer'd to Domitian Our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria all the Occurrences of her life Apollonius is brought upon the Stage by Philostratus lib. 5. telling a Piper his Pedigree Estate and all the Fortunes he had passed through c. Because Christ saith of himself By me Kings reign Vespasian is introduc'd begging the Empire of Apollonius and Apollonius returning him answer that he had already decreed him Emperour Christ knew what was in man and therefore this Ape must be reported to understand what the sufficiencies of all men were insomuch as his Censures past for Oracles with Vespasian who merely upon Apollonius his assuring him from a gift of seeing into men's hearts that they were wise and honest men retain'd Dion and Euphrates into his Council and most secret designs though in the sequel of the story his memory fails the Fabler for him whom Apollonius had commended to the Father Vespasian as a just and wise man he declaims against to the Son Domitian as a flattering Parasite c. Caupo est cupedinarius publicanus faenerator c. But that was after Euphrates had cryed out first and accused him as a Wizard However this is enough to spoil his Divination and to evince that he could not foresee that Euphrates would become his enemy any more than he could foreknow that Domitian would not permit him to repeat that elaborate Oration he had with so much pains pen'd and prepared Euseb. in Hiero. Clem. lib. 7 8. Had the Children held their peace the stones would have cryed Hosannah to the son of David This was it that put words into the mouth of that Elm that in an articulate and womanly slender Voice welcom'd Apollonius to among the Egyptian Gymnosophists Philostrat lib. 6. By the invocation of Christ's name after his Assension Miracles were effected That they might make Apollonius vye in this particular with the blessed Jesus there were some who affirmed they had experienc'd a Magical Virtue in his name towards miraculous Operations And lastly for I am weary of tracing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foot by foot where he is made to tread in Christ's steps As Christ ascended into Heaven so did he if Philostratus be to be believed whither he was invited and taken up by a chore of Female-angels or Virgin-nymphs his Tomb being no where to be found though Philostratus sought for it through the whole World though withal he tells us he knows nothing touching his death nor do Authors saith he agree touching his departure some saying it was at Ephesus others in the Temple of Minerva Lindia others in the Island of Crete and himself a little before lib. 7. at the Bar where he stood indicted of Witchcraft before Domitian to whom after he had proclaimed that petulant and boasting bravado thou canst not keep my body bound nor kill me Caesar for I am death-less he presently vanish'd out of humane sight § 3. Hierocles was not the only man that made those odious Comparisons neither was Apollonius the only man that was compared to our Jesus but Apuleius and others as Marcellinus tells St. Austin Apollonium siquidem suum nobis Apuleium aliósque Magicae artis homines in medium proferunt quorum majora contendunt extitisse miracula Marcel Augustino ep 4. The Pagans saith he of whom we have great store in this City set before us their Apollonius Apuleius and other persons who by the help of Magick have done greater Miracles than Christ. Insomuch as that question was then worn thread-bare and managed on their part with all subtilty and patronized by great men and Wits who moved every stone ransack'd every corner of Divine and Secular History that they might parallel Christs mighty Works and that no line in Christ's face no lineament in his whole body might pass without a parallel Upon this subject saith Celsus in Orig. l. 7. cal 76. If you have a mind to believe stories of men being made Gods and to fasten that Privilege upon any one whose life and death make them worthy of that honour had not Hercules or Aesculapius pleased you you had Orpheus who without doubt was inspired with a divine Spirit and died a Martyr to Philosophy by the hands of the enraged frows of Bacchus And if the cause of his death mislike you and truly who but a sorbid Epicure can like it for he deservedly contracted the just hatred of all Womankind by his singing the flagitious brutishness of the Gods in their unnatural Ganimedian Lusts nonnulli aiunt quòd Orpheus primus puerilem amorem induxerit mulieribus visum contumeliam fecisse illis ab haue rem interfectum c. Higini poetic astron Lyra. some say Orpheus first introduc'd the unnatural love of boys which women taking as a reproach to their Sex did therefore slay him However had not Orpheus pleased you saith Celsus you might have pitch'd upon Aristarchus who being cast into a Mortar in the midst of his pains utter'd this egregious speech the result of a truly divine spirit pound bray Aristarchus his pelt for thou canst not bray Aristarchus himself Or Epictetus who when his master was racking his Thigh smiling and without fear told him if he did not take heed he would break his Thigh and when he had broken it did I not tell thee saith he thou wouldst break my Thigh What did your God utter saith Celsus in the time of his suffering comparable to these men Ans. he prayed for his enemies and prevented the breaking his Thigh or one of his bones The same Celsus in Orig. 1. 21. Does as good as assent to the truth of the Evangelical History that gives an account of Christ's Miracles confessing that by reason thereof many believed in him and calumniating them as proceeding from Magick in which point he had been equall'd if not exceeded by many who never gain'd thereby the repute of being Gods Deum Deique Filium nemo ex talibus signis rumoribus tà mque frigidis argumentis approbat 2. 24. Xamolxis Pythagoras Rampsinitus who is said to have played at Chess with Ceres and to have brought away from
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
five years of his Reign in spite of the natural dyscrasie of that Monster and the temptations to an earlier Apostasie which an absolute Sovereignty laid before him Vid. Tacit. an 15. And who was himself as much a Philosopher in the inward of his Soul as in the outward habit of his Beard and Gown as much a Moralist in practice as contemplation and precept As the great Humanist of France the Lord Nountaigne Essayes l. 1. c. 32. hath more than Essay'd to vindicate him to have been against Dion's calumniations Xiphil è Dione Nero. pag. 519. grounded upon Tigellinus and his parties reports whom to have his enemies and slanderers was Seneca's honour Tigellinus being a person of so filthy and calumniating a tongue as Dion himself but three pages before he condemns Seneca upon the suggestions of Tigellinus commends that sarcastical Apothegm as he calls it of Pythia against him who when she was urged by him to accuse her Lady Octavia Augusta of dishonesty spate in his face and said The privities of my Lady Tigellinus are more clean than thy mouth As himself demonstrated in his discourse with Nero after he was grown the object of Tigellinus's envy for his wealth and of Nero's hatred for the freedom he used in rebuking him than whom no man better knew as he told Granius Siloanus how far Seneca's genius was averse to flattery or how much his brave spirit was elevated above love to the world or fear of death And in his conference with his Wife betwixt his condemnation and death wherein he recommended to her who was most privy to what he was at home with himself the remembrance of his vertuous life in those actions of it wherein there had been least personating as the best expedient against her immoderate sorrow for his departure And lastly as the ancient Fathers of our Church implyed in their opinion that he had familiar converse with St. Paul conceiving it scarce possible that he could in Life and Doctrine hit so right upon the sence of Evangelical precepts without some such Interpreter Then lived Thrasea that Martyr under Nero for Natural Theology whom Tacitus calls the light of the Roman world and thus prefaceth his Story At last Nero covets to extirpate vertue it self in putting Thrasea to death having no other cause of displeasure against him but his going out of the Senate as refusing to give his Vote for the condemnation of Agrippina upon the barbarous motion of her unnatural Son and his not appearing at those Funeral Solemnities wherein Divine Honours were conferr'd upon that Court Drabb Poppaea A person of that Divine presence and discourse as his friends were confident he would have thunder-struck the Senate and Nero himself if they could have perswaded him to have stooped so far from the contempt of death as to plead for his life and make his defence In which point through his belief of the Souls immortality of which he was discoursing with Demetrius the Philosopher at that instant he was of so well a composed mind as he did not so much as change countenance except it were to a more chearful aspect at the news of his condemnation Tacit. l. 15. Illic à Quaestore reperitur laetitiae propior And while his life was breathing out at the veins of both his arms he spent not his breath in effeminate lamentations but in discourses upon that endless life to which he assur'd himself he was hasting and calling the Questor who was sent to see his execution Look here saith he young man we are pouring out this offerings Jovi liberatori to God Redeemer I pray God divert the Omen but verily thou livest in such times as it 's very behoofeful to get thy mind fortified against all temporal evil by such examples of constancy as thou seest me set before thee § 2. But I go about to number the Stars in attempting to reckon up all the Philosophers then flourishing when the Christian Philosophy was first commended to the world I will therefore cease the further prosecution of that point and glance at their Dogmata the Divine Axioms they deliver'd touching Divination by Auguries and prophetical Theology where that I may avoid tedious repetitions I shall in a manner confine my self to the Collector of the opinions of others Tully who though himself an Augur not only derides Divination by Birds by Dreams by Oracles c. but evinceth the vanity of them by Chrysippus his reasons affirming in general that they are the productions of superstition which dispersed through the Nations of the world taking occasion from humane imbecillity had almost opprest all mens minds and tyrannized over them Ut verè loquamur superstitio fusa per gentes oppressit omnium ferè animos atque hominum imbecillitatem occupavit de Divinat l. 2. pag. 265. 1. In particular he explodes Divination by Dreams from several instances Of one that being to run in the Olympick Games dreamed he saw himself over-night carried in a Charriot drawn with four horses which one interprets to signifie that he should win the prize because of the horses swiftness another that he should lose it because he had seen four swift Creatures before himself Of another who dreamt he saw an Eagle That portends thou shalt win quoth one Augur for that 's the swiftest bird Thou shalt lose saith another for the Eagle pursueth all other birds and is her self pursued by none therefore she 's alwayes hindmost Quae est ista ars conjectoris eludentis ingenio an quicquam significant nisi acumen hominum ex similitudine aliqua conjecturam modò huc modò illuc ducentium Pag. 2. 64. What is this else but the Art of a Guesser wittily shifting off his want of wit What do those interpretations signifie but mens quickness of wit from some resemblance or other drawing their conjecture sometimes this way sometimes that 2. Divination by Oracles he derides as fasten'd by impostures upon thë Divine Spirits motions Id certe magis est attenti animi quà m furentis hoc scriptoris est non furentis adhibentis diligentiam non insani Pag. 251. When their being most-what given in Verse speaks them to be the result of humane industry And their ambiguity fathers them upon persons providing for saving their own credit let come what will Partim falsis partim casu veris ut fit in omni oratione saepissimè partim flexiloquis obscuris ut interpres egeat interprete ipsa sors referenda sit ad sortes partim ambiguis c. p. 252. They being sometimes false sometimes true by chance as it frequently falls out in all kind of discourse sometimes so equivocal and obscure as the Interpreter needs an Interpreter and the Question what is the meaning of the Respond is harder to answer than the question which was put to the Oracle and sometimes so ambiguous c. Such as that which Herodotus reports Apollo to have given to Craesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Craesus Halym
Tune was not the work Ambubaiarum of every trivial Ballad-singer but of minds well set and perfectly harmonious A blind fortuitous Concourse of such variety of Herbs could never have produced so-well-ordered a Sallad temper'd to the tasts of all savoury Pallats Seeing the wisest Philosophers were so far from a general consent one with another as not one of their Schools agreed with but contradicted it self Euseb. de praep Evang. demonstrates how the School of Plato jarred with its own Dictates Symphoniam consensum scripturarum commendat per antithesin monstrat â Ethnicae Philosophiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adeò ut invalescente opinionum varietate re pugnantiâ alii in Sectus divisi hostilibus 〈◊〉 decertarent alii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laudarent c. And thence commends the Symphony of the sacred Scriptures from the Untunableness of Gentile-philosophy with it self insomuch as through the prevailing of various and repugnant Opinions some being divided into Sects contended with hostile hatred and others grew to that pass as they would affirm nothing but turn'd Scepticks CHAP. IX Gospel-history agrees with Old Testament-prophesie § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophesies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob ' s Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor this Polemoney to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not § 1. NO less harmoniously does Gospel History fall in with Old Testament-prophecy touching the Messias His Lineage of the house of David Psal. 132. 12. Act. 2. 30. His Mother a Virgin St. Mat. 1. 22 23. His Place of Birth Bethlehem Mat. 2. 5 6. of Education Nazareth St. Mat. 2. 23. that from his dwelling there he might be known to be the Branch Natzar a name given the Messias Isai. 11. 1. Jer. 23. 5. Zachar 6. 12. c. of Retreat from Herod's Cruelty Egypt St. Mat. 2. 15. Hosea 11. 1. of his greatest Converse during his Ministry Galilee of the Gentiles Mat. 4. 14. Isa. 9. 1 2. The time of his Ministry half seven Years Or the half of a Prophetick Week Dan. 9. 27. So Scaliger de emendatione Pascha Christi The specifick Miracles for confirmation of his Doctrine healing sick restoring sight to the blind legs to the lame c. St. Mat. 11. 4 5. Isa. 35 6. Isa. 61 1. Christ appeals to his working Miracles by the rule of Prophesie His being betrayed by one of his Familiars one that did eat of his bread Judas St. John 13. 18. Psal. 41. 9. The Price he was sold at thirty pence The Fields name that was bought with that price of blood the Potters Field St. Mat. 27. 7 8 9. for which the Evangelist quotes Jeremy though the Text be in Zachary chap. 11. 13. because the 10 11 12. Chapters of Zachary were a part of Jeremy's Prophesie not committed to writing till after the Captivity and then annex'd to the former Chapters of Zachary as other mens Psalms are inserted amongst David's and Agur's Proverbs annex'd to Solomon's as that Jewish Proverb imports The Spirit of Jeremy rested on Zachary Hammonds Annotat. Heb. 8. 9. The flight and dispersion of the Apostles St. Mat. 26. 31 56. Zach. 13. 7. His Crucifiction betwixt two Theives St. Mar. 15. 27 28. Isa 53. 12. His Buffering St. Mat. 26. 67. 27. 29 30. Isa. 50. 6. His Vineger his Gall St. John 20. 28 29. St. Mat. 27. 34. Psal. 69. 21. The dividing of his Vesture The casting lots for his seamless Coat St. John 19. 24 25. Psal. 22. 18. The piercing of his Side Their not breaking of his Leggs as they did theirs that were crucified with him St. John 19. 36. Exod. 12. 46. Psal. 34. 20. Zech. 12. 10. Psal. 22. 16. c. As these things were foretold of the Messiah so they were in every Title fulfill'd in the blessed Jesus I appeal now to all men of Common Sence to judg whether men of dislocated Understandings could have carryed the matter so eavenly as the Evangelists did here making their Gospel-relations as well wrought Wax to take the perfect Impression and Seal of Old Testament Predictions presenting Jesus of Nazareth wearing that very Coat of Arms which the Prophets had blazon'd for the Christ so as the word which they preach'd concerning him differs not in the least Title Tone or Accent from that which the Prophets preached touching the Messia Of which our Saviour was so confident as he made frequent appeals to the Tribunal of Moses and the Prophets offering to put the Issue of the whole Cause to this trial that if he did not express to the life that Model which the Prophets had drawn of the Messiah he would be content they should disown him and esteem him an Impostor No less earnest were the Apostles to have Moses and the Prophets umpire the Controversie making with their Hearers such candid Expostulations as these We preach no other things of Jesus than what Moses and the prophets said would come to pass if you can find one line in the face of your Messiah as 't is drawn by their Pencil which we cannot shew you in Jesus Christ's we will give you leave to spit in our faces A Point wherein the Jews joyn'd issue with the Christians in the Primitive Times but were as often foyl'd as they provoked to this way of determining the great Question in Controversie Whether Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messias Itaque dicunt Judaei provocemus istam praedicationem Isaiae 7. faciamus comparationem an Christo qui jam venit competat c. Tertul. adv Judaeos cap. 9. Let us bring say the Jews this Doctrine of Christians to the Test of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 7. and by comparing it see whether the name Immanuel which he gives to the Messias agree to him who they say is come Why saith Tertullian ask any Christian and he will tell you that Jesus Christ is Immanuel that is God with us as the Prophet expresseth the Importance of that name But how doth that agree to your Jesus which is here said The Child shall receive the riches of Damascus and the Spoils of Samaria against the King of Assyria Do but consider saith Tertullian that the Child is to receive these before he can say Dad or Mam Is. 8. 4. and it will convince you of the vanity of that fancy of yours that the Messias is to be a mighty Warrier and to subdue all Nations by force of Arms for then he must call his Souldiers together not by sound of Trumpet but by blowing his Coral-whistle and ride upon his
place were about to depart bating the Heathenishness of the Phrase Tacitus his deos expounds the migrentus of Josephus he rightly conceiving that voice to have proceeded from that host of Angels the Cherubins who pitch their Tents over the Mercy-seat betwixt whom the Shepherd of Isrâ—el dwelt while he kept his Court in that sacred Palace but in the Gentile Idiom miscalling them Gods who were only his Courtiers and therefore foreknowing that their King was about breaking up his Court there they prepare to depart with him For what should they whose Office is always to stand before and behold the face of God do there when he withdrew his Face from the Ark of the Covenant and that was no longer to be the Ark of his Presence By all this it is apparent that the Prophecy of Jacob concerning the departure of the Scepter from Judah after that the Messias should be exhibited and the Gentiles be gather'd to him received its accomplishment at the demolishing of God's House the place of his residence amongst the Jews while it stood and that therefore the Apostles were well advised in the account they give us of such Circumstances as relate hereunto An account which so perfectly suits the mind of the Prophecy as to the time prefixed that our fixing it there hath the evidence of Reason the Suffrages of Jew Gentile and a Voice from the Oracle to warrant and confirm it § 7. If yet the Sceptick will cavil that not the Apostles but the Statists of after times who made a political use of their Simplicity accommodated the Evangelical History and the Occurrences of the Christian Age to this Prophecy I can stop his mouth with these two Animadversions upon this surmise 1. This Application was made as appears by the Testimonies alledged out of Tertullian and Clemens Alexandrinus before any of the Politicians own'd the Gospel while the Statists of the World did with all their might endeavour the suppression of the Christian Religion as conceiving it to be insociable destructive to Political Communities and repugnant to Maximes of Government 2. The Evangelists and Apostles themselves before Tertullian or any other furnish'd with Humane Learning had commented upon the Apostolical Writings did in the plain Text of Scripture apply the accomplishment of this Prophecy and assign the departure of the divine Scepter from the Jewish Nation to that Period of Time when the Gentiles being gather'd to Christ the fall of Jerusalem should happen St. Matthew chap. 24. reports from our Saviours Lips amongst the Signs of his coming to destroy the Jewish State and the Place of God's Residence among them a thing to be fulfilled within one Generation and therefore not applicable intentionally to the day of general Judgment this for one vers 14. that the Gospel of the Kingdom should before that be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come And this for another vres 15. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place that is as it is explain'd ver 28. the Roman Ensigns the eagles let fly upon their Prey that Nation then ripe for Rejection or as St. Luke more clearly and without a Trope lays down this Sign Chap. 21. 20. When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh Immediately after the Tribulation of which days of Siege the Jewish State is to be dissolved Which Catastrophe of their Polity Christ in St. Matthew ver 29. expresseth in such Prophetical Phrases as the Old Testament Prophets constantly used in their Descriptions of the Ruine of Kingdoms and Republicks Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken that is that heavenly Polity establsh'd among the Jews shall wholly be dissolved When the Gospel shall be preach'd in the Gentile World or as St. Paul explains this Text 1 Timothy 3. 16. when Christ shall be preach'd to the Gentiles and believed on in the world then shall Jerusalem be destroyed and immediately after that the Scepter departs from Judah then shall Israel after the Flesh cease to be God's Dominion and whosoever of them after that shall boast of the Covenant of Peculiarity will upon trial be found Liars not Jews the Portion of God but the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. they having left the Blessing of that name to another People of God gather'd to their Messias out of all Nations and called by a new name Christians reserve the sound of it only for a Curse to themselves Is. 65. 15 16. Could the Apostles in their assigning the time and other Circumstances of the Dissolution of the Jewish State have thus comported with old Jacob's Prophecy thereof had they been such silly Animals as the Atheist pretends and not persons of the deepest Reach and solidest Judgments Let the whole Tribe of them who deride the Apostles for their Simplicity put all their Heads together and call in a Legion of Demons to be of their Council they may study till they split their dura mater and spill those few Brains they have before they shall be able to make so solid and irrefragable an Application of this Propecy to the time of any other Shilo and the gathering of Gentiles to him as the Apostles have made to the time of the Gentiles gathering unto Christ. CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel ' s Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel ' s Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel ' s second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book § 1. THat Prophecy of Daniel chap. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the holy City to finish transgression c. doth so precisely calculate the Time of the Messias coming and so exactly in every Circumstance sutes our Saviour as it cannot with any shew of Probability be applied to any other nor be denyed to have received its Accomplishment in him From which Text the Primitive Church made such clear Demonstration to the Gentiles of the Divinity of the Old and to the Jews of the Divinity of the New as Porphiry was forc'd to betake himself to this Reply to the Christians Arguments That these Prophecies father'd upon Daniel were writ long after his death about the time of Antiochus by some Jew and are not Prophecies of things to come but Naratives of things past Jerom prefat in Danielem Of which Surmise Eusebius Appollonius and other Champions of the Christian Cause shewed
eat any Flesh with the Blood Tertul Apol. adv gentes taking that for their Medium in their Disputes with Heathens upon this point as a thing famously known And lastly in their burning their bodies to ashes and throwing the ashes into Rhodanus when yet the Emperour himself bestowed an honourable Burial and Sepulchre upon his Horse Panasinus Julius Capitolinus in vero Imper. whether in affront to our Christian hope I know not But his Lieutenants did dissipate and drown the ashes of Christian Martyrs on purpose to prevent their Resurrection whereof say they the Christians being fully perswaded contemn Punishment and hasten themselves chearfully to death Now let us see whether they can arise after this dissipation of their Bodies All which the French Church hath left Records of taken in open Court in their Epistle to the Asian and Phrygian Churches Euseb. Eccl. hist. 5. 1. § 2. If the Scepticks except against these Allegations that we have them but at second hand and not immediately from Pagan Records and demand to see the Original though that be a request not all out so reasonable as if a man pretending to dissatisfaction in a Copy taken out of the Parish-register certifying his Parentage and attested to by the Incumbents hand should demand to see the Register-book it self we can gratifie his utmost curiosity For we may gather what kind of people Christians were by taking out those Characters of them which Secular Historians give while at once they describe the temper of those civilized Emperours who indulg'd them and give in that Indulgence as the reason of others raising persecution against them Alexander Severus saith Lampridius Christianos esse passus est permitted Christians This he would not have done had their Religion tolerated Theft Uncleanness Lying Bribery c. which the Emperour so far hated as he made Proclamation to forbid all such Criminals to salute either himself or Mother or his Wife prohibited mix'd Baths would not allow Lenonum Meretricum exolotorum vectigal in sacrum aerarium inferri the Tribute of Brothel-houses to come within the sacred Treasury And yet his Court was so frequented with Christians as Maximinus his Successor raised Persecution against them out of that grudg he bare to the Family of Severus Euseb. l. 6. c. 21. And his Mother Mammea sent for St. Origen and entertain'd him in the Court as her Chaplain Id. Ib. c. 15. to whom her son was unicè pius above measure dutiful and built in the Roman Palace Dining-rooms for her Lamprid. Alex. Sever. Places I suppose separate from common use for the celebration of the Christian Feast He caused the sinews of the fingers of a Notary who had delivered into the Court a false Breviat of a cause depending to be cut off that he might be disenabl'd ever afterwards to write and yet he permitted Origen and other Christian Doctors who gave in to the World a Breviate of Christs Cause to reside in the Palace an Argument that they were not in the least suspected of forgery When a Nobleman of a sordid life and given to bribery who had procured some Kings to intercede to the Emperor for him that he would bestow upon him some Military promotion was admitted into his presence he was in the Presence of his Patrons convict of Theft that is bribery and by their sentence condemn'd to the Cross. Had the Preachers of the Cross been under suspicion of that or the like Crime they would have sped no better He caused Turinus for lying to be smoak'd to death in a fire of green wood while the Cryer made this Proclamation Fumo punitur qui fumum vendidit Would so great an hater of Lyars have tolerated Christians had they been guilty of that vice Would he have honoured our Saviours Image with a place in his Chappel amongst those of Apollonius Abraham Orpheus and others whom he deemed choice men and holiest Souls if the Doctrine he taught had been any other than pious any other than what the Gospel communicates Would he have taken up thoughts of building a Temple to Christ and receiving him into the number of the Gods but that he was advised that the whole Empire would then turn Christian and desert the Temples of all other Gods If the Christian Religion had not exceld all others and been then presented according to the Evangelical pattern now in being If the custom of Ordaining Christian Priests after trial according to the now extant Evangelical prescript had not been then in use in the Church Would he by name have commended that Custom of Christians to the imitation of the Romans in the appointing of Provincial Governours and Civil Officers Cùm id Christiani facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus qui ordinandi sunt Lamprid. Alex. Severus Had not the Christian Religion then profest been as it is now against serving the Belly Would he have adjudged the benefit of a publiek place which they had taken possession of for Divine Service rather to the Christians than to the Cooks Whence learn'd he to offer those incomparable Jewels which an Ambassador presented to sale and when he could not meet with a chapman would give the price to hang them on the ears of Venus rather than his Wives but from that of St. Peter whose adorning let it not be that outward of wearing of gold This he did saith Lampridius to prevent the Queens giving bad Example to other Matrons by this excess of costliness in Attire who also being a Pagan Historian writes That if any of his Soldiers had in their march offered violence or done injury to any man this Pagan Emperor would see him beaten before his face with cudgels orrods or more grievously punish'd if the offence deserv'd it ingeminating to the offender this expostulation Wouldst thou have this done to thy self and thy own possessions that thou dost to another And that he was wont while he was giving correction to the culpable to cause proclamation to be made by a Cryer What thou wouldst not have done to thy self do not to another quod à quibusdamsive Judae is sive Christianis audierat which he had heard either from some Jews or Christians Thou mayst learn by this Reader that Lampridius was a Pagan for otherwise he would never have made such a dis-junction as ascribes that saying to the Jew which never came in his mouth but downright have affirmed as other Heathens did who studied the Case of the Christians on purpose to oppose it that this was a Christian Proverb Though that other Precept was originally Judaick which he walkt by when in judging that Widows Cause whom a Soldier had plundered of more than he could restore he disbanded the Soldier made him work at his carpenters trade for the relief of the Widow In the History of this our Emperour here are sufficient intimations given us of those Qualifications of the Christian Faith and Professors as speak it and them to have been such then in the
had crected over the chief Gate of the Temple and thereby profan'd the sacred place so that those were Martyrs for the Law as St. James was for the Gospel and therefore his imbruing his hands in their Blood was reputed by the religious Party to be that which fill'd up the measure of that bloody Herod's sins and ripen'd him for this Judgement But in his assigning the meritorous Cause of this our Herod's being struck he is positive in affirming it was immitted from Heaven 2. And as peremtory in fathering it upon his Pride as its procuring Cause because he gave not glory to God by repulsing the peoples sacrilegious Shout of which his sin this was no small aggravation that he had before him such two recent Examples the one of Tiberius who might have led him to an expression of his dislike of such Flattery for he when he saw a Consular person attempting to prefer a Petiton to him upon his knees by making haste from him as if he had seen a Ghost come towards him gave himself a fall if he heard any man either in common Discourse or a set Speech fawn upon him he never doubted to interrupt and reprehend him till he had forc'd him to change his stile when one stiled his Occupations sacred and another told him he had been the Author of his advancement into the number of Senators Say I was the Adviser of the Senate to it faith he to him and call my Imployment laborious saith he to the other and to one that stiled him Lord. Let me no more saith he hear my self called by this ignominious name which belonging to the immortal Gods cannot without a reproachful taunt be attributed to any mortal Man Sueton. Tiberius cap. 27. The other of Caligula whose untimely end and general hate pull'd upon him hy challenging Divine Honours to himself might have deterr'd him from treading in his steps to say nothing of the inconstancy of those popular-breezes with which Caligula fill'd his sails Herod having seen in less than a years time his Statues yet smelling of the Founders and Engravers hand dispossest of the Temples they had usurped and some of them thrown into Tyber into which his Carcase had been dragg'd as the case of an incarnate Devil had the people dared to believe he was dead before it was in an hurry before for haste it could be above half burnt buried under a few Clods in Samian Gardens Sueton. Caligula So vain a Breath will Herod purchase with the displeasure of Heaven and is therefore blasted by the Angel deliver'd over to this Tormentor not as Job was into Satan's hands for trial nor as St. Paul was buffeted for Diet and Discipline sake to keep him from ascribing glory to himself but in revenge for his Pride 3. Josephus particularly specifics what St. Luke generally hints some space of time betwixt the Angel's giving of the stroke and Herod's giving up the ghost to wit five days and that his Death is described by our sacred Author as not following the blow so immediately as the blow did the peoples Acclamation appears both from the pointing the interserting the narrative of the Cause betwixt them and the words whereby he expresseth his Disease and Death there being a full point after because he gave not glory to God and that being inserted as the qua 〈…〉 that God had against him as that for which he sent his Angel to 〈◊〉 him and St. Luke's Words after that pawse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 up of worms arguing that 〈◊〉 had some time of breathing after the Angel had as it were fâ—â—-blown him before he gave 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 that these Vermine might grow that this Army of Insects might muster and consume his Vitals by browzing upon them He was immediately after the second Acclamation Thunder-struck and upon that began to vermiculate not after a few days according to the Course of Nature but perhaps immediately in a few minutes fulmine icta intra paucos dies verminant Seneca lib. 2. Nat. quaest cap. 17. But yet Herod after he became a stable for Worms as the Syriack Translation renders it was not presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudus comesus devoured raw at a morsel but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gradually corroded till he dyed the Worms laying at rack and manger in that Stable till they had eaten out a passage for Herod's Soul The worms did not swallow him up at a morsel but by corroding his inwards did within a few days render them unable to perform their Office Erasmus renders it Erosus the Vulgar consumptus à vermibus he was gnawn off or rather gnawn through as consumed by Worms both well not only as to the Terms but in that their Terms are capable of Tense and may best thus be rendred And when he was eaten through or his Vitals consumed of Worms he gave up the ghost but neither of them express fully St. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming gnawn with worms that is becoming verminosus full of Worms when those Worms had consumed him he dyed implying the Germination of them the Vermiculation inflicted supernaturally and their eating of Herod's inwards their natural operation for the effecting whereof they have time allotted them here though not so long as they spent in dispatching Herod the Great for after they were immitted into him he went to Calliroe and finding no help in those Waters struggled so long with his Worms as weary of his loathed and painful Life he attempted to cut his own throat and prevented of that made shift to get his Son 's Antigonus head struck off and yet lived after that five days as long as our Herod lived in all after he had received his Deaths-wound 4. Though he does not in terminis say that this Herod was eaten up of Worms yet he concurrs with St. Luke in sence in laying down the most proper Symptoms of that Malady ex intimis praecordiis dolor ventris tormina c. the very first Symptom of Herod the Great his mortal Disease which Josephus himself mentions and the Symptom of that distemper that 's caused by the Worm call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name which St. Luke the beloved Physician gives to them that eat up Herod which Riverius specifies prax med l. 10. dolor in ventre morsum erosionem repraesentans a grief in the Belly representing biting or gnawing exprest thus by Senertus pract med l. 2. par 2. Sect. 1. cap. 5. Symtomata vermium morsus vellicatio in abdomine And by Duretus upon Hollerius de vermibus in Josephus his own words tormina in alvo Nay such griping and erosions of the inwards are so signal indications of Worms that the same word vermina which signifies Worms Donec eos vitâ privarant vermina saeva Expertes opis ignaros quid vulnera vellent Luc. lib. 5. Until the Worms that bred in their undefiled wounds kill'd them signifies also that kind of griping in the Bowels which
in a moment in the same moment that they shall be raised so that there will be no more prius posterius betwixt us than is in a moment neither can they whom that day finds alive rise at all But first in respect of them that are out of Christ as the antients generally and the best modern Expositors gloss upon these Texts Musculus Non soli resurgent qui sunt Christi resurgent omnes sed ii primi sic 1 Thes. 4. mortui in Christo resurgent primum post illas surgent reliqui Not only they that are Christs but all shall rise but they that are in Christ shall rise first and afterwards the rest as the Apostle saith St. Athanasius conceives St. Paul to give to them that are Christs both priority of time as to their Resurrection and change and of place as to their trial and receiving of sentence Oportet namque ut aliquod habeant privilegium justi vel resurgendo nam ut in aera obvià m Christo procedant rapiendi ita primi à mortuis excitantur quemadmodum contra peccatores in terra locis inferioribus hisce judicem ut damnati operiuntur Ex Christoferi translatione in 1 ep ad Corin c. 15. It is meet that the righteous should have the priviledge of rising before Infidels for as they are snatcht up into the Air to meet Christ so they also shall be first raised from the dead whereas on the contrary infidels as being damn'd already shall wait for the judge upon earth and these inferior places 5. That the Saints though they rise before the Infidels yet shall not be judged till the Devil and his Worshippers be cast into Hell is the assertion of Tertullian de Resurrectione carnis cap. 25. Hîc ordo temporum sternitur Diabolo in abyssum interim relegato primae resurrectionis praerogativa de soliis ordinetur dehinc igni data universalis Resurrectionis censuta de libris judicetur The order of time is here laid down The Devil in the mean while being sent back again into the bottomless pit the Prerogative of the first Resurrection that is their being gathered in the air to the place of Judgment shall be put into order and after that they are assembled the Fire of the last Conflagration having changed the world the sentence shall pass out of the books upon them that rose first that is the Saints by calling From these premisses it necessarily follows That all the time that Satan hath allotted him after his loosing to go out again and tempt the World to Gentilism to deceive the Nations after his old wont is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that small season that intervenes betwixt the general Resurrection of the Saints and the Condemnation of Infidels that short space wherein the Saints shall all in a body be waiting at the place of Judgment whither the Angels shall gather them for the appearance of Christ. Against which Hypothesis I cannot imagine what now can be excepted but that it seems to suppose that Infidels after their Resurrection shall be in a capacity to demerit contrary to the common and in my judgment the true Opinion that they will be then as they were since their dissolution in termino But there is no ground of such a suspicion in this case as I state it for I do not make their following Satan with their rebellious Arms a contraction of new guilt because it proceeds from that height of judicial obcecation that divine Justice inflicts upon them as their punishment but an occasion of Gods justifying himself in their condemnation as that which speaks them to have lived and died impenitent for all their willfull rebellions I do not affirm that God inflicts more punishment upon them because of this than what they had deserved before but only takes the opportunity of these Rebels being in Arms to proceed against them and to destroy them altogether as enemies I cannot express my mind in more significant terms than those of Aquinas Sum. 3. q. 90. art 7. Civcs judicabuntur ut cives in quos sine discussione meritorum sententia mortis non feretur sed infideles condemnabuntur ut hostes qui consueverunt apud homines absque meritorum audientia estimari Citizens shall be judged as Citizens against whom the sentence of death may not be pronounced without the discussion of their desert of it but Infidels shall be condemned as open enemies who use among men to be doom'd without hearing That God may not keep his Citizens in suspence and demurr the trial of their cause longer than need he will not appear in his Glory till his Rebels be all in arms that so finding them at his coming in the Field set in Battalia against his Subjects he may cut them off at once § 7. I have but one Argument more against the Chyliasts limitting the Saints Reign with Christ on Earth to a precise thousand of years to try the patience as well as Judgment of my Reader withal to wit the impertinency of the Authorities which they alledge for their Opinion Of which I shall give but two Instances because I would not quite tire my self or Reader 1. They alledge the Authority of the Jewish Doctors whereas the Millenium they speak of is the Septimum Millenarium as Carpenter observes in Plato's Alcinous pag. 322. at the beginning whereof they think God will judge all men and as Mr. Meed proves by several quotations volume 2. pag. 667. Now the seventh day thousand of years is confest by all to last to all Eternity as being the holy Sabbath wherein the Saints shall rest from their six days labour And for any day of a thousand years long before that the antient Jews are wholly strangers so they reckon the three Ages before that by two thousand of years apiece two thousand before the Law two thousand under the Law and two thousand under the Messiah before the eternal Sabbath in which compute they intend not that any of those Ages shall be of so many precise years continuance if they do they have foully mist it in the two already past neither do they mention any innovation of the World after the giving of the Law but the Age of the Messiah that is to begin with their fifth Millenium from the Creation and the Sabbath of eternal rest the seventh Millenium So that if they at any time call the day of the Messias a thousand years they mean by that number about two thousand of precise years that is an indefinite Number 2. How groundless then must be their building their Doctrine of a precise thousand upon those Texts which the Jews first and they from them alledge for first if they be sueh Texts as the Jews do ground their Millenium upon they cannot import a precise Millenium that being more than the Jews conclude from them and perhaps St. John might take up the Jewish use of that term thinking none would be so
Heroes of Assyria His custom of sacrificing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was observ'd by Alexander and the Romans who upon no other account sacrificed at Jerusalem to the God of the Jews when they sojourned there as out of Apollonius Rhodius his Scholiast is observed by Scaliger in Eusebii chronic num 1685. Upon this account the Crime which Creon charged Polinices with was That he attempted to overthrow the Land of the Theban Gods and their Laws their Laws extended no further than their Lands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took their name Sophoclis Antigone § 5. How far this supposition of Gods assigning the Regions of the World to the Guardianship of particular Angels may stand with Scripture-grounds either according to Mr. Meed's Scheme who applies to this purpose that Text of Zachary These are the serene eyes that run to and fro through the world or according to the compute of some of the Ancients who apply to it that Text of Moses When the most high divided to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel in the Exposition of St. Jerome in Daniel cap. 7. vis 6. That is as Israel was divided into Twelve Tribes so the World was parted into Twelve majores Gentes Ancient Nations and an Angel set as President over each of them one of them conceived by Daniel to be called the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia Jerom in Dan. 10. Princeps autem regni Persarum restitit mihi 21 diebus Videtur mihi hic esse Angelus cui Persis credita 〈◊〉 juxt à illud Quando dividebat altissimus gentes statuit terminos gentium juxt à numerum Angelorum Dei faciens pro credit â sibi Provincia nè captivotum omnis populus dimitteretur enumerans peccata populi Judeorum quòd dimitti non deberent But the Prince of the kingdom of Persia resisted me one and twenty days This seems to me saith St. Jerome to be that Angel to whom Persia was concredited according to that When the Almighty divided the nations he appointed their bounds according to the number of the Angels of God an Agent for that Province that was committed to his trust pleading by commemorating before God the sins of the Jews that they might not be dismist out of Captivity to the Persian Empire And because there were Twelve ancient Nations hence these Presidents are altogether stiled by the Gentiles Duodecim Dii majorum gentium the Twelve Gods of the ancient Nations How far I say this Hypothesis in general and which of these ways of applying it is grounded on Scripture would carry me too far out of my way to discuss Origen lib. 5. contrà Celsum hath an excellent discourse upon this subject whom they that have a mind may consult That which at present I am commending to my Reader is the abstraction of Plato's Sentence from the Errors of those times wherewith he was born down yet so abstracted it may afford us the Genuine sence of the Philosophers touching the end of God's Incarnation viz. To communicate divine Oracles and to relieve Mankind by suffering that is to be in the Christian Dialect our Priest and Prophet our Lord-saviour Whether this is to be perform'd by piece-meal for several Nations by diverse Gods incarnate or at once for all by one according to the Dictates of the Philosophical Schools where they speak under the Rose out of the hearing of the Vulgar and are not biass'd with fear of going against the Current of the Popular Opinion is another Question and comes next to be discuss'd And let Plato's School determine it By the mouth of his Scholar Porphyry as malicious and potent an Adversary as the Christian Cause hath met with who affirms as he is quoted by St. Austin de Civit. 10. 23. that this was the Respond from the divine Oracle That the humane Soul cannot be purged by the most perfect Sacrifices offer'd to the very chief of the Celestial Gods the Sun or Moon but only by a Principle Upon which St. Austin hath this Animadversion Thou mightest have spared the labour of telling us that nothing can purge the Soul but a Principle after thou hadst said The Sun or Moon sollicited by the purest and every way compleatest Sacrifices could not do it for if they cannot who are the chief of the Heathen Gods sure 't is out of the reach of the underlings to do it Observe by the way rhat Ludovicus Vives translates Telesmata perfect Sacrifices but Selden makes them all one with Teraphims that is Images which were thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 replenished with the Deities of those Gods they were dedicated to and whom they invocated after the performing of sacrifice before them Such an one was Pope Gerebert taught to make by the Saracens of Spain and our Bacon falsly reported to have erected Saving that the Teraphim was the head of a Man bearing the name of one Deity alone but the Telesmata had the Images and Names of all the Gods they could think of Such were those of Apollonius Tyaneus mention'd by Justin Martyr respond orthodox 24. such as Scaliger in his Epistle to Casaubon affirms he had frequently seen This therefore is manifestly the importance of Porphyry's Dictate That the most religious worshippers of all the known Gods cannot thereby be purged But what means Porphyry by a Principle That will best be discerned by observing with St. Austin that the Platonicks held Three Principles the Father the Intellect Mind or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Father and the bond of these viz. the Spirit not the Soul of Man as Plotinus misinterprets it for that must have been postpon'd to the Father and his Mind whereas Plato interpones it that is makes the Spirit the bond or tie betwixt them Vide testimonium Platonis in Epimenide de Patre Filióque Plotini verba in libro quem inscripsit de tribus hypostasibus citata ab Eusebio in Praepar Evang. 11. 10. Numenii testimonia de Trinitate de primo Deo Deo Creatore Spiritu vivificante Thus also Zeno affirms Fate that is the necessary Being to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word God and the Soul And Plato himself in his 6. Book de Legibus brings in Socrates after he had discoursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the one Good that is God telling Glaucus he will speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of him that is both the begotten of that Good and his express Image and in his Epistle to Hermius he hath these expressions swearing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the maker of all things and the Lord-father of that Principle and Cause And in his Epinomides he mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word the most divine of all things by which the World was framed whom a wise man admiring is
inflam'd with desire to understand how he may be happy in this Life and the future As to the Third Principle he saith he knows not what Name to give it except he should call it the Soul of the World because it gives Life and Being to all Creatures And in his Epistle to Dionysius he tells him that he writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Trine Divinity that is as Porphyry alledged by St. Cyril against Julian expounds him Three Subsistances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Essence of the Divinity Consonant to which Platonick Dictate is that Respond which the Oracle of Serapis gave to Thales King of Aegypt at the time of the Trojan War inquiring who was happier than he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Macrobius stiles the First Person The truly chief God the Second the Mind or Thinking of that God the Third The Soul or Spirit proceeding from that Mind Anima ex Mente processerat Mens ex Deo procreata est Macrob. in som. Scip. 1. 17. These Allegations bid fair for the proof of this Opinion That the Philosophers were not wholly strangers to the Mystery of the Trinity And in the last of them Macrobius makes confession of the Trinity in as plain terms as we Christians do and of the Order and Manner of the Procedure of the divine Persons plainer than the Grecian Church would yield or the Latin Church could prove the sacred Scriptures to declare I appeal to their Contests about the word Proceeding and the Clause de Filióque And to Macrobius a Greco-latin Platonick his so clearly asserting That the Mind was begotten of God the First Person and the Spirit proceeded from the Mind But that 's more than I do or need to produce them for the use that I have for them is only to give testimony that the Platonicks vouchsafed the name of a Principle to nothing but God the Father God the Word and God the Spirit and therefore it is not even by their Principles in the power of any other God by his Mediation to bring the Soul by Purgation into Conformity to or Communion with God nothing but a Principle can effect that and there are but three Principles Father Son and Spirit say the Platonicks To this Platonick Notion of a Principle our Saviour seems to allude John 8. 25. where to the Jews asking who he was he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in St. Austin's de Civitate 10. 24. and others St. Ambros. Hexameron lib. 1. cap. 4. of the Fathers judgment That he was the Beginning respondit se esse Principium To be sure the Platonicks did in a peculiar Notion denominate God the Word the Principle Which made Amelius when he read the Beginning of St. John's Gospel In the beginning was the Word apud Deum esse Deum esse per ipsum omnia facta esse the Word was with God and was God and by him were all things made cry out Per Jovem barbarus iste cum nostro Platone sentit Verbum Dei in ordine Principii esse This Barbarian is of our Plato ' s Opinion that the Word of God is in the rank of Principles c. And that other Philosopher whom Simplicianus B. of Millain informs St. Austin of de civitate 10. 29. to protest Those words of St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deserved to be writ in Letters of Gold and to he hung up in the most conspicuous places in all Churches and St. Austin in his Confessions say that he had read the beginning of St. John's Gospel in the Platonick Books in sence though not in the very same words lib. Confess 7. cap. 9. procurasti mihi quosdam Platonicorum libros ibi legi non quidem his verbis sed hoc idem omninò There I read saith he and found proved by various Reasons That in the beginnning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that by it all things were made Multis multiplicibus suaderi rationibus quòd in principio erat Verbum Verbum erat apud Deum There in the Platonick Writings I read That the Soul of man though it bear testimony of the Light is not the Light but God the Word of God is that true Light that Et quòd hominis anima quamvis testimonium perhibeat de lumine non est tamen ipsa lumen sed Verbum Dei Deus est lumen verum quod illuminat omnem hominem And that he was in this World and the World was made by him and that the World knew him not quia in hoc mundo erat mundus per eum factus est mundus eum non cognovit But that he came unto his own and his own received him not I did not read there Quià verò in suos venit sui eum non reciperunt quotquot autem receperunt eum dedit illis potestatem filios Dei non legi ibi There also I read that God the Word was not born of flesh or blood nor of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God Item ibi legi quià Deus Verbum non ex carne non ex sanguine non ex voluntate viri neque ex voluntate carnis sed ex Deo natus est But that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us I did not read there Sed quià Verbum caro factus est habitavit in nobis non ibi legi In those Platonick Writings I found it said in various and many forms of speech That the Word the Son is in the form of the Father counting it no robbery to be equal to God because he is by nature God Indagavi quippe in illis Platonicis literis variè dictum multis modis quòd sit Filius in forma Patris non rapinam arbitratus esse aequalis Deo quià naturaliter id ipsum est But that he emptied himself taking the form of a servant to the death of the Cross is not mentioned in those Books Sed quià seipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens in similitudinem hominum factus c. non habent illi libri Indeed that before and beyond all thine only begotten Son incommutably continueth coeternal with thy self and that mens Souls do out of his fulness receive what makes them happy and by participation of that wisdom that rests in him are made wise is affirmed in those Platonick Books Quòd enim ante omnia tempora suprà omnia tempora incommutabiliter manet unigenitus Filius tuus coaeternus tibi quia de plenitudine ejus accipiunt animae ut beatae sint quia participatione manentis in se sapientiae renovantur ut Sapientes sint est ibi c. This is a Testimony so weighty as we cannot question the truth of it being given in his Confessions made to God and so full as it not only proves this Particular That the Platonicks conceived