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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36461	The triumph of Christianity, or, The life of Cl. Fl. Julian, the Apostate with remarks, contain'd in the resolution of several queries : to which is added, Reflections upon a pamphlet, call'd Seasonable remarks on the fall of the Emperor Julian, and on part of a late pernicious book, entituled, A short account of the life of Julian, &c.	Dowell, John, ca. 1627-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2057; ESTC R8708	83,984	256

burning upon an Altar dissipates Thunder and Prayer averts the anger of Heaven Qu. V. If Christianity hath such an innate purity and glory how comes it to pass that Christians should so violently persecute Christians IF such an Intrinsick worth be in Religion how comes it to pass that Christians are so cruel to Christians that no sort of men prosecute one another with greater violence and hatred than Christians do 'T is a sad Character that Ammianus Marcellinus gives of Christians No Tygers nor Wolves so cruel as Christians to Christians Those most dreadful Persecutions raised by Christians against Christians those instruments of cruelty wherewith Christians have Tortured Christians are sad Evictions of this truth To which I Answer that though the matter of Fact be confessed yet Religion cannot be judged culpable It prompts not to anger but meekness not to Revenge but forgive not to Fierceness and Cruelty but to Humanity and Sweetness It urges not War and Blood but Health and Peace the Master that Christians serve is the Prince of Peace the Gospel which is the Rule of their Lives is the Gospel of Peace and the future happiness to which they are invited is a peaceable Habitation Justin Martyr had a great contest with Crescens a Cynick Philosopher who acted a Philosopher in his garb and demeanor when otherwise he was one that hunted after Praise indulged his Pleasures and immoderately heaped up Riches he practised those Vices which were different from the Virtues which are the ornaments of a true Philosopher This Crescens slanders Christ him Justin confutes and proves him to be vicious and ignorant this charge in his Apology he profers to make good Crescens perceiving how he was bafled endeavoured to procure the death of Justin for which he thus reprehends him That He who perswaded others to despise Death should himself fear it and he who exhorted to a Patient and joyful enduring of Death by reason it puts the Soul into harbour opens the Prison-door whereby the Soul is at Liberty and enjoys a Blessed Immortality yet endeavours to inflict death upon me as the greatest evil I may say the same of Christians how absurd is it for them who believe a life Eternal a future retribution future torments for which the quality and nature far surmount the Spanish Inquisition Ravilliac's Tortures or the dreadful miseries which Moses one of Scanderbeg's Lieutenants endured in Fifteen days flaying should persecute Christians with the most feral cruelties which Policy and Malice can invent or execute This can't be imputed to our Religion which for Meekness Peace Amiableness and Love is preferable to all the Religions in the World 'T is this Religion which calls to endure to suffer for Righteousness-sake to fry Ten thousand Faggots with our Flesh to Purple as many Axes with our Blood rather than sin That same Religion cannot prompt its Professors to such bloody actions We will confess these things have given a great reason to complain of many Professors of so excellent a Religion These actions are no reproach to Christianity 1st It must be granted the Vices of most men are not a just reproach of humane nature What Murthers what Fires what Blood what devastations have been by men caused against men upon no account of Religion Those Wars managed with so great success by the Romans that no Empire of the World ever did or is ever in any probability to attain those they never commenced on the account of Religion they revered the Tutelar gods of every Country and therefore at the besieging of a City that they might the more easily conquer it they did avocare Deos yet what murthers and the sad effects of War they themselves were the causes of 't is notoriously known Pompey did glory that he was the occasion that Eleven hundred Thousand men were destroyed Tamerlane that in the Torrent of his Victories he should be the cause of the death of Eight hundred Thousand What cruelties have been acted by men upon men the Histories of all Ages will attest All these ascertain that there is an Original Sin but yet does not reproach humane nature indeed Mr. Hobs saith that the State of nature is a state of War and that all persons are equal And Spinosa who is Hobs Unvailed says expresly that men are formed to destroy one another as greater Fishes to devour the smaller Theol. Polit. Cap. 13. A fulsome similitude he uses to explain a notorious untruth There is no such estate of nature nor is it possible to conceive such an equality amongst persons for if the Original of man be by Creation then by the Successive generation the question is determined if we suppose men to be born by the prolifick power of Egyptian slime and the benign influence of the Heavenly bodies yet experience acquaints us there is no such equality naturally Think we the understanding of every Grecian was equal to the vast Wit of Aristotle the valour and conduct of every Scythian to that of Tamerlain the eloquence and parts of every Roman could parallel those of Cicero whose Wit equalled the Roman Empire No Fictions may be admitted which serve to explain the Phornomena's of the Heavenly Bodies but to admit such Fictions which destroy Justice under the pretence of giving the true nature of Justice explaining it is a most notorious absurdity and not to be endured Vertue and Goodness are not fictitious though such feral and Bloody actions have been perpetrated by Men yet it doth not conclude that mortals are divested of all humanity or that there are no Laws wrote on the Breasts of men which may be fairly read in the just lives of many excellent persons As Cruelties acted by men upon men reproach not humanity so the persecuting Spirit of some Christians do not justly cast an imputation on Christianity its self 2. It will not be amiss to enquire when this persecuting and bloody spirit invaded the Breast of Christians It must be acknowledged that during the first Ten Persecutions no such spirit appeared There was great divisions many Heresies yet the true Church maintained its self by holiness of Life patient suffering of Tortures and an excellent discipline The only allurements to Christians were a future glory and terror Eternal punishments but when the Emperors became Christians that restless Enemy of Mankind and the great opposer of Christ Jesus imploy'd all his Arts to make Christians act upon Christians those cruelties Pagan Emperors did In the Empire of Constantinus the great Arrius was raised up by Satan to disturb Christianity he colouring what some former Hereticks had not so clearly broached declared in the Church of Alexandria that Christ was not true God coessential with the Father Whence sprung those first Persecutions of Christians against Christians but on the Arrian account Under Constantius the Great no Persecutions were moved His Son Constantius to whom he gave his Empire of the East was prompted though not by his own nature but his Court-Parasites who

recalled Salustius believing that the conduct and the counsel of this great Commander was the cause of that great success which Coesar enjoyed in the managing of his Army but after his departure the Arms of Coesar was very successful He sent Lupicinus one of his Lieutenants in Brittain to repel the Picts and Scots who drove them into their own Country He built Ships and brought Corn out of Brittain into Gaul and after Salustius his departure the Saxons of all the Barbarians esteemed the most valiant they were most expert in Military Discipline they were very patient in enduring the troubles and hardships of War These invaded the Roman Empire but he repressed them they Fought in the Woods where Coesar was always Victorious by the means of one Carietto a Son of the Barbarous King taken Prisoner The Barbarians being thus broken they sued for peace which Coesar granted them but upon condition that they should deliver up all their Captives which they promised but delivered not up all but retained several whom in former years they had carried Prisoners out of Gaul to detect this fraud Julian useth this fine Policy those that by Flight escaped he commands out of their Cities and Villages to come to him and these by nearness of Kin or by vicinity of cohabitation or friendship or by some other cause acquainted him with the Name of each that remained Prisoner these his Secretaries write down which being done he carries his Army beyond the Rhine and commands the Barbarians to appear before him ascends his Tribunal his Notaries being at his Back he demands the Captives they say that they had returned all he discovered the Cheat by acquainting them with the very names of the Persons that remained Prisoners amongst them the Babarians supposing the gods had discovered this secret to Julian confessed promised and performed the restoring every Captive that was alive Julian required pledges viz. The Son of their King and of the Primest of their Nobility The King fell down before Julian miserably crying out that he had no Son for he was slain Julian pities the King shews him his Son whom he had treated like a Prince and having taken him and the Sons of the Nobility for Pledges he granted them a Peace upon condition that they should never any more molest the Roman Empire The Fame of Julian's Victories flying throughout the Empire the suspition was greater in the Breast of Constantius who sends for two Wings of Julian's best Soldiers these march to Constantius Afterwards he sends for four more of the best and choicest of the Army Constantius should either have effectually suppressed Julian or else not so plainly manifested his Jealousy and intentions but this was done by the Wisdom of God to permit so great an enemy of the Christian Faith and the person of the Lord Jesus Christians he derided calling them the Worshippers of the Man of Palestine whom they esteem'd a God and the Son of God to be invested with the Empire that the Lord Jesus might openly Triumph over the most Fierce Politick Powerful and Implacable Enemy to his Name Worship and Servants Quest II. Whether there were any thing Divine in the Death of Julian TO enquire whether in the death of Julian there was something supernatural is not an unbecoming design 'T is Superstition to attribute every thing which appears extraordinary to a Praeternatural Cause Yet to assign all things to the usual course of Nature to neglect and deny the Hand of God when it is signally manifest is Impiety and Irreligion Mortals are apt to be hurried with prejudice byast with passion and private interest to render their Enemies more odious willingly attribute their Calamities to the revenging Hand of God To avoid these extreams and to clear the conceptions of things from Passions becomes a Christian I hope my proceedings shall vindicate my Pen from such imputations I will therefore give a just account what the Heathens themselves did think of Julian's fatal blow Julian himself in his Sacrifices had many unlucky Omens which forced him to complain that the Gods had forsaken him The threatning Appearances are recited in his Life The Night before he received his mortal Wound whilst he was offering his Depulsatory Sacrifices to the gods he was so terrifyed by the Sight of a Meteor resembling a bright Star that at the first sight thereof an universal trembling seized on him fear disturbed his Judgement he imagined it to be Mars he consulted his Thuscan Southsayers who shewed him out of Tarquin's Book this Aphorisme That if such a fiery Light was seen in the Sky no Battel ought to be fought nor any great matter attempted He who to a fond superstition was addicted to Divination and adored Augurs such sort of Cattel swarmed in his Court and Camp yet contrary to his menacing Omens and the advice of his Diviners he was hurried by the Providence of God into his ruin which was a certain argument of his own innate Valour and of the Wrath of Heaven Ammianus Marcel His great admirer doth aver that from whence that fatal Javelin was thrown God himself knew Socrates relates that Calistus one of his Guard who wrote Julian's Life in Heroick Verse and gave a description of that Persian War affirms he dyed being fatally Struck by some Doemon That he was not wounded by any of his enemies there is this full evidence The news of his fall being brought to the King of Persia a Proclamation was made through his Army That if any of his Soldiers wounded the Emperor he should be honourably rewarded but none arrogated to himself that Fact upon which in the next days Fight the Persians upbraided the Romans with the perfidious Treason of killing their Emperor but Marcellinus positively saith that Javelin could not come from the Hand of a Roman and Julian himself after he was brought into his Tent in his last Speech to the Philosophers and great Commanders blessed the gods that he dyed not by Treason nor the hand of a Traytor Some good Authors aver that after he received that mortal blow he threw his Blood into the Air and in a rage cryed out Thou hast overcome O Galilean O Galilean thou hast overcome When his Soldiers found him wounded they were Struck with horror and heard him curse the gods he cursed the Sun for aiding the Persians and not himself he complained that Warlick Mars had denyed him assistance that Apollo had been false in his promises that thundring Jove did not prevent his fatal Wound by casting a Bolt upon him that threw the Dart that instead of Cornucopia and his other Tutelar and happy gods Paleness Famine and Death those unlucky Deities were his Tormenting attendants St. Jer. upon Hab. 3. 15. God divides the heads of Princes thus comments We may apply these words to those Kings Emperors and Generals who shedding the Blood of Christians have afterwards felt the Revenging Hand of God This we have seen formerly verified in Dioclesian

these words puts off his Vizard and makes his impiety to appear with an open face and commanded them after various and cruel torments to be put to death but did not pretend their Religion to be a cause of this sentence but their frenzy that they should abuse the King when Religion was the just cause As in a Battel that he had with the Germans he hid his Soldiers by Night in a Wood so he vail'd his Persecution with the shams of Sacriledge and Treason The Instance that the Author gives of the Governor of Berea is an evidence of this Truth Theodoret Lib. 3. Cap. 22. He seeing his Son hastning to embrace the prevailing impiety he drove him out of his House and publickly disinherited him The Young man hastens to an adjoyning City where the Emperor was and declares to him his Fathers Proscription of him and his own opinions The Emperor promises to reconcile him to his Father When he came to Berea he invites the chief men of the City and with them his Father to a Feast and commands him to sit at Table with him the Emperor sitting in the midst To me saith he it seems very unjust to force the mind of a person otherways inclin'd you ought not to tempt your Son to embrace your Opinions neither saith he will I force you to believe what I believe tho' I might easily compel you The Governor sharpning his discourse about Divine things thus return'd O King you have discoursed to me about this Villain who is a hater of God and a preferrer of a Lye to Truth The Emperor rejoyns and that with a seeming mildness O Man cease rayling Julian tho' he saw the resolute confidence of this Governour yet did not divest him of his place having a confidence that the Christians would not take up Arms against him It must be again weighed that God generally prospers good means It may be every where observ'd that evil courses have had a bad success Count Julian in his Embassy to Affric had his Daughter ravished by Roderik King of Castile To revenge himself he brought up the Moors who after a Seven days Fight vanquished the Spaniards and took possession of the Kingdom A fatal calamity attended this Julian his Wife and Children were hewn in pieces before his face and himself was cast into a Dungeon where he miserably perished If God send Plagues or Famines we must not fight but send up our Prayers and Tears to Heaven The Lady Jane Gray was a Lady of so great accomplishments that she was esteem'd a Miracle of the World yet her Title not being good the Protestants deserted her and advanced Queen Mary She contrary to her Faith given to them proves a Persecutor The Protestants draw not a Sword but apply themselves to Heaven by their Prayers The Mountebank Receipt of Prayers and Tears is an evil Droll What Athanasius said of Julians Persecution Est nubecula cito transitura was apply'd by our Jewell to the Marian and it proved true There was but a Quinquennium of that cruelty Queen Elizabeth was Crown'd the Protestant Religion restor'd and with a great deal of glory since flourished The Smithfield Fires have so enlightned the English Nation that 't is morally probable there will be no Martyrs but in the Field tho' the Weapons of Christians are not carnal but spiritual against a Lawful Prince inabled by Law to persecute them Yet Hobbs saith very well that Princes ought to consider that Subjects have not only eyes but hands This Proverb was in the School of Pythagoras There were many Pythagorists but few Pythagoreans which suits our Christian Many called but few chosen There are very few that prefer an eternal to a temporal Life and therefore will use all means to preserve this I yield to the truth of each of the Five Propositions mentioned Pag. 92. Proposition the 3d. This is the only case wherein the Gospel requires Passive obedience namely when the Laws are against a man and this was the case of the first Christians All this I grant but then I must say that the same was of the Christians under Julian To sum up all the state of his Question concerning Passive obedience is accepted The Life of Julian and the carriage of Christians under him are totally cross to his designs Passive obedience was ever esteem'd the glory of Christianity which I hope we shall never experiment in England May our Church flourish by the pious Lives and devout Prayers but never by the Blood of the Members of it It looks ill for to use an Example of Julian whose power was absolute and arbitrary to justify any thing in England where the Power is limited and divided Our famous Cowley tho' he had served his Sacred Majesty and the glorious Martyr with great faithfulness and industry Fourteen years yet for one Paragraph in his Preface to the First Edition of his Works was depriv'd of the reward of the Mastership of the Savoy when he only design'd an insinuation into the minds of the Kings Friends that their petty risings would but be the ruine of their persons and families he knowing that an happy hour would come when God would bend the hearts of the people of this Land as one Man to bring back the King in Peace My design is to disswade my Country-men from avoiding all Military attempts and that the fears of Popery may not urge them to those courses which will be the ruine of their Religion and Liberties In Peace and Rest will be our safety Religion of which Prayers is a principal part is the Life of a Christian and the best support of a Nation The Fulminatrix Legio in Panonia was an evident testimony of it Marcus Aurelius Antonius carries his Army into Germany Fights the Quadi and Sarmatoe his Army was almost consum'd by Heat and want of Water He addresses himself to the Country-gods from whom no relief is found In this great exigency he applies himself to the Christian Soldiers that were in his Army who prostrating themselves on the ground and praying to the Holy Jesus there presently fell Showers upon the Roman Army and Thunder and Hail from Heaven dissipated the Barbarians This famous History is without question true 'T is acknowledged not only by Christians but also by Pagan Authors Those Christian Soldiers being imbodyed was called by the Emperors command Legio Fulminatrix the Thundring Legion This was perform'd Anno 176. The noble carriage of the Thoebean Legion Anno 297. gives an admirable instance of the Christians Constancy and Patience This Legion if the Christian Laws had not prohibited might have defended themselves against Dioclesian as well as the Christians against Julian Constantius when he sent Julian against the Germans gave him 360 Soldiers of whom thus Lozymus from Julian himself That they knew nothing else but to fight by their Prayers This is invidiously said by the Heathens but it being the testimony of Adversaries shews what was the behaviour of Christians Incense

the Prefect performs the Emperors command by a fine trick without the knowledge of the Citizens sends him into Banishment and then takes Macedonius into his own Coach and carries him into the Church the people were disconted the multitude was so great that what by the throng and the Sword of the Soldiers a passage was made for him to the Throne by the Corps of One thousand Three hundred and Fifty When possessed of that See what cruelties did he not exercise banishments confiscation of estates were but lighter punishments those that would not communicate with him he Imprisoned some he Tortured Women and Children he caused to be severely Scourged he forced the mouths of those that would not communicate with him to be opened and his Mysteries to be put into them he caused Eggs to be heated and cast upon the Breasts of Women he made the Breasts of other Women to be put between burning Plates and seared off he acted such Cruelties upon the Christians that were unheard of to the Heathens with an excessive pride without the consent of the Emperor he removed the Corps of Constantine the Great out of the Church in which he was inter'd into the Church of Acasius the Martyr This fact was endeavoured to be hindred by the Orthodox Christians of whom he killed many the Floor of the Church and Street adjoyning flowed with the Blood of them Were these sanguinary Acts the product of Religion No but of pride and his temporal Interest Qu. VI. Wherein the Christian Graces have a real preferency to the Pagan and Philosophical Vertues IT will not be unworthy to discuss this Great Question Wherein the Graces and Lives of Christians are superior to the Actions and Vertues of the Heathens Julian against whom these Papers are chiefly design'd was a Prince conspicuous by many excellent endowments Amongst the Heathens there were many Philosophers and Statesmen Orators Generals and Princes eminent in their singular qualifications Is Valour a Virtue Many were patient in bearing Calamities and none more daring in undertaking great actions Is Justice a Virtue they were diligent hearers of Causes and unbiassed in their final determinations Is Temperance a Virtue They were to a Miracle Abstemious Is Charity a Virtue they were Bountiful and haters of the base sin of Covetousness If a composure of mind by which persons are fitted for admirable Actions If industry and vigorous prosecution of Employments be excellent Ornaments in them they might glory To all which may be added in the Exercise of Religion which is the foundation of Virtue they were very devout To all these they made a great pretence Some of those Eminences must be granted yet to the Question it will with clear Reason and certain Truth be replied That the excellency of Christian Graces and Virtues are superlatively to be prefer'd to Pagan Eminences To evince which these Axioms must be premis'd 1. Bonum ex integra causa Malum ex quocunque defectu An Vniversal concurrence of Causes is required to make a thing good when any deficiency suffices to render it evil One obliquity makes a Line crooked when a continued recital is necessary to constitute a strait Line 2. When Virtues are intense then they are concatenated there is a Conspiration of all Virtues where the degrees are Heroical 3. That the fam'd Philosophers agree in this That there is a true God whose Will is the rule of Virtue 4. That then it must evidently follow That they who worship not the true God are not Virtuous 5. 'T is evidently perspicuous that Virtues must have a respect to their adequate objects He that is Temperate must both eat and drink moderately he that is Just must be so to all persons 6. That to the Constitution Prudence is required If this were not the Guide of the Pagan Virtuosi then it must of necessity follow they were not truly virtuous My Pen shall not be too crabbed nor my sentiments too bold in censuring the state of dead Philosophers What sentence the Divine Power hath passed upon them is known to him only to whom belongs righteousness and forgiveness I am not daring to peep into the dark but confident that the highest pitch of Virtue the severest Pagan arriv'd at is much beneath Christian perfection and the sublime life of Christian Philosophers 1. Let the actions of any person be never so exact and congruous to those Laws which goodness prescribe yet if the end be vain-glory they are not true Virtues Ambition is that deformity which sullies the splendor of the best Conversation in that life which seems to be a mirror to give the liveliest image of Goodness As the purest Chrystal is by breath so that by popular applause is stain'd which vice is infinitely oppos'd by Christian Religion Humility being adopted as a part of it it 's one of its prime constitutions enforced by the example of the Holy Jesus How guilty the Ethnick Philosophers were of this crime is notoriously known They were termed Vanoe glorioe mancipia How trifling was that temper of Demosthenes who was hugely pleased that the murmurs of a Rivulet from him gliding brought to his Ears the noise of a Woman speaking to her Companion This is the very Demosthenes Cic. Tusc Quest lib. 5. And Tully himself that great Orator and Virtuoso and famous Moralist Trahimur omnes glorioe studio optimus quisque maximè glorià ducitur The chiefest aim of the best men he makes to be Glory by Plutarch accused of Ambition and so judg'd by his Friends Crecens by Justin call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of himself Cicero saith Orat. ad pop before his Banishment Quam virtutis gloria summâ cum laude ad coelum extulit He was infinitely affected with those expressions of kindness which he receiv'd from the Romans after his return from Banishment that he cries out I am come to Rome upon the Shoulders of all Italy As for Julian how vain-glorious he was take it from the Pen of Marcellinus he rejoyced very much in vulgar applause he was an immoderate hunter after praise even from the least things that were His affecting popularity made him to converse with mean and abject persons Christianity commands not to seek the praise of men but of God That he who glorieth may glory in the Lord. The glory which we receive from men is but small imperfect inconstant and makes not the person the better the glorying in God is raised perfect perpetual and makes the person really happy 2. We shall rarely find that there was a Concatenation of all Virtues in Heathen Philosophers and in them their Virtues had not a respect to their adequate objects which is otherwise in Christians In many thousands of them gloriously appear'd a concurrence of all Graces 'T is a Christian Axiom He that offends in one is guilty of all Christian Graces are like a Crown or Circle in which if there be any part taken away that ceaseth to be a Circle From the

that the Rule of their Lives ought to be the Will of God To make Laws to be readily entertained they feigned they were given by their gods Plato begins his Dialogue concerning Laws with this question Was God or Man the maker of Laws And the answer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God God was the Cause Numa Pompilius perswaded the Romans to entertain his Laws by pretending he received them from the Goddess Ageria It appears that as the Unanimous consent of all Nations strongly prove their is a Deity so the same consent proves that the Will of God is the Rule of all Virtuous actions Hence it will necessarily follow that they who have not the knowledge of the True God cannot guide their actions by those true Measures as they may who receive infallible Oracles from the true God That the greatest of their Virtuoso's as Pythagoras were Idolaters is evident Zenophons sayings and facts of Socrates saith of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so religious that he did nothing the gods being not first consulted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so temperate and continent that in his choice he never prefer'd pleasure to honest and virtuous things yet that Poederastia cannot be imagined to be a lawful pleasure and the gods he consulted must be the gods worshipped by the Athenians which is Idolatry He sacrificed to the Grecian gods and offered a Cock to Esculapius Plutarch approves the adoration of the Sun Moon and Stars for saith he 't is impossible to think that the World would conspire in Worshipping of them if they were not animated de Placitis Philosophorum Seneca is reproved justly and severly by St. Austin in that when he condemns the Superstition of the Romans in their Sacrifices and adoration of their gods yet he permits them to conform to the Laws Austin de Civitate Dei Lib. 6. Cap. 10. In this the great Moralist must be extraordinarily peccant who would act those things which were conformable to the Laws yet these he judged ungrateful to their gods Thus those Philosophers who made a great pretence to Virtue yet in common reason cannot be excused from Idolatry St. Austin affirms that Plotinus Jamblicus Porphyrius Appuleius and Plato himself Sacrificed to divers gods De Civit. Dei Lib. 8. Cap. 12. When 't is evinced in Plato easily it will be granted in others nor can this be denied The Narrative which Eunapius gives of the Lives of Philosophers is a certain evidence that they worshipped many gods and were skilful in Magick Maximus by the command of that Religious Emperor Theodosius was put to death for being a Magician To prove the verity of St. Austins censure of Plato no other Testimony need be used than his own words expresly in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He asks Clineas and Nigrellus who may be esteemed the Cause of all good especially of that good which is the best which we term Wisdom by it we are taught whom to call a God and adore to which he answers The Heavens and all Terrestrial Doemons and Gods we must Honour and chiefly Pray unto Ficinus in his Preface saith that by Heaven Plato there meant the Incorporeal and invisible Heaven the Idea of which he commands to be adored through the visible it 's representation Ficinus to vindicate Plato uses some Artifices esteemed amongst the Papists but this clears him not from Idolatry 'T is frequent with Plato to command Honour to be given and Sacrifices to be offered to a multitude of gods Quarto de Legib. Pag. 8 32. Let us be convinced that 't is a clear and certain truth that we are obliged to Sacrifice to the gods that we be conversant in holy actions Prayers Oblations and all manner of Divine Service this is the most Lovely and most Excellent 'T is that which conduceth to a most happy Life The Honours being performed to the Heavenly Gods and those Gods who are Protectors and Patrons of Common-Wealths that person obtains the end of Piety who to Terrestrial gods offers congruous though inferior Service After these a Wise man will Sacrifice to Hero's to Daemons in consequence to the proper Images of the Country gods as the Law prescribes Thus far Plato No Subject let him be extoll'd for extraordinary Wisdom singular Temperance unusual Charity undaunted Courage exact Justice in Commerce yet is most unjust and makes his Virtues Vices if he heads his Rebellion against his Natural Prince and abuses all his endowments to promote it Idolatry is a Treason against Heaven It was this which soiled the Embellishments of the greatest Plilosophers and eclipsed the Lustre of their greatest Excellencies The Idolatry and Magick of Julian is in the former discourse how weak and erronious is a natural understanding The Wisdom of Man is foolishness with God O weak Mortals happy were the Jews in their Revelations happier the Christians who see the Glory of God Shining in the Face of Jesus Christ Lastly As 't is granted that Prudence is the chiefest of all Cardinal Virtues so it must be acknowledged that those Virtues which are guided by a Divine are superior to those which are conducted by a natural Wisdom The Original of all Prudence is that Eternal Intellectual Sun from which all the Rays of Wisdom whether Natural or Divine are emitted So true is that of Job There is a Spirit in a Man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Job 32. 8. The Rays that are in the Soul by nature or that Candle of the Lord which is placed in the Soul at its production gives a faint and weak light but vigorous and clear Beams that fair and brighter Candle which shines with the sweetest and clearest Splendour placed in the Golden Candlestck the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth and herein is the clear proelation of the Christians in their actions and graces to those of the Heathen for Christians are conducted by the best means to the best end That there is an enmity by nature between God and Man the Sins that men are guilty of are a deplorable though certain Argument That man endeavours to reconcile himself to God and to appease the Divine Wrath and that by Sacrifices is manifest by the common usage of the World All Nations unanimously agree in this all people in all ages tendred their propitiatory Sacrifices to God The Heathens did believe that the Sacrifices they offered to their gods did really appease the anger of those Deities Hence some Nations sacrificed men and women and Julian rip'd up the Bellies of Women In Gaul they fed men on purpose a whole year that there might be offered a most excellent Sacrifice to their gods Amongst the Romans they who did devote themselves to the gods were accounted Hero's The Jews had their Sacrifices appointed by a Sanction they were propitiatory but as Types their Virtue proceeding from him who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World The Wrath of God being solely to be satisfyed by that Sacrifice