c. What a vast distance there is betwixt these and Scripture-prophecies is discovered in my fourth Book pag. 8. 3. As it imports his working of those Miracles which God hath set as a Seal to the Gospel It has already been shew'd what attempts the Heathen made to out-vye that point of the Church's Faith and the Operations of that Spirit recorded in our Scriptures by tbe impostures and shadows of Miracles wrought amongst them To which I shall here add the confession of Celsus in Origen 2. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye believe he is the Son of God because he cured the lame and blind And that of Julian in Cyril lib. 6. except a man should reckon amongst great works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the curing of the lame and blind and the relieving them that were possess'd with Devils in Bethsaida and Bethanie What did Jesus do Here the most bitter Adversary of the Christian Cause bears witness that the Apostolical Church urged the World to a belief of the Gospel from the consideration of Christ's great works to wit his curing the lame blind possessed c. And makes open confession that Christ did do those great works which the Evangelists mention so that he hath nothing to say against the validity of the Churches Argument but only this That such works are not indications of a divine Power It is therefore incumbent upon him and his party to shew what other man did ever do such works or by what power less than divine they can be effected § 8. Article 9. The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints How can you call your society Catholick either as to time since it was but erected the other day saith Celsus lib. 1. cal 19. or place seeing till of late it was shut up in Judaea a corner of Palestine lib. 4. 14. and since it peeped out into other parts of the World it s celebrated clandestinely and in holes lib. 1. cal 1. That so inconsiderable a part of Mankind as the Jews and Christians should boast themselves to be the whole Company of Mortals acceptable to the Gods is just as if a company of Bats and Emits or of Frogs and Worms should contend for preheminence in point of the Gods favour to them and say that they are the only creatures to which God vouchsafes to reveil his mind and that neglecting the whole World beside he only takes care of their welfare lib. 4. cal 11. Lastly how can your Church be Catholick in point of Doctrine seeing you dissent and rend your selves as a Sect from the Catholick Religion of the whole World lib. 8. cal 1. The truth is saith he lib. 1. 5. And are rent your selves into so many sects lib. 3. 4. We could allow your Religion to be acceptable to the God of Judaea and your Society upon that account in favour with that God But we cannot endure that pride that you will either be all or none that you applaud your selves as the All of the Universe which God respects and exclude all but your selves out of the divine favour that your Church should be the Catholick Receptacle of the whole Community of Saints and your Religion the Universal way of Soul-cure a thing never heard of before either among the Traditions of the Magi Gymnosophists or Philosophers this is that we cannot but with abhorrencie disgust That the Jews for Christian Religion is orignally Judaick that inconsiderable People and so much hated of the Gods as they cannot obtain of any of them so much room upon Earth as to dwell upon together should prescribe in matters of Religion to the whole World and not permit to other Nations their own as best for them but break the bond of universal Peace decry that National Independency which till this universal way of Salvation this common Faith was obtruded upon the whole World kept all Nations in a friendly Communion of heart in a charitable correspondency among themselves each one allowing other that Religion they esteem'd most convenient for themselves The Evangelical way of Salvation the Christian Faith and Christian Church are therefore called Common Universal and Catholick because it is that way of Salvation which God hath from the beginning propounded to all Mankind and been intirely embraced in all Ages and Places by all Persons who have preferr'd divine Revelations before their own Inventions who are therefore collectively stiled the Catholick Church 1. Celsus therefore equivocates in saying our Religion and Church were but erected the other day for though the Gospel as it is an History of the exhibition of the promised Seed could not commence before that Fulness of Time when Christ came into the World yet as it is the glad tydings of Salvation by that Seed it was preach'd in Paradise in which respect Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day the same Rock upon which the Church hath been built in all Ages 2. This Religion and Church was not shut up in Judaea a corner of the World but proclaim'd and establish'd in Eden first by God himself to and in the old World and next by Noah to and in the new World in the hearing and sight of all Mankind from whence as from the Center their Lines went to the utmost Circumference of suceeding Generations amongst whom whosoever retain'd the fear of God and wrought righteousness were accepted of God When indeed men grew weary of waiting for the Seed promis'd and became so vain in their Imaginations as to frame Gods and Saviours and Religions to themselves God preach'd the Gospel anew and repeated the old and Catholick Religion to his friend Abraham annexing thereto the Seal of Circumcision as a sign that the Seed was not yet come and that it was to come out of his Loyns by Isaac This was not only a peculiar Priviledge to his Posterity but a general advantage to the whole World For whither could men in common reason think themselves obliged to look when they found themselves at a loss in point of Religion but to Sem's Family to which they were directed by Noah's blessing the God of Sem And to which of Sem's stock could they repair but to Abraham whom Sem himself that King of Salem and Priest of the high God as some think had blessed in the name of that high God So that Abraham and his Seed by Isaac were Gods Standard bearers to lift up Christ as an Ensign to the Gentiles And to make these Standard-bearers higher by the head than all other Nations and the Ensign more conspicuous God lifted that People up above all others by signal favours while they walk'd in that way that he had appointed them punish'd them double to any other trangressors when they cast off the fear of Isaac he built his glorious Temple amongst them upon his own Hill adorn'd his Worship with such Ceremonies as at once rendred it august in the Eyes of Gentiles and instructive to their minds august as out-vying their Inventions in multitude
which forbids me to dissemble I am a Christian I cannot dissemble Cursed Sectarian Rebels the stain of the Christian Name You made Lyes your Refuge and were made up of nothing from Head to Heel but dissimulation steering your course by that more than Machiavilian Maxim Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare Blessed Charles the Glory of the truly Christian Religion Thou writes after the Copy which thy Master set thee in his own Blood who rather than he would dissemble or not bear witness to the Truth before Pilat would incurr the Rabbles clamorous Cry to have that holy and just One crucified Such such were thy Mothers Children among whom thou now triumphs Such assurance did the Apostolical Church the glorious Company of Martyrs give of their prizing Truth at that rate as they thought that it was to be bought but not sold upon any terms in their refusing to accept of deliverance from the the most tormenting pains that humane strength could inflict or devillish subtilty invent at the price of a Monasyllable-lye What reason then to suspect the Truth of that Testimony which men of such Principles and inconquerable Veracity have given to the Truth of Gospel-history or that they should put their heads together to compact a Fable so long-winded § 2. The Apostles Impartiality How groundless such a Suspicion is will more appear if we cast into the Scales the Consideration of the Apostles and Evangelists Impartiality in their delivering the whole Truth even those Passages in Christ's and the Churches Stories which they could not but foresee would be a derision and stumbling-block to inquisitive Adversaries and a disparagement in the opinion of the Vulgar to Christ and themselves Such as concern their own mean Extract their sordid and scandalous imployments before their Call St. Matthew a Publican a Trade filthy and sordid even in the repute of Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Artimedorus An honest Publican was so rare even at Rome it self as Sabinus for managing that Office uncorruptly had Statues erected to him with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the honest Publican Sueton. Vespas 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many Publcans so many Harpies Theocritus being demanded what was the cruellest Beast answered of those on the Mountains the Bear and Lion of those in Cities Publicans and Sycophants But much more infamous among the Jews especially if those that undertook that Office were Jews insomuch as Tertullian de pudicitia cap. 9. to take off that aggravation of infamy from St. Matthew will by no means have him to have been a Jew But he is more tender of St. Matthew's crediâ—â— than St. Matthew himself is who writes himself a Jew-publican as St. Jerome proveth Ep. ad Damasum part 2. tract 1. epist. 15. Accusing himself saith Eusebius Hoc quidem nullus Evangelistarum indicavit non Coapostolus Johannes non Marcus non Lucas sed ipse Matthaeus suam ipsius vitam non dissimulans planéque ipse seipsum accusans Euseb. Evang. demon 3. 7. St. Peter James and John our Saviour's select Confidents and as it were the Squires of his Body were called from their Fisher-boats to be Fishers of men They stick'd not to repeat their own weaknesses and failings their presumptions diffidences forsaking forswearing their Master Their Ambition their carnal Conceptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah their dulness of mind to believe the Resurrection with all the aggravating Circumstances of their Lapses From all which the malicious and vafrous Celsus Orig. contrà Celsum lib. 2. calum 18 19. passim takes occasion to deride them to calumniate the blessed Jesus and to disparage the Christian Cause which as Origen replies they would never have administred occasion to the busie enemy to object had not love to Truth constrained them to communicate to the World the whole Truth even that that made towards the proving of Christ to be perfect Man as well as what demonstrated him to be God and that which spake themselves to be what they were by Grace and to do what they did not in their own Name or Strength of their own Vertues but in the Merits and Power of the Name of Christ a Conceit walked among the Jews that extraordinary Holiness might attain to Miraculous Workings Industry bringeth to Purity Purity to Cleanness Cleanness to Holiness Holiness to Humbleness Humbleness to Fear of Sin Fear of Sin to partaking of the Holy Ghost say their Rabbies Lightfoot harm an Christ. 33. But the Apostles derive not their Power of working Miracles by any such Pedigree they make themselves nothing that Christ might be all in all to them § 3. No partial Compliance Yea whereas in Cases of Fact and Practice as private men they might warp aside from the Truth of the Gospel and it would have been in such Cases a promoting of their private Interests either to have said nothing or to have divertised their Reports so as might have rendered the Business most plausible on their own Partie's side Yet we find that even where their particular Interests clash and interfere their Reports agree and are as full in what makes against as for that Party with whom themselves sided in that Case of Fact To instance in the Case of St. Peter and Paul mentioned Gal. 2. That Evangelist who convers'd with St. Peter and was appointed to be his Companion to the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. St. John writes his Gospel so as it favours St. Paul's Case more than St. Peter's commemorating more at large than St. Luke Christs Intensions to cast off the Jewish Nation to abrogate the Ceremonial Law describing that Nation as a People not to be temporized with opening their Malice Pertinacy and insatiable Thirst after Christ's Blood extenuating the Sin of the Romans in putting him to Death in comparison of the Crime of the Jews in rejecting betraying delivering up and bartering away the Lord of Glory St. Matthew who wrote by St. Peter's Direction to the Hebraizing Jews writes as much in dis-favour of that Nation which St. Peter favour'd and sided with in his Contest with St. Paul as any other Evangelist reporting that John the Baptist warned them not to claim Propriety in nor Privilege from Abraham That Christ preferr'd believing Gentiles before mis-believing Jews to the Honour of being related to him in Consanguinity That Christ found more Faith in some Gentiles than he did in Israel That Christ should say that many should come from East and West and sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom be thrust out That Christ urged the Law of Charity as vacating the Law of Cermonies even of Old in the case of David eating the Shew-bread And lastly Christs Doom upon such like as St. Peter temporized with to the scandalizing of believing Gentiles that is they that had swept the House and emitted the unclean Spirit by an accepting of Christ for a Messiah but did afterwards suffer him by their Judaizing to
had not only suck'd-in the Platonick Principle of the Soul's Immortality which he asserted with the Light of inexpugnable Reasons in his Phaedon as Macrobius testifies Inexpugnabilium luce rationum anima in veram dignitatem suae immortalitatis asserta in Som. Scip. l. 1. c. 1. But were sure of that which Plato spoke but coldly of in the end of his Books of the Commonwealth to wit the Soul 's receiving again its own Body that with that it might receive Justiciae vel cultae praemium vel spretae poenam either the Reward of fulfilling or the Punishment of despising Justice CHAP. II. Reason nonplus'd help'd by Religion acquiesceth in her Resolutions § 1. Man's Supremacy over the Creatures the Reason of it not cognoscible by Natural Light § 2. Yet generally challenged even over Spirits whom men command to do what themselves disgust § 3. The way of Creation a Mystery Reason puzzl'd to find it out can but conjecture § 4. Divine Revelations touching both acquiesc'd in as soon as communicated Scripture-Philosophy excels the Mechanick Plato ' s Commendation § 5. Nothing but the God of Order's Grant can secure States from Anarchical Parity and Club-law § 6. Heathens assented to the Reasons of both assigned by Scripture § 1. THis is a material Witness I shall therefore examine her in some other Points of our Religion wherein she concurrs with us as to the Propositions before she confers with us and cannot but acquiesce in our Reasons after she hears them though till then she could not find them out Reasons out of the Sphere of Natural Reasons activity till let down by supernatural Revelation but when they are presented to her view she is ready to say of them as Adam of our Mother Eve when God brought her to him Is not this fiesh of my flesh and bone of my bone She then imbraceth them falleth upon their neck and kisseth them bids them heartily welcome when they deign to come under her roof though she could not reach them to hale them in nor so much as imagine she had any such kindred in being till they exhibit themselves openly to her Indeed she could not sit down till they came her Mensa Philosophica wanted her best Guests there were set empty Chairs at the upper end of the Table but what personages they were reserved for she no more knew than the modern Jews understand who that Elias is for whom they set a Chair at their Festivals She suspected there was some Elias not far from her who when he came would resolve all her doubts and gropes in the dark in the mean while if happily she might stumble on the reason of these things hence Suarez Unde etiam fit ut illuminati seu roborati lumine fidei multas ex his veritatibus intelligamus ut contentas in principiis naturalibus quas fortasse non assequaremur si in pura naturali ratione philosopharemur Ità enim acutissimis etiam philosophis lumine fidei carentibus accidisse perspectum est Metaph. l. 2. disput 3. sect 36. Upon this account we who have the benefit of the Light of Faith understand many of these verities as contain'd in natural Principles which perhaps we should not attain to if we philosophized in the pure light of Nature for it is manifest that so it happened to the most ancient Philosophers who wanted the light of Faith For being void of the divine knowledge and ignorant of the true Original of things they betook themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Suppositions concerning Matter and reduc'd and accommodated as well as they could the Cause of the Universe to the Elements of the World so that there was not amongst them any fixt stable or immovable Reason or Opinion but the after-comers invalidated the Theses of their predecessors saith Basil the Great Hexaemeron homil 1. Let us first instance in Mans Supremacy of which Strabo lib. 17. writes that Providence separated the Water from the Earth for the service of Man and of those Animals that serve Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how comes he to be my servant the elder to serve the younger the strong the weak the armed the naked the innocent the guilty Is it the comeliness of my Person the beauteous features of my Face But first we our selves are not agreed what that is for complexion here red there tawny in another Country-black wins the prize for proportion here the tall there the mean here the slender there the gross here the little Ear there the lave Ear here the thin Lip there the Blubber-lip here the streight there the die Neck are esteemed most courtly Nobis etiam vitia saepè jucunda naevus in articulo pueri delectat Alcaeum est corporis macula ili tamen hoc lumen videbatur Q. Catulus de Roscio vestra prece mihi liceat coelestes dicere Mortalis visus pulchior esse Deo at erat sicut hodiè perversissimis oculis Cotta in Ciceronis de natura deor lib. 1. Blemishes do oftentimes seem to us to be beauty-spots A mole on the Boys knuckle delights Alcaeus that which is the Bodies stain appear'd to him its gloss Quintus Catulus in a Love-rapture thus commends the aspect of Roscius If I may with your lieve O ye Celestials speak it this mortal hath a better face than any of you though Roscius is the most squint-eyed fellow living Besides in those things we all confess to be real Beauties how far are we out-stript by Birds of the Air by the Flowers of the field Indeed our borrowing their feathers to stick upon our own nakedness argues our despondency to compare with them and when out of their cast Sutes we have furnish'd our selves and to our native Cloth added the best gloss and trimming they can afford us we cannot make our selves half so fine as the Lily not near so gay as the Peacock Nay were it the amiableness of our countenances did thus charm them they would love our presence and society whereas few or none of them but such as we hire to it can endure our company but fly from us as we do from Serpents or Toads not out of fear of harm but purely out of an odium to our persons those of them keeping a distance from our whole kind to whom we never did nor intended hurt If you say that the Majesty of our looks which makes them confess us their superiours teacheth them that point of good manners to know their distance How comes it to pass that a Toad dares look at that a Rat dares fly in our majestick face that the most contemprible Insects will venture to pinch our skin to pierce our flesh suck our blood that a Basilisk will out-stare us into our holes into our graves herein quitting the scores and equally ballancing the accounts betwixt us making us as much Vassals to some of them as we make others Vassals to us Lastly if it be the grandeur of our looks that prefers us to
praemio 7. 7. If the Truth dispers'd among several Persons and scatter'd among several Sects were by any man collected into one and digested into a body it would without doubt not dissent from us When Apollodorus offer'd to Socrates a precious and gorgeous Tunick and Pall to put on when he drank the poyson and to be wrapped in when he was dead Socrates turning to Crito Simacus and Phaedo what an honourable opinion saith he hath Apollodorus of me if he think to see Socrates in this Robe after I am dead if he think that that which will then lay at his feet is Socrates I know not my self who I am Aelian var. hist. 1. 16. This Socratical Aphorism Tully expresseth thus Mens cujusque is est quisque Is one Egg more like another than this of the Schools to that of the Gospel where Jesus concludes Abraham to be still living from Moses his stiling God the God of Abraham so many years after his decease That of Abraham he left behind him in his Sepulchre is not Abraham but that of him that still lives But it would require an Age to transcribe by retail those numerous Philosophical Axioms which speak the Language of Scripture so perfectly as the whole matter of controversie betwixt the Fathers Apologizing for and the Philosophers contending against our Religion was brought by mutual consent to this point Whether the wise men of the World receiv'd those Doctrines from our Scriptures or the Pen-men of the Scripture from their Schools Celsus in Origen contends earnestly that whatsoever was solid in the Christian Religion was borrowed from the Philosophers by whom it was better and clearlier delivered He instanceth in our affirming God to dwell in light inaccessible this saith he is no more than what Plato teacheth in his Epistles that the first Good is ineffable In our Saviour's commending Humility This is Plato's Doctrine saith Celsus teaching in his Book of Laws that He who would be happy must be a follower of Justice with an humble and well-composed mind In Christ's saying 'T is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven what is this saith he other than that of Plato It is not possible that a man can be very rich and very good From the fame Fountain Celsus will have Christ to draw that saying Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadunto life and few there be that find it and that our Doctrine of the fall of Angels and their being reserved in chains was derived from the Poet Pherecides and Homer vide l. 4. col 9. The Patrons of the Christian Cause on the other hand contended that the waters of the Academy were drawn from the wells of the Sanctuary that the Sun of knowledg arose in the East and thence displayed its Beams over the World St. Ambrose proves that Plato borrowed of David in Psalm 35. And upon that in Isaiah 40. For she hath received at the Lords hand double to her iniquity saith he Plato eruditionis gratiâ in Aegyptum profectus ut Mosis gesta Legis praecepta Prophetarum dicteria cognosceret c. in psalm 118. serm 18. St. Austin quotes St. Ambrose proving from Chronology that the Grecians borrowed of the Jews not è contrà and thence commends the reading of Secular History de Christiana Doct. lib. 2. cap. 28. and in his Epistle to Polinus and Therasias writes thus Libros Ambrosii multùm desidero quos adversùs nonnullos imperitissimos superbissimos qui de Platonis libris Dominum profecisse contendunt dilligentissimè copios ssimè scripsit Aug. Epist. 34. And not barely affirm'd it but brought in evidence for the proof of it either from common Principles of Reason or the Authority of heathen Chronologers St. Origen thus Contra Cels. lib. 6. cal 1 2 3 c. Moses was long before the most ancient of your Philosophers and therefore they must borrow light from him but it was impossible he could light his Candle at theirs before they were lighted and the Apostles were the unlikeliest men in the World to understand your Philosophers The same Father Origen contrà Celsum lib. 1. cal 13. in answer to Celsus objecting Moses his Juniority to the Heathen Theologues saith that Hermippus in his first Book of Lawgivers declared how Pythagoras translated his Discipline from the Jews into Greece and that there was extant a Book of Haecateus in which he so approves of the Jewish Philosophy as Herennus Philo in his Commentar de Judaeis questions whether it be the genuine Book of Haecateus whose name it bears it seeming to him improbable that an Heathen Philologer would write so much in their commendation St. Austin in his eighteenth Book de Civitate from Chap. 2. to the end of that Book demonstrates by Chronology that our Prophets were elder than their Philosophers And in his 8. 11. de Civitate Dei affirms Plato to have transcribed the description of the first matter in his Timaeus mentioned also by Cicero and thus translated Mundum efficere volens Deus terram primo ignemque jungebat When God was about to frame the World he first joyntly made the matter of Fire and Earth from that of Moses In the beginning God made the Heaven and Earth Gen. 1. 1. Plato by Fire understanding Heaven And his notion of the Air upon the Water to have been Plato's mis-conception of that of Moses The Spirit moved upon the Waters And his Dogma in Phaedone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Every right Philosopher is a lover of God to have been derived from the sacred Fountains where nothing flows more plentifully than such like Doctrine But that which made this most learned Father almost believe altogether that Plato had read Moses was his observing Plato to have been the first Philosopher who called God by that name which God reveal'd himself by to Moses in his Embassy to Pharaoh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am that I am or That that is A name appropriated to God by Plato in his Timeus calling God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ever-being and so familiar with the Platonicks as in their Master's stile they superscribed their Treatises concerning God with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of him that is A name saith St. Austin I find in no Books before Plato save in those where it is said I am that I am This was modestly said of that cautious Divine for the truth is Alcimus writes to Amynthas that some Philosophers had got that Notion by the end before Plato naming Epicharmus and quoting those words of his at which Plato lighted his Candle and Plato himself in his Sophista confesseth little less But it comes all to one as to our Argument for Epicharmus was a Pythagorian and that Pythagoras the circumcised Philosopher received that and all his other refined Notions from Moses his Writings or by discourse from the Jewish
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
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
c. 17. 18. gives us this account That they were so slaughter'd by the Romans as one might see the whole Lake coloured with Blood and replete with Carkasses insomuch as the Air grew thereby to that degree of Infection as became troublesome to the Conquerour of those who were on the Lake not one escap'd and those who through Ageâ—staid at home were with Promises of safety enticed out of their houses and in their march to Tiberias slain by the Romans except six thousand of the stoutest of them who were sent captives to Nero. But that which is remarkable in the infliction of the Divine Vengeance upon them is that Vespasian calling a Council of War to determine what they should do with the conquer'd though they had given them quarter though Vespasian naturally inclin'd to the more merciful side and though they all confest it was not honest yet the Vote past generally that the dismissing them alive was not safe in that juncture of affairs and therefore that they should all be put to the Sword If I were not afraid to tire thy patience Reader I could carry thee to other places mention'd in the Gospel over which Secular History draws the same Line that the Evangelius do though I have no instance at hand of any place in his brother Herod's jurisdiction made famous by our Saviours Converse for the Lamb of God kept himself out of that Foxes walk after he had murder'd his Fore runner and was warned of Herod's intent to kill him I will therefore dismiss the prosecution of that Topick and conclude Herod's Story with that of Herodias so frequently mention'd in sacred Scripture of which besides those that have already been specified Josephus relateth these Circumstances That so soon as Herod's Wife the Daughter of Aretas perceiv'd the Regal Bed to smell rank of this Strumpet not being able to endure to be nosed by a Sow with a gold Ring in her Snowt having first removed her Court to Macheron not then the Baptists Prison for had John been then shut up there she neither would have desired to remove thither nor Herod have permitted her the society of a person who had so openly declared himself in that Cause against Herodias and was so well able to represent it in its most loathsome colours to the World if he had pleased the fear whereof through Herodias importunity made Herod a while after confine the Baptist to prison in the Castle of Macheron from whence before he came there the Daughter of Aretas was fled to her Father who when he could neither prevail with Herod to dismiss his Brothers Wife nor with Philip to take her from his Brother by force of Arms he himself begins a War at first with Philip hoping the fear of loosing her Daughters Inheritance might force Herodias back to her own Husband and loosen her from those incestuous Bonds whereby as the Fire-brand of Galilee she was drawing an intestine War upon that Country And when that succeeded not any farther than to the begetting in Philip's subjects a grudge against Herod for the convenient venting whereof they waited even under Herod's Banners whither upon Aretas his expelling them from their own habitations they had repair'd he turns his revenging Arms whetted with a Fathers grief and back'd with the justice of his Cause upon his obscene Son-in-Law to whose forces by the help of Philip's Subjects who more resenting the injury Herod had done to the Daughter of Aretas than that which Aretas had done to themselves turn'd about to his Standard in the heat of the battle he gave so total a rout as made the religious party of the Jews interpret that defeat to have been Gods revenge upon Herod for his rejecting the Baptists Counsel and delivering that good man up to the will of Herodias And forc'd Herod to run puling to Caesar for aid against Aretas Caesar orders Vitellius to stand by Herod against whose joynt Forces while Aretas is preparing to march with a great deal of confidence as having been assured by a Dream that either he who lead the adverse Army or he who appointed him to that undertaking should fall by the stroak of death before the Fight was ended The news of the Emperour's death is brought to Vitellius after whose decease Caligula coming to the Imperial Crown uncrowns Herod and exiles him and his Minion How excellently doth Josephus in all this comment upon the Baptists Sermon and prove him to have been a true Prophet when he told him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Mar. 6. 18. no good will come of it it will not succeed well with thee these stoln Waters will prove bitter in the latter end § 6. To this pair of Tetrarchs I will for the Oneness of their Religion subjoyn that Pair of High Priests Annas and Caiaphas whom St. Luke mentions as being in Office at the beginning of the Baptists Ministry and to have continued in that office till after our Saviours Crucifixion Sea-men of old took the joynt-appearance of those Twins Castor and Pollux for a luckie omen but accounted it a presage of an eusuing Tempest when one of them appear'd singly This Twin-appearance of two High-Priests together hath wrought contrary effects and raised such Theological Storms as have clouded the Skie of plain Truth and divided the Fleet of Fishers of men into as many Opinions almost as there are Pilots So that they whose Profession it is to secure our passage from falling upon inconvenience by falling foul upon one another have run us upon the hazard of shipwracking the Faith I will first therefore clear the Vessel of those quicks wherein it sticks that having gain'd an open Sea we may present it under sail steering its course by the Wind that blows from Secular to the same Port which that which breathes from sacred History directs it to 1. By divine Institution there could not be two High Priests at a time for nothing but the death either of Nature or in Law of the High Priest could make way for the Succession of another I ground this Distinction of death upon 1 Kings 2. 26. where Solomon before he put Abiathar from the Priesthood and Zadock in his room tells Abiathar that he was a man of death a dead man in Law having forfeited his life by Treason worthy to dye but for the service he had done for and the sufferings he had undergone with his Father he is content to remit that part of his punishment and in room thereof confines him during life to the City of the Priests Anothoth In rigid propriety of Speech therefore those whom Herod and his Posterity or the Roman Deputies brought into the High-priesthood over the necks of one another were none of them High Priests 2. However the Office being necessary and those whose Office it was by lawful Succession not being permitted to exercise it that God who will have mercy and not sacrifice was pleased so far to wave his own right of instituting Successors
call upon us to stand astonish'd and so much more as we cannot conceive any other Reason thereof but the Divine Will yet for men to frame to themselves an Image of Divine Justice inconsistent with that Mercy which God hath proclaim'd he hath treasured up in his Christ for all Nations to be manifest in its due and appointed time and in defence of their own foolish imaginations to plead Gods secret Counsel against his reveiled Purpose is to add the sin of Sacrilegious Impiety to that of barbarous inhumanity § 4. Thirdly In both which the Placits of the Millenaries touching the Gogick War are so deeply immerst as I wonder how such conceits could find place in the pious head of Mr. Meed as those are which he lays down rol 2. pag. 714. where propounding to himself this Question from what quarter of the World from what kind of men that huge Army was to come that should incompass the holy City he resolves it must be raised in America and consist of the Inhabitants of that Hemisphere that 's opposite to ours And next enquiring into the Cause of that their invading our World into the Arguments whereby Satan should ensnare them into this engagement he determines it can be for no other reason but that they may mend their Quarters possess themselves of a more fertile Soile and live and die here in this upper Hemisphere where they may enjoy a Resurrection which perhaps they think is a priviledge appropriated to this World of ours For this it is that they shall invade the holy City that is this upper half of the Earth the sole Seat of Righteousness and for their making this invasion in pursuit of these ends God shall rise up against them as so many Gyants fighting against Heaven and in an instant destroy them by Fire from Heaven Volum 2. book 3. p. 712. Let us examine these Responds of the greatest Oracle of the most refined Learning that ever opened its mouth in defense of the Millenaries Cause 1. Say that World be now as horrid as Germany or Gallia was in Caesars time may not the Cultivation thereof for more than a thousand years render it as fertile and delectable then as our World is now The old Serpent must be grown into his dotage if he can after a thousand years musing in his Den study out no better an Argument than that Topick affords to engage the Americans to invade this upper World 2. How can it be a manifestation of the righteous Judgment of God to destroy the Americans for that Crime which the Christian Hemisphere is a thousand times more deeply immerst in the guilt of than they who have suffer'd those things by us while we have been harasing those Countries as were enough to prejudice them for ever against the reception of that Religion whose professors are so unjust and barbarously cruel were it not that the Almightiness of Prophetick Truth will carry on the purpose of God against all the blocks that can be laid in their way to Christ by man Josephus scarce any where more bewrayes the spirit of a Pharisee than in lib. 12. cap. 13. of his Antiquities where he censures Polybius for saying Antiochus Epiphanes came to a miserable end for attempting to plunder Diana's Temple for saith he the intention of Sacrilege which he did not actually commit seems not to have been a thing worthy of such a punishment yet in the sequel of his discourse he recovers himself and speaks like a man of Reason If Polybius think that to have been a sufficient cause of his ruine with how much more probability may it be affirm'd that the vengeance of Heaven overtook him for that Sacrilege which he not only intended but perpetrated upon the Temple of Jerusalem with how much more reason may I argue against this cause of the Americans overthrow assigned by this learned man Must they perish for but designing an encroachment upon us who have made so many unjust encroachments upon them Must their thoughts of retaliation of repaying the inhabitants of this upper Plane that measure they have been meeting to them be punish'd by the Righteous Judge of all the Earth that respects not persons with so severe and suddain a destruction 3. How much less can the inflicting of so dreadful a vengeance upon them be imputed to their seeking a place of burial amongst us where they may lye down in hope of a Resurrection as conceiving in this part of the World to be that Elizium beyond God knows what Hills where the Souls of righteous men rest in joy as Dr. Heylin reports of them in his America can any thing be more strange or abhorrent to Christian ears than that either Satan should tempt them to or God punish them for such an undertaking 4. As it is an Article of Faith that the Church is Catholick that is at once in all its members in point of necessary Doctrine they all and every one in all ages and places holding the same form of sound words And successively in respect of Place as well as Time And therefore to assert the exclusion of any place much more one half of the Earthly Globe finally out of that Church bids defiance to the Christian Faith So 't is the confession of all that this Church shall be militant here on Earth as to the state of every particular Member who have remains of corruption within them to grapple with and as to the general state of the whole being incombred in all places with the bad neighbourhood of such visibly wicked ones as either maliciously excind themselves by separation or are justly for their contumacy cast out of her Communion such as make up the Devil's Chappel where-ever God hath his Church From whence will necessarily flow these inferences 1. That to put such an Interpretation upon dark and prophetick Texts as makes them present the Church on Earth in a state so triumphant as leaves her neither spawn of Corruption within nor the Seed of the Serpent without for the exercise of her Repentance Faith Hope Charity Patience is a giving of the lye to those numerous plain and open-fac'd Texts whose uncontroverted sence and words not capable of perversion inform us the direct contrary That the Net of the Gospel gathers good and bad which shall not be sever'd one from the other till the last day That the Tares grow with the Wheat till the end of the World That is the Local and visible Church shall have a mixture of formal Members in it that are not of it Insomuch as when Christ was personally present with the College of the Apostles they were not all clean that Church of his own gathering had a simpering Judas who could cry Hail Master and Kiss his Lord while he betray'd him And as all the visible Members are not good so the best and sincerest Member is not all good Venus hath her Mole the Moon her spots the best Christian his infirmities there is not a
stat Romana virisq Ennius Plutarch in his Treatise of the fortune of the Romans moves this Question Whether Virtue or Fortune had the greater hand in elevating the Romans to that stupendious height and resolves it thus That they joyned hands and by united forces raised that famous Structure Equidem hoc rectè opinor censere fortunam virtutem ad tanti compagem imperii atque potentiae tantae structuram pace composita coivisse humanorúmque operam pulcherrimam communicatis operis absolvisse in the building whereof that those that were emploied were both instructed with all kind of Virtue and in most of their affairs aided by Fortune he demonstrates in the sequel of that Discourse Quem qui machinati sunt eos omni virtute instructos à fortuna plurimis in rebus adjutos fuisse c. by fortune he means not that blind versatil Chance of the Epicureans but that all-seeing and Judicious Sister of Justice and Daughter of Providence Non incerta qualis apud Pindarum sed quae rectius dicitur justitiae suadae soror ac providentiae siquidem ea est Prometheia filia quomodo genus ejus Alcman describit This he introduceth conducting Romulus Numa Servius Tullius c. and following those incomparable persons for Heroick Virtue the Fabricii Camilli Lucii Cincinnati Fabii Marcelli Scipiones Caius Marius Mutius Scaevola M. Horatius c. From this ancient Roman Gallantry when that Commonwealth degenerated its Affairs went so backward as Livy complains thereof and that upon that account their History was so interrupted as nothing could certainly be known touching the state of those Times Sed quid in his refert immorari quae certi nihil habent cum res Romanorum perierunt confusi commentarii sint ut Livius narrat The same Observation Florus makes Ut ad constituendum ejus imperium virtus fortuna contendisse viderentur Florus So that to the constituting of that Empire virtue and fortune seem to have striven which of them should contribute most § 5. Unto the same supreme Cause must be referr'd those manifest miraculous growths of some Kingdoms conferr'd by the God of Israel in order to the accomplishment of the Oracles of his own Prophets That wonderful success which Nebuchadnezzar's Arms found in Aegypts Conquest though he ascribed it to his Gods was given him by the true God in pursuit of making good the Menacies of his Prophets against that Nation I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar my servant and will set his Throne upon these stones that I have bid at the entry of Pharaohs house and he shall stretch his Royal Pavillion over them and I will kindle a fire in the houses of the Gods of Aegypt and he shall array himself with the Land of Aegypt and he shall go forth from thence in peace Jer 43. 10. Cyrus his victorious arms over Chaldea and the circumjacent Countries were born up upon the wing of that Prophecy which named him an 100 years before he was born Isa. 43. 28. in order to the fulfilling whereof Isa. 44. 1 c. Gods right hand upheld and strengthen'd him to subdue Nations before him God loosed the Loines of Kings and open'd the two leaved Gates before him he went before him made the crooked places straight brake in pieces the Gates of Brass and cut in sunder the Bars of Iron It was not the Heroes of Media Persia Assyria whom he so religiously supplicated and so devoutly thank'd but that God of the Jews whom he knew not then but at last acknowledged his hand to have been alone in all thosegrand Transactions As Nebuchadnezzar also understood not who that God was that had done such great and marvellous things for him till convinc'd by the deliverance of the three Children he proclaimes to all the World that their God is he that had shewed signs and wrought wonders towards him c. Dan. 4. 2. 3. Daniel had prophecyed of Alexander the Great that he should be Mighty and do according to his Will chap. 11. 3. when God raised him up against the Persians to destroy that Empire and he had no other way thither the Pamphylian Sea open'd to him and his Army as the Red Sea had done to Moses Joseph Jewish antiq l. 1. cap. 7. This Story saith Josephus is mention'd by all that write the Acts of Alexander § 6. In order to the punishment of other Nations God frequently does as it were by Miracle advance some one Nation perhaps no better than the rest The Assyrian was the Rod of Gods anger and the Staff in his hand that that sustain'd him was Gods indignation though he thought not so but triumph'd over the God of Israel as one of those feeble Idols that was not able to defend his own Territories any more than the Gods of Calno Carchemish Hamath or Arpad Is. 10. 5 11. In which case the wicked may oftentimes devour the man that 's more righteous than himself Hab. 1. 12. And when that Nations sins are brim full and Gods whole work done for which God raised it up some of those subdued Nations are raised up by no less a Miracle out of the Grave out of the ashes to bringdown that stout heart and avenge the blood he hath shed Thus Greece was stirred up for the Ruine of the Caldean Empire and Rome for the destruction of the Grecian in all which great and stupendious Mutations of States the strange accidents that fall out are the Effects of divine Vindicative Justice though each Nation for whose raising they were wrought conceiv'd them to have been the Fruits of the Favour of their Idol-Gods It was an higher wisdom than Minerva's that managed the affairs of Athens the Lord of Hosts not their God of War that put courage into the Spartans The unknown God not any of their Tutelars that made them great and arm'd the Sons of Greece against the Bratts of Babel all the wonders of that age reported by Thucidides and Diodorus Siculus and of the next Empire reported by Dion Dionysius Livy c. were the Operations of his hands that only doth Wonders that sets up the low Tree and brings down the high Tree by ways past finding out Judgments unscrutable either as to Methods or Causes § 7. Lastly if at any time the World hath been so equally pois'd in respect of the Virtue or Vitiousness of her several Inhabitants as it seemed not good to vindictive Justice by extraordinary impulses or incanonical courses of his Providence as St. Austin calls Miracles to animate one Nation to avenge its quarrels upon another By what prodigious accidents hath God made the Empires that then were in Being or arising conspicuous in order to the preservation of the general Peace and that the whole Earth might sit still and be at quiet Melancâ—hon in his Epistle Dedicatory to Carions Chronicle tells us that Philip Prince Elector Palatine was wont to say that in reading the History of the World he all along
hasts to the City to buy an Altar orders his men to dig a place where he might erect it they digging twenty foot deep find there an old Altar with this Inscription To Dis and Proserpina The Father returning from the City sacrificeth upon that Altar to those Infernal Deities and three nights together answering the number of his late sick but now recovered Children makes Funeral Banquets to the Gods with Songs and Dances With what strange obscenities those Games were celebrated is more obvious than that it needs be related It is sufficient to evince the Diabolicalness of those seeming Miracles and therefore only seeming that they manifestly tended towards the erecting of the Worship of infernal Fiends to the robbing the one Supreme God of that honour that 's his peculiar due and to the introducing of most barbarous Immoralities into the VVorld And therefore being Seals set to a Law directly thwarting that Law of God writ on the hearts of all men if they had more exactly counterfeited the Scal of Heaven than they did may easily be deprehended to be nothing else but feigned Miracles § 3. This should have at least awaken'd the VVorld to a more scrupulous inspection and prying into them and to have weighed them with those Selâ—s which were set to the contrary Doctrine In comparison with which they would have been found if not lighter than vanity yet at least wanting many grains weight of real Miracles that is productions by the God of Nature above the power of Nature and beside its ordinary Course I insert this last clause into the description of a Miracle to distinguish it from the Effects of ordinary Providence which though they proceed from infinite Power yet are not Miracles but issue from the natural order of Conversion Mutation and Mutability of Bodies The water saith St. Austin de Trinit lib. 3. is poured ordinarily upon the earth but when at the Prayer of Elias after so long a serenity when there was no appearance of a cloud it was made to fall this was the immediate effusion of Divine Power God ordinarily makes the voyce of his Thunder to be heard and sends out the Lightning from the bright Cloud but when on Mount Sinai after an unusual manner those thundering voyces were sent forth which did not make a confused din but articulately sounded forth the VVill of God this was miraculous who draws moisture by the root of the Vine to the Clusters and by degrees ripens the Grapes but God who giveth the increase while Man Plants and VVaters But when at our Lord's beck VVater was turn'd into VVine by an unusual celerity he must be a fool with a witness who denies that to be a witness of a divine Power in him who commanded and it was done Earth is the common Matter for the bringing forth and nourishing of all Plants and of all Bodies of Animals and who produceth these things from the Earth but he that said to the earth bring forth But when of a suddain he turn'd the same Matter out of Moses his Rod into a Serpent and back again out of that Serpent into a Rod immediately and in an instant he wrought a Miracle the things indeed were changable but this change of them was unusual Who but God cloaths the Shrubbs with Leaves and Blossoms But when the Rod of Aaron blossom'd the divinity did after a sort discourse with doubting Humanity Who is he that giveth life to every living thing that 's born but he that gave life to that Serpent of Aaron for an hour Who restored to Bodies when they were dead their Souls but he that animates flesh in the Mothers Womb which is born to die of the same common Matter which subsists in the Elements God produceth in time or ex tempore a Ram or a Dove who are of the same fleshy vigour at their coming in and going out of the World whether they were made in an instant or by degrees they are not of different constitutions only that which was produced ex tempore appeared after an unusual manner but when those Creatures are brought forth by a kind of continued Flux of sliding and remaining things passing out of secret into open light and out of light into obscurity in the usual road they are called natural which same Creatures when they are thrust in upon us for our admonition by an unusual mutability are called Wonders 2. And yet it is not every unusual Conflux of those primordial seminal Causes towards the production of a thing into being that makes a Miracle for as St. Austin observes upon the story of the Aegyptian Magicians Ex. 7. de Trin. 3. cap. 8. there are certain seminal Causes hid in corporeal things through all the Elements of the World which Daemons may pick out more easily than the cunningest Gold-finer can single parings of Gold out of heaps of Sand into one Mass and make up into strange Effects and of them produce new Species of things in a trice Omnis spiritus ales est momento ubique sunt volocitas divinitus creditus quia substantia ignoratur Terapol 22. But it is farther requisite as I have exprest in the first Clause of the Description that it be a production beside the Order of whole created Nature such as cannot be educ'd out of the active Powers implanted in the Elements nor their natural passive Powers whereby they are made receptible of any form by natural Motion Aquinas sum 1. quest 115. 2. Praeter virtutes activas naturales potentias passivas quae ordinantur ad hujusmodi virtutes activas But out of a bare obediential Possibility or Non-resistency of the Creature whereby it throws it self at Gods feet and becomes pliable in the hand of Omnipotencie to embrace any shape he is pleas'd to mould it into by an act of Power equivalent to that of creating and educing forms out of the first Abyss of inform Matter Alensis sum 2. quest 42. art 5. memb 5. ad opera miraculosa possibilitas tantùm secundùm obedientiam creaturae de quo Deus potest facere quod vult est possibilitas passiva Briefly and plainly proper Miracles exceed Nature in a threefold degree 1. As to the Substance of the Fact such are the Glorification of the Body the Retrogradation of the Sun c. 2. As to the Subject wherein it is wrought such are the restoring Life to the Dead giving Sight to the blind c. Nature can cause Life but not in a dead Body can give Sight but not to one that 's blind for there cannot be a natural recess from a total Privation to an Habit. 3. As to the Manner and Order of working such is the restoring of Lame the healing of Sick the multiplying of Bread Oyl c in an unusual course on a suddain without applying natural Causes c. To the first of these Degrees the Pagan VVorld never so much as pretended To the second none ever attain'd who pretended to act in
intervention could possibly rob the lower World of its Light may easily be made appear by an enumeration of such Particulars as have been observed for this 5000 years to hinder its illuminating at once the Hemisphere of the Earth and so much more easily as the impediments are fewer than to take up a long discourse being but these two 1. The Interposition of the Body of the Moon which in that juncture could not be the impediment for at the Passover when our Saviour suffer'd the Moon was at the Full and visibly arising that evening in the East when the Sun set in the West we may therefore with as much reason charge a Theft committed at London upon a person that was in India when that fact was done as charge the Moon with this Robbery of the Suns Light I shall run no hazard of my credit before equal Judges by becoming her Compurgator in this case 2. The Cloudiness of the Skie But the Air was at that time so serene as the Stars appeared and might be seen all over the Heavens as Phlegon a Gentile Chronologer hath left upon Record Dies horâ sextâ in tenebrosam noctem versus ut stellae in caelo visae sunt Chron. Euseb. and that record probably taken out of the Roman Rolls where it was extant in Tertullian's time If the Clouds were not so thick but that the Stars might be seen through them they could not hinder the shining of that greatest Light the Sun Besides this Darkness was universal Mark 15. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darkness was over the whole Earth Erasmus indeed limits this to the Land of Judaea but Melchior Canus lib. 11. cap. 2. Doth sufficiently confute that Opinion which needs not any other Confutation than this that it was observ'd at Heliopolis in Egypt and if that Testimony of Dionysius be scrupled that of the Graecian Historians who write of it cannot be excepted against Scaliger animadvers in Chron. Euseb. But Clouds do but screen and stand in the light of some particular and small Regions so that when the Sun hath nothing else to hinder its shining it will cast its beams on one City on one part of a City when the other part is clouded This Darkness therefore could not proceed from any Natural Cause but was simply and nakedly the Effect of the suspension of its most natural power of giving Light Ex retractione radiorum solarium Voss. harmon Evang. l. 2. cap. 10. the retraction of its Beams from the unthankful World at the Will of its Creator on purpose to convince men that that Jesus who was then a crucisying was both Lord and Christ or as the Centurion from that Argument concludes the Son of God the King of Israel according to the sign given by the Prophet Zachary chap. 14. 6. In that day the light shall not be clear nor dark it shall be one day a day by it self at evening time it shall be light the Sun shall be turn'd into darkness and the Moon into blood and Joel chap. 2. 31 c as St. Peter applyed those Texts Acts 2. this is that that was spoken of by the Prophet Joel c. § 7. I will conclude with that which is both the sum of the Christian Faith and the seal of it the Resurrection of the blessed Jesus The sum of it If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. The Seal of it whereof he hath given assurance made demonstration to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17. 31. Shall I need to shew the demonstrableness of this Argument so cogent as he must shut his eyes against the clearest and most undoubted Sentiments of common Reason that does not acknowledge the Finger the Hand the Arm of inconquerable Omnipotency to have been at work in breaking the Chains of Death and bringing Christ thence after the pains and anguish of the Cross had exhausted his Vital Spirts and made his sacred Body inhospitable to that his precious Soul which he breathed into the hands of his Father after they who were set to watch him were so well satisfied that he was dead as they thought it needless to break his Legs and yet to make all sure ran a Spear to his Heart whence issued as an indication that there was no need of that neither in order to his dispatch but only that the Prophecies of him might be fulfill'd Water and Blood And lastly after he was buried and a Guard of Soldiers set about the Sepulchre by the procurement of his most watchful Adversaries who feared he would rise again as he had said and thereby declare himself to be the Messias These Circumstances speak a total privation of Life the extinction of the vital Flame the breaking of the golden Cord and Marriage-ring which coupled together that lovely Pair the Humane Flesh and Reasonable Soul whereof the Man Christ consisted And I appeal to common Principles to give sentence and determine those Questions Whether the Flame of Lifes Taper can be blown in again but by the blast of that Breath which blew it in at first Whether that Cord can be knit again by any hand but that which drew it Whether the Bowels of the Earth our common Mother whither Bodies return that they may see corruption be a fit Matrix wherein the Corps may be ripen'd naturally into an aptitude for the reception of the Soul In our first moulding the Spermatick Matter Courts the humane Form and when by Second Natures hand the Hand maid of the first Nature its gradually purified into an immediate fittedness for the reception of its Bridegroom God knits first the Band. And after the Band is broke the Soul after a sort courts the Corps by its propensity to a reunion to that without which it cannot be perfect But the fullen Corps is deaf to all such motions resists all methods of cure all applications of Medicines which the now more illuminated and intelligent Soul can possibly make and doubtless if an herb grew any where that could restore these beloved Mates the Souls of Philosophers that could see so well through the Casement being now in the free Air and having their eyes clarified with the dust of Death would spy it out are fruitless this work must be let alone for ever as no man can redeem his own Soul so no Soul can restore its own Body As the matter in the Womb would never have had its desires of Union to a reasonable Soul gratified if God had not infused the Soul so the Soul in a state of separation will never have its longing after reunion gratified till God restore to it its Body He that brought the Man to the Woman at first must after the sleep of Death bring the Woman to the Man or they will never meet Nay the bringing of soul and body together again after their Divorce implies that seeming Contradiction as the Disciples by
the Illumination of Faith could not understand what Christ meant when he spake to them of his Resurrection and were ready to give up their hopes that he was he that should redeem Israel when they saw him giving up the Ghost and hanging down his Head upon the Cross as St. Thomas though he had seen Lazarus rais'd from the dead and heard it reported by credible Witnesses that Christ was risen would not believe it As Celsus Orig. cont Cels. l. 2. cal 41. rather than grant the Truth of the Christian Hypothesis denied the possibility of it As it seemed good to the holy Ghost to confirm the report of Christs Resurrection by all those Signs which the Apostles wrought after his Ascension by the name of the Holy Child Jesus while with great power they gave witness of his Resurrection Acts 4. 33. Yea so much did divine Goodness condescend to Humane imbecility as to give a fuller proof of that point so far above Reasons comprehension and much more out of the Sphere of Natural Power than the report of Eye-witnesses than the Confession of Adversaries than the Seal of those Miracles afforded by that Grace that was upon all the Publishers and fell upon all the Receivers of that Doctrine a Grace enabling them to live up to the Gospel and to bring forth those Fruits of Holiness Righteousness Temperance Meekness as sufficiently commended to the morallized part of the World that Root of Faith from whence they issued as far outstript the most glorious glittering productions of the Moral Philosophers as infinitely transcended the results of fantastick Credulty and put all other Religions to the blush at the sight of their own impotency CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity layes the Axe 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 § 1. HEre Christian Reader I must crave thy help and beg thy aid towards the convincing the World of the Divine Original of Christian Religion which though it apparently bear the stamps of heavenly Wisdome in its Prophecies of in finite Power in its Miracles commends it self more to the Consciences of men by engaging its Fautors to a Conversation answerable to its Sacred Rules than by affording the most substantial Grounds of discoursing in its Defence by any other Arguments Religion is better maintain'd by Living than Disputing A Gospel-becoming Converse falls under the Observation and speaks to the Hearts of all men even of those who are not able to fathom the depth nor feel the ground of the most rational verbal Discourse well exprest by the Apostle of the Circumcision 1 Pet. 3. 1. Dr. Hammond annot in the Argument whereby he perswades Christian Matrons to be in subjection to their own though Gentile Husbands that if any obeyed not the Word submitted not to the Gospel upon the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power they also without the Word which the Apostles preach'd in confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ might be won by the Conversation of their Wives while they beheld their chaste Conversation that Modesly which the true fear of God Christian Religion which alone rightly Disciplines persons in that fear taught them In his motive 1 Pet. 2. 12 13. to Christian Subjects to yield obedient subjection to their Heathen Magistrates and in that point particularly to lead an honest life among the Gentiles that whereas they were evil spoken of as Jews by reason of the turbulency and frequent rebellions of their Countrymen the Gentiles might see that Christian-Jews were of another spirit than the rest of that Nation and upon that account might revere them for their good works and glorifie God the Author of a Religion that had made them so much more meek regular and quiet under the Heathen Government which was over them than the other Jews were when the Proconsuls should be sent to make enquiry of the Commotions made by the unbelieving Party of that Nation It was by this Argument that the old Laic-Confessor silenc'd convinc'd and converted that proud and subtile Philosopher who bore up himself against all the Reasonings of the Learned Teachers of the Nicence Council Crab. tom 1. pag. 249. In the name of Jesus Christ saith he O Philosopher hear the Dictates of Truth There is one God Maker of Heaven and Earth who Created all things visible and invisible by the power of his Word and confirm'd them by the Sanctity of his Spirit This Word therefore which we call the Son of God having mercy on Mankind vouchsafed to be born of a VVoman to converse with Men and die for them and will come again to give sentence upon the Lives of all men By the belief of those things we Christians are freed from Error and from that Religion wherein Men live like Beasts into a state of living like Men. Upon this the Philosopher cries out that he is a Christian and assures his Fellows he was drawn to it not upon light grounds but by that ineffable Vertue which attended the embracing of Christianity In this Argument the ancient Patrons of the Christian Cause triumph'd over all other Religions and Disciplines The Christian Churches saith Origen contr Cels. lib. 3. cal 8. compared with other Societies are really the Lights of the VVorld who is there that must not confess if he make an impartial collation of them that the worst part of the Church excells vulgar assemblies for the Church of God at Athens for instance is meek and quiet c. the Pagan Assemblies seditious turbulent c. And to that Calumny of Celsus that the Christians invited the worst of sinners Origen makes this Reply that the Christian Philosophy did dayly reform the most degenerate Natures not by converting one or two in so many Ages as Phaedo who coming Piping hot out of the Stewes into Plato's School took those impresses from his Doctrine as Plato in his Dialogues brings Phaedo in discoursing of the Immortality of the Soul Or Palemon who by attending to Philosophical Discipline became of a Ruffian so temperate as he succeeded Xenocrates in his School but great multitudes Christs Fishers of men caught them by whole shoales when these Philosophical Anglers drew them up by unites Tertullian apolog 46. outvies the greatest Philosophers with common Christians Thales one of the seven VVisemen could not satisfie Craesus when he askt him what God was but required time for the return of an answer and the more he thought upon it was further off from finding a solution when every Mechanick Christian hath found and can shew all that can be askt concerning God though Plato says the framer of the Universe is neither easie to be found out nor to be exprest If we compare them in point of Chastity we read that one part of the Attick sentence against Socrates condemn'd him of Sodomy
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
the unreasonableness by a two-fold Argument related not only by St. Jerom in locum but by our Sir Walt. Rawleigh par 1. l. 3. cap. 1. § 2. of the History of the World viz. 1. The Seventy above an hundred years before Antiochus translated Daniel amongst the rest of the Jewish Prophets And 2. Jaddus the High Priest shewed to Alexander the Great that Vision of Daniel chap. 11. 3. A mighty King shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion c. wherein Alexander is presented as the Subduer of the Persian and Erector of the Grecian Empire as himself applied it Joseph Jud. ant l. 11. c. 8. It had been to small purpose to have shewed Alexander the Book had it been untranslated I therefore upon these Testimonies rest so well assured that the Seventy translated the whole Old Testament as I conceive the discussion of that Question needless and cannot strain my Invention to find out Arguments to convince that Generation of men who have Ignorance or Impudence enough to resist the force of these Authorities the least whereof is able to weigh down all Prejudices to the contrary Howbeit though the Churches Champions had hus baffled Porphyry yet the Jew was glad to take take the like Subterfuge from the dint of this Prophecy by ascribing to Daniel less Authority than to Moses and the Prophets reckoning his Book among the Hagiographa composed by Ezra and his Synagogue And when he was beaten thence he had no way to ward off the force of the Christian's arguing from this Prophecy that our Jesus is the Christ but by this distinction viz. That Daniel's Prophecy as also Zachary's points to a Messiah in all points like to our Jesus A Shepherd that was smitten and not able to save himself or Flock a Messiah that was cut off and ejected out of his Kingdom not able to hold that Kingdom he usurped In Dan. vis 8. non erit ejus populus qui eum negaturus est sive ut illi dicunt non erit illius imperium quod putabat se retenturum whereas Christ the Son of God whom they yet expect is described by the Prophets as asking long Life of God and obtaining it for ever as asking and receiving the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession as one that will make his people willing in the day of his power and will come in that Majesty as shall bear down all opposition before it This Jewish Evasion Broughton quotes out of the Talmud in his Concent of Sacred Scripture anno mundi 3535. A clear acknowledment that Daniel's Text prescribes the Time of the Messias and that that time so exactly sutes the coming of the blessed Jesus as neither Jew nor Gentile durst stand a Dispute with the Christian upon that ground but after some Bravadoes and light Skirmishings retreated to such Boggy and Quagmire-fastnesses as these Why do you urge us with the Authority of Daniel a spurious Prophet whose Book was not writ by him whose Name it bears but by some false Jew saith Porphyry by Esdras's College of Elders say the Jews and when the Jew is beaten hence he grants the Argument yields the Christian his Conclusion and so leaves himself no way to escape a total Rout but over the narrow and slender Bridg of this sorry Distinction Our Scriptures foretell of two Messiasses one base and mean like your Jesus the Son of Joseph the Carpenter another high and mighty the Son of David the King who shall repair the decayed Tabernacle of David and sit upon his Throne for ever These were the desperate shifts which the Defenders of the Christian Faith put the Jews to by their demonstrating out of Daniel's Weeks that the Fulness of Time for the appearance of the Messiah was then come when our Saviour exhibited himself being put to this plunge that they must either confess the Divinity of Christ or deny the Divine Authority of their own Prophetick Books or split in two their Messias whom those Books foretell § 2. To shew the unreasonableness of both these Evasions would fall in more methodically in another place yet that my Reader while he is travelling with me through this Prophecy in search of the Christ may not fall under the least discouraging doubt of the Canonicalness of this Book or under the least fear of finding here a Messias who is not the Son of David as as well as the Son of Joseph and the Son of God as well as the Son of David I shall now remove these stumbling-blocks As to the first Evasion viz. the debasing the Authority of Daniel it was a mere Pretence taken up to blunt the Edge of that Prophecy the Dint whereof the Jew was not able to avoid For before the Christian took that Sword into his hand for the Defence of Christ the Synagogue had as high an esteem of him as any other of the Prophets of whose Faith touching this part of the Old Testament-canon Josephus who lived to see the last hour of Daniel's Weeks expired is an impartial Witness who makes this clear and full Confession antiquit 10. 12. viz. Daniel was a most happy man and a most excellent Prophet and after death obtained eternal Memory for his Books which he left writ are at this day read among us this was in the Reign of Domitian after the accomplishment of Daniel's Weeks being such as give full proof of Gods vouchsafing to have familiar Conference with him For he did not only as other Prophets foretell things to come but define the precise time when they were to fall out which have had that Effect in the certainty of Events as hath procured him credit among all sorts of mortal Men there being those Circumstances in his Writings from whence the certainty of his Prophecies may be more clearly gather'd than from any other of our Prophets For the proof of which having instanc'd in his Vision of the four Beasts in his Prediction of the rising of the Roman Empire and the desolations it was to bring upon the Jewish People he concludes thus All these things being reveiled to him by God he committed to Writing and left to Posterity c. Indeed had Josephus been silent the Book it self speaks Daniel to be the Pen-man of it where the Angel bids him seal the Prophecy which sure was not a Blank which Ezra and his Companions were to fill up Nay the Jews silence Mat. 24. 45. Mar. 13. 14. when Christ quoted Daniel's Prophecy gave Consent that he was the Author of that Book which had they conceived not to have been his Writing but the Tradition of the Elders they would not have failed to have bid our Saviour who had so frequently rebuked them for adhering to Tradition wash his own hands of that Crime which he objected to others Touching their other Subterfuge their distinguishing of Messias a man inferiour to Solomon in Wisdom may judg it a sufficient Evidence that that
the Course of Nature that he can make knots and snarles on Natures Skeane but not unravel them nor untie them that he can rend the seamless coat of her orderly progress but not darn it up again 4. Say he had kept pace with God in these three steps which he manifestly did not yet Israels God outgoes him at the fourth and the rest of the following VVonders he that could turn God permitting him Rods into Serpents could not turn Dust into Lice but his Instruments at that Miracle are forc'd to quit the Field and confess that was the Finger of God He cannot without a toleration from Heaven produce the most contemptible Insect the divine Art out-vies him in the frame of the vilest Animals § 5. VVe have seen the God of this world beaten upon his own Dunghil the Prince of the Air worsted in his own Region outvied by the lowest degree of divine Miracles lagging behind Omnipotency while it lights and walks afoot how less able is he to Lacquy it by its side while it rides triumphing in the production of Miracles of the first and second Rank Such as was the Sun 's standing still in the days of Joshuah and its going retrograde upon Ahaz his Dial at the request of Hezekiah which I instance in as being Accidents indisputable as to Matter of Fact the first being so famously known and universally taken notice of as it occasion'd that Fiction of the VVorld's expending a whole day upon the Birth of Hercules Cujus in ortu mundus expendit diem Senec. Her fur though Asterages turn'd day into night and misapplyed that to the Grecian which belonged to the Phaenician Hercules Joshua and the last being observed as far as Babylon whence Merodac Baladan having heard it was done in favour of Hezekiah sent his Embassadors into Judaea who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land 2 Chron. 31. 31. to congratulate Hezekiah and to enquire concerning the Circumstances of that Miracle so famously known as Dionysius the Areopagite Ep. 7. ad Polycarpum affirms that the Persian Priests and Magi kept up the Memorial thereof in the Rites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the triple Mithra Not because this day was almost as long as three days as Pachymerius and Maximus mis-expound Dionysms for that makes this day longer than that in Joshua whereas the Text Josh. 10. 14. saith there was no day like that equal to it in length before or after it Nor is their Argument so conclusive if we expound it of the Sun 's going back as well as the shadow with St. Austin de mirabil script l. 2. c. 48. and the Fathers generally as that Vatablus Burgensis and Montanus needed by its force have been put to that miserable shift they betake themselves to viz. that the Sun kept its ordinary motion and its shadow only by the Ministry of Angels was made to fall back on Ahaz his Dial. For it might go ten Degrees back and over those ten degrees forward again and so on his daily Course and not make that day from Sun-rise to its Setting 32 hours If the degrees of Ahaz his Dial were either Quadrants or half-hours the Sun might keep his ordinary pace in going back and forward and not reach the length of Joshua's day or he that could make it go back might make it to mend its pace as to redeem so much time that that day might possibly be not much longer than an ordinary one and yet sufficiently miraculous and so conspicuous for the Sun 's going back as the Persians might well take notice of it and celebrate its memorial in the Rites and Denomination of the Triplified Sun because of that threefold course it then took first forward next backward and then forward again So that the authority of Dionysius still stands firm notwithstanding the Learned Vossius his so easie rejecting it upon that mistake which Pachymerius and Maximus led him into as if the Areopagite had affirm'd the Persians to have given that appellation to Mithra or the Sun by reason of its tripling the length of that day when in truth all he affirms of them is that they kept the Memory of this Miracle in the Celebrities of the Triplasia which he might certainly know they did that being a Matter of Fact and which they might do in commemoration of the Suns tripling his Course It is true indeed Dionysius thought that day to be tripl'd and from thence to have arisen that Persick Name but in this being matter of Opinion and an Opinion so directly opposing the Text in Joshua we may safely forsake him and question his judgement But we cannot reject him in what he barely reports as a Matter of Fact without questioning his honesty to wit that the Persians kept up the remembrance of the Suns going back and changing its Course I will not here enter a Debate with our Modern Philosophers about that question whether it be the Sun or the Earth that moves for let it be granted that it is natural to one of them to move in that course that hath been traced above 5000 years and I matter not to whether of them they assign the Task of Motion or bequeath the Privilege of Rest which of them soever it be that moves what Second Cause can be imagin'd to make it once stand still and once to move back ward Did some hooked prominent Atom catch hold of some weightier quiescent Body and forc'd the Earth or Sun to lie at Anchor a whole day or put a stop to one of them as a long Skewer for Kitching-similies are fittest to illustrate their new Kitching-Philosophy stays the Spit from turning if it touch the Drippin-pan What second Cause can be imagin'd of its going back ubi pedem fixit Where set he his foot while he wheel'd one of those Orbs Westward and Eastward backward and forward as we turn a Globe in a Frame Or was it with so great a violence as lasted ten hours driven back by falling foul upon some other Vessel sailing in the Super-lunary Waters through neglect of crying Ware Oars untrain'd curiosity may quest through the Universe before it can set any other Author of this Motion but him that is the Author of Being none could set back this Universal Watch this measure and standard of every Inch of Time none could slacken or hasten the going of it but its Maker § 6. Though it will not be granted me that 't is natural for the Sun to move yet I hope Providence will bless these Lines out of the hands of such Brutes as question whether it be not as natural for the Sun to shine as for Fire to burn whether its Beams of Light flow not necessarily from its very Being as streams from the Fountain I demand then whence proceeded its Opacity and the suspension of its Light at our Saviour's Passion That it was at that time exempted from the Dominion of all second Causes which by their