their obtaining a far more exceeding weight of eternal Glory but not universal Precepts obliging all Christians Gerson de religionis perfectione Religio Christiana sub uno supremo Abbate Christo sola est salutaris perfecta nibilominùs distincta gradibus meritorum ordinum qui votis aliquibus se subjiciunt ultrà legem communeâ— Christi Christian Religion profes'd under one supreme Abbat Christ is the only saving and perfect Religion It is notwithstanding distinguish'd according to the degrees of Merits and Orders So as they are most perfect who subject themselves to certain Rules beyond the common Law of Christ. Thus did these esteem the Royal Law to be an excellent Rule of Life and Heart for such as aim'd at perfection of Grace and Glory but for those that could content themselves with the common scantling they might be saved by that Religion by which their Fore-fathers had been saved there was no necessity of practising so chargeable and austere a Doctrine as that of Christ. The moralized Gentile had that Opinion of the Christian Religion in comparison of his own as he had of his own in comparison of all the rest the Jew had that esteem of Christ compared with Moses as he had of Moses compared with all other Legislators or to come to an Instance will both administer more light to this business and whereof we have from the Ancients a better account as he had of the common Jewish Religion in comparison of those stricter Sects of the Pharisee and Essene as leading to that height of Virtue as few are capable of attaining to to that Communion with God as is inaccessible saving by persons of a better Clay and therefore obtains the good word of all that are not brutified and led by untamed Passions as that which leads to the most perfect Beatitude and a trade of Life far excelling all others but not practicable in common Converse and therefore obtains observance from few As Philo speaks of the Essenes Meritò ut absolutae probitatis receptum in multis orbis regionibus a Graecis atque barbaris ordo tendens ad faelicitatem perfectissimam Philo de vita contemplativa They are deservedly entertain'd as men walking by a Rule of absolute perfection in many regions of the World both Grecians and Barbarians applaud their Order as tending to the most perfect happiness It is adored and reverenc'd at a distance by all but not approach'd to except by such as a kind of divine fury drives on to lay violent hands upon it having first laid violent hands upon themselves and thereby become dead to this mortal Life amore correpti rerum caelestium quasi divino furore perciti prae immortalis cupidine vitâ hac mortalidefuncti Id. Ibid. Josephus himself is a notable Example of this praising the Heroick degree of Virtue as absolutely the best but yet chusing a more remiss degree as best for him for though he far prefers in point of worth the Essene above the Pharisee in his discourses of them Antiq. 15. 13. he presents the Pharisee as indulg'd by Herod out of that respect he bore to Pollio a chief Master amongst them but out of the reverence which Herod had to the Religion it self of the Essenes he remitted to them the taking of the Oath of Allegiance which he imposed upon the other two Sects as conceiving the Essenes Virtue and Justice would oblige them more to duty than an Oath would the Pharisees or Sadducees And he spends so much of a long Chapter cap. 7. de Bell. Judaic 2. in commending the Essenes for that admirable degree of Temperance Tolerance Pacateness of Spirit contempt of Earth love of Heaven which they attain'd to as he almost forgets to describe the two other Sects as not worthy to stand in competition with this And in the History of his own Life gives the preheminency for Virtue to the Essenes whose Rules he followed under Bannus three years without intermission Yet when he came to near twenty and began to consider where he was and how to provide for a subsistence in this world sutable to his mind he chose the Religion of the Pharisees whom he saw on the sunny-side of the hedge as most conducible to a Civil Life as a way wherein he might safely walk towards the obtaining immortal happiness though not administring so large an entrance into it as that of the more mortified Essenes yet more easie to be kept without loss of his Secular Interests and laying more in the way Preferment c. As he himself informs us in the History of his own Life Jamque undeviginti annos natus civilem vitam aggressus sum addictus Pharisaeorum placitis Of whom notwithstanding he gives this Character that they were a slie and arrogant kind of Men pragmatical in Affairs of State enemies to Kings beguiling silly Women with shews of holiness Antiquities l. 13. c. 3. But however that Sect he chuseth as most convenient for a Civil Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat de pace Thus he adhered to the Religion of Moses in practice though he honour'd Christ's Doctrine in heart before it with Philo his Eunuch philosopher Philo de Josepho approving it in judgement as the most wholesome but relishing the other as more tooth-some loquitur ut oportet sed sapit contrarium Of the same make were those multitudes of Believers to whom Jesus would not trust himself knowing what was in them those of the Rulers and Pharisees who believed but did not practice his Doctrine for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue through love of the praise of men c. such were the Gnosticks the Ebionites the Hemerobaptists and the whole Frie of Mungrel-Christians who not being able to expung out of their Minds an honourable Opinion of Christ nor out of their Wills an enmity to the pureness of his Doctrine compounded the quarrel betwixt Conscience and Affection betwixt Reason and Passion § 3. Of Christ's working of Miracles which he propoundeth as another Cause of so many Disciples flocking after and adhering to him Josephus thus writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic fuit mirabilium operum patrator He was a dâ—er of admirable Works Every word and almost syllable hath its Emphasis 1. The VVorks wrought by Christ were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonderful beyond and beside the ordinary course of Nature not only in the opinion of the Vulgar who are easie to be imposed upon by Thaumatourgists by reason of their ignorance in the Reason and Cause of Effects but in the judgement of the most knowing persons for doubtless such was Josephus and such those with whom he convers'd in order to his receiving satisfaction in this Case and therefore if he had not been well assured that as it was beyond the power of the most approved minds to find out so it was out of the Sphere of Natures Activity to afford Causes of such Effects he would not have given them this Atrribute
obtains place § 2. The God of Israel hath his Priests amongst the Gentiles § 3. No acceptable Oblation but what Christians offer tender'd to Israels God § 4. The Gospel hath utterly abolish'd Idols made Virmin-Gods creep into holes § 5. Daphnaean Apollo choakd with the Bones of Babilas Heathen Testimony for the silencing of Oracles the Vanity of their Reasons § 6. Gross Idolatry in the Roman Pale by her own Doctors Confessions and Definitions the Legend of the Golden Calf yet not in the proper and prophetick sence CHAP. VI. Touching the Millenium Revel 20. § 1 Pagan Idol's Fall and Satans binding Synchronize Christianity grew upon the Empire by degrees § 2. Charity 's Cloak cast over the first Christian Emperours § 3. Theodosius made the first Penal Laws against Paganism § 4. Honorius made Paganism Capital then was Satan bound CHAP. VII The Millenium yet to come is a Dream of Waking Men. § 1. The Millenaries shifting of Aera's Apes of Mahometans and Papists Alsted's Boreal Empire § 2. Mr. Meed's Principles overthrow the Faith and Placits of the Ancients Christ will not come to convert but destroy the Jews Satans Binding Synchronizeth with the downfall not of Mahometanism but Gentilism § 3. America though anciently inhabited yet unknown to the ancient Church and therefore implicitly only comprehended in her Faith Hope and Charity § 4. The Millenaries impious and uncharitable Conceptions touching the Gogick-war Their Triumphant Church-Militant § 5. Christ will find more Faith in America than in this upper Hemisphere § 6. Satan's Chain shortned in the lower not lengthened in this upper Hemisphere CHAP. VIII That Satans loosing will not be till the Dawning of the day of Judgment Problematically discuss'd § 1. Elect gathered into the Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat Chancells not all Eastward but all toward that Valley § 2. The Elect secur'd Satan reenters and drives his old Demesne The wicked destroyed as Rebels actually in arms Believers tried as Citizens by the Books of Conscience and Book of Royal Law § 3. Gog. Revel 20. a greater multitude than will meet before the day of Judgment When Prophecies are to be expounded Literally when Figuratively § 4. The Ottoman Army is not this Gogick § 5. The Fire of the last Conflagration carrieth Infidels into the Abyss The Goats are cast into it after they are convict by the Covenant of Grace White Throne New Heaven and Earth Flames of Fire divided § 6. They that are in Christ rise first but Infidels are first judged The Objection from their being in termino § 7. The Jews Septimum Millenarium is the eternal Sabbath The days of a Tree Isa. 65. 28. The Text Paraphrased CHAP. IX The Force of the general Argument from Prophecy urged § 1. Prophetick Events demonstrate the Reveilers infinite science § 2. And Omnipotencie § 3. The Divine Original of the Gospel § 4. Christ Circumstantiated old Prophecies of Jerusalem's Fall § 5. When her Fall was most unlikely § 6. Precognition demonstrates Pre-existence CHAP. X. The Demonstration of Power § 1. Christians Gleanings exceed Pagans Vintage § 2. Christian stories of undoubted Pagan of dubious Credit § 3. Pagan Miracles mis-father'd § 4. Rome's Prosperity whence § 5. Wonders among Gentiles for the fulfilling of Prophecies § 6. For the punishment of Nations ripe for Excision § 7. Empires raised miraculously for the common good CHAP. XI The Deficiency of the false Characters of true Miracles § 1. Heathen Wonders unprofitable § 2. Of an impious Tendency § 3. Not above the power of Nature § 4. Moses and the Magicians Rodds into serpents § 5. The suns standing still and going back The Persian Triplasia § 6. Darkness at our Saviours Passion § 7. Christs Resurrection the Broad-seal set to the Gospel CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity lays the Ax to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and power § 5 Real Exornations before Verbal Encomiums Christian Religion 's APPEAL To the BARR of Common Reason c. The First Book It was morally impossible that the Apostolical Church should delude the World with feigned Miracles or Stories CHAP. I. The Contents The Age wherein the Apostles flourish'd was sufficiently secured against the Impostures of Empiricks by its Knowledge in Physicks Ignorance in Naturals the Mother of superstitious Credulity The Darkness at our Saviours Crucifixion compared with that at Romulus his Death Heathen Records of the Darkness of Christ's Passion Sect. 1. HOW easily how certainly would the fraud have been detected had our Saviour and his Apostles wrought their wonderful Cures and stupendous Works by the Application of Natural Causes That Age wherein they were done being an Age of the most improved Wits in Natural Science that the benign Genius of any Age had till then or hath to this day produced Pliny that great Secretary of Nature so industrious a searcher into her Mysteries as in pursuit of the knowledge of the Causes of Vesuviums Conflagration he made so near an approach to that burning Mountain while the dreadful fragor of that fierce Eruption put the most undaunted Spirits into that fright as they fled as fast and far from it as their heels would carry them as he was stifled with its Sulphureous Steam choosing rather to die in the attempt of seeking out than to live in the ignorance of Natures secrets and to throw himself into its flaming Mouth by which it vented what was in its Heart rather than not to know from what abundance of the Heart it s now opened and gaping Mouth spake This unparallel'd Example for our modern Virtuosi who think they infinitely oblige Humane kind and let them never râ—ap the fruit of their ingenuous labours who grudge them that honour by the Experiments they make at the Expence of so much sweat and with the hazzard of stopping their own breath with the Exhalations of their Furnaces This so diligent an Attender upon Natures Cabinet-council was our Saviour's Contemporary by that compute of his age which his Nephew Plinius Secundus gave to Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. Epist. 16. requesting from him an account of his Unkles death that he might in his History transmit to posterity the memory of so brave an Exploit A little before him in years and not behind him in sagacity after Natures footsteps flourish'd Mithridates King of Pontus whose name to this day is famous in Dispensatories Regum Orientis post Alexandrum Magnum maximus the greatest of all the Eastern Kings after Alexander the Great so potent as he held the Romans in play 40 years and in his ruine involved almost the whole East and North L. Florus Appianus c. having 25 Provinces under his Dominion and understanding as many Languages as well as the Natives so that he answered all Embassadors in their Mother Tongue Agellius noct Att. l. 17. c. 17. Ingentis
pieces At the lowest rate it demonstrates to what an height those curious cursed arts were then grown to Can we think that St. Paul would have singled out that place where Satan was inthron'd to have wrought miracles in for the confirmation of the Divinity of the Gospel had they not been special miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Luke stiles them Act. 19. 11 12. Would he have given experiments of the healing vertue conveyed from his body to aprons and handkerchiefs where counter-charming amulets were of that common use as the proverb of Ephesia Alexipharmaca speaks them to have been What would it have profited to have invocated the name of the Lord Jesus over the sick there where were extant such a number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of books teaching how to unravel the Conjurers work had the Apostle not been assured that the vertue of that name and of his own body through that name was both as to cause and effect above every name above any word they could find in their books of curious Arts that name of Judahs Gods imposing having infinitely more power than the word of Ida's Tactyls invention though it came not with that boysterous harshness as did their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Clemens reckons them in the place above quoted Sect. 2. This Image of Diana this counterfeit of the Divine Magia descending from faln Jupiter was not only worship'd at Ephesus and in all Asia but throughout the Roman Empire In whose Metropolis the Sect of those black Philosophers was grown so numerous under Tiberius as his decree to banish them the City had taken effect if the multitude of Families which that hook threatned to extirpate and their promise to give over the practice of those curious arts had not made the Emperour relent Sueton. Tiberius 36. By this connivance Magical operations attain'd to that perfection in Nero's Reign as men could not promise themselves to find their grounds on that side of the hedge next morning where they left them over-night For Pliny lib. 28. reports that at that time an Olive-yard belonging to Vectius Marcellus was by Magick removed one night unto the other side of the high-way A thing so strange as I should hardly give credit to Livies report but that I find Apuleius make mention of it in his Apologie as a thing so usual and ancient as the Laws of the twelve Tables made provision against it by making it capital The naming of Apuleius his Apology brings to mind the occasion of it which was to purge himself of the crime of Magick wherewith he was charged before Claudius Maximus Lievtenant of Africa as Apollonius Thyaneus was of the same crime before Domitian A pair of the fiercest Pagan adversaries to our Religion August de Civitat 8. 19. The Jews indeed had a sharper edge against us and as strange a back as Hell could forge coming not one whit behind the Gentile in his proficiency in the black Art being grown more Samaritan than the Samaritan himself 1. Not only in their charmings by the explication of the Tetragrammaton Jehovah in twelve and in forty two letters to which they imputed that force as they affirm'd with no less blasphemy to their own than our Religion that Moses wrought all his miracles by means of Shemhamphorash the twelve-letter'd explication of the name Jehovah ingraven on the rod of God And that our Jesus by vertue of the same sowed within his skin effected those great works which he performed And that Rabbi Chanina by vertue of the two and forty letter'd name of God did whatsoever he would The Jews father'd this Art upon Solomon who they say left forms of conjurations of the efficacy whereof one Eleazar gave proof before Vespasian and his Sons and their whole Army Josephus being present as himself reports Antiquit. lib. 8. cap. 2. Yea that whosoever knew these explications being modest humble of a middle age not given to anger or drunkenness and wore them about him would be belov'd above and below in heaven and in earth rever'd and fear'd of men and heir of this and the world to come Buxtorf lexic. voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. But in their Wisemens reading certain verses over wounds laying Phylacteries upon sick persons charming away serpents and an evil eye of which practices the Jerusalem Talmudists amongst whom our Saviour converst make frequent mention In particular they tella story in Sotah of R. Meirs being too hard for an Inchantress and in Sanhedrim R. Joshuah out-vying a Samaritane conjurer of Tyberias quoted by Dr. Light foot in his Harmony It were endless to trace Josephus through all those passages where he describes Judaea in our Saviours time to have been over-run with Magical Juglers Under Felix saith he Judaea was again full of Magical Impostors and Seducers of the unskilful vulgar who by their inchantments drew companies into the wilderness promis4ng they would shew them from heaven manifest signs and prodigies at the same time a certain Jew out of Aegypt came to Jerusalem professing himself a Prophet who perswaded the multitude to follow him unto Mount Olivet promising that from thence they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall so flat as through their ruines there should be a way opened into the City Joseph Ant. Jud. 20. 6. Which Aegyptian in another place he styles Magician Jos. 〈◊〉 Jud. 2. 12. Nay he scarce mentions a sticker in the Jewish wars upon whom he sets not this brand that he was a jugling conjurer Such was John the son of Levias c. Josep 〈◊〉 J. 4. 4. Sect. 3. The Primitive Church was so beset with these snares of Hell as she thought good to caution her Catechumens of the danger of falling into them â—not only by informing them that in their renouncing the Devil and all his worship at Baptism they renounc'd Auguries Divinations Amulets Magical Inscriptions on Leaves Witchcraft Incantation and calling up of Ghosts Id. Catech. illuminat 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But by inserting into the Greek Liturgies this form of abrenuntiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I renounce Conjurations Charmes Amulets and Phylacteries St. â—yril Catech. Mystag 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Cat. c. But what need we any other Witness of the infamy of that Age for the then general spreading of this Diabolical Art than the Satyrical reflections which their own Poets made upon it Juvenal in his sixth Satyr Horace in his Epode against Canidia and Virgil in his Pharmaceutria do in the chain of their Golden Verses hale that Cerberus out of his Kennel into so clear a Sun-shine so manifestly discover those depths of Satan and bring to light those hidden things of darkness as the reading of their Poems is enough to initiate their over-curious Readers in those mysteries of iniquity which were then working and the translation of them might lay a temptation before the ductile vulgar to essay the efficacy of their
Writings said he would speak of all things she acts her part here so poorly as she deserves to be hiss'd off the Stage and make way for Religion Such things as these we rather desire to know than do know saith Velleius in Ciceron de natura Deorum lib. 1. Quae talia suxt ut optata magis quà m inventa videantur Sciscitor cur mundi aedificatores repentè extiterint innumerabilia ante saecula dormirent non enim si mundus non erat saecula nulla erant saecula dico non ea quae dierum noctiúmque numero annuis cursibus conficiuntur sed fuit quaedam ab infinito tempore aeternitas quam nulla temporum circumscriptio metiebatur spatio verò qualis ea fuerat intelligi non potest quòd nè in cogitationem quidem cadit ut fuerit tempus aliquod nullum cùm tempus esset Isto igitur tam immenso spatio quaero Balbe cur Pronoea vestra cessaverit Velleius in Cicer. de nat deor l. 1. that is in brief why was the World made no earlier Cicero's Eloquence never stammer'd so his Inventions were never so nonplus'd as when he would describe the Order and Method of the Creation of the World in his Book de Universitate where he becomes so vain in his Imagination and plays the fool so with Philosophical Wisdom as I wonder not that Velâ—eius should say à Philone didicistis nihil scire Ye Philosophers have learn'd of your Masters to know nothing in Cicer. de nat deorum l. 1. Or that Cotta should tell Balbus after his large Discourse of Providence Non igitur adhuc intelligo hoc esse credo equidem sed nihil docent Stoici I am not one jot wiser for all thy reasons I believe indeed what thou sayest is true but the Stoicks do not teach the reason of it Upon which Lactantiuss observes Tullius expositis horum omnium de mortalitate immortalitate animae c. sententâ—â— harum inquit sententiarum quae vera sit Deus aliquis viderit Lactan. de div praem 7. 8. And hath this Note upon Anaxagoras who affirm'd the Snow to be black Hic est ilie qui se idcirco natum esse dixit ut solem coelum videret qui in terra nihil videbat sole lucente de fals sap l. 3. cap. 23. This is be that said he was born to contemplate the Sun and Heaven and yet he could not in the clear Sun-shine see what lay at his foot § 4. Moses a better Philosopher than Cartesius or any of the Mechanicks But Religion no sooner drops from her sacred Lips the first word we read in Moses and the Eagle-wing'd Evangelist In the beginning was the Word all things were made by it than she is received with general acclamations And by that time she had utter'd Let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the Fowl of the Air c. Reason her self claps her hands and cries plaudite that natural Logick that 's every man's Birth-right adores this rising Sun whose resplendent Beams discover those latent Reasons her self could not grope out and welcoms these discoveries with with a thankful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as great an exuberancy of joy as Pythagoras conceiv'd when upon his finding out some Philosophical Experiment he sacrificed a whole Oxe to the Muses He had been more just had he crown'd the Fountain whence he drew better Conclusions than the rest of Philosophers to wit the sacred Philosophy of Moses Cicero de natura deorum l. 3. pag. 149 Ingenuously confessing that had she not ploughed with God's Heifer she should never have found out these Riddles of his Providence Tatianus amongst the reasons he gives why he embrac'd the Christian Faith names this for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rational account which that gives of the Creation of all things Indeed it were to be wished that Moses his Philosophy were more studied as that which is the only Expedient fully to satisfie inquisitive minds For though the old and modern Mechanick Philosophy be of excellent use to inform us of those Causes which partake most of Matter and live next door to our Senses yet whoever follows them home will see them make doubles before they come to their seat at a stand in their progress through intermediate to the prime and only independent Cause and not able to joyn the inferiour Links of the Chain to that upper part of it that 's fasten'd to Jupiter's Chair How much more rationally is the Sun's Motion for instance deduced to the power of the divine Fiat to the force imprest upon it by that Omnipotent hand out of which it first came than either to those intelligences which Aristotle invented to move it as a Dog in a Wheel or such Jack-pullies and Weights of I know not what Atoms which our modern Wits have fancied for the Springs of his Motion After the same manner that that which Proclus calls the Soul of the Universe wheels about the Primum mobile staret si unquam stantem animam reperiret as he is quoted by Macrobius in som. Scipionis 1. 17. Of such whimsical Philosophers well saith Lactantius Multò sceleratiores qui arcana mundi hoc coeleste templum prophanare impiis disputationibus quaerunt de fals sapien l. 3. cap. 20. If it be accounted sacrilege to profane Temples of Wood and stone how much more impious are they who labour to prophane the secrets of Nature and this heavenly Temple the Universe with their godless Disputations I wonder that the Doctrine of Atoms blusheth not to see that variety and yet constancy of the admirably disposed Colours in Birds and Flowers that it is not overcome with smelling that variety of scents issuing from Herbs of different kinds which can with no more reason be deemed to be the Effects of the blind fortuitous Concourse of Atoms than the first Propunder of this Hypothesis could expect that that Basket of Herbs which his Wife threw up to the roof of his Hall should fall down in the form of a well-order'd Sallad into a dish she set on the floor We may believe that the Painter's Pencil thrown in a rage at the lips of the picture of an Horse might perchance supply the defect of Art and make the lively representation of Foam with the same degree of certainty as we believe the blind man caught the Hair But he that would attempt to perswade us that the whole Horse was drawn after that manner must first repute us more doltish than Asses To whom can I better resemble these Kitchin-Doctors than to Children at a Puppet-play who minding the various motions of the Images and fancying a spring thereof within themselves independent to that hand which behind the Curtain puts them upon and directs them in those Motions beat their brains and set their fancies a work to find out the Causes of such strange Effects and after all the fluctuations of their mind produce nothing but froth
other men pour out openly for a sound Mind a good Name c. as tending more than these towards the conforming of those Votaries to the God whom they invocated had they indeed deemed that Letcher to have been God Jupiter The most audacious of them durst not thus have pull'd him by the Beard had they thought him whom the Poets painted to have been a living Lion 'T is too manifest that the Poets charming Style did insinuate those Ideas of the Gods that they drew into the minds of many especially of such Persons as were preoccupied with inclinations to those Vices for facilè credimus quod volumus and that out of that Pondora's Box issued those Debaucheries that over-spread the Pagan World When I was a Boy saith Menippus in Lucian Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heard Homer and Hesiod singing the Warrs Seditions Adulteries Rapes Incests of the Gods I was verily perswaded that all these things were good and comely for I could not imagine that the Gods would have done them had they not they look'd upon them as vertuous Who would not saith St. Austin think that course of life to be followed that is presented in Stage-plays instituted by divine Authority rather than that that is commended to us by Laws that are but of humane Institution Quae actitantur ludis authoritate divinâ institutis quà m quae scriptitantur legibus humano consilio promulgatis de civit 2. 8. And therefore he concludes that the Devil 's grand Design in setting abroach the Poetical Divinity was to ingulph the World in those beastly sins the Poets feign'd the Gods to be Actors of he by this device de civit 2. 20. furnishing wicked men with a Cloak for their most sordid Immoralities borrowed from the Wardrobe of Heaven spurring them on to all manner of lewdness that they might grow up into a Conformity to those whom they worshipped and putting a check to all vertuous Motions for fear of seeming therein to outstrip their Gods and thereby to incurr their displeasure Quibus nihil aliud actum est quà m ut pudor hominibus peccandi demeretur si tales Deos credidissent Senec. de beata vita cap. 26. This would be the effect of mens believing the Gods to be such as the Poets describe them viz. that men would not be ashamed of vitious living This was the Ravishers Cloak Ego homuncio id non facerem quòd Deus qui templa coeli summo sonitu concutit Ego verò illud feci lubens Ter. Eunuch This was the fewel of Lasciviousness cùm dira libido Moverit ingenium Pers. Sat. 3. Alledged to this purpose by St. Austin de civit 2. 7. Hence the Authour of the Book of Wisdom Cap. 14. 24 25 26. imputes it to Heathenish Idolatry That men kept neither Lines nor Marriages any longer undefiled but either one slew another traiterously or grieved him by Adultery so that there reigned in all men promiscuously Blood Manslaughter Theft Dissimulation Corruption Unfaithfulness Tumults Perjury disquieting of good Men forgetfulness of good Turns changing of Sex c. Hence Philo Judaeus tells Caligula That should he by his slaughters and impieties gain the repute of being a God it would eternize the repute of those Villanies and perpetuate the practice of them as laudable de legat ad Caium fol. 629. So that it is beyond the reach of human Apprehension to conceive that the Poets Creed should be universally embrac'd and that belief not turn the World into a mere Chaos in point of Morality And therefore the Generality of Mankinds retaining some Sentements of good and evil is a plain Demonstration that the Belief of the Poets was not Catholick that the far greater part of Heathens dissembled with the Poetical Gods as most Christains do with the true drawing near him with the Lip but in Heart denying him or in the Apostles language professing that they know him but denying him indeed § 3. Vertue made Gods of Men Vice Devils of Gods in vulgar esteem That it was Vertue promoted men at first to the honour of being God-born or Gods Incarnate would be evidenc'd beyond all Contradiction could we retrieve Pagan History to the first Original but that being as impossible as to count the Waves of the Sea with that noted fool Caecilion in Aelian Aelian var. hist. 13. 15. tit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall not lanch out into that deep but creep by the shore of these common and universally-received Maxims 1. The first that bore the Name of Gods were the Founders and great Benefactors of their several Nations who for their Vertues at the breaking of the Shell of Mortality were hatch'd into Deities by the warmth of the Peoples resentment of the Benefits flowing to them from those Second Causes after they had lost the true Tradition of the First and were grown towards him unthankful The Cretian Jupiter of whom the Poets write had two Name-sakes elder than himself Cicero de natura Deorum whose true story Ennius the Translator of Eumeruus thus concludes Deinde Jupiter postquam quinquies circuivit terram reliquitque hominibus Leges Mores Frumentáque paravit multáque alia bona fecit immortali gloria memoriáque affectus sempiterna monimenta suis reliquit Vide Lactant. de falsa relig 1. 11. And Diodor. Sicul. lib. 3. antiq where he saith the Aethiopians thought the Gods that is of a second Edition to be either sempiternal as the Sun and Moon c. or such as had been Men but for their Vertues and Benefits bestowed on Mankind were made Gods Diod. Sic. ant l 3. pag. 72. Hence that form in the 12 Tables Divos colunto ollos quos in coelum merita vocaverint Herculem Liberum Aesculapium Castorem Pollucem Quirinum c. Cicero de Legibus lib. 2. pag. 319. Hence Virgil Aen. 6. de Saturno Qui genus indocile dispersum montibus altis Composuit legésque dedit Macrobius in somno Scipionis l. 1. c. 8 9. upon these words of Cicero Omnibus qui patriam conservârint adjuverint auxerint certum esse in coelo definitum locum ubi beati aevo sempiterno fruuntur hath this Observation hinc profecti hinc revertuntur To all those who have preserved succoured benefitted their Countries there is a certain place assigned in Heaven where they enjoy a blessed Eternity that is saith Macrobius thence they came and thither they return And cap. 9. he quotes Hesiod numbering the ancient Kings among the Gods Indigetes divi fato summo Jovis hi sunt Quondam homines modò cum superis humana tuentes Largi ac magnifici Nay 't is Cotta's observation in Cicer. de natura deor that the Egyptians worship'd no Beast but in consideration of some benefit it confer'd upon them Ibis maximam vim serpentum conficiunt possum de Ichneumonum utilitate de Crocodilorum de Felium dicere belluas à barbaris propter beneficium consecratas For the same Opinion he a little after quotes
to be not of God's Will as St. Austin de haeresibus affirms Hermes to have thought the ineffable Word to be Filius benedicti Dei bonae voluntatis The Son of the blessed God and his good Will upon which St. Austin thus flouts the Pagan Quaerebas Pagane conjugem Dei audi Mercurium Abjiciatur quaeso ex corde tuo impura pravitas Conjux Dei bona voluntas est Thou demandest of what Wife God begat his Son Let Mercury answer thee Cast I pray thee impure pravity out of thine heart The wife of God is his own good Will of that he begat his Son In the expressing of whose Eternal Generation though the Gentiles spake not by Rule as we do yet they blunder'd out our sence and communicated the Reliques of the Old Tradition of the eldest Nations in such Terms as they could Trismegistus referente Lactantio de vera Religione 4. 6. in his Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfect Word The Lord and Creator of all things whom we usually call God begat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the second Person visible and sensible I call him sensible not saith Trismegistus because he hath sence that 's not our business now to resolve but because the Father sends him to reveal himself to the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parallel to St. Paul's God manifest in the flesh to our Saviours He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also and to St. John's No man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten son who is in the bosom of God he hath reveil'd him Hermes proceeds because therefore he produced him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first and one and alone and because he was pleasing in his sight and full of Grace of all truly good things he sanctified him and loved him exceedingly as his own proper Son Upon which St. Austin hath this Observation Quem primò factum dixit poste à unigenitum appellavit Augustin de 5. haeresibus him whom before he said God made he afterwards calls his Son and begotten This Son of God Trismegistus as he is there quoted by Lactantius de vera Religione l. 4. c. 6. stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Workman and Sibyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Counceller because by his Councel and Hand he fram'd the World These passages in truth as well in the judgement of Lactantius and St. Austin for he makes the same both quotations and applications of Hermes and the Sibyllines tom 6. de quinque haeresibus are a Transcript of that divine Discourse of Solomon touching Wisdom Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old when he prepared the heavens I was there then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight Trismegistus referent Lactant. l. 4. c. 7. affirms That the Cause of this Cause is the Will of the sacred Goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which produced that God God the Son whose name it is not possible for humane mouth to express and a little after speaking to his Son saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a certain ineffable word of Wisdom of that Lord of all of whom we have preoccupations or preconceptions which to expressis above the power of man This ineffable word Zeno asserts to be the Maker and Governour of the whole World Id. ib. cap. 9. item Tertual apolog contragentes cap. 21. Apud vestros quoque sapientes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est sermonem atque rationem constat artificem videri universitatis Hunc enim Zeno determinat factorem qui cuncta in dispositione formaverit c. § 3. Now that he who is this Light of Light this God-born of the Essence of his Father before all Worlds was in the opinion of the wisest Heathens to become Man for the Redemption of the World to become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortal in regard of his assumed humane Nature as the Milesian Oracle answered those that enquired whether he were God or man may be evident from the Testimony of the Sibyls and indeed was from thence so clearly evinc'd by the Patriarchs of the Christian Cause as the Adversaries had no place of refuge left but this sorry one That the Verses alledged were not Sibylline but forged by the Christians as long since complain'd St. Austin Quod à sanctis Angelis vel ab ipsis Prophetis nostris habere poterunt quae cùm proferimus à nostris ficta esse contendunt August de consens Evangel lib. 1. c. 20. Tom. 4. pag. 164. b. That which the Sibyls sing touching Christ They might learn either of the holy Angels or the Writings of the Prophets but when we urge Pagans with their Verses they contend that we Christians forged them And before him Constantine in his Oration cap. 19. where he mentions and answers that Calumny In which way of calumniating that most immaculate Spouse of Christ the Primitive Church with a suspicion of the most damnable Adulterations that any Society can be guilty of some of our Modern Criticks have not been afraid nor asham'd to run with the Pagan Wits but with far more excess of impious scorn and to the utter subversion of all rational Belief for if that Church was so far deserted not only of Grace but common Honesty as to forge Sibylline what assurance can we have that she did not forge Divine Oracles I shall therefore first for the preventing of an inundation of Irreligion make up the Bank that has been cut by those too sharp Wits to whom nothing was wanting to render them absolutely and without exception judicious save the learning of the first Lesson in that Science To be wise with Sobriety 1. Lactanctius de vera sapientia 4. 15. would tell these Calumniators that were they as well read as they pretend themselves to be they would never have made this Objection Quod profectò non putabit qui Ciceronem Varronémque legerint aliósque veteres qui Erythraeam Sibyllam caeterásque commemorant quarum exempla proferrimus qui Authores autè obierunt quà m Christus secundùm carnem nasceretur The Verses of the Sibyls which the Church alledged she found quoted in the writings of Tully Varro and other old Writers who were in their Graves before the blessed Babe lay in the Manger Touching Varro the same Father de falsa Relig. l. 1. c. 6. gives us this account and therein resolves the Question of Tacitus whether there were more Sibyls than one Annal. 6. An una seu plures fuerint Sibyllae M. Varro than whom never man was more learned either among the Greeks or Latins in those Books which he writ to Caesar the Great Pontiff speaking of the Quindecimviri saith that the Sibylline Books were not the Works of any one Sibyl though they were all called Sibylline because all Women-prophetesses were of the ancients called Sibyls either from the Delphick Prophetess of that name or from their
kind of purgation for that part of man that Porphyry calls intellectual another for that he calls spiritual and another for the Body therefore hath our most faithful and powerful Purifier and Saviour taken whole Man In which Point the Heathen World saw itself labour under that great disadvantage as at the first starting of the Question the Roman Empire would by an Edict prohibiting humane Sacrifices have wiped her mouth with Solomon's Whore and denied the Fact had not the Patrons of the Christian Cause made palpable Demonstration of it by pointing to those Humane Victims to the Latian Jove that were openly sacrificed in Rome it self and to other Deities through the whole body of the Empire Tertul Apol. 8. Upon which disappointment those Philosophers which enter'd the lists against the Church or wrote in defence of Natural Theology not daring for very shame to deny the fact turn it into all imaginable shapes but of its natural Form that it might not serve the Christian's turn Hence Plutarch decries humane Sacrifices as barbarous and well he might for so they were Porphyry explodes the Vulgar Opinon that the blood and steam of sacrificed Animals was the food of the Gods affirming that none but Cacodaemons can delight in such food wherein the Christian does more cordially concurr with him than Jamblicus his Fellow-philosopher for he though he give him his say in gross yet takes it away by retail or rather consents to him in general words but opposeth him in deed and in particular Conclusions Jamblicus de mysteriis tit De sacrificiis unde vim habeant quid conferant tit Quae ratio sacrificiorum quae utilitas In all which windings and turnings more than I am willing to follow them in they did but seek Subterfuges from the dint of the Christians Plea from uuniversal Practice by perverting the state of the Question which was not Whether humane Sacrifices were of any efficacy towards the averting of evil or the obtaining of good in deed and reality but Whether in the World's Opinion they were not of that tendency nor whether they were justifiable in Morality But whether they were practised or no as propitiations in Divinity which Jamblicus himself is forc'd to confess more than once Good men saith he being expiated by Sacrifices receive good things from the Gods and have evil things driven away tit Chaldeor mysteria And again The Prophets foretold impending judgments and admonish'd People by Sacrifices to appease the Divine Nemesis tit Inspiratus vacat ab actione And lastly having assigned the cause of the wonderful efficacy of Sacrifices to be a certain friendship accommodation and habitude inclining the Workman to respect his Workmanship he concludes thus When we take and sacrifice any thing living that hath sincerely and exactly observed the Will and Decree of its Maker by such a Sacrifice we properly move causam opificiam the working cause to do us good and bring us releif tit Quae ratio sacrific quae utilitas How much more moving must the Oblation of Christs blood be who exactly fulfill'd the Will of God not only by a passive kind of Obedience such as Vegitatives and Animals yeild to the Law of Creation such as Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour fulfilling his word Psal. 148. 8. nor by a bare not actually sinning such as Infants yield but by an every way compleat fulfilling all Righteousness and who was made a Victim not by force and compulsion but by his own free oblation of himself It is St. Jerom's observation upon Daniel's seventh Vision That when ever Expiation was to be made Michael was sent from God with instructions to Israel whose name signifies who like the Lord. God by this intending to teach us that none can make expiation but God alone ut scilicet intelligatur quia propitiationem vel expiationem nullus possit offere nisi deus And Philo Judaeus his upon Levit. 4. 3. that Moses does as good as affirm the true High-Priest to be without sin tantum non dicens verum Pontificem expertem peccati esse de victimis pag. 528. The Jewel I have been all this while raking for in the Dunghil of Heathen Philosophy § 7. The second Branch of the last general Hypothesis common to us and Philosophers viz. That God-saviour incarnate must work Man's restauration into Communion with God by communicating divine Oracles to the World lies more bare-fac'd in their Writings and that it does so is not disputed by any that I have met with and therefore I shall quickly dispatch that point Jamblicus affirms that the Law of Religion was given by divine inspiration from the first Father of the World from whom were all Symbols in Sacrifices signifying some invisible thing Quae lex data est divinitùs à primo patre mundi a quo omnia symbola in sacrificiis significantia aliquid occultissimum Jambl. de myster tit de providentia pag. 31. that is from the supream God by the middle Deities for the same Jamblicus speaking of the Rites used in the Worship of the Gods de myst tit quae ratio sacrific pag. 135. lays this down as the common Opinion of all their Theologues That these Ceremonies are not the Inventions of Men nor obtain'd Authority by Custom and Prescription but were divine Revelations communicated to the several Nations by those Deities to whom God had committed the care of those Nations these are those local God-Man-Saviours concerning whom we have spoke already Of the same tendency is that fore-quoted Clause out of Celsus where he saith that these Presidents did appoint the several Religions that obtain'd place in their respective Cures congruously to the Tempers of the Climes and People committed to their trust and that therefore those Religions were all good and that the very best quoad hic and nunc for every particular Nation which their local Praesidents had instituted And that of Tully Mercurius tertius quem colunt Phenentae quem tradunt Aegyptiis leges literas tradidisse Apollinem Arcades Nomionem appellant quòd ab eo se Leges ferunt accepisse Cicero de natura deorum lib. 3. pag. 133. 134. With which concurrs that Testimony of Plato in his Symposium those Semidei that mediate and keep up a correspondency betwixt the Gods and us do bring to us the injunctions of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apuleius de daemonio Socratis calls them Interpreters on both sides and bearers of Salutations St. Austin has a whole Chapter upon this Subject an daemonibus nunciis interpretibus dii utantur de Civitate lib. 8. cap. 21. And that of Jamblicus de mysteriis titulo de ordine superiorum quaesunt in diis c. quae sunt in diis ineffabilia occulta daemones exprimunt atque patefaciunt Those things that are ineffable in the Gods the Demons declare and reveal to us Hence we find this clause he gave Laws inserted in the Histories of all the Heroes vide Lact. de fal rel
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. 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
Wounds he hereby gave his Cause and might have avoided if he had but dar'd to have chosen that ground 1. Had he excepted against the Truth of the History and could have gotten the better there he had been absolute Master of the Field could he for shame have denyed the doing of the Miracles the Doctrine delivered would not have been able to stand out against his assaults who would have followed a Doctrine so repugnant to all mens carnal interest so far above all humane Reason had not God given it out under his own Hand and Seal without which Testimony of Christ's Mission from Heaven he would but have been as a private man and his word of no more than nay not so much as the Doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees for they sate in Moses's Chair and could shew Gods ordinary Commission and therefore if they could have invalidated Christ's extraordinary Call they needed not have feared that his VVord would have been taken before theirs Now what shorter or clearer way could they possibly have proceeded in to make void Christ's Commission even to all mens satisfaction than by proving that those great Works which are reported of him were not done by him had that been feasible Again could they have proved that he did not preach such Doctrine as the Gospel presents the Miracles would have wheel'd about to them and have proved as good a defence of Pharisaism as they are as the Case now stands of Christianity If it had not been so famously known what Christ preach'd as they could not deny nor pervert his Doctrine they might have father'd their own upon him and have alledged the Miracles wrought by him in confirmation of it Had not the Jew wanted face or courage to fall on here he could not have wanted men their love to sin and priding themselves in the Covenant of Peculiarity would have furnish'd him with whole Legions of Voluntiers besides those he might have prest with Bribes as he did the Witnesses and Souldiers to make a breach upon the Truth of Gospel-history had not that attempt been looked upon as desperate upon what other imaginable account can it be that he sneaks about the Shore where ever and anon he either runs on ground or splits against the Rocks and makes such miserable Shipwrack of his Reputation Why avoids he the open Sea and dare not encounter the Gospel there where if he can put her to the worst all 's his own Can any thing stand in his way but cowardise and the desperateness of the adventure It is reported of the northern Augustus the great Gustavus that he seldom brought into the Field an Army of above 10000 men but those veteranes and experienc'd Solders chusing rather to animate a well-set than a corpulent and bulkie Body Such was Christ's Army of Martyrs whereby he subdued the World to the belief of the Gospel and so formidable to the Jew as he despaired to break its ranks with all the force he could raise Methinks I hear him thus discoursing with himself Should I say this or that Passage in the History of Christ is a forgery I could have Seconds more than a good many I could levy more Legions to employ in that service than the Gospel hath Squadrons to defend its Truth But alas mine would be as so many droves of Sheep led up against Lyons Those that she hath are faithful and tried veterane Soldiers Eye and Ear-witnesses of what was done and said and the greatest part of them prest at first against the natural inclination of their will against the Religion of their Country to be on her side and such in this case will do best service meerly by such Conviction as they are not able to withstand It grieved them to hear and see such things but such is the Evidence whereby they commend themselves to the Consciences of all that see or hear them as they cannot be flattered threatned excommunicated reason'd into a denyal of them Who can I muster up that will not be as Grashoppers in the eyes and hands of such Gyants the greatest part of those I can rally being such as were out of the way when the things under debate were done the rest such as all know to be my own Creatures but the worst is when they come to charge they will not be kept in any Order but fall foul upon one another and be in as many different Tales as they are Persons I must therefore let the Gospel alone as to the Truth of its History which sails with so strong a gale as it were desperate fool-hardiness to affront it directly I will rather try what can be done by Consequences I will give it Sea-room to sail by perhaps I may espie something in the works done that may make men suspect they are not the Finger of God something in the doctrine delivered that may argue it not to come from Heaven but as to the doing of the Works the Delivery of the Doctrine they are so manifest as it were madness to oppose the Report This is the plain English of the Jew's behaviour in his opposing the Gospel § 3. Another irrepairable loss he hath sustain'd to the disparagement of his Cause by permitting the History of the Gospel to pass currant through the first Age without any offer of his opposition is that he hath hereby deprived himself and his friends of the advantage of playing an After-game Had he boldly calumniated the Truth of the Story something might have stuck that might have rendred it less credible and afforded its Adversaries in after-ages some colourable appearance against it but now he that lived upon the place and narrowly watched for Christ's halting for the faultring of the Pen of the sacred Scribes having nothing to say against these Matters of Fact has wholly disappointed and bereav'd succeeding Generations of all possible Pleas. Orpheum Poetam docet Aristoteles nunquam fuisse hoc Orphicum Carmen Pythagorici ferunt cujusdam fuisse Cecropis Cotta in Cicer. de natura deorum l. 1. Aristotle taught that there never was any such Poet as Orpheus and the Pythagoreans report that the Poem that goes under the name of Orpheus is the work of Cecrops But both he any they were too young to gain upon the VVorld's Faith that had been grounded upon the former ancient and universal Tradition that there was such a Poet and that the Verses that go under his name are his Let the Sceptick if he can produce one single Testimony of that validity that these against Orpheus are against the blessed Jesus How then can our Modern Atheist think his silly and importune Quarrels against the Evangelical History are of any Validity with intelligent Persons his Quarrels now in the end of the World sixteen hundred years too young to bear witness against that which its Contemporaries had not the face to deny If Jephtha's Replie to the King of Ammon demanding of him to restore the Towns which Israel had taken