the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato's Sentences entenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John's Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato's Sentence under the Rose CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviours Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry's Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. CHAP. VI. God the Light Man's Reliever § 1. Plebean Light mistaken for the true All-healing Light Joves and Vaejoves Mythology an help at a dead lift § 2. Wisdom begotten of God Man's Helper the Fathers Darling § 3. Made Man Sibyls maintain'd as quoted by Fathers Come short of Scripture-Oracles § 4. Virgil out of Sibyl prophesied of Christ. The Sibyllines brought to the Test. Tully's weak Exceptions against the Sibyllines § 5. Sibyl's Songs of God Redeemer the Eternal Word the Creator Apollo commends Christ. Local Saviours exploded CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry's Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham's departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of the Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christs Blood § 7. Mans Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the world by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how CHAP. VIII The Gospel calculated to the Meridian of the Old Testament § 1 In its Types § 2. Its Ceremonials fall at Christs feet with their own weight The Nest of Ceremonies pull'd down That Law not practicable § 3. Moses his Morals improved by Christ by better Motives Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4. It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul's Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School CHAP. IX Gospel-History agrees with Old Testament-prophecy § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophecies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob's Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor his Pole-money to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligation void They return to Aegypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah's God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles 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 Book III. THE ARGUMENT 3 We have as good grounds of Assurance that the matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles were done and delivered accordingly as they are therein related as we have or can have of the Truth of any other the most certain Relation in the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose Names they bear then any Man can have that he is his reputed Fathers Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks CHAP. II. The Suffrage of Adversaries to the testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples Civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny's information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximnus hated them for CHAP. III. The Substance of Christian Religion as it stands now in the Gospel is to be found in the Books of its Adversaries § 1. The Effigies of the Gospel is hung out where it is proscribed § 2. Hierocles attempting to outvie Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christs Doctrine may be traced out by the footsteps of the Hunters who pursued it CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found as asserted by the Church in those writings which opposed Christian Religion
dispencing of it as to several other heads of it While Celsus will needs make the Royal Law useless and needless as to the most part of it There is nothing saith he in the Christian Discipline new or worthy of commendation but is common to it and the Philosophers who before Christ have taught that there is to be expected Rewards of Virtue and Mulcts for Sin in the other World Orig. contr Cel. 1. 4. Christ tell us saith he we ought not to worship Gods made with hands that the Father is to be worship'd in Spirit Why we Philosophers account not Images of the Gods to be Deities we know that the Workmanship of wicked Artificers and villanous men as many times they are that grave these Images cannot be Gods we have learn'd of Heraclitus that they who adore liveless Statues do as simply as they that talk to Walls of the Persians that the Deity is not comprehended within any Structure made with hands and of Zeno Citiensis in his Book of the Common-wealth that he need not build Chappels that prepares the Temple of his own Soul for the entertainment of God Those very Laws which the Madaurencian Philosophers blamed as destructive to humane Societies Celsus mentions with Commendation as far more ancient than Christ. They have also saith he these Laws Thou must not repel injuries If any man smite thee on thy cheek turn the other to him this is an old Dictate long since utter'd by Socrates when he was disputing with Crito and mention'd by Plato in his Timaeus Orig. contr Cel. 7. 17. upon the same account he mentions the commendations which Christ gives to Humility Purity of Heart Pacateness of Spirit c. as better expressed by Plato in his Books of Laws advising him that would be happy to pursue Righteousness with an humble pure and pacate Mind Id lib. 5. cal 8. And the Caution that Christ gives against Covetousness Celsus in the same place affirmeth to have been derived from Plato whose saying that it is impossible for any man to be very rich and very good he parallels to that of Christ It 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 The mortiferousness of these Waters is to be cured by casting in that cruze of Salt which I have already exhibited and brought to hand in the second Book where I shewed that whatsoever points of abstruse knowledge occurr in the Schools they are beholding to the Temple for and are but Beams of that Light which Christ or his Spirit in the Prophets communicated to the World the last of which Prophets Writings are near as old as the first of Gentile Philosophers It were endless to enumerate the ecchoes of Christs Law which those Rocks that oppose it so articulately reverberate as a steadily listning Ear may take in the beginning middle and end of every Evangelical Precept from those mock-sounds in Heathen Authors I shall not therefore enlarge this Section with more Instances but conclude it with this Observation That the Adversaries in making reply to our urging them with the excellencie of Christs Law would not have taken that course as puts them upon such self-contradictory Salvoes if they durst for very shame the contrary was so palpable have denied them to be Christs Briefly we find in the Pagan Writers what they took to be Christ's Law and that which they opposed as such is the very same with that that the Gospel presents as such not one Egg is more like another than that Bracelet of Pearls which our Saviour fitted to the necks of his Disciples is to that which these impure Swine trample under their feet CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found as asserted by the Church in those Writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilat c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. § 1. 3. THe sum of the Christian Faith taught by Christ and his Apostles is intirely and in every branch of it recorded as such in the Authors that disputed against it For order and brevities sake I shall here instance in the several Articles of it comprised in that most admirable Compendium of it the Apostles Creed which as it has been taken for such by all Christians so it has been opposed as such by all Adversaries Article 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth That this Article as it is now profest by the Church and laid down in the New Testament was from the beginning held forth as a point of that Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles Preach'd and therefore not wrongfather'd upon them is manifest from those quotations out of Pagan Authors who affronted it upon that very account and only Reason because it was Christ's Doctrine Celsus from the practice of the Ophiani Hereticks who worship'd the Serpent as bestowing upon our first Parents the knowledge of good and evil a gift which God envied them as they blasphemously speak objects that Christians contrary to that faith which they profess worship another God than the Creator of all things to wit the Serpent Or. Con. Cels. 5. 16. As Celsus doth here confess that that Doctrine which our Bible exhibites touching Gods prohibiting Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge and the Serpents prevailing with Adam to eat of that Tree and the opening of Adam's eyes thereupon to discern good and evil and the Serpents infinuating to Adam that God envied him that knowledge c. was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles so his charging upon the Church that impious Practice of these Heriticks misgrounded upon the Churches Faith and which the Church exprest her abhorrencie of was no more equal dealing than that which the Romanists measure out to the British and other Protestant Churches when they lay to her charge the practices of such as are at as great a distance from Communion with her as with them You Christians saith Celsus profess you believe in and worship God the Creator of this Universe but since Plato saith it is hard to find out and know that God and impossible to communicate the knowledge of him to another is it like that you of all other men should attain to the knowledge of this God being fast bound in chains of ignorance so as you cannot see what is pure Idem 7. 14. Compare what the Christians teach with what the Philosophers guess concerning God and the controversie which of us have attained to a more perfect knowledge of God will easily be determined That God created man after his own Image was the Doctrine of Christ and the Primitive Church appears from Celsus his arguing that if the Christans
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
fifteenth of Tiberius wherein our great High Priest was officiating in the Temple and within the Veil of his Flesh It is Doctor Lightfoot's Observation that St. John in that half hours silence alludes to the People waiting silently at the Door while the Priest was officiating in the holy place Peace was then continued for other thirty Years even unto the fourth of Nero It remains now that we prove that during that last thirty Years of silence the Line of the Gospel was drawn out not only through all the Earth the Land of Jury but to the ends of the World the utmost Bounds of the Roman Pale Would the Atheist for proof of this acquiess in sacred Testimony I would alledge that of St. Paul Ro. 15. 19. where he writes that in his own line he had proceeded from Jerusalem the Center round about unto Illyricum fully preaching the Gospel so as he had no place left in those parts over which the Line of some Apostle had not been sttretch'd And then leave him to compute though St. Paul labour'd more than they all and therefore must have twelve to one reckoned to his proportion how far the lines of all the rest were stretched out before the general Peace was broke seeing the single Line of one of them had reach'd so far in Nero's second Year as Doctor Lightfoot dates that Epistle But to deal with the Atheist at his own Weapon I shall urge him with the Testimony of Tacitus who having occasion thereof ministred to him from Nero's charging Christians with the setting Rome on fire speaks of our Religion as famously known and by multitudes embrac'd at Rome long before that bloody Edict in Nero's twelfth The common People saith he call them Christians from one Christ who in the Reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate Governour of Judaea whose Religion though by Edicts suppressed presently upon its appearance yet grew under those Weights and brake out again not in Judaea only where it had its Original i. e. the Center whence its Line was drawn but even in Rome it self having reached so far and got so many Proselytes as though the Vulgar looked upon Christians as Persons of an execrable Religion as Enemies to Humane Kind and deserving the Extremities of most inhumane Afflictions and Punishments yet there was none of them so hard hearted as not to relent to see such huge Multitudes of them led to the Slaughter grieving that so much humane though as they thought Malignant blood should be poured out Tacit. annal 15. 233. Ergo abolende rumori Nâ—ro subdidit reos quaesitissimis paenis affecit quos per stagitium risos vulgus Christiarios appellabat auctor ejus nominis Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat non modo per Judaeam originem ejus whence their Liâ—e went out sed per Urbem etiam Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur deinde Ingens eorum multitudo haud perinde in crimine incendâ—â— quam odio humani generis connicti sunt unde quanquam adversus sontes novissima exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur Nay to that height was Christian Religion grown at Rome in the beginning of Nero's Reign as Suetonius Sueton. Nero 16. reckons his making Edicts for the suppressing of it among those Reformations he made at his coming to the Crown It will be in vain to urge to our Scepticks St. Paul's Testimony that the Gospel had got footing in Nero's Family yet it may perhaps seem to him less improbable that that Grain of Mustard-seed should sprought up in that barren Soil and malignant Influence if he be minded of the State of Affairs under Aurelian and that in spight of that Juncture our Religion so throve even in the Court as he suspects the Christian Party even among his Senators impeded the passing of the Decree for consulting the Sibylline Books when the Marcomanni invaded the Empire by that handsome Evasion that the Emperour was so valiant as he needed not consult the Gods which though Vopiscus interprets as a point of Flattery yet the Emperour laid it to another Father in that Letter he sent to the Senate to hasten their passing that Decree in these words transcribed by Vopiscus Miror vos sancti Patres tamdiu de aperiendis Sibyllinis dubitasse libris perinde quasi in Christianorum ecclesia non in Templo Deorum omnium tractaretis I wonder holy Fathers that you should be so long debating the question whether Sybill ' s Books in this Exigent should be consulted like as if you were handling this point in the Church of Christians and not in the Capitol the Temple of all the Gods If he had reason to suspect there was so great a Party in his Council of Christians so soon after the persecution raised by Valerianus as they might possibly impede the passing of that Decree what reason have we to conceive it unlikely that Christ should have his Church in Nero's House Vopiscus Aurelian And if notwithstanding the opposition it there found Christianity had gained that rooting in Rome it selfe as so huge a number dare seal the truth of it with their dearest Blood I dare refer it to all unbiassed Minds to think how it must spread in those parts of the Empire that were nearer Judaea as the main body of it was and less under inspection and then to pass their judgment whether Heathen History does not Eccho to that of the Apostle where he saith that not only the Christian Faith was known at Rome but the Faith of the Roman Christians was famous through the World at his writing his Epistle to them which bears date the second of Nero. CHAP. IX The Judean Stirs were the Empires Advantage against Surprisal § 1. Objections from the Commotions in Judea answered and retorted Those inconsiderable and not so great as that delicate and repining People would represent them § 2. The Stirs that were in Judea put the Ministers of State upon a more diligent enquiry into what there fell out whereby they got a more full information of the state of that great Controversie between the Jews and Christians § 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to fix her eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there as things of highest State-concern in respect of that then famous Eastern Prophecy of one to arise at that time in Judea who should be King of the Universe § 4. At that time when the Erection of an Universal Monarchy was according to that Prophecy expected appeared Persons of a more Lordly Spirit amongst the Romans than any former Age had brought forth Caesar and Pompey ' s Ambition sprung from this Prophecy The then greatest Spirits courted the Jews favour and used means that they might be that oriundus in Judaea § 5. The arts which the Roman Candidates for the Universal Monarchy used to bring the World into
Christ that speak him unlike that Messiah whom the Prophets delineate but this was but a Copy of his Countenance a Flourish of his Pen as Origen tells him for he pulls in his Horns as soon as he had shown them and is content to wave that discourse Orig. Con. Cels. lib. 2. cal 8. In the date of whose Face Times past present and to come Prophecy History bear that admirable proportion as the oldest age shews no wrincles but only shadows youth and the greenest Youth represents the sober look of gravest Age where yesterday and to day are the same Let the whole brood of Helicon's Brats the whole Fraternity of the Muses Sons compose such a Poem and with me they shall be no longer Semi-pagani half-witted Sciolists provided that till then the Apostles may not be such with them Christian Religion 's APPEAL To the BAR of Common Reason c. The Third Book We have as good Grounds of Assurance that the Matter of Fact and Delivery of Doctrine contain'd in the Gospel were done and delivered as they are reported there as we have or can have of any the most unquestionable Relation in the World CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose names they bear than any Man can have that he is his reputed Father's Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks § 1. ANd doubtless nothing can hinder any man in his wits from giving assent to this Proposition That the Framers of the Gospel were Persons endowed with Reason But then the Atheist puts in this Bar against his own and others Belief That Christianity possibly may have been lick'd into this form wherein the Scripture presents it after the Age of the Apostles by such Politicians as conceived it a good Epedient to keep men in Order out of an awe and reverence of Religion For the removal of this Scruple I shall prove in this third Book That we have as good Grounds of assurance that the Matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Gospel were done and delivered by Christ and his Apostles as we have or can have of any other the most certain and unquestionable Relation in the World Though we who live at this great distance from the Time wherein those Occurrences fell out are so far disadvantaged as 't is scarce to be hoped that obstinate and captious Gain-sayers who hate the Gospel for its Holiness and Strictness will acquiess in the clearest Demonstration we can lay before them Necsi solem quidem ipsum gestemus in manibus fidem accomodabunt ei doctrinae quae illos jubet c. Lactantius de divino praemio l. p. c. 1 Debaucht persons will not yield assent to a Doctrine that commands Holiness Justice and Temperance though for demonstration of the truth of it we should carry in our hands the Sun it self Before I make my defence saith Origen against Celsus lib. 1. calum 23. let me premise this That to vindicate the Truth of any History though never so true is a matter of exceeding difficulty and in some cases impossible If a man be frowardly bent to deny that the Grecians fought with the Trojans that Oedipus married his Mother Jocasta c. there 's no convincing of him there 's no remedy against the biting of a Sycophant Yet the abovesaid disadvantage hath this convenience attending it that it necessitates us to the use of soberness of Mind in seeking and receiving satisfaction For the things in question being done many generations before us it were the highest act of unreasonableness imaginable to expect or demand any other grounds of satisfaction than such as all men that are not besides themselves and incapacitated for rational Discourse in all other the like cases acquiess in without the least hesitancy that is Universal Tradition which is of that force as to leave all wise men as much assured of those Matters that are so communicated to them as of those they themselves are eye-witnesses of I can no more force my self out of an assurance that there were such men as Caesar Pompey Alexander such Cities as Troy Carthage Jerusalem than I can perswade my self to believe that I am not now writing Nay I should sooner be brought to doubt of this than that for I may perhaps for this once be but in a Dream but that the whole World of Authentick Historians who have conveighed the Tradition of those things to us should dream waking for so many Successions of Ages bids that manifest defiance to Reason and common Sence as I must grow blind on both these eyes before I can swallow that Flie. When I sift my Mind to find out the bottom of this invincible Assurance such thoughts as these comes to hand It is not any way my own Interest that byasseth me whether there ever were any such Men or Cities or no mihi nec seritur nec metitur I am no way concern'd in it I cannot possibly discover the least Atom of self in my tenacious and even obstinate adhering to such Propositions It must be therefore some pure Beam of refined Reason by which I clime up to this degree of Confidence I take up and hold to these Conclusions meerly as a Man as a reasonable Creature without circumstantiating my self with those moveable those separable Attributes of poor of rich wise foolish c. But find all Men in all Ages since have with one mouth either reported or assented by their silence to these Stories and Vox populi vox Dei The common vote of Man-kind is the voice of God If I deny the validity of such Testimony I banish all humane Converse out of the World It may here perhaps be objected that in these cases we suffer our Reason to be captivated to the general Vogue by slender presumptions and because we may without any considerable detriment ride with the stream we are willing to save our selves the labour of rowing against it but in Matters of so high a Concern as Religion Prudence should dictate to us the use of more Caution than to be born down with the Current But what we take up in trust of the Publick Faith upon such Universal Testimonies is not credulously imbraced but forceth it self upon us with main force of common Reason I was almost saying of demonstration for else these Confidences might possibly be dismounted If these assurances were not built upon the firmest Grounds they might be undermined if they were not mann'd and garrison'd by the strongest Reason other Reasons might enforce to a surrender as we
in magnificence Instructive as pointing to the bruised heel of the Womans Seed as being so chargeable and toilsome as it was not credible that any Nation should by their own free choice encumber themselvs with so burdensome a service nor possible they could be induc'd to the embracing of it by any Motives inferiour to those dreadful appearances of the divine Majesty at the promulgation of it and Menacies annext to it Add to all this their sojourning in Aegypt the Nursery of Idolatry so many hundred years Their settlement in Canaan where the worship of Devils had taken deepest root so near to Caldaea where the Primitive Tradition had been first corrupted The improvement of the Art of Navigation by Solomon Their several dispersisions into the utmost parts of the inhabited Earth c. And it will appear that as the Earth was over-spread by degrees with people and people grew to apostatize from the Catholick Religion God sent this then last Edition of the Gospel after them by the hand of Abrahams seed bringing to their remembrance the almost forgotten Promise of the Womans Seed And that therefore the Divine Grace administred to all men an occasion to seek after God whom they might have found if they would have sought him where he directed them and whom all did find who did not maliciously shut their eyes against the Light shining in Judaea in its full body as the Sun in its Orb and thence transmitting its Beams into the utmost Coasts of the World Briefly The Jews setting aside the Covenant of Peculiarity which consisted of Earthly Promises and Carnal Ordinances was only the Worlds Cock to give it notice how the time past till the Fulness of Time was come to awake its drowsie eyes to wait for break of day to profligat those painted Lyons who had usurpt the Title of the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah to give notice the Star of Jacob was not yet risen and to direct them by the voice of their Prophets when and where to look for the promised Seed In a word they were not the Catholick Church but a Nation of Priests separated for the service of the Catholick Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles worshipping the true God and waiting for Christ. 3. Celsus his Exception therefore that Christian Religion opposeth the general Religion of the World is manifestly false for there never was any Religion universally profest as that which bringeth Salvation to all save the Christian that is Faith in the promised Seed for Gentile Religions were calculated to particular Climes but this publish'd to and believed through the whole World 4. What he objects as to Sects of Christians I answer what ever Sect recedes from the Catholick Church and the common Faith ceaseth to be Christian that is whoever rend themselves from that body of Believers who in all Ages before Christ and since have held the common Way of Salvation by the blood of the Womans Seed become as to Religion Heathens and therefore the Church is not chargeable with them Article 10. The forgiveness of sins This is plainly to be read as a Point of Christ and his Apostles Doctrine and the Churches Faith in that odious Comparison of the Epicurean Sophist Celsus lib. 3. 16 17. They that are to be initiated in Pagan Mysteries are by a Cryer thus invited whosoever is of pure hands and heart whosoever is free from all impieties whosoever hath a soul not conscious to it self of any villany whosoever hath lived well and justly come hither At sacer est locus procul ite prophani c. But the Christian Preachers invite men to the Christian Faith after these forms Whosoever is simple wretched wicked prophane here is pardon for them Come ye impure and defiled Souls here is a Fountain of Purgation open for you to wash in Your Jesus you say came not to call the righteous but sinners and whither should the Physician come but to the sick as Origen well replies In the exposition of the Apostles Creed among the works of St. Cyprian but by St. Jerom ascribed to Ruffinus and by Gennadius commended as the best piece of Ruffinus and therefore judged by Erasmus to be his the Pagans object against this Article That the Christians do miserably deceive themselves in believing that sins can be forgiven that what is committed indeed can be purg'd by words whether of Promise on Gods part or Confession on the penitent's part or Absolution on the Priests part Is it possible say they that he that hath committed Murder or Adultery should not be reckon'd a Murderer or Adulterer to which it is there well answered Why should I not believe that that God who of Earth made me a Man can make me of guilty innocent that he who made me see who before was blind who made me hear who before was deaf who made me sound who was before lame can restore innocency to me when I have lost it c Article 11. The Resurrection of the Flesh. Were this Article buried in the oblivion of whole Christendom it might obtain a Resurrection even out of the grave of Pagan Writers and loose no more of its perfection than our bodies shall do at their's That fleering Philosopher Celsus while he laughs it out of countenance brings it to remembrance All that Christ taught you saith he touching the Resurrection of the body touching Eternal Life and Death he borrowed from the Books of the Jewish Prophets lib. 2. 3. But with how much absurdity do you with that earnestness as if you accounted nothing more desireable hope and wait for the Resurrection of your Body when in the mean while you throw your Bodies as vile things to all kinds of Torments lib. 8. 18. And lib. 3. cal 6. The Christians amuse the unwary Vulgar with vain and bug-bear threats of eternal judgement of the pains of the damned and with the alluring promises of future rewards And yet the same Author lib. 4. 7. confesseth that we in our discourses of the day of Judgement speak congruously to the old Philosophers And lib. 1. cal 4. the very first instance he bringeth of our concurrence with the opinions of Philosophers is that which we teach touching rewards and punishment Deogratias relates to St. Austin this Quaere propounded by a Gentile Philopher Whether the promised Resurrection would be like that of Lazarns or that of Christ not like Lazarus saith the Philosopher for he rose before his Body was consum'd but you Christians say that mens bodies shall rise many Ages after they are crumbled to dust not like Christ for he shew'd the scars in his Hands and Side and did eat after he rose again but you say that after the Resurrection men shall neither eat nor drink nor have any blemish upon their Bodies Aug. Ep. 49. Here we have not only the Resurrection but the manner of it as it is described in the Gospel attested by Pagans to bave been the known Doctrine of the Church viz. that
concurrence of other Jews as himself writeth Many of the Jews were perswaded that those judgements befel them in punishment and revenge of the death of John Baptist as he was commonly called for Herod had slain him being a just man This John commanded the Jews to embrace Virtue to execute justice one towards another to serve God in Piety reconciling men by Baptism to Unity for upon this account Baptism seemed unto him a thing acceptable to God if it were used not for the remission of sins only but for the purifying of the body the soul being first cleansed from unrighteousness he excited men to the studie of Virtue but chiefly of Piety and Justice as also to the Laver of Baptism which he then said was grateful to God when they did not give over this or that but all sins and to minds first purified by righteousness added the purity of the body lib. 18. c. ap 7. And when as divers flocked after him for they were greatly delighted in hearing him Herod fearing that so forceable a power of perswading as he was endowed with might possibly lead the people into Rebelligon sent him to Machaerous Castle How perfectly does this square with our Evangelists as to his Doctrine of Repentance of Righteousness c. As to the Opinion the Jews had of him as a just Person As to the occasion of his confinement and death in pretence and partly Herods fear that he might draw the people into Rebellion and therefore Christ hearing of John's Imprisonment and the Pharisees muttering that Jesus Baptised more Disciples than John fearing that upon the same score he might be restrain'd steps aside into Galilee out of Judea where he saw the people flocking after him was looked upon with an evil eye John 4. 1 2. as Scaliger well observes de emendat temp lib. 6. But really and chiefly John's telling him of his Brothers Wife and Herod's gratifying of Herodias for if they did not rtpute her hand to be in John's murder why should they deem her exile as well as Herod's to be the effect of Divine Vengeance for the death of the Baptist. As to the multitude of his Followers the End of his Baptism to be a Badge of Unity a sign of the reconciliation of the hearts of Fathers to Children of Children to Fathers and of the unwise to the wisdom of the just It s ineffectualness to save by the outward Sign without the inward Grace fignified c. Non ovum ovo similius never was one more like himself in all proportions than that Baptist is which the Evangelists to him whom Josephus describes § 3. No less a Similitude is there betwixt that Jesus whom the Evangelists describe at large in Iliads and him whose story Josephus contracts into this Nut-shell Antiq. l. 18. c. 4. About this time there was one Jesus a wise man if it be lawful to account him a Man and no more for he was a worker of Miracles a Teacher of them who gladly embraced the Truth of whom he drew many after him both Jews and Gentiles this was Christ Insomuch as though Pilate by the advice and instigation of our Elders delivered him to be crucified yet they who had loved him from the beginning did not forsake him for the third day he appeared alive to them as the holy Prophets had foretold not only these but innumerable more marvelous things of Him And to this day the Christian people which of him are so named cease not to encrease Before I proceed to the Application of this Testimony to our present Case I must remove some Objections whereby some of the over-wise Sect have attempted to alleviate this Authority There are who suspect a Pious Fraud here that some Christians have been tampering with this Text of Josephus and turned what was originally writ in dispraise of our Jesus into this commendation by foysting two Clauses into it 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we may call him a man And 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is Christ. But why might not Josephus make honourable mention of Jesus as well as of his fore-runner John the Baptist or his Disciple James the Just both which he commends for holy men and so far in Gods favour as in revenge of their Murders Vengeance fell upon Herod and utter desolation upon Jerusalem Josephus they say was a Pharisee and upon that account would not befriend Christ with so large an Encomium 1. If Interest will not lye he was more an Essene than a Pharisee for in several places he condemns this but every where extols that Sect even such as himself affirms Bannus his Preceptor to have been viz. an Essene and a great admirer of John Baptist whom if he followed in other things is it like he would desert him in his good opinion of Christ wherein he might come short of a Christian and be no other than Theodoret and Origen present him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that did not embrace the Christian Religion nor our Lord Jesus Christ And yet come so far towards one as to believe Jesus of Nazareth to have been the Messiah according to the Notion of the Ebionites and Nazarens and some other Jews both in the time of Christ and Josephus who observ'd the Mosaical Rites and differ'd not from other Jews save in opining Jesus to have been born of a Virgin to have risen again to have been a great Prophet c. whom Trypho the Jew in Justin Martyr if he do not praise does not disallow It is true he that would look for a Jew of this temper now had need light up a Candle at noon-day to seek him out for the Sun affords not light enough But we must not from our Modern ignorant and malicious Jew take a measure of those who lived a while after Christ and who might by the Miracles which the Apostles and their Successors daily wrought understand how great a Person he must be in whose Name those things were done and yet not become Christs Disciples any more than those Egyptian Christians whom the Emperour Adrian in his Epistle to Servianus mention'd by Vopiscus in his Saturninus thus describes Illi qui Serapin colunt Christiani sunt devoti sunt Serapi qui se Christi Episcopos dicunt nemo illic Archisynagogus Judaeorum nemo Samarites nemo Christianorum Presbyter non mathematicus non aruspex non aliptes Ipse ille Patriarchacùm Egyptum venerit ab aliis Serapidem adorare ab aliis cogitur Christum That is Christian Samaritans the followers of Simon Magus as Vopiscus himself stiles them in his description of the Egyptians Suntenim Aegiptii ventosi furibundi aruspices medici nam Christiani Samaritae For the Egyptians are windy rageful South-sayers Quacks and there are also amongst them Christian Samaritans for so should Vopiscus be read and not Christiani Samaritae These Simonians I say though after their master they believed that Christ in whose Name such mighty works were done was
affirmed that no miracles are wrought now for even then when I writ that Treatise I knew a blind man who was cur'd at Millain and several others nay there are now so many Examples of the like miraculous Cures wrought in these times as I cannot possibly know them all and yet I know more than I am able to reckon up And the same Father epist. 137. tells us that at the memory of St. Felix at Nola Miracles were then so usually wrought by Invocation of Christs Name as he purposed thither to send Boniface a Priest of his Church and one who accused him of Incontinency the one firmly attesting the other as peremptorily denying conceiving that though in Africa where no Miracles were wrought A thing which he wonders at seeing that Climate abounded more with Religious persons than Italie and I wonder as much at his wondring for that which he alledges as the reason of his astonishment was the reason of the thing he admires and therefore should have put a stop to it because Italy swarm'd more with Pagans than those parts of Africk therefore was that power of working Miracles continued there Tongues and all other supernatural Gifts being not for those that believe but for Infidels One of them might persist in their lie against Conscience yet that the reverence of the very place where the power of Christ had been so manifestly seen would extort from them the confession of the Truth To which he was encouraged by what had happen'd at Millan in the like case where a Thief who strongly denyed he was guilty of a Theft that was laid to his charge when he came to the Church there to swear in the presence of that God in whose Name so many Miracles had been wrought in that very place durst not swear as he had boasted he would but confessed the Fact and restored the goods he had stoln Before I close this point I will give one Instance more of the multitude of Miracles wrought for the Conversion of one peevish Heathen reported by this great Light of the Church who for Learning Judgment and Integrity deserves more credit than the whole Tribe of Pagan Scriblers who in his 67. Epistle gives this account of the Conversion of Dioscorus the Architheater It was not like that this mans stiff neck would be bowed nor his petulant Tongue tamed without a Prodigie It pleased God therefore to smite his only and exceedingly beloved Daughter with a dangerous sickness of whose recovery without Miracle he despairing implores the aid of Christ promising if he might see his Daughter restor'd he would embrace the Christian Faith his request is granted his Daughter recovers but he procrastinates the payment of his vow he hath not long seen her restored to health when Christ retracts the benefit and strikes him blind He vows the second time to become a Christian if he might recover his sight he obtains his sute regains his sight and sets forward toward the receiving of Baptism but they could not get him to learn the Creed till he is surprized with such a Palsey as deprives him of the use of his Tongue upon this he betakes himself to his Pen and writes the Confession of his former Hypocrisie and subscribes to the Confession of the Christian Faith upon which he is restored to the use of his Tongue and to perfect health I am perswaded upon an impartial search here are more indications of a Supernatural power made out for the conversion of this one man than ever God permitted all the Heathen Daemons to shew in proof of all false religions Of which perswasion I make no question but my Reader will be by that time he hath well weighed this example and studied an Answer to that Question of Arnobius To what purpose is it for the Defenders of the Pagan Impiety to shew one or perhaps two cured by Esculapius when none of their Gods relieve so many millions and all their Temples are throng'd with wretched and unhappy Patients who tire Esculapius himself with their Prayers and invite him with their most miserable vowes to help them Quid prodest ostendere unum vel alterum fortasse curatos cum tot millibus subvenerit nemo plena sint omnia miserorum infeliciúmque delubra qui Aesculapium ipsum precibus fatigare invitare miserrimis votis Arnobius And that by that time I have laid down the rest of the differences betwixt those which occur in prophane Authors and those reported in the Sacred Scriptures § 2. 2. For as to the Miracles reported to have been wrought by the God of Israel or by his servants in his name and power they are reported with the greatest Evidence of Truth that matters of Fact are capable of as hath already been demonstrated But the Prodigies said to be done in confirmation of Paganism labour under the burden of a very great suspicion that they are most of them lying Miracles Not one hath been found among the various Sects of Christians or Jews that ever question'd the Truth those of the Old those of either Old or New Testament-relations Though some of their Principles had they seen the tendency of them would have necessitated them to it The Manichees who denied the God of Israel to be the best and greatest God did yet believe that the History of the Old Testament was true The Sadducees who denied the Existency of Angels or Spirits yet owned the Books of Moses wherein the God of Israel is declared to be both great and good by the merciful wonders he wrought by the Ministry of Angels The Arrians denied Christ to be the Eternal God yet confest he did those stupendious works which none but God can do some whereof he professedly did on purpose to manifest himself to be equal to his Eternal Father Monsters of men they deny the Conclusions and yet grant Premisses most necessarily and demonstratively proving those Conclusions But of all those Pagan Writers that have escaped the Teeth of time and made mention of Pagan Prodigies there is not one but hath question'd the Truth of their own Legends so far as by the diligent reading of them I can find To the many instances that have allready been produc'd in my First Book Sect. 3. chap. 5. I shall here add the Censure of that Famous Critick Agellius who in his 9. 4. noct Attic. telling a story how that upon his coming to Brundusium he heard a fellow crying Books to whom he repairing bought the works of Aristaeus Proconnesius Isagonus Nicaeensis Ctesias Onesicritus Polystephanus and Hegesius Authors of great Authority as he stiles them and yet he calleth their Histories of such miraculous Accidents as made most noise and had been most universally believ'd in the Age of Paganism Books full of Miracles and Fables out of which repeating those that had best born up their credit unto his Age he mentions none but such stories of men with one eye of Pigmeis c. as there is no man
§ 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The Holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. CHAP. V. The Truth of the Gospel-History attested by Secular Writers § 1. Old Antagonists did not persist in the denial of any point of Gospel-History save that of Christs Resurrection and the manner of their denying it proves the Truth of it § 2. Josephus his Story of John Baptist accords with Gospel-History § 3. His Text in testimony of Jesus vindicated from the Exceptions of Vossius c. § 4. Josephus his date of Christs and the Baptists Story falls in with Gospel-Chronology § 5. The Stories of Herod Herodias Aretus Artabanus Philip Lysanias in Josephus Tacitus Suetonius timed to Sacred Chronology § 6. The Twin-Priesthood of Annas and Caiphas at Christs Baptism and Passion cleared § 7. The Date of Philip the Tetrarch his Death CHAP. VI. The Date of Christs Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and Baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christs Birth The Priestly Courses the Character of it which from the first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christs Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answered § 6. The taxing of all the world ill-confounded with that of Syria CHAP. VII Josephus his Suffrage to the Evangelists in the Substance of their History of Christ. § 1. He appropriates the Compellation Christ to our Jesus speaks of the Churches growth in a Gospel-stile § 2. Describes Christs Disciples by Evangelical Characters gives the Evangelists Reasons why others did not embrace the Gospel § 3. He peremptorily asserts Christs Miracles how he came to a certain information thereof Appion and Justus would have found it out if he had proceeded here upon presumptions and uncertainties § 4. He describes Christs Miracles after the Evangelical Model § 5. And affirms them to have been such as the Prophets had foretold The Touch-stone of Canonical History § 6. He asserts Christs Resurrection with all its Circumstances CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians Debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He Dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James Martyred in the third a Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Style Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owle § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great died of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symptoms of Agrippa's Disease § 6. A Digression touching St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1. Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphal yet true Julian's Prohibition of the use of secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers CHAP. X. The Adversaries forced upon very great Disadvantages to their own Cause by reason that they could not for very shame resist the Evidences brought in defence of Sacred History § 1. Christ accused of working by the Prince of Devils that Accusation withdrawn in open Court and this Plea put in against him that he made himself a King and therefore was an Enemy to Caesar § 2. Pety Exceptions rebound upon the heads of their Framers § 3. The Modern Sceptick's half-reasons too young to grapple with old Prescription § 4. Christs Works Gods Seal to his Mission § 5. The present Age as able to judge of the Nature of those Works as that was wherein they were done § 6. Atheistical Exceptions against particular points of Religion an Hydra's head yet they all stand upon one neck and may be cut off at one blow by proving the Divine Original of Religion BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT 4. The Divine Original of Sacred Writ is as demonstrable as the being of a God from the Infinity of Wisdom express'd in its Prophecies and of Power in its miracles THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Being of a Deity Demonstrated § 1. The Existence of a Deity demonstrable from the frame of the world the composition of humane bodies § 2. The Garden of the Earth did not fall by chance into so curious and well order'd knots The ingenuity of Birds sings the Wisdom of their Maker c. § 4. The Heavens declare the glory of God CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stamp'd thereon no less manifest Prints of infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torments God might permit the Devil to communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfill'd CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fulfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing vertue the second Temples Dowry CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
man upon Earth that sinneth not and whoever saith he hath no sin he sins in saying so So that the old Serpent when he shall be let loose again will find wicked instruments of his malice against the Church his own evil Seed among the Wheat where-ever that is sown and therefore the Millenaries in confining him to the lower Hemisphere to gather his Army in by which he is to assault the Holy City not only contradict their own Texts which assigns him the four corners the four Quarters of the Earth the whole breadth of the earth the whole compass of the Globe from East West North and South which I could bear with them in knowing that the Prophets have a peculiar language by themselves in their Proverbials and Hyperbolics but the whole current of sacred Scriptures commented upon by the uninterrupted series of Providence in all ages § 5. Second Nay that at the approaching of the general Judgement when that War of Gog and Magog shall commence The Churches most eminent Seat and the most glorious entertainment of the Gospel will be in those Chambers of the South in that new discover'd World to which it is hasting apace from our Hemisphere The far greatest part thereof all the West of Asia the East West and South of Affrica and the sometimes most flourishing and best peopled parts of Europe being already over-run with Mahometan Barbarousness and the remaining parts of it by our great provocations and impieties against God and by our dissentions and discord among our selves hasting to open a way for the Turk to enter the City of God through the breaches we dayly make and widen in the Walls of Sion We sin and he wins we contend and he conquers we presume that because we are the Temple of the Lord the City of God we are inconquerable and in the mean while he takes our Forts and batters our Walls about our ears our ears which we stop and will not hear the voyce of the Charmer charm he never so wisely and therefore I fear I should but spill my Ink in bestowing it in recording the Turks dayly encroachment upon the Christian Pale his making Conquests by inches over the Western as he did by Ells over the Eastern Church or in describing those Marks of future bane those Prints of divine displeasure and certain forerunners of Gods rejection of a people as deeply imprest upon the Western as they were upon the Eastern and Southern Patriarchates when God deliver'd those Churches into his and their enemies hands If we go to his place at Shilo where once he put his Name enquire for what wickedness he made his Glory depart from Jerusalem Ephesus Antioch Alexandria Constantinople we shall find the very same provocations reigning in these parts of Europe the same infatuation of Counsels the same strong delusions the same debaucheries and abominations and our selves as ripe for excision looking as white for harvest as they did when the Mahometans Sickle reaped those goodly Fields Suppose ye that they were greater sinners I tell you nay but except we repent we shall all likewise perish But I look too long upon the dark side of that cloudy Pillar that has been passing from the East the place where the Gospel first set out towards the West and as it moves deprives the Church of her Head attire Christian Princes of those her dry Nurses and Guardians yet not of her wet Nurses or the inward Glory of her Garments for she shall reign still with Christ even upon this Earth in those remnants of her seed dispersed over the face of it The Sun of a Christian Magistracy shall not be seen where this Night hath or shall encroach upon the Church but her eyes shall see her Teachers still and her ears hear This is the good old way walk in it and find rest the Stars will appear behind the Cloud as they did in the Primitive Church before Princes became her Nurses and as they do now within the Turks Dominions where Princes have ceas'd to be her Nurses And when Mercy triumphing over Judgement shall have left us such a Nail such a stump of the Tree of Life in our Hemisphere The Covenant that God has made with the Christian World being like that he hath made with day and night of which he saith if those ordinances shall depart from me then shall the whole seed of Israel be cast off the Covenant he made with the Ordinances he gave to the Carnal Seed were but Temporary and therefore that seed was wholly cast off but the Covenant he made with the Spiritual Seed is an everlasting Covenant and therefore that Seed of Gentile Believers shall never be wholly cast off The new Israelites in shew and profession only when this Sun of persecution for the Gospel ariseth when the Temptations of the World shall be laid before them when none shall live under the benign influence of their Mahometan Rulers but those that wheel about with them to the embracing of that Brutish Religion shall forsake Christ and embrace the present World But the Israelites indeed in Faith and Practice shall never be prevail'd with to renounce Christ but that poor and peeled People shall bear up his Name in all Nations upon whom it hath been called to the end and consummation of the World When I say the infiniteness of the divine compassion shall be so bounded and streightned by the circumjacent Guilt of our multiplyed and crying sins and by the innate veracity of divine Menacies as all it can obtain for us against the pleas of both is no more then this when our golden Dreams of glorious days end in this God will provide Kings and Queens to be Nursing Fathers c. to the American Churches who shall dandle them upon their knees and that perhaps for as many ages as we have been dandled I say perhaps because I would not pry into Gods secret Purposes nor limit the holy One in that point wherein I cannot observe him to walk by any Rule but that of his own good pleasure whereby both to Persons and Nations he lengthens or shortens their day of Grace so as the Sun hath been set near a 1000. years ago upon most of Asia and yet shines upon us in the West of Europe upon whom it rose before it did upon them I mean the cherishing Light of a Christian Magistracy for we had our Lucius before they had their Constantine However this is certain that how long or short soever God hath in his eternal Counsel determin'd that space that they shall have their time of Grace as well as we and we shall have no more than our time and therefore as the night shall grow upon us that had day before them the day shall grow upon them and when the Sun is farthest from our Horizon it will be highest in theirs § 6. And this affords us another Argument against those who limit the Millenium to a precise number of years and yet