burning upon an Altar dissipates Thunder and Prayer averts the anger of Heaven Qu. V. If Christianity hath such an innate purity and glory how comes it to pass that Christians should so violently persecute Christians IF such an Intrinsick worth be in Religion how comes it to pass that Christians are so cruel to Christians that no sort of men prosecute one another with greater violence and hatred than Christians do 'T is a sad Character that Ammianus Marcellinus gives of Christians No Tygers nor Wolves so cruel as Christians to Christians Those most dreadful Persecutions raised by Christians against Christians those instruments of cruelty wherewith Christians have Tortured Christians are sad Evictions of this truth To which I Answer that though the matter of Fact be confessed yet Religion cannot be judged culpable It prompts not to anger but meekness not to Revenge but forgive not to Fierceness and Cruelty but to Humanity and Sweetness It urges not War and Blood but Health and Peace the Master that Christians serve is the Prince of Peace the Gospel which is the Rule of their Lives is the Gospel of Peace and the future happiness to which they are invited is a peaceable Habitation Justin Martyr had a great contest with Crescens a Cynick Philosopher who acted a Philosopher in his garb and demeanor when otherwise he was one that hunted after Praise indulged his Pleasures and immoderately heaped up Riches he practised those Vices which were different from the Virtues which are the ornaments of a true Philosopher This Crescens slanders Christ him Justin confutes and proves him to be vicious and ignorant this charge in his Apology he profers to make good Crescens perceiving how he was bafled endeavoured to procure the death of Justin for which he thus reprehends him That He who perswaded others to despise Death should himself fear it and he who exhorted to a Patient and joyful enduring of Death by reason it puts the Soul into harbour opens the Prison-door whereby the Soul is at Liberty and enjoys a Blessed Immortality yet endeavours to inflict death upon me as the greatest evil I may say the same of Christians how absurd is it for them who believe a life Eternal a future retribution future torments for which the quality and nature far surmount the Spanish Inquisition Ravilliac's Tortures or the dreadful miseries which Moses one of Scanderbeg's Lieutenants endured in Fifteen days flaying should persecute Christians with the most feral cruelties which Policy and Malice can invent or execute This can't be imputed to our Religion which for Meekness Peace Amiableness and Love is preferable to all the Religions in the World 'T is this Religion which calls to endure to suffer for Righteousness-sake to fry Ten thousand Faggots with our Flesh to Purple as many Axes with our Blood rather than sin That same Religion cannot prompt its Professors to such bloody actions We will confess these things have given a great reason to complain of many Professors of so excellent a Religion These actions are no reproach to Christianity 1st It must be granted the Vices of most men are not a just reproach of humane nature What Murthers what Fires what Blood what devastations have been by men caused against men upon no account of Religion Those Wars managed with so great success by the Romans that no Empire of the World ever did or is ever in any probability to attain those they never commenced on the account of Religion they revered the Tutelar gods of every Country and therefore at the besieging of a City that they might the more easily conquer it they did avocare Deos yet what murthers and the sad effects of War they themselves were the causes of 't is notoriously known Pompey did glory that he was the occasion that Eleven hundred Thousand men were destroyed Tamerlane that in the Torrent of his Victories he should be the cause of the death of Eight hundred Thousand What cruelties have been acted by men upon men the Histories of all Ages will attest All these ascertain that there is an Original Sin but yet does not reproach humane nature indeed Mr. Hobs saith that the State of nature is a state of War and that all persons are equal And Spinosa who is Hobs Unvailed says expresly that men are formed to destroy one another as greater Fishes to devour the smaller Theol. Polit. Cap. 13. A fulsome similitude he uses to explain a notorious untruth There is no such estate of nature nor is it possible to conceive such an equality amongst persons for if the Original of man be by Creation then by the Successive generation the question is determined if we suppose men to be born by the prolifick power of Egyptian slime and the benign influence of the Heavenly bodies yet experience acquaints us there is no such equality naturally Think we the understanding of every Grecian was equal to the vast Wit of Aristotle the valour and conduct of every Scythian to that of Tamerlain the eloquence and parts of every Roman could parallel those of Cicero whose Wit equalled the Roman Empire No Fictions may be admitted which serve to explain the Phornomena's of the Heavenly Bodies but to admit such Fictions which destroy Justice under the pretence of giving the true nature of Justice explaining it is a most notorious absurdity and not to be endured Vertue and Goodness are not fictitious though such feral and Bloody actions have been perpetrated by Men yet it doth not conclude that mortals are divested of all humanity or that there are no Laws wrote on the Breasts of men which may be fairly read in the just lives of many excellent persons As Cruelties acted by men upon men reproach not humanity so the persecuting Spirit of some Christians do not justly cast an imputation on Christianity its self 2. It will not be amiss to enquire when this persecuting and bloody spirit invaded the Breast of Christians It must be acknowledged that during the first Ten Persecutions no such spirit appeared There was great divisions many Heresies yet the true Church maintained its self by holiness of Life patient suffering of Tortures and an excellent discipline The only allurements to Christians were a future glory and terror Eternal punishments but when the Emperors became Christians that restless Enemy of Mankind and the great opposer of Christ Jesus imploy'd all his Arts to make Christians act upon Christians those cruelties Pagan Emperors did In the Empire of Constantinus the great Arrius was raised up by Satan to disturb Christianity he colouring what some former Hereticks had not so clearly broached declared in the Church of Alexandria that Christ was not true God coessential with the Father Whence sprung those first Persecutions of Christians against Christians but on the Arrian account Under Constantius the Great no Persecutions were moved His Son Constantius to whom he gave his Empire of the East was prompted though not by his own nature but his Court-Parasites who
perverted Eudoxia his Empress a person of great Learning and Spirit to persecute the Orthodox and Catholick Christians Constantinus Junior and Constans Brother of Constantius governed in the West and South these did not at all disturb any sort of Christians Julian succeeding Constantius his Persecutions we have recited Jovian by the Acclamations of the Army was immediately created Emperor who being a Religious and Orthodox prince moved no persecutions but gave even to Hereticks Liberty On his death Valentinian was invested with the Eastern and Western Purple the Soldiers after his Election in a tumult declared that another should be his associate he in a resolute yet complying Speech acquainted the Army that it was in their Power not to have elected him but having elected him it was in his power to appoint a time when a Colleague should be chosen taking his opportunity he by the consent of the Army caused his Brother Valens to be chosen his associate To him the Eastern Purple was assigned To see the Power of God! Jovianus enjoyed the Empire but Eight Months the Army proceeding to another election constituted a great Soldier a wise person and most religious Christian Emperor who made then with the consent of the Army Valens his Partner at that time an Orthodox and Catholick Emperor who under Julian professed the true Doctrine but marrying a Princess who was an Arrian instilling those pernicious Doctrines into the head of him a Soldier and being Baptized by Eudoxius Bishop of Constantinople an Arrian and by him at his Baptism sworn to maintain the Arrian impieties he proved a most dreadful Persecutor God was so angry with him as to substract his Grace that falling from the true Faith he scarce appeared to be a Christian and being vanquished by the Goths he was forced to take Shelter in a Cottage where he was reduced to Ashes At Antioch the famous Miletius being Banished when he kept his Court in that City he gave to persons of all persuasions full Liberty publickly to perform their religious Offices he opened the Jewish Synagogues and the Pagan Temples and gave a general indulgence to all that owned the name of Christians to Hereticks and those who divulged opinions contrary to the Apostolical Faith By his connivance and approbation the Mysteries and Festivals of the Heathens were celebrated Those cheats were suppressed by Jovian Then began to flourish Ceremonies Sacrifices and Religious Rites of Jupiter Ceres and Bacchus were celebrated and this was done not in Corners as in the Reign of Religious Emperors but now in the midst of the City In the Forum they wildly ran up and down madly performing their Orgias He is only an enemy to those who profess and preach the Apostolical Faith These he first drove out of their holy Churches they then convened upon the tops of Mountains there they heard the Words of God there they glorifyed God with Hymns and Praises To perform Divine Exercises they endured the violence of all sort of Weather Storms Snow Frost and Scorching heats These recesses he permitted not to them but by his Troops dispersed them Theod. Lib. 4. The cruelties of these persecutions Basil does lively describe in his Letters to the Western Bishops the Persecutions of the Arrians were dreadful the Donatists had liberty till they grew violent then their Churches were taken from them and some of the Bishops punished but they becoming Bloody and a Sect amongst them especially called the Circumcelliones a feral and rabid company acting Barbarities upon the Catholicks they were restrained by more severe Laws That the Arrians prosecuted the Catholicks with the greater Rage and Cruelty the Vandalick Persecutions not to be read without Tears are too sad a Testimony The Catholiok Emperors were not Bloody nor did they prosecute the Arrians with Fire and Sword The first sanguinary Law was against the Manichees 5. Arcadius it was a most frantick and abominable Sect. 3dly An erroneous and wicked Principle imbib'd may be the Reason of Persecution Religion is not the cause of it but mens ignorance passion prejudice and evil apprehensions of things Because the Samaritans did not receive Christ James and John said unto him Wilt thou command fire down from Heaven to consume them Luk. 9. When Zeal like raging Fire does not warm but destroy lays Towns and Cities in Ashes no wonder they condemn to the Flames those whom they account Hereticks What blood will not those persons shed What Murders will not they commit what cruelties not exercise when instigated by an erroneous Conscience and believe that when they kill their Brethren they do God good service But this is absolutely contrary to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus 'T is true by the Law of Moses the Blasphemer was to be put to death In the new Law He that will not hear the Church let him be as an Heathen or Publican Matt. 18. I wish they were cut off that trouble you saith St. Paul Gal. 5. But from these words to prove that it is meritorious to put an Heathen on a Rack broyl a Publican on a Gridiron and to cut off the thread of a Schismaticks Life by Instruments of cruelty is as ridiculous as that of a Sciolus Hoereticum devita an Heretick reject To turn it de vita tolle take away the life of an Heretick it is unquestionably true The Gospel commands no corporal punishment The Church pronounceth the person an Heretick but the sentencing of that Heretick to the Fire and the executing of that sentence was performed by the Civil Judge and his Officers I must not be misinterpreted as tho' I judged that a corporal punishment may not be inflicted upon those who are real Hereticks granting that Conscience can't be forced yet it must be concluded that an erroneous person may be forc'd to those actions which may alter his judgement No Boy can be forc'd to believe that amo signifies I Love yet a Boy may be justly forced to go to School and to attend to his Masters Lectures and by that means he may be convinc'd that amo doth signifie to Love And this was the case of the Donatists For St. Augustin a Man of a meek and Divine temper who very well knew the sweetness of the Gospel and the greatness of mans infirmity was against any Penal Laws in causes Ecclesiastical But when the Donatists were compell'd to restore the Churches which under Julian were taken from the Catholicks and to come to Divine Prayers and to the hearing of Orthodox Sermons many of them were converted Upon this St. Augustine approves of that severity But that persons being subject to their Prince demeaning themselves soberly merely for an opinions sake should be kill'd as Dogs and that by all feral means to extirpate that which they call Heresy is meritorious is not the product of Religion but of Prejudice and Passion What a scandal did this give to the Name and Faith of the Lord Jesus The Indian King would not be in Heaven because
the Prefect performs the Emperors command by a fine trick without the knowledge of the Citizens sends him into Banishment and then takes Macedonius into his own Coach and carries him into the Church the people were disconted the multitude was so great that what by the throng and the Sword of the Soldiers a passage was made for him to the Throne by the Corps of One thousand Three hundred and Fifty When possessed of that See what cruelties did he not exercise banishments confiscation of estates were but lighter punishments those that would not communicate with him he Imprisoned some he Tortured Women and Children he caused to be severely Scourged he forced the mouths of those that would not communicate with him to be opened and his Mysteries to be put into them he caused Eggs to be heated and cast upon the Breasts of Women he made the Breasts of other Women to be put between burning Plates and seared off he acted such Cruelties upon the Christians that were unheard of to the Heathens with an excessive pride without the consent of the Emperor he removed the Corps of Constantine the Great out of the Church in which he was inter'd into the Church of Acasius the Martyr This fact was endeavoured to be hindred by the Orthodox Christians of whom he killed many the Floor of the Church and Street adjoyning flowed with the Blood of them Were these sanguinary Acts the product of Religion No but of pride and his temporal Interest Qu. VI. Wherein the Christian Graces have a real preferency to the Pagan and Philosophical Vertues IT will not be unworthy to discuss this Great Question Wherein the Graces and Lives of Christians are superior to the Actions and Vertues of the Heathens Julian against whom these Papers are chiefly design'd was a Prince conspicuous by many excellent endowments Amongst the Heathens there were many Philosophers and Statesmen Orators Generals and Princes eminent in their singular qualifications Is Valour a Virtue Many were patient in bearing Calamities and none more daring in undertaking great actions Is Justice a Virtue they were diligent hearers of Causes and unbiassed in their final determinations Is Temperance a Virtue They were to a Miracle Abstemious Is Charity a Virtue they were Bountiful and haters of the base sin of Covetousness If a composure of mind by which persons are fitted for admirable Actions If industry and vigorous prosecution of Employments be excellent Ornaments in them they might glory To all which may be added in the Exercise of Religion which is the foundation of Virtue they were very devout To all these they made a great pretence Some of those Eminences must be granted yet to the Question it will with clear Reason and certain Truth be replied That the excellency of Christian Graces and Virtues are superlatively to be prefer'd to Pagan Eminences To evince which these Axioms must be premis'd 1. Bonum ex integra causa Malum ex quocunque defectu An Vniversal concurrence of Causes is required to make a thing good when any deficiency suffices to render it evil One obliquity makes a Line crooked when a continued recital is necessary to constitute a strait Line 2. When Virtues are intense then they are concatenated there is a Conspiration of all Virtues where the degrees are Heroical 3. That the fam'd Philosophers agree in this That there is a true God whose Will is the rule of Virtue 4. That then it must evidently follow That they who worship not the true God are not Virtuous 5. 'T is evidently perspicuous that Virtues must have a respect to their adequate objects He that is Temperate must both eat and drink moderately he that is Just must be so to all persons 6. That to the Constitution Prudence is required If this were not the Guide of the Pagan Virtuosi then it must of necessity follow they were not truly virtuous My Pen shall not be too crabbed nor my sentiments too bold in censuring the state of dead Philosophers What sentence the Divine Power hath passed upon them is known to him only to whom belongs righteousness and forgiveness I am not daring to peep into the dark but confident that the highest pitch of Virtue the severest Pagan arriv'd at is much beneath Christian perfection and the sublime life of Christian Philosophers 1. Let the actions of any person be never so exact and congruous to those Laws which goodness prescribe yet if the end be vain-glory they are not true Virtues Ambition is that deformity which sullies the splendor of the best Conversation in that life which seems to be a mirror to give the liveliest image of Goodness As the purest Chrystal is by breath so that by popular applause is stain'd which vice is infinitely oppos'd by Christian Religion Humility being adopted as a part of it it 's one of its prime constitutions enforced by the example of the Holy Jesus How guilty the Ethnick Philosophers were of this crime is notoriously known They were termed Vanoe glorioe mancipia How trifling was that temper of Demosthenes who was hugely pleased that the murmurs of a Rivulet from him gliding brought to his Ears the noise of a Woman speaking to her Companion This is the very Demosthenes Cic. Tusc Quest lib. 5. And Tully himself that great Orator and Virtuoso and famous Moralist Trahimur omnes glorioe studio optimus quisque maximè glorià ducitur The chiefest aim of the best men he makes to be Glory by Plutarch accused of Ambition and so judg'd by his Friends Crecens by Justin call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of himself Cicero saith Orat. ad pop before his Banishment Quam virtutis gloria summâ cum laude ad coelum extulit He was infinitely affected with those expressions of kindness which he receiv'd from the Romans after his return from Banishment that he cries out I am come to Rome upon the Shoulders of all Italy As for Julian how vain-glorious he was take it from the Pen of Marcellinus he rejoyced very much in vulgar applause he was an immoderate hunter after praise even from the least things that were His affecting popularity made him to converse with mean and abject persons Christianity commands not to seek the praise of men but of God That he who glorieth may glory in the Lord. The glory which we receive from men is but small imperfect inconstant and makes not the person the better the glorying in God is raised perfect perpetual and makes the person really happy 2. We shall rarely find that there was a Concatenation of all Virtues in Heathen Philosophers and in them their Virtues had not a respect to their adequate objects which is otherwise in Christians In many thousands of them gloriously appear'd a concurrence of all Graces 'T is a Christian Axiom He that offends in one is guilty of all Christian Graces are like a Crown or Circle in which if there be any part taken away that ceaseth to be a Circle From the
The Triumph of Christianity OR THE LIFE OF Cl. Fl. Julian THE APOSTATE WITH REMARKS contain'd in the Resolution of several Queries To which is added REFLECTIONS upon a Pamphlet call'd Seasonable Remarks on the Fall of the Emperor Julian And on part of a late pernicious Book entituled A Short Account of the Life of Julian c. Thanks be to God who has made us always to Triumph in Christ LONDON Printed by J. Grantham for R. R. and are to be sold by Hugh Ellis Bookseller in Oxon 1683. THE PREFACE TO add to those many Arguments which prove and demonstrate this great Truth That the Religion of the Holy Jesus is Divine and most certainly true I have not without reason judged that the Life and Death of Julian the Apostate is a great demonstration of it The Christian Religion was more opposed by this Emperor than by any preceding Heathen Persecutors By those same means which establish and aggrandize this Religion he designs to ruine it The Religion given us by the Holy Jesus is incomparable for the Holiness of its Laws a Religion in the whole frame and model of it suitable to our natural faculties a Religion rendred so admirable by its publick Rites and Form of Divine Worship a Religion made so illustrious by that universal Sanctity which appeared in the times of the Primitive Christians and is now though a degenerate age conspicuous In no age the Shades of Darkness so overspread the Church in which no Stars did appear To revive the Pagan Superstition he endeavoured to make it resplendent by making the Worshippers of Idols to imitate the admirable conversations of Christians The Religion of the Holy Jesus carries the Signatures of Heaven it hath the impress of Gods Omnipotence in Miracles of Gods Omniscience in Prophecies That he might give the precedency to Paganisme he with his Philosophers who attended him addicted themselves to all sorts of Divinations and likewise they gloried in Miracles but how false the one and ridiculous the other were this History fully manifests There was another Divine Character in the Religion of the Holy Jesus to which they could not pretend The Infinite Holiness of God Holiness being his cheif attribute was elucent in the enabling so many Millions of all sorts Sexes and Ages not only to lead the most exemplary lives but to chuse and endure the most lingring Torments even unto death rather than they would violate the Law of the Lord Jesus or be Apostates from the Religion which gives the best rules for living well and from whence springs the sweetest comforts Produce any Religion in any Age which glories in so many Martyrs as the Christian does So true is that of Trajane the Roman Emperour No people suffer so much for their God as Christians do Pythagoras a great Philosopher and of eminent conversation gained such an esteem that he sometimes had Divine worship given him and was ambitious to be esteemed Apollo By his followers he was honoured as a Demi-God His Disciples took from him the name of their lofty and refined Sect which flourished in Magna Grecia now Calabria Chilo the Cratonean a rich and potent Epicurean being incensed against them raised the Arms of that City and cut them off his fury did not there cease for he led his forces and destroyed them in other Cities Let History be appealed then it will be evident that Christianity hath gained by persecution and according to my Reading never was there such a School of the Pythagoreans before or after that Slaughter of them Here Julian was at a loss to ruine Christianity he opened the Schools of Philosophers encouraged the flowing Tongues and Pens of Orators yet nothing could raise the minds of Heathens to do and suffer as the Christians did for the Glory of God Add to all his Stratagems his bloody Persecutions he must really be judged one of the greatest persecutors in the World Yet this Christian Religion Triumphed Christians by their Divine Philosophy and Gracious Lives the Patience and Courage which they shewed in their greatest Persecutions they bafled the Pens of Philosophers and blunted the Swords of Tyrants and the Laurel of the Church flourished notwithstanding the Artifices which this great enemy of our Faith used to extirpate it But now Christianity is opposed by another sort of persons The School of Epicurus is now reviv'd and opened that School which was laughed at not only by Christians but by all the wisest Men in the world now seems to flourish The first that encourag'd it as appears to me was Beregard at Pisa which is delivered to us in his Pisane Circle It gain'd a greater strength and esteem in the world by Gassendus his Dissertations upon the Tenth Book of Laertius they both were great men and really had been as great as any of their Age if their Sentiments had not given a desperate wound to Religion and made way for Hobs and Spinosa's Impieties If there be a Fatal necessity as Hobs and Spinosa directly affirm How can Moses his Narrative of the Worlds Creation be believ'd And indeed what Religion Justice and Virtue is there and whether that which Beregard and Gassendus speak de facto libertate primi Motoris according to Epicurus his Dogma intimate not the same I am vastly mistaken Religion which is confirmed by Miracles and Prophecies receives an Authority from the Broad Seal of Heaven They who deny both vainly endeavour to give a fatal wound to the Eternal Gospel He that Reads what Beregard saith of Miracles and his scoffing at Chariots of Fire comparing them to the fiction of Orlando Furioso and what they both affirm concerning Fate and Liberty of the Will may easily conjecture what they intend In words they expresly acknowledge both but aver what is a real Miracle or Prophesie cannot be known but by the determination of the Church Hobs rejecting this he that he might not seem to deny Miracles or Prophecies doth so speak of them as they must not be esteemed so except the Supreme Magistrate saith they are so Spinosa throws off the vail and makes all Prophecies to be but mere conjectures And tells us that a Miracle cannot be granted in Truth If the being of a Miracle depended upon the Judgement of the Ecclesiastical or Civil Power there was no Miracle or Prophecy for either the Sentence they pass is true or not if true then the existence of a Miracle precedes the determination of the Church or Civil Power The determination of the nature of a thing can't depend upon the determining but upon the nature of the thing it self That is a true judgement which agrees with that thing on which the judgement is passed This is a most unreasonable and absurd Paralogism on which depends and runs through the Divinity Ethicks and Politicks of Hobs and Spinosa That the worship given in Religion is Divine because determined by the Magistrate or a Law just because establish'd by Authority or the publick management
Nazianzen was a Physitian at Court a man of very great parts and of a Singular life an able Physitian and a profound Philosopher Him Julian for his learning and endowments very much honoured and endeavoured by all means to draw from the faith of Christ but all in vain for no eloquence no force of Argument nor the powerful Rhetorick of Rewards and Honours could move him for he evades all the Artifices of Julian by this free confession I am a Christian Julian never published any Sanguinary Edict against the Christians whom he knew would endure all sorts of Tortures for the Honour of their Master generously and joyfully The effects of Dioclesians Butcheries made him understand that no Garden being Seasonably watered more flourishes than the Church of Christ when the blood of Martyrs was poured on it Yet he delighted in the Blood of Christians Murders were committed in popular tumults which he did not punish or prevent but would palliate his cruelty not with Religion but the pretence of Criminal Offences Helbidius the chief Commander of the pretorian Guard by reason he found him constant in his Religion he removed from his Command and being desirous to put him to an ignominious Death laid Treason to his Charge condemn'd him to be drawn by Wild-Horses and afterwards to be burnt to Ashes Christians who during the Empire of Religious Princes had thrown down Idolatrous Altars demolish't Temples and hindred the Oblations to Heathen gods were hurried before the Courts of Judicature and condemn'd and if one that persisted in Christianity was but accused of such actions though he had no hand in them he was condemned He commanded all Physitians Orators and Soldiers either to abjure their faith or leave their profession he permitted no Christian to be of the Pretorian Guard by this means he shewed his most deadly hatred of Christianity If persons on such an account would abjure their faith they would render themselves ridiculous to the world by preferring riches to faith If they generously persisted their Victory was not glorious for what great matter would it be for the sake of Religion to contemn an Art or Profession He removed the Cross from the Imperial Zebarum and instead of it placed the Axcilia and to his publick Images he caused the Image of Jupiter to be affixed as a god appearing out of Heaven and reaching a Diadem and Purple to him Mars and Mercury were drawn looking upon his Picture to testify by the cast of their eyes that in him Eloquence and Military discipline Superlatively met which he out of a deep policy commanded that unwary Christians which were in his Army by that means should be induced to Idolatry It was a Custom in the Army to shew Reverence to the Images of the Emperors which if according to the Ancient mode they did they then gave Reverence to the Heathen gods not many of the Christians perceived this fraud for if they denyed the doing of Reverence to the Images of the Emperor they were punished as Malefactors and Enemies and Seditious Innovators to their Prince If they did they were in Danger of Idolatry Thus did he varnish his impious designs It was usual at some set times of the year for the Roman Emperors to reward their Soldiers Julian when the Largesses were appointed to be given commanded that Fire and Incense should be prepared that when the Soldiers received their donatives they might cast incense upon the fire By this device he entrapped the Covetous and unwary Soldiers who being caught in this snare fell into Idolatry Some perceiving this cunning trick preferring Religion to all gain or honour refused the Emperors Largess Some through fear others bribed by Coveteousness wittingly communicated with Pagans in their Rites others were deceived and through Ignorance complied Of these some coming to a Feast with their fellow Soldiers when they drank according to the Holy manner of Christians invocated the name of Christ to whom one that was present returns how dare you invocate that Christ whom you have so lately denied For when you received the Emperors Money you offered Incense At which words they were struck with horrour and ran up and down the Streets bitterly bewailing that fact calling God and all his Saints to witness that they did it out of Ignorance that they were Christians and did remain in the Faith of Christ When they came to the Emperor they threw the Gold at his feet and desired that they might expiate their Crime by Death and as by fire they Sinned so by fire they might Suffer But Julian though grieveously incensed did not not put them to Death but cashier'd and banished them To discountenance Christianity he prohibited Christians to execute any Civil power saying that those that deserved Death ought not to be trusted with the Sword of Justice Though he made an Edict that no Christians should remain in the Army yet some for their valour and fidelity he retained in his Service as Jovian who was a great Commander in his Army in the expedition against the Persians and Valentinian In the Cathedral Church at Constantinople he placed the Altar of Fortune upon which to offer Sacrifice he went accompanied with his Courtiers and great Officers amongst whom was this Valentinian whose place being immediately before the Emperor those to whom the care of the Church or holy things was committed standing in the Porch with Holy-water to cast upon those which came to worship some of it fell upon Valentinian which threw him into such an Holy indignation that he gave him that threw the water a box on the ear and said that by that dirty water he was not expiated but polluted and tore so much of his Garment off as the water fell upon which being done in the prsence of Julian cast him into an extraordinary anger and so he banished him At Constantinople he endeavoured to force the Christians to Idolatry by famishing them for though all things which were for the food of Man as Bread and Flesh were publickly exposed to Sale yet he polluted them by offering them up to Idols whereby the Christians must either dye by Famine or to preserve their Lives must give an honour to the Heathen-gods but being in this danger they were rescued miraculously My Author reports that they consulted Theodorus the Martyr as their Oracle by whom they were counselled that instead of Bread and Meat they should eat boil'd wheat which they did and were thereby sustained and freed from the suspition of Idolatry Julian Seeing this device frustrated permits Victuals freely to be sold During that Policy of Julian the Rich shewed their Liberality to the Poor in the bestowing bountifully amongst the indigent boil'd Wheat In memorial of which at Constantinople on the Aniversary of that Martyr the rich Christians distribute amongst the poor boild wheat After he had tarried at Constantinople ten Months coming to Chalcedon on the other Side of the water there came to him from the King of
commended by great Pens Where are the Persians and Medes who were Captivated Where are those gods who Commanded and were Subdued who fought and defended yet were conquered What are become of those Oracles and those threatning Predictions against Christians Where is that Slaughter designed against them the day on which it was to be executed and the names of those who were designed to be murthered were recorded they are all become vain the Ostentations of the wicked are become like a Dream which soon passes and vanisheth away The Church being reduced into straits the Heathens insulted over it on a sudden the God of the Christians the Lord of Hosts did with his great and long Sword punish the Leviathan that piercing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent Certainly this was the mighty Act of God that at his death an Army though Paganish should declare a Christian to be Emperor one who under Julian refused to Sacrifice yet for his Valour and Military Conduct Julian Judged necessary to keep in his Persian Expedition who refused the Purple until the Army professed themselves Christians telling them it was not fit that a Christian Emperor should Command a Pagan Army but they gave a loud acclamation crying they were Christians then he accepted and proclaimed his usual Apothegme Vita Christus est Qu. III. Whether there be true Miracles or not THe Opinion that denies Miracles too much prevails By a Miracle I understand that thing which is extraordinarily produced by a divine Power it not being in the Sphere of Nature to be the cause of it That has the nature of a Miracle which is produced by a divine Power Angels and Men have been the Instruments of working Miracles but the principal cause was God Hobs seems to assert Miracles but so as he does other Truths Ficte Fucate for his opinion of Fatal necessity is inconsistent with that of Miracles withal he making the Magistrate to be the sole Judge of Miracles takes away all Miracles for to aver that a Miracle is not to be accounted a Miracle except it have the suffrage of a supream power is to aver there are no miracles therefore Sp. saies perspicuously There are no miracles for thus he pronounceth nothing can be effected above the power of Nature otherwise the course of nature would be destroyed for all things are carried on by a fatal necessity If any thing therefore as a Miracle should happen the World would be everted To which I reply that the course of this World is not managed by a fatal Necessity for the conception of a Fatal necessity is contradictory to the notion of an Eternal Diety and there can be no conception of Omnipotence and Infinite Power but in a Being that is void of all imperfections and includes in himself all Excellencies and Perfections Liberty of Will is without doubt one of the perfections of rational beings If Almighty God could have made the World otherwise than it is or men more perfect then they are then there is no fatal Necessity but God acted Arbitrarily according to the good Pleasure of his own Will if not then he was not Omnipotent nor Omniscient he neither knows how nor could produce a thing better than it is and that Being cannot properly be called Omnipotent or Omniscient whose power and knowledge are limited From the Divine Attributes therefore is evinced the possibility of Miracles and the real existence of them is proved by matter of Fact The Nation of the Israelites being brought out of Egypt by the Power of God had Manna miraculously rained upon them which suffic'd for the maintenance of 3000 men every day and if the measure appointed by the Divine Wisdom was not observed by any person who upon an apprehension of a want on the Sabbath-day collected a double quantity on the day preceding the Manna by its stinking would prove hurtful to the takers of it If such a thing was done how could it be but miraculously that it was done so many Thousand people could not but be sufficient Testimonies of it And it could not be imagined that for so many years so many Thousand persons should be deceived Our Lord and Saviour rose from the Grave upon the Testimony of which Miracle our glorious Religion does consist and his rising from the dead by his own Power is a most invincible Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine His Apostles every where went abroad to Preach Salvation only to be obtained by Faith in the Lord and if they were assured of his Resurrection they had sufficient encouragement for what could be greater they were to pass through the World to Preach Religion contrary to the common humours of Mankind And how could they expect a success of their endeavours but by the assurance of him that rose from the dead that he would constantly assist them They were spectators of his ascension into Heaven when he promised them his assistance and nothing could resist him who in the sight of Apostles was carried up into Heaven acquainting of them that all Power was given to him both in Heaven and in Earth being thus encouraged they went Preaching throughout the World with that success that within Forty years some in most places of the world entertain'd those Mysteries and that Doctrine which brings Salvation What could induce the Apostles to undertake this employment were they invited by Honours No they were judged the off-scouring of the World Did Riches they were Poor or reduc'd to Poverty Did Pleasures they exposed themselves to all dangers suffered various torments and at last generally underwent those cruelties which crown'd them with a glorious Martyrdom These things being done and suffer'd by them for what end but the expectation of a future happiness And what could make them believe that but the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead which tho' he foretold his Disciples yet when he was apprehended they all forsook him one of whom denied him and was made by a pitiful Maid so timerous and sneaking as to abjure him But afterwards he and the rest being eye-witnesses of his Resurrection were so confident and magnanimous that they all freely exposed themselves to the greatest dangers torments and death it self in the defence and propagating that great Truth If Christ be risen again there is a Miracle That he did Rise again no greater testimony can be given for the proof of any other thing than for this Had they any Learning to perswade the World In what Academy were they brought up They Preach'd the Gospel to every Nation How came they to know the Language of every Nation What Master taught them these various Languages That they did know them is evident by the success their Preaching had in the World This is another evidence of Christs Resurrection for they were not only eye-witnesses of it but receiv'd the signal benefit thereby Those Balls of fire and that Earthquake which frustrated Julian's attempts to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem certainly were miraculous
the Council of Nice and Epiphanius who flourished in the fifth Century saith there were but very few left in his time and those in the utmost Bounds of Chalcis beyond Damascus and Mesopotamia Pag. 17. Nothing so much offended him as the vile Hipocrisy of the then Clergy who besides their coyning of contrary Creeds in the Reigns of Constantine and Constantius and modelling Religion by Court Intrigues seemed almost wholly to dispence with morality placing Sanctimony not so much in a good life as in the strict Observance of the Rituals and the Symbolical Representations of our Religion such as Baptisme the Eucharist Chrism but above all in submitting to the formalities of Confession and Pennance upon which the worst of Offences were too easily remitted Where was the Hypocrisy there were two contrary Faiths one in the time of Constantine in the Council of Nice which was then subscribed and received by the Orthodox Bishops another under Constantius at Antioch there the Arrian Doctrine was favoured where was the Hypocrisie this was done by different Persons and Parties both of them maintaining the same Faith they had embraced from casting these Calumnies upon the Clergy he involves them and the Christian Religion in the same guilt Pag. 15. Let a Christian be never so deeply Criminal no profane hand must touch him nor must he endure any other punishment than Confession and Pennance and that when once absolved he was an Innocent as the unborn Child How severe the Penitential Canons were in those times is sufficiently known This is according to the Law of Christ and therefore what he saith the Clergy modelling Religion c. 'T is a most notorious untruth If ever in any Age in the fourth and fifth Centuries the Clergy was most conspicuous for Learnning and Holiness of Life they looked upon a man as penitent and contrite when he had a great sorrow for sin and testified it by acts of shame and mortification and by a future Holiness Certainly this Gentleman did not read or at least not seriously the Fathers and Councils of those times it was determined by all That no pardon without repentance and no repentance without true Holiness To aver as he doth That the Ecclesiastical Canons being satisfied no Civil punishment was or could be inflicted is a notorious falsity contrary to the Body of the Law and the usage of the Church and Civil Magistrate in all Ages 'T is true Christianity acknowledged that the most vicious persons and the greatest Malefactors may repent but it does not make repentance to consist in the submission to some exterior Rites as Julian invidiously jeers but in an hearty sorrow and real change of the mind which austerities and mortification are a sign of and promote To make these reflections upon Christianity from the Pen of a drolling Apostate is not becoming one that is a Scholar or a Christian That they who lived in the strictest Conversation and contemned the World and exposed themselves to all Persecutions and Cruelties even to the most Tormenting and Shameful Death for their Lord and Master should think that their Religion consisted in Rituals is a thing estranged from the Breasts of Christians As the Calumnies with which the Christians were loaded by the Heathens for promiscuous embraces Sacrificing of Children in their Holy Conventions and eating them with other enormities were abominable Untruths 'T is granted that Christians did say that Faith was required but it was a most unjust jeer to say I believe suffices to make a good Christian for Christianity saith Faith without works is dead 'T is acknowledged that Baptism was enjoyned but not that it is a meer Ritual 'T is a Sacrament to confer grace if a person did not retain that grace he ceased to be a Christian when therefore the Heathens jeered Christians with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 washing they did not consider that the Christians received this Doctrine from their Master that they should be Baptized to which Baptism adult persons being prepared upon their being baptized they through the Power of the Holy-Ghost were regenerated And as for Penance it was necessary that persons who after Baptism had relapsed into Scandalous Sins should fall under the Censures of the Church and recover themselves by repentance which is being really sorrowful for their Sins which sorrow must assert its self in actions of mortification and revenge upon themselves and in an hatred of Sin and amendment of their Lives Repentance is the second plank after Baptism it appears therefore that this Paganish jeer of Julian is a most false slander viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ho! whosoever is either Sodomite Murtherer Rogue or Villain let him dread nothing but repair hither with this Water I 'le make him clean in a trice And if he shall happen to repeat the same crimes if he will but thump his Breast and box his Noddle I 'le warrant him as innocent as the Child unborn He adds This was the Vengeance Julian took for the barbarous Murders committed upon almost his whole Family and Blood for what Flesh could bear to hear the Murtherers of ones Father Vncle two Brotkers Six Cousin-Germans harangued to Heaven in Pulpits as very holy and good men because forsooth absolved by their own Friends the Priests since he so lately saw Constans armed against his own Brother Constantius by the Roman Bishop and the great Athanasius c. To manifest the falsity of these things I will give this Narrative His Father Constantius aspiring to the Purple after the death of Constantine was slain by the Populacy he dyed justly for Treason Ablavius one meanly born paying devout visits to the Bones of dead Fryers calling them holy Reliques In that age there was given no Honour to the Reliques of any but Martyrs whom he calls invidiously dead Fryers But he that advanced to great dignities and riches under Constantine the Great was slain by the command of Constantius He married his Daughter to Constans Constantinus Junior was slain by Constans his Soldiers he claiming and invading those places under the Command of Constans which belonged not to him Constans was slain by the Treason of Magnensius who himself was a Christian and Commander of Christian Legions the Emperors Life-Guard During the time of the first Ten Persecutions no one Christian Soldier could ever be found that embrued his hands in the Blood of an Heathen Emperor but now a Christian Emperor is assaulted and murthered by Christian Soldiers Constans thought himself safe when his Life-guard were Christians under the command of a Christian his hopes were in vain but this Magnensius was rather in shew and pretence than really a Christian Constantius before that great battel at Mursum dismissed those Soldiers which would not be Baptized Magnensius opened Idolatrous Temples and permitted Sacrifices to be offered This Magnensius caused after the death of Constans Eutropia the Sister of Constantinus and Nepotianus her Son to be put to death How can this be
the Spaniards were there What bloody Tragedies have been acted over all Enrope on this account This savours not of the meekness and sweetness of Christianity The Religion of the Holy Jesus must not be reproached by the passions and evil opinions of men 4thly All are not Christians that call themselves so all are not Pythagoreans that are in the School of Pythagoras A feral spirit amongst many who call themselves Christians arises not only from an ill guided Zeal but from Principles contrary to the design of Christianity The Faith of the Lord Jesus is pretended when ambition and temporal prosperity are design'd And this has been undoubtedly the original of infinite slaughters amongst Christians which have been vailed with the glorious pretence of Piety Certainly for Christians to Arm for the recovery of the Holy Land and the redemption of so many Thousand Christians from the slavery that they were then involv'd in was for excellent purpose After the Lateran Council when a great Army was raised for that end by the instigation of the Pope the Swords of Christians in the West were turn'd against the Christians in the East Under that sacred vail was hid the design of reducing the Eastern to the obedience of the Western Church The Ambition of Rome was to set up a Latin Empire Ecclesiastical and Civil in the Greek Church and State The Gun-powder Treason in England whence proceeded it but from ambition The late feral Plot acknowledged to be Devilish by His Sacred Majesty and Three Parliaments Let Religion be pretended what was under the Varnish Coleman a name execrable not only to Protestants but to Romanists a Mushrom gaining favour durst be so arrogant as to attempt the introducing of Popery make the English Scepter truckle to France What was his aim To be a great Minister of State The same was proposed by those who assisted him in these detestable actions Religion was in the Front but in the Rear Great Ministers of State Ecclesiastical Dignities and Military Offices these must be their encouragers Tho' that Coleman durst to his last breath deny that there was any intention to introduce Popery by the Sword which denial of his was a most notorious falsity yet that Fame Dignities and accumulated Riches were the Port to which he Sail'd nothing more clear They who fall from one Religion to another must disguise their Apostacy with the fairest vails of Conscience Salvation and a future Glory Yet they give a reproach to themselves and to Religion when they design their Apostacy to open a Gate for preferment no wonder that these persons prove Persecutors Religion is not to be charged with these bloody actions No they are to be imputed to a damnable hypocrisy and worldly interest Coleman a Ministers Son a pragmatick Sophister in Cambridge went into Flanders changed his Religion turn'd Romanist then went up and down City and Country to make Proselites a person of a daring impudence tho' clearly bafled in disputes would never discover that he was conscious of a foil by one blush Durst proh bone Deus attempt those things which has given the greatest disquiet that ever could have been given to his sacred Majesty to the two Houses to the whole Kingdom to the Three Nations to the Protestant Interest Nay it may justly be averred that no English Romanist ought to pronounce his name without abhorrence and reluctation He can palliate his Villanies with no other pretence than Religion which he designed to promote not by blood or any feral means but by those holy methods which the holy Ghost approves as he attested at his Tryal Non verba sed facta loquuntur His words and actions give an eternal evidence against him Could we imagine that his Life gave an indication of the Heavenly composure of his mind Chrysostom in his so justly famed Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Apostate Why calls he him the Apostate Did he dissert his Religion fall from the Faith of the Lord Jesus No. But being born of rich and illustrious Parents his retiring into the Wilderness or to the top of a Mountain for the privacy of mortification and the more assiduous practice of holiness he at the Twentieth year of his age relinquished his divine Life returned into the City and there lived splendidly his retinue and Table were sumptuous and magnificent for this declining from the severer practice of Holiness Chrysostom condemns him and with all imaginable eloquence and piety endeavours to recall him But we have here an Apostate from the excellent Religion of the Church of England who not only imitates but outvies this Theodorus Theodorus reassumes his estate lives gallantly at the expences of his Patrimonial inheritance Coleman vies with the primest of the Nobility he that sprung up in a Night made his Apostacy the Ladder to climb to the highest preferments and the Favourite to bring him into the Councils of the greatest Princes of Europe and the great encourager to attempt the most notorious villany in the World Is this Faith and Godliness Can Christianity be reproached Must the Faith and Loyalty of the French Nation be condemned for the Treason of a Ravilliack That unchristian designs and secular aims are many times the cause of Christians shedding the Blood of Christians amongst many more Examples I will annex two Upon the death of Liberius Damasus and Vrsibinus were competitors for the Roman Pontificate The people are divided the parties are hot and passionate their heats are so vehement that both Parties fight Damasus his party was superior in this Bloody contest a Hundred Thirty Seven Bodies were found slain in one Church a Church which was once the House of one Sicininus the dissention was so great and fierce that Viventius the Prefect of the City could not appeale it This rage gave a disturbance to the City some time after perhaps the parties were not pacified till Vrsinius was gratifyed with the Archbishoprick of Naples Upon this Marcellinus an Heathen gives us this remark I can't deny considering with what gallantry the affairs of that City are managed that they who are competitors to gain what they so much desire should strive with the greatest ardour and force for when they have obtained their longed-for Dignity they are secure seeing that they shall be enriched with the oblation of Ladies they being gorgeously cloathed they shall be carried up and down in Coaches their Feasts shall be profuse and they shall maintain Tables superior to those of Kings These persons might indubitably be more Blessed if they contemning the splendor of the City would compose their demeanors after the mode of some Provincial Bishops whose spare Diet mean Garments and their Eyes constantly cast upon the Earth commend themselves to the True God and his Genuine Servants Macedonius was certainly an ambitious man Paulus being canonically elected Bishop of Constantinople was commanded by the Emperor Constantius to be removed from that See Phillip