by tearing off ten of its Skirts But to return As I have been forc'd to prove that before our Saviour the Scepter was not departed and therefore this Prophecy of Jacob is not applicable to any before him So I shall now shew it is not applicable to any since by demonstrating the Scepter to have departed at that time by such Effects of its departure as are acknowledged for such by the Jew himself and pointed to as such by his own Scriptures and invelop that Nation in a Darkness that may be felt and far exceeds the blackest Darkness which befel that State in its greatest Eclipses The Sanctuary half Shekel paid to the Capitol It is Doctor Lightfoot's Observation out of Xiphilinus apud Dionem in the Place fore-cited that in acknowledgment of their Subjection to the Emperour the Jews were enjoyn'd by Vespasian to pay to the Capitol that Didrachma or Half-shekel that they usually paid to the Temple for their Lives A ransom for their souls unto the Lord Exodus 30. 12 13. The mony of the soul's estimation of every one that passeth the account 2 Reg. 12. 4. for I take both these places to speak of one and the same Shekel though Master Weems makes them two calling this latter Argentum transeuntis that is the Half-shekel which they paid to the Lord when they were numbred by head making a distinction where there is no difference for in that Text which he quotes for the first Ex. 30. 12. there is mention made that that was to be payed when they were numbred three times in two verses When thou takest the sum of the Children of Israel after their number then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numbrest them ver 12. and ver 13. this they shall give every one that passeth among them that are numbred Xiphilinus indeed does not expresly say it was that Half-shekel that was paid to the Temple that Vespasian appointed every Jew to pay to the Capitol but Josephus speaks home Bel. Judaic 7. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Emperour Vespasian laid this Tribute upon the Jews wheresoever they lived that they should pay to the Capitol that Didrachma which thitherto they had paid to the Temple 1. That this was the Half-shekel which they paid to the Lord for their Lives as his Tribute is manifest from both those fore-quoted Texts for Moses Exod. 30. orders the high Priest to imploy it in the service of the Tabernacle and Jehoash appoints the Priests to repair the Temple with it 2. Reg. 12. as also from another passage in Josephus Antiqu. Judaic 14. 12. where he calls it sacred mony because every Jew yearly paid it for his Life to God and sent it to the Temple from all parts of the World where they were dispersed from whose numerousness he saith it came to pass that Crassus found such vast summs in the Treasury of the Temple when he plunder'd it and that Mithridates surprized eight hundred Talents at Cons which the Jews of the lesser Asia had deposited there during those Wars not daring to send them to Jerusalem lest they might be snap'd up in the passage 2. And that this Shekel was never by any Conqueror before Vespasian required as Tribute is manifest from Josephus affirming that till then it had been used to be paid to the Temple from Pompeius reputing it so sacred as he durst not lay hands on it when he enter'd into the Temple from men's imputing Crassus his overthrow to God's avenging himself upon him for robbing the sacred Treasury where these Half-shekels were deposited that it was paid to the Temple in Caligula's Reign is manifest from that place of Josephus Ant. 18. 12 16. where he writes that the Jews of the Province of Babylon made choice of Neerda because of the strength and inaccessibleness of that place for their sacred Treasury where they deposited the sacred Didrachma till at certain Seasons they could send it to Jerusalem which they used to do with a Convoy of many thousands both for the greatness of the charge and danger of being robb'd by the way by the Parthians But this is most clearly evinc'd from the sacred Gospels informing us that the Tribute-money St. Mat. 22. 18. 19. St. Mar. 12. imposed upon the Jews by the precedent Emperours had Caesar's Image and Superscription upon it and was a Roman Coin hence stiled both in St. Matthew and St. Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Latine name and the Tribute it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 census in all printed Copies and Manuscripts that I have seen or heard of save that old Greek and Latine M S. which Beza sent to the University of Cambridge where it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pole-mony a word coin'd at the fingers end of the Scribe for the Tribute laid upon them by Augustus or Pompey and taken off by Agrippa was not paid by the head but by the house as Josephus expresly affirmeth Josoph Jud. Ant. 19. 5. Remisso ei tributo quod soliti erant in singulas aedes solvere 2. And upon this very account our Saviour determin'd it to be Caesar's due in which determination he proceeded according to their own Concessions as Lightfoot observes Harmony Sect. 77. quoting the Jerusalem Talmud bringing in David and Abigail talking thus Abigail said What evil have I or my Children done David answereth Thy Husband vilified the Kingdom of David She saith Art thou a King then He saith to her Did not Samuel anoint me King She saith to him The Coin of our Lord Saul is yet current And again in Sanhedr A King whose Coin is current in those Countreys the men of the Countrey do thereby evidence that they acknowledge him for their Lord but if his Coin be not current he is a Robber And that with as much advantage as could be desired in order to his convincing them that the Tribute of that Denarium was due to Caesar but the Tribute of the Didrachma due to God that bearing Caesar's Picture with this Inscription say Antiquaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caesar August such a year after the taking of Judea Hammond ann c. in Mat. 22. But this if it were the Kings or common Shekel being stamped on one side with a Tower standing betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Inscription with that which was written beneath amounting to this Motto Jerusalem the holy City the rundle being fill'd with this David King and his Son Solomon King or if it were the Sanctuary-shekel having on one side the Pot of Mannah or Aaron's Censer with this Inscription The Shekel of Israel on the Reverse side Aaron's Rod budding with this Motto in the Rundle Jerusalem the Holy City that is Jerusalem the Royal City of the great King Goodwin antiq lib. 6. cap. 10. Beza on Mat. 17. 24. makes the same Description of that Shekel which was given
frightning men to obedience by menacies of Hell-fire c. But all will not be won by Love the fear of approaching death was of more avail to perswade Celsus his Master Epicurus that there is a God than all the sweet morsels he cramb'd his belly with Let the Antinomian here acknowledge his first Father Besides saith he lib. 6. 19 Do not the Christians charge God with want of Power or Foresight in his permitting the Serpent so far to deface his Image in Man as that in order to the restoring of it he is forc'd to send his only Son to become Man's Advocate God knew how to use his Power and VVisdom better than in prevention of that evil viz. by bringing a greater good out of it Conceived by the Holy Ghost Touching the Christian's belief that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost he hath this Animadversion lib. 6. cal 35. What need was there that the Holy Ghost should over-shaddow the Virgin and frame Christ a Body in her womb could not God have shaped him a Body he could not have a Body of the Seed of the Woman without the Seed of the Woman without immersing his own Spirit into so great contamination Celsus might have learn'd better Language of Proclus the Pagan Philosopher Secundum nihil omnino providentiam ex gubernatis accipere nec eorum natura repleri nec eis alicubi commisceri non enim ex eo quòd omnia disponit admiscetur proptereà gubernatis Proclus de anima daemone tit providentia per singula percurrit interim nullis addit pag. 191. If he had been conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost his Body would have excelled all othets in Stature in Form in Strength in Voice nec vox hominem sonat in Majesty and in Elocution for it is incredible that he who had so much Divinity who was formed by so divine an hand should not surpass all men but Christ as the Christians confess was but like to if not inferiour to other men His face according to Prophecy was to be mar'd more than any man's low mean humble yea deformed Why should the holy Spirit be sent to one in a corner of the World in Judea and not be inspired into all men man must let the work of Redemption alone for ever if God have a purpose to save all men As to the last clause of this Article he brings in a Jew lib. 1. cal 20. thus scoffing at Christ for chusing to be born of so mean a Woman at so mean a Town he was to be born in the form of a servant and Bethlehem-Judah was the least of the Cities of Judea as Bethlehem c. did her beauty her inward Beauty being full of Grace invited God to chuse her for the Mother of the Son of God before others invite God into her embraces how could she conceive and bring forth a Son without the knowledg of man c. which Origen retorts thus how do the Vultures breed as your own Pagan Writers report without companying with the Male why could not God make the second Adam without a Father as well as the first without either Father or Mother and lastly that we Christians are not the only men who embrace such admirable stories is manifest from your believing that Plato was conceived by Apollo and born of his Mother Amphictione yet a Virgin before her Husband Aristo had knowledg of her being prohibited by a Vision to touch her At the same point the Seeker whom Volusianus mentions strains August ep 2. Who is there among you saith he so well versed and established in the Christian Religion as can resolve me where I stick I wonder how the Lord of the Universe could take up his lodging in the body of a spotless Virgin how she could go out her ten Months and then bring forth a Child and after that continue a Virgin how could he lurk in the little body of a Vagient Infant whom the Heavens are not able to contain how could the Ancient of days endure to undergo so many years of Infancy of Childhood of Youth of Man-hood or the everlasting God that faints not neither is weary submit to sleep to hunger and thirst to cold and wearisomness and the rest of humane weaknesses cease this wondring man Christ did all this to make it manifest that he was the Son of Man as well as of God Jam illud quòd in somnos solvitur c. hominem persuadet hominibus quem non consumpsit utique sed assumppsit August epist. 2. Volusiano and as to her continuing a Virgin St. Austin answers Ipsa virtus per inviolatae Mariae virginea viscera membra infantis eduxit quae posteà per clausa ostia membra juvenis introduxit that power which brought Christ through the shut door did bring him out of the shut womb It is St. Austin's Observation that the Philosophers in questioning the truth of the Church touching the Incarnatlon overthrew their own Principles It is their Assertion saith he de civit 10. 29. that the intellectual Soul may by purging become consubstantial paternae menti with the Father's Mind which they confess to be the Son of God what absurdity then can there be in the Christian Belief that one individual soul being the purest that ever was created for the salvation of many was assumed into Union with the Son of God Now that the Body must adhere to the Soul that he may be a perfect man we learn by the Testimony of Nature it self which Union of Body and Soul if it were not usual would be less credible than the union of an Humane Soul to the Mind Word or Son of God For 't is casier to be believed that an incorporeal should be united to an incorporeal than that a corporeal and incorporeal Being should conflate into one And Tertullian observes Apol. priùs citato that nothing was more common in the Heathen World than Virgin-births of divine Conceptions and yet they had been more common if some like Olympias had not been jealous of Juno's Jealousie after whose Copy she return'd this answer to her son Alexander's Letter thus superscribed King Alexander the Son of Jupiter Hammon to his Mother Olympias all health I pray thee Son do not traduce me and accuse me to Juno as one that had been naught with her Husband for I shall never be able to bear the burden of that her spightful jealousie which she will conceive against me upon thy writing thy self the Son of Jove and thy insinuating me to be his Whore Agellius Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 4. This Text of St. Austin Ep. 2. beside that that I quoted it for points to a great many Circumstances in the History of the blessed Jesus mention'd in the Gospel all which are from this allegation of the Adversaries acknowledged to have been the Doctrine of the Apostolical as well as Modern Church § 4. Article 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilat was crucified dead and buried and descended into Hell
a divine Person yet they retain'd still their old Heathenish Religion and these are the Christians of which Adrian writes that they worship'd Serapis and that their Bishops for all they said they were Christians were yet devoted to Serapis and that there was none of that Sect be he a Ruler of the Jewish Synagogue a Samaritan or a Christian Presbyter who was not a Conjurer a Wizzard and an Anoynter Insomuch as when the Patriarch came into Aegypt some solicited him to adore Serapis some Christ. Though Adrian of all others had least reason to condem these mungrel Christians for he himself notwithstanding his adhering to the Gentile Religion had that honourable esteem of Christ as he had a mind to build a Temple to him and canonize him for a God Lampridti Alexand. Severus 2. What if Josephus had been a Pharisee could he not lay the corruption of that Sect down when he went to write truly if he keep promise with his Reader he every where faithfully performs the office of an Historian in recording Occurrences as they fell out without favour and affection and I think never Pen that was not guided by infallible Inspiration went more evenly or directly to the point of Truth than he did or let fall less Passion A suspicion of this Nature could not have entred into the head of any man to whom Josephus is not a perfect stranger 3. Had the Pharisees enmity against no Sect but the Christian do not we find them in opposition to the Sadducees who denyed the Resurrection and said there were neither Angels nor Spirits and consequently no Miracles nor Prophesies siding and going along with St. Paul as far as Josepus doth in this Text for what is there in these words that are excepted against as not becoming the mouth of a Pharisee or inclining any further to the approbation of Christianity than their opposition to Saducism might bend a Pharisee to without prejudice to his own Sect. 1. Not in that If it be lawful to call him a man for first that may be taken in as bad a sence as those paradoxical wits put upon the immediat following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who interpret them as a defamation of the blessed Jesus which joyn'd together if the Context did not reclaim and Christian ears abhor the sound may by a sinister interpretation be made to speak Josephus to have had this opinion of our Saviour that he was not a Man but some Changeling or Fairy-elf who shewed apish Tricks play'd strange Pranks mimi histriones quoque dicti sunt paradoxi Vos Etymol If therefore the Christians had had a mind to periwigg Josephus to make him look more favourably upon Christ they would never have put upon him such a border as this out of which he looks more a squint upon him than he did without it Had Josephus in opprobry called Christ a doer of paradoxical actions it would have been neither Piety nor Policy in Christ's friends to have added by way of Preface I cannot tell whether I should call him a man the worst sence which the first clause is capable of alone being better than the best bad sence that can be put upon it in conjunction with such a Preface If it cast a bad aspect upon Christ alone it will cast a worse in such company 2. Take them both as Josephus delivers them with the right-hand as speaking in consort with the whole series of his Discourse the commendation of our Saviour and what is gain'd by taking in or lost by leaving out these words if we may call him a man that deserves the raising of so much dust does not Christ's doing miraculous Works his rising from the dead according to the Prophecies that went of him speak him to have been more than an ordinary Man either the Messias or that Prophet or Elias which is all that Josephus intends or can be deem'd to intend in those words which import no more but his being of an Opinion equivolent to that Pagan Opinion of Christ mention'd by St. Austin de consensu Evang. 1. 7. tom 4. pag. 162. honorandum enim tanquam sapientissimum virum putant non colendum tanquam Deum They thought he was to be honoured as a most wise man but not to be worship'd as a God for he was so far from thinking Christ to be God as in the question about Messiah he preferr'd Vespasian before him de Bel. Jud. 7. 12. an Argument that he did not apprehend the Messias himself to be God only he perceiv'd by the great Works Christ did that he was more than a common Man and by the Analogy which those Works bare to Prophecie that he was one of those extraordinary persons to whom those Prophecies had relation Either the Christ or Elias or that Prophet or one of the Prophets as some of the Jews conjectured our Saviour to be who were far enough from believing in him as Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 6. 2. Nor in that that is Christ whereby it was not in Josephus his thought to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth for the Christ but only to distinguish him by that appellation from others his Coetanians who were called Jesus as the Son of Ananus who for seven years together before the ruin of the City denounced wo against it Bel. Jud. 7. 12. Jesus the son of Damneus whom Albinus made high Priest in room of Ananus the younger the murderer of St. James our Lords Brother which James Josephus in the same Chapter calls the Brother of Jesus Christ to distinguish him from that other Jesus Jud. antiquit 20. 7. there mentioned as also from Jesus the Captain of those Cut-throats whom the Imperialists of Sephorim hired to surprise Josephus vita Josephi and Jesus the son of Saphias that fire-flinger who incens'd the Galileans against Josephus Ibid. Jesus the son of Tobias that Captain of Robbers who near Tiberias surprised five of Valerian's Soldiers Bel. Jud. 3. 16. Jesus the son of Thebath to whom Titus gave quarter at the taking of the upper part of the City Jerusalem Bel. Jud. 7. 15. and Jesus the son of Gamaliel who succeeded that other Jesus already named in the high Priesthood antiq Jud. 20. 7. So that besides our Jesus there were six who in that Age bare that name and two of them mention'd in the same Chapter where he is named Jesus Christ Ant. Jud. 20. 7. Briefly so ambiguous was the name Jesus in that Age as the Jewish Exorcists that they might not leave the unclean spirits which they adjured in the name of Jesus in doubt who that Jesus was annex to it in their form of Conjuration this discriminating Circumstance whom Paul preacheth without which they might have pleaded they neither knew Jesus nor Paul there being Jesusses many and Pauls many but no Paul that preach'd Jesus saving the Apostle nor any Jesus whom Paul preach'd but Jesus Christ and therefore the Spirits are forc'd to confess Jesus
Joachim did which marks were seen upon him when he was cast out naked says Tostatus and Nicholas Lyranus on 2 Chron. 36. nor the Symbolical Mark of Bacchus an Ivy-leaf which rather than they would receive the impress of they exposed themselves to a thousand torments nor endured to hear the cries of Innocents while they were a sacrificing to Maloch nor so much as the name of a strange God And for Immoralities he that reads Josephus and compares either his general charge of Sins worse then those of Sodom upon that Generation on which the fury of Divine Wrath was poured or the particular Examples he brings of the Impiety and Irregularity of that Age with the after-temper of that People must be very uncharitable if he does not conclude that the present Generation is much reform'd if not wholly changed from that boysterous and indomable opposition to Supreme Power the sin which actually procured their ruine into as sordidly fawning and servile a Spirit as Flesh and Blood is capable of and that therefore that which Meritoriously wrought their subversion then and continues them under Judgement still must be something which escap'd the observation not only of Josephus but of modern Jews though more theirs than his and some of their Forefathers then living who in a great measure charged their downfall upon the guilt of their sin in murdering St. James our Lords Brother and first Christian Bishop of Jerusalem But could the blood of a meer Man wherein the hands of a small party of Zealots for the Law were only imbrewed contract the guilt upon the whole Nation which nothing can expiate Sure that Nation lyes under the guilt of the blood of God of him that 's more than Man of him whom their Prophets stile Immanuel God with us the Lord Jehova our Righteousness Isidor Pelusiot lib. 4. epist. 74. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And let them lay this to heart that in the Age of their Forefathers though they committed Idolatry Sacrificed their Children to Devils and slew the Prophets yet they suffered no such things as they do now but after their suffering chastisemeut were restored to their old habitations whereas now they suffer a captivity from which they shall never return For the proof of Christs Divinity as the same Author observes The grievousness of the Jews punishment was urged against the Arrians Quòd si ut Arriani aiunt nudus fuit homo quare Judaei cùm olim multos viros sanctos sustulerint nihil tamen ejusmodi unquam sunt ob id perpessi propter hunc autem occisum ea sustituerunt quorum atrocitas si cum quavis Tragaediâ comparetur longissimo omnes intervallo antecedit Isidor Pel. lib. 4. epist. 166. If as the Arrians say he was mere man why did the Jews seeing of old they killed many holy men but never upon that account suffered any such things undergo for killing of Christ such punishments as if the grievousness thereof be compared with any Tragedy it goes far beyond it Upon their shedding of which precious blood when they had rejected all the Methods it pleased God to use for their Conviction that that Jesus whom they had slain was the Christ the King of Israel the Prince of Glory there was brought upon that Generation all the righteous blood that was shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel the first to the blood of Zacharias the Son of Barachias the last righteous man was flain a little before the Romans laid Siege to Jerusalem of whose Death our Saviour speaks as then perpetrated when he spake because he foresaw it would be perpetrated making use of the Aorist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may as fitly be rendred whom ye shall have slain the not observing of which hath put even Learned Men to their Wits end in studying who this Zacharias should be some conceiving him to be the Father of the Baptist whom the Apochryphal Protevangelium Jacobi and Petrus Alexandrin in canon affirms to have been slain by Herod's Officers because he would not tell where his Son the Baptist was for whom Herod sent but Origen and from him St. Basil Gregory Nissene Cyril Alexand. Theophilact c. affirm he was slain for prophaning the holy place in pleading that the blessed Mary was a Virgin and therefore ought to have her place among the Virgins St. Jerome concludes it was that Zacharias whom Joash slew 2 Chron. 24. 19. But the story of Josephus does more exactly sute this Text in brief thus After the Zealots had murdered Ananus which was the beginning of the Cities ruine from which day the walls began to be demolish'd and the Republick of the Jews to perish saith Josephus they erect a high Court of Mock-Justice for the Trial of Zachary the Son of Baruch against whom when they could not threaten the Judge to give Sentence two of the stoutest of those Russian-Rebels assault and kill Zachary in the midst of the Temple Bel. Judaic 5. 1. The meaning then of this Menacy of Christ is that the Jewish Nation should by their persisting in Impenitency for their rejecting him ripen themselves for as great a Judgement as if they had been guilty of all the innocent blood that had been shed from the Foundation of the World to the day of the Fall of Jerusalem and this is no more than what the Prophets had as plainly fore-told as any thing they delivered Yea so clear are their own Scriptures in this Point on our fide with such open mouth do their own Oracles predict Gods reprobating that People for reprobating his Son as we dare stand to their Determination of this Querie and have had this question determined for us by those greatest Rabbies possitively that in the days of the Messias the Jews for their rejecting the Son of David shall be cast off by God § 4. And lastly whether these Menacies be not executed to the full whether wrath be not come to the uttermost upon this People of Gods Curse Whether Israels God hath not withdrawn from them all the Tokens of his favourable presence and manifestly exprest his abhorrency both of their Persons and Most Religious Performances yea of that Worship which himself commanded their Fathers to pay unto him may be committed to the Umpirage of any mans eyes that reads what glorious indications of Gods owning that Nation above all the Nations of the Earth were exhibited to their Progenitors and sees how things are with them now and have been since that Generation which our Saviour said should not pass away till all the Prophets Menacies were fulfill'd upon them Israel was Holiness to the Lord separated from all other People by the eminent favour of God towards them to be his peculiar Heritage But what is now become of the Ark of his presence the Holy Oracle from whence he was wont to give Responds as often as they had need to enquire Whither are those winged Cherubims and Seraphims flown betwixt which he dwelt while
received by uninterrupted Tradition though they neither could retrieve all Principles of that Nature nor through want of the rest always rightly apply those they had received And it seems a wonder to me that so many who would be counted men in understanding should be so affected with his Systems which he himself if my memory fail me not in his Preface to his Natural Philosophy affirmeth he could make no man understand or relish so well as one woman who though she was a person of honour and of as great a capacity as any as all of that Sex yet sure she was not a competent Judge of such Speculations had they been truly Masculine She might perhaps have judged of a Poem upon the presumption of Sapphos Dexterity of an Oration and have not gone beyond those bounds to which that Sex reached in the persons of Amaesia Affrania Hortensia she might perhaps have found by enquiring of her Cooks or Scullions that his Kitchin-experiments were true and by her own Discretion see some of them subvert some of the Conclusions of the old Philosophy as one fool may spy more faults than an hundred wise men can mend But that they were a Foundation firm enough for his Conclusions that she and only she should discern is an affront to our whole Sex if indeed his Philosophy be calculated to the sublimest Principles of the most Masculine and Strenuous Wits and not Female and Vulgar Capacities who are easily imposed upon by the fallacy of non causa pro causa Though It must be acknowledged to the praise of that excellent Lady that her Philosophical Genius so far transcended the common standard of her Sex as to make credible that Story which Socrates relates of the Alexandrian Hypatia the Daughter of Theon the Philosopher who excell'd all the Sophisters of her time and either preceded or succeeded Platinus in Plato's School Lib. 7. 15. Socrat. Scholast hist. But I have dwelt too long upon these Minim Deities were it not that from their introduction we may learn to what Vanity of mind divine Justice gives those men up that desire not the knowledge of the Almighty and how aptly the Prophet speaks when he saith they should creep into the holes of the earth For at the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness this whole brood of Vermine disappear'd these Hodmadods crept into their shells these Worms into their holes these never stood one fight with our Lord of Hosts their Adorers never struck one stroke in their defence as they did for their celestial Gods the Host of Heaven which they worship'd the Gods of the greater and lesser Nations But all in vain For those strong men that kept the house are all turn'd out of possession by the blessed Jesus and spoil'd of all their Ensigns of divine honour Jove of his Thunder-bolt Christs still voyce drowning the noise of his Thunder Apollo of his Bow and Arrows Christ's Arrows proving more sharp in the sides of Python the Serpent than his Mars of his Faulchion Christ's two-edged Sword proving the better mettled Blade Minerva of her Spear being not able with her Target to defend her self against the Artillery of the Cross Mercury of his Caduceus by the more sweet Charms of the Apostles The Lion of the Tribe of Judah uncas'd Hercules and pull'd off his Lions Skin over his ears As that Light of Light appeared in the East and gradually shone to the West the World ceas'd to fear those Hobgoblins that had affrighted her in the dark men learn'd to look upon the Sun without the Ceremonies of Adoration without kissing the hand or bending the knee As the Bread that came down from Heaven hath been broken to the several Nations of the Earth they gave over baking Cakes to the Queen of Heaven As the Gospel introduc'd the fear of the One blessed God she shak'd off the fear of false Gods broke down their Altars demolish'd their Temples contemn'd their Oracles and stampt their Images to powder As the God that made Heaven reveil'd himself by the Preaching of the Gospel the Gods that did not make Heaven and Earth have been abolish't from off the Earth from under Heaven The Romans Celebration of the Funeral of that Coblers Crow two years after our Saviours Passion Gilbert Genebrand in his Chronic. conceives to have been a presage that now the Gospel was begun to be publish'd the black Crow that is Satan was shortly to expire at Rome where had been his chief seat and babling as he is quoted by Vossius Atrium mali spiritûs infractum imperium obrutum quasi sepultum iri Vos de Idol 3. 89. This was but short warning however all on a suddain as in a Pannick Fear the whole Army of Celestial Terrestrial and Infernal black and white Daemons take themselves to their heels and quit their ancient seats as soon as the Lord of Hosts appears pitching his Tent amongst men and Tabernacling in Humane Flesh. So that now a Child may lead those Lions at whose voice the World trembled before God utter'd his voyce none frequent those Fountains Caves Groves Oaks for Counsel at the lips of whose Oracles formerly the whole World hung for advice in all Matters of weight thither men repaired there they enquired about planting of Colonies building of Cities about Peace and War c. Plutarch conviv mor. tom 1. p. 377. But they have all lost their Tongues since God spake to us by his Son Jove's Fountain of Castalion and that otherof Colophon saith Clem. Alexand. adhaetat are commanded silence and all other Prophetick Springs have lost their divining tast whose proud streams swell'd of old with the honour of being reputed the seats of Sacred Oracles One of those silenc'd Oracles that of the Daphnean Apollo in the Suburbs of Antioch Julian would have cured of his dumbness and he attempted the like elsewhere Am. Marcol Julianus 22. 12. Multorum curiosior Julianus novam consilii viam aggressus est venas fatidicas Castalionis recludere cogitans fontis quem obstruxisse Caesar dicitur Hadrianus mole saxorum ingenti veritus rè ut ipse praecipientibus aquis capessendam Rempublicam comperit etiam alii similia docerentur ac statim circum humata corpora statuit exindè transferri eo ritu quo Athenienses insulam purgaverant Delon Julian his curiosity in the matter of Religion in order to the Defence of Paganisme against the Christian Faith which he had renounc'd put him upon this new Project thinking to open the Veines of the Castalion Fountain which the Emperour Hadrian is reported to have obstructed with a huge heap of stones fearing least as he was invited to undertake the Empire by the Oracle of that Spring others also might be taught the like he forthwith commands the Corps that were there inter'd should be removed thence after the same rite as the Athenians purged the Island of Delos What success he had here or in other places that Historian doth not relate which