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
for help to every God they could think of in the Consulship of A. Cornelius Cossus and T. Quintius Pennus there was strict charge given to the Ediles ut animadverterent nè qui nisi Romani Dii nen quo alio more quà m patrio colerentur Liv. lib. 4. 30. That they should take care that no other Gods but Roman nor they after any other rites than Roman should be worship'd Esteeming the innovation of Religion a greater plague than the Pestilence and scorning to be beholding for their deliverance from that deadly malady to the help of any but their own Gods 'T is true the Romans received most of the Gods and Religions of those Countries which they conquer'd but this was done upon supposition that they were turned Roman For as the Egyptians of old had an Art to make Gods as Trismegistus not without admiration observes so the Romans had a way to make the Gods of other Nations their own to make them forget their own Country and Fathers house to forsake their own Altars and Rites for the Roman hinted by the Poet Discessêre omnes adytis arisque relictis Dii quibus imperium hoc steterit Eneid 2. And more fully exprest by Vives in Aug. de Civit. 2. 22. When the Romans besieged any City which they intended to demolish that they might not seem to wage war with its tutelar Gods and turn them out of doors against their will by pulling down their Temples about their ears the General by certain charms obtained of them to forsake the tutelage of the City destin'd to ruine and betake themselves to the stronger side to the conquering party Thus Camillus decoy'd the Veijan Gods Scipio the Carthaginian and Numantian Mummius the Corinthian And lest others might serve their Guardian God with the same sauce they concealed as divers Authors have thought mention'd by Servius in his Epist. vir Illustriss the true and proper Name of their City for publishing of which secret Valerius Soranus was severely punisht Goodwins Antiquit. A strange oversight in so wise a State to trust their Cities fortune to the custody of that unruly member the tongue The Tyrians would have taught them a surer way who to secure their Patron Hercules or Apollo for Diodorus Siculus in telling the story how the Tyrians besieged by Alexander the Great and being warn'd by a Vision that Apollo threatned to forsake the tuition of their City bound the Image with a chain indifferently calls their Idol sometimes Apollo sometimes Hercules a good argument that the Tyrian Hercules was Apollo and Apollo the Sun which performs his twelve labours in passing the twelve Signs of the Zodiack Diodor. Sic. Biblioth lib. 18. pag. 548. whether soever of them was their Patron to secure his residence among them in spite of Charms bound him fast to the pillar of his Temple with a Golden chain It was upon the same score that Numa caused Mamurius to make eleven shields so like the Ancile of their Patron Mars wherein they conceived the happiness of their City to lie as Thebes her good fortune in Nisus his golden lock and Meleagers life in the fagot-slick as it was impossible to discern one from another Plutarch Numa This in imitation of Dardanus of whom Dionys. Halicarnas lib. 1. cap. 7. out of Callistratus Satyrus and Aratinus reports That Dardanus drew a counterfeit Palladium like that which Minerva bestowed upon him with a promise that Troy should stand while it kept that Palladium and that it was the counterfeit which the Grecians stole Aencas bringing the true to Lavinium The form of this evocation of Tutelar Gods and infranchizing foreign Deities and naturalizing them into Roman Macrobius Saturn 3. 9. sets down as he found it in Sammonicus Serenus his 5. Book Of hidden Secrets If it be a God if it be a Goddess that hath the People and City of Carthage in protection and thou especially whosoever thou art the Patron of this City and People I pray and beseech and with your leave require you to abandon the City and People of Carthage to forsake the places Temples Ceremonies and inclosures of their City to go away from them and to strike fear terrour and astonishment into that people and City and having left it to come to Rome to me and mine and that our Temples Places Ceremonies and Cities be more acceptable and better liked of you that you would take the charge of me of the People of Rome and of my Soldiers so as we may know and understand it If you do so I vow to build you Temples and to appoint for you Solemn Games No peny no Pater Noster no room in Rome for any God that will not turn Roman and wear the City badge Upon this custome Tertullian Apol. 24. grounds this Note Tot sacrilegia Romanorum quot trophaea tot de Diis quot de gentibus triumphi tot manubia quot manent adhuc simulachra captivorum Deorum i. e. Look how many Trophees the Romans have erected over conquer'd Cities and Countries so many Sacrileges have they committed upon the Gods of those places they have had as many Triumphs over the Gods as over Countries the many Images of captive Gods remaining to this day in that City are but so many spoils taken in war § 3. So exceeding wide of the mark of truth is that fools bolt of the vulgar opinion that Rome was conquer'd by the Gods of the Nations whom she conquer'd for in very deed she gave the Gods no other quarter than she did the men capitulating with them upon no better terms than those which Jacobs Sons tender'd to Sechem We cannot do this thing to give Divine Honour to a God that is not Italianized but in this we will consent unto you if you will be as we are It would not stand with the Polity of that stately Lady to marry a strange God to be baptized in his Name till by a strange Art of Palingenesie he had baptized himself into the Roman Name in the blood of his deserted Father and Mother the people and place of his first birth Jupiter must become Capitoline Mars Quirinal before those Hills will afford room for their Temples The Egyptian Serapis must turn the Indian Bacchus Italick before they can be worshipt at Rome Serapide jam Romano aras Baccho jam Italico furias c. Tertull. Apolog. 6. Aesculapius his â—mp his Serpent must come away with his Idol before he can have reception in that City The Mother of the Gods in their repute must shew her readiness to forsake the patronage of her antient pupils and to embrace the Office of Protecting S. P. Q. R. by following the slender twine of the Vestal Nuns garter before she can arrive on Tibers shore Male and Female Deities must veil the bonnet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Goddess Rome so termed in the Inscriptions of antient Roman Coyns set down by Goltzius in Thesauro before she will bend the knee to them To
gave were as little to the credit of the Gods as Suidas reports them to have been appears from that low esteem which in his old Age he had of both exprest by his condemning to the flames when he was great Pontiff two thousand Oracles Sueton. Octav. 31. though at his entrance into that Office he was so devout an Adorer of the old Religion consisting in a great part of those Oracles as he preferr'd his Augurate above his Empire fastning his name at his reforming of the Calender rather on that month when he commenc'd Augur than on that wherein he began his Reign and protesting that if any of his Nieces had been old enough he would have preferr'd her to the place of a Vestal fallen void by the death of one of those Nuns with that protestation upbraiding the Senators irreligiousness exprest in their making means that their Daughters might not be called to that lot Touching Apollo himself and the rest of the twelve great Deities what his thoughts were grown to by that time he was grown old he more than intimated in his erecting of that strange Order of Table-Knights Sueton. Octav. 70. instituted as not only Antonius but the common Libels objected against him in contempt of Apollo whom Augustus as Master of the Order personated and the other eleven he and she Deities whom the rest of the Knights represented in that his supper of the twelve Gods Impia dum Caesar Phoebi mendacia ludit c. This was the burthen of the City Song descanting upon his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his twelve Gods discovering that degree of sacrilegious impiety to speak in the then modern Roman dialect towards the Gods of the greater Nations and especially to Apollo as so devout a person as Augustus was could not have arrived to by any other wind but what blew from that coast which Suidas points out He durst not without the leave of these Gods have been thus familiar with them § 6. This may suffice to vindicate Suidas and prove the truth of this position That the Polity of Rome was so averse to the entertainment of a foreign God as our Jesus was the first strange God that that Empire embrac'd either by Publick Edict of the Senate or the private Conscience of the Emperours as Tertullian Apol. cont gentes cap. 21. distinguisheth Ipse pro sua conscientia Christianus He as to his own private perswasion being already a Christian. Senatus respuit Caesar in sententia mansit Id. ibid. cap. 5. The Senate rejected Tiberius his motion for the Canonization of Christ but Tiberius persisted in the Opinion of Christs being God Sed Caesares ipsi credidissent super Christo si aut Caesares non essent seculo necessarii aut si Christiani potuissent esse Caesares Id. ibid. cap. 21. Yea even the Emperours themselves would have become Christians if they had not been hamper'd with secular interest or if that Christians could have been Caesars Upon which passages because they give both light and strength to the preceding discourse though not without hazard of spilling my Readers patience I shall venture to make these reflections 1. To clear that clause aut si Christiani potuissent esse Caesares from the Anabaptistical gloss this Note will be sufficient That Constantine and his Successors reconciled this inconsistency of Christianity and Empire and therefore it was not absolute but only occasional and temporary nor of all Empire or Civil command but particularly respected the Roman Empire For there were Christian Magistrates and that under the Emperour very early in the Primitive Times both Martial as Cornelius and Civil as Sergius Paulus as Judicious Grotius observes Ob temporum circumstantias quae vix ferebant exerceri sine actibus quibusdam cum Christiana lege pugnantibus Grotius de Jur. bel pacis l. 2. 9. 3. The circumstances of those Times were such as did scarcely permit the Office of the Emperour to be exercised without certain Acts contrary to the Christian Law 2. It will be therefore worth the while to enquire what that Secular Interest was in which the Emperours were so involv'd in that juncture as it was a Remora to their casting their assistance on Christ and a bar to him that was a Christian to become Emperour Let him that tied untie this knot let Tertullian himself Apol. 5. determine who infers the story of Tiberius above-mentioned with an ergo from that old Decree quoted by him in the preceding clause Vetus erat decretum nè qui Deus ab Imperatore consecraretur nisi à Senatu probatus There was an old Decree that none should be Canonized for a God by the Emperour Euseb. interpr Tertul. ab Imperatore by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist. Eccles. 2. 2. whereby this seems to have been an ancient Constitution made under their Kings who were also Generals in War and were hereby prohibited to adopt new Gods either at home or abroad without the Vote of the Senate and renewed with this alteration of Name when the Senate held the Soveraignty at home and the Emperour or General abroad without limitation of their Power while their Commission lasted saving in this particular that they should not at their conquest of Nations or Cities make any foreign God Free of the Roman State till he had first been approved of by the Senate In which Decree Reason bids that we should take Emperour not in the then new but in its old sence as it signifies a General as the next words ut M. Aemilius de deo suo Alburno import for Aemilius was in no other sence an Emperour but as he was the Roman General whose Office it was to evocate the Gods of conquer'd Cities as we have heard before and offer them fair quarter Now lest the General might dubb upon the place any such God this Decree was added by way of caution to that former which Crinitus Tri◠de honest discipl lib. 10. cap. 3. vide Junii notas in Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. out of the Books of the Pontiffs delivers in these terms Separatim nemo siet habens deos novos sive advenas nisi publicè adscitos privatim nè colunto which Law Cicero thus translates Separatim nemo habessit deos neve novos sed nè advenas nisi publicè adscitos privatim colunto Cic. de legib l. 2. p. 318. Let no man have any new or strange Gods Let not any be worshipt in private that are not publickly infranchised that is till those signs they gave of their renouncing their former Cities and People and their coming over to the Roman had been canvast in the Senate and approved of Upon which Eusebius hath this Note Hist. Eccl. 2. 2. out of Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God do not please man he shall not be God well exprest in the following clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With you humane judgement confers divinity By this we see where the Senates and Emperours shooe pinches
Prodicus Chius Euemerus and his Interpreter Ennius Prodicus Chius Ea quae prodessent hominum vitae Deorum in numero habita esse dixit fortes claros potentes viros tradit post mortem pervenisse ad Deos. 2. Now the first Jupiter for instance being succeeded by so many of his name but not Vertues as in process of time the Joves amounted to 300 as Tertullian out of Varro counts them Romanus Cynicus Varro tricentos Joves sive Jupitores dicend introduxit apol 14. and at last the true History of him growing as much out of the Memory of men as the History of the Creation was when he was first made a God this latter brood was brought over his shoulders to share with him as he had done with the only true God in the honour of being esteemed Deities each Nation contending that their own was the ancient Jupiter ascribed to their own all that was commendable in others of that name and fastned upon foreigners the Vices of their own Jupiters So that it was the Vertue of the first Jupiter that advanced all his Name-sakes to divine honour And when the Crimes of the younger Jupiters were by the Poets fastned on him this was so far from adding to his credit as with those that believ'd the Poetical Stories it lost him the repute of being a God and with those that believ'd him to be a God the Poets lost the repute of being faithful Historians upon that very account because they presented the Gods in the form of beastly immanities and affirmed the God-born to have perpetrated more vile Enormities than ever were acted by the off-spring of most wicked men not only charging them with Thefts and Adulteries but with the devouring of their own Children gelding their Parents Incest with their Mothers and many other fedities as Isocrates Busirid laudat observes calling Poetical Theology Blasphemy and affirming the Divine Vengeance to have pursued most of them for those impious Fictions many of them becoming Vagabonds and Beggars others being struck blind others being exil'd lived in perpetual fewd with their own Kindred and Orpheus the chief Author of such like Fables being mangled alive and torn in pieces Wherefore saith he if we be wise let 's not follow their dotages nor endure since we make Laws that one man should not slander another that this lawless liberty be given of babbling what comes at Tongues end concerning the Gods but let us think that both Thief and Recetter the Reporter and Believer of such Stories are grievous offenders For my own part saith he 't is an Article of my Creed that not only the Gods but the God-born are not only exempted from all Vice but have all Vertues so naturally implanted in them as they become Leaders and Masters to us Men in all honest and praise-worthy endeavours Hence Pausanias cautions his Reader not to believe what the Athenian Temples represent concerning the Gods as grounded on Poetical Fables On the other side where the Poets fictions were imbraced and applauded the Gods that they presented were exploded while they muster the Gods saith Tertullian Apol. cont gentes into two adverse parties standing the one for Troy the other for Greece while they present Venus wounded by a mortal hand while she 's fetching off Aeneas from Diomed's pursuit while they bring in Mars pin'd almost to death by undergoing a three-months penance in those Chains Vulcan had caught him in with Venus while they sing how Jupiter was secured by the help of a Monster from being taken with his Curtizans in the like snares while they chaunt his lamenting Sarpedon's mishap his dalliances with Juno while through the connivence of Princes they take liberty to feign Apollo a Herdsman under Admetus Neptune a Mason to Laomedon and defrauded of his wages Aesculapius to have been struck with Jove's Thunder-bolt for taking too large Fees for a Cure sure it was not of the French Disease that amorous God would have thought half a Kingdom a Fee small enough for that while the Mimick personates Anubis playing the Adulterer Diana making love to the Swain Eudimion and lash'd soundly for her offences the Sun lamenting Phaeton's Fall Cybel the Mother of the reputed Gods puling at the feet of a disdainful Shepherd the Boy Paris umpiring the Contest for the golden Apple betwixt three Goddesses While I say the Poets publish in their ears while the Mimicks present to their Eyes the obscenities of their Deities the vulgar conclude them no Gods and instead of making them the Objects of Devotion and Religious Fear esteem them Objects of Scorn and Derision Dispicite utrùm Mimos an Deos vestros in jocis strophis rideatis Do you when you hear joques and quirks put upon your Gods laugh at the Jeaster's wit or at the folly of your Gods Durst ye make a sport of Phaebus his tears and laugh while he 's presented weeping if you really believ'd the Mimick Phoebus to be a God Had they esteemed the Mimick Gods Gods indeed they would have reverenc'd their presence more than Cato's before whom the Romans were ashamed in their celebrating the Floralia to call forth the Mimicks to act their parts confessing as Valerius Max. observes lib. 2. cap. 10. that they had more respect to that one Man whom Vertue had made venerable than to all the Spectators yea than all those Gods who were there personated § 4. The different respect which Stage-players had amongst Romans and Grecians The design of Mythologists Hence Plato in his 2. and 10. Books of his Commonwealth would have that kind of Poetry that sings the flagitiousness of the Gods expelled out of every well-constituted Republick as tending to the effeminating of mens Minds and corrupting of Manners And the ancient Romans to prevent that evil Opinion of the Gods which they foresaw people would readily take up from such Premises forbad the use of Stage-plays in their Laws of the Twelve Tables a Law in force 500 years after Rome built And when in the Consulship of Sulpitius and Licinius the Pontiff by direction of Sibyls Books instituted them to asswage the then raging Pestilence to secure the Vulgar from the dint of that Temptation to Atheism that was laid before them in those scenical Prostitutions they were admonish'd of the baseness of those fellows by a Decree prohibiting Stage-players to be free of the City In Aug. de civit dei 2. 13. as L. Vives affirms out of Livy A Decree which speaks that Generation of men to have been in the Opinion of the Senate Persons of most debauch'd manners and profligated honesty seeing that privilege of the City was granted to many thousands of flagitious men and therefore not to be credited by the People in what they prated or presented either concerning God or Man To this Constitution alludes Cicero Roscium ità peritum dixit ut solus esset dignus qui in scenam deberet intrare ità virum bonum ut solus esset dignus qui eò
de emend temp 6. tit quinta pascha pag. 561. being faln into a grievous and in humane appearance incurable Disease sent a Messenger to Jesus with a supplicatory Letter that he would please to come and heal him of these contents Abgarus Prince of Edessa to the propitious Saviour that hath appeared in the Flesh in the Confines of Jerusalem health I have heard of those miraculous Cures which thou doest without application of Medicines and Herbs for it is reported that thou givest sight to the blind causest the lame to walk cleansest the Leprous castest out Devils and unclean spirits curest the most inveterate sicknesses and recallest the dead to life from which I conclude one of these two things that either thou art God come from Heaven and doest those things or the Son of God that bringest such things to pass wherefore by these my Letters I beseech thee to take the pains to come and cure me of my malady wherewith I am sore vexed I have heard moreover that the Jews murmur against thee and go about to mischiefe thee I have here a little City and an honest people which will suffice us both To this Jesus sends this Reply Blessed art thou Agbarus because thou hast believed in me when thou sawest me not for it is written of me that they which see mee shall not believe in me that they which see me not may believe and be saved Concerning that which thou writest unto me that I would come unto thee I let thee understand that all things touching my Message are here to be fulfill'd and after the fulfilling thereof I am to return to him that s 〈…〉 me But after my Assumption I will send one of my Disciples unto thee who shall cure thy Malady and restore life to thee and them that be with thee Out of the same Records Eusebius reports how after our Lords Ascension Thaddaeus one of the seventy was sent to Edessa who cured and converted Agbarus and preach'd the Gospel to his Subjects c. I know that Gelatius in a Council of 70 Bishops Crab. Con. Tom. 1. decret Gelasti pag. 993. decreed those Epistles Apochryphal as he did also the VVritings of Tertullian and Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History to prevent their being received with the like reverence wherewith we embrace the Canonical Scripture but neither he nor any body else either Christian or Pagan question'd the Truth of this Relation till Nicephorus discredited it by his forged additions of Christs sending his Picture to Agbarus drawn on an Handkerchiefe and of the strange Effect that Image had when that City was besieged and those other ridiculous storyes relating to that business The Sceptick I know will except against these last Allegations that their Originals are not extant in answer to which I commend to the Umpirage of common Reason these Queries 1. Whether it stand with Reason that men who stood so much upon their credit as the ancient Christians did would appeal to common Records for the probat of these things had they not then been to be read in those Authors or Chronicles out of which they made their Allegations 2 By what means it came to pass that the Adversaries of our Religion who lived upon the place and had opportunity enough to-examine those Quotations and whom interest would have prompted to enquire into these things did not make their exceptions against the Apologists of the Christian Cause 3. Whether the Christian Church or the Pagan Adversaries were most like to obliterate those Antiquities the Christian whom they favour'd or the Pagan whom they confuted considering what artifices Julian the Apostate used to suppress Learning forbidding Christians to be trained up in prophane Literature Ec. Hist. 3. 10. Socratis Scholast which Facts of Julian Ammianus Marcel though a great admirer of him and the Pagan Religion condemns as worthy to be buried in eternal silence Illud autem inclemens obruendum perenni silentio quod arcebat docere magistros rhetoricos grammaticos ritus Christiani cultores Am. Marcel 22. 10. As that whereby Julian designed to deprive the Christians of the knowledge of those Pagan Writings and Records out of which the Christian Apologists had collected such palpable Testimonies for the defence of Gospel-history and to bury the Originals out of which they had made their Quotations in perpetual oblivion as advantagious to our Cause by their confessing the Truth of the Matter of Fact Lactantius by name whose scope was Quia nondum capere poterat divina prius humana testimonia ethnico offerre id est Philosophorum Historicorum ut suis potissimùm refutaretur Authoribus quo si eruditi homines se conferre caeperint evanituras brevi religiones fallas Because the Heathen World was yet uncapable of Divine first to offer it Humane Testimonies of Heathen Philosophers and Histories that it might at least be confuted by its own Authors Which method if Learned men would take false Religions would quickly vanish See more in Eusebius his Apology for Origen where he shews how he and other Christian Doctors foil'd the Pagans at their own Weapons and Dionysius the Areopagite his Epistle to Polycarp For not dealing in this way but by Texts of sacred Writ with Demetrianus Lactantius blames St. Cyprian Lact. de justicia l. 5. c. 4. Let Julian who was thus careful to suppress Pagan records bring up the Rear of Gentile Witnesses to the Truth of the Evangelical Writings as to their being rightly Father'd upon those Authors whose Names they bear who as Cyril Contra Julianum lib. 10. testifieth Apertè fatetur Petri Pauli Mathaei Marci Lucae esse ea quae Christiani legunt iisdem nominibus inscripta confesseth That the Books which the Christians read inscribed with the names of Peter Paul Mathew Mark Luke are the genuine Writings of those men § 5. I should put the utmost of my Readers patience to trial should I shew the Prints of Old-Testament-stories in the Antiquities of the Heathen I will therefore content my self with these few particulars and for the rest refer him to Blundel Vossius c. The History of Joseph was presented in the Aegyptian Apis saith Ruffinus lib. 2. historiae Ecclesiast and produceth Pagan Writers affirming that a certain King or Steward of Aegypt in a time of Famine relieved the people out of his Storehouses to whom therefore after his Decease they built a Temple wherein an Ox was kept at the publick Charge as an Embleme of the best Husbandman a creature saith Diodorus Siculus l. 1. cap. 2. exceeding helpful to Husbandmen which Varro l. 2. c. 5. de re rusticâ stiles the Husbandman's Companion and the servant of Ceres Upon which consideration was grounded that Athenian Law that no man should kill an Oxe that Plowed the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he is a kind of Husbandman and a partaker with man in his labour Aelianus var. hist. l. 5. c. 14. and therefore Appianus de belis Mithridat makes it an
their own Prophets foretold they would make to that Question Listen in their Synagogues if thou canst hear the blessed Jesus named except it be in execrations spie if thou canst see the Symbol of his precious Death except it be in their barbarous representation thereof by some Crucified Christian Infant Observe if there be any Signs of their relenting for Murdering that holy and just One of their bitter mourning over their Fathers sin in choosing a Murderer before the Innocent Lamb of God If thou discernest one tear to trickle down from their eye while 't is fixt upon him except it flow from their spightful envy to see him exalted adored and worshipt of all people but themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidor Pelus l. 4. ep 74. They are preserv'd alive that they may be vexed at the heart by beholding the glory of Christ shining every where Or be in revenge of that vengeance upon them by which Christ has paid himself for the Travel of his soul for that unthankful Nation and vindicated the honour of his Deity in the opinion of all men but themselves by which they that would not receive instruction are made an instruction to others and they who would not by all the plainest Demonstrations which Christ or his Apostle did lay before them be convinc'd are become a Demonstration to convince the World that that Jesus whom they slew and hanged upon a Tree is the very Christ For as their Fathers by condemning him so the Children of that stock of Abraham by persisting in their denial of him not knowing him nor the voyces of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day have been and are still fulfilling those Prophets as to this Point of their Prediction that that People should reject their own Messias Act. 13. 27. § 2. A second Branch of Prophecy whose Fruit hangs yet upon it whose Effect is still permanent to be seen felt and handled is that touching Gods Rejection of the Jews for their rejecting of his Son Of the truth of which that Nation is a manifest proof and stands as a Pillar of Salt to season all Ages with the belief of the Supernaturalness of those Revelations wherein that event was foretold And of the warrantableness of the Churches Application o◠them to the Blessed Jesus whereupon Celsus having excepted against that Opinion of the Christians That the Jews had moved Gods displeasure against them for their Crucifying and disowning Christ Origen replies What Is not the dispersion of their Nation the ruine of their Temple City c. sufficient indications of Gods rejecting that people I dare say they shall never be restored Origen contra Celsum l. 3. cal 10. I hope the English Atheist is not so much a French Gentleman as to take it in Dudgeon that I lay some grains of this Salt on his Trencher or rather advise him to help himself to some now that it stands at his Elbow for I fancy him yet in Belgium taking out the first Lesson touching the Jews disowning of Christ And now that he is amongst those Keepers of our Rolls those bearers of our Books let him search whether those Prophecies which foretell that upon that Nations refusing to accept their own Messias their Fathers God should wholly disown them be the inventions of Christians the pious frauds of our Church or the Responds of their own Prophets Ask a Jew of whom that Prophet of theirs whom for honours sake they call Angel Jeremy speaks chap. 6. I will bring evil upon this people because they have rejected the word of the Lord because they said we will not walk in the good way wherein they were promised to find rest for their souls because they would not hear the sound of the Trumpet that sound which the Gentiles would hear Hearken therefore hear ye Nations hear O earth I will bring evil upon this people reprobate Silver shall men call them because God hath rejected them Can the most obstinately blinded Jew shut his Eye so close as he shall not here see the glimmerings of those unwelcome Truths 1. That this is an Evil the Effects whereof should be so palpable as all Nations should so manifestly see the Marks of Gods rejecting them as the name whereby they should in common speech be called is reprobate Silver a refuse Nation a People cast off of God a name which God was angry with the Heathen for fastning upon them in the saddest dereliction of that people formerly That 2. The word for their rejecting whereof they were rejected of God The good old way for their refusing to walk wherein they were left out of the road of Mercy can be none other but that eternal Word who proclaimed himself to be the Way and offered Soul-rest to them would come to him is manifest For 1. This is absolutely and without compare the good old Way the saving Word that was chalk'd out that was Preach'd to Abraham before he was Circumcised 400 years before the good old Way of Moses was known Nay preach'd by Noah that Preacher of Righteousness by Faith many Generations before Abraham and by God himself in Paradise tendering Life through Faith in the Blood of the Womans Seed which was the only thing saving in all the After-dispensations of that Covenant of Grace 2. This is the only Word and Way which the Jews totally rejected the Word spoken by Moses and the Prophets their Fathers in some part for some time neglected but never totally renounc'd it and the Modern Jew does too tenaciously stick to the Letter of that Word and the external Form of that Way 3. The only Sound of the Trumpet which the Gentiles hearken to in order to their finding rest to their Souls is that sound of the Apostles which from Jerusalem is gone into all the Earth and to the uttermost parts of the World the sound of that Trumpet whereby Christ is Proclaimed the Word of God the everlasting Way of Salvation § 3. Ask a Jew whether the same Prophet chap. 16 and 17. threaten not a more dreadful Judgment then impending over that Nations head than the Northern Captivity to wit a dissipation into Strange lands that neither they nor their Fathers knew whereas Chaldaea and all the Nations into which they were carried Captive before their Crucifying the Lord of Life were their door Neighbours with whom they had Commerce where God would shew them no favour as he had done in all other Captivities but take away his peace from them even loving kindness and mercy where they should be hunted from every Mountain and Hill and Hole wherein not only all the Treasures of Gods Mountain in the Field the riches of that Covenant of Grace sometimes deposited with that faithless and fruitless People should be given as a spoile to the Gentiles But the holy Mountain her self discontinue from that heritage which God had given her and he burnt up and made desolate by a fire that should be kindled in Gods anger and burn
for ever A fire of Eternal Vengeance such as that whereby God destroyed Sodom and her Sisters So as she may with as much reason expect that the Lake of Sodom shall become firm Land again and grow into a pleasant Plain like the Garden of Eden and the Captivity of those Cities be return'd from that Sulphury Abyss that captivates them as she can look for the returning of that her Captivity as another of their Prophets forewarned them Ezek. 16. 55. To these Prophecies Josephus relates when John the Captain of the Rebel-Jews had answered Josephus whom Titus employed as his Interpreter to perswade them to yield That Jerusalem was Gods City and therefore invincible I confess replied Josephus I deserve to be severely punish'd for attempting to perswade you to avoid your Destiny and to preserve men condemned by the Sentence of God For who knows not the writings of the ancient Prophets and their Responds hanging over the Head of this most miserable City Bel. Jud. 7. 4. The Modern Jews who have lain under the burthen of those Prophecies so many hundred years cannot for shame deny that Application of them which one of their own Priests made at the first Commencement of their Effects even before their irresistible force had batter'd their City and Temple about their ears and scatter'd their whole Nation as chaff upon the face of the Earth However they cannot deny that these are the Responds of their own Prophets and I dare refer it to the judgement and determination of the blindest Atheists own eyes to conclude upon what people those Menacies are faln whose destiny it is to be the butts of those well aimed Arrows of Vengeance And then let either Jew or Atheist say if they can what that Sin can be upon the account of which the God of Sion should so loath Sion as his heart should wholly depart from her that Sin of Judah written with a pen of Iron with the point of a Diamond that it might remain in the guilt of it before God for ever compare Jer. 17. 1. with Job 19. 24. that sin of theirs which out-cries all the beastly and barbarous Idolatries of their Fathers the filthiness of the Sodomites that sin which in the days of the Messias as their own Talmudists quoted by the Learned Dr. Lightfoot in harmo on Epistle to Philippians gather from their own Scriptures shall make the Synagogues become Stews the Wisdom of the Scribes to be abominated and the religious persons among them to be scorn'd and the faces of that Generation to be as Dogs that Sin which shall speak that Generation to be men of Canine Impudency Ass-like Contumacy and Savage Cruelty as the Talmudists describe the State of the Jews in the days of the Messias in another place quoted by Grotius verit Christian. rel annot pag. 336. Of Canine Impudence they make ostentation of the nakedness of their very nakedness once their glory now their shame once Circumcision a Seal of the Covenant now only Concision a gash in the flesh Ass-like contumacy All the Judgments of God upon them cannot cudgell them into one sober Reflection upon what their Fathers did in Crucifying the Lord of Glory though they have so many years been braid with a Pestel in a Mortar the Husk of their Stupidity is not departed from them and Savage cruelty this they practise as often as they have occasion or dare shew it witness their barbarous dismembring of the Cyprians in the Reign of Adrian and those other instances I have alledged elsewhere To which add their filling all Asia with fire and Slaughter putting both Christians and Ismaelites to the Sword under their Prophet Buba anno Christi 1237. Scal. can Isag. l. 2. p. 15. Hagag the Viceroy of Irah and â—abylon under Caliph Abdimelech an Christi 714. in the 20 years of his Government slew 120000 men besides those that died in Prison of Men 50000. of Women 3000. Scaliger dynastia Chalipharum in Bagded That sin which shall turn the House of Divine Instruction into a Den of Dragons that is as R. Jud. expounds it A Brothel-house at what time the Son of David should come that Sin which shall never be blotted out but cause them to be blotted out of the Book of the living then when the Gentiles sing unto the Lord A new Song which will please him better than an Ox that hath Horns and Hoofs better than the best Legal Sacrifices which Aben Ezra Pf. 69. 29. applies to the Times of Christ Let the Jew I say name if he can what that Sin can be but what the Prophets impute it to to wit the Guilt of that Blood which the Fathers invoked upon themselves and Children They are written in the Earth where the Ostrich layes her Eggs where the foot of every Beast that passeth by may crush them because they have forsaken the Lord the hope of Israel Jer. 17. 13. Not God the possession of Israel while Israel was his possession but the Lord the hope of Israel the promised Lord which Israel hoped for To which promise the twelve Tribes incessantly serving God day and night did hope to come Acts 26. 7. It was their hating the innocent Jesus without a Cause their becoming his enemies wrongfully their heart breaking Reproaches the Gall they gave him for meat the vinegar they gave him in his thirst for drink that exasperated their God's heart against them It was for this that David in the Spirit of Prophecie devoted that Nation to that Ruine we now see brought upon them to that Vengeance we see God pouring out upon them in making their Table their Snare and their Wellfare their Trap in turning the Law of Moses and the Covenant of Peculiarities into an occasion of their perverse denial of Christ of their further Obcaecation and Obduration It is for their persecuting him whom God smote when he laid upon him the iniquities of us all that that man after Gods heart poured out these imprecations against them Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them ever bow down their backs that is let them fall and never rise let them never see that Redemption from Captivity which they look for as the Syriack expounds it Let them not come into thy righteousness that is deal with them in fury not in Judgment let them be strangers to that mitigation of the severity of justice that 's tender'd in the Gospel let them have judgment without mercy as the Arabick glosseth Vicars his Decupla on Psal. 69. As to any other sin The Jew came out of the fire of the Babylonish Captivity so refin'd as he hath been ever since his Fathers better not a dram of the Golden Calf would ever since down with him he hath never since relisht the Cakes bak'd for the Queen of Heaven nor lusted after the Onyons Garlick or Flesh-pots of Aegypt nor endured upon his body the figures of the Letters of his Idol as King
Infidels into the Abyss The Goats are cast into it after they are convict by the Covenant of Grace White Throne New Heaven and Earth Flames of Fire divided § 6. They that are in Christ rise first but Infidels are first Judged The Objection from their being in termino § 7. The Jews Septimum Millenarium is the eternal Sabbaoth The days of a Tree Isa. 65. 28. The Text Paraphrased § 1 THat this loosing of Satan shall not be till the Dawning of the Day of Judgement touching which I humbly submit to the candid Censure of the Church these my conjectures with my Reasons for them That Text Rev. 20. He shall gather them together from the four corners of the Earth seems to allude to Mat. 24. 31. and to be subsequent to that gathering of the Elect. He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his elect from the four winds and from the one end of the heaven unto the other touching which first gathering of the Elect St. Paul tells us it shall be in order to their meeting of Christ in the day of Judgment at the sound of which Trumpet the dead in Christ shall rise first and then those Christians whom that day shall find alive shall in the twinckling of an eye be changed into the same form and condition of body with those that arose from the Dead and be caught up in the Air to meet Christ. Qui merebantur compendio mortis per demutationem expunctae concurrere cum resurgentibus Tertul. de resur cap. 41. They who obtained by that short cut of death cancel'd by change the priviledge to run together with them that rise to the place of Judgment And the ancient Church generally thought that the Center to which this gathering of the Saints should be is the Valley of Jehoshaphat whither she expected Christ would come to judge the World and in testimony of that her expectation and that she might in all her religious Assemblies be found waiting for that appearance of her Lord and be mindfull of that our general gathering unto Christ she turn'd her face while she worship'd toward that point of the Earth and therefore the sacred Places of Publick Worship were built with their Chancells where the Communion-Table the visible Throne of Grace stood at the East end if the place were Westward but at the West end of their Church if the place were East of that Valley that so in what coast soever the Name of Christ was invocated their Eyes and Minds might be directed thither this is the very reason why the Chancel of the Patriarchall Church of Antioch stood at the West-end and without doubt all the Churches within that Patriarchat that stood East of Judea were conformable to the Mother-Church as that was to the Practise of the Universal which from every point of the Circumference had its Lines drawn to that Navel of the Earth that Center of the general Assembly And therefore Socrates is out in his giving the standing of the Chancel of that Church contrariwise to the Chancels of the European and Natolian Churches for an Instance of the different Usages and Rites of some Churches from others for though in the rest of the Examples that he produceth one Church differ'd from another without breach of Charity or contempt of Religion yet in this Ceremony of looking towards the Valley of Jehosaphat there was an Universal Conformity no Church having so little manners as to turn her breech upon the place of Judgment while she worshipp'd the Judge and made Confession of her belief that she dayly expected his appearance over that place where at his ascension he was taken out of the sight of his Disciples into heaven and his Angels after that assured them that he should so come in like manner as they had seen him go into Heaven Which among other circumstances must imply that of the Place if not mean that above any other For as to other manner of his second Coming it will be with a far greater Train of Angels than they then saw him ascend with and in far greater Glory § 2. The Elect that is all that have profest the Worship of the true God or as David calls them Gods Saints that have made a Covenant with him by Sacrifice being gather'd to the place of Judgment or during their gathering thither For it seems Tertullian thought the Pagans would be at the heels of the rising Saints and that they might not surprise the Saints then living they should be changed in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye be in readiness to march up to the place of Judgement with those that are risen before the Antichristian party both of the then living and immediately to be rais'd could seize upon them Hujus gratiae privilegium illos manet qui ab adventu Domini deprehendentur in carne propter duritias temporum Antichristi moriebuntur compendio mortis c. Tertull. Ibidem This Election I say being gathered or a gathering to the place of Judgements the reprobates that is all Idolaters the whole Pagan World that have lived and died in Gentilism shall be raised and those that are living shall be changed And Satan now let loose the whole Church waiting in the Air the Judges coming will re-enter upon his old Demesne and drive all the Cattle he there finds as his own as weises and strays from the great Shepherd of Souls and perswading them perhaps that he raised them from the dead and would now at last be reveng'd on Christ and his Saints and dequoying them into an opinion that they had a fair opportunity of making havock of the City and People of God altogether of swallowing up the little Flock of Christ at one morsel now they were all in a body and a body so contemptible in comparison of those multitudes which he headed being as the Sand on the Sea-shore or by whatsoever insinuations he will prevail with them to march up under his and his Angels conduct from all parts of the World Gog and Magog tectum intectum as St. Jerom expounds Ezek. 28. and 29 the hidden Climes of the lower the known World of the upper Hemisphere against the holy Land and the Camp of the Saints which while they are encompassing the Judge appears and with that devouring fire that goes before him destroyes them in a moment For they being taken in the act of Rebellion as Cora and his Complices divine justice shall not need to proceed against them in a formal way of trial but the Earth chapt with this Fire of the last Conflagration cleaves asunder opens her mouth and receives them with the dregs of the whole Creation into that Abyss whither that Deluge of Fire to which the Heaven and Earth that now are are reserved shall drive them Judicium quod est retributio pro peccatis omnibus competit judicium quod est discussio meritorum solis fidelibus nullo
mixt with mercy God in his every days anger is strong and patient strong in sparing spends but part of the Arrows in the Quiver of the Menacy Propheticus mos est Summam consternationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 describere petitâ translatione ab iis quae efficient consternationem in adventu Christi quo veniet ad judicandum mundum But the burthen of Prophesie where it shall fall last will fall with all its weight when it is to have its accomplishment it will have its full accomplishment Ezech. 37. 12. The Prophet understands the Metaphorical Resurrection of Israel from that forlorn estate but he alludes to the Resurrection that shall be at the last day and from his alluding to that Tertullian concludes that that Text will have a fuller accomplishment then Hoc ipso quòd recidivatus Judaici status de recorporatione readunatione ossium figuratur id quoque eventurum ossibus probatur non enim posset de ossibus figurâ componi si non id ipsum ossibus eventurum esset de vacuo similitudo non competit de nullo parabola non convenit Tert. de resurrectione cap. 30. St. Jerom on Ezek. 37. nunquam poneretur similitudo resurrectionis ad restitutionem Israelitici populi significandam si non staret ipsa resurrectio The Prophets would not borrow words from the last judgment from that notion and conception which the world by tradition had thereof to describe particular judgments if those words were not to be fulfilled at that last judgement Tertullian affirms that divine Promises are of the like nature fully accomplishable at the last day quum igitur ultimorum temporum statum Scripturae notent totam Christianae spei frugem in exodio seculi collocent apparet aut tunc adimpleri totum quòdcunque nobis à deo repromittitur c. Tertul. de resur cap. 25. Franc. Junius notes the corrupt reading of exordio for exodio seculi Seeing therefore the Scriptures denote the state of the last times and place the harvest of Christian hope at the latter end of the world it is manifest that then shall be fulfill'd whatsoever God hath promis'd otherwise And therefore we do but adulterate Prophecies touching the last day in receding from the Literal sence in allaying the briskness of that Cup of Fury with the sober Nymph the water of figurative Expositions any farther than to tame the killingness of the Letter its manifest either Iniquity or Impossibility of which the Literal Exposition of these words which I give are out of danger for 't is possible enough that at the Resurrection of the unjust when all the Infidels and excommunicate persons shall stand up out of the dust together they will cover the breadth of the Earth the Wings of that Army of Aliens from the Covenant of Grace will reach North and South and their Files be as deep as from East to West though they stand at no greater distance one from another than an Army in Battalia It has been doubted by some how so great a multitude could make their appearance together before the Judge and therefore they have thought the judgment of the Heathen would take up a thousand years while God called them one after another but my Hypothesis salves that doubt without the help of such a subterfuge However the raising of such doubts is an argument that in common sence there will be people enough to fill the whole face of the Earth saving that part of it that shall be railed in about the holy Mount And that 's an Argument that the far greatest part of that Army must rise out of the Earth for from whence else can so many be gathered as shall cover the whole superficies of the Earth Caelum non habet unde cadat and so many living together in a mortal state would put the world into such a crowd as might well excuse the Americans for seeking to enlarge their quarters As for that other expression as the sands on the Sea shore for multitude he that thinks it an Hyperbole may think it so still for me and without prejudice to my Position for as it is manifest that so many men as there are grains of sand upon the shore would not have room to stand upon the Earth and therefore according to the caution I have given we must fly to the Figurative sence here the Literal being manifestly impossible so all that I need affirm is this that this Gogick and Magogick Army shall for multitude come as near the Sand on the Sea-shore as an Army can do that is pitched on the Earth § 4. Secondly When Satan marcheth in the head of this Army the Saints must be locally imbodyed for it encompasseth the holy City and the Camp of the Saints assembled and in procinctu into which posture how they could be drawn but by the summons of the last Trumpet is not conceivable except we fancy that some lesser City and Assembly than the general of the Saints shall be besieged by this General Army of Infidels As the Learned Dr. Hammond applies it to the Turks taking of Constantinople whereas there is no mention in the Text of taking but only of encompassing the holy City in the act and attempt whereof they are said to be destroyed by Fire coming down from God out of Heaven And though the Ottoman Family the off-spring of the Lydians who are called the People of Gog from Gyges their first King or Scythians stiled by Josephus Magogaei might be a Type of St. John's Gogs and Magogs encompassing the Camp of the Saints in their besieging Constantinople yet as they did not in all points Typifie this Gogick Army so they did not in any one point Typifie it fully not in multitude for instance for though the Ottoman Armies be very numerous yet they are not comparable to the old Scythian Armies under Tomyris nor the Lydian under Gyges much less to that Muster of this Army which St John brings in and therefore in that respect cannot so much as be an Antitype of Ezekiels old Gog much less the very Gog of St. John For Prophecies acquire strength in their motions towards a perfect accomplishment Vespasian's sacking of Jerusalem and captivating of the Jews came higher up to the terms of the old Menacy than that which was inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar and the Judgment of the last day will out-doc Vespasian's Desolation and make up whatever that wanted of fulfilling every tittle of that Prophecy which described those Judgements in Terms borrowed from the horror and greatness of this § 5. Thirdly It is the common Tenet of the Schools that Ignis ultimae conflagrationis that Fire that shall refine and purge the Sublunary World shall go before Christ when he comes to his Judgment-seat and by purging its dregs from the old make a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein his white Throne shall be erected Quòd per ignem conflagrationis ultimae futura sit elementorum purgatio probatur
the Daughter of Eleazar a wealthy Matron and of a noble Family who flying to Jerusalem moving counter to Christs direction was there among the many thousands that upon the occasion of the Passover were at that time in the City when the Romans lay siege to it cooped up and being by the rude Souldiers plunder'd of her goods and at last of all provision for the Belly she takes her child and saying to him poor Child thou must be meat for me a Fury to fright those sedicious Zealots who have brought us to this extremity and a Fable to all posterity sacrificeth him to the asswaging of her hunger and at one meal devours one half of him reserving the remainder till the strong man that breaks stone walls should return again so arm'd as to force her to break the bonds of Nature and Female delicacy once more but she was prevented of the second Course of that Thiestean Banquet by Souldiers that had got the scent of it breaking in upon her and threatning her with death if she did not bring forth and present to their eye that roast-meat which they had the smell of in their Noses The wretched woman sets before them the reliques of her Babe bids them fall too if they had an appetite but if they were more nice than a Matron more pittiful then a Mother they might be wellcome to leave it for her to sustain her loathed life with Of which and the like Immanities Titus being inform'd made a solemn appeal to the Gods that they whom his Clemency could not induce to accept of Peace and an Act of Oblivion by him offer'd were worthy to feed on such cates protesting he would bury this abominable fact in the ruines of the Country where it was committed and not leave that City standing for the Sun to behold where Mothers fed on so detestable food 5. Of that degree and measure of the Wrath that was then to be poured out upon that Place and People of Gods Curse according to the Predictions of Christ that it should be levell'd with the ground not have one stone left upon another be an utter and perpetual desolation if I would give a punctual Account I must transcribe all Josephus his Books of the Jewish Wars whose Theme that is and a great part of Tacitus his fifth Book of Histories I therefore referr my Reader to those Authors whose Relations if he compare with Christs Predictions he will find them accomplish'd in every Circumstance And as to that Cities never being able to this day to obtain a Resurrection from those Ruines wherein Titus buried it Infidelity it self need no other proof than ocular Demonstration nor can require a better reason why it has not so much as been attempted for above this thousand years than the frustration of Julians purpose to rebuild it meerly to affront Christs Predictions of which Ammianus Marcellinus an Heathen Historian gives this account lib. 23. initio Ambitiosum quondam apud Hierosolymam Templum quod post multa interneciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteáque Tito aegre est expugnatum instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis negotiúmque maturandum Alypio dederat Antiochensi qui olim Britannias curà verat pro prefectis Qúum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alypius juvarétque provinciae rector metuendiglobi flammarum propè fundamentum crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hócque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente cessavit incaeptum Julian had purposed to be at excessive charge in the Restauration of that sometimes stately Temple at Jerusalem which after many and mortal skirmishings being besieged first by Vespasian and then by Titus had been with much difficulty demolished The care of managing this work is committed by Julian to Alypius of Antioch who had formerly been the Deputy-governour of Britain Alypius therefore setting amain upon the rebuilding of this Temple and the Governour of the Province assisting him dreadful Balls of fire breaking out and squibbing about the foundation and many times burning the labourers made the place inaccessible and the Element thus obstinately resisting the place it self peremptorily rejecting the stones which were laid upon it as refusing to bear such a structure the enterprise was given over And no man ever since hath been so fool hardy as to put his hands to that work which burnt the fingers of Julian's Labourers § 5. Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem How art thou faln from Heaven God was thy wall of Fire once to burn up them that besieged thee but he sent now Balls of Fire to consnme those that would have rebuilt thee Who would have believed that this would have befaln thee and thy children when thy rejected Christ dropt his Tears and with them those Predictions upon thee which we now see fulfill'd What Sign was there in Reason or Nature or Politicks of this thy fatal Catastrophe didst thou ever lift thy cloud threatning head higher above or cast a more supercilious look upon Mount Olivet than when Christ from thence facing the sumptuousness of thy building and the Ornaments of thy goodly stones pronounc'd this fatal Sentence against thee Thou wast then adorn'd with Donatives sent thee from Caesar's houshold honour'd with dayly Sacrifices offer'd at Caesars cost and by his appointment on thy Altar to the most high God who dwelt between thy Cherubims Philo Jud. legat ad Caium tells how high the Jews were in Augustus his favour in particular a great part of the trans-Tiberine City was possest by Jews who were allowed their proseucha's there and permitted to send their first fruits and offerings to Jerusalem whither most of Caesars family sent gifts which remain saith Philo to this day where Augustus commanded Sacrifices to be offered at his own charges to the most high God for the Emperours health which custom saith he continueth to this day and will for ever continue as a Monument of his Royal virtues he proved a false prophet in this but in what follows he is a true Historian He appointed the Jews at Rome to have their share of the monthly largesses of corn and mony and if the day of distribution happen'd on the Sabbath he order'd the Jews should have their shares the day following These privileges were continued to them during the reign of Tiberius notwithstanding the spight of Sejanus against the Jews Thy Children were indulged thy Sabbaths reverenc'd by Augustus and Tiberius whose ears were always open to their Complaints against their own Deputies whose greatest friends at Court could not procure their continuance if thy peoples Legates made motion for their removal out of Office If Caligula's Sacrilegious Pride would prophane thee by affronting the divine presence with his own Image it was no greater an indignity than he put upon the Temples of his own Gods and what they wanted thou found an Agrippa to intercede for thee and a Petronius to suspend the execution of the Imperial Decree against thee Claudius banish'd thy