to this holy Book or take from it to add to the Prophane Surely no if we take in one thing more out of Josephus preceding this fact of Ptolemy viz. that Demetrius summoning all the Jews of Alexandria read to them the Translation in the presence of the Translators and yet the whole Assembly approved it with one voice making suit to the King that he would with his Royal Sanction ratifie the unalterableness of it could he have devised a form of Sanction more Royal and Obliging than this Scaliger's Fourth Objection If Eleazar and the Jerusalem Sanhedrim had approved this Translation why did the Hebraizing Jews so hate it as to keep an Annual Fast and day of afflicting their Souls in remembrance of it why did they say there was three days of darkness when the Law was translated and apply to this time and action that of Solomon Eccl. 3. There is a time to rent Thus proceeds that learned Man to Catechise his Readers If a Puny whose ambition it is to sit at the feet of that great Oracle may have leave to solve these queries I would thus unty these knots with which he snarles this story The great Council appointed the Seventy to translate the Bible to gratifie Ptolemy but never intended that Translation should be used in Synagogues Neither does Josephus Antiq. 12. 2. assert any thing of that tendency but that the whole Assembly of the Jews of Aegypt with their Magistrates and Elders passed their joynt Vote that it should be allowed to be read in their publick Assemblies Now it was this Vote which the Hebrews abominated it was not to the Translation it self but what past towards the ratifying of it for this use in those three days of darkness wherein it was read to the Jews of Aegypt and obtained this approbation to which they applyed that Sentence of the Royal Preacher There is a time to rent the Aegyptian Jews giving hereby to their Brethren of Judaea the like scandal to that which the Latines gave the Greeks by inserting de filioque into the common Creed without common consent and laying a Foundation for that Schism which about an hundred Years after this was perfected by Onias who with the consent of Ptolemy Philometor Jos. Antiq. 13. 6. in pretence of fulfilling that Prophesie Isaiah 19. 18. There shall five Cities in Aegypt speak the Language of Canaan and one of them shall be the City of the Sun erected at Heliopolis a Temple after the similitude of that at Jerusalem and a Church of Jews there whereof he became High Priest distinct from that in Judaea whereof Alcimus was his Priest by the name of Helenists or Grecians as Scaliger observes and Doctor Hammond demonstrates from Act. 11. 20. where they that upon St. Steven's Martyrdom travell'd to Antioch are said To preach the Lord Jesus to the Greeks that is to the Grecizing Jews for it is said of the same men in the preceding verse that in that their Perambulation they preached to the Jews only A plain proof that the compellation of Greeks was not imposed upon them from their living in Greece but their holding of that Church which used the Greek Translation of the Seventy § 5. Scaliger's Fifth Objection His objecting the Story of some Neoterick Jews touching their razing out the Golden Letters of the Name Jehovah in that Copy which was presented to Alexander the Great and writing them with Ink as an Argument that Josephus is lead by Aristaeus beside the way of Truth when he saith that the Copy of the Law which Eleazar sent to Ptolemy was writ in Golden Letters had never been raised by him upon so Sandy a Foundation neither had such Rabbinical Fables obtained that High Place among his Golden Lines as he here assigns them had he call'd to mind either what St. Origen writes in answer to Celsus In Cels. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Writings of Modern Jews are mere Fables and Trifles Or what sometimes dropp'd from his own Pen. de em temp l. 6. Manifesta est Judaeorum inscitia multa quae ad eorum Sacra Historiam pertinent nos melius tenemus quam ipsi The Ignorance of the Jews is most manifest we are better acquainted with their Religious Customs and the Histories of their Affairs than the Jews themselves are Josephus his single word hath more weight with me than hundreds of Modern Rabbies Scaliger's Sixth Objection The last Stone which Scaliger turns is Ptolemy himself under this indeed he finds those Worms of Parricides committed upon his Brethren those Moths of Incest committed with his Sister as fret his Surname Philadelphus till they change it from its natural Gloss and make it look as imposed upon him abusively but not Aristaeus his Credit For first these Immoralities hinder not but that he might be ambitious to have his famous Library grac'd with Books so much commended not only by publick fame and inkling of the Nations speaking in the language of that Prophecy Deut. 4. 6. What Nation is there so great that hath statutes and Judgments so righteous as this Law but by the suggestions of Demetrius that the Jewish Scriptures contein'd a most wise sincere and divinely-inspired Law and that Hecataeus Abderita assigned that as the reason why neither any Poet nor Historian made mention thereof because 't is sacred and not to be taken into a prophane mouth How must this set an edge upon his curiosity and incite him after the obtaining a sight and coming within view of those Books which at a distance cast so alluring a smell into his quick-scented nostrils Ptolemy was in Tertullian's Judgment Omni literaturâ sagacissimus Apol. cap. 18. Secondly had we learnt to extend the line of Christian Charity but half as far as it will reach we should pass a milder sentence than that of Scaliger and Weenobus upon him whom God anointed to be his Servant to bring his Law from Jewish Captivity and conceive him to have been almost if not altogether a Proselyte for upon the assurance that Aristaeus gave him that so far as he could find by most diligent enquiry the best and highest God the Maker of the World whom he worship'd under the name of Jupiter was worshipped among the Jews after a more excellent rite and form of Divine Service than among any other people upon earth that that God who gave to him his Kingdom had given to them their Law he presently ordered the Manumission of all the Jews in his Dominion at his own vast charge in redeeming above 120000 out of the hands of those they were Vassals to And upon Demetrius his suggesting to him that the Jewish Scriptures contein'd a most wise sincere and divine Law he ordered Embassadors to be sent to Eleazar the High Priest with Letters after this Tenure After I had obtained the Principality I set at liberty above an hundred thousand Jews c. thinking that this would be an acceptable thank-offering to God for that providence
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
not see the approaching Light of that Pretious Stone God was about to lay in Sion to the proximity of that Age to the appearance of that true Light of that only infallible living Oracle This by the way To this Testimony of Josephus for the Second Temple's enjoyment of this Oracle the Son of Sirach seems to give his Suffrage Chap. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law is as faithful as the Responses of Urim and Thummim of that Oracle which from its Clarity and Veritie had these names given it interpreted by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Light and Truth The first used by Siracides and is the Radix of that Sirname of Apollo Delius so called properly enough if Apollo be the Sun but cannot be applied but abusively to his Daemon or Genius that gave Oracles most of which were darker than darkness it self The latter given to that famous Saphire which the Antient Kings of Aegypt who were also Priests wore about their neck as Aelian reports Var. Hist. 14. 34. This for the illustration of the Terms as to the Text it self it imports that at the making of that Book of Wisdom which the Author saith was in the Reign of Evergetes the Oracle of Urim and Thummim was still in being for he brings that in as a thing Notius notorious and well known to illustrate the perspicuity and faithfulness of the Law Lastly though it was wanting at their first Return before the Temple was finish'd yet they expected it would be restored and therefore Ezra 2. 62 63. the Tirshata would not take them into the number of Priests that could not shew their Pedigree Till there should rise up a Priest with Urim and Thummim and in all reason was restored as soon as the Temple was finish'd a Vision whereof Zachary seeth c. 3. where Joshua is cloth'd with that change of Raiment wherein it is promised him He shall judge Israel Post ablationem vestium sordidarum restitutam mundi sacerdotii dignitatem promittitur quòd ipse judex sit domus ejus After the taking away of his filthy Raiment and restoring to him the dignity of a clean High-Priest-hood it is promised to him that he should judge Gods house as St. Jerom from the Hebrews expounds that Text a clear Paraphrase of the Pectoral of Judgment of the stones whereof Zachary affirms that they are the ingravings of God c. and in the 6 Chapter of Zach. vers 14. and 10. I find Tobijah among those that attend upon the holy things who was one of those whose Pedigree could not be found and were therefore excluded from the Sanctuary till a Priest should arise with Urim Nehem. 7. 62. § 4. As to the Spirit of Prophesie its being under the Second Temple in both those Degrees of it implied Revel 4. 2. that which inspired holy men with Prophecy or to be Prophets and to Preach and that which inspired them to be Penmen or to write Prophecies Is so palpable by the date of the Prophecies of Haggai and Zachary as nothing but malice can hoodwink the Jew from seeing it And though it be true the Sun set upon their writing Prophets about the Reign of Alexander the Great yet they had speaking Prophets as long as the Temple stood of which Josephus gives many instances of Judas whose Prophecies used to prove so infallible as when he saw Antigonus going to the Temple the afternoon of that day on which he had prophesied he should die and that at Straton's Tower which was 600 Furlongs distant he cried out to his Disciples in the words of the Prophet Jonah when God spared Ninivie after he had threatned the destruction of it within 40 days I now grow weary of my life seeing Antigonus his life convinceth me to be a false Prophet for it is impossible he should die this day at Straton's Tower who is here alive after so much of the day is spent and at so great a distance from that place But there was a Tower in the Palace of that name in the Vault whereof Antigonus was Murdered in his return from the Temple and news thereof brought to Judas while he was tormenting himself for fear of the miscarriage of his Prophesie Joseph an t 13. 19. Of one Jesus who four years before the beginning of that War which ended with the Desolation of Jerusalem at what time the City enjoy'd as much peace and plenty as ever coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles suddenly broke out into these Exclamations A Voyce from the East a voyce from the West a voyce from the four Winds a voyce against Jerusalem and the Temple a voyce against the Bridegroom and the Bride a voyce against this whole Nation and without ceasing day or night carried this burthen of Prophesie through all the Streets and Lanes of the City from which no punishment could restrain him And to spare the alledging of more Examples Of himself who prophesied to Vespasian that he should be Emperour against which Vespasian making this Exception How canst thou foreknow my Fortunes that couldst not foresee thine own Captivity nor the taking of Jotopata of which thou was Governour Why replied he I told the Jotopatanes that within 47 days they should be destroyed and my self become a Prisoner to the Romanes By this we see how false as well as blasphemous this Assertion is that the Second Temple wanted the Spirit of Prophecy and how far wide of Daniels sence the modern Jews are in expounding The sealing of Prophecy whereby he means the fulfilling and ratifying thereof by the Blessed Jesus to be the cessation of it of which cessation of all Prophecy they sometimes make the Aera to concur with that of the defiling the Temple by Epiphanes sometimes with that of the League which Judas Maccabeus made with the Romanes sometimes to the first year of Seleucus Nicanor Whereas speaking Prophets continued to the end of the Jewish State and writing Prophets ceas'd long before the eldest of these Dates and therefore the Author of the Book of Maccabees speaks of that as falling out a considerable time before the discumfiture of Judas by Alcimus and Bacchides 1 Mac. 9. 27. So there was a very great Affliction in Israel the like whereof was not since the time that a Prophet was not seen amongst them that is a writing Prophet Vide comput Jud. Scal. de emend temp lib. 7. pag. 628. 654. That the Shechina or Majesty of the Divine presence wherein God appeared to be present by the appearance of Angels those Courtiers of Heaven either in a lucid flaming shining appearance as that Host of Heaven those Angels of God's presence that pitcht their Camp before Israels Camp in the Wilderness appeared in the night or in a thick Cloud or Smoak such a bodily appearance as they assumed on the day vide Hamond an on Mat. 3. 16. that this Majestick presence of the Lord did fill the Second Temple as well as the First is attested by the
as asserted by the Church in those writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The Holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. CHAP. V. The Truth of the Gospel-History attested by Secular Writers § 1. Old Antagonists did not persist in the denial of any point of Gospel-History save that of Christs Resurrection and the manner of their denying it proves the Truth of it § 2. Josephus his Story of John Baptist accords with Gospel-History § 3. His Text in testimony of Jesus vindicated from the Exceptions of Vossius c. § 4. Josephus his date of Christs and the Baptists Story falls in with Gospel-Chronology § 5. The Stories of Herod Herodias Aretus Artabanus Philip Lysanias in Josephus Tacitus Suetonius timed to Sacred Chronology § 6. The Twin-Priesthood of Annas and Caiphas at Christs Baptism and Passion cleared § 7. The Date of Philip the Tetrarch his Death CHAP. VI. The Date of Christs Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and Baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christs Birth The Priestly Courses the Character of it which from the first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christs Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answered § 6. The taxing of all the world ill-confounded with that of Syria CHAP. VII Josephus his Suffrage to the Evangelists in the Substance of their History of Christ. § 1. He appropriates the Compellation Christ to our Jesus speaks of the Churches growth in a Gospel-stile § 2. Describes Christs Disciples by Evangelical Characters gives the Evangelists Reasons why others did not embrace the Gospel § 3. He peremptorily asserts Christs Miracles how he came to a certain information thereof Appion and Justus would have found it out if he had proceeded here upon presumptions and uncertainties § 4. He describes Christs Miracles after the Evangelical Model § 5. And affirms them to have been such as the Prophets had foretold The Touch-stone of Canonical History § 6. He asserts Christs Resurrection with all its Circumstances CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians Debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He Dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James Martyred in the third a Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Style Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owle § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great died of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symptoms of Agrippa's Disease § 6. A Digression touching St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1. Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphal yet true Julian's Prohibition of the use of secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers CHAP. X. The Adversaries forced upon very great Disadvantages to their own Cause by reason that they could not for very shame resist the Evidences brought in defence of Sacred History § 1. Christ accused of working by the Prince of Devils that Accusation withdrawn in open Court and this Plea put in against him that he made himself a King and therefore was an Enemy to Caesar § 2. Pety Exceptions rebound upon the heads of their Framers § 3. The Modern Sceptick's half-reasons too young to grapple with old Prescription § 4. Christs Works Gods Seal to his Mission § 5. The present Age as able to judge of the Nature of those Works as that was wherein they were done § 6. Atheistical Exceptions against particular points of Religion an Hydra's head yet they all stand upon one neck and may be cut off at one blow by proving the Divine Original of Religion BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT 4. The Divine Original of Sacred Writ is as demonstrable as the being of a God from the Infinity of Wisdom express'd in its Prophecies and of Power in its miracles THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Being of a Deity Demonstrated § 1. The Existence of a Deity demonstrable from the frame of the world the composition of humane bodies § 2. The Garden of the Earth did not fall by chance into so curious and well order'd knots The ingenuity of Birds sings the Wisdom of their Maker c. § 4. The Heavens declare the glory of God CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stamp'd thereon no less manifest Prints of infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torments God might permit the Devil to communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfill'd CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fulfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing vertue the second Temples Dowry CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
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
the Goddess Rome the people of Smyrna built a Temple and therefore were prefer'd by the Senate before the rest of the twelve Cities who stood in competition with her in that contest that was moved by those Cities in the Senate which of them should have the priviledge granted to build a Temple to Augustus Tacit. Hist. 3. Annal. 4. p. 110. taxed by our Propertius colitur nam sanguine ipsa More Deae noménque lâ—ci ceu numen adorant The very City of Rome it self is worshipped as a Goddess by Sacrifices and they adore the name of the place as a Deity Thus hath Antichristian Rome both Pagan and Papal exalted her self above all that in the most extensive sence is called God or worshipped What hopes then could the Apostles have had they been supported by no other but an arm of flesh to obtrude upon that Empire that unknown that strange God whom they preacht A thing First so ill resented by that State in Constantine the Great as Licinius in his Speech to his Soldiers mentioned by Eusebius in the Life of Constantine lib. 2. cap. 5. whets their courage and animates them to the fight by this argument alone That the Army they were to ingage against had imbrac'd a strange God and intended to fight under his colours Secondly Of so harsh a sound in the ears of some Christian Theologues as not knowing how to put a good sence upon that phrase when they met with it in Daniel Dan. 11. 39. they have mangled the coherence making a meer hotch-potch of that prophecie and perverted its sence forcing it to point at the marks of Antichrist from its plain intendment to describe the conquest of Christ and his subduing the Empire to an abrenunciation of the Gods of its Ancestors and the acceptance of himself that foreign God to them Mede in locum that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown God Act. 17. that only Potentate God blessed for ever that should set his conquering Banners upon the Walls of that proud City that had set hers upon the Temples of all other strange Gods and gather that Eagle as a Chicken under his that had made the Gods of all Nations creep under her wings the full experiment whereof he gave in the Reign of Constantine And that 's the clear importance of Daniels prophecie and of Licinius his Argument The first perverter of Daniels words to a sinister sence was the Patriarch of those hackney Commentators that think it a strange thing that the Empires embracing a strange God should be taken in a good sence and import the Christning of it into the name of our Jesus But if the Name of a foreign God startle some of our Divines it is less to be wonder'd that Thirdly it should grate so harshly upon Pagan-Roman ears as that State could never be charmed into the imbracing of any strange God upon his own terms before or beside the blessed Jesus nisi homini placuerit Deus Deus non erit homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit Tert. Ap. contr Gent. 5. all others before their reception were capitulated with and forc'd to lay their Crowns of Divine Honour at the Senates feet before they were permitted in that City to wear them on their own heads they must undeifie themselves and become no Gods of other Cities before they are allowed to be Gods in that From which custom Eusebius Hist. 2. 2. ascribes it to a signal providence that our Jesus was not received by the Senate for God upon Tiberius his motion Which no doubt saith he was done to this end that the wholesome Doctrine of the Divine Preaching might not need the approbation of men the commendation of such men i. e. That Christ might not seem to enter at the common door in a precarious way with cap in hand till the Senate was pleased to bid him be cover'd that his Divinity might not like that of other Gods as Tertullian speaks ubi prius de humano arbitratu pensitari pass for no more than it weighed in the unequal scales of humane arbitrement but settle it self among them by its own weight and over them upon his own terms § 4. There is but one instance in all History that bears any semblance of opposition to this last assertion That our Jesus was the first foreign God whom the Romans received without capitulations and that is of Simon Magus who seems to have prevented our Saviour in the honour of being proclaimed a God there Which knot some attempt to untie or rather rashly to cut asunder by a back-blow against the truth of those current Stories which Eusebius out of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus reports of Simon 's Deification the sword with which they wound the credit of this History comes out of the forge of Peter Ciaconius who suspects this to have been Justin's mistake because about the place where he reports Simons Image to have been erected there was Anno Christi 1574. the basis of a Marble Statue digged up with this inscription SIMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO But to this answer it may be replyed That though it be very certain that there were Pillars or Statues in Rome and Reatina bearing such like inscriptions SEMONI SANCO FIDIO DEO SANCTO SANCO SEMONI DEO FIDIO SANCO FIDIO SEMO PATRI Ovid. Fast. 6. Quaerebam Nonas Sancto Fidióne referrem An tibi Semo pater tunc mihi Sanctus ait Cuicunque ex istis dederis ego munus habebo Nomina terna fero sic valuêre Cures whom Vossius rationally concludeth to have been Hercules from the testimony of Varro lib. 4. de L. L. and of Festus Herculi aut Sanco qui scilicet idem est Deus Vossius de Idololatria lib. 1. cap. 12. pag. 46 47. Etiam inter indigites Deos Romanis fuit Semo Sanctus qui Fidius quia per eum jurando fieret fides Inscriptio Romana SEMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO SACRUM alia SANCTO SANCO SEMONI DEO FIDIO SACRUM Yet the place assigned by Ovid agrees not to that which Justin Martyr assignes to Simon Magus Hunc igitur veteres donârunt aede Sabini Inque Quirinali constituêre Jugo In whose Temple Tanquill or Caia Caecilia resided with her whorle and distaff as out of Varro Pliny reports lib. 8. cap. 48. Now though Justin might easily mistake Semoni for Simoni yet sure he must have had a beam in 's eye if he took a Temple on the Quirinal Hill for a Statue on Tibers Bridge And that Tertullian should follow him in that mistake being so great an Antiquary and which is more by Profession a Lawyer and therefore skill'd in the Roman Fasts and lect dayes is still a greater wonder And therefore notwithstanding Vossius his Arguments to the contrary I still think those great Lights of the Primitive Church did not ground their story of Simon Magus upon such palpable mistakes And as to Ciaconius his reason from the so late invention of that Statue dug up in or
Apostles used is not only plain in it self but acknowledged by thee and Epist. 19. Sed insinuare digneris à quibus Judaeis c. Be pleased I pray thee to tell me by what Jews this Translation could possibly be corrupted so as to disfavour the Christian Cause Not by those who before the Advent of Christ translated it for they had no temptation The Jews indeed since the propagation of Christianity may be thought to have had a good will either to substract or to adulterate those Texts in the Old Testament out of which we fetch convincing Arguments in defence of our Faith But how is it possible they could have an opportunity seeing the Translation of the Seventy is not only dispers'd through the World but by reason of Christ's and his Apostles making their quotations out of it is so tenaciously adhered to by all Christian Churches as they cannot endure to hear what recedes from it in the least tittle Of which he gives this notable Instance Epist. 10. That a certain Bishop reading out of St. Jerom's Translation in the History of Jonas haedera instead of cucurbita the people were so incens'd as they had like to have proceeded to the Deposition of their Bishop for corrupting sacred Writ By such Solidity of Arguments I say St. Austin maintains the preheminency of the Authority of the Septuagint against St. Jerom as that learned Father pleads his own old age for an excuse for his not answering them But the excellent Vossius hath lately so well managed this Province so irrefragably maintained the Authority of the Septuagint as all that can be said after him is but labour in vain Neither indeed did I intend to stand by the Seventy any longer than I might signifie to the Sheep of Christ that they may without fear graze upon it and find that pasture which greater Cattel of a far larger size than the Modern breed and whose weight would have sunk it down had it not been firm Land have found there and may chew the Cud of that Observation for the defence whereof we have made this too large Digression Were it not that the allowing the matter to have fallen out as Scaliger fancieth rather than as Josephus relateth would render the whole Story juiceless For say as he states the Case that the Jews of Egypt being brought to a necessity of disusing their own tongue and of learning Greek procured this Translation for their own use this will make little or nothing to the proof of that Position which the Patrons of the Christian Cause have with one mouth affirmed viz. That the knowledge of the Law of Moses was the forerunner of the Knowledge of Christ among the Gentiles to whom it would still have been a Book sealed up had it been confin'd to the Cabinet of the Synagogue But as Josephus tells the Story it affords a most substantial Basis to that universally receiv'd Opinion that the Day-break Glimmerings of the Law of God did out of Judea appear brighter and brighter to the Gentiles till at last the whole Body of it arose visibly in the Septuagint as the Day-star to the Sun of of Righteousness Volebat Deus gentes non multos post annos vocare per Evangelium quocirca curavit codicem sacrum maturè in vulgarem linguā converti quo legi passim posset ab omnibus per orbem gentibus Bullenger in Daniel par 2. tab 4. If God had a purpose to conveigh the knowledge of his Will to the Gentiles by that Translation would he have put that Candle under the bushel of the Jewish Synagogue and not rather have set it on the Pharos of Ptolemy's Library If the Law was to be the Gentiles Schoolmaster unto Christ where could it have set up School better than there where was the greatest frequency of learned men from all parts of the World drawn thither as soon as that Translation was finish'd by the beneficence of that Philomuse as Tertullian advers Valentin cap. 12. stiles Philadelphus in Junius his emendation of the corrupt Reading of that passage of whose bounty to proficients in Learning not only himself in his Letter to Eleazar the High Priest at his dismission of the Seventy Joseph Ant. but Aelian in his various History lib. 13. cap. 13. gives testimony affirming that though he exceedingly delighted in Converse with Learned men yet he took more pleasure in sowing his Temporals upon them than in reaping their Spirituals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after his death by the fame of his Library where Learning kept open house for all comers Can. cron lib. 2. Communia fuerant omnibus discere volentibus c. and flourished in the days of his Son Euergetes no where in all the World more than it did there A place so beautiful saith Am. Marcell lib. 22. as it was second to none in the whole World but the Roman Capitol and its greatest Ornament being a Library of seventy thousand Volumes all preserved there entire till in the Alexandrian War in the Dictatorship of Caesar while the City was a pillaging the Temple was set on fire and the greatest part of the Books burnt Now from the beginning of Philadelphus unto our Saviour's Birth that is from the year of Rome built 469. to the year 751. were almost 300 years Bullinger in Daniel during which time the Old Testament had been communicated to the Gentiles before the coming of him to whom it pointed § 6. Lo here how candidly how open-heartedly the Blessed Jesus dealt with the World dispersing his Picture before he came to call her beloved that had not been beloved that at his congress with her there might not be error personae or that the World might not have this to plead that she had or ever she was aware or had well considered the Person suffered a surprizal upon her Affections sending the Septuagint as the Prologue to his and his Apostles Acts to communicate to the Expectants the Argument of the ensuing Poem and communicating the old Grounds of that new Ditty which was to be sung at his and their appearing on the Worlds Stage an argument it was no newly devised Fable but an old Plot and a certain Expedient whereby the mistakes of the Actors might have been discern'd had they committed any Would Christ have given the World an opportunity to take the length of his foot that was to come by the Sandal of Moses and of judging whether that Sandal fitted his foot when he was come if he had intended to delude it I appeal to all Histories for an instance of any Religion but Christ's that durst abide the Test much less appeal to the Principles of another Religion then in being when it self stood for acceptance and acknowledged by the Candidate to be in force The Roman Pagan-Religion durst not stand a trial by the Books of its Founder Numa Pompilius but cried away with them to the fire as soon as they were produc'd The Papal Church supprest her
and Egyptian Priests at first or second hand Isocrates Busiridis laud. pag. 539. gives as pompous a proof as is to be met with any where Of the Religion of the Egyptians saith he I could commemorate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many and great things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the observing of which I am neither alone nor first but many both of this and the former Age among whom is the Samian Pythagoras who travelling into Egypt became their Disciple and brought Philosophy and Religion into Greece and Clemens Alexandrinus Stromat lib. 1. as full and clear one as can be required who out of the Pagan Records affirmeth Pythagoras to have been circumcised in Egypt that he having thereby liberty of going into their holy places might the better learn their mystical Theology and that he learned there to call his School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of the same importance with Synagogue The same assertion is made by Justin Martyr in paraclesi ad gentes By Eusebius in praeparat Evang. And before them by Aristobulus Judaeus in his Epistles to Ptolemy Philometer lib. 1. quoted by Eusebius to wit that Plato did transfer many things into his out of the Jewish Writings upon which saith Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was not for the Jews only but that Nation was the sacred School of the whole World concerning the knowledg of God and the way of spiritual living Clemens Alexandrinus from their own stories sheweth that the Grecians did not only borrow their best Notions from the Jewish Scriptures but the manner of expressing them sententiously A mode of teaching what Plato commendeth as that which all the Greeks press after but none attain'd to but the Spartans That they so esteem'd the form of uttering moral Rules in Proverbs in imitation of Solomon as they father'd such Sentences as came nearest that Model upon several Authors as if they thought many of their wisest men must have put their heads together for the production of one so compact a Sentence as we have thousands of in Scripture each one striving who should bear away the honour of being reputed its father as the Cities of Greece strove for Homer That which was thought worthy to be set over the Gates of Apollo's Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some attributed to Chilon Chamaelio in his Book of the Gods ascribes it to Thales Aristotle to Pythias That other Nè quid nimis some father upon Chylon Strato in his Treatise of Inventions upon Stratodemus but Didimus upon Solon Stromatum lib. 1. There is scarce a Sentence of note either in the Poets or Philosophers but what the same Clemens in the same Treatise patterns in our Scriptures and demonstrates the Gentiles to have had theirs from thence not è contrà by computing the ages of the Founders of every Sect and finding them by their own reckoning to be younger than Moses by many hundreds of years Xenophon the Author of the Eleatick is said by Timaeus to have lived in the Reign of Hieron the Scicilian Tyrant by Apollodorus in the time of Darius and Cyrus so that this Sect is younger than most of the Prophets Thales the Father of the Ionicks is said by Eudemus in his history of Astrology to have fore-told that Eclipse which happen'd at the Battel betwixt the Medes and Lydians in the reign of Cyaxeres the father of Astiages to whom agrees Herodotus in his first Book this Cyaxeres was contemporary with Salmanassar who carried the ten Tribes captive so that the Kingdom of Israel was standing upon its last legs before this Sect had got foot For the stating of Moses his age he brings the Testimony of Appion one who so far disgusted the Religion of Moses as he wrote that Book against it which Josephus answers who making mention of Amasis King of Egypt alledgeth the Testimony of Ptolomeus Mendesius a Priest who wrote the History of the Egyptian Kings in three Books and saith that in the raign of Amasis the Jews under the conduct of Moses came out of Egypt which Amasis was contemporary as he saith to Icarus And of Dionisius Halicarnassaeus who in his Chronicles affirms the Argolicks who derive their Pedigree from Icarus to be the most ancient of the Grecians then whom the Atticks who come of Cecrops are younger by four Generations as Tatianus saith and the Arcadians who come of Pelasgus nine And the Photioticks who come of Deucalion fifteen and the Wars of Troy twenty that is five hundred years So much is the subject of Homer younger than Moses Now Homer is the most ancient Heathen Author and was therefore Aelian var. hist. 13. 22. painted by Galaton spewing Grecian Learning and all other Poets licking up his Vomit A posture wherein bating the homeliness of the conceipt Moses might with more reason be drawn For whatsoever material divine Truth the heathen World had except the remains of the first Tradition by Noah and his sons were but the fragments of his loaf the crums they gathered up under the table of Shew-bread Hence Eusebius spends the whole tenth Book de preparat Evangel in accusing the Ethnicks of Ingratitude for hating the Jews from whom they learn'd the liberal Sciences and of Theft for challenging those Ethick Precepts for their own which they stole out of the Hebrew Books And the eleventh Book in proving the Platonick Philosophy to have been fetch'd out of Egypt and Judea and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writ over the Portal of the Delphick Temple spoken of by Plutarch to have been borrowed from Moses his History of God's giving himself this name I am that I am And the twelfth in instancing what Platonick Sentences concur with Moses Besides those Pagan Authors quoted by Clement we have Herodotus Terpsicore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ionians received the knowledg of letters from the Phaenicians hence all Learning is called Phaenician And Eupolemus libro de Judaeae Regibus ait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses was the first wise man And for the juniority of most ancient Heathen Writers we have the Testimony of the same Herodotus who in the life of Homer collects out of Lesbian and Cumane Antiquities that Homer was born 622. years before Xerxes his invasion of Greece circa finem And of Macrobius in Som. Scip. 2. 10. who affirmeth that there is no Greek History extant which mentions any thing of note above 2000. years by-past for beyond Ninus nothing famous is inserted into Books Abhinc ultra duo retrò annorum millia de excellenti rerum gestarum memoriâ nè Graeca quidem exstat historia nam suprà Ninum nihil praeclarum in libros relatum est Now Macrobius lived under Theodosius as Johan Isaac by Joseph Scaliger's indication observes ex codice Theodosiani lib. 6. titulo de praepositis sacri cubiculi And was it seems a Pythagorick Philosopher and yet a Gentleman of that Christian Emperour's Bed-Chamber vide Johan Isaaci notas in Macrobium My desire to
help in that exigent Jonah 1. 5. hence they were wont to close their petitions with Dii Deaeque omnes Servius in Virg. Georg. l. 1. The Arabians saith Gyrald Syntagm 17. perceiving the insufficiency of their known Gods to relieve them dedicated Altars to the unknown God Pausanias mentions the Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the unknown Gods erected in Olympus Eliacis prioribus and several Altars at Athens of the same Title in his Attica the full Inscription of which the indefatigable Selden in his Prolegomenis to his Treatise de Diis Syriis sets down in this Form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the Gods of Asia and Europe and Africa To the unknown Gods and strange Of the same importance were those Silver Tables Cicero de natura deorum lib. 3. which Dionysius rob'd the Grecian Temple of being inscribed not with the names of particular Deities as the Tables of their known Gods were but indefinitely To the good Gods whence that scoffing Atheist drew an Argument for his Sacrilege saying he would make use of their Bounty But hitherto the Gentiles only exprest their diffidence in their own Local Saviours That which St. Paul took notice of dedicated to the unknown God speaks their acknowledgment of their being at a loss as to the knowledge of the true God saviour and their not daring ultimately to relie upon the help of any of their received Gods either domestick or foreign it being not in the power of all their reputed Saviours to satisfie their Appetites implicitly set upon an otherwise Saviour than any of them were whom our Scriptures therefore call The desire of all Nations even him whom they worshipp'd ignorantly and St. Paul declared unto them Vossius de Idololatr lib. 1. cap. 2. The occasion of erecting these Altars is thus laid down by Isidore Pelusiatas Epist. 69. lib. 4. out of Pausanias in his Arcadicis Some say the Athenians sent Philippides to crave aid of the Spartans at what time the Persians made their Expediton into Greece and the Spectrum of God Pan met their Messenger upon the Hill Parthenium promising them victory if they would erect an Altar and offer sacrifice to him upon which report they dedicated Altars to the unknown God Others saith Isidore affirm that the Pestilence raging and the Athenians having to no purpose tried all their known and allowed Gods it came in their mind that possibly there might be a God to them unknown who if atton'd would free them from that Plague hence Epimenides caused the Beasts for sacrifice to be let loose and gave order that where they laid down they should be sacrificed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the proper God Whence saith Laertius in his Epimenides there were Altars at Athens without names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of any special God for that Epimenides knew not to which of the Gods by name he ought to apply himself for the averting of the Pestilence any more than the Romans knew what God they should attone when an Earthquake happened of which Agellius lib. 2. cap. 28. thus Veteres Romani ubi terram movisse senserant nuntiatumve erat ferias ejus rei cáusâ edicto imperabant sed Dei nomen statuere edicere quiescebant nè alium pro alio nominando falsâ religione populum alligarent Eas ferias si quis polluisset piaculóque ob hanc rem opus esset hostiam Si. Deo Si. Deae immolabat Idque ità ex decretis Pontificum observatum esse M. Varro dicit quoniam qua vi per quem Deorum Dearúmve terra tremeret incertum esset The ancient Romans when they perceiv'd or had been inform'd that there had been an Earthquake bid Holidays for the deprecation of the effects of that Omen but they did not specifie the name of God lest by misnaming him they should involve the people in a false Religion If any man prophan'd those holidays and therefore had need to make expiation he offered sacrifice with this form of deprecation If thou beest a God if thou beest a Goddess And this Order saith Varro was appointed to be observed by the Decrees of the Priests because they were not certain by what force and by what God or Goddess the Earth-quake was caused § 4. Now though Pausanias stile those Altars the Altars of the unknown Gods yet we are not to think that there was not an Altar dedicated to the Unknown God in the singular number For Lucian second to none in the knowledge of Heathen Theology in his Philopater swears by the unknown God at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and at the end of that Dialogue exclaims 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we having found the unknown God at Athens let us give thanks unto him adoring him with hands stretch'd out to heaven Though with Lucian's lieve the Athenians unknown God was to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange God not to be found there but in Jewry as Lucan sings Tharsal 2. quoted by St. Austin de consensu Evangel lib. 1. cap. 30. dedita sacris Incerti Judaea Dei Neither was the unknown God under that name invocated only at Athens For Natales Comes Mytholog l. 1. c. 10. reports out of Theagenes de Diis and Pausanias prioribus Eliacis That at Hypaepae and Hierocaesarea two Cities of the Persic Lydia were two large Temples and Altars to which the Priests approaching implored the aid of the unknown God However from the charge given to Philippides it is manifest that the Athenians besides those dedicated to the unknown Gods indefinitly had Altars erected to the unknown God Pan that is the Universal Saviour So far did the most learned Adversary to the Christian Cause Porphyry bewray his want of reading in saying he could no where meet with the mention of that universal Remedy which he was confident God had prepared for Mankind Philippides his Pan was not that Arcadian whom the Grecians knew as well as a Beggar doth his dish and had Altars dedicated to him by that name but some Daemon that gave himself out to be and was reputed the universal Repairer of the whole World the Son of Jove and Hybris of God and despicable Man the Inventor of Musick whence though the Hill Parthenius produc'd Tortoises most fit to make Harps of yet the Inhabitants would permit none to take them because they thought them sacred to Pan It should seem by this that the old and great Pan was Jubal-Cain Pausan. Arcadic ad finem the Husband of Eccho Macrob. Saturnal l. 1. c. 22. a fit Match for and every way suting the Word of Promise who had no issue but by Eccho children begot of the Seed of the Word and sent not to redeem some particular Climate the Province of the Heroes but the Universe whence Homer in his Hymns gives this Etymon of his Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 5. But our Saviour's Death cut this Daemon out of his work
this Story neither names Israel but Saturn whose Soul after his death assumed for its heavenly body the Planet so called nor his but his wifes the Nymph Anobretha sacrificing of her only Son after the death of his Father 3. Thirdly he relates this fact of Saturn or his Wife as an imitation of the ancient Custom of that Nation to sacrifice the Princes most beloved Son in times of eminent danger to that Deity that takes vengeance of sin for the pacifying of his wrath Morem priscis cùm itaque Saturnus rex Eus. pr. evan 1. 7. So far is Porphyry out in his alledging Abraham or Israel as the Samplar out of which the Heathen World transcrib'd that bloody Copy as his own Author makes that very fact of Abraham which he alledgeth to have been done in observance of a Custom in ure long before Abraham was 4. Porphyry for the credit of Sanchoniathon affirmeth that he gather'd his Antiquities out of the Records of the several Cities the sacred Inscriptions in the Temples and of Jerom-Baal the Priest of the God Irvo or Jao If we admit this Jerom-baal to have been Gideon whom the Scripture calls Jerub-baal which is of the same sense in the Phoenician Language only after their custom changing one b into m as in Ambubaiae Sambucus c. it will not follow that this Author was contemporary with Gideon for he might use Gideon's Records after his death and in all likelihood came to the knowledg of him and them by means of that intercourse betwixt the Israelites and the Inhabitants of Berith where Sanchoniathon lived the worship of whose God Baal-Berith the Israelites fell to after Gideon's death But that he was not elder than Gideon doth necessarily follow from hence see Dr. Stillingfleet Orig. l. 1. cap. 2. sect 3. 4. and indeed 't is manifest he was much younger than Gideon from which Chronological Concession of those that are of opinion that the Heathens sacrificed Children in imitation of Abraham I argue against that opinion thus If the story of Abraham's Fact had not till that time arrived by Oral Tradition at their next door neighbours the Phaenicians but must be fetch'd out of Hebrew Records till then unknown to the greatest Antiquary the Heathen World affords how can it be imagin'd that the report thereof should reach all over Canaan so many hundreds of years before that wherein children were made oblations so long even before Moses as he speaks thereof as of ancient use among them Even their sons and their daughters have they burn'd in the fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 31. In which particular God himself is so far from suspecting the Gentiles would or did follow Israel as he gives Israel caution not to follow the Gentiles Thou shalt not enquire after their Gods saying How did these Nations serve their Gods even so will I do likewise vers 30. which would have been to small purpose had the Gentiles in those oblations followed Abraham for the Jew might then have replyed to the Prophets rebuking him for that practise that therein he followed the Nations in nothing but wherein they followed Abraham whom those very Prophets bid them look to who were sent to rebuke them for sacrificing their sons and daughters to Molech It would have been more seasonable in that case had the case been as our Opponents imagine to have warned them not to look to Abraham but to the intentions of God to try Abraham's Love and Faith in his tempting him to offer his only Son and his Son of Promise But the Psalmist Psal. 106. 35. hath determin'd it beyond all doubt that the Israelites in sacrificing their Sons and Daughters served the Idols of Canaan and learned their works that is those abominations which the Canaanites had practised as Moses saith before Israel came among them and for which Israel should have rooted them out Nay so far were the Canaanites from learning these works of Abraham which Abraham's Posterity learn'd of them as that before Abraham's tryal the old Inhabitants of Canaan by reason of these works began to look white towards Harvest though as yet their sins were not fully ripe Gen 15. 16. yea Moses having spoken of offering sons to Molech among other of their bestialities Levit. 18. 21. as the sins that God visited upon the Canaanites vers 25. tells the Israelites ver 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all these same abominations have the men of this Land who were before you done and this Land hath been defiled upon which Text Philo Judaeus saith Barbaras quoque gentes per multas aetates litasse mactatis filiis cujus sceleris Moses eos accusat de Abrahamo pag. 243. It appears that the Gentiles for many Ages before Abraham did sacrifice children from Moses his saying The men of this Land Canaan who inhabited it before you did do all these abominations and the land was defiled 5. Had those circumjacent Nations taken up that practice from Abraham's Example what better Argument could they have used than that to induce the Jews to it and sure had the Jews upon that reason conform'd to that Gentile Rite we should have heard them plead that for their adhering to it rather than those sorry reasons they bring for their resolute contumacy and pertinacious resistance of the Prophet's motion to them to forsake it As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee we will do as we have done for then it was well with us we had plenty and peace c. how much more strenuous would this reply have been then we did well for we followed Abraham 6. If the Phoenicians had no knowledg of Abraham's fact till Sanchoniathon found it in the Jewish Records so long after Moses how could the knowledge of it reach in almost as short a time as far south as Affrica as far north as Scythia as far east as India for 't is not to be conceiv'd from whence but India or Tartary the Americans derive their Pedigree or the Inhabitants of the Caroline Islands the worship of Molech whose Images in that form wherein they are described by Diodorus Siculus in the twentieth Book of his Bibliotheca were found there by the first discoverers of that Island who also affirmed that they threw children as sacrifices into the glowing hands of that Idol who were there scalded to death by vertue of a fire within the hollow body of the Image of all which Vives received good intelligence just as he was commenting upon the 19. Chapter of the 7. Book of St. Austin de Civitate Dei which treats upon that subject As far west as Hercules Pillars that is through all the Nations of which ancient History gives us account For this custom of sacrificing men to appease the divine wrath will appear to have been in a manner universal almost if not altogether as early as that Age wherein the most critical Computers affirm Sanconiathon
the most daring enemies of our Jesus and the Nation to which they are peculiarly calculated being dispersed and ceasing to be a Nation Nay after themselves have in effect renounc'd the Religion of Moses and betaken themselves to the Religion of the Patriarchs which yet is unpracticable among them in the point of Sacrifices so that they worship God in a way which neither their Fathers nor their Fathers-fathers knew A way taken up by themselves since the demolishing of their Temple and dispersion of their Nation wherein they add and take from their own Law contrary to the Divine Sanction In vain do they urge those Texts that seem in the Letter to import the perpetuity and irrevocableness of Moses Law such as Deut. 29. 29. Things revealed belong to us and our children for ever Lev. 23. 14. First fruits a statute for ever and the passover a statute for ever Ex. 12. 17. For if they will allow David to speak in Moses his Language when he applies ever to the Temple Psal. 132. 13. This is my rest for ever and allow their own eyes to interpret David's ever now they see the place of his residence for ever demolished the Chain wherein they think themselves still bound to Moses will fall off of its own accord can the ever of Oblations possibly be stretched beyond the ever of that Sanctuary to which they are limitted As vain is the exception against the cogency of this Argument from the Instance of the first Temples laying waste during the Babylonish Captivity during which time though the Law as to the practise of it was in some points suspended yet it was not abolished For 1. The Law had a shrewd shake and was loosen'd in its sinews by the ruine of the first Temple Gods withdrawing then the Ark of his Presence and Covenant from them was a sign he would quickly grow weary of sitting on Mount Sion now that his foot-stool was removed his not vouchsafing to give them Fire from Heaven for their Sacrifices in the second as he had done in the Tabernacle and first Temple and yet accepting their Offerings made by strange fire so directly contrary to the Law was an Argument that he stood not so much upon Levitical punctilios as he did at first when he punish'd Nadab and Abihu with suddain death for offering with strange fire If the Jews will avouch their own story upon Dan. 6. 4. Ut invenirent occasionem Danieli ex latere regis where interpreting latus regis to be the Queen or the King's Concubines they tell us that Daniel was an Eunuch they must be forc'd to a confession that God stood not much upon the Ceremonial Law when he preferr'd an Eunuch who by that Law was not to come into the Congregation into that intimate Communion with himself as to reveal to him more of his Counsel than he did to any Prophet beside Moses Jerom. in locum I urge these Instances as Arguments ad hominem they being the Jews concessions though in themselves not true as I shew elsewhere It is from their own Premisses I infer this Conclusion That God weaned them by degrees from Moses antiquating one Ceremony after another till at last Christ cancell'd the whole Hand-writing of Ordinances breach upon breach was made in that wall of partition till Christ took it wholly away and rac'd it to the ground 2. God promised to return that Captivity to restore to them their own Land and to repair the ruines of the first Temple but this Captivity will never be return'd the second Temple will never be repair'd but both Nation and Place are to be perpetual Desolations Of this I make proof elsewhere and therefore here shall propound this only Argument to evince the truth of it viz. That during the desolations of the first the Spirit of Prophecy was not with-held from them God raised them up Prophets in Babylon he then set them up Way-marks guides to their Cities again he whistled to his Flock scatter'd in that gloomy and dark day of their wandring to prevent their total dispersion and to keep them within the hearing of Cyrus his Proclamation But since the desolating of the second Temple they have had no Voice no Vision none to answer how long no Prophets have risen up among them but false ones as themselves acknowledg such as Ben Cozba of whom their Taba in Taanith per 4. halac 6. and Maymon in Taanith per. 5. quoted by Dr. Lightfoot Vespacian 1. Sect. 1. thus write It was on the 9. day of the Month Ab that the great City Bitter was taken where were thousands and ten thousands of Israel who had a great King over them whom all Israel even their greatest wise men thought to have been Messias And before him and Jerusalem's fall according to our Saviour's Prediction the many false Christs of whom Josephus in the History of that Age gives many instances § 3. As the Ceremonial Law fell with its own weight was disannull'd by its own Vote and cancel'd by vertue of its own Ordinances So that Old Testament-law which cannot be shaken 1. Is confirm'd and establish'd in the Gospel upon better Principles and more powerful Motives 2. And improved by our Royal Lawgiver in many branches of it that budded not under that Testament 3. And in the whole of it to the utmost heroick degree of Christned Morality 1. That an humane Soul cloathed with Mortality is capable of 2. Or can be drawn to by the most powerful Attractives of the Spirit of Grace 3. Most plentifully poured forth upon all that sincerely embrace the Gospel Of all which points I shall speak distinctly not only because they demonstrate that Christ came not to destroy but to perfect and fill up the Law but do also present Christ and the Gospel to us in a quite other form than the faithless Solifidian draws them in whose Models of Christianity look as if they were designed to shame Religion 1. The Salvifick Grace teaches us in the Gospel to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live godly righteously and soberly with more masculine and strenuous Motives than were propounded under the Law The Argument then was I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage but that which was but implyed in that is in the Gospel clearly expressed and obedience prest from our deliverance from the bondage of Satan the vassalage of our own Lusts the chambers of eternal Death The motive expressed there was That thy days may be long in the land a land slowing with milk and honey here the darkness of Type that was upon the face of that earth is dissipated the waters that overwhelm'd it are divided from it and the dry Land made to appear that Land that is very far off far above all visible Heavens The Childrens Rattles and Nats being laid aside the Gospel openly hangs out Prizes becoming men of full age to run for in that Race
him by Ambrose Blaucerus And Arias Montanus saith that while he was at the Council of Trent there was brought unto him by a friend an ancient piece of Jewish Coyn with the very same Figures and Characters weighing half an Ounce vide Aster sol in numb cap. 3. 40. 47. which soever it was in which they paid that Tribute for their Lives it was Gods Coyn and bare upon it God's Claim and their Acknowledgment of his peculiar Supremacy over them and therefore as Caesar's demanding of that Tribute of the Jews would have been in truth a taking away from God what was God's as Goodwin well observes so the Jews paying of it to Caesar would have been a giving of Caesar what was Gods This Tribute which Caesar exacted and Christ ordered them to pay was not the Half-shekel due to God for then Christ would have bid them give it to God Weems which I wonder they observed not as well as Weems there being so near a relation betwixt taking and giving and their scruple propounded to and determination of it given by Christ not respecting Caesar's Act in demanding but their own in giving that what was God's as this Half-shekel was must be given to God not to Caesar. In which resolution of their Question as Christ cleaves the hair betwixt not only God and Caesar but the two extream and vitious Opinions touching Tribute the one of the Pharisees Galileans and Zealots who denied all Tribute to Caesar The other of the Herodians or Court-party who held all kind of Tribute to be Caesar's due so this very prudent and equal partition of his is afterwards by malicious Persons improved into an accusation against him at his Arraignment before Pilat St. Luk. 23. 2. as if he forbad to give Tribute to Caesar. A most false and groundless Suggestion for he did not only pay that Tribute himself but punctually determined Caesar's Right to Caesar's Penny 3. As to that other Tribute of the Half-shekel due to God neither he nor his Countreyman paid it to nor was it demanded of them by Caesar till their City was demolished their Temple burnt the Race of their Priests made unuseful as Titus told them and the Lineage of David cut off by Vespasian but was paid to their own Collectors for the use of the Temple as is manifest not only by the Arguments before hinted but these supernumerary ones 1. Our Saviour's Plea for Exemption from payment of that Tribute Mat. 17. 25. The children of Kings are free cannot with any colour be applied to any other Tribute but that of the Half-shekel which that holy Nation paid to their holy King whose Son Christ was and not of the Emperour and therefore by the Rule of common Custom was not lyable to pay that Tribute It being the use of all Kings to exact Tribute of Strangers that is of the children of other men their Subjects not their own For that by Aliens and own in Christ's Speech is not meant Subjects and Forreigners is apparent from Kings exacting Tribute from their own native Subjects as well as from them that are become their Subjects by Conquest yea from their own that is Subjects and not from Forreigners Christ pleads not here the privilege of being a Roman or had he done so that Plea would not have exempted them from paying the Tribute due to the Imperial Crown had he indeed been the Emperour's Son he had been exempted from paying it From which Analogy he argues that he being the Son of God the Collectors of Gods his Fathers Tribute should not have demanded that Tribute of him Notwithstanding he being Man also and under an Obligation to fulfil the Law rather than offend in not paying his Church-duties he fetched Money out of a Fishes mouth Briefly the Tribute then demanded of and paid by Christ was both demanded for and paid to that King whose son Christ was 2. Had that been a Roman Tribute it would have been gather'd by the Roman Collecters the Publicans who in all probability would have been here named whereas on the contrary the persons are here stiled as by a known Title they that received the Didrachma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Erasmus They that used to receive the Didrachme or Half-shekel § 5. Hence I draw these Corrolaries 1. Their reasoning is too short who from Tullies mentioning the Romans to have had the Tribute of Land in Syria paid by way of Tythe argue that God's Tythe of Jewry was by Pompey diverted from his Treasury to the Roman Coffers A conclusion which as it wholly subverts the grand Foundation of Christian Religion to wit the Verity of the old Testament by asserting the Departure of the Scepter before the coming of our Jesus that is Shilo for what greater evidence of that than their paying their King's God's Tribute unto any other but himself so it appears to be without ground for grant we the Assumption That the Roman State tythed Judaea yet it will not follow that they paid those Tythes in kind which were due to God but only that the Romans at their Conquest of that Nation finding it under the Government of the High Priest to whom the Tythes were payable by the Law of God might demand a Tribute in the same proportion and yet not the same in specie that was paid to the Temple but leave that still to be received by the High Priest for his maintenance and those uses to which their own Law had appointed Which that they did is manifest from the Decrees of Julius Caesar Joseph an t 14. 17. made when he was second time Consul that Hircanus and his Sons should enjoy the High Priesthood with the same Rights and Privileges that his Ancestors had done and when he was the fifth time Consul that Hircanus and his Sons High Priests should receive the Tythes as till then their Ancestors had done A clear Testimony that whatever Tribute Pompey and Crassus had imposed upon the Jews albeit it were in proportion of Tythe it was not the Tythe which belonged to the Priests for that saith Caesar had till then been paid to the High Priest 2. That though the Jews had paid a yearly Tribute to the Emperour bearing Proportion to that Didrachma which they were by Law enjoyn'd to pay to God yet it was not that in specie the Didrachma being paid to the Temple when that yearly Tribute was paid to Caesar as hath been proved already so fully as no more need be added only because I am now in Josephus I shall out of him produce one unanswerable Argument to evince that it was not the intention of the Romans in the Tribute they imposed upon the Jews to encroach upon God's Right or to impede their payment of Church or Temple-duties Julius Caesar after he was created perpetual Dictator writes in his own and Senate and People of Rome's name to the Magistrates of the Parians telling them how ill he resented their prohibiting the Jews to keep
thinking they were God's But the Jews are forc'd to homage them whom they knew were no Gods and therefore were holy to these their new Lords after a peculiar way of seperation and different from all the People in the World Henceforth their holy Lamps and Book of their Law must be deposited among the Gentiles in their Metropolis and perhaps in the Emperour's Palace that all Nations upon the Earth might vindicate God's severity against the Fedifrages and proclaim the Equity of his Ways after a Perusal of the Covenant betwixt God and them That the Gentiles might be lighten'd to the acknowledgment of that Lord Christ whom the Jews had rejected to whom Lamp and Law would be more useful than they had been to that blind Generation which by malicious Ignorance had put out its own Eyes § 3. But these wonders that these Utensils should escape the Fire should be singled out for Triumph and a Jewish Priest's committing all this to perpetual Memory which so clearly expresseth God's cancelling his Covenant with the Jews and his calling the whole World to be Witness of his giving them so full a discharge have nothing worthy of admiration in them in comparison of that for which principally I made the premised Allegations viz. That Judah's God should all this while hold his peace if indeed he were at that time Judah's God and had not renounc'd all Relation to those sometimes holy Things holy People nay and holy Name too For the Roman Eagle flutter'd in Triumph equally over all these That he should suffer the Actors of these Tragedies to reign in honour to depart in peace one of their own Priests urgeth this Argument Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 6. cap. 11. God was wont to avenge you on your Adversaries but Vespasian may thank the Jewish Wars for the Empire these Fountains and for instance that of Siloam which were dry to you run so plentifully to Titus as to afford Water enough for his Men for his Cattel and the flowing of the Grounds he has gain'd Therefore I believe God hath left the Temple and is fled from you and takes part with them with whom ye war I shall therefore prosecute this Argument more particularly This I say can never be sufficiently admired that Israel's quondam God should suffer the great-Instruments of their Misery to live applauded as the Delights and Darlings of Humane Kind to die bewailed with no loss sorrowful resentment of the Publick than that which men feel for and express at the loss of their own dearest and most intimate Relations and to be followed to the Funeral Pile with more Praise than Flattery her self could pour out upon living Princes Titus cognomine paterno amor deliciae humani generis Excessit quod ut palà m factum est non secus atque in domestico luctu maerentibus publicè cunctis Senatus tantas mortuo gratias egit laudésque quantas congessit nè vivo quidem unquam atque praesenti Suetonius Titus cap. 1. 11. Vespasian had no Mene Tekel writ against him for that Apparition he saw in his sleep of a pair of Ballances hanging up in the Porch of the Palace with Claudius and Nero in one and himself and Children in the other Scale was a Vision of Peace importing the Translation of the Imperial Crown out of the Julian into his the Flavian Family and the continuance of it in that Family as long as it had remain'd in the former during the Reigns of Claudius and Nero and that with such Felicity as the happy and beneficial Reigns of him and his Sons should counter-ballance the Mischiefs which the World receiv'd by the male-administration of those two last degenerate Branches of the Julian Stock By which Vision and other Portents he was so well assured of his Son's Succession as he was wont to ascertain the Senate That in spight of all treasonable Attempts to the contrary he was sure his Son or no body should reign after him Sueton. Vespasianus cap. 25. Titus indeed complain'd at his death that he had done one act for which he repented and but one Neque enim exstare ullum suum factum paenitendum excepto duntaxat uno Sueton. Titus cap. 10. So far was God from writing such bitter Bills against him that might make his Countenance fall his Joynts shake and his Knees smite against one another as he did against his Fellowblasphemer as he with hands stretched out to Heaven and a naked Breast complain'd to the God of Heaven almost in Job's Phrase I am cut off but not for my iniquity for I do not remember that ever I did any Act to be repented of except one What that Fact was he neither discovered saith mine Authour nor is it easie for any man to tell some thought it was his too much intimacy with Domitia his Brother's Wife but if that had been so that impudent Woman would have boasted of her being nought with so great and good a Man for she was a Woman not shy of keeping her own Counsel in such Cases If I may give my Conjecture I suppose it might probably be his seeking to obtain the Judaean Crown for himself a Design which his Father was jealous he had in his head and for which he incur'd hatred and blame while he served his Father in the Judaean Wars However it could not be his slaughtering and captivating the Jews his sacking their City and Temple his carrying away the holy Spoils for here were such a Multiplicity of Acts as to have confessed himself guilty in those things had been to have accused the greatest part of his Life after he came upon the the open Stage which was in a manner spent in Actions of this tendency And had God for vindicating the Glory of his sometimes-great Name charged upon his Conscience the guilt of his challenging the God of Judah he would have charged it so home as to have made him confess and give glory to God And to speak the naked Truth though the Rabbies put a blasphemous Gloss upon the words of Titus yet he did not thereby intend to affront that God who sometimes had been Judah's God but knowing that he came against Judea at the call and by the conduct of that God to dishearten them and encourage his own men he told them Their God was put to Sea that is he had forsaken the protection of them and their Land their strength was departed from them upon which account he subjoyn'd Let him come and give me Battel that is try if with all your strongest cries you can engage him to take your part who I am sure takes mine against you The words indeed sound like Nabsheca's or Nebuchadnexxar's but the difference of the times make their sence as different from theirs as Light from Darkness The God of Heaven was then God of the Jews and those Nations indivisible and therefore they in the name of their Idols defied the God of Heaven under the name of the God of Israel But
Child is none of theirs whom they would have divided For 1. This halving of Christ wholly destroys him whom their Prophets describe to be Mortal and Immortal a Man of Sorrows and the impassible God in one Person and to be exhibited in both Natures at one and the same Fulness of time Jacob's Prophecies of the Nation 's gathering to Shilo as their King and of the tying of a Foal the Colt of an Ass upon which this meek and lowly King was to ride in Triumph are utter'd with the same Breath and bear the same Date Gen. 49. 9. The servant of God in Isaiah who in regard his Visage was mar'd more than any man's and his form more than the Sons of Men was to be looked upon with astonishment and to be rejected of men as one smitten of God was notwithstanding to be extolled and exalted as the most High was to be so full of resplendent Majesty as Kings should shut their mouths at him Isa. chap. 52. 13. 14. The same Messiah in Daniel that within 70 Weeks is to make Reconciliation for Sin by his Death is to bring in everlasting Righteousness by his Life the same individual Person that within that Term of Years is to be cut off is Messiah the Prince and the most holy Dan. 9. 24. 25. 2. The Messiah that came at the time described by Daniel gave as full proof of his Divine Majesty as he did of his Humane Infirmity was as mafestly declared to be the Son of God by the Miracles he wrought in his own Name by his raising himself from the dead by his visible inflicting his threatned Sentence upon his Crucifiers and by his subduing the World to his Obedience as he was declared to be the Son of Man by his hungring thirsting fainting weeping sorrowing and suffering death So that he whom the Jews reject as an abject Christ hath left nothing to be done by him whom they yet look for of all those glorious and stupendious works which the Prophets assign to the Messias 3. If that Messiah that came according to Time limited by Daniel be not that very same of whose Glory and Greatness the Prophets speak when is he to come what Prophet can say how long the World must travel in expectation of him can any thing be more incredible than that the Spirit of the Messiah that was in the Prophets should so punctually foretell the time of the appearance of this Puny and Dwarff-christ as they blasphemously stile the blessed Jesus and never communicate one word to any of them touching the time of the coming of that Gyant-christ that they look for § 3. Thus having proved the Authentickness of Daniel's Prophecy and the Subject of it to be the Messias and that Messias whom it presignifies to be Prince Messias and having heard both Jew and Gentile confess that what Daniel foretells both as to Time and Thing is applicable to our Jesus and none but him I shall supercede any farther prosecution of this Argument saving what this Observation may contribute towards the strengthening of it viz. That the Terms of this Prophecy are not capable of any rational Construction but what is applicable to our Saviour and impossible to be applied to any other 1. If we understand the Decree from the going out whereof Daniel's Weeks commence to be the Decree of Darius the Son of Hystaspis for the building of the Temple the last of them will fall at our Saviour's Passion according to the Computation of Vossius grounded upon the Chronology of Josephus Vossii Chronolog sacra 2. If we conceive this Decree to have been the Decree of Cyrus the Great as Calvin Broughton Finch Piscator Allen c. imagine and reckon the years of the Persian Monarchy after a middle rate with Allen i. e. 130. years Daniel's Weeks end about the death of our Saviour Allen's Chronological Chain period 7. If with Finch we follow the Rabinical account of the Durance of the Persian Monarchy i. e. 70. years the Septimanes expire at the Fall of Jerusalem 3. If we interpret the Decree to be the Decree of Darius Nothus with Bishop Hall Constantine L' Emperour c. and assign the first seven to the time of the cessation of Temple-work betwixt the Decree of Cyrus the Great and Darius Nothus the middle of the last Week falls at our Saviours Passion saith Constantine L' Emporour Annotationes in Paraphrasim Josephi Jachiade in Danielem and that upon probable Chronological Grounds though out of the common Road. 4. If We begin the Account at the Decree of Artaxerxes Mnemon assigning the first Septimane to the time of the Cities Walls lying ruinous and follow the common Chronology from the Era's of Salmanasser the Olympiades and Rome built the last week's middle falls at our Saviour's Passion See Functius Perkins Powel Pontanus Lydiat c. 5. If with Scaliger Mede c. we interpret Daniel's seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy City to import the duration of the Second Temple which that clause does so manifestly as every Child may perceive it saith Scaliger de emend temp l. 6. pag. 608. and begin the compute at the fixth year of Darius Nothus when the second Temple was finish'd following the most commonly received Chronology we shall find saith Master Meed upon Daniel's Weeks that in all probability the Second Temple's desolation fell out precisely on the very middle of the last Week of the Seventy 6. Lastly If with Master Mede we make two Epochas in this Prophecy the first of 70 Weeks beginning and ending with the Second Temple the second of 62 Weeks and two Half-weeks that is 63 Weeks beginning at the going forth of the Commission granted to Ezra and Nehemiah and the middle of the last ending at our Saviour's Passion we shall find an admirable Correspondency betwixt the Prophecy and the Accomplishment and and that Christ's Ministry began at the last of these Weeks and continued precisely 3 years and an half vide Meed upon Daniel's Weeks § 4. The probability of which Conjecture appears 1. From the bounds here fixed as to the beginning of this Epocha The going forth of a Command or Commission to cause the Jews to return or reinhabit and to build not the Temple that part of Jerusalem whence in the former Epocha of 70 Weeks it is stiled the holy City or some few houses only but the whole Area or Street and the walls about it From such a Commission must this second Computation be reckon'd and that not only granted for then we must begin the account at Cyrus the Great who by Decree built not only the Temple but the City Isaiah 44. 28. but taking effect as the Angel explains the former in the later words the street shall be built and the wall 2. From the End or Period of this time unto Messiah the Prince that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 23. 2. Mar. 15. 32. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the
same Utensils were in that he built as were in that he pull'd down but because he did not quite pull down the Second Vossii Chron. Sacra for Josephus Antiq. 15. 14. tells us that the Tower of the Maccabees by name was only repair'd and built higher and so doubtless were other parts of the Temple that were strong enough to bear his Superstructures and did not stand in his way to straiten the Circuit I humbly conceive that Josephus his saying that Herod pull'd down the Foundations of the old Temple is commonly stretch'd too far beyond his meaning which is no more than this the Out-side being corroded by the Teeth of Time especially in the upper part of the Wall that being most weather-bearen he did not only lay new Stones in the room of the decayed ones upon those that were found as the repairers of Bow-steeple did after the Fire But pull'd down the out side of the Wall with the very Foundation and at that end where he lengthen'd it the whole Wall and its Foundation was demolish'd But to pull down the Inside that was as good as hands could make it except where it hindred his enlargement of the Length as it would have been a fruitless expence so I question whether the Jews would have permitted it and more how we shall maintain that House into which the Desire of all Nations came to have been the Second House if we have no better Foundations to build upon than those of Scaliger's laying Joseph an t 15. 14. So notwithstanding all these costly Repairs which God in his gracious Providence put Herod upon he thereby making out that Propriety he here challengeth in Silver and Gold the silver is mine and the gold is mine and providing for the more august entertainment of the Messias therein This second never grew up to the state of the first for beside that 20 Cubits of the height by the yielding of the Foundation fell by that time Herod had finish'd his Repairs the first was inlaid with Gold thence stiled Gold How is the gold become dim the most fine gold changed Lament The stones of the sanctuary are powred out by melting as if they had been all Gold the second had only golden Doors which set Titus his Souldiers Teeth a watering after the plunder of the Temple supposing it had been within all of one piece but they found it only cover'd with Silver Joseph B. J. 7. 9. Much less did it equal the first in internal Endowments and spiritual Privileges as the Rabbies say the First being filled with a Cloud at its Dedication having its Altar-fire kindled from Heaven the Ark of the Covenant with all its appurtenances the holy Oyl the Vrim and Thummim c. as the Jews themselves say From their Concessions therefore we assume that these Glories of the First were not in the Second till Christ in whom the Godhead dwells bodily in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom that precious Corner-stone anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows presented in his own Person the Substance of all those in that Temple in respect of which his coming into it and honouring it with his blessed presence it exceeded the former House in Glory the coming in of this King of Glory hath lift up the Gates of the Second Temple in Glory above the first Rex gloriae id est Arca quia super eam habitabat Dominus gloriae inter Cherubim When the Ark removed Moses said Arise O Lord and when it stood still he said Return O Lord R. David in Psal. 24. Aben Ezra observes that by that Repetition is intimated the coming of the Ark into the First and restoring the Ark the true Ark of God's presence unto the Second Temple by the coming of the Messias who is therefore called in the later answer the Lord of Hosts without the addition of mighty in battail because in the Reign of Christ men are to learn War no more Is. 2. § 6. But where is now this Second House that the Prophet points at and even toucheth with his Finger in this Prophecy is it not long since laid in the dust and made so desolate that Travellers by can discern no sign that ever there was any such Fabrick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos. Bel. Jud. 7. 18. Titus levelling the Temple and whole City to the ground except three Towers Phaselus Hippicus and Mariamne and that part of the Wall that encompassed the City on the West side this last to be a defence for the Garrison he left there the Towers that they might indicate to Posterity how well fortified a City the Roman Prowess had subdued And Turnus Rufus the same day Twelvemonth ploughing up the place where the Temple stood to make good that Prophecy Sion shall be ploughed as a field as appears by the constant and copious Testimony of the Jews themselves quoted by Dr. Lightfoot fuit Illium ingens Gloria Teucrorum Jam seges ubi Troja Jerusalem's best days are past now that her sacred Temples Area is become a Corn-field If she has not already she never will attain this Glory If one knew where to find her rubbish he may write in the dust thereof Icabod Glory is departed It hath had all the Glory it is like to have It is absolutely impossible it should be fill'd with Glory now that 't is emptied of its self of its very Being and Existence I know the Jews expect the rising of this Phaenix out of its ashes and dream of a Third House wherein this Prophecy shall receive its accomplishment in domo tertiâ stabunt ad honorem Dei in aeternum Aben Ezra in Psal. 24. But 1. The Comparison here in point of Glory is betwixt Solomon's Temple called the First House and this of the return'd Captives building called the Later House 2. That Temple in the Air they build to themselves is to be raised up as they conceive by their expected Messiah But that Temple he was to fill with Glory was to be in being before he comes he is not to build it but finds it built to his hand and comes into it 3. Say a Temple should again be erected in the place of this it would not be this the Prophet speaks of any more than this was that which Solomon erected but another a Third House essentially differing from this Second for as this was called the Second House because that of Solomon's was utterly destroyed and brought to annihilation by the Babilonians and this built anew from the lowest Foundation The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house this word saith Isidore Peleusiota of laying the foundation demonstrates that the Babylonians had razed the Foundation of the former Epist. lib. 4. epist. 17. So it being as manifest that the Romans have not left one stone upon another in this House whatever House shall be built upon the Premisses will be a new House and specifically different from it the Second being never
apprehension of Pagans as they are given out to be in the Gospel at this day viz. A Religion instituted by and a Sect named from Christ a Person of such holiness as he deserved to be numbred in the rank of the best and divinest Philosophers and would have been enrolled amongst the Gods but for fear that the Religion of his Institution would put down all others it containing those excellent Precepts which so civilized the followers of his Doctrine as they were permitted in the Court of this Emperour whence all vicious persons were prohibited and were of that use in the administration of the Affairs of the Empire as this very best of Heathen Emperours took those Rules and Practices of Christians for his Pattern which the Gospel exhibites Should I prosecute the Reigns of the rest of the Emperours who had a favour to Christians though themselves were none It would swell my discourse to too great a bulk I will therefore content my self with two instances more § 3. One out of Pliny who in laying down the Reason why Trajan remitted that persecution which his Predecessors had raised against Christians presents them in their religious Assemblies and civil Converse walking by that Rule of Faith and Manners which is extant at this day in the Evangelical and Apostolical Writings This great Agent of State under Trajan informed the Emperour that by examining those that were brought before him and accused as Christians he had learn'd this to be the sum of their Religion of their Crime or Errour as Pliny calls it That upon stated days they were wont to assemble before day to sing Songs and make Prayers together to Christ as God To bind themselves by the Sacrament not to any mischievous or dishonest action but that they should not commit Thefts Robberies or Adulteries that they should not break their word betray their trust or falsifie their promise that they should not with-hold or deny the pledge when they were call'd to restore it That after the performance of Divine Service their custom was to depart every one home and afterwards to meet together again to take meat in common to keep harmless Love-feasts This saith he I extorted and this was all I could learn by racking them to know the truth In the same Epistle he testifies the wonderful growth and prevailing of the Christian Religion through the perseverance of the Martyrs multitudes professing it of all Ages Orders Sexes in Cities Villages Hamblets Insomuch as the idol-Idol-temples were almost left desolate their Solemnities of a long time intermitted the sale of Sacrifices and Victims in a manner given over by reason there were so few buyers Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 103. Trajano A description of the Religion and State of the Christian Church so exactly answering that which the Gospel gives as if it had been transcribed thence is here drawn out to the life and transmitted to us by the Pencil and Pen of an Heathen employed by the Roman Emperor to take an account of the Religion profest by Christians to inform himself what it was wherein they so far differ'd from the Religions establish'd or allowed by the Imperial Laws as to be therefore universally hated and taken from their mouths that were cognoscendis causis Christianorum Plin. ibid. appointed to take cognisance of the causes of Christians as such brought before them § 4. My last instance here shall be the account upon which Maximinus raised the sixth Persecution as it is laid down by Eusebius and proveable out of Lampridius and Capitolinus Maximinus by reason of that grievous envy wherewith he burned against the Houshold of Alexander where very many Christians converst stir'd up a bitter tempest of persecution against the Christian Pastors because they had taught that Doctrine whereby the Imperial Court had been so much civilized Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 21. This Beast saith Capitolinus who was so cruel as some called him Cyclops others Busiris others Phaleris some Typho and the Senate inade publick and the whole City private supplications that such a Monster as Maximinus might never be seen at Rome so Mortally hated Alexander for his severe Virtue and the strictness of his Court to which he had brought it by converse with Christians and by conforming his Government to their Precepts saith Lampridius in his Alexander as the Vulgar charged him with the murder of Alexander and moreover he put to death all the Ministers of State and Familiars of Alexander Dispositionibus ejus invidens grieving to see so good men in place If now thou wilt seek Reader what kind of Men and Courtiers they were for whose Christian Manners this Monster hated them and persecuted the Christian Doctors for introducing this civilty into the Roman then Pagan Palace and therewithall learn what went for Christian Virtue above 1400 years ago thou wilt find that Maximinus persecuted as Christian those Evangelical Precepts which the Apostolical VVritings commend to us and are not to be found but there or in Books derived from thence And thou needest not go far for a resolution of this enquiry for Lampridius will resolve thee who in answer to that Question of Constantine How Alexander a stranger born of Syrian extract became so excellent a Prince tells him That though he could alledge the indulgence of Mother Nature who is a Stepdame to no Country and the fate of Heliogabalus which might have terrified him from vicious living yet because he would suggest to him the very truth he commends to him what he had already written and Constantine read I suppose touching the favour he had to Christians and his sucking in their Precepts upon the perusal whereof and reflexion upon that saying of Marius Maximus It is better and more safe for the Republick that the Prince himself be evil than that his Friends and Counsellors be so for one evil man may be oversway'd by a multitude of good men but a multitude of bad men can by no means be brought into order by one though never so good a Prince And that Answer which Homulus gave to Trajan when he said that Domitian was the worst of men but had good Friends and Agents He must needs be a worse Prince than Domitian who being a better man than he had committed the administration of publick affairs to men of a bad life He presents it to Constantine as a thing not at all strange that Alexander should prove so good a Prince seing by following his Mother Mammaea's instruction which she had learnt of her Christian Doctors he himself became the best of men Optimus fuit optimae matris consiliis usus and had constituted his Court and adopted familiars of men not malicious not ravenous not thievish not factious crafty consenting to evil haters of goodness lustful cruel circumventors scorners But holy venerable continent religious lovers of their Prince who would neither reproach him nor be a reproach to him who would take no bribes would not lye nor dissemble nor betray their
the chief of our Nation sentenc'd him to be crucified yet they that had loved him from the first did not relinquish him for he shewed himself again alive to them the third day after his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Text this Jewish Priest gives witness to the Truth of what the Evangelists declare touching the most material points of Christ's Death that he was crucified and that under Pontius Pilat and that by the instigation and accusation of the Jewish Elders and Chief Priests and the main Circumstances of his rising from the dead that it was on the third day that he gave Demonstration of it the very day he rose not to all but certain VVitnesses whom he had chosen to go in and out with him from the beginning that this Demonstration was so palpable and convincing that it animated the Disciples to adhere to him not withstanding his preceding ignominious Death This is all so clear that it need no Comment no other Reflection but this That as Josephus could not be ignorant of the Allegation of the Jewish Priests he being himself a Priest and afterwards an Associate of the Priests of Jerusalem that his Disciples had stole him away so he makes so little account of it as he thinks it not worth the mentioning but not withstanding that report without any circumlocution affirms plainly that Christ did shew himself alive the third day to his Disciples on whom he bestows that Epethete which our Saviour gave them in his question to St. Peter Simon lovest thou me more than these How strong is that Truth upon which the whole Fabrick of Christian Religion is built since the Evidence of it prevail'd so far with a Jew in Religion more than Birth as to obtain from him this full Testimony and that upon Record for the perpetual memory of the thing and in a Book dedicated to him that persecuted the Professors of this Truth CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews Favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James martyred in the third and Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Stile Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owl § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great dyed of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symtomes of Agrippa ' s disease § 6. A digression touching St. Paul ' s Thorn in the Flesh. § 1. HE gives as full a Testimony to the History and Acts of the Apostles as to Christ in all those particulars where the Affairs of the Church are interwoven with the Affairs of the Empire or the Kingdom of Judaea that is where-ever their History comes in his way 1. Herod Agrippa the Son of Aristobulus his Story in Josephus goes hand in hand with St. Luke's Story of him 1. As to his personal Qualifications He is described by St. Luke Act. 13. to have been so great a Favourite of the Jews so ambitious to gratifie them and so zealous and forward a Professor of their Religion that to serve their interest and to do them a pleasure he beheaded St. James and imprisoned St. Peter with an intention to have sacrificed his Blood also to that Peoples humour In the same habit of Soul does Josephus paint him not only in those Texts which have been formerly alledged but also in the seventh Chap. of his ninteenth Book of Antiquities Where shewing his different Temper from that of Herod Antipas he tells us that Antipas out of an odium against that Nation manifestly shewed more good will to the Grecians than Jews adorning foreign Cities with Gifts Bathes Theaters Temples c. but not vouchsafing to grace any one Town of the Jews with any memorable either Ornament or Bounty But Agrippa on the other hand though he was beneficent liberal and courteous to all yet he was above all others benign to and ready to help in their greatest exigencies his own Country-men the Jews willing to have had his constant residence in Jerusalem being so religious an observer of his Countries Rites as he let no day pass without sacrifice nor suffered himself at any time to be polluted with Legal uncleannesses insomuch as when one Simon who had in a publick Assembly calumniated him behind his back as impure and not fit to be admitted to Temple-Worship was convented before him he was not able to instance one particular wherein Agrippa had miscarried touching the Law Another of his Qualifications hinted by St. Luke is his profuse Gallantry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because their Country was maintained by the Trade they drive at Court Acts 12. 20. the Royalty and Gallantry of Herods Court maintain'd their Country with Trade The Maritine Towns and Countries of Tyre and Sidon being chiefly maintain'd by their Court trade by vending there their rich and costly Commodities for back and belly those Peacock-feathers that made him so gay on the Judgement-seat as to procure him divine adoration if their acclamations were any thing else than an artifice of those cunning Tyrian Merchants to cry up and inhance the price of their own Wares and to intimate to this ambitious Prince that what had gain'd him the repute of a God was well worth the price he had given for them for I cannot think that Royal Apparel could dazle those Eyes which were dayly inured to the richest Rarities of Nature or Art and I have strong impulses to opine that Herod's fine Cloaths stood yet unpaid for in those Merchants Books and that he stormed so furiously against them either for that they had set the Dice upon him in their price or dun'd him for payment for I could never yet learn what other cause of quarrel he could have with those Merchant-Towns nor how that ambitious Prodigal could maintain that Pomp he kept without running upon the Tick nor for what they that but five days before call'd him a God should at his death curse his Memory but because he died so much in their Books and his Lands were not bound to pay his Debts And I doubt not but my intelligent Reader will be partly of my mind by that time he has heard Josephus speak to this point This King saith he was so born to Liberality and demeriting of people by Largesses as he took extream pleasure in making his name famous by Munificence and cared not what expence he was at to purchase the repute of a munificent Prince l. 19. 7. Before Calignla prefer'd him Joseph Antiq. lib. 18. 8. he brought himself to that penury with the Splendour of his dayly Attendance and immoderate Liberalities that he durst no longer shew his face in Rome but
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
he was Israels Sheepherd By what terrible Earthquake is the Holiness of that place flitted which he chose to put his Name in as long as he would have that Nation called by his Name Where is that holy and beautiful House the joy of the whole Land where their Fathers worship'd him of which Judah's God had said Here will I meet you here will I dwell for ever that is while I dwell with you out of which no Sacrifice was acceptable but polluted and unclean Hag. 2. 14. By what power hath that Royal Pallace of the great King been laid in the dust and kept from a Resurrection but of his Arm who said it should be perpetual desolations Israel's sometimes God and of his word who said One Stone shall not be left upon another Israel's rejected Saviour Where is that Copy of it the Temple of Heliopolis erected by Onias in a precocious humour to fulfill the Prophecy of Isaiah Chap. 19. 19. and in his conceipt built as a Trophy of the God of Israels Victory over the Idols of Aegypt in a place full of the Ruines of the Shrines of their Sacred Animals Joseph an t 13. 6. was it able with all its weight to suppress those Rat and Mice-Gods while it stood And did it not fall at last with the Idol-Temples Was it not blown down by the Breath of him for whom the Conquest of Aegypt to the Obedience of Israels God was reserved our great High-Priest who hath erected there the Altar of his Cross after it had first been prophan'd with the Image of that Monster of Men-Gods Caligula and shut up against the Jews at the end of the Jewish War by Lupus and kept shut by Paulinus Joseph Jud. Bell. 7. 30. Where is their High-Priests spirit of Prophecy since Caiaphas Prophesied it was necessary that one man should die for that Nation hath not that one Man's Blood so discoloured the Gems of the Ephod as they never since sparkled out a Respond Hath it not so fast Cemented the Names of the twelve Tribes to the Plate on which they were set as the Letters of those Names could never since stand up above their fellows so as by those prominent Characters the enquirer could spell out the Determination of his propounded Question Hath not God called that his Leiger that his Resident Agent from amongst them and sent him to the Christian Church in the virtue whereof Christ and his Apostles have foretold the sacking of their City the demolishing of their Temple the overthrow of their Politie and dispersion of their persons and whatsoever else conduceth to the strengthning of our Faith or the engaging us to possess our souls in patience In the virtue whereof our old men have dreamt Dreams our young men have seen Visions our Daughters have been Prophetesses and by this means the Extremity of Famines have been provided against as by Agabus his Prophesie of an Universal Famine loss of Lives in Shipwrack prevented as in St. Pauls Voyage to Rome mens hearts have been secured against fear in the greatest danger as St. Pauls was by a Vision at Corinth Men have been resolved in their doubts as St. Peter was in his whether he ought to Preach the Gospel to the Gentiles time would fail me should I reckon up those multitudes of Christian Prophets mentioned in the Canonical Books much more should I name those that were famous after the sealing of the Canon unto the Council of Nice Alii autem in Ecclesia praescientiam habent futurorum visiones dictiones propheticas Irenaeus adv Heres 2. 58. Many others in the Church have the prescience of future things and visions and prophetical predictions Quemadmodum multos audivimus fratres in Ecclesia prophetica habentes charismata per Spiritum universis linguis loquentes abscondita hominum in manifestum producentes Irenaeus advers Haer. l. 5. p. 539 We have heard many Brethren in the Church who had Prophetick Gifts and would speak by the spirit with divers Tongues and brings into open light the hidden things of mens hearts In his time also some by the Prayers of the Church were raised from the dead l. 2. cap. 58. Et Mortui jam Resurrexerunt perseveraverunt nobiscum multis annis We have seen the dead to have been raised who after that have lived amongst us many years But in all this time the Jews have had no Prophets but such as to their cost and ruful experience they have found to prophesie the Deceits of their own hearts while our great Divine in the Isle of Patmos is receiving the Light of Prophesie from our Jesus Their Barcocab the Son of a Star is abusing them with such palpable Delusion as this light of theirs goes out with a stink and gains himself the name of the Son of a Lye Such Meteors have all the Stars prov'd that have appeared in their Horizon since the Star of Jacob set upon them since then the Sun is gone down upon their Prophets The virtue is past out of their Elijah's Staff into our Apostles Rod out of his Mantle into their Handkerchiefs out of his body from which stretch'd upon the Child life return'd into him into St. Peters shadow by which they that were over-shadowed as he passed by were healed Acts 5 15. the Fleece is dry and void of all that Heavenly Influence which bedews the Floor of the Gentile World about it CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing virtue the second Temples Dowry § 1. THeir Cabbalists have attempted to supple and allay the Inflamation of this mortal Wound by the application of this Oyntment by a kind of Cabbala which they call Gematria they observe upon Hag. 1. 8. it is written Ekkabbda I will be glorified where because the word wanteth the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of it which Letter in Numeration stands for 5 they say that the want thereof sheweth the want of 5 Things in the second Temple which were in the first The Ark and its appurtenances the Mercy-seat and Cherubims Secondly the Fire from Heaven Thirdly the Majesty of Divine presence called Shechina Fourthly the Holy Ghost And Fifthly Urim and Thummim From whence they draw these two Conclusions 1. That their want of their antient Glory is not to be imputed to their putting Christ to Death seeing that was departed from them many Ages before he was born 2. That the Apostles were not moved to write the New Testament by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost for they wrote during the standing of the Second Temple Though the Answers which are commonly return'd to these Parologisms are Butteresses strong enough to secure the Christian Cause against these assaults to wit That though the Second Temple wanted the Shadows it had the Substance of all these the things
parts of any Beast Theophilact was happy in such a second who by reason of his great Reading quick Apprehension and solid Judgment might with less ostentation have said to Theophilact than the Philosopher to his Schollar Do thou invent Opinions and I will make them probable for doubtless such hath he made this and that being the highest Epithete which the modest Doctor fastens upon it I hope it will not be imputed as immodesty in me to take the liberty of shewing my dissent from a person of so deservedly admired worth and well deserving of the Church both as to the Opinion it self and the Reason he brings why he will no further insist upon it than to make it probable because the Christian Religion is no way concern'd in the miraculousness of this Cure if such it were it being afforded the Jews before Christs coming and continued to them at this time of their resisting and opposing Christ. For as it is of apparent use to the Christian Cause and to the Conviction of the Jews to mind them of the Tokens of Gods favour they enjoy'd till the guilt of that innocent Lamb's Blood cancel'd their Charter infaelicissimum infortunii genus est fuisse faelicem the brighter the Sun shone at its going down upon them the more certain indication it gave of its setting So this Exposition of the Text by Theophilact beside the force it offers to the Words offers violence to common Sence of which I could give several instances but will content my self with that reply which Dr. Hammond gives to that Objection which he conceives the chief to wit That 't is unconceivable how the healing Virtue of that Pool had it arose naturally from the fresh warm blood of the Entrails of the Sacrifices that were washed there could be limited to one to him that first stepped in after the troubling of the Waters for that reason of this which the Doctor assigns arising from the circumstance of the place containing these Medicinal Waters which might be of no larger capacity than to hold one at once as that is the only circumstance that can be imagined to avoid the force of the Objection so that Hypothesis implies a plain Contradiction to all other circumstances of the case as themselves state it for what needed an Officer go down into so narrow a hole when he might have stood at the top and have poakt up the grosser matter from the bottom with a Pole Nay what room could there be for him to bestir himself or to use a Colt-staff in the bottom to stir up the congeal'd blood in so narrow a compass or with what water must that water be washt wherein so many hundreds of Entrals were wash'd for doubtless if it was contain'd in so narrow a compass it stood in as much need of washing as the Entrails themselves and the immersing fresh Entrails therein after an hundred or according to their account many thousands had been wash'd therein would have been the defiling of them rather than their cleansing Besides had this curing of only one been but once or at the most three times a year and that by a natural Virtue infused into the water the stirring of the Sedements from the bottom it was wholly in the Officers power to admit whom he pleased to step in and then those multitudes of impotent folk that lay there waiting for the stirring of the water and some of them so long as the man whom Christ cured must have been more crazie in their mind than bodies if they could not collect it was in vain there to expect good if they could not make the Officer their Friend Lastly what need of a Temple-Officer's going down to stir the water when those whose impotencie lay in their eyes or any where but in their feet might themselves have done all that he could do to wit with their Feet or Hands or Crutches stir up the congealed Blood and make it mix with the Water and really 't is hard to conceive that among a great multitude of poor Cripples their should not be some who when they saw their time would not strain courtesie with good manners and make no more scruple of stepping in before the Angel than the Mayors Horse did of drinking before Queen Elizabeths Had he been no more than a Temple-Officer and not as the King's Manuscript reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of the Lord whose stirring of the Pool put a supernatural Virtue into it which by divine dispensation was so bounded as to the Effects thereof as it should but cure one at a time and that time not to be foreseen as their stated Festivals were but purely at the divine Arbitriment and therefore to be waited for by those that came thither for cure of which he that first stept in failed not to partake while the five Books of Moses the Books of Gods Covenant with their Fathers as so many Porches encompassed that Nation St. Aug. de verbis Dom. Serm. 42. But that Covenant of Peace removed from them this Pool though still to be seen hath no more Virtue in it now nor ever had since the Holie Ghost hath chosen the Christian Font-water to sit upon St Jerom. de locis Haebraicis than the Castalion or Colophon Wells I could instance in more Privileges which the Second Temple was endowed with beyond the First which as if they had been entail'd upon it fell with it But it would be an infinite labour to recount all the Particulars of that Inventory of Divine Benefits Arguments of Gods special favour to that people which they died seis'd of at the expiration of their State and demolishing of their City and Temple Gods withdrawing of which from them is as full an evidence of their Rejection as his vouchsafing them to them was formerly of his bearing them more upon his heart than all the Nations of the Universe besides Alas how many days hath that wretched Nation continued without a King and without a Prince without a Sacrifice and without an Idol without an Ephod and without a Teraphim without God or any token of his presence save that whereby he watcheth over them for evil under all which heavy stroaks they are as insensible as Solomon's Fool that slept upon the Mast So that to crown his Judgements God hath taken from them that tenderness of Heart which their Forefathers had in the Babylonish Captivity who were jealous of themselves that God had hardned their hearts from his fear to their greater Ruine but these though that of their own Prophets Isa. 6. be palpably fulfill'd upon them and all the Curses written in Gods Book laying with all their weight upon their loynes yet none of them say What have I done Wherefore is all this evil brought upon us CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
publick use and that this had been their custome under Valentinian the Elder appears from that excuse St. Ambrose makes in his behalf viz. he knew it not no person informed him of it lib. 5. epist. 30. Yea Constantine himself and his Successors Christian Emperours down as low as Gratian retain'd still the Title and Office of Great Pontiffs and accordingly order'd all businesses concerning the Ethnick Ceremonies by their Deputies Mirabile dictu saith the Learned Meed 2 vol. book 3. chap. 10. 746. and because it seems so to him it seems to me worth a more serious ponderation That the Christian Emperours unto Gratian were a kind of Samaritane Christians serving the God of Israel with their own Country-Gods though with a vast disparity of respect and the later perhaps but in complement and policy as Naaman bowed in the house of Rimmon or Jehu proclaim'd a Feast of Baal that I may not lay an ignominious blot upon the Memories of those pious Princes is more manifest than that it needs more proof than what Pagan History gives Constantine could hear the Orator of the Hedai stile his Grandfather Claudius Numen and his own favours to the Hedai remedia numinis tui could indure to see the Images of all the Gods of that City carried in Procession to meet him omnium deorum nostrorum simulachra protulimus tibi occursura and to hear that in thankfulness for the benefits receiv'd at the hands of Constantine they offer'd gifts in their Temples in that Panegyrick was made in their name Printed at the end of Pliny's Panegyrick for Trajan He could with Patience permit the Orator of Triers to call Claudius a Companion of the Gods nay a God in Heaven Imperator in terris in caelo Deus whom the Temples of the Gods waited for who was now receiv'd into the Council of the Gods Jupiter himself giving him his right hand and to commend Constantine himself for visiting Apollo's Temple vidisti Apollinem tuum in his Panegyrick Ibid. All this to me seems not so strange as that those Kings of Judah who were educated in the Law of God should have God's approbation as men fearing him in the main though they contrary to as express a Precept as any is in the whole Law took not away but suffer'd their People and sometimes used themselves to Sacrifice in high places as Jehosophat and Asa. 1 Reg. 22. 44. 1 Reg. 15. 14. § 2. How much more might this connivance of the Emperours stand with true Piety who being some of them nurst up in Gentilism had not the means of knowing the will of God which those Kings of Judah had which was St. Ambrose his excuse for Valentinian the elder his coming at the Pagan Altar in the Senate house in the place forealleged and the rest of them having their Reigns incumbred with Secular but especially with Ecolesiastical Wars and those about the main Fundamentals of Christianity as they had not leisure to inquire into the niceties of practical Points of Christianity It was much that those of the West imbrac'd Christ as God and that those of the East prefer'd him before Idols then when it was disputed among Christians whether he were God or no. Or had they had opportunity to study the will of Christ as to that particular of the Magistrates Duty yet their temptations against an exact conformity to it in that case wherein their Political Interests were so much concern'd were so great and almost invincible as that may plead for our charitable Censure except we our selves had never been drawn by the Loadstone of our Temporal concerns to strain courtesie with conscience Or had they been never so willing at any charge or hazzard to conform to God's Law once manifested to them Yet it might have born a dispute whether in that Juncture it were their Duty to shew any greater discountenance than they did to the old and so much doted on Religion of the Gentiles Especially having those great Examples of Jacob's connivance at Laban's Idols in his own Family and among his Wives till he had an opportunity after the settlement of his affairs to purge his house of those Idols and of David's permitting his Wife Michal to have an Image of the same kind with those of Laban's as the Jewish Doctors say quoted by Mr. Selden in his Syntag. de Teraph and described by them to have been the head of the first born of their Clan the Founder of their Family wrung as the Priests did the heads of Fowls to be sacrificed Lev. 1. 15. and 5. 8 Texts which they alledge for the illustration of this Rite off and season'd with Salt and Aromaticks To which having placed it upon a Golden Plate whereon was writ the Name of that unclean Spirit which they believed they had called into it by their barbarous Rites and lighting Candle before it they gave divine honour and applied themselves for resolution of all difficulties as unto an Oracle Such were the Gods which both David and Jacob tolerated in their own Families while they had not power to cast them out Upon the account of the same Law that of necessity that has no Law the first Christian Emperours were forc'd to tolerate Gentilism Constantine prefaceth his decree of Immunity with this excuse It is necessary for the preserving of publick Tranquility c. Euseb. hist. 10. 5. But where there was no danger of destroying the common peace by provoking a major part as in the Case of the Arrians he orders that all the Churches of those Hereticks be forth with overthrown and their Assemblies be no where suffer'd either in publick or private Euseb. de vita const 3 63. Whereas Gratian on the contrary finding the party of Arrians formidable and swarming in all places by reason of that indulgence his Predicessor Valens had used towards them fearing some general tumult if he should hastily distress so numerous a multitude as they were gave order that they and all others might have Churches and Oratories with freedom and immunity But he being once settled and joyn'd with Theodosius and thereby made strong enough to quell them commanded that all Heresies should be silenc'd for ever as interdicted by the Laws of God and Man that none should any longer presume to teach or learn prophane Doctrines Codicis lib. 1. tit 5. From which consideration of the difference of Times St. Ambrose told Valentinian the younger advising with him whether he should gratifie those of the Senate who requested that the Altar at which the Senators that still adhered to Gentilisme had used to be sworn Note it was the fashion of the Romans to stand before the Altar when they took an Oath Jures licèt Samothracum Et nostrorum aras Juvenal Sat. 3. As it was also of the Jews 1 Reg. 8. 31. and the Oath come before thine Altar Before they gave their Vote in the Reigns of his Predecessors Christian Emperours might be rebuilt having been demolish'd by his Brother
that office should in point of honour be equall to the chief Military and urbane Magistrates among whom Macrobius to have the precedency Isaac Pontan in notis ad Macrobium pag. 1. ex Scaligero Optatus a Pagan had the Military Government of Constantinople committed to his charge under Theodosius and his Son Arcadius Socrates hist. eccl 7. 16. with as much impunity was Gentilism practised in the Metropolis of the Western Empire under his Brother Honorius at the beginning of whose Reign when the Gothes under Alaricus took Rome there were very many Heathens not only in the City but Senate by whose order it was determined that the Pagan Worship should be restored and celebrated in those Temples which had by Theodosius been converted to the use of the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen 9. 7. for I see no necessity of collecting from this passage that any other Temples were then standing but what were transferr'd to a Christian use to which that passage of Orosius l. 7. cap. 38. adds strength where he writes that Attalus the Governour then of the City and a Pagan for he was Christned by a Gothish Bishop after he was joyn'd with Alaricus sending for the Thuscian Magi who promised by Thunder and Lightning to drive away the Barbarians enter'd presently into consultation with the Senate about restoring to their Idol-Gods their Sacred Places and celebrating their Rites So I render his continuò de repetendis sacris celebrandis tractatur Sacris comprehending Places as well as Ceremonies and repetendis implying the recovering of sacred things out of the hands of those who then had the possession of them and therefore not applicable to the Gentile Sacrifices which the Christians never touched but their Temples which were converted from the service of Idols to that of the true God as that Magnificent one of Serapis of Alexandria was at the same time and by the same Decree of Theodosius So numerous were the Pagans then in Rome as Dr. Hammond thinks and not but upon good grounds that it is Pagan Rome is threatned in that Prophecy Rev. 17. 14. and according to that Prophecy punished by Alariâ—us the Christian Party being some departed with Honorius their Emperour some with Innocentius their Bishop unto Vienna Come out of her my people Rev. 18. 4. as Lot out of Sodom saith Orosius l. 7. c. 39. and the rest overpowered by the Gentile Faction animated by the hopes they had of Attalus that he would professedly favour and set up Gentilism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and restore the Anâ—â—ent Temples and Feasts and Sacrifices Sozom. l. 9. § 4. Hitherto then we see the Dragon the old Serpent the Devil still abroad and at work even in the Imperial City at his old Trade of seducing the Nations to Gentilism and which is more prevailing with them to endeavour the restauration of the Pagan Religion after it was prohibited by penal law by Theodosius for Eugenius and Arbogestes with a mighty Army attempted to restore Ethnicism which Theodosius had utterly abolisht saith Mr. Meed vol. 2. Book 3. chap. 10. after whose subduing of those two Tyrants Ethnicism never made head more in the Roman Empire saith the same learned Author Indeed the whole current of History makes it evident that Ethnicism never after that appeared in the field against Christianity yet we find it after that conspiring in the Senate to subdue the Faith by the help of the Gothish Arms invited thither by the Heathens and therefore so dreaded by the Christian Party as multitudes of them upon the irruption of the Barbarians either conceal'd or dissembled their Religion to save themselves from the rage of the enemy till contrary to their expectation they perceiv'd that God had turn'd the sword of the Goths against the Pagans St. Jerom. ep 6. ad prin ep 8. and that Alaricus had given order to his Soldiers they should neither touch persons nor goods which they found in the Christian Temples And we find it after that practised in private Chappels tilâ— Honorius made it capital for any to worship Idols either in publick or private Quis enim nostrum quis vestrum non laâ—dat Leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia Idolorum at certè longè ibi paena severior constituta est illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est saith St. Austin to the Patron of the Donatists epist. 48. which of ours which of yours do not commend those Imperial Laws against the Sacrifices of the Pagans though the pain inflicted by those Laws be far more severe than that which the Law inflicts upon the Novatians for those make it death for any to commit those Gentile Abominations At which period of time if I would be positive I would fix the beginning of the thousand years which we have in this long discourse been pricking to its seat For it is most natural to interpret the Chain wherein Satan was bound to have been those Imperial Laws and the Key of the bottomless Pit that Supream Authority and power of Life or Death invested by Gods Ordinance in them that bear the Sword and actually exerted in those Laws by opening the mouth of the Pit and making it gape upon such as should persist in those impious and inhumane Idolatries by the Ghastly look of that terriblest of terribles the Pagan was frighted from that Diabolical Worship and by that fear of his shut up Satan and deprived him of power any longer to deceive Insomuch as immediately after the promulgation of those Laws though all did not embrace Christianity yet the whole Empire renounc'd Politheism all strife thereabout being supprest and so eradicated even out of the most talkâ—ive Schools of the Grecians as if any Sect of Error then rose up against the Church and the Faith it durst not step upon the Stage to contend with the Christian but cover'd with the Christian name so that the Platonicks themselves â—â—d it not been for some plausible Placits they could adhere to without fear of incurring the penalties of the Imperial laws must of necessity have generally submitted their pious necks to the yoak of the only invincible King Christ and have acknowledged that Word of God made Flesh who spake and that was believed which the boldest of them were afraid to reveal to the world August dios ep 56. But I dare not be peremptory in determining the precise Moment All that I assert in this is That if the Thousand years of Satan's binding â—e begun at all the beginning of them cannot be dated lower than the promulgation of those Imperial Edicts neither do any place them lower who are of opinion that the Millenium is not yet to begin From whence I inferr this irrefragable Conclusion If the Millenium be precisely the term of 1000 years Satan at the utmost was let loose in the year of Grace 1400 that then the Christian World has outlived Grace 270 years according to the least compute of that Hypothesis And
man upon Earth that sinneth not and whoever saith he hath no sin he sins in saying so So that the old Serpent when he shall be let loose again will find wicked instruments of his malice against the Church his own evil Seed among the Wheat where-ever that is sown and therefore the Millenaries in confining him to the lower Hemisphere to gather his Army in by which he is to assault the Holy City not only contradict their own Texts which assigns him the four corners the four Quarters of the Earth the whole breadth of the earth the whole compass of the Globe from East West North and South which I could bear with them in knowing that the Prophets have a peculiar language by themselves in their Proverbials and Hyperbolics but the whole current of sacred Scriptures commented upon by the uninterrupted series of Providence in all ages § 5. Second Nay that at the approaching of the general Judgement when that War of Gog and Magog shall commence The Churches most eminent Seat and the most glorious entertainment of the Gospel will be in those Chambers of the South in that new discover'd World to which it is hasting apace from our Hemisphere The far greatest part thereof all the West of Asia the East West and South of Affrica and the sometimes most flourishing and best peopled parts of Europe being already over-run with Mahometan Barbarousness and the remaining parts of it by our great provocations and impieties against God and by our dissentions and discord among our selves hasting to open a way for the Turk to enter the City of God through the breaches we dayly make and widen in the Walls of Sion We sin and he wins we contend and he conquers we presume that because we are the Temple of the Lord the City of God we are inconquerable and in the mean while he takes our Forts and batters our Walls about our ears our ears which we stop and will not hear the voyce of the Charmer charm he never so wisely and therefore I fear I should but spill my Ink in bestowing it in recording the Turks dayly encroachment upon the Christian Pale his making Conquests by inches over the Western as he did by Ells over the Eastern Church or in describing those Marks of future bane those Prints of divine displeasure and certain forerunners of Gods rejection of a people as deeply imprest upon the Western as they were upon the Eastern and Southern Patriarchates when God deliver'd those Churches into his and their enemies hands If we go to his place at Shilo where once he put his Name enquire for what wickedness he made his Glory depart from Jerusalem Ephesus Antioch Alexandria Constantinople we shall find the very same provocations reigning in these parts of Europe the same infatuation of Counsels the same strong delusions the same debaucheries and abominations and our selves as ripe for excision looking as white for harvest as they did when the Mahometans Sickle reaped those goodly Fields Suppose ye that they were greater sinners I tell you nay but except we repent we shall all likewise perish But I look too long upon the dark side of that cloudy Pillar that has been passing from the East the place where the Gospel first set out towards the West and as it moves deprives the Church of her Head attire Christian Princes of those her dry Nurses and Guardians yet not of her wet Nurses or the inward Glory of her Garments for she shall reign still with Christ even upon this Earth in those remnants of her seed dispersed over the face of it The Sun of a Christian Magistracy shall not be seen where this Night hath or shall encroach upon the Church but her eyes shall see her Teachers still and her ears hear This is the good old way walk in it and find rest the Stars will appear behind the Cloud as they did in the Primitive Church before Princes became her Nurses and as they do now within the Turks Dominions where Princes have ceas'd to be her Nurses And when Mercy triumphing over Judgement shall have left us such a Nail such a stump of the Tree of Life in our Hemisphere The Covenant that God has made with the Christian World being like that he hath made with day and night of which he saith if those ordinances shall depart from me then shall the whole seed of Israel be cast off the Covenant he made with the Ordinances he gave to the Carnal Seed were but Temporary and therefore that seed was wholly cast off but the Covenant he made with the Spiritual Seed is an everlasting Covenant and therefore that Seed of Gentile Believers shall never be wholly cast off The new Israelites in shew and profession only when this Sun of persecution for the Gospel ariseth when the Temptations of the World shall be laid before them when none shall live under the benign influence of their Mahometan Rulers but those that wheel about with them to the embracing of that Brutish Religion shall forsake Christ and embrace the present World But the Israelites indeed in Faith and Practice shall never be prevail'd with to renounce Christ but that poor and peeled People shall bear up his Name in all Nations upon whom it hath been called to the end and consummation of the World When I say the infiniteness of the divine compassion shall be so bounded and streightned by the circumjacent Guilt of our multiplyed and crying sins and by the innate veracity of divine Menacies as all it can obtain for us against the pleas of both is no more then this when our golden Dreams of glorious days end in this God will provide Kings and Queens to be Nursing Fathers c. to the American Churches who shall dandle them upon their knees and that perhaps for as many ages as we have been dandled I say perhaps because I would not pry into Gods secret Purposes nor limit the holy One in that point wherein I cannot observe him to walk by any Rule but that of his own good pleasure whereby both to Persons and Nations he lengthens or shortens their day of Grace so as the Sun hath been set near a 1000. years ago upon most of Asia and yet shines upon us in the West of Europe upon whom it rose before it did upon them I mean the cherishing Light of a Christian Magistracy for we had our Lucius before they had their Constantine However this is certain that how long or short soever God hath in his eternal Counsel determin'd that space that they shall have their time of Grace as well as we and we shall have no more than our time and therefore as the night shall grow upon us that had day before them the day shall grow upon them and when the Sun is farthest from our Horizon it will be highest in theirs § 6. And this affords us another Argument against those who limit the Millenium to a precise number of years and yet
mans hand as if that Dog had set the Game for the Roman Eagles and had wagg'd his tail before Judaea as the place where the Carcasses their prey lay 3. As to the Deliverance of the believing Jews in the Mountainous places of Judaea whither Christ warned them to flee when they should see the Roman Standards advancing towards Jerusalem or at Pella whither those that had not understood Christs direction repaired after that voyce was heard in the Temple migremus Pellam Let us march to Pella or into whatsoever by-places or holes of the Rock the Dove of Christ had betaken her self till that indignation was over past There was not one Christian remaining in Jerusalem when Titus laid siege to it they being all removed upon the opportunity which Providence offer'd them by Gallus his suddain raising of the siege some moneths before Euseb. hist. 3. 5. ex Josepho And being put in mind of Christs direction a little before the Ruin of Jerusalem by the Prodigies reported by Josephus and foretold by Christ. Such as mens not attending to them mens not believing them to be signes and fore-runners of the approach of Divine Vengeance neither Josephus a Jew Josep de Bel. Jud. 7. 12. nor Tacitus an Heathen Tacit. hist. 5. can impute to any thing else than Gods dementating that people whom he meant to destroy A Starr in the form of a Sword brandishing it self a whole year together over Jerusalem a light shining for the space of half an hour about the Altar and Temple at nine of the clock at night while the people were assembled to celebrate the Feast of unleavened bread then falling on the eighth of April so bright as one would have thought it the light of the clearest day There were signs in the Air they had some nearer hand under their feet The same day of unleavened bread an Heifer as she was led to be sacrificed brought forth a Lamb in the midst of the Temple could any thing more significantly shew that the Legal Sacrifice about to die had left the Lamb for its heir the first part of which Lesson was bellowed out to Vespasian by that Ox that came into his Pavilion and fell prostrate at his feet pointing him out as the man at whose feet the Mosaical Sacrifices were to fall The East-gate of the Inner Temple of Massie Brass so heavy as twenty men could scarce shut it being made fast over-night with iron Locks and strong Bolts was seen at the sixth hour of the night to open of its own accord of which Accident the Magistrate being inform'd by the Keepers of the Temple goeth up to the Temple and with much ado got it shut again This though the ignorant and interessed party expounded it in favour of the Jews yet the wiser sort saith Josephus understood it to presage that the Temple wherein they trusted would as it were by the instinct of that God who dwelt in it deliver it self up into the enemies hands and Rabban Jochanan by name applyed to this Prodigy that Text of Zachary Open thy doors oh Lebanon that the fire may devour thy Cedars of the truth of which he was so confident as he caused his Scholars to carry him forth as a dead Corps upon a Bier and by that means made his escape to Caesar as Doctor Lightfoot Harmony pag. 182. tells the Story from R. Nathan A few dayes after this Feast May 21. appeared a Sign beyond belief saith Josephus but that those who saw it are yet alive and such desolations followed as were worthy to be usher'd in by such presages Before Sun-set were seen Chariots to be driven in the Air and armed Bands sallying through the Clouds and beleaguering the City And on the Feast of Pentecost following the Priests going after their custome into the Inner Temple to officiate perceived at first a kind of rustling and confused noise and after that heard a suddain voice saying Le ts depart hence Of these prodigies Tacitus makes mention Hist. 5. Visae per caelum concurrere acies rutilantia arma subito nubium igne collucere Templum Expassae repente Delubri fores audita major humanâ vox excedere simul ingens motus excedentium quae pauci in metum trahebant Fourthly as to the miseries accompanying this Desolation falling through the extremity of the Famine most heavily upon Women with Child that laying siege to two lives in one body and on such as gave suck they being in perpetual fear either to have their little ones taken away from them to relieve the hungar-starv'd Soldier or to be forc'd themselves either to pine them at their dry Breast or to bury in their Stomack the fruit of their Womb of the completion of which Josephus an Eye-witness gives us sad examples de Bel. Jud. 7. 7 8. upon whose stories touching that inundation of misery that rowled in upon that people of Gods Curse it was a very signal Providence saith Isidor Pelus lib. 4. ep 75. that God stirred up a Jew and one zealous of their Law and Traditions to communicate to the World those Tragical disasters which befell that People at such time as Christ had threatned to take vengeance of them for those Narratives do so far exceed all Example as they could not possibly have found credit if they had been reported by a stranger or by any other person than such an one as Josephus who thus describes the extremity of the Famine An infinite number died through hunger 't is inexpressible how many fell either through the extremity of the Famine or by striving to relieve themselves against it you might see men at Daggers drawing in every house where was the least morsel of Meat or crum of Bread the dearest friends snatching victuals out of one anothers mouths and rifling the bosoms of them that were a dying You might see men in a rage through disappointment of their prey which they sought in desolate places run like rabid Dogs up and down the City searching twice or thrice over in the same house and through want of better food greedily feeding on such things as the most fordid Brutes abhorr sparing neither Girdles nor Shooes nor the Leather upon their Targets esteeming the Orts of Hay so great a dainty as a small quantity of it was sold at four Attiques to stuff their craving bellies buying at any rate the stuffing of Padds Saddles c. Nay so lamentable were the afflictions that came upon that People and especially by Famine as Josephus protests he could willingly have passed over the mention of them for fear that Posterity should account him a Liar but that he had many Eye-witnesses to attest them and might seem perhaps to disregard and overlook the afflictions of his Countrymen if he should lightly touch their heavy sufferings being some of them such as were never felt either by Greeks or Barbarians things horrible to speak incredible to hear Of which I shall only mention one particular story of one Mary