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
occurrs in the writings of one Roman who then turn'd his stile that way than in all the Volumes of preceding Philosophers Then lived Varro so indefatigable a Student and Writer as Terentianus Carthaginensis in his Phaleucick Verses sings of him after this manner Vir doctissimus undecunque Varro Quae tam multa legit ut aliquid Ei scribere vacâsse miremur Tam multa scripsit quà m multa Vix quenquam legere potuisse credamus Gellius reports lib. 5. that he writ 490 Books A man of that profound Learning as Tully transported with the admiration of it in his Academick Questions while he 's commending him for a Divine forgets that himself was an Academick Philosopher and contrary to his profession of hesitancy and suspension of assent to all other propositions speaks positively and confidently of Mark Varro that he was without doubt of all men the most acute and learned Academ Quaest. lib. 1. Cum M. Varrone hominum facilè omnium acutissimo sine ulla dubitatione doctissimo and a little after While we were wandring saith he in our own City as strangers thy Books O Varro did as it were bring us home to our selves that we might at length know where we are and what we are Thou hast open'd to us the Antiquities of our Country the description of the Times the Laws about Holy things the Offices of Priests Domestick Publick Discipline the definitions distinctions properties and causes of ALL THINGS both HUMANE and DIVINE That African Tully St. Austin praiseth Varro in as high a stile as this Roman giving him this Encomium de Civitate 6. 2. Quis M. Varrone curiosiùs ista quaesrvit quis invenit doctiùs quis distinxit acutiùs quis consideravit attentiùs quis diligentiùs pleniâ—sque conscripsit Who hath with more curiosity inquired into those things concerning Religion and the Divine attributes than Varro who with more learning found them out than he who with greater attention weighed with more acuteness distinguisht with more copiousness and diligence writ of these things than M. Varro But we cannot have a clearer demonstration of the brightness and magnitude of this Star which Providence order'd to arise in the Heathens Hemisphere as an Usher to the Sun of Righteousness than his obtaining while he lived and was obnoxious to the envy of his Emulators by a general vote the Sir-name of the most learned of all the Gown-men and the Virgin-honour to have his Statue in his life-time plac'd in that Library which Asinius Pollio erected at Rome Then lived Scaevola the Pontiff whom St. Austin stiles the most learned Pontiff Vives in Aug. de Civ 6. 2. out of whose Theological polemical writings St. Austin produceth some sound and Gospel-proof Divine maximes To whom Tully a man read as much in Men as Books applyed himself to learn Divinity after the death of his former master in that Science Scaevola the Augur Aug. de Civit. 4. 27. Then lived Caesar who acquitted the Office of High-Priest as dexterously as that of Emperour in his directing the world to time her devotions by reforming the Calender so near the precise Rule prescribed by God to those Luminaries which he hath placed in the Heavens to measure Times as it served the whole World to calculate Seasons by above 1500 years in which large tract of time that Julian Account has not misreckon'd 13 dayes whereas he found the computation so corrupt as he could not bring the hand of his reformed Calender to the right hour of time without the interealation of three months Sueton. Jul. 4. And in the rest of his pontifical administrations not failing the expectations of the Electors who were two to one for him more than all his Competitors obtain'd the Votes of though the other Candidates for that Office so far exceeded him in Age and secular Dignity as Caesar had nothing to commend him to the Electors but his qualifiedness for that function by the worth of his parts Id. Ib. cap. 40. Then lived Cicero as great a Proficient in the Colledge of Augurs as in the Schools of the Orators Witness his Books de Divinatione de somnio Scipionis de Seneciute de Legibus his Paradoxes and Academick questions wherein he traceth the Deity by the foot-steps of the Creature and common Providence more near its seat of inaccessible light than he durst openly or in his own person express and therefore communicates his conceptions upon that subject by way of Romance under borrowed names as Plate had done before him in the like case sed nimirum Socratis carcerem times Lactant. de fal rel 1. 3. both of them skulking under the shades of deceased Philosophers for fear of the impending whip of the Areopagites over Plato of the Imperial Laws over Cicero both of them having heard the sound of the whip laid on Socrates before Plato's on Varro's back before Cicero's face for that Roman Socrates for opening too wide and not running with the common cry had been soundly lasht by the then great Hunter the Roman Nimrod having his Person proscribed his Library rifled and his Books burnt as disfavouring the Religion of that State yet for all this Tully sets this Royal Game and gives the World notice as it were by wagging his tail when he durst not open his mouth where it was squatted against the Apostles should come with their Net Then lived the Learned Cratippus whom Cicero in the Proem to his Offices stiles the Prince of Modern Philosophers but his commending his Son to his Nurture was a commendation of him in fact beyond all the streins even of his Rhetorick Then lived Virgil of whom Vettius in Macrob. Saturn 1. 24. Equidem inter omnia quibus eminet laus Maronis hoc assiduus lector admiror quia doctissimè jus pontificium quasi hoc professus in multa varia operis sui arte servavit si tantae dissertationi sermo cancederet promitto fore ut Virgilius noster Pontifex maximus asseratur Of whose admirable skill in Theology he giveth instances in the third Book of Saturnals to make good this his general commendation That amongst all the praise-worthy qualifications of Maro which in his daily reading of his Works he took notice of he wonder'd at this that throughout the whole Series of his Poems he so learnedly observ'd the Pontifical Law as if he had been Professor of it and if I had time saith Vettius to discourse that point I promise you I could obtain from you an assent to this That Virgil deserves to be accounted worthy of the high Priest-hood Then lived that miracle of humane Divines Seneca the Philosopher the Glory of the Heathen the shame of the modern Christian World who gave the greatest experiment of the power of Stoicism that ever man did in his rooting the sentiments of a Deity and with them Morality so deep in that most barren heart of Nero as those Seeds sown there by him flourish'd and bore excellent fruit for the first
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
are not exceedingly byassed with Partiality Let us now take a view of the Out-works the External Fortifications which that Age had to secure it from the Surprisals of Impostors And that first in respect of the Dexterity of that Age in point of quick dispatch of Intelligence in which Art it lagg'd not behind but rather out-stripp'd ours The English Unicorn is not more swift of foot now than the Roman Eagle was of Wing then as appears from Caesar's reporting Vibullius to have posted Night and Day taking at every Stage a fresh Horse that he might certify Pompy that Caesar was at hand Caesar ' s Comment 3. 3. By Suetonius writing of Caesar that he used to run an hundred Miles a day on an hired Chariot by the help of blowen Bladders making his way over Rivers and by that means performing long Journeys with that incredible Celerity as he oftentimes arrived at his Journeys end before the News of his setting forth had come thither Suet. Jul. 57 longissimas vias incredibili celeritate fecit expeditus meritoria rheda centena passuum millia per singulos dies c. By what Livie relates of Sempronius Graccus that in the Roman Wars against Antiochus he went by Post from Amphiss'a to Pella in three Days Pliny Hist. 37. pag. 759. Per dispositos equâ—s prope incredibili celeritate By what Val. Maximus has recorded of Tiberius his posting to visit his Brother Drusus why lay sick in Germany with that Rapid and Precipitate Haste as he hurried over the Alps and that rugged Region bounding upon them at the rate of two hundred Miles in the space of twenty four Hours Val Max. 5. 5. 3. Iter quam rapidum preceps corripuerit eo patet quod Alpes Rhenumque transgressus Die Nocte mutato subinde Equo ducenta Millia passuum evasit By what Philo Judaeus de legatione ad Caium pag. 639. reports of Petronius his not daring to proceed to the fulfilling of Caligula's command to erect his Image in the Temple for fear the Jews should from all parts of the World presently be about his Ears by reason of that incredible quick way of dispatch of News they had inured themselves to Indeed those parts of the Empire that bordered upon Judaea and wherein the Apostles of the Circumcision chiefly conversed and spread the Gospel were long before that time put into a posture for the most speedy conveyance of Advertisements by Cyrus who that he might have News brought him of all Emergencies from all the parts of his vast Empire would have trial made how far an Horse could go out-right at full speed without bating at which distance he caused Stages to be set and fresh Horses to stand which kind of posting some as Xenophon saith affirm to be equivalent for swiftness to the flying of Cranes Xenophon Cyrus 8. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And sure the Eagle had an Eye to see what advantage it would be to her to imp her wings with the Cranes Feathers to improve the Roman Art of posting by the accession of this of the Persian An Art perhaps conveighed thither out of Judaea and communicated by Daniel at what time he was set over the Presidents of the Provinces however 't is certain it was of old in use among them for we read of Hezechiah's sending his Proclamations by Post and hear Deborah bewail the days of Shamgar for that in them the Courriers were forced to take By-ways so that the Apostles could not be ignorant of that ready way of communicating Intelligence which the Empire had then learnt Palladius was able to ride post unto the furthest Bounds of the Roman and Persian Dominions and back again in thirty days to Theodosius the Emperour at Constantinople Socrat. Scol Eccl. Hist. 7. 19. And which comes nearer the times of the Apostles Cicero reports that Caesar writ to him out of Britain the 1. day of September and the Letters came to his hands the 28. day of the same Month Sleidan clavis Hist. lib. 1. And therefore for them to have gone up and down with pompous stories of things done in Judaea when they could not but know that who so pleased might in a Months time or less have detected the forgery would have been such a piece of Temerarious Madness as 't is scarce imaginable how twelve men's heads at once could be intoxicated with it § 2. That Age was externally fortified against the assaults of Impostors by reason of that universal Peace through the World that ushered the Prince of Peace into the World so as Intelligence might pass from Nation to Nation through the Universe as Blood by Circulation through the Veins of an healthful Body without the least Obstruction Times of Distraction are the most promising Seed-times of Lyes he who in fishing for men dubbs his Hook with a counterfeit Fly will chuse to fish in troubled Waters he that has learn'd the black Art of inventing News will chuse a Season to practise in when an Embargo is laid upon the Packet-boats when the Bridges are broken down the High-ways unoccupied when through the noise of Arms men cannot hear nor are at leisure to listen after what falls out in the remoter parts of the World as in the Battel betwixt Flaminius and Hannibal at which they that were present by reason of the Hurly-burly among themselves perceived not the most clamorous Effects of the then prodigious Earth-quake that demolished the best parts of the chiefest Cities diverted Rivers from their wonted Channels and tumbled down with a hideous Fragor the tops of Mountains Plutarc Fab. Maximus 72. Such Confusions are the fittest Seasons for the Father of Lyes to cast his Spawn for Satan to throw abroad his poysoned Arrows that before time the Mother of Truth can give them a check his fry may be of Age to shift for themselves his stories may stick so fast in Mens Minds as the hand of Truth afterwards will have much ado to pull them out and not leave some Splinters if not the pile head behind The Apostles of the blessed Jesus used not this craft his Fisher-men angled in calm Waters his Seedsmen scattered the Gospel in those pacate days as gave men leisure to ponderate every Circumstance of the News they brought Men might then sit peaceably under their own Vines and ruminate upon the fruit of our Royal Vine that chears the Heart of God and Man The whole Empire at Christ's Birth brooding under the Dove-like Wings of the Roman Eagle enjoyed that Halcionian Calm as she had not been blessed with the like but once in that large Tract of time betwixt Numa and Augustus and that but for a piece of a Year and yet that short breathing time from War reported as a Miracle Numa saith Livy that erected Janus s Temple was the first who in token if Peace universally obtained through the Roman Territories shut up the Gates of that Temple Manlius the second and Augustus the third Providence
return and bring them into a worse Bondage to the Ceremonial Law than they were in before that their last Estate that of Judaick Christians should be worse than their first of Judaism It were easie to multiply Instances and to point to those Passages in St. Mark who wrote his Gospel to the Grecizing or Alexandrian Jews whose Bishop he was from St. Peter's Mouth that make clearly for St. Paul and against St. Peter but for Brevities sake I wave that and come to shew that on the other Hand St. Luke who was St. Paul's Amanuensis in that Gospel of his writing but St. Paul's inditing challenging therefore a Propriety in it and calling it his Gospel Rom. 2. 16. does no more favour St. Paul's than St. Peter's Cause presenting St. Peter as the Mouth of the whole Colledg of Apostles in confessing Christ to be the Son of God the King of the Jews and receiving from Christ upon that Confession the Privilege of being the first-laid Stone in the new Jerusalem upon which Christ would build his Church And in his History of the Acts of the Apostles demonstrating how Christ made good that Promise to him For though all the Twelve were so many Pearly Foundation-Stones upon whose Persons and Preaching the Gospel-Church was built and though all of them were Doors in the City of God and had the Keys given them to open the Door of Faith to the Jew and Gentile Yet St. Luke gives the Preheminence to St. Peter in order of Time reporting him with his Brother Andrew to have had the first explicit call to Christianity and after that to the Apostolical Office and and so his Person to have been laid as the first Stone in the House of God and in the Foundation of the Apostles and informing us how his Key of Doctrine after Christ's Assension and assuming of his Kingdom did at Jerusalem on the Day of Penticost and some while after at the House of Cornelius first open the Door of Faith both to Jews and Gentiles how his Sermons were the first Pearly Foundation-Stone upon which the Catholick Church of Jew and Gentile was built Nay St. Luke relates those Passages with such Circumstances as are of greatest Tendency towards the heaping of Honour upon St. Peter's Person presenting him not only as the Stone upon which those individual Converts were laid but in their Persons as their Representatives the whole Church of believing Jews gathered from every Nation under Heaven to his Sermon on the Day of Pentecost and of Gentiles represented by Cornelius a Roman a Name in the Idiom of that Age equipollent to a Citizen of the World God the King of the Jews his peculiar Heritage and Caesar the Emperour of the Romans sharing the World betwixt them The Poet came nearer the Truth in the Evangelical Sence of all the World then he was aware of in his Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet If any of our own Furiosi fasten his Canine Teeth upon this Interpretation of the Rock and Keys and cast up his Snout in the Air as if he smelt Popery in 't he may know if he have not confin'd himself to the Circle of Modern Systems or be not too proud to learn of his Betters that I yield St. Peter no more than the greatest Champions of the Christian of Old and of the Reformed Religion of late have granted him and yet upon such clear Scripture-Grounds as speak it to be no more than his just Due they that think the Papal Church and Cause advantaged by this Concession may do well to joyn Heads with the Jesuits to whom they are already joyn'd by the Tail and try if with his Ram they can batter down the Walls of our Jerusalem about the ears of them who through God's Grace have hitherto defended her upon this Ground and amongst them by Name that Bl. Martyr Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher pag. 237. c. For my own part I shall rather be of none than of that Religion which stands in need either of a Lye or the Dissimulation of Truth to support it But to return to St. Luke who though St. Paul's Scribe makes the most honourable mention of St. Peter of any of the Evangelists reciting his being with Christ at his Transfiguration a Privilege which St. Peter himself glories in 2 Pet. 1. 18. Christs praying for him that his Faith should not fail and Injunction to him when himself was converted to strengthen his Brethren Reporting the History of his Denial of his Master more favourably than any of the rest therein omitting the Aggravations of his denying Christ the second time with an Oath the third time with cursing and swearing both which are recorded by St. Matthew's Pen describing St. Peter every way as well instructed as St. Paul in the State of the Controversie betwixt them touching God's accounting the Gentiles holy as well as the Jews touching God's antiquating the Law that put difference of clean and unclean upon Meats and his freeing both Jew and Gentile from the insupportable Yoke of Legal Ceremonies In all which St. Luke reports St. Peter to have been so well instructed as the Synod grounded its Decree touching those things upon the Evidence which St. Peter gave Act. 15. And lastly introducing St. Paul doing the same thing in Effect which he rehuked St. Peter for shaving his Head purifying himself circumcising of Timothy c. and that upon the same Ground that St. Peter pleaded That he might not offend those weak believing Jews who were as yet zealous of the Law and had not learn'd that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free A thing which not only scandalized the Pagan Madaurenses and opened the Blasphemous Mouth of Porphyry to accuse St. Paul of Procacity and Partiality but put St. Origen and Chrisostome to their Wits End to answer his Calumnies And occasion'd those sharp bickerings betwixt St. Austin and Jerome as have been a Bone of Contention among the School-men to this Day and like to be till the Last Day Vide August tom 2. Epist. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19. This is such an Argument of Impartiality in the Evangelists as hath no Peer Alexander laid his Finger upon his Scar while Apelles was drawing his Picture Aelian Var Histor. 2. 23. would not give Nicodorus the Mantinean his full Praise because he was affraid thereby to honour the Memory of Diogoras a reputed Atheist who help'd Nicodorus to frame his excellent Laws and Virgil because the Nolanes would not permit him to draw their River over his Grounds expung'd the Name of this City out of his Verses placing instead of that Ora A. Gelii noct attic 7. 20. Talem dives erat Capua vicina Veseno Ora jugo When before that it was Nola jugo Compare the History of the Guelfs and Gibellines the Papal and Imperial Parties the Roman and the Carthaginian Writers the Netherlands and the King of Spain's Favourites Or to come nearer home the London
Courtship but Conjurations Magical Spells When the whole World of Antiquaries know that St. Cyprian before his Conversion was not a Conjurer at Antioch where the Legend brings them upon the Stage with his Wench Justina but a Professor of Oratory at Carthage Pontius Diaconus de Passion Cypriani and converted thereby Caecilius far enough from Antioch Such Tares were so early sowen in the Church as there is nothing in the Writings of the Fathers we had need be more cautious of taking up upon their Word than Stories of this Nature than tristia quaepiam superstitiosa mendacia certain over-serious and too Religious Lyes which oftimes are told with that Confidence and Authority saith a Zealous and Learned Romanist Sir Thomas Moor Epist. Thomae Ruthalo praefix Luciani Cynico as some old Crafty Knave perswaded the blessed Father St. Austin that most grave Man and bitter Enemy to lying to report for a Truth that Fable of the two Curinas the one returning to Life the other departing as a thing falling out in his time which Lucian in his Philopseudes the Names only changed so long before St. Austin was born derides It was Demilus the Smith and Cleodemus in Lucian Curina the Common-council-man and Curina the Smith in St. August tom 4. de cura pro mortuis cap. 12. and this Curina the Common-council-man who was restored to life upon the Instant of Curina the Smith's Death was afterwards baptized by St. Austin to whom a while after he told this strange Story attestantibus honestis civibus suis some honest Citizens avouching the Truth of it I make no great doubt but many a Godly Lye of the like Tendency has been told by the Independent Catechills when they gave an Account of the manner of their Conversion But to return to Moor's Discourse It is saith he less to be wondered at if those Men affect the Minds of the gross Vulgar with their Figments who think they have done God an eminent piece of Service and obliged Christ eternally to themselves if they have but devised such a Tale of some Saint or such a Tragedy concerning Hell as will make an old doting woman cry or tremble at the Report of it Hence they have not suffer'd the Life scarce of one Martyr or Virgin to pass without the Intermixture of such like Lyes Pious Lyes As if forsooth there were otherwise danger that Truth could not support it self and stand on her own Legs except she were underprop'd with Lyes neither have they been affraid to contaminate that Religion with Figments which Truth it self instituted and intended should consist of naked Truth nor did they see that such Fables are so far from promoting it as nothing can more prejudice Religion for as St. Austin testifies as soon as Men smell-out the intermingled Lye they suspect the Truth it self whereupon I often grow jealous that the greatest part of such Tales was devised by some Paultry Fellows and Hereticks who had a Design to make Sport with the incautions Credulity of simple rather than prudent Men and to take away Credit from true Christian Histories by interweaving them with feigned Fables wherefore saith this ingenious Authour undoubted Credit must be given to those Histories which the Divinely-inspired Scripture commends unto us but for others let us having with Judgment applied them to the Doctrine of Christ as unto Critolaus his Rule receive or reject them if we would be free from vain Credulity and superstitious Fear How soon would there be an end put to most of the Controversies betwixt us and the Modern Church of Rome were all of that Communion of the truly Catholick Judgment of this Gentleman in this Particular For I cannot call to mind any considerable Point 〈◊〉 betwixt us where their Opinion hath no better or other ground 〈◊〉 Forgeries The declared Intent of the Latin Church Legend is to perswade People to a devout Worshipping and Invocation of those Saints of whom those Tales are forged the Collector of them concluding almost every Story with this Exhortation Let us pray unto him that by his Merits and Intercession we may obtain Salvation What a Monstrous Story without either Head or Foot does Marcellinus Comes tell of the finding of the Baptists Head Cronic Indict 6. Vincomalo Opilione Coss. The Ghost of the Baptist appeared to two Pilgrim Monks commanding them to take up his Head where it was buried in Herod ' s Palace they take it up and carry it away with them in their Scrip till they giving the Scrip to be carried to a Potter of Emissa who had cast himself into their Company He advised by St. John in a Dream steals away from them with the sacred Relick back again to Emissa where at his death he commits it seal'd up in a Box to the Custody of his Sister she not knowing what it was left it to her Successor at last it comes into the Clutches of Eustochius an Arrian Presbiter who by means thereof works strange Cures pretending he did them by his own Holiness but his Knavery being found out he is banished the City and leaves the Baptists Head behind him In the place where it was reposited some Monks happen'd to build their Cells to whose Abbot Marcellus in process of time St. John discovers where his Head was buried and he finds it the twenty fourth Day of February in the sixth Indiction Vin. Op. Coss. This Tale is well made in that Treatise De revelatione Capitis Baptistae wrong father'd upon Cyprian as Erasmus hath well concluded from that Story-writer's mentioning Pipin King of Aquitane long before whose Reign St. Cyprians head lay under a clod This Marcellus saith this Author was commanded by the Baptist to carry his Head to Jurannus Bishop of Alexandria that it might be there interr'd where the rest of his Body rested But there it rests not long for within a while his Ghost appears to one Foelix a Monk and commands him to go to Alexandria and take his Head thence and conveigh it to Aquitane and there deposite it as I shall direct thee Had I been in this Monks place I should have concluded this had been the Ghost of Herod again separating the Baptists Head from his Body The Monk with seven Companions gets away with the Baptists Head to Sea where in token that they should escape a Storm they were in the Baptist's Ghost in the same Form that the Holy-Ghost appeared in when Christ came up out of the Water appears in the shape of a Dove and sits upon the Poop till they safely arrived in Aquitane where by the Grace of this Relick King Pipin totally routs the Vandales then invading his Countrey with the loss only of twenty of his own Men who by applying the Baptists Head to their Corps were all restored to Life and which is the greatest Wonder of all St. Cyprian writes all this many Scores of Years after himself was Martyred Of the same Stuff and upon the same Foundation are
declaring the Councel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim Deos non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they called according to the Aeolick Dialect God Sios not Theos and Counsel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 biâ—t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence the Sibyls were so called who were Ten. All whom he reckons up under those Authors who wrote of them severally The first the Persian of whom mention is made by Nicanor who wrote the Gests of Alexander The second Libyssa whom Euripides mentions in Lamiae prologo The third Delphick of whom Chrysippus speaks in his Book of Divination The fourth Cumaea in Italy of whom Nevius in his Punick War and Piso in his annals make mention The fifth Erythraea whom Apollodorus Erythraeus affirms to have been his Citizen and at the Gracians expedition against Troy to have prophesied the overthrow of that City and the lying Pen of Homer The sixth Samia of whom Eratosthenes writes That he had found in the ancient Annals of the Samians that she had prophesied of him The seventh Cumana by name Amalthaea or as some call her Demophile as others Herophile She brought nine Books to Tarquinius Priscus demanding three hundred Philippicks for them a price which the King would not give but taught at the madness of the Woman upon which she burnt three of them in the King's presence and demanded the same price for the remainder at which the King more admired her folly But she persisting upon the same price after she had burnt other three for the three then remaining the King gave it her The number of these Books was increased after the repair of the Capitol because they gathered up and brought to Rome all the Books of any of the Sibyls that could be found either in the Grecian or Roman Cities Vide Tacit. annal 6. The eighth Hellespontica whom Heraclides Ponticus writes to have flourished in the time of Cyrus The ninth Phrygia who prophesied at Ancirae The tenth Tyburtina whose name was Albunea who is worship'd at Tybur as a Goddess The Verses of all these Sibyls are extant and divulged up and down except of Cumana whose Books are conceal'd by the Romans it being unlawful for any to look into them but the Quindecim-viri Their several Books but without distinction of Names saving that Erythraeas Name is inserted in her Verses being more famous and noble than the rest of whose Prophecies Fenestella a most diligent Writer speaking of the Quindecim-viri tells us That C. Curio the Consul made a motion to the Senate that Embassadors should be sent to Erythrae to search out Sibyls Verses and conveigh them to Rome and that P. Gabinius M. Octavilius and L. Valerius being sent upon that errand collected a matter of a thousand Verses out of private Manuscripts Touching Tully's Quotations of the Sibylline Oracles I have spoke before Lib. 1. cap. 9. sect 5. and shall to what I have made there upon that Subject add now these Animadversions That the Sibylline Oracles were not only in being before Christ's time but a moat in the eyes of those who were averse to Monarchy because they were interpreted to point at the erecting an universal Monarchy and to boad that indefinitly and in general before Christ's Incarnation which the Church after his taking of flesh applied to him in particular So as the Church was so far from inventing the Oracles as she did not so much as invent the application of them to the Messias but had that done to her hand by other Heathen Divines who conceived they had respect unto him that was to be born King of the Jews For though I believe the more ancient Times look'd upon them as deliramenta as little better than the dotages of old Women because of their denouncing certain monstrous Miracles without describing either how or when or by whom those things were to be effected of which deficiency both Lactantius after and Cicero before Christs Birth take notice yet when the Eastern Prophecy touching the Messias came to light by means of the Septuagint those Scripture-oracles by their punctual describing of every circumstance gave that light to those more general Sibylline Oracles as they grew formidable to that party that could not endure to hear of a change of the Worlds Government into that form which both of them foretold the rising up of And when the general ones in Sibyl and the more distinct ones of sacred Scripture came to receive their accomplishment their sense grew more plain and the application of them more obvious which till then was unintelligible The voices of the Prophets sounded in the ears of the Jewish people for above fifteen hundred years and yet were not understood till Christ's Doctrine Actions and Passion had commented upon them I do not at all wonder with the learned Dalaeus de usu patr lib. 1. cap. 3. that Ruffinus in zeal to Origen should forge an apology for him under the name of Pamphilus nor that he should father a Treatise of Sextus the Pythagorean Philosopher upon Sixtus the holy Martyr nor that he of whom St. Jerom complains should forge a Letter under his name wherein he makes him confess the Hebrews had by their delusions perswaded him to translate the Bible after that maner he did But rather at his ranking the most ancient Fathers among Forgers for their quoting the Sibylline Oracles and most of all at the reason he gives because Celsus objected that against Christians For had he consulted the place he might have taken notice of Origen's Reply That if Celsus his Epicurism would give him lieve to put himself to the trouble of examining the Authors out of which they made their quotations he would find they did not forge them of their own heads but found them in Authors of high esteem among all Philosophers but those of Celsus his Sect Origen contrà Celsum lib. 7. Calum 16. Besides it is not like that such holy men would support so strong an edifice with so weak a prop of a pious fraud or borrow help from a falshood to evince the Truth If they durst have been so impudently ventrous how easie had it been for their learned Adversaries to have detected the Imposture and silenced the Christian Advocates with reproach and shame as Dr. Heylin in answer to Casaubon Geogr. Marmoricâ pag. 931. If it be question'd how they came into the Christians hands Lactantius inform us out of their own Writers That the Books of all the Sibyls save Cumana were vulgar and in every Man's hand that would reach for them And though Augustus caused a thousand Sibylline Oracles to be burnt which by the number seem to be those very Verses of Erythraea which the Roman Legats collected against which he might perhaps have a pique upon reason of State because of their agreement with that Eastern Oracle which had put the World into those expectations of a change as that wise Prince thought ought not to be cherished as tending toward the keeping of
place were about to depart bating the Heathenishness of the Phrase Tacitus his deos expounds the migrentus of Josephus he rightly conceiving that voice to have proceeded from that host of Angels the Cherubins who pitch their Tents over the Mercy-seat betwixt whom the Shepherd of Isrâ—el dwelt while he kept his Court in that sacred Palace but in the Gentile Idiom miscalling them Gods who were only his Courtiers and therefore foreknowing that their King was about breaking up his Court there they prepare to depart with him For what should they whose Office is always to stand before and behold the face of God do there when he withdrew his Face from the Ark of the Covenant and that was no longer to be the Ark of his Presence By all this it is apparent that the Prophecy of Jacob concerning the departure of the Scepter from Judah after that the Messias should be exhibited and the Gentiles be gather'd to him received its accomplishment at the demolishing of God's House the place of his residence amongst the Jews while it stood and that therefore the Apostles were well advised in the account they give us of such Circumstances as relate hereunto An account which so perfectly suits the mind of the Prophecy as to the time prefixed that our fixing it there hath the evidence of Reason the Suffrages of Jew Gentile and a Voice from the Oracle to warrant and confirm it § 7. If yet the Sceptick will cavil that not the Apostles but the Statists of after times who made a political use of their Simplicity accommodated the Evangelical History and the Occurrences of the Christian Age to this Prophecy I can stop his mouth with these two Animadversions upon this surmise 1. This Application was made as appears by the Testimonies alledged out of Tertullian and Clemens Alexandrinus before any of the Politicians own'd the Gospel while the Statists of the World did with all their might endeavour the suppression of the Christian Religion as conceiving it to be insociable destructive to Political Communities and repugnant to Maximes of Government 2. The Evangelists and Apostles themselves before Tertullian or any other furnish'd with Humane Learning had commented upon the Apostolical Writings did in the plain Text of Scripture apply the accomplishment of this Prophecy and assign the departure of the divine Scepter from the Jewish Nation to that Period of Time when the Gentiles being gather'd to Christ the fall of Jerusalem should happen St. Matthew chap. 24. reports from our Saviours Lips amongst the Signs of his coming to destroy the Jewish State and the Place of God's Residence among them a thing to be fulfilled within one Generation and therefore not applicable intentionally to the day of general Judgment this for one vers 14. that the Gospel of the Kingdom should before that be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come And this for another vres 15. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place that is as it is explain'd ver 28. the Roman Ensigns the eagles let fly upon their Prey that Nation then ripe for Rejection or as St. Luke more clearly and without a Trope lays down this Sign Chap. 21. 20. When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh Immediately after the Tribulation of which days of Siege the Jewish State is to be dissolved Which Catastrophe of their Polity Christ in St. Matthew ver 29. expresseth in such Prophetical Phrases as the Old Testament Prophets constantly used in their Descriptions of the Ruine of Kingdoms and Republicks Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken that is that heavenly Polity establsh'd among the Jews shall wholly be dissolved When the Gospel shall be preach'd in the Gentile World or as St. Paul explains this Text 1 Timothy 3. 16. when Christ shall be preach'd to the Gentiles and believed on in the world then shall Jerusalem be destroyed and immediately after that the Scepter departs from Judah then shall Israel after the Flesh cease to be God's Dominion and whosoever of them after that shall boast of the Covenant of Peculiarity will upon trial be found Liars not Jews the Portion of God but the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. they having left the Blessing of that name to another People of God gather'd to their Messias out of all Nations and called by a new name Christians reserve the sound of it only for a Curse to themselves Is. 65. 15 16. Could the Apostles in their assigning the time and other Circumstances of the Dissolution of the Jewish State have thus comported with old Jacob's Prophecy thereof had they been such silly Animals as the Atheist pretends and not persons of the deepest Reach and solidest Judgments Let the whole Tribe of them who deride the Apostles for their Simplicity put all their Heads together and call in a Legion of Demons to be of their Council they may study till they split their dura mater and spill those few Brains they have before they shall be able to make so solid and irrefragable an Application of this Propecy to the time of any other Shilo and the gathering of Gentiles to him as the Apostles have made to the time of the Gentiles gathering unto Christ. CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel ' s Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel ' s Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel ' s second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book § 1. THat Prophecy of Daniel chap. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the holy City to finish transgression c. doth so precisely calculate the Time of the Messias coming and so exactly in every Circumstance sutes our Saviour as it cannot with any shew of Probability be applied to any other nor be denyed to have received its Accomplishment in him From which Text the Primitive Church made such clear Demonstration to the Gentiles of the Divinity of the Old and to the Jews of the Divinity of the New as Porphiry was forc'd to betake himself to this Reply to the Christians Arguments That these Prophecies father'd upon Daniel were writ long after his death about the time of Antiochus by some Jew and are not Prophecies of things to come but Naratives of things past Jerom prefat in Danielem Of which Surmise Eusebius Appollonius and other Champions of the Christian Cause shewed
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
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-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
and first of his thirty first However this will make no difference here for be it first or last it comes all to one as to the vindicating of this commonly-received Truth that St. Luke dates Christ's Birth and Baptism on the same day But for the Reasons pre-alledged I adhere to Scaliger And therefore if you demand where St. Luke testifies this I answer where he saith that Jesus when he was baptized was thirty years of age that is on that day which terminated his thirtieth and gave beginning to his thirty first Secondly and if St. Luke had not thus punctually delineated the Time of Christ's Age when he exhibited himself to the Baptist as a Candidate for Ordination Yet the same thing might be collected from that Law under which the Law-giver put himself that he might fulfill all righteousness prohibiting the Priests to officiate till they were thirty and commanding them then to enter upon the exercise of their sacred Function Numb 4. They shall serve from thirty years old and upwards By virtue of this Law Christ would have been a Transgressor had he intruded himself into the sacred Ministry before his thirtieth year was compleated and therefore till then he doth not shew himself to Israel no not to his own Parents for his Mother was uninstructed in the knowledge of her Son not to his Fore-runner for the Baptist though he knew Christ was in the croud yet who was he he knew not till he saw the Spirit descending upon him but kept at home and was subject to and under the Nurture of Father and Mother So wide is that Gloss from the sence of that Text where we have account of Christ's being amongst the Doctors which stiles it Christ's disputing with them which was nothing else but his exhibiting himself at twelve years as an Israelitish Catechumen to ask the Law the Tearms of the Covenant which he enter'd when he receiv'd Circumcision and to receive their Answers to what he propounded or to answer their Questions not as their Doctor but Scholar and upon his examen and their approbation of him who sate in Moses Chair personally to enter into that Covenant which his Sureties had enter'd into in his name at his Circumcision The Work of his Father which he had there to do was to be a Scholar not a Teacher And on the other hand he would not have been an exact fulfiller of that Law if he had delaid the tender of himself to Ordination beyond the time fixt by the Law and not applyed himself to the Baptist at whose laying hands upon him he knew he was to receive the Holy Ghost and be visibly separated to that Work which his Father had fore-ordained him to assoon as ever he was legally capable of it in respect of Age upon this account Christ urged the Baptist in these words suffer it now for thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness Christ had no need to be baptized with John's Baptism the Baptism of Repentance for remission of sins neither did he receive that Baptism but John's Baptizing of him was of another kind than his Baptizing of other persons to wit and external Rite in the administration whereof Christ was to be visibly set apart and called by God to his Office of Preaching See Dr. Hamond's Annot. the Law therefore the Righteousness whereof Christ fulfill'd in being baptized by John was that which prohibited Prophets to run till they were sent of God But this was not all the Righteousness which Christ fulfill'd now but also of that other Branch of the Law commanding them whom God had separated to the service of the Sanctuary to enter upon that Function as soon as they were thirty years of Age and therefore our Saviour inserts this note of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer it now now that the impediment of Age is removed I must not defer my entrance upon the work of Teaching Nay if there had not been such a Law Christ's Love to us would have been a Law to himself He who when the time was come that he should be offer'd was straightned till his Baptism of blood was accomplish'd that went into the Garden to meet the Traytor would sure not be well at ease when the time was come assigned by the Law of his Father that he should be inaugurated in the Office of the great Prophet till he was baptized with that Baptism of Water by John and of the Holy Ghost by his Father by which he was to be consecrate to that Office Would this tender Shepherd of Souls for his love and for his pitty let a day pass after the removal of the impediment of Under-age before he put himself into a capacity of seeking and saving the lost Sheep of Israel How have they learned Christ either as to his Obedience to his Father or his Compassion to his Brethren who scruple the belief of this point which the Primitive Church Universally embraced upon so good and solid Reasons as who so questions the force of them must present the blessed Jesus to their own minds as a person that cared not what the Father said not what we ail'd § 3. Propos. 3. This being concluded on and laid for a Ground that Christ's Birth and Baptism fell on the same day of the year I proceed with this Light before me by the help of those Chronological Observations I have or shall irrefragably make good to find out the Day of Christ's Nativity The Mother of John Baptist was going in her sixth month at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin and Conception of Christ St. Luke 1. 36. And loe thy cousin Elizabeth hath conceived a son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is her sixth month saith the Angel Gabriel when he was sent to Mary the blessed Mother of our Lord in the sixth month that is of Elizabeth's Conception vers 26. about these days of Zacharie's returning home from fulfilling his Office in the Temple in the Course of Abias that is the eighth in order of those twenty four into which David divided the Priests 1 Chron. 24. 10. the eighth Lot fell to Abijah Elizabeth conceived and hid her self five months and in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a City of Galilee named Nazareth unto a Virgin espoused to an husband whose name was Joseph and the name of the virgin was Mary Certainly if it had not been of use to us to know the Time of our Saviour's Conception the Holy Ghost would not have given this Character of it twice in ten Verses Nor a Rule to find it out in his specifying the Course of Abias falling out immediately before the Baptist's Conception if that Rule had not been both sure and applicable to this Question He would never have beaten the Air with those Chronological Descriptions of it had it been vain for us to know the time or impossible for us to find it out so manifestly false is that Fanatick Conceit which the Novelist
every one into his own City and Joseph went up out of Nazareth unto the City of David Bethlehem because he was of the house and Lineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espoused Wife This kind of Taxing and Enroling was in Custom in his time saith Dionysius Halicarnassaeus lib. 4. who came to Rome presently after the Conquest of M. Anthony at Actium where after he had learn'd the Latine Tongue he gave himself up wholly to the study and writing of the Roman History argumentum in historiam Dionys. and though he either lived not to finish that History or Fate hath deprived us of that part of it which succeeds the ejectment of the Decem Virale Tyranny yet in the account he gives of the first institution by Servius Tullius of that way of enroling which he saith was used in his time in the Reign of Augustus he fully agrees with the Evangelical Description of it Jussit omnes qui eandem pagam incolehant in singula capita certum numismatis genus conferre sed aliud viros aliud mulieres aliud impuberes quibus connumeratis apparebat quis esset hominum numerus per sexus per aetates distinctus He commanded all that appertain'd to the same Town to give in by head a certain kind of Coyn the men of one stamp the women of another they of under-age another by counting whereof the number of persons appeared distinguish'd by sex age c. This was done saith Florus Hist. l. 1. c. 6. Ut omnia patrimonii dignitatis aetatis artium officiorúmque discrimina that all the differences of Patrimony Dignity Age Craft Office might be recorded For as Dionysius in the place fore-cited saith the Coyns which were given in at this Enrolment were differently stampt according to the distinction of Estates and Degrees into Nobles Plebeians Artificers c. And they also gave oath that they had truly rated their Estates and gave in the names of their Parents their Ages their Wives their Children together with the place of their Habitation saith the same Dionysius The Learned Dr. Hammond hath given an hint of one other particular wherein secular History agrees with the Evangelists touching this Taxing out of the relations of Sepulvada and Gerundensis That twenty seven years before the Birth of Christ Augustus appointed that there should be an enrolling of the whole Empire and proclaim'd it a Tarracon a City of Spain after he had subdued the Cantabri and others that had in that Country broke off from him with whom Velleius Paterculus seems to agree but upon this Proclamation he finding new stirs breaking out again deferr'd the execution till a fitter time which was this very point of time wherein Christ was born of which the whole Christian World was so well perswaded as the Christians of Spain taking this Taxing to have been made when the Decree went first out dated the Birth of Christ twenty seven years before all other Christians taking it for granted on all hands that this Taxing did concurr with the Birth of Christ. This going out of the Decree some considerable time before the Tax was made St. Luke seems to imply in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there went or there had gone out a decree and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this Taxing though decreed before was first made when Cyrenius was Governour of Syria But I remit this to the judgement of Criticks being more solicitous to unty a Knot which he hath made upon this sacred Chronology while from a misunderstood place in Tertullian he makes C. Sentius Saturninus to have been president of Syria at what time this first Taxing was made and will have Cyrenius to be sent only upon this extraordinary occasion and not to have had any setled Dominion there directly against St. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrenius being Governour or as Erasmus translates it President of Syria against the Authority of Suidas thus which he alleageth and translates Augustus desiring to know the strength and state of his Dominions sent twenty chosen men into his Dominions one into one part another into another to take this account and P. Sulpitius Quirinius had Syria for his Province and against the mind of Tertullian who in the place quoted by the Dr. advers Marcionem l. 4. c. 19. thus answers that Heretick perverting that Text St. Luke 8. who is my Mother to this fence as if Christ thereby denyed he had a Mother It is manifest saith Turtullian there was a taxing at the time of Christ's Birth under Augustus in Judaea by Sentius Saturninus by which they might have found out Christ's stock he does not say that Sentius Saturninus was then Governour of Syria but only that he assisted tanquam Princeps in magistrorum auguralium numero at the making of that Enrolment as the chief of the Colledge of Augures as Franc. Junius observes in his Notes upon that place and as Tertullian explains himself de pallio Cap. 1. ubi maenia Statilius Taurus imposuit solennia Sentius Saturninus enarravit Taurus the Proconsul what time the Tax was made there and the liberty of Carthage restored by Augustus built the Walls and Sentius Saturninus the Augure recounted the solemnities that is he performed those sacred Offices which Servius Tullius had appointed to be celebrated at his instituting of this Tax or Enrolment and which Dionysiu◠saith were in use under Augustus one of which was to reckon up the tokens which persons of all conditions had brought in by pole and to compute how many there were of every estate age and sex Quibus connumeratis per sacrorum Praesides c. Romani autem ad meam usque aetatem hac lustratione post Censum perfectum lustrantur à sacratissimo magistratu Dionysius Halicarnassaeus lib. 4. We need not therefore here betake our selves to that shifting distinction of Governour standing and extraordinary to make this passage in St. Luke's comport with Secular Chronology For Saturninus might make this Description of Judaea as a chief Augure and yet Cyrenius be as the Evangelist then stiles him Governour of Syria Of that second Taxing under Cyrenius St. Luke makes mention from Gamaliel Act. 5. as that which gave occasion to Judas of Galilee his Insurrection with his cut-throat Crew of St. Levellers To which Josephus gives a most clear Testimony Antiq. l. 18. c. 1. Quirinius a Roman Senator is sent into Syria by Caesar to administer the Law and rate every man's estate with whom came Coponius to take up the administration of the affairs of Judaea Yea moreover Quirinius himself came into Judaea now laid to the Province of Syria that he might enroll the Estates of the Citizens of that Region and put to sale Archelaus his goods The Jews though at first they took heavy the mention of a Tax yet did not pertinaciously resist but by the perswasion of the high Priest permitted the Tax to be perfected But a while after their stood up one Judas Gaulanites of the
with Boyes when the Christian hath to do with no more of the Female Sex than his own Wife Democritus for all his Moral Rules was forc'd to put out his eyes to keep him continent he not being able to command them to look on fair women without lust But a Christian his Soul being averse to Lust can save his Eyes and look on Women without danger of sin If in point of probity Diogenes for all his pretence to Humility trampled on Plato's Pride with greater Pride whereas a Christian doth not insult over the poorest man If we strive who shall carry away the praise of Modesty Pythagoras affected to Lord it over the Thyrians Zeno over the Prienenses But the Christian will not seek nor thrust himself into the lowest Office of command Who of Equanimity Lycurgus pin'd himself to Death because the Lacedemonians would have corrected his Laws but the Christian gives thanks when himself is condemn'd Who of Fidelity Anaxagoras denyed to restore what was committed to his keeping because they were his enemies to whom he ought to have restored it But a Christian is esteemed and found to be a man of his word even amongst them that are without how far were Tertullian's Christians from that Papal Maxime Fides non est servanda haereticis If we compare them in point of Innocency Aristotle did shamefully thrust out of place his familiar friend Hermias but a Christian will not injure his enemy The same Aristotle slatter'd Alexander Plato hung by his Teeth as a Trencher chaplain to Dionysius Aristippus in Purple plaid the good fellow under a superficial shew of Gravity Hippias was slain while he was traiterously conspiring against his City This no Christian at any time hath attempted for the deliverance of his brethren though scatter'd and harrass'd with all kinds of cruelty Athenaeas Dipnosoph l. 11. cap. 22. Argument quòd Plato in omnes erat implacidus contumeliosus gloriosus c. lib. 11. cap. 23. Argument Platonis Discipuli tyrannici sunt ex Academicis qui irreligiose vivunt minùs honestè c. This is the Argument of one whole Chapter in Athenaeus That Plato was inappeasable to all men that affronted him a reproacher vain glorious c. Of all which charges he gives several proofs And he spends another Chapter upon this Theme That Plato ' s Schollars are tyrannical and divers of the Academicks live irreligiously and dishonestly Nothing is more obvious than the complaints of Plutarch Seneca Macrobius Ageâ—ius and who not of the whole learned Tribe of Gentile Writers that Philosophical Precepts were not able to pluck up Vice and plant Virtue in their Disciples hearts But how powerful Christian Philosophy was to tame the most savage Natures is apparent from infinite Examples even of whole barbarous Nations amongst whom it is observed for Instance That the Cappadocians while they were Pagans were of so ill a report so Monstrously addicted to all kind of wickedness that beside the share they had in the old Greek Proverb of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e There are three Countries whose names begin with C. of very vicious and lewd lives They had some Proverbs peculiar to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Cappadocia and a Cappadocian Monster being proverbially used to signifie a man most extreamly wicked and they made good the Proverb even in the times of the Gospel before they had embrac'd the Faith in the sincerity of it for Gregory that bloody Butcher of Alexandria Auxentius Asterius Eustathius principal Patrons of the Blasphemous Arrians and that Arch-Heretick Eunomius were all of this Country yet such is the influence of the true faith where once entertain'd that this lewd disposition of the Cappadocians was so corrected and restrain'd by it that this Country afforded as many godly Prelates and couragious Martyrs as any other whatsoever for which Nazianzen doth highly commend it who with Gregory Nyssen and St. Basil were Cappadocians and amongst many Martyrs of great fame and constancy St. George the Patron of the Noble Order of the Garter was a Cappadocian Colonel under Dioclesian Heylin Asia Minor p. 649. § 2. Fuimus Troes time was when the Christian Church could make these boasts Lactan. de falsa sapient l. 3. c. 26. Dà mihi virum qui sit iracundus maledicus essraenatus paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quà m ovem reddam da cupidum avarum tenacem jam tibi eum liberalem dabo pecuniam suam propriis plenisâ— manibus largientem da timidum doloris ac mortis jam cruces ignes Phalaridis Taurum contemnet da libidinosum adulterum ganeonem jam sobrium castum continentem videbis da crudelem sanguinis appetentem jam in veraâ— clementiam furor ille mutabitur da injustum insipientem peccatorem continuò aequus prudens innocens erit uno enim lavacro malitia omnis abolebitur Tanta divinae sapientiae vis est ut in hominis pectus infusa matrem delictorum stultitiam uno semel impetu expellat Philosophi cùm aetates suas in studio sapientiae conterant neque alium quenquam neque seipsos possunt facere meliores pauca verò Dei praecepta sic totum hominem immutant expolito vetere novum reddunt ut non cogn scas eundem esse Give me a man saith her eloquent Patron Lactantius that 's angry and who vents his fury by revilings and wild curvettings And by a very few words of God I will make him as gentle as a Lamb Give me a greedy covetous griping Miser and I will restore him back to thee so liberal as be shall scatter abroad and give to the poor his own mony with his own and those full hands Give me a delicate piece that affraid of pain and death and he shall forthwith contemn Crosses Fires and the Bull of Phaleris Give me a Fornicator an Adulterer a Brothel-house-haunter And thou shalt by and by see him sober chaste continent Give me a blood thirsty Tyger and that rage will presently be exchang'd for true Clemency Give me an unjust and unwise offender and he shall on a suddain become just prudent and innocent For all wickedness shall be abolished with one washing Such is the force of Divine Wisdome as being infused into the hearts of men it expells at one thrust the folly bound up there which is the Dam of all misdeeds The Philosophers after they have worn out their whole age in the study of Wisdom neither make others nor themselves better men but the Precepts of God which are but few and soon learn'd do so transmute the whole man and wholly stripping of the old make him new as you would not take him for the same person St. Jerom passeth upon this Christian Cicero this Censure Utinam tam nostra affirmare potuisset quam facilè aliena destruxit I could wish that Lactantius had quitted himself as well in maintaining ours as in