at that Day are to be judged Answ. All Men that shall either be found alive at his coming or were dead before For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive for the things done in the Body 2 Cor. 5. 10. yea and the lost Angels too for know you not that we shall judge Angels i. e. sit with Christ and approve of his Sentence when he condemns them 1 Cor. 6. 3. Quest. What Proof will there be of Crimes and who shall be the Witnesses Answ. The Devils are the Accusers of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and they will call for Justice But there needs no Testimony at that Day from the Father of Lies for God in his Omniscience keeps a Register and Record of all Mens Actions and that Book shall be opened and the Dead shall be judged by that unerring Book of his Remembrance Rev. 20. 12. Nay indeed there is no need of any Witnesses at all because the Guilty shall confess their Crimes and bear witness against themselves Their Consciences shall bear witness and their own Thoughts accuse or excuse one another in the Day when God shall judge the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. Quest. Shall all this be acted in great Solemnity with Pomp and Splendour Answ. Yes as much as may be For Christ will translate his Royal Court from Heaven to Earth and come at the Right-hand of that Glory by which he now sits in peerless Splendor and Majesty having all the Holy Angels glittering in their utmost Brightness to attend this Triumph He shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of all the Holy Angels Luk. 9. 26. Mat. 25. 31. He shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God 1 Thess. 4. 16. And when that sounds all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth Joh. 5. 28 29. and there shall be a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust Acts 24. 15. All these shall stand before his Throne And after an exact Scrutiny and fair Trial of all Persons he will separate them one from another into two Companies as a Shepherd divides the Sheep from the Goats and as the Jews were wont to do in their Courts setting such as were to be Absolv'd together upon the Right and such as were to be Condemn'd upon the Left-hand of their Tribunals And then with great Solemnity pass Sentence bidding the Righteous Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you But saying to the Wicked Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire Mat. 25. 31 32 34 41. Quest. Where shall this Glorious Appearance be Answ. In the Air saith St. Paul 1 Thess. 4. 17. In the Clouds of Heaven says our Saviour Mat. 26. 64. Somewhere it will be near the Earth but in what particular Part it little concerns us to inquire or advantages us to understand Quest. When this Great Judge has passed Sentence shall all Parties concern'd acquiesce in it Answ. Yes he is the last Judge from whom there can be no Appeal And there will be no need of any For all shall acknowledge the Perfect and irreprehensible Justice of what he determines The Righteous being tried first and call'd up to surround him in Glorious Circles whilst he tries the rest shall approve and praise his Justice The Saints shall judge the World i. e. as his Assessors and the Comprobators of his Judgment 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. And the Mouth of all Wicked who suffer under it shall be stopped and they shall be convinced of it within themselves For he will then convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all the hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude 15. Quest. For what shall we be judged and condemned in this Judgment Answ. For all Transgressions of the Laws of his Gospel and for those only He will not judge Arbitrarily or condemn any for unforbidden Things or for no Cause but only because he pleases But the Laws of his Gospel are the Rule he will try and judge all Christians by God shall judge Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2. 16. and the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge Men at the last Day Joh. 12. 48. Quest. If we shall be condemn'd only by God's Laws then to be sure unforbidden Things which are not threatned in the Word of God and which there is no Law against will never condemn any Answ. Most certainly they will not and there is no Sin in them to be condemned For where there is no Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 15. And whosoever commits Sin transgresses also the Law for Sin is the Transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3. 4. And Sin is not imputed when there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. So that it is a vain Fear either in Religion or in Common Life when Mens Consciences scruple Things which they confess to be Indifferent i. e. forbid by no Laws as using a Form of Prayers Kneeling Standing or other Rites and Ceremonies no where forbidden in the Worship of God. In the last Judgment they shall answer only for the Breach of Laws and therefore are sure not to endanger their Souls or become accountable for such as these since there is no Law against them Quest. You say Men shall be judged for all their Transgressions of Gods Laws then to be sure for all their Sinful Actions Answ. Yes For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive according to that he hath done in the Body whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. And the Dead are judged every Man according to their Works Rev. 20. 13. Quest. So that then we must answer for all the Actions of our Lives and receive Reward if they have been good or Punishment if they have been ill ones Answ. Yes Quest. The Actions of Men are quickly done and when they are over they are wont to think there is an end of them But do not the good or ill Effects of several survive and last long and make for a great while after as if the Action were still a doing Answ. Yes they do both in good and bad Actions So that Men may be sinning and serving God noâ— only whilst they live but when they are in their Graves Quest. I pray you instance to me how it is so in good Actions Answ. If a Man gains Proselytes to God this good Fruit will last and they will serve him when he is dead If he promotes Pious Truths or gives good Advice or shews an holy Example in this World the Truths may be remembred and the Advice followed and the Example copied out and imitated when he is gone out of it If he endows Churches or builds Hospitals or the like his Piety will
Advertisement THere is lately Re-printed An Help and Exhortation to Worthy Communicating Or a Treatise describing the Meaning Worthy Reception Duty and Benefits of the Holy Sacrament And Answering the Doubts of Conscience and other Reasons which most generally detain Men from it Together with Suitable Devotions added By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-hill in Warwickshire The Second Edition Printed for Robert Kettlewell and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster Price Bound 2 s. 6 d. THE Practical Believer OR THE ARTICLES OF THE Apostles Creed Drawn out To form a True Christian's Heart and Practice In Two Parts LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewell and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1688. THE Practical Believer The First Part. OF THE NATURE and CERTAINTY OF Christian Faith AND The Knowledge of God OR AN Explication of the Divine Attributes and Providence Febr. 28. 1687. Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Practical Believer c. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacr. Domest London Printed for Robert Kettlewell and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1688. THE PREFACE Reader I Here present thee with a Discourse upon the Holy Christian Faith which as we all profess seriously to believe so should we carefully endeavour to answer and adorn with an Holy and Christian Practice In this I have endeavoured to give such accounts of Almighty God as may encourage all good Men to love and serve him and deter all evil Men from presuming on his Favour or provoking his Displeasure I have drawn out the consideration of his Providence into the usual cases and occurrences and shown how we may live upon it and give our selves the true comfort and advantage thereof in all events and transactions And all the other Articles of the Creed I have endeavoured to set off in such particulars as we are most concerned to know and which may give them the greatest life and power with us In the whole I have aim'd to lay before thee the summ of Christian Doctrine that in an Age which abounds with unchristian falshoods we may keep stedfast in Christian Truths and that among all the Truths of Christianity we may lay out our Care and Zeal on those which are most important and worthy of all acceptance My great design in this Treatise is to lend what help I am able to those that sincerely desire and seriously set themselves to live as they believe and to make Faith a Governing Grace showing how we may serve our selves of it and give up our Souls to be ordered and directed by it in all our manifold and most important cases and concerns And looking all along at this mark in passing through all the Articles of the Creed I have not sought to fill up a Book by inserting all that may be truly or pertinently said But have applied my self to instruct thee in such as I thought the leading and governing Notions to inculcate those which seem to me the most concerning and powerful Truths to set off such particulars about them as seem fittest to affect us or lie nearest unto Practice and to note wherein we are to follow and attend to them in the course and various exigencies of our lives And hoping this may prove beneficial to the instruction and use of plain Christians who have neither leisure to peruse nor capacity to retain larger Volumes I have endeavoured to treat of these things with convenient brevity But withal to comprize so much not only of necessary but profitable Doctrine as may be sufficient to any Man's guidance and encouragement who will set himself diligently to learn and walk in the light of it I am not without hopes that this Discourse may in some degree or other serve the end for which it is sincerely sent abroad viz. of doing some honour and service to the ever Blessed Trinity and making an admirable and most efficacious Faith more lively and powerful in some that profess it And if thou good Reader shalt reap any benefit by it as thou wilt not fail to give God the praise for suiting and supplying thy necessity by the weakness of any he employs so one thing I heartily request of thee which is all the return that in this World I either expect or desire that thou wilt thus far remember the poor instrument of thy Mercy as in the fervency of thy Devotion to put up one Prayer to our common Father for his Salvation who with a very ready and willing mind has taken all this pains to promote thine THE CONTENTS PART I. Of the Nature and Certainty of Christian Faith c. CHAP. I. Of Christian Faith. WHat is meant by Faith in Christ. When this suitably affects us it justifies or avails to Righteousness An account of several particulars of Christian Belief with the respective Affections and Practices that are suitable to them All these are reasonably to be expected from them though they do not follow where Men will act inconsistently to their Principles and against Reason Faeith with its suitable effects the same as Faith and Repentance On this account such effects ascribed to it when alone as are due only to it and Repentance in conjunction This Faith with its suitable effects was that which justified the Old Testament Worthies And is to justifie all good Christians When S. Paul opposes justifying-Faith to the Deeds of the Law he speaks of the Deeds of the Jewish Law. That which fits Faith for these effects and distinguishes the Faith of Saints and Sinners is First The sincerity of it Secondly Its strength and firmness This consists in its being assured And honest or seated in one that makes conscience to keep his word And resolute In what sense Faith may be called an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling on Christ for Salvation And the hand to receive and apply him 'T is no part of Faith to believe our sins are pardon'd nor of infidelity to doubt of it Of the innocence many times of such doubts And of some good Mens confidence of their own forgiveness p. 1 CHAP. II. That Jesus is the Christ from Ancient Prophecies Among those Prophecies which prove Jesus to be the Christ First Some prescribe the time of his coming This they mark out by the nearness of such notable Occurrences and Revolutions as would fall under all Mens observation And by fixing the very Year he should appear in Accordingly there was a general expectation of him at that time His coming not put off beyond the time appointed for the sins of the People An account why the Jews who read these clear Notes of the time in their own Prophets are not convinced by them Secondly Others assign many peculiar and visible Notes whereby he may be demonstratively pointed out from all other Men. As 1. His being born of a Virgin. This in some sense spoken of a Virgin of that time but principally
must beget fear and reverence p. 232 ERRATA PAG. 19. lin 12. for accepted read was accepted p. 34. l. 29. for And half Faith r. An half Faith. p. 36. l. 13. for such as do r. such do p. 41. l. 1. for of sufficiency r. of the sufficiency p. 70. l. 24. for men in Bethlehem r. men of Bethlehem p. 113. l. 17. for do danger r. no danger p. 150. l. 15. for this peerless Majesty r. his peerless Majesty p. 154. l. 7. for in wickedness contracting r. iâ— wickedly contracting The Practical Believer PART I. Of the Nature and Certainty of Christian Faith c. CHAP. I. Of Christian Faith. The Contents What is meant by Faith in Christ. When this suitably affects us it justifies or avails to Righteousness An account of several particulars of Christian Belief with the respective Affections and Practices that are suitable to them All these are reasonably to be expected from them though they do not follow where Men will act inconsistently to their Principles and against Reason Faith with its suitable effects the same as Faith and Repentance On this account such effects ascribed to it when alone as are due only to it and Repentance in conjunction This Faith with its suitable effects was that which justified the Old Testament Worthies And is to justifie all good Christians When S. Paul opposes justifying-Faith to the Deeds of the Law he speaks of the Deeds of the Jewish Law. That which fits Faith for these effects and distinguishes the Faith of Saints and Sinners is First The sincerity of it Secondly Its strength and firmness This consists in its being assured And honest or seated in one that makes conscience to keep his word And resolute In what sense Faith may be called an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling on Christ for Salvation And the hand to receive and apply him 'T is no part of Faith to believe our sins are pardon'd nor of infidelity to doubt of it Of the innocence many times of such doubts And of some good Mens confidence of their own forgiveness Question SInce Men are made to live for ever and have Souls capable of Eternal Salvation What must they do to save them Answer Believe in Christ and repent For Faith and Obedience which where Men have sinn'd before is call'd Repentance are the conditions of Salvation Quest. Is Faith in Christ one thing necessary to Salvation Ans. Yes He that heareth my word says our Saviour is passed from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation John 5. 24. He that believeth the Gospel and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. Quest. Will all Faith save Men Ans. No for the Devils themselves believe says S. James Jam. 2. 19. But the saving Faith is only that which suitably affects us and works Repentance Repentance as well as Faith being necessary to Eternal Happiness Quest Since Faith is in it self one part of the condition of our Happiness and instrumental also to work the Rest it is necessary to understand well what it is and wherein a saving Faith differs from other sorts of Faith. Pray what is meant by Faith in Christ Ans. In general it is the believing all that is declared to us by Christ and sometimes more particularly some things that are declared of him The believing what is said by him is called Faith in Christ as his Authority and Credit is the Ground and Reason of our Belief and the believing things said of him as he himself is the object of it And when this belief suitably affects us and we so resolve and practise thereupon as may be reasonably expected from Persons under such Persuasions then is it imputed to us for Righteousness Quest. Is Faith in Christ believing all that is declared to us by Christ or a giving trust and credit to his Word Ans. Yes and so the Scriptures intimate when they call it faith of Christ that is of his Teaching and Directing and as it is sometimes in the Original faith to Christ that is to him testifying and declaring and Faith or belief of the Gospel and of the truth the Gospel being that Word of truth which on his Credit and Authority he testifies and declares to us Besides Faith or Belief in Christ is expressed in Scripture by these several Phrases of hearing and receiving the word of Christ of receiving the word of God of receiving Christ of receiving the testimony of Christ of coming unto Christ. All which as is evident from the places alledged being made only so many other words for believing show plainly that Faith or Belief is the crediting of his Word and assenting to those things that are declared by him Which declarations for their surer derivation to After-times were all put in Writing by his Holy Apostles and Evangelists before their Deaths and are all contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Quest. Indeed if Faith in Christ be a belief of Christ's word it plainly implies hearing and receiving it and that Word being sent down to us by him from God receiving it is a receiving the word of God and believing it on Christ's Authority is receiving his testimony But how do the two other Phrases of receiving Christ and coming unto Christ shew the Faith they denote to be a belief of his Word Ans. To receive one notes different things as it is apply'd to different cases Men receive a Guest when they entertain him in their Houses a Ruler when they become his subjects a Friend when they admit him to intimacies but a Prophet and Teacher under which notion Christ claims belief when they credit his Doctrine and Message And because they who thus believ'd him came personally to attend and learn of him and associated themselves with him as they that retain'd to and followed him therefore was this belief of him in a literal sense a coming to him Quest. Doth Faith in Christ signifie also in Scripture the believing some things concerning Christ Ans. Yes and those too such things as are apt to beget trust and confidence in him For so though the Devils know and believe the truth of all Christ has declared yet S. James says they want the right Faith because they only tremble at it and cannot hope in the least that ever he will do them any good Jam. 2. 19. Quest. What are we thus particularly to believe concerning Christ Ans. Not only in the general That he is the Son of God and the Christ or Messiah for professing whereof S. Peter was pronounced Blessed Mat. 16. 16 17. but also particularly to believe that he died for our sins to reconcile us unto God by his Death whence it is especially called faith in his blood Ro. 3. 25. That he rose again from the dead which whoso believes in his heart says S. Paul shall be saved Rom. 10. 9. And that he is now ascended into Heaven and seated on the
Luke 8. 15. And to draw us near to God with a full assurance of faith we must joyn a true heart and a clean conscience Heb. 10. 22. and the charity which the Law requires flows then only from an unfeigned faith when 't is accompanied with a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. And therefore in Simon Magus it bore no Fruit because his heart was not right in the sight of God Act. 8. 13 21. So that we must not wonder if we see a crue Faith prove barren and producing no obedience in a dishonest and false Man. Since it is not Faith alone but Honesty that must make a Man careful to remember and perform his undertaking and false unjust Persons how right soever they may be in their belief and apprehensions will be as like to break their word with God as they are with their Neighbours Quest. Must it also lastly be resolute and fully fixed after all things are well considered That so when any hardships arise in the way of Faith we may not be soon staggered in mind and put to deliberate anew whether or no to go on in it Ans. Yes when they want this resolvedness Men are not like to hold on in a way of difficulties and such as do every where occur in Faiths race Every true Believer must have cast up all the cost and pains of his way beforehand as our Saviour tells us in the Parables of the wise builder and of the king going to war Luke 14. 28 31. They must stand prepared to run all hazards and sustain all losses setting Faith above all things else and resolving to stick to it whatever prove its trials and discouragements And such Believers as these the Scripture calls grounded and settled in the faith Col. 1. 23. and rooted built up and established in it Col. 2. 7. And the believers or receivers of the word who fell off in tribulation are said to have had no root in themselves Matth. 13. 21. A deliberate resolution is a sure Ground-work and what is built on that may be like to stand a Storm and after all the Assaults that are made upon it remain unshaken Quest. So that the Faith whereon all the fore-mentioned Fruits are like to grow must not be a meer pretence of Faith but sincere and undissembled it must not be â—n empty profession and formal out-side out inward in the apprehension of the mind â—t must not be a wavering Opinion but confident and well assured it must not â—e a speculative cool and unmoving Notion but hearty concerning and affectionate it must not be in a careless forgetful and failing but in a conscientiously careful just and performing Man it must not act on an irresolute heart which will be easily daunted or soon staggered but one that upon good reason and after due deliberation is fully fixt and resolved to follow it Ans. Yes the Faith that influences the Heart and Life and stands in all times and trials must be thus qualified And the Faith which is either dissembled formal wavering unaffecting careless or irresolute some one or other of which the Faith of all Sinners is is like to have no such Blessed Fruits proceding from it As Simon Magus's had not whose heart was not right â—or Agrippa's whose Faith was but almost â—or the Temporary Believers whose faith â—ell away because it wanted root So that these different attendants and various qualifications of Faith make the difference in its Fruits and Effects and distinguish the Faith of Saints from the Faith of Sinners Quest. It has been often said of Faith by some that it is an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling our selves on Christ for Salvation Are such Phrases applicable to Faith in a literal and common understanding of them Ans. No for Faith is an act of our Spirits and though Bodies lean and rest on Bodies yet Spirits have none of these Bodily Gestures and Affections When such words are used in expressing mental acts they are Metaphors which are applied to them on account of some Similitude and Resemblance Quest. What acts can the Faith of a Man's mind exert about a Person which may answer these forms of recumbing or leaning upon him Ans. Either Believing some Doctrine which he teaches or relying on some Promise which he makes These may be set off by the acts of recumbing leaning and rolling For as these are ways of Bodies resting and depending so are those of a Man's mind's doing the same upon any Person They acquiesce and rest on his Judgment in what he says and on his Fidelity in what he promises which gives them the same ease and settlement as the acts of rolling leaning and recumbing do to Bodies Quest. Faith is also called by some the hand of the Soul that reaches at and apprehends and applies Christ's Merits What is there in this Spiritual Grace that can answer these expressions Ans. Reaching at them is assenting to some Propositions about them And laying hold of and applying them is consenting and complying with some Overtures or fulfilling some terms and conditions whereby they become our own Putting out these mental acts has the same effect and use to our Souls as stretching out the hand to apprehend and apply things has to our Bodies that is to bring the thing desired down to our selves Quest. So that to roll and lean upon Jesus Christ is in plain English only to believe what he says and to rely upon what he promises And to apprehend or lay hold on Christ and apply his Merits in clearer and more intelligible Language is only to fulfil the Gospel-terms or to have Faith with its fore-cited effects that is to believe and repent whereby his benefits become ours Quest. Yes that I take to be the true meaning and explication of these obscure Phrases I confess I am a great lover of plain and intelligible Speech And above all things else I love to hear Men speak plain in the great Truths of Religion and Points of Salvation wherein there is the most need of all to inform and edifie Men's understandings And therefore I heartily wish these dark and intricate words were less used or wholly laid aside in these important matters they being words of Mens invention which the Holy Scripture no where uses about them and such words too as I am sure do more amuse than instruct those that hear them But if any think fit still to use them or meet with Faith set off by them in Books or Discourses this and no more in a true sense and in plain intelligible English I think is the meaning of them Quest. If Faith in Christ be a Faith in his Word then is it no part of Faith for any Man to believe his sins are pardoned nor of Infidelity to doubt of it because particular Men have no word of his for that Ans. Very right He tells us in the general he will pardon Penitents but in his Word he has not descended to
tender plant out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him being ashamed to own him Isaiah 53. 2 3. By these accounts in outward appearance he was to come more like a Peasant than a Prince But his Kingdom so much cried up was to be Spiritual giving Laws not only to Overt-Acts which are triable in Secular Courts but to Mens Hearts and Consciences protecting and aiding them by unseen Providences and Spiritual Assistances rewarding and punishing not with Temporal but Eternal Recompences not medling with a Secular Domination over Mens Persons or Purses in things relating to this Life but leaving that Power in the same hands where it was lodg'd before And such a principality as this our Saviour claimed telling Pilate he was a King but that his kingdom was not of this world for if it had his servants would have fought to have delivered him from the Jews John 18. 36. Quest. Was Messiah to do any other notable thing which would still be a further manifestation of him Ans. Yes Sixthly He was to convert the Heathen world from their Idol-worship and make Pagan-Idolatry fall before him In that day saith Isaiah describing Christ ' s Kingdom both over Jews and Gentiles the Lord alone shall be exalted and the Idols shall he utterly abolish Isaiah 2. 17 18. In that day says God by Zechary I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembred Zech. 13. 2. All nations then shall serve him all nations shall call him blessed saith the Psalmist Psal. 72. 11 17. Quest. Did Jesus perform this when he came Ans. Yes he drave the proud Spirits out of their Temples and silenced them in all their Oracles and other Divinations and convinced the World that those they had hitherto worshipped for Gods were Devils and that those are no Gods which are made with hands And of this there were so many instances as there were of Heathen Men and Heathen Nations that turned Christians Quest. Those Converts indeed are so many plain proofs of the overthrow of Idols since the first step in Christianity is the renouncing of the Devil and of all Idol gods But how doth it appear that he put an end to their Oracles and other Divinations which were the strongest argument of their Divinity among their Worshippers Ans. As his Birth drew near they all grew dumb God stopping all their false mouths against that time that his own Eternal Word might be heard alone The famed Apollo was then so sparing of his Responses that Cicero thought his renowned Oracle at Delphos had ceased in his days And though afterwards he did speak sometimes as I shall note in several instances yet by the Power and Spirit of our Lord when his Religion had got footing in the World his Mouth was wholly stopped and locked up with the Keys of never Divining silence as he himself says in a Farewel Answer recorded by his Champion Porphyrius And so were also the Mouths of Jupiter Ammon and of all other impure Spirits most famed for Oracles in other places This their devout Worshippers with grief beheld and admired and Plutarch a learned Heathen who lived within an hundred Years after Christ writ a Book about it still extant wherein he inquires the best he can into the causes of it Quest. I see their general silence is beyond question But can you show that Jesus silenced them Ans. Their own professed Advocates make him the cause of the Demons withdrawing themselves from Men both in this and in other effects of their presence with them For since Jesus began to be worshipped says Porphyry the Gods are no longer conversant with Men nor has any Man received any publick benefit by them Nay the vanquished Spirits themselves who gave so many Testimonies to him when he drove them from before his personal Presence here on Earth in their Oracles and other Divinations confessed so For when Augustus in whose time our Saviour was born inquired of Apollo who should succeed him in the Empire his Reply was as Suidas reports That an Hebrew Boy who rules the blessed Gods had commanded him to pack away to Hell and leave that place so that he was like to give them no more answers Again in the days of Diocletian as Constantine relates in his Edict to the Provincials of the East he gave out another Oracle Declaring he could give no true Answers because of the just Persons upon the Earth And when Diocletian asked Who were those just Persons the Priest answered They were the Christians Which Constantine declares and calls God to witness was said in his hearing who being a very Youth attended the Emperour at that time Afterwards in the Reign of Julian when his Temple at Daphne celebrated for Oracles was confronted by a Christian Church wherein were laid the Bones of the Martyr Babylas he presently grew speechless And when Julian pressed him for an Answer by magnificent Gifts and Sacrifices at last he told him He was hindred from giving Oracles by the dead Bodies in that place Which the Emperour well understanding singled out the Coffin of Babylas without disturbing the other dead whereof many lay there interr'd and ordered the Christians to remove it Indeed when the Heathens at any time consulted their Gods by Sacrifice and were to read their Answer painted upon the entrails if any of their Christian Servants happened to stand by the wicked Spirits fled away without giving the accustomed signs and their deserted Prophets could make no Predictions Which being complained of to their wicked and superstitious Princes was several times the chief cause as Lactantius notes which enraged them to persecute the Christians In particular it inflamed Diocletian to begin his Persecution the Bloodiest of all others For his madness against them as the same Author reports was because their presence and profession of Faith in Jesus stopped the mouth of his Gods and troubled all his Sacrifices So that whilst any of them was there though he offered often one time after another this superstitious Man an insatiable inquirer into Futurities could receive no answer Nay to shew further the Power which as I say not only Christ himself but every common Christian had to command and controul these unclean Demons Tertullian desires the Emperours to make the Experiment and bring any that is vexed by a Demon or any Prophet that is thought inspired by him before the Judgment-seat and there set any poor Christian to command that Demon to speak who he is And if saith he not daring to lye to him he doth not as truly there before you all confess himself a Devil as he had falsly otherwhere proclaimed himself a God then let that malapert Christian be put