is his Power is or will be great Nor could he have this Power unless it were given him by God they therefore who shall resist Antichrist according to this new Doctrine resist the Ordinance of God and we know what follows they shall receive Damnation from which Sentence as well as Doctrine Good Lord deliver us When I first reflected upon the Doctrine of Calvin touching God's Providential Influence and the Consequences of such Doctrine I was much amazed that a Person of his Fame and Learning should run upon such a Precipice But when I reflected upon Geneva also and the Alterations he occasion'd there by his Doctrine my wonder ceas'd Geneva being the Meridian for which the Ominous Prediction was calculated hence it is that wheresoever Calvin's Doctrine doth prevail it makes deep Impressions by casting down and casting up Principalities and Powers But whether it be that this Doctrine does dispose Men to Rebellion or that they who are dispos'd to Rebellion do embrace this Doctrine for a Convenience is much the same thing since in all places almost where one has been introduc'd or rather intruded the other has sat Regent And truly let Ambitious Persons make what use they please of such Doctrines they will never reap the same Fruit from it in the Conservation as they did in the Acquisition of their Power for 't is but for a hot and fresh Pursuer High-lander like to leap up behind him and unhorse the Rider 't is no matter how and all is well that one is tumbled out by another who jumps clearly into the Saddle this feat of Activity is Opus Dei the Lord 's doing and so let it be in Nomine Domini though it be dreadful to consider what fatal Calamities such reiterated Usurpations and Vicissitudes must introduce Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft not only for the near Affinity and Contract which is betwixt it and the Devil that Arch-Rebel and for the mystical Spells and Sacred Names it makes use of but by reason also of its specious Appearances by which as a Sorceress it chains and fascinates all those who look towards it It fills their Mouths with nothing but Liberty Property Reformation Removal of corrupt Ministers and Magistrates misapplying publick Money and decay of Commerce whilst it fills their Hearts with the rich Spoils of the Publick with hopes of new Titles and Honours with private Revenge with Plunder with Indemnity with Offices and mountainous promises of Success or of being advanc'd perhaps to the highest Pinacle of the Government These are the Philters by which Men are at first brought in and at last caught and when they come to die like those who have been long enchanted with the Delusions of the Devil they 'll find that all those splendid Entertainments all the Princely Company and Ornaments all their Banquets Jollity and Flattering Delights which did appear to them amidst their Consults and Meetings of the Night to vanish in an instant and all the glorious Scenes of Darkness will prove in the end fantastical and meer Apparitions when they themselves left naked and forlorn shall be call'd upon perhaps to pay their last Debt not only to Nature but to the Law too I think and frankly declare it That if we look into the State of the World we may safely say that most or all the Monarchies and Republicks in Europe and elsewhere for ought we know derive their Birth as I have said before from Usurpation and Conquest what Havock was made by the Goths Vandals Lombards Hunns Normans c. is legible in History and more legible in the Ruins and Desolations they made we know what Kings are descended from them through all Ages Nor can we of this Nation be ignorant how the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans succeeded one another by violent Extrusion So that perhaps the poor Britains or Welsh are the purest Aborigenists this day in Christendom That therefore which made all these crude beginnings to digest and ripen into Lawful Governments was not an imaginary Jus Divinum but time and the following consent of the People who by mutual Comport and by mature and equitable Laws gave that due mixture of these first jarring Instruments or Principles as made the Body compounded of them to be fix'd and solid Good Laws then are those essential and vital parts of Government which carry the Image and Superscription of Divine Authoriry These are grounded upon Truth and right Reason which without dispute spring from God The better therefore a Government is made up of these Principles the better is its Constitution and whatsoever Occasions may introduce an Alteration and whatsoever Disasters may attend it it is Pious and Christian-like to look up to Heaven and to acknowledge the Gods Clemency in the Chastisement And although God may and does sometimes in an extraordinary manner and independent on secondary Causes to dispose of Circumstances and give an Issue to them beyond the Prospect of any Human view yet unless we knew what and when 't was 't is Arrogance in us to stamp them all promiscuously with the Image and Authority of God 'T is enough for us to revere him and humble our selves under all his Providential Methods As for those who endeavour to prove Monarchy to be ex Jure Naturae and so by Antecedence ex Jure divino from that Paternal Authority or Jurisdiction which the Heads of Families or Tribes had over their own Members and Dependants in the first Ages of the World this I say is no good Argument I grant that the Heads or Fathers of every Tribe had a Despotick and Supream Power over all who liv'd within their own Territories This then was the Order or Oeconomy of Mankind for every Family to make a Neighbourhood within it self and not to dispose themselves into remoter Places as now a-days They endeavour'd also to encrease their Families by the Number of Servants who were also Incorporated into them So that these Ascititious or Adopted Members were lookt upon as Branches grafted into the Common Stock This is evident from the History of the Bible where we read of Kings of every Town or Village almost which were no more but Toparches or the Heads of so many Families which in Ancient Times were called Nations also The like we may observe at this very day in the High-Lands of Scotland which Country being never yet Conquer'd or hardly over-run they still retain that Primaeval Oeconomy of uniting their Families into Bodies which they call Clans of which each has its Head who has in a manner an absolute Command over all the rest of that Tribe or Clan as is obvious to all This then I say was the Order and Government of the Ancient World in the Ages after the Flood But being it was not possible that it should continue in this State for the Multiplication of so many Toparches or Princes of Families Neighbouring one upon another begat infinite Disorders and Quarrels which could not be terminated
all these Difficulties on one side and on the other these few Disciples of Jesus enter'd upon their Warfare they brake through all disasters which oppos'd them by withstanding all the disputes of Philosophers all the Placarts of the Senate all the Prisons and Tortures of the Officers with infinite other hardships still attending their Business by Baptizing Preaching and Praying and at length Seal'd the Truth of their Belief and Doctrine with their Blood an Eternal proof indeed of its Truth For though Men may lye sometimes for Gain yet we never heard of any much less so many and for so many Ages who would persevere in a lye that they might be Miserable and when they might enjoy all the Comforts of life by following Truth would voluntarily plunge themselves into a train of perpetual Calamities both in this World and that to come by asserting falshood And indeed as the natural Weakness and the supernatural Courage and constancy of the Abettours of Christianity heard its Truth so also that this Truth was of a Divine Extraction and Vertue is farther demonstrable from the Possession it got in the Minds of the most prejudic'd Men over their Judgments Wills and Affections and contrary to all humane Interests and natural Inclinations whatsoever Whereas the Doctrine of Plato after so long a continuance and even in the Infancy of Christianity flourishing in those great Masters of Reason Plotirus Lorgirus and Porphyrus could never so insinuate into the Miracles and Manners of Men as to draw any one Village throughout the World unto its Principles and make them live after the Prescripts and Rules of its Philosophy On the other hand the Progress of Christianity was so Universal and Early that even in the days of St. Paul his Doctrine had converted some of Caesar's houshold Phil. 4. as in the beginning of Trajan's Reign we read of Flavia Domisilla a Person of the imperial Blood who with her two Eunuchs Nâ—râ—us and Achelleus made her Blood more noble yet by the Effusion of it in Martyrdom and but four years after Pliny going over Proconsul to the Province of Bithynia found such a Multitude of Christians in it that he was obliged to consult the Emperour what to doe in the matter not daring to draw the Sword against all at once and so fast did Plin v l. 10 Epist 97. Apologit cap. 3â— their number grow maugre all the Terrours and Efforts of Persecution as made Turtullainus in his Apologetick to the Roman Nobles say by a word of Triumph We have fill'd the Cities the Isles the Castles the Councils the Camps the Corporations your Tribes your Palaces your Courts and your Senate we have left you nothing to your selves but the Temples And thus Christianity went on still acquiring strength by its Progression till at length in defiance of all the Instruments of Wit and Cruelty it subdu'd Principalities and Powers and chang'd the Laws of Empire it subverted their Religion and cast their false Gods and Idolatrous Temples to the Ground and as a perpetual Monument of their Victory it made them throw away their Lawrels abjure their Triumphs and in the Crowns they wore erect the Crowns upon the Globe the Figure or Symbol of the World they preâ—â—nded to command and which they ever acknowledg'd to be in subiection to the Cross CHAP. XXVI Of the Mahometan Religion THe Mahometan Superstition makes the last Branch of reveal'd or of a pretendedly reveal'd Religion this falls in most opportunely to be spoken to as being in appearance the greatest Objection that can possibly be made against the Truth of Christianity which notwithstanding when impartialy and throughly consider'd will afford us one of the greatest Arguments to prove its Divine Authority upon which consideration I have reserv'd the handlings of this Point to the last place for as much as Mahomet is the greatest and most Mortal Enemy which hitherto hath appear'd against it and therefore the fitest to follow it in its Triumph In the Mahometan Religion then there are two things at first sight which occurr to our Consideration viz. Its Duration and its Extent as for its Duration it has flourished or rather insected the World for above a thousand years and then for its Extent although its Original was from an obscure Imposture yet in less than Seventy Years the Disciples of this Sect under the name of Saracens had diffus'd themselves over Armenia Persia Palestine Egypt Lybia and almost all Africa and for some Ages past even to this very day they possess the largest and noblest parts of the habitable World in the Persian and Ottoman Empires the better part of Judea as also all Tartary with three quarters also of Africa so that the Crescent seems in a great Measure to verifie that arrogant Prediction of growing greater and greater donec totum impleat orbem Now that such a Pestilent Sect should so long triumph over and almost extenuate the Christian Religion and spread its Roots and Branches wider also is a point which at the first sight may seem to stagger us but how formidable soever this Scandal may appear to a young Believer we shall find no great danger in it if we consider First the Circumstances of the Age when this Innovation first began It was about the Year 630 and in the Reign of Heraclius the Emperour that Mahomet is said to have departed this Life before which time almost the space of 200 Years the Vandals had over-run almost all Africa a Countrey always famous for Wild Beasts and Monsters so that almost all that vast Tract or Region being overcome with Barbarity and Ignorance the Soil seem'd ready prepar'd for Weeds to grow in to which consideration we may add that also of the Eastern Church over-run with Nistorianism and contending with the Western for the Primacy All this the Impostour understood very well as also that Ignorance naturally leads Men to Innovation And as the state and circumstances of the 7th Century suited well with the Genius and design of such a Prophet so may we observe also the like Disposition and Confluence of Causes in the succeeding Ages to propagate and enlarge the same For the Hunns Goths Vandals whose uncouth Names are of harsh and barbarous sound still thronging in upon all quarters of the Empire disturb'd the repose and course of things whilst the greater Prelates contending with one another and pursuing their ancient Quarrels about Precedency and entring into new ones with the secular Power about Superiority and Rights of Investiture all Religion was in a manner degenerated into Emulation Faction and Superstition By this means I say the Mahometan Doctrine advanc'd apace and the Princes who where of it under the Titles of Caliphes and Sultans became formidable Whereupon the Christian Princes of the West finding the Eastern either immers'd in Idleness and Luxury or unable to withstand the Inundation of this Sect enter'd into a League call'd the Holy war which for some time repell'd the Progress of the
Rewards and wicked Men due Punishments from the hands of God most just it follows of course to be enquir'd into how far this Belief of theirs might make them capable of such Happiness or of Salvation And here I shall promise as a foundation or first Principle to what shall follow that the Efficient or Meritorious Cause of procuring Salvation to Mankind can be no other but Jesus Christ who by his Obedience and Passion hath redeemed good Men and made them capable of Eternal Happiness Next that all good Motions vertuous Inclinations and intellectual Improvements are not acquirable by any Natural strength but by the help and concurrence of God So St. Paul says expressly Rom. 1. where speaking of the Heathen he declares how that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it to them Our present enquiry then will be of the instrumental Course or of the means by which the Merits of Christ's Life and Passion may be applied to Men in order to their Salvation For the more Methodical Prosecution of which Point 't will be expedient to consider First The State of Mankind before the coming of Christ Secondly the State and Circumstances of Mandkind after his coming Before the coming of Christ as hath been already shewn the Gentiles though they had solid Notions of the Nature and Perfections of a Deity yet there is little or nothing extant which can countenance any Expectation they had of such a Deliverer as we are now discoursing of And as to the Jews for what appears from the Old Testament they knew but little and obscurely of another Life as we have also before spoken-unto They expected a Deliverer or Messiah 't is true but then they figur'd him to be a Temporal Conqueror such as Caesar or Alexander who should erect their Nation also into a vast Empire and bring the World under their Subjection A thing indeed which they earnestly hoped for having been themselves under heavy Oppressions for many Ages Nay so deep was this Opinion rooted in the Jews that even the Disciples of Christ who were daily taught by and convers'd with him could hardly be wean'd from this Belief as appears by the Address or Petition on the behalf of Zebedee's Children that they might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of Christ in his Kingdom as also from their constant enquiry of Christ when he would restore the Kingdom or Empire unto Israel But this as having been already discours'd of and being a thing which will admit of little dispute I shall readily leave and pass on to take a glance of Mankind after the coming of Christ and his Ascension into Heaven They who have had the Happiness to be born within the Church where the Mysteries of the Christian Religion are suck'd in with their first Milk and grow up into their Nature such I say cannot but have a distinct knowledge of what the Christian Religion teacheth concerning Christ and his Merits so that if they do not act suitably to that knowledg they are verily inexcusable But then for those who never had such an Education nor ever heard of Christ or his Gospel and yet retain true Notions of the Nature Power and Justice of God and live justly and conformably to that knowledg retaining a disposition to receive farther Instruction with all propensity to Vertue I cannot see but that they may justly be ranked with those great and wise Men amongst the Ancients whether Philosophers or others in whose Lives and Writings we find so many remains of the true apprehensions they had of a Deity together with their great Pregnancy in Vertue Now of both these sorts of Men whether before or after Christ the question will be the same for as much as both were under the same State and Guidance of Natural Illumination and Moral Vertues I know it is granted and with very good reason too that such as were contemporaries with the Patriarchs though they were not of the same Lineage with Abraham had such a knowledge of the true God as made them capable of Salvation Such a one was Melchisedech of whom we read so great things such a one also Job who liv'd probably about the time of the first Patriarchs for we read that he liv'd in the time of the Chaldean greatness also Jethro the Father-in-law of Moses having such an extraordinary and infallible Information of the Divine Will from the Mouth and Miracles of Moses and being himself also a Person of great Conduct and Wisdom as appears from Scripture he could not but transmit the like Instructions to his Posterity as did Melchisedech and Job without all question the same likewise we may conclude of the descendents from Abraham by Ishmael and of his Off-spring by Keturah Nor was it unusual in those days whilst Men liv'd under that unpolish'd but golden Age for God to manifest his Will by singular Revelation to wise Men even long after the Covenant made with Abraham as appears by the History of Balaam who though an Alien from the House of Abraham had a free Communication with God upon occasions of Moment and prophesied as clearly of the coming of the Messiah as any other ' of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets Now for those whose Doctrine and Actions are not recorded in sacred Writ as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Solon Lycurgus Numa and amongst them I know not why I may not reckon that strenuous Defender of his Country's Liberty Tullius Ciccro I say these and many others of the same class as they are known to have had noble Notions of the Deity and to have been great and prudent Masters in matters of Morality so likewise are they famous for their own exemplary Lives and Government and are by the most impartial and learned Writers held to be in a State of Salvation But for such of the wiser and more vertuous Gentiles who liv'd after Christ Writers generally seem a little more severe though in Truth the same Reason concludes favourably for both alike it being no less difficult for many great Men of former Ages though after Christ to know the History and Doctrine of Jesus as 't is for any of the present Age to know the Transactions in the Dominions of Prester John or of the Emperour of China Nay much more difficult for of these Countries so remote as they are we have by the help of Navigation and Commerce some sort of Account but the Jews as they were to the Romans but an inconsiderable part of their Government so the Romans themselves held no such Communication by Sea as now a-days being surrounded with Germans Dacians Parthians Indians and the like with whom they were in perpetual Hostility and what Countries and Kingdoms lay beyond these were utterly unknown to them by any kind of Correspondence So that we may as rationally conclude that every Man now a-days is an ignorant Idiot who does not know perhaps some new and great