Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A53904
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Naaman vindicated as well from the idolatries of the house of Rimmon in Syria, as from the abuses of the atheists and hypocrites in England / by Richard Pearson, priest of the Church of England.
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Pearson, Richard, 1641?-1710.
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1700
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Wing P1013; ESTC R28783
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86,525
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the World which we may not also as lawfully dissemble I say of this libertine Principle should once generally take place in Civil Affairs and matters of ordinary Conversation 't would presently make as sad work in the Commonwealth as in the Church that is indeed utterly confound the same and destroy the very being of it For tho' the World be bad enough as it is yet such would be hereupon the Miserable Alteration of it that every Man would feel the fatal Effects thereof and be ready to desire that the World it self might have a speedy Conclusion And in the mean time we should have reason to wish for it as the far greater Priviledge that all Men had been made perfectly both deaf and dumb since the contrary faculties so strangely perverted would serve us only to do and to receive Mischief by What a sad state of Affairs must that be wherein there could be no believing or being believed and consequently no free Intercourses no Trading or Commerce with each other no Government or Subjection How wretched and deplorable would be our Case if neither Promises nor Vows nor the most solemn Oaths themselves could afford us any thing of the least security to be depended on The whole World would thus become one continued Cheat nothing but Deceiving and being Deceiv'd So that there could be no longer any living together as now in Cities or Towns no not so much as in private Families but every Man would be forced as much as he could to withdraw himself from others and each betaking himself to the Wilderness endeavour to live separate and alone by himself in some Den or Cave of the Earth And so farewel Civility it self together with all the Benefits and very being of Humane Society So that indeed above all other Criminals or Traitours whatsoever Governours as they tender the publick Welfare are obliged most vigorously to endeavour to Suppress and Punish this sort of Offenders as Persons guilty at once of Universal High-Treason against all Government it self especially when they find them not only practising but publickly teaching and maintaining the Lawfulness of such Dissimulation And accordingly all Wise Magistrates of what Age or sort soever when ever they could sufficiently discover any Persons guilty of this dangerous Crime have thought fit to censure them with the utmost Serverity not only as Enemies to Religion it self without which no Government can be maintain'd but as immediate and direct Enemies also to the Commom Welfare of mankind and the very being of Human Society Which shall be my Seventh Consideration CHAP. XIII The common Sense and Judgment of all unprejudiced Mankind of what sort soever constantly agreeing in the Condemnation of such Offenders and Practice as a thing most Dangerous Base Vnnatural and Abominable WHen Isdegerdes King of Persia commanded Benjamin a Christian Deacon to deny the God he Worshipped strong and unanswerable was the reasoning by which he refused saying They that desert you O King you deservedly put to death what punishment then think you is he worthy of who basely deserts his Creator Among the Ancient Jews not without the command of God himself for it they who were found guilty of Idolatry or any strange Worship or had done any thing in appearance like it which might justly be so Interpretated were presently Stoned to Death by the Witnesses and all the People And we find that when the Pagans had forced Swines Flesh into the Mouth of old 3. Mac. 6. 18. Eleazer the Scribe he presently Spat it out again And when they who had the charge of that wicked Feast for the old acquaintance they had with the Man taking him aside hesought him to bring Flesh of his own Provision and such as was lawful for him to use and make as if he did eat of the Flesh taken from the Sacrifice commanded by the King that so he might escape Death He refused the same thus answering like himself It becometh not our Age in any ways to Dissemble whereby many young Persons might think that Eleazer being Fourscore Years old and Ten were now gone to another Religion In like manner though it may be observed that the Jewish People all along before had but very little kindness for the Samaritans upon the account of their Worshiping the Idols of their own Country together with the God of Israel yet this strangeness and hatred of theirs seems to have been much emproved and grown to the greatest height imaginable some time before and at our Saviours comming The Reason of which is plain enough if we do but a little consult History For after the Samaritans by the leave of Alexander the Great had built for themselves a Temple on Mount Gerizim like to that of Jerusalem they presently began thereupon to magnifie themselves as now equal to â—he Jews in every thing vaunting themselves for the Off-spring of Joseph the Father of Ephraim and alike Worshipers of the true God But soon afterwards when Antiochus began to Persecute the Jews for their Religion these Samaritans terrified thereat presently changed their Note plainly denying that they Worshiped God but like other People the Gods of the Heathen only giving out likewise that they were not Israelites but Sidonians and promising to dedicate their Temple it self to Jupiter of Crete By which means they clearly escaped all the effects of that Tyrants Fury Now this horrid Dissimulation of theirs and so shameful denial of their Religion seems to have been the true chief Reason why the Jews so deservedly hated the Samaritans that they willingly neither talked to nor conversed with them but shunned them upon all occasions as a perfect abomination to them Now though it be very true That Christians have no express Command as the Jews had to put to Death such Idolaters and Dissemblers yet the wiser sort of Christian Princes also sensible of the infinite danger to them of such Practises have thought fit sufficiently to shew both their Zeal and Severity in the like Cases That good and mild Emperour Theodosius made such severe Laws against the Manichees of his time as may seem very strange to any one not well acquainted what kind of Persons they were for their particular Behaviour We are to know therefore that the Manichees were wont so to insinuate and intermix themselves with the Orthodox Christians that 't was extremely difficult to distinguish them whilst having no regard at all of Perjury it self they scrupled not falsely to affirm and Swear themselves Catholicks and if at any time they happened to be discovered and convicted for Manichees then presently counterfeiting Repentance and outwardly feigning themselves to abhor that Heresy they still continued inwardly what they were before And that they might be no more found out would assemble together with the Orthodox in their Churches and presume also to partake with them even of the Holy Sacrament So that Theodosius had a great deal of Reason to deal so severely as he did with this most
to Preach to them the word of Life But they refusing to hear the same presently commanded him to be run thorow with a Sword Nor let any one Object against the already produced Instances as some have done upon the like occasion That all these are Examples only of Bishops and other publick Ministers of the Christian Church upon whom they are ready to grant there does lie some Obligation in point of Credit as well as Interest to chuse to suffer rather than deny or dissemble their Belief And to this purpose the zealous Disciples even of that grand Atheistical Patron whom I had occasion not long ago to mention have thought fit to treasure up this in Print among the rest of his supposed witty posthumous Sayings viz. That none ought so justly to Die for their Religion as they that Live by it Whereas may they say there is not the same Reason that private Christians should be thus obliged nor is it easy perhaps amongst them to produce the like Examples Now to obviate this Objection as well as in regard of the great natural Usefulness of such Precedents to promote in others the like Zeal and Constancy I shall think it worth the while to give you still some farther Variety of the like Behaviour in all Sorts and Degrees of other Christian Professors Concerning whom in general Justin Martyr gives us this ample Testimony That they can never Just Mart. in Dial. cum Tryph. Jud. endure so much as to seem to Worship an Idol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but suffer all kind of Torments and Punishments even to the very last efforts of Death rather than either Worship Idols or eat of any thing Offered thereto And still in his second Apology to the Christians he thus describes the Christians of his Time We who formerly before our Conversion used to employ our selves in Butchering one another do now not only not resist our Enemies but rather than tell a Lye or deceive even those who inform against us willingly confess Christ to the loss of our very Lives Whereas would our Consciences permit we might as well as you Heathen are wont to do make use of and behave our selves according to your usual Proverb Swear with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tongues remaining still unsworn in your Minds But descending now to particulars with whom can I better begin or more agreeably place in the fore Front than that noble and couragious Soldier Valentinian the Elder Afterwards Emperour of Rome but at that time an Officer only in the Army of the Emperour Julian who was so far from doing or suffering any thing which might give any just occasion of his being thought to comply with the Heathenish Superstition that he boldly struck the Aedile who had sprinkled him with lustral Water among the rest according to the Pagans Custome and cut out that part of his Garment even in the sight of Julian the Apostate After him shall follow tho' in time he went before him another Christian Soldier called Gordius of the City of Cesarea and no less magnanimous Whose Persecutors as St. Basil gives us the History after they could by no other means Basil Hom. in Mart. turn him aside from the Faith set upon him at last with some plausible Arguments persuading him that he should if he had still a mind retain Christ in his Heart only and with his Mouth deny him For God say the does not look upon Words but upon the Mind it self of the Speaker This is the only way to appease the angry Judge and to keep God himself propitious too But he remaining firm and immovable answered them after this manner I can by no means yield to let that Tongue the benefit of which is wholly owing to Christs Favour so shamefully deny its Author For with the Heart we believe unto Righteousness and with the Mouth we make Confession unto Salvation Do not err God cannot be mocked Out of our own Mouthes he Judges and from our Words he will either Save or Damn us Did you never hear of that dreadful Sentence of our great Lord viz. He that denieth me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven c. You Counsel me that I should at present dissemble the Knowledge which I have of God Wherefore I pray Is it that I may prolong this Life add to my Days and while off the bitterness of Death But shall I then be contented to loose the Eternal Years of the heavenly Life Shall I to avoid a little present pain forego forever that future Crown of Righteousness and exceeding weight of Glory Thus deliberately to choose to damn my self and by such shameful Deceit and Fraud to purchase to my self the Eternal Torments of Hell can be no other than down right Madness Let me therefore rather give you this Advice That if hitherto you have been mistaken you would now at length learn Truth and Wisdom but if you dissemble your Faith and serve the present time I earnestly exhort and intreat you that laying aside Lying you would boldly speak the Truth For every Tongue is to confess the Glory of Christ as well as every Knee to bow at his Name After these two great Leaders I am still enabled to present to your view all at once a whole little Army of the same Profession who also shewed themselves to be no less Christs faithful Soldiers Tho' the Story be somewhat large yet I shall give you it in full with all its material and more considerable Circumstances because the same will help us so much the better to understand both the great Subtilety of the Heathen to ensnare and what was the chief thing they drove at and how extreamly careful likewise the then Christians were to avoid giving any just occasion of Scandal and to abstain from all Appearance of Evil especially in such tender Cases Now Julian the Apostate being fully satisfied by many fruitless Attempts of that kind and Experiments so often in vain repeated that nothing was to be done on the Christians no prevailing upon them to comply with his Purpose by the more common and open ways of down right Force or Threatnings thought fit at last to betake himself to the courses of Fraud and Subtilety to trap them if possible as it were by way of Ambush or Surprize and to overcome them by cunning Artifices and Contrivances And accordingly altering the Standards or Ensigns of the Emperour which were before in use caused to be expressed thereon together with his own the Images of the Pagan Gods so that when his Christian Subjects came to signifie their Reverence thereto as 't was both usual and generally concluded Innocent for them that way to shew their respect to the Emperour they might be at the same time forced Ignorantly or indeliberately to Worship or at least seem to Worship the Pagan Idols also or else be punished as Traitors and Contemners of him for their Refusal Which yet