for he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath powred out his soul unto death and he was numbred with Transgressors and bare the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors In conscience now is this to be a Prophet or to preach our Gospel Is this to foretell things to come or to point with the finger to things present or to relate pass'd Certainly let any man choose the clearest passage of the New Testament concerning this matter and compare it with these recited and it will be hard to distinguish which is that of the Apostle and which of the Prophet We conclude therefore that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews agree with the Doctrine of satisfaction and have foretold it and that Right Reason induces yea inforces to believe it CHAP. VIII That the Promised Messias ought to be both God and Man whence it follows that there are several persons in one simple Divine Essence Also Of the Divinity of the Old Testament THe third Objection against Satisfaction remains to be dissolv'd Namely that the punishment of one alone is not sufficient to obtain impunity for all men Indeed there is either no satisfaction or it ought to be proportionate both to the ossenses of men for whom it was made and the Justice of God that was incensed and consequently must be of an infinite worth and value For to fancy to our selves a satisfaction admitted by God infinitely below the demerit of the offense by way of Acceptance as they speak that is that he should be contented as fully paid for all though he receives but a small part is a thing not consistent either with the Wisdom or Goodness of God or the nature of his Justice as we declar'd it above Not with his Justice For since it is impossible for that to leave the sins of men unpunisht by reason it is the Hatred and Detestation of Evil a Perfection which is not divine if it be not infinite extreme nor extreme infinite if it be not wholy inexorable how could it be contented with the punishment of one alone for a satisfaction belonging to all mankind seeing it should thereby take vengance only for the offense of one remit the sin of all others freely without punishment For to speak properly there is no real satisfaction in an Acceptance but onely for so much as is receiv'd all the remainder of the debt exceeding what is receiv'd is freely forgiven and there is none but a fictitious and imaginary satisfaction for it Now it is not competent to an implacable justice to be pay'd with empty formalities and fictions Secondly not with his Goodness For it there be nothing in his Nature that hinders him from remitting gratuitously and without satisfaction the offenses of all men saving one what can there be in it to hinder him from forgiving that one also If I say there be nothing to hinder him from being contented with the death of one single man onely which of it self is of value onely to be satisfactory for one for payment for the infinite offenses of an almost infinite number of men why did he not likewise exercise this his infinite goodness towards this person that so it might be complete and no vengeance eclipse its lustre Since also be it by Acceptance or no it is perpetually necessary that the person who is to make the satisfaction be perfectly innocent and exempt from sin For God would not accept a polluted victime and he were uncapable of appeasing the wrath of God for another who had provoked him by his own offense Whence it should seem he could scarce justifie his Goodness if freely pardoning sinners he should without any need at all revenge himself upon an innocent person Lastly 't is not consistent with his Wisdom For to what end were it to make such an ambages and intricacy where the way is so plain and short What could be more easie then to pardon plainly without digressing to a satisfaction wholly defective in it self and complete onely because he that receives it will absolutely have his justice contented with it The reason alledged is that he might shew that his justice is terrible when he pleases and ingenerate in the minds of mortals so much greater horror of their offenses Certainly if the design be to render Divine Justice sormidable it appear'd so incomparably more in Noah's Flood the conflagration of Sodome and many other dreadful judgments then in the Death of one single man And if men must be made to know how worthy their Sin is of detestation and Hatred the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem with the unparallel'd mortality and slaughter that was seen there is a much more authentick Document to that purpose and an Instance that speaks lowder and farther beyond comparison But I believe men are not possess'd with much dread of the wrath of God when they are preach'd to that it is appeased with so small a matter It remains therefore necessarily that the Satisfaction be of an infinite weight and value to the end it may be proportionate to the sin of men and to the infinite Majesty of God himself But who can make it such No man surely who is nothing more then man For the condition of his Nature is too low and the bâ—unds of his dignity and excellence too narrow to correspond to so great an effect It would be very much if One could pay for one besides that the surety must abide in eternal destruction and having sav'd an other perish himself for ever Then all men in geneneral cannot make it For since Sin committed against an infinite Majesty deserves an infinite punishment the Offense increasing as Philosophers and Jurists teach according to the proportion of his dignity against whom it is committed and since the punishment of men cannot be infinite unless it be eternal should all men in general present themselves to undergo the wrath of God they would become overwhelm'd by it to all eternity far from redeeming themselves by a sufficient satisfaction Thirdly the Angels are equally unable For besides that there is not communion and affinity enough between men and them to be conveniently substituted as Pledges for them in suffering those pains whatsoever dignity the Angelical Nature possesses whatsoever excellence it may have above the humane yet it could never arise to equal the Majesty of God in order to satisfying his Justice after a proportional manner For at most they are but Creatures and there is an immense disproportion between the Creature and the Creator And he had good reason who said Behold He putteth no trust in his servants and his Angels he chargeth with folly Because though upon comparison of Angels with men they are of more transcendent purity and excellence yet if they be compar'd with God all their excellence is despicable and were it not that God upholds them
would seem to carry something of inhumanity of which it is incongruous that he should propose himself an example God who is so good hath so many other means in his hand to lead men to Virtue would never willingly employ any thereunto for which he might be accus'd of barbarousness and cruelty especially seeing it is an accident so frequent that in a Town of a thousand families there do's not pass one day in the year in which it do's not happen 'T is true for certain great and important considerations Kings are excused if they sometimes commit some act of injustice or violence But this must be very rarely done and onely when the safety of the State is concern'd Yet Lucretia could not contain from crying out upon the death of Iphigenia who was sacrific'd for the safety of all Greece Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum But that there should dye five or six times as many Children in the Cradle as attain to mans estate seems an irregularity which not onely an Epicurean but the most devout and pious amongst the Philosophers cannot but judge unsupportable Above all other considerations the Fear which the thought of death begets naturally in all men deserves our animadversion For how couragious so ever any may endevour to appear 't is as Aristotle calls it the most terrible of all terrors And as one hath observed if Julius Câ—sar who was magnanimity it self said that the most unexpected death was the sweetest and most desirable which testifies that he resented some dread when he thought of it what may we think of the horrors which other men have of it And this Fear does not arise onely from the apprehension that a man shall exist no more but it hath something of I know not what other violence and bitterness For otherwise nature and reason being two things which accord very well together if death were purely natural reason would finde something in that consideration wherewith to be comforted and gently drink off that Cup. But experience shews that the consolations taken from the necessity of Nature and the example of so many other deaths are too weak and of too little efficacy when the business is to strengthen a soul that trembles at the presence of death Which if there have been some that were generously resolv'd to undergo they have been very few in number and almost none in comparison of so many men yea Nations to whom the alarms of death have been terrible and hideous For I do not put in the rank of such as resolve generously against it those Caitifs that tye the rope to their own necks and drink to their companions upon the Ladder For this is so far from true generosity conjoyn'd with the discourse of reason that it is meer stupidness and more then bestial brutality And it is diligently to be observed that they who believe not that their Soul is immortal comfort themselves more easily then others do with the consideration of the necessity of death and say that as the Generations which preceeded their Birth belonged nothing at all to them because they were not yet in being so they ought not to care for those which follow after their death in regard they shall be no longer and that Agamemnon is dead and Romulus and Patroclus and the Scipio's Qui multis quam tu meliores improbe rebus And I believe the greatest part of those that have shewn so high a courage in contemning death among the Pagans had not much consideration of their future condition As it is clear by Socrates who says in Plato that he knew not which was best to live or to dye and that it were a folly to redoubt a thing of which there is no certain knowledge whether it be desirable or to be feared Whereas they that think seriously of immortality find nothing in nature that encourages or comforts them A sure evidance that death hath something of terror in it which does not proceed from nature but from something else for they would at least have more ground of consolation then the others in the subsistence of the better part of their essence Now whence can that horror be but onely that death is the forerunner of divine vengeance and makes up a part of it already If hereupon they agree that it is a punishment for sin certainly since all other Philosophers have held it to be simply natural they cannot know it to be so by any other way then that divine revelation that hath inform'd us by what gate it entred into the World For none of the Ancients ever found out or could so much as divine in a dream what was the cause of it And so far were they from having it come into their minds that on the contrary some have believed that Death was rather a gift and gratification to us from the Deity then a punishment inflicted by his Justice Which opinion the innumerable miseries of humane life greatly concurr'd to render authentick the undergoing whereof being look'd upon as so dolorous that sometime the deliverance from them ha's been accounted the greatest good that could arrive Or if some few have not dared to affirm absolutely that death was a Good yet they maintain'd at least that it was no Evil since it rescues men from all calamities which they suffer To fear death said Socrates to his Judges is nothing else but to seem to be wise and not to be so For it is to pretend to know that which we do not know because none knows what death is nor whether it be not the greatest good that can befall a man To which Plutark refers that exhortation of an ancient Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metuenda non est mors arumnarum exitus So also the greatest part of the reflections of Cicero upon this matter in the first of the Tusculane Questions fall into the Dilemma of Socrates To wit that if the soul be extinguish'd with the body and so the sense of all things be absolutely abolish'd death cannot really be an Evil because a man being thereby wholly depriv'd of existence and exempted from among the nature of things that which is not is equally incapable both of Evil and Good But if the soul survive the Body death is so far from being an evil that it ought rather to be accounted in the number of the greatest goods seeing it delivers from the evils of this present life and puts a man in possession of the contentments of a better upon which he does not omit to mention the converse with the Heroes wherein Socrates placed the greatest part of the hopes of his joy But the business is of higher importancy For though the Light of Nature should have taught men that death is an effect of the justice of God yet is it impossible as we shall see in due place for the same to discover to them the remedy thereof And I conceive that though the reason of man should have been able
certainly to conjecture what the cause of death is God himself would have purposely hid it from them least not being able to discover the remedy of it despair should sink and ruine all the World All other ignorances have been prejudicial and very often pernicious to men to this alone we owe the conservation of humane Society So that we may pertinently apply to this in particular that which Horace speaks generally of the ignorance in which it hath pleased God we should live touching events to come Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Deus The sole Word of God which is the special revelation we are in quest of is that which accords all these differences and clears up all the difficulties and confusions We shall not dispute at present whether in his first creation the body of man was naturally so well constituted that through prudence whereby he was able to avoid all hurtful things and the use of aliments which the blessing of God rendred as efficacious for the conservation of life by the good and pure qualities which he at first indued them with as now they are often full of noxious juices since the curse of God blasted them for our offence he might without other assistance from the Deity avoid all alteration and corruption either by disease or Age. God hath in the composure of Gold and Diamonds and other like things given sufficient proof of his power and hath so exactly temper'd the contrary qualities of the Elements in the constitution of certain bodies that they seem not subject to any corruption whatsoever And the long life which the first Men liv'd even after sin and the examples of the like we meet with in several profane Histories and some also though few which may be found in the Histories of these latter times give us enough to judge how firm and durable the life of man would be were he as exactly and perfectly fram'd and the aliments that support him as good as the estate of Nature in its integrity could have promised We onely affirm that though as the Philosophers thought the body of man being composed of the Elements and consequently including contrary and repugnant qualities would have carried in its self the seeds of death yet this revelation teaches us that the Wisdom of God would have so provided therein that if no disorder had hapened in the World through sin the propensity which our bodies have to their own dissipation would have been restrain'd and hindred by his Providence For he would have repell'd all sorts of eternal accidents he would have hindred the intemperature of the humors both by preserving them in right harmony and supplying man with aliments indued with excellent faculties and void of all noxiousness and by infusing new vigor of life in time of necessity to hinder the approach of Old-age would have maintained man in a vigorous and flourishing consistence and so given him the immortality of which we have now nothing left but the desire Whence likewise the union of the Soul and Body would have continued to eternity not subject to any important change or evil accident So that admitting death to be an accident that sutes with the natural principles of the composition of their bodies yet the cause that they do dye is because it having been covenanted that the consequences of a mortal condition should be hindred upon condition that man continued in obedience sin supervening hath changed the dispensation of all that and effected that death is become in quality of a punishment and vengeance And this ought nor to be deemed strange For there are things which considered in themselves have nothing so shameful in them but that they may well endure either the presence of another or the publike day-light which yet through the disorder befallen in nature are become ignominious Nakedness which of it self is not dishonest is become unseemly through sin which hath caused rebellion in the corporeal appetites against reason So that they who affirm it indifferent to go naked or clothed shew that extreme profaness hath worn out of their foreheads that shame which causes others to express their consciousness of sin and the unseemliness of the irregularity of our sensual faculties so as to be asham'd of their impudence who are not so themselves Wherefore though death were a natural accident which yet it is not the horror of it is too great to acknowledge no more in it but pure nature and its motions For why then do Infants dye We learn from the same revelation that that so sudden separation of the soul from the Body is not for ever but that the being which is given them though at first it seem's to have been allotted for a moment onely and by consequence little better then not-being shall endure eternally when the considerations shall cease for which it suffer'd the Eclipse of the time that it was to appear in this Life For the being of man when it hath once had a beginning is of perpetual duration and the time of Death is but as an Eclipse of his course But this is not the place for this discourse and therefore we shall add but a word more and pass forward Whether we consider the justice or the goodness of God this revelation amply furnishes us what to answer in defence of both He takes away little children at their birth and notwithstanding does not incur thereby any blame of cruelty because before they were born they deserved that punishment by reason of the natural infection of sin which they drew from those that begat them And indeed as we crush the Eggs of Scorpions before they are hatcht not because they have as yet deserved to be destroy'd for any wound which we have received by them but because in growing up the seeds of venome which that brood hath by nature will infallibly be exerted to our mischief so is it sometimes expedient for God to stifle from the wombe such children as have so many seeds of vice in them that coming to years would do much more mischief then any Scorpion in the World This the Philosophers never understood and therefore could not return in answer But if there opinion were admitted it would be requisite to defer judging of the merit of Infants till they come to the age that ennables them to manifest and display their Vice Moreover God resumes some of them back to himself whom he pleases to render happy by his goodness Nor is it necessary that he should permit them a longer abode in this life that so they might be capable of happiness for their practises of Virtue because he do's not give it as a Salary deserved from his justice by our Virtues but as a beneficence purely out of his liberality which likewise the Philosophers never thought of for according to them if there remains any beatitude to be hoped after this Life it cannot be aspir'd unto but by Virtue How then can Infants obtain
true they are sensible objects which furnish us either the matter or the occasion of all our speculations But there is no man but knows that from those sensible things of which our Fancie receives the forms and representations our minds elevate themselves to considerations infinitely more purifi'd and which retaining nothing of the Nature and condition of Bodies sufficiently confirm that there are faculties in us which though they make use of corporeal organs for some few of their operations are nevertheless immaterial themselves To proceed yet further There is no person in the World but is desirous of Immortality and every one is convinced in his conscience of such an inclination Whence therefore comes that desire to be so Universal amongst us if there be nothing that is able to satisfie it For the same Aristotle hath written that the natural appetites are not given us to no purpose but that there are certain things naturally designed for their satisfaction and that Philosopher is provided with irrefragable reasons to justifie his opinion Therefore where is that Immortality which we all seek after Not in our bodies Since all men yield to the stroke of fate Nor yet in Statues or Books nor in the Memory of men nor in triumphal Arches nor the Inscriptions of Monuments For the number of those is very inconsiderable who have provided themselves Memorials that they have been and of those which have been erected to this day there are not above two or three in a manner whose durable materials have secur'd them from the silent depredation of consuming Time At the utmost although the ancient Monuments should have still survived as the Arches of triumph Pyramids and Mausolaeum's yet they could not give the Immortality we seek they are no more but testimonies that we are not to expect the same in this world as they which want issue take pleasure to keep little Dogs and to behold their Breed It remains then that we have a complaint to make against nature who hath given us a desire without hope of being able to content it which is unworthy and disagreeable to the care which she hath had of us in so many other things For as for what some may possibly alledge that Brutes have almost alike inclinations and that even insensible things are lead by a natural instinct to their own conservation 't is a frivolous objection Shall we say that because a Stone naturally tends downwards it desires to be there perpetually being ignorant of the impulsive cause that moves it or the place whence it comes and whether it goes and even of its own being it cannot to speak properly desire its own conversation The cause is for that every thing which is heavy falls naturally downward if a Stone should not do so it would have no gravity were not a Stone In a word heavy things have as little desire to descend down and light to mount upwards either from the regions of Heaven or the centure of the Earth as the number of Two being doubled ha's to make Four 'T is the nature and order of things which knows not it self who would have it to be so As for Animals destitute of Reason all the care they have of their Preservation lyes in that which we term the estimation of things present which accordingly as they are hurtful or profitable are desired or avoided by them without all knowledge of the future or any thought that reaches so far much less are they able to do as men who anticipate not onely intire Ages but thousands and millions of Years to come And who so compares that blind instinct of Pismires which seem to provide in Summer against the necessities of Winter with the thought of immortality must either be an Idiot or a mad man For can any man of common sense imagine that those little Animals have an apprehension that the Sun being returned to the Tropic of Capricorn will have no more power to make the Earth produce what is necessary to their subsistence Surely no But that small insect being naturally theevish as long as she finds food in the fields steals it from thence and carries it to her little Cell without dreaming that there will be a Morrow and far from foreseeing the Rain and Frosts of Winter being notwithstanding all Elogies of her Ignara atque incauta Futuri But that Providence which governs all things and takes care of their conservation because it created them gives these creatures those blind instincts and inclinations to theft to cause them to lay up a store of necessary sustenance as a Falconer makes use of the swiftness and rapaciousness of Hawkes to cover the table of their Masters with excellent fowl without their understanding of the design But for us our desires are ardent and our thoughts extend themselves wonderfully forward to the Future and forasmuch as the inquietude of ardent desires when we see no hopes of contenting them is extremely importunate in case we have no part in Immortality Nature will not onely have put the desire of it in us to no purpose which she hath done in nothing besides but also to deject and torment us which were a cruelty beyond the spleen of Stepdames Moreover experience it self teaches us that there is such a difference between the Body and Mind that they seem oftentimes to have no communion one with another so different are their functions and so little mutation doth a great and universal change in the one work in the other You may see a man blasted or lamed in all his Members by some accident who yet hath the motions of his mind as strong plyant and nimble as when he was in perfect health You may see another upon the borders of the grave emaciated like a skeleton without vigor and pulse whose understanding nevertheless is more sublime then before and his thoughts more refined who will judiciously discourse of every thing that is propounded to him and that which is the greatest wonder will do it with so little astonishment at death as if to devest himself of his body were of no more value to him then to stripoff his cloathes although he apprehend full well on the one side what death is and do not contemn it out of stupidity and is on the other absolutely perswaded of the immortality of the Soul But it 's true this is not universal and great mutations of the body sometimes produce remarkable changes in the Mind Nor do I deny but that the Body is so constituted in its particular temper and so neerly ligued with the Mind that the disposition of the one contributes very much to the functions and operations of the other As when a Lute is untuned how skillful soever the Musician be he can never make any tolerable harmony so in the total dyscrasie of the Body and its principal instruments the Soul sometimes remains stupified and astonish'd But seeing this happens not equally in all men and that there are as many
devour our hopes and the rebellion of animals against us is such that we are put to defend our selves even against vermine not onely against Serpents Dragons Lyons and Tygers Whence it is come to pass that the Ancients were so inconstant in the judgement which they made of man and his nature For after having spoken so much to his advantage that the title of King and God sometimes was not sufficient for him who can but wonder at Jupiters repenting in Homer for having given Peleus horses to become partakers of humane misery where he says that man is subject to more miseries then any other animal upon the face of the Earth So some wept upon the birth of their children through compassion that they come into this Scene of troubles and laught upon the death of their Parents out of joy that they go out of it and Euripides says that we ought to do so In a word the most usual comfort which they took in death is that it puts an end to our miseries and their histories or fables affirm that it was sent as a present from the Gods to the greatest and most excellent persons in recompense of their Virtues as to Cleobis and Biton for their piety towards Juno to Agamedes and Trophonius for their pains in building the Temple of Apollo at Delphos and likewise to Pindar What therefore can we say that man is In truth considering mankind in general it cannot be better resembled then to the present estate of Rome which is but as the carkass of what it was of old There are remaining indeed some ruins and some old inscriptions not-intelligible some fragements of ancient Statues and defaced monuments and ponderous tombes since the time she was Emperess of the World But in the whole all this is of so little proportion that had we no other knowledge of her grandeur by histories it were as impossible to conjecture thereby what she was fifteen hundred years ago as it is to guess at the integrity that flourish'd in the first ages by the manners of the present times Now of the cause and origine this so deplorable ruine all the ancients both Poets and Philosophers have been ignorant all their conjectures thereof are dubious and unresolved and all their assertors false Nor is it difficult to judge how much this ignorance hath hindred them from rendring to God what belongs to him upon this account and tasting any true and solid consolations in their miseries For how could they acknowledg his justice in the punishment of mankind whilst they knew not that this disorder hapned by their own fault How could they admire his goodness in conservation of the Universe when they were ignorant that man deserv'd to be reduced to nothing from his birth How could they have recourse to God for obtaining of him a remedy against such misery seeing they knew him not or how could they beseech him to repair their ruins How could they learn not to murmure against him if they knew not that the evils they suffered were worthily inflicted on them and as due to their crimes Lastly how could they restrain themselves from suspecting the wisdom or power of him that governs the World while they were ignorant of any pertinent reason of all this disorder For as when we observe in a Commonwealth good and bad laws and commendable and unseemly customes mixed together we conclude that either the first Legislators failed in some particular things though they hapned right in others or that later Magistrates degenerated from the Wisdom and Virtue of their Ancestors so beholding order and confusion jumbled together in the World it remains onely to conjecture that either the wisdom of him that contrived it at the beginning was defective or that he could not support and maintain his ancient laws through want of power I mention not at present the natural avidity of knowledge in us which can be little satisfied without a particular revelation as in other abstruse things so in this which is of such moment and continually presented to our minds namely what should be the cause of so many evils that reign in the World In the next place the consolations which they employ against them are very strange Some comfort themselves with the consideration of necessity against which it is unprofitable to struggle And indeed I deny not but it is good counsel to give to such as are miserable that when there is no means of deliverance from calamity to indevor at least to support it with the least impatience that may be because necessity is invincible It is good I say if it could be put in practise But as he that should exhort a man that is in the paroxysm of a violent Colick to be cheerful would shew himself ridiculous and void of understanding so he that should counsel a man fallen into some great and irrecoverable distress to comfort himself because it cannot be otherwise would deservedly be accounted troublesome and almost barbarous Can any imagine that it would have been any great heartning to the poor Philoctetes when he made the Sea and rocks resound his lamentable ejulations and wish'd that some body would cast him down from the precipice of a rock into the waves beneath for one to have said to him Friend there is no remedy Destiny will have it so and to wrastle against her decree is to swim against the stream For this is the cause of his despair that there is no remedy were there any hope of it he would not cry out so loud but sustain himself with those excellent words of Epicurus If pain be great it will be but of short durance And it would be to no purpose in such a case for a man to boast of the invincible strength of his courage Hercules himself groan'd â—nd cry'd out in the midst of the flames In effect there is no constancy which the assiduous perseverance of pain do's not at length overcome Nature ha's not made us of Iron or Steel but hath given us a tender and delicate flesh and quick and lively sentiments In a word the consideration of Necessity may indeed cause a man to resolve to travel through a bad and dirty way or to swallow a bitter potion that is soon down but there is no constancy which is not undermined and worn out by a continual suffering Others have solac'd themselves with the commonness generality of the misery conceiving it both injustice and folly for any particular person to complain of his own case where all are equally involv'd As the Proverb hath it 'T is the comfort of sufferers to have companions Thus the Poet Antimachus compos'd an Elegy wherein he reckon'd up all the disasters befallen to any people that ever he knew to comfort himself upon the loss of his wife But as the Sun though he shines in common to all that have eyes yet his light ought not to be accounted less grateful and sweet and as the use of respiration is
not less necessary because all animals equally breath the air So the condition of unhappy persons is not less painful and grievous by being common to all nor the sentiment of great calamities more light by seeing others groan under the same misfortunes Besides this kind of consolation seems to me to have something of barbarism and inhumanity in it If it happen to any one to be condemned to the Gibbet either justly or unjustly is it meet for him to desire to behold other of his compatriots executed with him for the diminishing of his unhappiness It was a thing which discomforted Phocion at his condemnation to death that he had fellow-sufferers his great humanity inducing him to wish that if possible that heavy sentence might have fallen onely upon his own person But they may seem to have had more reason who comforted themselves with the hope of death that would put an end to all things Yet who sees not that this was but the consolation of desperate people For what difference is there between a man that desires death through impatience of his pain and him that kills himself saving that one ha's more courage or is transported with greater despair then the other Death is naturally accounted an Evil and even by most men the greatest of all Evils nor is there any shame or pain but they will undergo for preserving their Lives even so far as to suffer the mutilation of their arms and legs Cut off my feet and after that my leggs said Mecoenas and my thighs also if you please Provided I do but live t is enough What kind of consolation then can that be which is naturally so much abhorr'd And how great must their misery be who place all their comfort in that which is naturally abhorr'd Must not nature have reduc'd us to a deplorable extremity when there remains no other comfort for us but such as theirs is who being stretcht forth on the Wheel on a Scaffold are told that their sentence is mitigated onely to be hanged But yet they which think of the immortality of their Souls cannot comfort themselves by all these means unless they be well perswaded of the pardon of their sins which have drawn all these miseries upon them For if they indure so great evils in this life for their offenses what can they expect in the other Certainly we see for the most part such a person that desired death through impatience of his pain timerously slinks from it when he sees it approaching and would bargain with any body that could make his Gouts last for fifty years Lastly there have been some that would draw matter of glory from humane miseries and who held that they were the tryals of Virtue esteeming it best for a man to indure evil because otherwise he can have no knowledg of Patience which is the most excellent virtue of all One suffered himself to be brayed in pieces without groaning and another in the violent fits of the Stone said Do thy worst Pain yet I shall never confess that thou art evil But in truth this is a foolish wisdom this Indolence as Plutark says is not bought but at the price of brutality To be a Philosopher of this fashion a man must put off all humane passions and be converted into a Stone As if it were not natural to man to sigh and complain and when he is wrastling with an extreme pain to wish his deliverance But yet those are greater fools who find cause of pride and vanity in their suffering Is it such a cordial chearing to a man who ha's the Colick Gout Megrim or Tooth-ache who is afflicted with poverty shame and contempt of the World who hath lewd children that threaten the Gallows that is oppress'd and tyrannis'd by great adversaries hated tormented persecuted and reviled by inferiors for one to come and tell him that his patient suffering of all this will acquire great glory to him in the world Certainly if the glory and the sorrow were weigh'd one against another I conceive there is no man of sense and that is subject to all these evils but would give all the glory which Caesar and Alexander had both together to be delivered from them The most ordinary consolation as we touched above hath been to reproach and accuse God and Nature which they affirmed was a good mother to other Creatures but to man an incompassionate Stepdame thus adding impietie to misery And they have been even so foolish as to conceit that the greatest part of our mischiefs proceed from I know not what malevolence in the Deity as if he bare a hatred or envy either to the condition or to the prosperity of men One faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And indeed I see not how in the natural impatience of our minds men in so many miseries as they are beset with in the world could contain from accusing the goodness of God unless they had been instructed by the Word of God of the source whence they flow upon us 'T is that alone teaches us that 't is a beginning of vengeance upon the Wicked and a fatherly exercising of chastisement upon the Good Who therefore receive the same with humility in reverence to the will of God bear it with patience as a thing which they have deserved and far worse and rejoyce themselves in hope that his wise Providence will so proportion their afflictions and their strength that they be not overwhelmed with the burden And that which surpasses all humane imagination It reveals such a glory to them for the injoyment of which they are prepared by these sufferings that in comparison of its weight and its eternity all that they indure here is light and scarce of a moments duration There it is that this encouraging exhortation becomes effectual Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentiorito CHAP. VII Of the Remission of Sins What knowledge men naturally have thereof And how much it is the interest of true Piety to he assured of the same Also Of the Resurrection of the Body WE have proved above against the Epicureans that there is such a difference between Vice and Virtue that it is not Places or Times or Laws of Magistrates or Customes of Nations that renders the one commendable and the other worthy of blame but their proper nature and essence which abides eternally equal and uniform We also shewed consequently that as the recompense of goodness is congruous to virtue so vice ha's a due right to punishment For otherwise what is the meaning of all those terrors of conscience which we shew'd above to be natural to men And to what end were the Providence of God himself Who should have taken the rewards of Virtue out of one of his hands and the arms of vengeance against Vice out of the other Wherefore I take it now for granted
besides that though I had not proved it yet they with whom I treat at present do without longer dispute yield it So that I shall pass directly to speak of the Remission of Offenses which merit that punishment and of what great concernment it is in order to being truely Religious towards God to know by what meanes to obtain it and get full assurance thereof Now there are onely four motives which induce men to piety and Virtue The first is that of which alone the Epicureans boast they make any account namely the knowledge of the excellence of the Deity to which must be conjoyned though it agrees not with the principles of Epicurus who places the Supreme Good of man in Pleasure the knowledge of the natural honesty which is in things and which is lovely and worthy to be followed for its own sake The second is the sense of benefit we receive and profit that accrues from both the one and the other For when we are favour'd by the Deity with some great beneficence we ought earnestly to be incited to honor him in acknowledging the same The third is the hope of obtaining some compensation for being Virtuous and exercising piety And the fourth is the fear of incurring his indignation by failing in the respective duties of Piety and Virtue As for the first of these motives we have already shewn that unless God reveal himself in an especial manner men live in a profound ignorance of his nature and his excellence in which respect it cannot be of much force to excite men to piety And the case of the second is the same For although the goodness of God be in infinite maners extended towards men in their creation and the conservation of their being and in such an admirable variety of things which he hath created for their use yet so it is that none of mankind ha's ever acknowledged the same as is meet nor indeed could they as shall more amply appear Concerning the hope of recompense not in this life surely unless very scantly and after a fashion that does not correspond to the infinite goodness which is in God but in another all that men can have of it by the light of nature is unquestionably drawn from the consideration of the benefits which good men receive in this Life from whence to argue that he will enlarge his bounty in that which is to come But divers things hinder a man from being able of himself to take from thence a certain argument for the future For besides that those benefits consist only in temporal and frail things and that it is hard for a carnal man to conjecture by them of eternal and spiritual benedictions they are blended with so many calamities with which our Life is continually persecuted that a man can scarce clearly behold the goodness of God through the instances of his justice unless he bring a very great attention thereunto and we on the contrary consider them very negligently As therefore when a Prince checks and strikes as much or oftner then he caresses it is hard to be assured of his good will or to hope great favors from him unless one hath a most intimate knowledge of his nature and his counsels and diligently weigh his actions and their circumstances his words and gestures thereby to see to the bottom of his thoughts so man being naturally so negligent in considering the ways of the Deity in the medly of effects of his justice and his goodness which appears in the whole conduct of the Universe cannot without doubt but have all his cogitations and reflections thereupon confused unsteddy Is there so much as one to be found in an Age that sets himself to contemplate the benefits which God hath conferr'd on him from thence to conceive an assurance for the future and behold the light of his favour through the darkness and death His Understanding is naturally too weak-sighted there are too many things in the world which divert it too many affections in it that fasten it to the Earth But principally because there is nothing so suspicious as a bad conscience man well knowing his own great inclination to things displeasing to the Deity and even to the slighting of his honor and service his conscience hinders him from hoping any thing from the goodness of God and objects to it self only his vengeance So that the knowledge of Gods benefits towards men being so obscure and dubious in them and on the other side the sense of their own demerit so quick and lively they cannot but be possess'd with a great measure of fear without almost any hope at all Now if the hope of obtaining recompense by serving God be none at all or as good as none at all the piety also will be none which uses to be produced by such hope But there remains fear enough which is that alone which to speak clearly ha's induc'd men that have had no other guide in his service but reason to address to him devotion after their own fashion as Statius intimated in this sentence Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor which we will undertake to examine By fear in the present discourse I do not understand a reverence arising from consideration of the Majesty of him before whom a man presents himself which when he does not find himself guilty of any oâ—fence committed against him may be conjoyned with a cordial love For a thing that is excellent great and adorable of it self naturally causes fear fa tremar altrui di Maraviglia as the Poet Petrark speaks makes the spectators tremble with astonishment But this is no impediment to a violent love and a calme assurance in the conscience But I understand that sort of fear which springs from the sense of a mans own vitiousness and from the knowledge of a vengeance which he foresees will follow Now the Nature of this fear is such to speak generally that the greater it is the less there is of hope to escape punishment and likewise less love then ought to be had for him whose indignation and choler we dread For as the old Poet saies in Cicero Quem odimus periisse cupimus And this is peculiarly verified when things stand in such termes as they do between God and mankind namely when he that fears takes supreme pleasure in the things by which he deserved the punishments he is afraid of So that instead of renouncing his vice by repentance he would not have so much as the least desire of amendment enter into his soul so troublesome is it to him to be deprived of the contentment which he receives in the satlating of his lusts As a dissolute youth hates his Master to the death that scourges him for his debaucheries or as a Thief that hates the Magistrate far more for causing a Gibet to be prepared for him to punish his robberies Wherefore man being corrupt and a sinner as every one is convinc'd in his own conscience and
how shall the goodness of God which we have abundantly shewn is the liberal rewarder of Virtue render to the body the free recompense of the service it hath done the Soul in the practise thereof and of the obedience which its natural appetites have yielded to reason unless it be raised again from the dust Certainly as we said above man is not onely the Soul he is the body also both which contribute respectively to Virtue of which man is capable Wherefore they ought both to be interested in the reward And that justice which is the avenger of sin and without which the Providence of God would be too narrow and defective how will that acquit its charge unless it equally punish the body with the soul Seing they are usually the affections of the body that debauch the mind and 't is the pleasure of the senses that prevents and misguids our reason But the punishment would not be equally proportioned and distributed to the Soul and Body if the soul were miserable to eternity and the body wholly exempted from it to exist no more And the condition of the body would be happy in comparison of that of the mind although the defect of both were equal Moreover the penalty encreasing proportionably to the dignity of him against whom the offense is committed for an outrage done to an inferior person is punisht otherwise then that which is committed against a Soverain Magistrate the justice of God being an infinite power an immense and unlimited dignity and authority how could the punishment of the body by being no more be proportional to the justice of God Or if the justice of God can be satisfied for the offense committed against it with the extinguishment of the body without revival to perpetuity why is not the soul also extinguisht with the body without remaining exposed to a continual and perpetual punishment Certainly it must either be that the body suffers with the soul eternally for satisfaction of the justice of God sutably to his infinite dignity or the soul must be extinguish'd together with the body But neither the justice of the God nor the nature of the soul suffers the same to perish or be abolish'd and therefore the body must be raised from death to partake of the same compensation with it Moreover of how great importance is it for consolation of our minds against the fear of death For death being naturally terrible to all men and the separation of the soul from the body full of bitterness and anguish what more effectual comfort can be received then to expect after a peaceable repose in the grave to be raised by the hand of God from it not to restore us the injoyment of this life that so we might dye over again but to live an eternal life in unexpressible contentment Besides what sweeter consolation in the loss of our friends which is oftentimes more grievous to us then death it self then the hope that they and we shall one day arise from the earth to dwell together in celestial glory Certainly he that represents to himself what joy friends receive here upon an unexpected meeting after divers years absence may in a manner conjecture with what gladness we shall resent the day of that happy resurrection Whence I conceive that excepting the assurance of pardon of sins which delivers the soul it self from the apprehensions of death eternal there is nothing so capable of inflaming the mind of man with love towards God as the hope of resurrection For next to deliverance from the death of the soul which consists in the sense of a remorse and eternal distress what can be more sweet then the deliverance from the death of the body which is to have no more sense nor motion nor life nor being And from the doctrine of the Resurrection however profane men gainsay it results an admiration of the Wisdom of God in reuniting things which nature had so straitly conjoin'd together For since death as we have shewn is not a natural thing but an accident superven'd contrary to the purpose of nature and the design of the first formation of man who in regard of the excellence of his soul ought to be an immortal creature though in reference to his body he was composed of the matter of the Elements what is there more sutable to Divine Wisdom then to reunite without injury either to his justice or his goodness what death had separated by a kind of violence For to repeat those words of of Phocylides it is not meet to dissolve the fair harmony of man And lastly though the power of God may be well understood other ways yet herein is one of the greatest and most admirable testimonies of it to wit that from the earth and the Sea and the entrals of birds and beasts shall be required the bodies of men and that their ashes which are dispers'd and confus'd amongst the Elements shall be recover'd and recollected with so much art that every one shall resume his own body without confusion or mixture Whence is it therefore that this doctrine gives offense and scandal to some Is it repugnant to the Wisdom of God We have prov'd it agreeable thereunto And it would argue defect of wisdom in God if he knew not to distinguish in this confusion of the Elements the places from whence to retake one day the reliques of our members Is it impossible to his power Surely no if we account the same infinite and it is verily infinite if it be divine To conclude doth it encounter reason There is none of us but would naturally desire the resurrection of his body if he esteemed it a thing possible Wherefore seeing God reveals to us both that he will and can do it what is to be doubted more but that reason consents in this desire with nature CHAP. VIII What understanding can be had of true Virtue without a particular Revelation HItherto we have shewn that in the things which relate directly to God and his service and the motives of true and sincere piety men have either been without a particular revelation or absolutely blind or so unresolv'd and wavering in what they knew thereof that they could not from thence render any true devotion to God nor receive any solid consolation to themselves Our next task should be to shew that they likewise needed a particular revelation for the knowledge of true Virtue which ought to be followed amongst men but my design will not permit me to deduce that point at length onely I am to desire the Reader to take notice of two things Indeed I will not question but that they have had far more knowledge of true vertue by the light of nature alone then they had of the requisites and concernments of true piety The excellent instructions of Philosophers commendable Laws of Republicks virtuous deeds of great personages and the universal consent of all Nations any thing civilis'd shew by the account they made of Virtue
Tiberus Gracchus had observed in the books of Augurs that they were created contrary to the custome and that the pavillions were not rightly placed in the publike Assemblies Lastly the means us'd to promote and propagate this Religion were meerly humane as wars conspiracies encroachments invasions sieges of places and battels For how did the Romanes impose other Gods upon other Nations but by force of Arms And how did they possess the Gods of their people but as spoiles of their enemies and trophies of their victories Whereas as we shall see hereafter it was overthrown and ruin'd without a blow strucken after a most wonderful manner CHAP. III. Whether the Profession of all Religions be Indifferent according to the Religion of Mahomet And that this Religion is not of Divine Institution IT is of some difficulty to know certainly what was the opinion of Mahomet the Author of the Turkish Religion concerning this Question Whether the Profession of all Religions be Indifferent For he seems sometimes to affirm it as when he says in the Chapter of the Fable That Jews Samaritans Christians all that shall have trusted in God and believed the Resurrection of the Dead and done good Works shall be exempt from affliction and they shall have nothing to fear at the day of Judgement Sometimes again he denies it as when in the same Chapter and Page he saies Certainly they which say that Jesus the son of Mary is God are impious and the entrance into Paradise is forbidden to him that says God hath a companion equal to himself but hell shall be his habitation Which Assertions are manifestly contradictory And he is otherwise alike unconstant and fluctuating For sometimes he promises the grace of God to all those that do good works provided they believe the unity of the Deity a thing which he is very instant in recommending And sometimes he sayes that his Law is the onely way of truth and salvation and almost every where he teaches to promote it by force of Arms which does not well consist with his former maxime For if all Religions equally endear to God and his favour what necessity is there of so many bloody wars for the propagation of Mahometisme In truth it would be a strange thing if a good Musulman should think his salvation secur'd in the profession of the Christian Religion which censures Mahomet for the greatest and most abominable Deceiver that ever liv'd upon the Earth and his Alcoran for a piece of unparallell'd imposture and execrable impiety or if he should partake in a communion where they pray continually for the destruction of the Empire of the Turke and the extirpation of the Mahometan Religion It is possible he might dextrously explicate his meaning by this distinction whereof there are some shadows frequently in his book That if a person who once embraced the faith afterwards happen to relapse from or renounce the same by constraint yet he shall not be condemned provided he retain the same in his heart but if he do it voluntarily and without any violence he shall never be redressed or restored into the right way by God but shall be adjudged unto eternal pains And it is well known that whatever the Alcoran saies to the contrary The Turkes hold the Persians for eternally damn'd as hereticks of their Law though they consent in the principal points of the same and both unanimously hold that impostor for a supreme Prophet But as to matter of life and ordinary practise there is no people under the Sun more scrupulous in observation of things which they account as making part of their Religion or come neer it within a hundred leagues as not to imploy any paper to unclean uses because the Alcoran is written in it and other such niceties which speak them indeed sufficiently foolish but otherwise exact observers of their most minute ceremonies Their publike prayers are constantly frequented their private never neglected Their Fasts are strict and inviolable and seeing they condemn the use of Wine as abominable how can they be indifferent in other things more essential and important to Religion Certainly though Christians have without comparison better grounds for this pretension that the truth is on their side yet they are nothing neer so passionate for the promoting of Christianity as the Turks are for the propagation of the Law of Mahomet For they invite Christians to them by great rewards they favour and advance renegadoes and when a war is undertaken they are wonderfully zealous and ardent therein if there be hope of extending their Belief further thereby and planting it amongst the Nations which they invade Which also themselves are so obstinate in retaining that it is very ordinary to find amongst them great numbers of persons that have abandoned the name of Christ but to see converted Turks in Christendom is a thing then which nothing is more rare Yea there have been some who have rather chosen to suffer an ignominious death then to accept of a pardon for notorious crimes committed by them on condition of being baptised But admit that Mahomet and the doctrine of his Law made for our adversaries yet I can scarce imagine that in this great light both of holy and profane learning any man in these parts of the world would put any stress upon the testimony of those people who have not onely a profest enmity to all liberal Sciences and such as are sutable to the excellence of humane understanding but whose sottish and abominable superstition equals and in some things surpasses that of the Pagans themselves 'T is true he teaches not onely one supreme but one single and solitary Deity infinite in essence and power and condemns all those trifling Deities which rendred the Pagan Religion so contemptible He acknowledges that this Deity governs the World by his Providence and that all is subject to his Empire even things natural fortuitous and contingent and the motions of the mind of man He preaches in general that God is a rewarder of virtue and that he will repay wickedness with sutable punishments He extolls the mercy of God and declares that he invites men to repentance He exhorts to good works and asserts the resurrection with a final judgement of all men at the consummation of the World But all these things which are so specious and plausible in themselves are but as Sugar blended with his poisonous doctrines to make them be swallow'd more pleasingly and unadvertedly nor needs there any long discourse to discover his imposture I shall not at present insist on the qualifications of his person how he was a wretched and vile Arabian and raised himself to a reputation only by robberies Nor shall I mention his adulteries and impure concubinage nor his fraudes and violences I shall pass over with silence that it was onely the ambition of establishing an Empire amongst theeves that induc'd him to invent and hatch that Religion which he suted to the genius of those he was
face of the World then if they all kept the same equal and uniform tract So without doubt there appears a greater Providence in the conduct of so many Nations so diversified by various sorts of Laws and Governments Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical and mixt each according to its peculiar genius all which nevertheless conspire to the glory of one and the same God and aspire to the atchievment of one and the same hope then if they were all modell'd and policyed according to the same constitutions Besides that God being willing that Christians should be people of free courage and erected to that honest liberty which is worthy of generous and noble souls it ha's pleased him that men should exercise the actions of Justice and virtue no otherwise then by following the suggestions of a nature almost restored by so excellent a Religion to its primitive integrity so that every one should be a Law unto himself It is true that a good part of the Nations which in these dayes make profession of the Christian Name do not shew that a doctrine so heavenly ha's been efficacious to cleanse the vitiosity of nature and repress the disorder of their passions so that there may seem need of more Laws to prevent frauds and injuries But this is the corruption of these dregs of Ages And he that would know what Christian charity and the uprightness of those that have embrac'd this Law is must not consider it such as it is at the present time but in the first Ages of the Church As for the Ceremonial Law 't is the Christian Religion alone that teaches us to understand the use of it by manifesting the enâ— to which it aimed For by that we are instructed that the whole structure of the Tabernacle and all the Oeconomy of the service which was performed therein by external and sensible things did refer to spiritual verities and virtues So that as much as the knowledge of divine mysteries and admirable doctrines transcends things obvious to sense by so much is the Christian Doctrine and the fruits produced by it more excellent then the Mosaical Worship It would be too long to allegorise all that pertains to it the matter will be evident by two or three examples There were two eminent Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lambe To take them according to the construction of the Jews what other signification had they but onely to separate the people of the Jews and to discriminate them from other Nations and be a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and the death of the First-born The one was a token imprinted in the flesh of a Covenant that seem'd to regard onely the body and the other a memorial of a deliverance meerly temporal Now we have learnt from the Christian Religion that the First was instituted to represent the need we stood in that this corrupt nature of ours which we derive from our fathers by ordinary generation should be retrenched if we would have part in the spiritual Covenant with God and the Second to be a type of him of whom it was said He was lead like a Lamb to the slaughter and whose blood and death secured our souls from the dreadful and universal destruction to which otherwise they were obnoxious And in this we do no more but follow the traces which themselves have hereof in the Prophets but could not discern To this purpose is their speaking of and exhorting to the circumcision of the heart as in contempt of that which was made in the flesh and also that of Moses's diligent injunction to sprinkle the blood of the Paschal Lambe upon the posts and tressell of the house and that it should be a perpetual institution in their generations For what virtue had the blood of a Lamb to divert the sword of an Angel and to warrant the houses of the Israelites from the calamity of others There was moreover prescrib'd by it several washings and purifications for the vessels and utensils of the Tabernacle houses and garments infected with any pollution for men and women seised on by some natural infirmity things which were accounted unclean if all these mysteries were not solicitously observed The Gospel hath taught us that all this represents true sanctification which cleanses the corrupt appetites of man and purifies his conscience And truly otherwise to what end or benefit served all these washings if they did not design something else Or why should corporeal and naturally inevitable infirmities such as the Lunar flux of women debarre them from communion with God and his Tabernacle but onely as figuring those voluntary ones of the conscience In this also we have the authority of their Prophets It is said in Ezekiel chap. 36.25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you But how A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes c. Now by how much piety and the internal virtue of the soul is better then the cleanness of the body so much is the recommendation and doctrine of the one more excellent then the observation of the other But this appears remarkably in the principal part of the Ceremonial Law namely in the Sacrifices For the death of beasts being as we intimated formerly incapable to make propitiation for sins and yet it being a thousand times expressed in the Law that those victimes were appointed for propitiation what remains but that they were destinated as types for the representation of a Sacrifice which in truth made real and sufficient propitiation for offenses And indeed what else could the Prophet Isaiah have referr'd to when he said chap. 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was brought as a Lambe to the slaughter and as a sheep before the Shearers is dumbe so he opened not his mouth Especially since the blood of Bulls and Goats had no virtue for the purification of souls and yet the High Priest entred every year into the Holy of Holies with blood in the presence of the Arke of the Lord as if he had gone to offer satisfaction for the sins committed by the People what had this been but a vain and empty ceremony in case it did not typifie One who in the quality of great and Soverain Priest entred into the presence of God in the Heavens with real satisfaction for the sins of men Truly the resemblance is admirable Onely once a year a period of time in which the world seems to exist a new grow up wax old and terminate its duration by the revolution and succession of the four seasons
consequently beatitude satisfaction ought of necessity to precede it because otherwise it would derogate from Justice as the pity with Zaleucus us'd in sparing one of his sons eyes would have prejudic'd the authority of his Law if he had not at the same time decreed to pull out one of his own But Gods giving of his son to make satisfaction for us arising from the former sort of mercy was not founded upon any preceding condition or satisfaction otherwise it would be requisite to proceed to infinity or recur to repentance But the real conferring of sanctity and blessedness which attends it was grounded on foregoing satisfaction Whence it appears that though God might give us a Pledge without being otherwise prevented by us yet he could not remit our sins and bring us to salvation without the intervention of that Pledge And herein it is that on the one side his mercy is resplendant in willing it on the other his Justice in hindring him and his Wisdom in satisfying the latter by such an expedient and giving free passage to the former Now this without doubt ought to be sufficient to men of not contentious spirits And nevertheless here it is that the Boasters of Humane Reason lift up themselves What shew of reason say they is there to punish sin in any other then the person delinquent What justice to execute vengeance upon the just instead of the unjust And what proportion between the punishing of one Man and the Sins of all the world To the two former of these exceptions we intend to give satisfaction in the remainder of this Chapter The third shall be remitted to another First then that several persons may be involv'd in the penalty and yet not in the guilt of a crime appears in the practise of Life and ordinary exercise of humane Justice For Children are punisht for the sins of their Parents and the tainte of the crimes of the Children redounds back upon the Fathers This is seen every day in Offenses of Treason where the design is more atrocious in it self and pernicious to the Common wealth God himself as Magistrate ha's given us a Precedent of this acting For the Thest of Akan who purloin'd forbidden goods was fatal to his whole Family and the Posterity of Saul was hang'd for their Father's fault And the sin of David who in a vanity and presumption of his strength caus'd the Tribes of Israel to be numbred was expiated with the death of seventy thousand men Which also seem'd not irrational in the judgement of the Pagans who very frequently attribute the defeats of great battailes and the loss of flourishing Armies either cut in pieces or destroy'd by mortality to the fault of one single man For the overthrow of Cannae if we will receive their account was occasion'd by I know not what sin of Ter. Varro against Juno and Apollo sent the Pestilence into the Army of the Greeks for Agamemnons despising his Priest Thus also the Goddess Dice in Hesiod requires of Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut luat Populus delicta Regum Now if it be not absurd for them which have no share in the saulâ— to partake of the punishment it cannot seem more inconvenient that a translation of punishment be made from one person to another And indeed that communication of punishment is in some sort a translating part of it As if the Criminal not being capable of all the punishment others should be associated with him to bear a part of it Now if a part may be transfer'd and he discharg'd from so much why may not the whole be devolv'd over to another and so he obtain absolute exemption and impunity Certainly if it be not as they speak of the essence of punishment for sin to be all undergone by him that committed it it will be no more essential to it to be undergone by him in part provided at least there be some sufficient reason to oblige him that suffers the punishment to substitute himself in the place of him that deserv'd it And this reason ought not to be fetcht elsewhere then from the strait and indissoluble conjunction that those two persons the Criminal and the Sufferer have together Now there are divers sorts of Tyes which conjoyn persons closely First Natural Consanguinity as of Fathers towards their Children and Children towards their Fathers of Brethren amongst themselves and of all those who have some neer communion in the same blood Secondly Political Union as of Subjects with their Kings vicissim and of fellow-Citizens one towards another And thirdly Friendship voluntarily contracted but ratify'd by inviolable promises of running as they speak the same fortune and laying down the life couragiously one for another For it wâ—â— never lookt upon as unjust or strange for those who are obstring'd one to another by these bonds to partake in the punishment of their Relatives or substituted themselves in the room of one another to bear it all There is nothing so celebrated in the Poets and Historians as the death which Alcestis suffer'd in her husbands stead and the story of Damon and Pythias Pythagorean Philosophers of which one generously offer'd himself to bear the sentence of death given against his Friend by Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse And many other like examples have been diligently collected by learned Men. What can be said then where there is found One that hath not onely one or two of these relations with mankind but all together and much more What injustice or absurdity will there be for him to derive the punishment of mens sins upon his own Person But such is He whom the Christians venerate for their Redeemer For he is man and consequently of the same blood with them one with them in communion of the same nature He loves them ardently hath contracted an indissoluble society with them and hath offered himself of his own free and immutable will to be surety for their debts He is King of all those whom he hath redeemed and their head and their brother But he was innocent and they unrighteous What equity can there be in this that he who did nothing should be beaten and he that committed the fault have never a stripe This is the Second Exception to which there are three Answers The First of which is that by demonstrating above that Punishment may be communicated and likewise all of it transfer'd to the person of him that had no hand in the Crime it was by the same means demonstrated that the Just may be punish'd for the Unjust for he that was unconcern'd in the fault of which notwithstanding he suffers the penalty is innocent in this respect whether he be culpable or no in some other matters and therefore he suffers in such case not for other matters of which he may be guilty but in consideration of this in respect of which he is absolutely just So that all his other actions what ever they be are
they have two exceptions against this One that it ought to be translated thus And the Name of him that shall call him is the Lord our Righteousness The other that the City of Jerusalem is also termed by this Name and therefore that the Messias cannot take so great advantage by it But these are cavils unworthy of people in whom there is left the least measure of Understanding and Ingenuity For as for the first to what end here serves the mentioning the name of him that must call the Messias without expressing the name of the Messias himself seeing the drift is to set him forth and to encourage the Church with the hope of those benefits which should accompany his coming into the World And in the next place what a defective manner of speaking is this And the name of him that shall call him without adding how or wherefore What example can be produc'd of the like And when the Prophet speaks thus In those days I will raise unto David a righteous branch c. In his dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and then shall she be called The Lord our Righteousness where the name of the City of Jerusalem is remarkably declar'd and not of him that calls her is the phrase and placing of the words wholly alike For the second Indeed it is more then evident that this Name cannot have been attributed to a Person and to a City after the same manner To a Cit◠it cannot be sutable but only as a memorial of Favour done to it by him to whom the Name is properly competent And to a Person it cannot be appropriated but to denote somthing that resides in such person There can be no danger in communicating so glorious a Name to a City none being so brutish or stupid as to take occasion to suspect any Divinity either in the whole people of a City or its stones To a man simply as man it cannot be given without an inevitable scandal of Idolatry especially to such a personage as he that is describ'd there was to be not onely a King but the first-born among Kings and the King of the whole world And truely if the Messias be not God it would be injustice to condemne those that should adore him as culpable of Idolatry seeing him honored with so magnificent Names For what ought we not to render to him to whom both divine names and honors are communicated in the Scripture the names of the highest Majesty as that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most sublime honors as dedication of a Temple and that so holy and sacred a Temple Besides that in describing his admirable atchievements there is excuse more then enough for error if error may be committed herein He ought to break the serpents head with his heel Is it within the power of a meer man to foil so strong an enemy with so much disdain and glory In him all the families of the earth ought to be blessed A benediction so firm and vigorous that it reaches through so many Ages and is diffus'd so abundantly over all Nations whence could it flow but from an infinite fountain He ought to have the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for possession Can so great an Empire be maintain'd and governed yea even eternally without an infinite power and wisdom He ought to sit at the right hand of God But how should he be capable of so great an honor except he be God himself For seeing Kings did not readily admit any to sit at their right hands but onely those which were of their own blood as Solomon did Bathshebah or whom they establish'd Lieutenants and Governors of their Dominions as being the second place of the Kingdom most honorable next the throne Whether it be out of the first consideration that the Messias is seated at the right hand of God he can have no consanguinity with him but by communion of Nature Or the Second he cannot be capable of so eminent a dignity nor provided of wisdom and power enough to maintain the same it being necessary to possess both in an infinite manner if the person himself be not infinite He ought to redeem the Church both by suffering an infinite punishment as we have shewn and by the victory which he was to obtain over death and him that was chief in the Empire of death Who could undertake and accomplish so great a design unless one that is very God Now if this Messias our Surety ought to be God as must be acknowledg'd or else all the Holy Scriptures denyed forasmuch as his Person is of an infinite dignity his Satisfaction was not only sufficient for all mankind which how numerous soever cannot be actually infinite but also correspondent to the immensity of the Nature of God and proportionate to his Justice For as the Professors of the Civil Laws teach that crimes become more henious proportionably to the dignity of the person against whom they are committed and Reason also adds its suffrage hereunto so in like manner they attest that penalties and Satisfactions are rated according to the dignity of those who undergo and perform them And it is not material that the punishment deserved by men was to be eternal in case they suffer'd it in their own persons whereas the Passion of their Substitute ought to have had a certain termination of time otherwise that which is impossible to imagine a person of such excellence should have continued under perpetual condemnation For according to the natural right and order of things sin deserv'd an infinite punishment inasmuch as it was committed against an infinite majesty But because the nature of man is bounded and infinity cannot otherwise be competent to him but onely by perpetual duration had men themselves been to suffer it it could not have been infinite otherwise but onely by being eternal But the satisfaction performed by our Substitute did not need to be immense in respect of perpetual duration because his person was of an infinite dignity For it was made according to the absolute Right of Gods Justice and the Natural order of things and not according to the compensation which should have been made in the persons of men by the eternal duration of their paines by reason of the narrow limitation of their Nature From this discourse it very clearly results that there are distinctly in the Divine Essence which with the Jews we acknowledge to be one and simple at least two Persons or Hypostases or Subsistences for we stand not greatly upon it by which of these names they are termed Namely that which is most usually represented to us in the Old Testament by the Name of God Creator of all things and that which in order to being Mediator between God and Men was to assume humane Nature who is sometimes represented to us under the names of SON and Branch As in the 2 Psalm vers 7. I will declare the
familiarity with the language in which they writ to observe the same attentively For I am confident whatever some say there is not to be found in any Author Greek or Latin so magnificent and pompous an eloquence And if they understand them not in their natural language let them read them considerately in some version performed with care and diligence especially in those which are commonly call'd Living Tongues For though the Greek and Latine languages are in their own authors more rich and copious yet those which live if well manag'd are more plyable to these Translations and take off better the impression and graces of the language of the Prophets and this because they are capable of new words and phrases It will without question appear that all the reproaches profane men cast upon the Holy Books and disparagements of its style and eloquence are frivolous If therefore these Books teach the doctrine of the Trinity as we have shewn they do and are delivered to us by divine Inspiration as is clearer then the Noon-Sun what a folly would it be to go about to examine by reason the mysteries of the Divine Wisdom which it self ha's revealed Now concerning the correspondence these verities have with others unquestionable in the Doctrine which holds them forth it may seem sufficiently declar'd in the preceding discourse Man is fallen into a depth of misery and so is become an object of pity Now in whom can he excite it unless in him that is the Father of Mercy But it was by his sin and so he is an object of justice And from whom is he to expect punishment but from the supreme Judge of the World Will this Mercy display it self in pardon without punishing No that would be to the prejudice of justice Will this justice be executed upon man himself Nor so this would be to exclude all Mercy in which the Almighty takes delight What remains therefore but for God to substitute a pledge in the room of men Now it is requisite that this substitute suffer death and by consequence that he be man And it is requisite that his passion be of an infinite value and for this he must be God for no other is capable of making such a satisfaction And if he who is God be stricken by the hand of God by way of punishment do's it not necessarily follow that there are two distinct persons in God This redemption is unprofitable if it be not efficaciously applyed to man Who shall apply it to him Not himself A blind man might as well open his own eyes or a Carcase raise it self out of the grave And since this work of our salvation is common both to the Father and the Son what is more consentaneous then for them to consummate and apply it by a Virtue which is common to them both Now if it be common to both it is distinct from both How therefore is there not a Third This is that which men chiefly stumble at in the Christian Religion In all other things it is so consistent with reason that its greatest enemies dare not gain-say it In this indeed it is in no wise incongruous with reason provided it be attended to in a due maner we let not loose the bridle to its presumptuous curiosity These principles are likewise common to both the parties into which we have distinguisht all those which profess the Christian Name in Europe at this day If there be some things embrac'd by either which seem absurd to reason or contrary to piety yet it behoveth not forthwith to accuse Christian Religion for it It is meet to try the same by those Books which both equally own and explore them by the common Principles upon which their Religion is built For if they be conformable thereunto they will be found in no wise repugnant to right reason if not they must be held for humane inventions and Religion discharged of the blame CHAP. IX That Jesus is the Messias promised by the Old Testament Also Of the Divinity of the New WHereas we have evinc'd in the preceeding Discourse that the Christian Religion far surpasses in excellence of Doctrine that which the Jews of old profess'd how divine soever it was and consequently that it was substituted in its place it is now sufficiently clear since Jesus is the sole author of it and profess'd himself to be the Messias promised by the Prophets that he is really the person For how could an Impostor have been the interpreter and revealer of so celestial a Doctrine And this is chiefly the means by which he verily ought to be judg'd For 't is a man's Doctrine which manifests what he is Nevertheless our design would not be complete unless we also observ'd here briefly because others have most diligently and amply acquitted themselves in this matter the principal circumstances of his birth his Life and his Death For there ha's not been the least defect therein in relation to all that was heretofore either required or presignified by the Prophets Malachi had writ in these express terms chap. 4. Behold I will send you Eliah the Prophet before the comming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers From this place the Jews still expect the comming of Elias But what appearance is there that Elias himself should be fetcht back from Heaven to converse again here below on Earth That after so long an enjoyment of the felicities above he should return once more into the miseries of life Certainly as it was necessary for him at his reception into Heaven to be devested of the terrestrial qualities of his body and clothed with sutable ones to the place of his new abode so if he should redescende amongst us it would be requisite for him to resume qualities agreeable with a terrene condition and to despoil himself of his celestial glories Now he might well pass from worse to better from an earthly to a heavenly life but to return from better to worse would be a mutation of too much disadvantage Elias therefore was to come just as David was to come for the Prophets promised him also Not that the Son of Jesse and father of Solomon ought to arise from among the dead to repossess the Kingdom of Israel but the Messias of whom David was a type ought to be the conducter and Chieftain of spiritual armies and passing through many dangers and fights obtain peace to his people by his glorious victories Thus ought one to be born who being cloath'd with the spirit of Elias and leading the same manner of life might prepare the hearts of men to receive the Messias by preaching the doctrine of repentance with an extraordinary authority gravity And such was John the Baptist as our Evangelists describe him to us Isaiah had said in the seventh Chapter of his Prophecies Behold a Virgin shall conceive and
conscience summons him before the Tribunal of God and he reflects seriously on the immortal state of his soul the memory of all this vanishes and ther 's nothing to animate and comfort us but only the knowledge of the things which are reveal'd to us in these divine writings which moreover both the multitude and the constancy of such as have maintained with their blood to be of Divine original do justly challenge admiration For since it ha's not been through ferocity of courage that they underwent death with such alacrity being simple men for the most part and humble and quiet-minded in their whole lives nor through ambition of vain glory from affecting which they were very remote in all their conversation nor through a blind and obstinate headiness and opiniastry having always shewn themselves submissive to all good reasons and respectful towards all persons and especially towards superior Powers nor through brutish stupidity since in all other matters they appear'd men of sober judgements capable of reason and prudence nor through ignorance of the nature of Death seeing they preach't to others that 't is an effect of the vengeance of God upon the Sin of men and were fully perswaded of the immortality of their souls but the onely hope of glory promised in those books raised them beyond all fear they must needs have had a high perswasion of their verity since it was capable to ingenerate so powerful and impregnable a confidence in their minds And whereas there were many things which might have reclaim'd and deterr'd them from embracing these Books as the continual afflictions which they promise in this life for such is the gratification they hold forth here to those which receive them the love of their estates honors and children which naturally possesses the mindes of men the reproach of an ignomious death which is so intolerable to minds that own any thing of generosity the severity and reiteration of torments sufficient to shake the most firm resolution it follows that there must have been some more then humane inducements which fix'd their minds so unmoveably on an object expos'd to so numerous incomfortable perplexities and violences Then consider especially the almost infinite multitude of Martyrs and their long perseverance through so many Ages For had there been but two or three it might have been deem'd Nature had intended some extraordinary exploit in them or that they were transported by some foolish fancy and every Religion might produce some like example But what charm could have been potent enough to induce so many millions of men women and children of all ages conditions sexes and in so many most bloody persecutions renewed from time to time and age to age to despise death so magnanimously in maintaining a doctrine which had no other trouble attended it may seem ought to have been disgustfull to them both because it oppos'd their passions which we follow so willingly and depriv'd them of all the sweetnesses and delights of life Nevertheless those Violences have been the means to propagate it throughout the whole Earth and resolution and patience the arms wherwith it ha's destroy'd the empire of the false Gods and expelled the Demons from government of the World Other kind of Armies it never depended on to extend its conquests even to the ends of the World and subdue the greatest and most flourishing Empires All other Religions are confounded or if any are still upheld 't is only by the favor of Princes force of arms This though all the powers of the world were enemys to it at it's birth though it never attempted any thing but by the Voice onely never us'd other rampart for defence but an invincible patience ha's born up through 1600 years and overcome the hearts of Princes themselves But of this subject there are express Treatises to which we refer the Reader and proceed to examine in the next Chapter a certain Opinion excogitated of old by some giddy spirits and reviv'd in our dayes against the Divinity of Christ which though destitute of all apparence of reason do's not cease to take root and grow amongst many persons and therefore requires our consideration Place these two leaves which you find with Stars between 510 and 511. CHAP. X. That those who affirme Christ took upon him the appellation of God though he was not so onely that he might thereby render his Dâ—ctrine more authentique are apparently destitute of all reason THere are some people in these dayes who conceive they render the Christian Religion very acceptable when they give this account of matters pertaining to it That true Religion consists in the internal piety of the soul towards God and in the sincere and constant exercise of true virtue towards men That of all Religions the Christian is that which holds forth most knowledge of the nature of God and true virtue reducing the humane mind to the principles of nature it self and rectifying it from all the perverse opinions which the corruption of depraved Ages had induc'd into it But because the naked and plain proposing of these matters would have been very little effectual with men their own affections inclining them more powerfully to vice then virtue and for that the exhortations of a man merely man would not have been very prevalent Christ who was the chief and most excellent promoter of it that he might render his preaching more authentick assum'd the glorious appellation of the Son of God and pretended to be God too to the end that it being natural to us to receive with reverence what proceeds from the Deity his Doctrine might be more readily and firmely embrac'd his pretended divine dignity and the danger of rejecting what God is author of conciliating a sacred and venerable authority unto him Whence it was that like as when some great structure is to be built scaffolds are erected round about it which of themselves make no part of the Work but are serviceable for conveying materials upwards and for the standing of workmen so in the structure of Christian Religion some positions were employ'd which of themselves are but mere fictions but yet conduce to the establishing of profitable and excellent truths Such are the doctrine of the Trinity that of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of Justification by means of Christ's death and others which depend on these which are in their judgement Pious Frauds as they speak useful to very advantageous effects and might be imploy'd with a safe conscience because 't is a good thing to deceive when the delusion renders men better more happy and more wise Now this Opinion is so strange and swarmes with so many absurd impieties that not the scarcity but the abundance of Arguments which arise all at once in the mind of whosoever considers it renders me anxious where I should begin For in the first place it is requisite that they take away all correspondence between the Old Testament and the New and deny that our
Lord Jesus was the Messias Because the preaching of Christ was grounded on this point That God had heretofore by his Prophets promis'd a Messias to the people of Israel who should be the Redeemer of the Nation and he was sent accordingly by God for that end in the fullness of time t in which regard he invited all the world to receive him as the Supreme Prophet Let them speak it out therefore confidently whether Christ be the Messias promised by the Old Testament or not For if he be not it behoveth to become Jews and to account him as they do for the greatest Deceiver that ever was upon the earth and hence forward turn our Churches into Synagogues reducing all Christian order to the ancient manner of the Tabernacle If he be the Messias promised by the Old Testament he is God for that describes him to be such as we have shewn by irrefragable proofs And that those Books of Moses David and the Prophets are divine what we have spoken above in the matter leaves it no longer doubtful Nevertheless admit for the present they be writings purely humane surely these excellent Theologers will not deny least the reading shame them but that they agree all in this particular That from the Nation of the Jews ought one day to arise a great and rare personage who should be King in Israel and should be called the Son and the Branch of the Lord himself And this hath been the expectation of that people in all times with which they comfort themselves still in their deplorable desolation But what moved them to speak in this manner if they had no other instinct but from their own mind Who incited Moses to set this fraud first on foot Why did the others many Ages after so carefully cherish ratifie and augment it in several circumstances with other false prophecies What profit did they reap by deluding the world with such a hope They must have had intelligence so many ages before with a man who was not yet in being to foretell that he should exist and this man born by chance at the just time which they presum'd to determine must have taken occasion from these fortuitous predictions and the expectation rais'd by them in the minds of men to declare himself the person whom so many prophets in so many different times had unanimously presag'd was to exist Now it would be a strange case that Moses should first of all without any necessity of so doing or advantage by it in reference to his design of governing the people of Israel and the establishment of his power take up a fancy of the future arising of some great Prophet and then another should come two or three hundred years after and revive this prediction made at randome and enlarge and clear it up with other new for this opinion was successively more and more confirm'd and rooted in the minds of men and that at length at the time prefixt and the set period there should be found one both confident enough to draw all those presages to his advantage and so favor'd by fortune that all the circumstances of his birth his life and his death should meet together in his person Surely ther 's as much likelihood in this as in the Imagination of Epicurus concerning the framing of the world by the casual lighting together of Atomes But there 's something yet more strange If they were predictions purely humane and also fortuitous like the Ephemerides of Nostradamus being they were cloath'd in magnificent terms and there was nothing promis'd less then a King sitting upon the throne of David who was to restore the Commonwealth of Israel faln into so miserable an estate under the power of the Romans If Jesus were merely man and intended to advantage himself by the foolish hopes of that people what a preposterous madness was it to take the course he did In stead of exciting the people to sedition against the Romanes he commands to pay tribute and pays it himself to give example In stead of insinuating into the affections of daring adventurous men and such as he might use for Captains he makes choise of a dozen poor Fishermen and people of such condition to have them continually in his train Instead of erecting his Nation to magnanimity he betakes himself to preach humility and obedience In stead of imploying the virtue of doing miracles he was so mighty in to astonish Herod or Pilate in some surprise or battail he heals the lame and the blind and the dumb and the paralytick And that which is if these Opinionists be credited the height of folly instead of raising men into hope of his victories he foretells to them which followed him that he was to dy upon the Cross and sharpely reproves one of them who went about to disswade him from that purpose of his Was this the way if it was a humane Design to be get in the world already posses'd with hope of a Messias for a great Earthly King a belief that he was the person which was promised by their Prophets Surely Mahomet us'd not this course who takes arms in hand gives freedom to slaves and because he knew his doctrine could not support it self by the prop of truth plants it in all places where he can by wars and battles Wherfore to conceive a person should endevor to serve himself after this manner of the presumptions and expectations of men is not to fancy a man but a lunatick In the next place I ask whether Jesus Christ when he called some persons with him to serve him in the work he undertook as nothing is more apparent then that he had twelve peculiar Apostles he discover'd this secret of his pretended Divinity to them or whether he abus'd them aswell as other men For if he discover'd the same to them 't was a wonderful complot that he should style himself the Son of God deport himself for very God and they profess themselves his messengers sent immediately from him to promulgate his doctrine and at last for their reward he should be ignominiously crucifi'd and each of them respectively after divers dangers both by Sea and Land after imprisonments stonings tortures and racks should conclude their miserable and painful lives by cruel and shameful deaths Truely though he chose Fishers and men of low condition yet I believe there was none among them so stupid as to be capable of being perswaded to partake in this enterprise upon these conditions For as for his having induc'd them to it by this onely consideration that great good should come thereby to the World and that the Nations should be converted by their word from Idols to the true God there was so little colour in the thing that he would never have been believ'd so little of that generosity in them which leads men to promote the universal good of the world without appearance of other recompense then misery and death that none of them would have