and Particular as relating to the Actions and Course of every individual Person Moreover the Notion of Providence is Two-fold the first is natural by which God provides all things necessary for the Life and Sustenance of Man The second is Moral which may more properly be called Previding being no other than the secret End propos'd by God for his concurrence with Man in all his Actions which be they never so Irregular Unjust or Vicious from the Evil Ends propos'd by Men are by the Divine Power and Wisdom made to be the Instruments of Good beyond the Intention of second Causes Prophane Story is not so apt to illustrate this Point as Sacred Writ for Instance The End propos'd by Jacob's Sons in selling Joseph was Revenge God concurs with them in this Action but upon other Ends designing to make this unjust Act of theirs to become an Instrument for their Preservation as appears from the wonderful Accidents throughout the whole Course of that History which Passage also was a Type of what befell our Lord and Saviour who was villainously sold betray'd and barbarously put to death by the Jews to all which God concurs making this wicked Act of theirs to be the sole Means for saving those Murderers and all the World besides by that Atonement which was made for their Sins by the Precious Blood of his only Son This Method is most Consonant to the Nature of God it being impossible there should be any greater Demonstration of his Divine Power and Goodness than to be able to convert Poison into a Cordial and to procure safety out of that which would naturally be our ruin But that we may the better understand the Cause and Reasonableness of God's Operations with Men I must leave my ordinary Road a little and take up with the obscure Traces and Niceties of Metaphysicks by premising some few Propositions which like the Postulata or Axioms in the Mathematicks must be taken for granted for the present to avoid the long Digressions and Perplexities which would follow upon a particular Proof of each of them And 1. God from all Eternity foresees all future Actions of Men his Omniscience being a Noble Attribute and Branch of his Divine Nature 2. This Fore-knowledge of God tho' it imply a certainty of the Action does not lay a necessity upon the Agent no more than my fore-knowledge of the Sun 's rising to morrow Morning is a necessary Cause of the Course and Rising of that Glorious Creature 3. That God's influence upon the Actions of Men is either Physical or Moral Physical for as much as he by his Power is the Preserver of every Creature in its Being and Operations and this Power extends it self to all the Actions of Men whether Natural or Spontaneous 2. Moral by proposing Rewards and Punishments as Motives to excite or to disswade from Action adding sometimes his Positive and Revealed Commands together with his assisting Grace by the impulse of his Holy Spirit but this is a Point which more properly concerns Divinity 4. That God has given Man a freedom of Will viz. a Power to choose or dislike upon the apprehensions he has of Objects for Man otherwise would be nothing but a meer Machine all whose Motions whether Regular or Irregular Good or Evil would be nothing but the contrivance and direction of its Maker and would be reputed all for the Acts of Man because God is pleas'd to produce them in his Presence which is all one as to say that the Feracity of the Garden is an Act of the Water-pots because the Water does run through it by which the Gardner does revive his Flowers 5. That the apprehension which Man has of Objects upon which he forms his Acts of choice or dislike being many times clouded by Ignorance or misguided by Irregular Passions is that which betrays him to the commission of Evil. 6. The Perpetration of which Evil is no further forth the Act of God than that Man in his Existence and consequently in his Operations must depend upon the Conserving Power of his Creator so that God can no more be said to be the Cause of Sin than the Sea whose Nature 't is extinguish Fire can be said to be the Cause of the burning and ruin of some Cities for as much as it supports and carries up the Ships from whence came the Bombs and Fire-works which did the mischief From whence it follows also that the commission of Sin is a Moral Action terminated in something forbidden which may be understood either of the Internal Act of the Will proposing a bad Object or a bad End or else of the External Action or Execution which whether it contain any thing positive in its Nature is with great nicety disputed some distinguishing betwixt the materiality of the Action and the formality or obliquity which is nothing but the regard which the Action has to an unlawful Object The former they make to be Positive the other a mere Privative though this latter seem'd a little difficult For Instance this or that particular Act of murder whether intended or executed does receive its Individuality and Being from the Object on which 't is terminated so that this particular Act or Action it self is nothing else but the very Termination on such an undue Object and in which consists they say the very formality and obliquity of Sin In the last Place this propensity in Actions whether Good or Evil whatsoever it be is not of the Nature of a Creature since even by divine Power it cannot subsist of it self it being impossible there should be such a thing as a Thought without something which thinks and something which is thought upon or an Action without an Agent and an Object It is therefore of the Nature of a Relation which can be said only to have an improper and denominative Reality for as much as the Terms related are real Things From these Points thus premised some Rational answer may be given to such Difficulties as shall occur in our further Consideration of Divine Providence over Human Actions Resuming therefore the distribution which I made in the beginning of this Chapter we are first to consider God's Providence in Relation to greater Bodies or Civil Communities or as it extends it self to the Establishment and Revolutions of Kingdoms To prove this we need no more but to reflect upon the Nature and Attributes of God who as it hath been already demonstrated is Omnipotent and gives Life and Power to every Creature in all its Motions and Tendencies As for Epicurus his Reasonings they are foolish when he endeavours to shew that it is beneath the Grandure of a Deity to concern it self in the Transactions of Men and that the Multiplicity and Contrariety of Occurrences would be an interruption to that Tranquility which is so essential to that happy state where there is nothing but quiet and serenity These Notions of Epicurus so soft and gentle so smooth and inchanting would suit
imploring the Mercies of Heaven notwithstanding all their Efforts become a Prey to Impiety being either Sacrific'd to the Exactions of Usury or trampled on by the Voluptuous and Proud or perhaps Plunder'd at the Will and Pleasure of a Tyrant or exhausted by the methods of a tedious process of Sickness or blasted by Defamations and Slanders or afflicted with an unfortunate Family with many such like Miseries and Disasters Upon which Account when one told Diagoras Thou who dost believe that the Gods neglect Mens safety dost thou not observe the contrary from the many Pictures or Votive Tables hung upon their Temples by those who escap'd Shipwrack Very true reply'd Diagoras for there are no Pictures of those who perish'd In Answer to this Calumny and all the Parts and Members of it First Good men may not be successful in what they pray for because they do not use the Means The Husband-man in the Fable finding his Waggon stuck in the Dirt lays down his Whip and calls on Hercules for help to whom the God made answer Rise Fool and use thy Whip and put thy Shoulders to the Wheels and then call on Hercules and he will succour thee God does not work Miracles to supply the Sloth of men Secondly though men may use their best Endeavours for attaining what they pray for they may be unsuccessful nevertheless by proposing undue Ends. This man asks for Riches that he may pass the remainder of his Life in softness and delight that man sues for Honour and the Grace and Favour of his Prince that he may shew a Grandure in Commanding others and receiving Marks of Homage and Obedience Thirdly Tho' the thing we pray for may be Honest and the End Good yet God may refuse to grant it because it may not be Beneficial or if of present Benefit yet of future and durable Inconvenience which made the Heathen cry out Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Dii The Gods instead of what seems pleasant may answer us another way by giving us what is fitting and useful But if the Subject of mens Prayers be the Preventing of some Evil which threatens us or perhaps the Removal of something which afflicts us yet may we be unsuccessful without any Reproach to Providence upon these two Considerations First The Evil which we deprecate may be design'd only for Correction and Amendment this is no more strange than to see the Surgeon whose help we implore to remove a Pain instead of giving present ease to fall a-cutting and burning and perhaps dismembring Secondly God may lay Calamities and Afflictions upon men that they may produce Nobler Acts of Virtue The Stock from which the Husband-man expects the choicest Fruit is prun'd most and must often bleed by suffering his Luxuriant Branches to be cut away whereas Common Trees have been suffer'd to grow at random and to spread wide their Arms that they may afford more Fuel for the Fire This the Heathens understood perfectly in the Temple which they built to Honour which was so plac'd that there was no entrance to it but by that of Virtue whose Nature consists in Fortitude and whose Object is Difficulty and Danger Aeneas is Figur'd as a Pattern of Heroick Virtue whilst he is expos'd to Burnings and Tempests toss'd from Shore to Shore and always made to feel the strokes of an incens'd Deity all which serv'd but to render him more firm and resolute in his Actions being like the Armour he wore which was made impenetrable by being wrought in the Fire by being forg'd and beaten upon the Anvil and dipt in the Stygian Lake Further yet Divine Providence may suffer Good men to be a long time under Disgraces and Afflictions to render restor'd Comforts more dear and affecting The longer men have lain in Chains and Captivity the greater is the Jubile by which they are restor'd to Liberty 'T is like a Pardon upon the Point of Execution where the Fears of Death yield stronger Fuel and Vigour to Life How sweetly does a man who is deliver'd from the sharp Assaults of the Gout taste the Pleasures of Health how thankful is he for the Benefit and what esteem has he for the Means by which he was restor'd In the last Place Though Divine Providence should never withdraw the Misfortune under which we groan yet is this no Argument that we are neglected by it on the contrary it is the best Argument in the World to support us under it it being utterly inconsistent with the Nature and Goodness of God to suffer Innocence to be oppress'd without a due Reward which because it is not found in this Life it remains that there is a future State after Death where Virtue shall be Crown'd But this I shall wave at present as being founded upon the Soul's Immortality a Point which by the method of this Argument may be discours'd upon hereafter for at present I shall decline all Topicks taken from the Truth and Doctrines of the Christian Religion till I shall arrive to it by the Course and Progress of Reason Upon this Prospect which the wiser Heathens had of a future State after death they bravely endur'd the Insults of Fortune and triumph'd over the Cruelty of those by whom they suffer'd Theramenes being Condemn'd by the Thirty Tyrants of Athens took the fatal Cup into his Hand and drank to Critias who was the most active man amongst them to pronounce the Sentence Brave gallantry in him to behold Death with an undaunted Countenance and drink his Enemies Health in his own Poison Socrates not long after was by the Command of his Judges Condemn'd to the same Prison and to drink of the same Poisonous Cup which being about to take off he discours'd after this manner I have great hopes my Judges it will be well with me that I am condemn'd to die for one of these two Things are certain either that Death shall extinguish all Sense or Translate us into another Place if all Sense be extinguish'd Death certainly is but like a sound sleep which is then most pleasing and natural when it is not interrupted by the Fantasms of a Dream Good God! How great Profit is it for me to die or who can be more Happy than I But if it be true as men say that Death is nothing but a Migration into those Regions which men Inhabit after this Life thou art yet more happy since thou shalt be deliver'd from them who would now be accounted Judges that thou maist go over to those who are Judges indeed such as Minos Rhadamanthus Aeacus and Triptolemus and there Converse with those who have liv'd Justly What would you not give to discourse with Orpheus Musaeus and Homer Truly I would die often if it were possible that I might Experiment the Truth of these things nor would such of you amongst my Judges who declar'd me Innocent fear to die For no Evil can happen to a good man whether living or Dead nor can his
Employ but such as had born some Office of State and withal he was not like other Magistrates compellable to give Account of the Administration of his Charge This Sacred College of Priests were called Pontifices from a Wooden Bridge in Rome called Pons Sublicius which they were oblig'd to maintain and was held so Sacred that whensoever it was to be repair'd as it was often nothing could be done till the Victim was slain and the Work made auspicious by a solemn Sacrifice This Custom still continu'd till the Times of Aemylius the Treasurer who built this Bridge of Stone The Scribes and under Officers of this Sacred College were call'd Pontifices Minores and perform'd also some Sacred and Inferiour Functions There was one amongst the Priests who was called Rex Sacrorum for as much as he was appointed to exercise these Sacred Functions which belong'd formerly to their Kings But the Kingly Government being abolish'd they conferr'd their Religious Power on this Officer and least the Name of Rex might create in him any desire of Empire and Regal Dominion they made him utterly uncapable of any Military or Civil Office confining his Authority only to Religious Rites over which he did preside And particularly it did belong to the Rex Sacrorum to Sacrifice a Ram to Janus upon the Fifth of the Ides of January In all their Sacred Banquets or Pontificial Feasts he sate next to the Pontifex Maximus and above the Flamines of Jupiter Mars and Romulus The Flamines had their Original from Numa who Instituted one that was call'd Dialis or the Priest of Jupiter to whom were added two more Flamines or Priests one who presided over the Service or Sacred Functions of Mars called Martialis the other over those of Romulus called Quirinalis but in after Times the Number of the Flamines was augmented also to Fifteen all which were denominated from the respective Gods to whose Service they were appointed Every District or Ward also had its Flamines or Priests who like our Bishops were called Curiales Moreover in every Tribe or Ward there were appointed other Inferiour Ministers whose Business it was to perform Religious Duties up and down the Villages for the Devotion and Benefit of the Common People much resembling our Parish Priests They were called Flamines quasi Filamines for when by the extremity of Heat they could not wear their Caps or Bonnets peculiar to their Order they were allow'd to bind their Heads with a small Filet or Ribband in form of a Diadem it being forbidden them to be seen at any time altogether bare-headed However on Festivals and at Solemn times of Officiating they were oblig'd to wear their Bonnets though the heat were never so great which Bonnets had a small Rod of Olives fastned on them at the Top whereof stuck a little Tuft or Boss of Cotton There were also other Colleges of Priests of great Antiquity as the Priests of Mars called Salii à saliendo from dancing about the Streets on solemn days and beating their little Swords against the Sacred Shields made in imitation of that which was said to be sent from Heaven in the time of Numa wherein consisted the Fate and Safety of Rome The Luperci or Priests of Pan were said to be Instituted by Romulus and Remus upon the Death of their Grand-Father Numitor. They were us'd to run about the Streets naked having only a Goats Skin over them and with small Thongs of Goats Leather dipt in the Blood of the Sacrifice they us'd to strike the Palms of the Hands of such Women as desir'd Fecundity The Romans also had a Fraternity of Priests called Arvales appointed by Romulus for the Benediction of the Corn Fields with many other Orders also too long to be now insisted on The Augurs were a Society of Religious Persons who were lookt upon as the Internuncii or Interpreters of the Gods and muuh differing in Office from the Priests Their Number was small at first growing greater and greater proportionably to the extent of the Empire Their College was Compos'd of Twenty four Members in the time of Sylla's Dictatorship They were said to be Instituted by Romulus who himself was a very expert Augur It was their Office to Prognosticate future Events from the flight and chattering of Birds to inspect the Entrails of Beasts and interpret Dreams as also to make a Judgment of Prodigies and Monsters of Tempests Thunders and Earthquakes To explain Oracles and the Prophecies of the Sybills They were also Judges of the Election of Magistrates in so much that the Dictators Consuls and Praetors with other Officers of greatest Power were oftentimes depos'd by the Augurs if their Promotion did appear to be Un-canonical and Defective also they could dissolve their Assemblies and suspend Proceedings if things appear'd inauspicious Moreover they held their Office for Term of Life whereas the Pontifices might be degraded from the Priesthood for divers Causes No wonder then if the greatest Magistrates were ambitious of this Office Fabius Maximus is said to have held the Augurship Sixty two years unto his Death and Julius Caesar when he usurp'd all the great Offices upon his subversion of the Common-wealth assum'd also that of the Augurship as appears by the Lituus on his Money The Augurs were us'd to make their Observations sitting and wore a Veil upon their Heads and were cloath'd with a long Robe or Vest of Purple and Scarlet He had also a crooked Staff in his Hand and winding at the end like a Rams-horn call'd a Lituus with which he markt and quarter'd out the Heavens into several Regions After this a Victim being slain he recited certain Forms of Prayers or Verses and then with Eyes directed towards Heaven he applied himself with a profound silence and attention to make his Observations and for the better performance of these Rites the Augurs ever made choice of the open Campaign and of the fairest days least their Observations should be obstructed by the Winds and Clouds Neither was it lawful for all the Augurs but only for the President of the College to make a Judgment from the Phaenomena of Heaven Religious Functions amongst the Romans were generally these Three First Sacrifices Secondly Lustrations and Lastly Supplications The Sacrifices were of two kinds First those by which they enquir'd into the Will of God by Observation of the Entrails and these might be call'd Exploratory Next such where the Life of the Beast was Consecrated to God and this kind of Sacrifices might be call'd Animal and might be term'd also Expiatory since by these they endeavour'd to appease the Anger of their Gods though they were sometimes offer'd up also to make them Propitious and sometimes also as Testimonies of Gratitude Each God had his peculiar Sacrifice To Jupiter they offer'd a whole Bullock without blemish or any Spot of Black and such as had never been yok'd though the Greeks were wont to Sacrifice a Ram. The Bull was Sacrific'd to Apollo Mars and
that account they embrac'd his Doctrine with less difficulty as agreeing with them in that Custom All which is further yet Confirm'd for as much as the Name of Tartar or Totar as some report does in the Syriack Tongue signifie derelict from whence it comes also that there is at this day such a great Number of Jews in Russia Salmatia and Lithuania To conclude this Point whosoever shall survey Matters impartially cannot but observe that Orpheus Musaeus Pythagoras Plato and the rest of the Ancient Worthies Copied their Divinity from the Jewish Reports since we read still that they went into Egypt for their improvement in Knowledge where the Acts of Moses as they were of lasting Remembrance so the Israelites too were their nearest Neighbours and who for many Exigencies had a constant Correspondence with that Nation The Third general Argument to prove the Authority of the Old Testament as also the Truth of the Jewish Religion is drawn from the certainty of its Predictions For Instance Jacob upon his Death bed Gen. 48. in Blessing Joseph's two Sons contrary to the order of their Birth-right and as they were presented to him by Joseph crossing his Arms lays his Right-hand upon the Head of Ephraim the younger Brother and gives him the Preeminence in his Blessings Nor did he do this by chance but by assisted and steddy direction for though he was decrepid and his Eyes dim yet had he a clear foresight of what was to come to pass Six or Seven hundred years after his death Prophesying the future Greatness of Ephraim which we find verified upon the Revolt of the Ten Tribes of which Ephraim was the Head for Jeroboam their first King was of the Tribe of Ephraim as also many of those Kings who succeeded him and Samaria the Metropolis in which the Kings of Israel resided did belong also to Ephraim To this we might add some other Predictions of like certainty which for as much as they respect the prefixt Duration or Period of the Jewish Government and Religion come more properly to be consider'd of in the following Chapter CHAP. XVI The Jewish Religion to have its Period upon the coming of the Messiah WE have in some measure seen already of what Authority the Jewish Religion was the just extent whereof will yet further appear if we have regard a little to the Scope and End to which it was directed viz. The Birth of the great Messiah even Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World and for this purpose let us a little consider the Nature of those Rites and Institutions of which the Jewish Religion did consist Their Circumcision Aspersions and other Lustrations could in themselves have no Virtue to expiate Sins and purifie the Souls of Men if so Sanctity might have been purchas'd at an easie rate That vast Number of Offerings and Sacrifices smoaking always before the Temple could hold no proportion with the State of Men or with the Nature of God who being a pure Spirit and merciful towards all his Creatures could not be delighted with the Blood of so many harmless Animals no more than the same Blood could cleanse anothers Infirmities and such as were of a Spiritual Nature indeed naturally they must seem to encrease the Stain and to make the Guilt to be of a deeper Tincture And for this purpose let us imagine our selves to have been present at some of those Solemnities What Entertainment can our Ears meet with in the doleful Bellowings of so many Beasts of all kinds then ready to be murder'd What Spectacle of Horrour must it needs have been for our Eyes to behold such a Prodigious Number of Levites truss'd up to do Execution wreeking their Hands in the Bowels of Beasts with their Knives dropping Blood and their Frocks bespatter'd with Gore and polluted with Dust Sweat and such like Ordure as must attend such a general Butchery What Nidour must it be which must affect our Sense of Smelling from the broyling of so much Flesh on the Coals and from the Steams and Fumes arising from an infinite Number of Pots and Spits of Caldrons and Frying-Pans insomuch that all the Stalls Shops and Chambers of the Piazza and the adjoyning Buildings of the Temple which must needs have been exceeding many seem'd nothing but one monstrous Theater of Blood Shambles and Sculleries To all which Heats arising from such a vast Number of Fires let us add those of the scorching Climate especially in the Summer which was the Season appointed for these Solemnities together with the Inconveniencies and Distempers which must needs follow such an Immense Throng of People and we may easily imagine that they were almost poison'd in all their Senses and that the noysomness of the Offerings was as great as that of the Sins which occasion'd them and that such a mixture and medly of things so Displeasing Painful and Unnatural was sufficient to render all both Actors and Spectators but one great and dreadful Sacrifice All these Circumstances could not but affect such as were Piously dispos'd with a detestation of their own sinful Natures for whose sake they were Instituted but much greater must their Horrour have been when once they apprehended that all these Bloody Performances were only as so many Types of that one Real and Tremendous Sacrifice which was to be accomplish'd in the dolorous Agony and Death of the Great and Innocent Messiah God and Man in his most opprobrious and painful Sufferings upon the Cross Doubtless God Almighty had reveal'd something of this Nature to some of the more devout and knowing Jews though the Generality look'd no further than the visible and external Rites which could in no measure purge away Sin but in Virtue of that Immaculate and Supernatural Victim which was to endure for all Ages and of which the Lamb of the Passover was a pregnant Symbol as we shall see hereafter No no these Sacrifices in themselves could have no purging nor atoning Virtue nor could they in their own Natures be acceptable to God For thou delightest not in Sacrifice says David Psal 51. else would I give it thee thou delightest not in Burnt Offerings The Sacrifices of God are a wounded spirit a broken and a contrite heart And upon this account it was that Obedience was better than Sacrifice and that we read so often of the Sacrifice of Righteousness Praise and Thanksgiving Hence it was also that the Circumcision of Lips and Heart that is a purity of our Works Thoughts and Affections are so often press'd in Scripture The Blood of Bulls and Goats could never Hebr. 10 take away Sins nor could their Sacrifices perfect the comers to them for as much as they were only Shadows of good things to come all which and many more Observations of this Nature are press'd at large by St. Paul against the Bigots of the Jewish Laws shewing also the true and legal Cessation of them upon the coming of Christ which thing also was actually accomplish'd as appears by
and commanded upon the whole it is nothing but a Hodg podg of Sentences or the abrupt transports of a Frantick Spirit which though in offensive many of them in themselves and pretending to promote vertue and a good life yet being so often repeated and without the least connexion of matter it quickly nauseates and carries not the least appearance of a Collection or Body of Laws being no better stuff than what any old intoxicated bigottist vents usually in a religious Fury so that the Alcoran may truly be said to be as dry incoherent devious and dangerous as the Sands of Arabia in which 't was hatcht But that we may come nearer to our journeys end through this barren Desart let us compare the Life and Doctrine of Jesus with that of Mahomet And here a sacred horrour puts a kind of stop to my Pen when I offer to compare I say two things so extreme as the holy Jesus with the most impure Impostour But since the Beauty of Light may without contradiction be illustrated by the gloming Nature of Darkness and the Goodness of God may become more visible by being oppos'd to the Deformity of the Devil let us I say compare these two Prophets together First then for the holy Jesus he tells his Followers That he did not bear record of himself but that the Works which he did testifie of him to which he appeals and of which we have spoken already As for Mahomet let us hear what he says of himself They will certainly cry out says he that Mahomet dream'd and invented Alcoran cap of the Prophets what he teacheth that he is a Poet and that all is but Fiction we will not believe him unless he shew us some Miracle as did the Prophets of Old To this Objection which Mahomet makes of himself and against himself we may be sure what Answer does he give Why truly and very wisely he lets the Objection even shift for it self as well as it can running on at his old impertinent Career and crying out We have destroyed many Towns because its Inhabitants were Incredulous those which we sent before thee were Men which were inspir'd by us demand of them who were before you and who liv'd under the written Law if you are ignorant of it They were Men who did Eat Drink and were Mortal we have accomplished what we promis'd them and sav'd them together with other Believers and have rooted out the unbelievers we have sent you a Book to instruct you do you not understand how many infidel Towns we have destroy'd and how many new Generations have been establish'd in their places c. a very fair and pestilent Answer to his own Objection and like the rest of the Alcoran There was one Miracle I confess father'd on him how that once upon a Time the Moon was cleft in twain and fell down upon the Ground wereupon Mahomet ran nimbly and catching up the Peices before they crumbled into Bits solder'd them together again and sent it up to Heaven whole and sound as a Bell a Miracle which no Man saw besides the Authour of it and serves only to convince his followers that he was no other than a Lunatick In the next place Jesus Christ was a Person of a most pure and holy Life as Mahomet himself confesseth whilst Mahomet owns himself in many places of the Alcoran to have been a very leud voluptuous and lustfull Person Thirdly the Doctrine of Jesus Christ was this Love your Enemies entertain not a lustfull Thought suffer Reproaches thankfully rejoice under Persecutions and the like the Doctrine of Mahomet is Kill your Enemies get as many Wives and Concubines as you can keep c. Fourthly the Instruments which Jesus made use of to propagate his Doctrine were a few poor simple Fishermen timorous and illiterate without Friends Money or Interest The Instrument which Mahomet had recourse to were Squadrons of Arm'd and Bloody Arabians Fifthly when Christ appear'd the Romans who oppos'd his Doctrine were in their greatest Glory for Learning Number and Strength there was then the largest and the most powerfull Emperour the World ever knew which made head against it when Mahomet appear'd the Empire was broken to pieces and the Countrey he appear'd in was utterly void of all Learning Knowledge Humility and sense of Christianity excepting a few Nestorian Hereticks Lastly Christ promis'd Salvation by dying and rising again Mahomet by sighting promising also that he would come again to them a thousand Years after his departure but he was not so good as his word in so much that the Mufti finding the People much dissatisfied and ready to Mutiny about the Non-accomplishment of this glorious Prediction found this Artifice to appease them saying That upon a more diligent perusal of the Sacred Books he discover'd a mistake in the Figure and so it was found to be 2000 and not 1000 Years before this most illustrious Prophesie should be fullfill'd which Cheat so silly as it was was sufficient to appease the deluded Rabble From all these Instances it appears abundantly that the great Success in the Propagation of the Mahometan Religion had its Birth and Progress from humane Artifice and Invention But here the Mahometan will reply if Jesus Christ were the Son of God and came down from Heaven to Redeem the World from Errour and Eternal Misery how comes it to pass that he has suffer'd such an Impostour as Mahomet to delude Mankind for above a thousand Years ravishing his Spouse the Church out of his Bosome and making most direfull Butcheries on the Sons and Members of it insomuch that there is scarce one third left to Christ so large and permanent are the acquisitions of Mahomet From whence 't will follow That Christ must either want Will or Power to defend that Church for whose sake 't is said that he came down from Heaven and was incarnate and suffered an Ignominious Death upon the Cross and that Mahomet as one of greater Power and Vertue to defend his Doctrine was no Impostour but a true and glorious Prophet A Discourse like this how Blasphemous and Offensive soever it may be to the Ears of a Christian must yet be suffer'd were I to dispute with a Mahometan and indeed it is the only thing of moment which any of that Religion can suggest in favour of it to which I answer First that the same Objection might be made against the Jewish Church of Old for they were in comparison of the Pagan World not so much as one to a thousand also they were frequently oppress'd by their Neighbours and at last their Laws and Nation in a manner extinguish'd in the Babylonish Captivity The Jewish Church indeed was a Type of the Christian and the Case the same in both God's promises were always Conditional there being requir'd Repentance and Duties on Man's part for failure whereof severe Judgments were ever denounc'd and thus much Mahomet himself allows every where in his Alcoran Now that
other Christians are in of being reduc'd under the Slavery of this Mortal and common Enemy so that how prosperous soever the Christian Arms are or have been we are still in greater danger than ever of being ruin'd by the Legions of these Infidels not those of their Spahi or Janizaries but by those of another Order far more mischeivous forasmuch as they fight under our own Colors and pretend to be of our Party such Enemies are ever look'd upon as the most dangerous for they are rarely discover'd till they have given the Mortal Blow Now these are the Socinians a Sect which though exploded the World above a thousand Years ago under the appellation of Arians are in these our days risen again from the Grave and like Spectrums appear every where in the Dark In denying therefore the Divinity of Jesus Christ they do with the Mahometans not only deny the Trinity the Doctrine of Justification or the Merits of Christ's Satisfaction but also Baptism in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost together with the Doctrine of Original Sin So many fatal Errours do follow one upon the Neck of another by denying that one Fundamental Truth which Christ himself is pleas'd to call the Basis of his Church viz. That glorious confession of St. Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the living God The Socinians we all know are a Mungril Brood half Christians half Turks and for this Reason 't is that they swarm so much in Poland Hungary and Transylvania and are found at this day to fight openly for the Crescent against the Cross This Argument is too great and weighty to be discours'd upon under the Method I am engag'd to it would require a Volume though we cannot but hope that as the Pens of pious and learned Men will not be wanting to pursue and stab their Errours so the Sword of the Magistrate will not fail to find out their Persons CHAP. XXVII Of the Immortality of the Soul THe Immortality of Man's Soul is a point of high concernment and comes next to be consider'd of for as much as all our reliance upon God's Providential Order as also all the hopes and rewards which depend upon our Faith with whatsoever else relates to our Christian Practice are all built upon this Persuasion viz. That the Soul of Man which is the Principle or Source of all his Actions is of an incorruptible Nature and survives the Body But before we proceed to Proof 't is necessary to clear some doubts which seem to obstruct us in the Prosecution of this Argument The first grand difficulty is from the Old Testament for if the Immortality of the Soul be so great a Truth and so necessary to be believ'd how comes it to pass we find no mention of it in all the Jewish Writers of Old In all the Books of the Old Testament there is no place to be found where there is so much as mention made of the Kingdom of Heaven â—â— of a future 〈◊〉 after Death Had the Patriarchs and Prophets believ'd any such thing they must needs have mention'd it some time or other as being a thing of the greatest concern to them and the best support against the Misfortunes of the World and the Terrour of Death And above all David must needs have taken notice of it having such frequent occasions given him for it from the whole course and variable occurrences of his life Nay even at his Death his Discourses with Solomon were very copious about setling the Temporal Affairs of his Kingdom but not a Word of the place where he was going to nor do we find that Abraham Jacob Moses Samuel or any of the Patriarchs and Prophets to whom God so largely and familiarly reveal'd his Will ever touch'd upon this important point at the hour of their Death only we read that they slept with their Fathers and were gather'd to their People and there was an end And though we read oft times of the Soul and of Hell in the Old Testament yet 't is plain that by Hell is understood nothing but Death or the Grave as by the Soul also is understood no more but the animal Life and sometiâ—es the Heart and Affections A Resurrection of the Body is indeed mention'd by Job and Daniel but that 's another point but no proof can be produc'd which speaks of the Soul as of an immaterial and spiritual substance subsisting after Death To this I answer First that the Scripture is not so silent touching the Soul's Immortality but that there is ground enough even from Scripture to make the matter dubious For most Divines are of Opinion that 't was Samuel's real Soul which God suffer'd the Witch to raise the Night before Saul's Death which could not be had it not surviv'd the Body And even in Ecclesiastes which Book seems even in a manner to determine Man's felicity in Temporal Enjoyments upon the summ of the matter we are told by Solomon that the Body shall return to the Dust but the Spirit to God that gave it though much either way cannot be concluded from the Passages of this Book which seems to be no other than a Collection of Observations made by Solomon under his two Capacities Natural and Divine or a Miscellany of Aphorisms as they were dictated by the Natural Man and Wisdom But whatever it be this is certain that if the Books of Tobit and of Wisdom be of any Credit with us as I know not but they should there is enough for our purpose being told Cap. 2. and 3. of Wisdom that God created Man to be Immortal and that the Souls of the Righteous are in the hands of God and there should no Torment touch them and a little after he says that though they be punish'd in the sight of Men yet is their Hope full of Immortality Tobit also in his Prayer Cap. 3. desires of God that he might be deliver'd out of his Distress and go into the everlasting place In the next place 't is notwithstanding probable that God thought fit to conceal the clear knowledge of this as also of other Important Mysteries of Religion such as the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Incarnation with some Truths of this Nature from the Generality of the Jews to render the Preaching of the Gospel more glorious by the new Discoveries it was to bring along with it and this is what Saint Paul tells us expresly 2 Tim. c. 1. viz. That Jesus Christ had abolish'd Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel though 't is pious also to believe That many of the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets under the Mosaical Institution had some secret dawnings of this Light even by the Shadows it reflected Their wandrings in the Wilderness represented their Instability Hardships and Errours of Life all which were to end in Caanan the place of everlasting Rest Their Jubelees also and Sabbaths were Types also of the same Everlasting Rest as St.
and present Enjoyments Who would scruple to enrich himself by Fraud Robbery and Murder or to gratifie his Lusts by Rapes Adultery or any other Enormity were he sure there were no Punishnent to be met with after Death The consequence of which disorders could be no less than the subversions of all Property and Civil Government Upon these and such like Considerations we may in the last place observe that the wisest and most learned Men through all Ages and Countries of the World believ'd the Soul's Immortality such as Hermes and Pythagoras who by the few Fragments Hermes in Paenrand cap. 1. that are extant of him in Ancient Writers was of the same Belief Socrates at his Death adher d to this Belief also and resisted the Strength and Malignity of his Poison by this Antidote that his Soul shortly should enjoy the Society of the Vertuous and Blessed in the other World This Doctrine was much improv'd by Plato and his Followers especially Platinus who was the most learned of that Sect and who wrote ex professo divers learned Books upon this Argument the summ of which is that the Soul of Man is not deriv'd from the Nature of the Parents but immediately from God that though it subsist in the Body yet its Operations are independent on it Forasmuch as the Soul the more it withdraws it self from all sensible Objects the more distinct and clear is Ratiocination From whence we conclude that when it shall totally be separated it shall apprehend things in an instant by Intuition without the helps of reasoning by Ratiocination is nothing but a Combat of the Mind to evince something of which it doubts which doubtings spring from the gross and cloudy Suggestions and Obstacles of the Body from which being once deliver'd there will be no place left for Doubt and Hesitation As for the Stoicks their Doctrine seemed to lead them to a different persuasion since they plac'd all the Felicity of Man in the Practice of Vertue with regard to no other reward So that our Moral Actions ceasing as certainly they do after Death all is at an end And this Doctrine of theirs though it carried with it a great many of noble Sentiments yet it failing in the true end of Man's Felicity it oblig'd them to maintain a great number of Paradoxes in its defence whereas had they understood the Immortality of the Soul and future Rewards after Death that had been sufficient to have supported them in a vertuous course of life maugre all the disasters that might assault them and which these Philosophers endeavour'd to oppose by so many noble Precepts of their Doctrine Seneca in some places seems dubious yet in his Consolatory Epistle to Mercia upon the Death of his Son he is altogether Divine Epictetus also a Stoick and the Glory of his Sect and Age asserts every where the Soul's Immortality But above all Tully the Flower of Roman Tuscul Quaes lib. 1. Eloquence and himself a Philosopher of Plato's School is every where most Copious and Ravishing when he comes to speak of the Capacities and Future State of the Soul Many says he think the Eternity of Souls to be incredible because they cannot comprehend the essence and qualities of a separated Soul but can they let me ask them define what a Soul is even in the Body of what form it is what its dimensions are and what is the place of its abode And a little after for my own part when I seriously reflect upon the Nature of the Soul it seems to be much more difficult and obscure to know what the Soul is whilst it is in Conjunction with the Body where it seems to be lodg'd as in a foreign Inn than to understand the same when it quits the Lodging in which it sojourns and takes its Journey home-wards to Heaven the place of its constant Habitation For if we cannot understand that which we never saw we may as well disown all knowledge of God as of a separated Soul but Spirits are to be understood and known only by Spirits And by and by he concludes whatsoever that thing is which perceives which understands which wills which is always Vigorous and Masculine must needs be Celestial and Divine and therefore Eternal for we can form no other Notions of God but as of a Mind abstracted from all material Concretion understanding all things moving all things and being it self ended with an Eternal Activity All which the same Divine Oratour prosecutes most copiously in his Book de Senectute telling us that it was not the Itch of Disputation which drew him to this Persuasion but having built his Belief upon the Authorities of Pythagoras and Socrates he declares farther that such is the celerity of the Soul's Thoughts so great its Memory of past and foresight of future things so many are its Arts Sciences and other Inventions that 't is inpossible that the Nature which comprehends such excellent things should be Mortal and therefore since the Mind is always a working and has this principle of Motion from it self and knows also no period of its Motion because it can never divide from it self and serve the nature of the Soul is void of all Mixture and Allay and contains nothing heterogenious to it self he concludes that it must be indivisible and uncapable of Dissolution following as he says the Doctrine of Plato in this particular To Conclude he says that if I do err in this Belief of the Soul's Immortality I do err willfully nor will I ever retract this beloved Errour whilst I live or if it should be possible that being dead I should be void of all sense as some Minute Sophisters do fancy I shall not fear to be reproached by them Nor was this Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality the constant Belief of the wisest Greeks and Romans only but also of the Persians too as appears by the excellent Discourse of dying Cyrus upon this subject recorded by Xenophon And as for the Poets they universally tell us of a future State after Death wherein the Wicked shall be punish'd and the Just rewarded and what their sense was in this matter we may read in Lucan in that noble Description he makes of Pompey's Apotheosis From all which Considerations we have a most undeniable proof of its Eternal Verity It being impossible that a Doctrine established upon all the Principles of Reason of such an universal consent and believ'd by the wisest best and most learned Men of all Ages in opposition to all humane Interests and sensual Suggestions whatsoever should be the effect only of uncertain Conjecture or of a premeditated Collusion CHAP. XXVIII Of Natural Religion as a means to Salvation HAving shewn in the precedent Chapters of this Discourse that the wiser Heathen had not only a knowledge of the true God as the Creator and Preserver of the Universe but a knowledge also of the Immortality of the Soul and of a future State where good Men should receive
growing in the Field till the Harvest of the World Whosoever shall endeavour to destroy them will in all likelihood tread down the good Grain also and since they cannot prevent the Enemies malice 't is the duty of the Labourers when they sow good Grain to be watchfull and to nip these spreading weeds at their first appearance for they are of a hungry and devouring Nature robbing all the good Juyce and Nutriment to themselves and by the many windings of their Wyres they pluck the Stalks of good Corn down to the Ground There is nothing certainly more pernicious to the Peace and Tranquillity of Religion than frequent disputations about it for though many at first out of an itch of Ostentation may enter upon a Dispute yet they seldom quit it but with great Animosity and by their endless controversies bring the Mysteries of Religion and the Articles of our Faith under Scepticism and Doubt Happy were the Patriarchs of the first Age without dispute whose Religion consisted in an Adoration of Almighty God their Creator They never troubled their Brains with Metaphysical Quiddities and Distinctions 't was their early business of the morning to make their offerings to the God of Heaven for the expiation of their sins and thereby make him propitious They did celebrate his Praises in some short pious Hymns expressing his Greatness and Goodness and afterwards betaking themselves to the ordinary Duties of their Life which were for the most part pastoral they could not but make infinite improvements of their time by observing the Power and Goodness of their Maker in the bountifull returns from the Earth and by observing dayly the Beauties of Nature with the Vicissitudes of Seasons and the favourable influence of the heavens The Works of God were the subject of their innocent Speculation whose wonders also they transmitted to Posterity by telling what deliverances their Fore-fathers as also they themselves had found at his hands Meditations and Discourses like these did intersere commonly in all the Employments and Occurrences of their Lives and thus by an innocent Labour of Body and by Methods of Sobriety Temperance and Frugality unknown to those of this luxurious and degenerate Age they did arrive to length of days retaining to the last an uninterrupted Health and Vegeteness of Mind and when Nature had spun its course they did wind up their Lives by recommending their Spirits into the hands of their Creator and slept with their Fathers leaving their Children to follow their good Examples Thus far'd it with the happy Patriarchs And truly under the Gospel I cannot see but Men may be as happy nay more happy if they please the Duties which Christ requires of us carry their own reward tending all of them to the perfecting of the Moral Law and to settle the Spirit upon a true Basis of repose The Articles of Faith as they are tender'd to us in the Gospel are few and to an humble and unprejudic'd Mind carry light and life with them although disputations and heterodox Questions may arise in the Church and embroil many with Faction and perplex'd Notions what is this to a modest and humble Christian The practice of whose life consists First in a dutiful Adoration of Almighty God expecting Salvation from him through the Merits of his only Son Jesus Christ our Lord resigning up himself wholly to his Providence and being always thankful under every circumstance of life Secondly in performing works of Justice and Charity towards his Neighbour and lastly in living soberly as to himself and bringing his extravagant Passions and desires under subjection Let not such a one discompose his Rest by endeavouring to fathom the inexhaustible depths of Knowledge with intricate and fruitless Enquiries which indeed are those Thorns and Thistles from whence Men shall never gather Grapes nor Figs they who fall amongst them will be entangled with their prickly Snares No let a Man live so as to have a care of himself and to hope the best of another and thus being freed from superfluous Anxiety he will go through with the Duties of Life and even of Death with great alacrity having attain'd to a true Settlement and Tranquillity of Mind FINIS Books Printed for John Newton at the three Pidgeons in Fleet-street THe History of the most Renowned Don Quixot of Sancha and his trusty Squire Sancha Pancha now made English according to the Humour of our Modern Language and adorned with several Coper Cuts by J. P. The History of the Venetian Conquests from the Year 1684. to the Year 1688. Translated out of French by Sir J. M. A Consolatory Discourse for the support of Widows and Orphans of general use to all Christians who either are or may be left in such Circumstances The Rehearsal as it is now acted at the Theatre Royal the fifth Edition with Amendments and large Additions of the Author The Disorders of Basset a Novel done out of French A Memorial for the Learned Or Miscellany of choice Collections from most Eminent Authors in History Philosophy Physick and Heraldry by J. D. Gent. The Ghost of the Emperor Charles the fifth appearing to Volcart the Porter Or a Dialogue touching the Times Some Odes of Horace imitated with Relation to His Majesty and the Times by John Glauvell of Lincolns-Inn Gent.