his Canopy and perceived saith Josephus that this Bird was the Angel or Messenger of Calamity a German Southsayer having foretold him that when he saw that Bird again which was then a Messenger of glad tidings to him as he interpreted an Owls sitting upon a Tree on which Herod Agrippa lean'd and rested his weary body born down with grief of mind to be he must expect death within five days Antiq. l. 18. 13. § 4. It would be too large a Digression here to discuss the Art or rather Craft of this kind of Divination the Vanity of it has already been discovered and is sufficiently evinc'd by this Example for this German promis'd Herod an happy Death and that he should leave his Children in the possession of his Wealth neither of which proved true his Son being kept many years from the possession of his Fathers Crowns during which time he was the Emperours Beads-man and his Soul passing out of his Body through those faetid Pores the Worms made in his Entrails Though God permitted the Augure to hit the point of truth in his Prediction that within five dayes after his second sight of that Bird he should die as he did the Witch of Endor's Familiar in Samuels mantle to tell Saul the sad tidings of his next days loss of Field and Life the divine Wisdom ordering mens Curiosity and Credulity in such cases to be their torment That other Point of Apparitions of Spirits this Text of Iosephus forceth me to speak to that I may illustrate his Paraphrase upon St. Luke and proceed upon clear grounds in paralleling the remaining parts of the story But yet I shall not be so prodigal of my Readers patience as to discuss whether this Angel of Herods mishap this Messenger of his death sate upon his Canopies Cord or only upon his Optick Nerve that is whether a Spirit assumed this form upon it self or painted it on Herod's Fancy For 't is all one as to our Case whether the File was a real one upon the Book or a painted one upon the Spectacles Nor whether good Angels appear in any but august Forms and by consequence whether this was a good or an evil Spirit I profess not to cure the itch of mens Curiosity but only to shew the agreement of St. Luke and Josephus in sence while one calls that an Owl which the other calls an Angel in order to which it will be sufficient to observe That good Spirits are more obedient than to refuse any form that God bids them take for the service of his Providence or the Ministry of his Saints as this was for St. Luke reports it as an occasion of the growth and multiplying of the Word why then should a good Angel more scruple at appearing in this homely form than a whole host of them did at appearing in the shape of Centaures and Chariot-horses for the encouragement of one poor servant of the Prophet nay than the eternal Spirit did at the appearance in the form of a Dove Is there not infinitely more distance betwixt the holy Ghost and an Arch-angel than is betwixt a Dove and an Owl Nay hadst thou been of Gods council what form couldst thou have advised him to command his Angel to take whom he sent to bring message to Herod of his approaching Death to torment him in the midst of his jollity with the fore-thought of it than of that Creature which he being perswaded of the Infallibility of the German Oracle in the last by experiencing the truth of the first part of it thought as verily to see five days before his Death as Simeon hoped to see the Lord Christ before his departure But that the Sceptick may not laugh in his sleeve at my transforming an Angel into an Owl though had he so much of Athenian Learning as he boasts of he would not think Minerva's Squirell so contemptible a Bird but that an Angel might assume her form and therein be more congruously plac'd than his so brutified a Soul as it lives by nothing but Sense is in an humane Body I do not positively assert this to have been a good Angel for as the heavenly attend as Voluntiers so the infernal Spirits as prest Soldiers are at the command of the Lord of Hosts and when he imploys them they are his Messengers the Angels of the Lord. God march'd through Aegypt when the First-born were slain with the Pestilence in the head of an Army of evil Angels Psal. 78. 50. by sending evil Angels among them he weighed his anger distributed it by a just proportion to the Egyptians while the Israelites were passed over and among the Egyptians so as it fell upon the First-born of Man and Beast while the rest escap'd they were given over to the Pestilence by the immission of so many Asmodei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint Sent by the hands of evil Angels Chald. Indeed which of his Creatures can God more properly make use of to be the Executioners of his wrath than evil Angels and yet the destroying Angel is called the Angel of the Lord 2 Samuel 24. 16. the Hangman is the Kings Officer Be this therefore a good or bad Angel it was that Angel of the Lord that smote Herod as both St. Luke stiles this Apparition and Josephus conformably unto him To proceed now in his Story therein the blewness of the Wounds this Messenger gave him is apparent both upon Herod's Soul and Body for as soon as he perceiv'd this ill-boading Angel he is struck to the heart with grief ex intimis praecordiis indoluit and his belly with gripings secuta sunt ventris tormina whereupon turning his eyes to his Parasites Behold saith he I whom ye called a God am commanded to depart this life fatal Necessity proves you layrs and I whom you stiled immortal am posting to the Chambers of Death with his speech his pain increaseth they therefore forthwith carry him to his Bed where after five days racking and gnawing pain in his Bowels he gives up his weary Ghost § 5. This part of Josephus his Text agrees with St. Luke's 1. In his assigning this stroak to a supernatural hand as inflicted upon him by the Angel of the Lord so palpably as Herod himself perceived that Spectrum to be the Messenger of God upon sight whereof he received these stroaks in Mind and Body as proved mortal of this supernatural immission Josephus speaks not so dubiously as he does of the last and mortal disease of Herod the Great Bel. Jud. 1. 8. upon whom the same malady of worms was as he saith by some conceived to be inflicted assiduis vexabatur coli tormentis inflatio ventriculi putredoque virilis membri vermiculos generans in revenge of Judas not he of Galilee but the Son of Sepphoraeus and Matthias the Son of Margalus whom that Herod a little before his Death as this a little before his slew St. James had put to death for taking down that Golden Eagle which Herod
intervention could possibly rob the lower World of its Light may easily be made appear by an enumeration of such Particulars as have been observed for this 5000 years to hinder its illuminating at once the Hemisphere of the Earth and so much more easily as the impediments are fewer than to take up a long discourse being but these two 1. The Interposition of the Body of the Moon which in that juncture could not be the impediment for at the Passover when our Saviour suffer'd the Moon was at the Full and visibly arising that evening in the East when the Sun set in the West we may therefore with as much reason charge a Theft committed at London upon a person that was in India when that fact was done as charge the Moon with this Robbery of the Suns Light I shall run no hazard of my credit before equal Judges by becoming her Compurgator in this case 2. The Cloudiness of the Skie But the Air was at that time so serene as the Stars appeared and might be seen all over the Heavens as Phlegon a Gentile Chronologer hath left upon Record Dies horâ sextâ in tenebrosam noctem versus ut stellae in caelo visae sunt Chron. Euseb. and that record probably taken out of the Roman Rolls where it was extant in Tertullian's time If the Clouds were not so thick but that the Stars might be seen through them they could not hinder the shining of that greatest Light the Sun Besides this Darkness was universal Mark 15. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darkness was over the whole Earth Erasmus indeed limits this to the Land of Judaea but Melchior Canus lib. 11. cap. 2. Doth sufficiently confute that Opinion which needs not any other Confutation than this that it was observ'd at Heliopolis in Egypt and if that Testimony of Dionysius be scrupled that of the Graecian Historians who write of it cannot be excepted against Scaliger animadvers in Chron. Euseb. But Clouds do but screen and stand in the light of some particular and small Regions so that when the Sun hath nothing else to hinder its shining it will cast its beams on one City on one part of a City when the other part is clouded This Darkness therefore could not proceed from any Natural Cause but was simply and nakedly the Effect of the suspension of its most natural power of giving Light Ex retractione radiorum solarium Voss. harmon Evang. l. 2. cap. 10. the retraction of its Beams from the unthankful World at the Will of its Creator on purpose to convince men that that Jesus who was then a crucisying was both Lord and Christ or as the Centurion from that Argument concludes the Son of God the King of Israel according to the sign given by the Prophet Zachary chap. 14. 6. In that day the light shall not be clear nor dark it shall be one day a day by it self at evening time it shall be light the Sun shall be turn'd into darkness and the Moon into blood and Joel chap. 2. 31 c as St. Peter applyed those Texts Acts 2. this is that that was spoken of by the Prophet Joel c. § 7. I will conclude with that which is both the sum of the Christian Faith and the seal of it the Resurrection of the blessed Jesus The sum of it If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. The Seal of it whereof he hath given assurance made demonstration to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17. 31. Shall I need to shew the demonstrableness of this Argument so cogent as he must shut his eyes against the clearest and most undoubted Sentiments of common Reason that does not acknowledge the Finger the Hand the Arm of inconquerable Omnipotency to have been at work in breaking the Chains of Death and bringing Christ thence after the pains and anguish of the Cross had exhausted his Vital Spirts and made his sacred Body inhospitable to that his precious Soul which he breathed into the hands of his Father after they who were set to watch him were so well satisfied that he was dead as they thought it needless to break his Legs and yet to make all sure ran a Spear to his Heart whence issued as an indication that there was no need of that neither in order to his dispatch but only that the Prophecies of him might be fulfill'd Water and Blood And lastly after he was buried and a Guard of Soldiers set about the Sepulchre by the procurement of his most watchful Adversaries who feared he would rise again as he had said and thereby declare himself to be the Messias These Circumstances speak a total privation of Life the extinction of the vital Flame the breaking of the golden Cord and Marriage-ring which coupled together that lovely Pair the Humane Flesh and Reasonable Soul whereof the Man Christ consisted And I appeal to common Principles to give sentence and determine those Questions Whether the Flame of Lifes Taper can be blown in again but by the blast of that Breath which blew it in at first Whether that Cord can be knit again by any hand but that which drew it Whether the Bowels of the Earth our common Mother whither Bodies return that they may see corruption be a fit Matrix wherein the Corps may be ripen'd naturally into an aptitude for the reception of the Soul In our first moulding the Spermatick Matter Courts the humane Form and when by Second Natures hand the Hand maid of the first Nature its gradually purified into an immediate fittedness for the reception of its Bridegroom God knits first the Band. And after the Band is broke the Soul after a sort courts the Corps by its propensity to a reunion to that without which it cannot be perfect But the fullen Corps is deaf to all such motions resists all methods of cure all applications of Medicines which the now more illuminated and intelligent Soul can possibly make and doubtless if an herb grew any where that could restore these beloved Mates the Souls of Philosophers that could see so well through the Casement being now in the free Air and having their eyes clarified with the dust of Death would spy it out are fruitless this work must be let alone for ever as no man can redeem his own Soul so no Soul can restore its own Body As the matter in the Womb would never have had its desires of Union to a reasonable Soul gratified if God had not infused the Soul so the Soul in a state of separation will never have its longing after reunion gratified till God restore to it its Body He that brought the Man to the Woman at first must after the sleep of Death bring the Woman to the Man or they will never meet Nay the bringing of soul and body together again after their Divorce implies that seeming Contradiction as the Disciples by
six her eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there as things of highest State-concern in respect of that then famous Eastern Prophecy of one to arise at that time in Judea who should be King of the Universe § 4. At that time when the Erection of an Universal Monarchy was according to that Prophecy expected appeared Persons of a more Lordly Spirit amongst the Romans than any former Age had brought forth Caesar and Pompey ' s Ambition sprung from this Prophecy The then greatest Spirits courted the Jews favour and used means that they might be that oriundus in Judaea § 5. The arts which the Roman Candidates for the Universal Monarchy used to bring the World into an opinion that they were designed by Heaven to something extraordinary Julius his Dream his cloven-footed Horse his Mules his Triton his pressing to have the Title of King because the Sybils had prophesied one at that time would be King of all the World The Fathers quotations of Sybils vindicated § 6. Augustus had his Education amongst the Velitri who had a Tradition of the tendency with the Eastern Prophecy that one of that City should obtain the Kingdom of the whole World The Roman Prodigy before his Birth His Mother Atia conceives him by Apollo Her Snake-mole Nero ' s Bracelet Atias Dream of her Entrals Nigidius his Prognostication The Prediction of the Thracian Priests His Fathers Vision Cicero ' s Dream § 7. Tiberius his Omens Scribonius ' s Prediction Livias crested Chick The Altars of the conquering Legions His Dye cast into Apon ' s Well Galba ' s Mock-prophecy § 8. Titus and Vespasian ' s Motto Amor deliciae in English the desire of the Nations The Prodigy of Mars his Oak The Gypsies Prediction Dirt cast by Caligula into his Shirt The Dog bringing a Man's hand The Oracle of the God of Carmel His curing the blind and Lame c. CHAP. X. The more open Practices of soaring Spirits in grasping at the Judean Crown their hopes to obtain it and as to some of them their Conceit of possessing it § 1. Cleopatra ' s Boon begg'd of M. Antony denyed Herod ' s Eye Blood-shot with looking at the Eastern Prophecy § 2. Vespasian jealous of Titus The Eastern Monarchy the Prize contended for by both Parties in the Jewish Wars Mild Vespasian cruel to David ' s Line § 3. Domitian jealous of Davids Progeny Genealogies Metius Pomposianus his Genesis and Globe his Discourse with Christ's Kindred about Christ's Kingdom Clancular Jews brought to light Trajan puts to death Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem for being of the Royal Line § 4. Glosses upon the Eastern Prophecy under Adrian involve the Empire in Blood Jewry in Desolation Fronto taxeth benumm'd Nerva for conniving at the Jew CHAP. XI St. Paul's Apology before Nero was in Answer to some Interrogatories put to him through the Suggestion of his Adversaries touching the matter of the Eastern Prophecy Ex. Gr. Is not this Jesus whom thou preachest to be risen again from the Dead that Jesus of Nazareth whom ye call King of the Jews § 1. Tertullus his Charge against St. Paul a Ring-leader of Nazarites Lysias his Interrogatory art not thou that Alexandrian Egyptian Nero put in hopes of that Kingdom which St. Paul preach'd Christ to have obtained Poppaea Nero's Minion Disciples slink away § 2. Why St. Paul stiles Nero a Lion of the Kingdom of God The Lions Courage quails at St. Paul's Apology Nero after that trusts more to his Art than Gypsies Prophecies § 3. St. Pauls Appearance within Nero ' s Quinquennium Pallas Foelix his Brother and Advocate out of Favour in Nero ' s third Festus hastens St. Paul ' s Mission to Rome the Jews his Trial. § 4. Nero not yet a Lion in Cruelty but in opinion Judah ' s Lion St. Paul ' s Doctrine tryed to the bottom before Nero desponds An Apology for this Pilgrimage through the Holy Age its Use. CHAP. XII As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church § 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives Pliny ' s testimony of them § 2 3. They hide not their imperfections nor the Truth to please Parties or to avoid the Worlds taking offence The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge Pagan Forgeries § 5. Papal Innovation founded on lying Legends Sir Thomas Moor upon St. Austin Gregory Turonensis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars The Story of the Baptist ' s Head BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT As they could not nor would not delude others so they were not themselves deluded persons or Men of crazy Intellects but propounded to the World a Religion so every way fitted to the Dictates of Common Reason of the most Refin'd Philosophy and of pre-existent Religion as it was impossible for them to have fram'd had they not been of perfect Memory and sound Minds THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Gospel's Correspondency with Vulgar Sentiments § 1. The Testimony of the Humane Soul untaught to the Truth of the Christian Creed in the Articles touching the Unity of the Godhead his Goodness Justice Mercy The Existence of wicked Spirits § 2. The Resurrection and Future Judgment Death formidable for its Consequence to evil Men No Fence against this Fear proved by Examples § 3. In hope of future Good the Soul secretly applauds her self after virtuous Acts. This makes the Flesh suffer patiently CHAP. II. Reason nonplus'd help'd by Religion acquiesceth in her Resolutions § 1. Man's Supremacy over the Creatures the Reason of it not cognoscible by Natural Light § 2. Yet generally challenged even over Spirits whom men command to do what themselves disgust § 3. The way of Creation a Mystery Reason puzzel'd to find it out can but conjecture § 4. Divine Revelations touching both acquiesc'd in as soon as communicated Scripture-Philosophy excels the Mechanick Plato's Commendation § 5. Nothing but the God of Order's Grant can secure States from Anarchical Parity and Club-law § 6. Heathens assented to the Reasons of both assigned by Scripture CHAP. III. Natural Conscience Ecchoes to Christian Morals § 1. A Dispraise to dispraise Virtue or praise Vice The Comicks Liberty restrained § 2. How the worst of Men became to be reputed Gods § 3. Men were deified for their Virtues Vice ungodded Gods § 4. Stage-Gods hissed at The Infamy of Players The Original of Mythology CHAP. IV. Christian Religion concords with the highest Philosophical Notions § 1. Divine Knowledge coâ—â—unicated from the Church to travelling Philosophers Our Religion elder than Heathenism by Heathens confession § 2. Christian Articles implied in Pagan Philosophy's Positions Man's happiness through Communion with God and Conformity unto God § 3. This Conformity and Communion effected by God-man God manifest in
five years of his Reign in spite of the natural dyscrasie of that Monster and the temptations to an earlier Apostasie which an absolute Sovereignty laid before him Vid. Tacit. an 15. And who was himself as much a Philosopher in the inward of his Soul as in the outward habit of his Beard and Gown as much a Moralist in practice as contemplation and precept As the great Humanist of France the Lord Nountaigne Essayes l. 1. c. 32. hath more than Essay'd to vindicate him to have been against Dion's calumniations Xiphil è Dione Nero. pag. 519. grounded upon Tigellinus and his parties reports whom to have his enemies and slanderers was Seneca's honour Tigellinus being a person of so filthy and calumniating a tongue as Dion himself but three pages before he condemns Seneca upon the suggestions of Tigellinus commends that sarcastical Apothegm as he calls it of Pythia against him who when she was urged by him to accuse her Lady Octavia Augusta of dishonesty spate in his face and said The privities of my Lady Tigellinus are more clean than thy mouth As himself demonstrated in his discourse with Nero after he was grown the object of Tigellinus's envy for his wealth and of Nero's hatred for the freedom he used in rebuking him than whom no man better knew as he told Granius Siloanus how far Seneca's genius was averse to flattery or how much his brave spirit was elevated above love to the world or fear of death And in his conference with his Wife betwixt his condemnation and death wherein he recommended to her who was most privy to what he was at home with himself the remembrance of his vertuous life in those actions of it wherein there had been least personating as the best expedient against her immoderate sorrow for his departure And lastly as the ancient Fathers of our Church implyed in their opinion that he had familiar converse with St. Paul conceiving it scarce possible that he could in Life and Doctrine hit so right upon the sence of Evangelical precepts without some such Interpreter Then lived Thrasea that Martyr under Nero for Natural Theology whom Tacitus calls the light of the Roman world and thus prefaceth his Story At last Nero covets to extirpate vertue it self in putting Thrasea to death having no other cause of displeasure against him but his going out of the Senate as refusing to give his Vote for the condemnation of Agrippina upon the barbarous motion of her unnatural Son and his not appearing at those Funeral Solemnities wherein Divine Honours were conferr'd upon that Court Drabb Poppaea A person of that Divine presence and discourse as his friends were confident he would have thunder-struck the Senate and Nero himself if they could have perswaded him to have stooped so far from the contempt of death as to plead for his life and make his defence In which point through his belief of the Souls immortality of which he was discoursing with Demetrius the Philosopher at that instant he was of so well a composed mind as he did not so much as change countenance except it were to a more chearful aspect at the news of his condemnation Tacit. l. 15. Illic à Quaestore reperitur laetitiae propior And while his life was breathing out at the veins of both his arms he spent not his breath in effeminate lamentations but in discourses upon that endless life to which he assur'd himself he was hasting and calling the Questor who was sent to see his execution Look here saith he young man we are pouring out this offerings Jovi liberatori to God Redeemer I pray God divert the Omen but verily thou livest in such times as it 's very behoofeful to get thy mind fortified against all temporal evil by such examples of constancy as thou seest me set before thee § 2. But I go about to number the Stars in attempting to reckon up all the Philosophers then flourishing when the Christian Philosophy was first commended to the world I will therefore cease the further prosecution of that point and glance at their Dogmata the Divine Axioms they deliver'd touching Divination by Auguries and prophetical Theology where that I may avoid tedious repetitions I shall in a manner confine my self to the Collector of the opinions of others Tully who though himself an Augur not only derides Divination by Birds by Dreams by Oracles c. but evinceth the vanity of them by Chrysippus his reasons affirming in general that they are the productions of superstition which dispersed through the Nations of the world taking occasion from humane imbecillity had almost opprest all mens minds and tyrannized over them Ut verè loquamur superstitio fusa per gentes oppressit omnium ferè animos atque hominum imbecillitatem occupavit de Divinat l. 2. pag. 265. 1. In particular he explodes Divination by Dreams from several instances Of one that being to run in the Olympick Games dreamed he saw himself over-night carried in a Charriot drawn with four horses which one interprets to signifie that he should win the prize because of the horses swiftness another that he should lose it because he had seen four swift Creatures before himself Of another who dreamt he saw an Eagle That portends thou shalt win quoth one Augur for that 's the swiftest bird Thou shalt lose saith another for the Eagle pursueth all other birds and is her self pursued by none therefore she 's alwayes hindmost Quae est ista ars conjectoris eludentis ingenio an quicquam significant nisi acumen hominum ex similitudine aliqua conjecturam modò huc modò illuc ducentium Pag. 2. 64. What is this else but the Art of a Guesser wittily shifting off his want of wit What do those interpretations signifie but mens quickness of wit from some resemblance or other drawing their conjecture sometimes this way sometimes that 2. Divination by Oracles he derides as fasten'd by impostures upon thë Divine Spirits motions Id certe magis est attenti animi quà m furentis hoc scriptoris est non furentis adhibentis diligentiam non insani Pag. 251. When their being most-what given in Verse speaks them to be the result of humane industry And their ambiguity fathers them upon persons providing for saving their own credit let come what will Partim falsis partim casu veris ut fit in omni oratione saepissimè partim flexiloquis obscuris ut interpres egeat interprete ipsa sors referenda sit ad sortes partim ambiguis c. p. 252. They being sometimes false sometimes true by chance as it frequently falls out in all kind of discourse sometimes so equivocal and obscure as the Interpreter needs an Interpreter and the Question what is the meaning of the Respond is harder to answer than the question which was put to the Oracle and sometimes so ambiguous c. Such as that which Herodotus reports Apollo to have given to Craesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Craesus Halym
the satisfying of his lusts but out of Reasons of State that he might by those Subagitations of their Wives bolt out the secrets of their Husbands with whose Heifers he ploughed that he might read their Riddles Augustus saith Dion made so much use of Woman-kind when he was fifty years old as the Senate thought to gratifie him with a License to have to do with whomsoever he pleased Dion lib. 44. I am apt to think Julius might grind in so many Mills upon the like Design as having Cato's concurrence who in open Senate charged Julius and his Allies with endeavours to insinuate themselves into places of greatest Trust and Command by the Panderage of Marriages Per nuptiarum lenocinia hujusmodi mulieres this was Cato's sence of Caesar's matching his Julia to Pompey and his marrying Calpurnia Plutarch C. Caesar. And his Collegue Bibulus preferr'd this Complaint against him That it was the Kingdom he courted in making love to the Queen of Bithinia Bithinicam Reginam fuisse cordi nunc Regnum Sueton Julius 49. Caesar was but a kind of a Lay-smock-simonist So that for all him we are yet to seek for one Instance in all History of a noted Wanton that has not been a notorious Fool. But to return from this Deviation to which the proving of the Medium I here urge It was a Lascivious ergò a Sottish Age hath drawn me John 12 or 13. for the Popish Writers are not agreed under what number to place him Joan the She-pope is the Davus here turbat omnia was a Pig of the same Litter if the learned Council of Lateran were not mistaken for the Fathers there assembled prefer to Otho the Great these Articles against him Luitprand lib. 2. cap. 7. That he ordained Deacons in a Stable That he made Boys but ten years old Bishops That in playing at Dice he invocated the Devil That he made a Brothel-house of the Lateran Palace lay with Stephana his Father's Concubine and drank the Devil's Health And when in answer to this Charge he sent out his Bulls to bellow Anathema's against them they made bold to return this Reply You write by the suggestion of empty-headed Councellors Childish Threats we despise your threatned Excommunication and throw it back upon your self Judas the Traitor when he would kill the Lord of Life whom did he bind but himself whom he strangled in an unhappy Rope Pope Lando this John's Predecessor was so inconsiderable a person and his Life so obscure saith Platina as many Historians make no reckoning of him at all but leave his Name and Story out of the Catalogue of Popes and does thus express the degeneracy of that time Not only were those famous Lights which in the days of yore render'd Italy illustrious extinct but the very Nurseries where so excellent roots shot forth were altogether laid waste and â—uin'd Pope Sergius 3. is complemented by the same Author in the Style of a rude and unlearned man and the Reader desired to observe how the Popes of this Age were degenerate from their forefathers For these throwing the service of God behind their backs like raging Tyrants exercised enmities upon one another and having none to bridle and keep them in greedily pursued their own lusts So devoid of Understanding were those Brutes as they needed Bit and Bridle and therefore the Council of Rhemes held in this Century did prudently in superseding their purpose of sending to the Pope for Advice in a difficult point when they heard it averr'd in open Court that scarce a man in Romo could read the Christ-cross-row Romae jam nullum ferè esse qui literas didicerit B. Hall hon 〈…〉 of mar lib. 1. Sect. 23. § 4. The 11. Century was invelop'd with so thick a Cloud as the very Light that was in it was gross Darkness teeming with sixteen Popes immediatly succeeding one another from Gerebert or Silvester 2. to Hildebrand or Gregory 7. inclusively who lighted their Candle at the Devil's flame exceeding Jannes and Jambres in Jugglery and rising by the black Art in the Smoke of the bottomless Pit to the Papal Throne if Cardinal Benno have not belyed them Nauclerus vol. 2. generat 31. extends the line of this sacred auri sacra fames Succession to that length as he joyns to these 28 Popes succeeding Silvester that were his Disciples in Necromancy and committed those Villanies as it would make a man's hair stand on end to hear Bellarmine himself Chronologia Cent. 11. confesseth that in this Century there was more Sanctity under the Robe than under the Gown that we are less beholding to the Popes of this Age for preserving a Succession of Religion than to Secular Princes which had gone wholly to wrack for all St. Peter ' s Successors if it had not been supported by the Piety of Christ's Vice-gerents the Emperour Henry and his Wife Chunagand Romanus Emperour of Constantinople Câ—ute King of Denmark and England Stephen King of Hungary and his Son St. Emeric St. Robert the French King Ferdinand the Great King of Castile and his Wife Sanatia For all those greater Lights that God made to rule the Day the Church had been benighted if it had not been for these lesser Lights these Secular Princes If the Earth had not helpt the woman and God given her the Eagles Wings of both Empires East and West and provided a place for her in the Courts of Secular Princes When Satan had set up his Throne in St. Peter's Palace the Dragon there Rampant had destroyed her he that then would look for the holy Church of Rome must have looked beyond the Court of Rome for there sate Hell's Plenipotentiary if Platina be to be trusted Silvester 2. anno 998. who contracted with the Devil for the Papacy at the price of Body and Soul whereof he was to give livery and seisure at his death Platina Silvest 2. Pontificatum postremò majore conatu adjuvante Diabolo consecutus est hac tamen lege ut post mortem totus illius esset cujus fraudibus tantam dignitatem adeptus est Oâ—â—phrius in Platinam seeks to evade the Dint of common Fame touching Silvester by this evasion That he was a great Mathematician and the ignorance of that Age so great too as the Vulgar reputed them Witches who had any thing in them above the pitch of common Learning but himself misdoubts the validity of this to elude the clear and concurrent Testimonies of so many grave and sober Authors Truly I could heartily wish for the sake of the Christian name that his Argument had been cogent in that branch of it wherein he would defend Sivester against the Charge of Sorceries for the very medium he useth will serve my present turn and demonstrates what a thick Mist of barbarous Ignorance covered the face of that Age which esteemed them black Swans who exceeded the common size of Geese And him a great Clerk who was but the Scholar of the Saracens the most stupid kind
built the two Books De miraculis Martyrum writ by Gregory Turonensis who shuts up his first Book thus It behoves us therefore to desire the Patronage of Martyrs c. and his second thus We therefore well considering those Miracles may learn that it is not possible to be saved but by the help of Martyrs and other Friends of God But Simeon Metaphrastes deserves the Whet-stone from all that ever professed this holy Art of Lying for the advantage of Truth who notwithstanding that in his Preface to the strange Romance of Marina he blames others for forging Stories of the Saints and polluting their true Memorials with most evident Doctrines of Devils and Demoniacal Narratives yet himself splits upon the same Rock and so Shipwracks his Credit with all Intelligent Persons as Baronius himself is ashamed of him in notis ad martyrologium Roman Jul. 13. I need not multiply Instances the World swarms with lying Legends Their avowed Doctrine of Mental Reservation of Equivocation to promote the Cause of Religion casts up as wide a Gulf betwixt Gospel-Tradition and theirs as is betwixt Heaven and Hell the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes Quomodo Deus Pater genuit filium veritatem sic Diabolus genuit quasi filium Mendacium August 42. tract in Johan 8. 44. these introduc'd by Persons that account it meritorious of Heaven to forge the grossest Fables so it be in service of the Church which the Apostle calls speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4. 2. vide Meed in locum Those publish'd by Men who less fear'd dying than lying who chose rather to suffer the cruellest Death to lay themselves obnoxious to the Calumnies of captious Adversaries through their Parasie their Freedom of Speech then to tell the most innocent and officious Lye and therefore the unlikeliest Men in the World to abuse the World with Figments and devised Stories and Persons from whose Hand a Man might with more safety and security have taken a Cup suspected to have Poyson in it than a Cup of Wine from the Hand of the most Divine Philosoper as Apollodorus said of Socrates in comparison of Plato Athenaeus dyprosoph l. 11. c. 22. Christian Religions APPEAL To the BAR of Common Reason c. The Second Book The Apostles were not themselves deluded no Crack'd-brain Enthusiasticks but Persons of most composed Minds CHAP. I. The Gospel's Correspondency with Vulgar Sentiments § 1. The Testimony of the Humane Soul untaught to the Truth of the Christian Creed in the Articles touching the Unity of the Godhead his Goodness Justice Mercy The Existence of wicked Spirits § 2. The Resurrection and Future Judgment Death formidable for its Consequences to evil Men No Fence against this Fear proved by Examples § 3. In hope of future Good the Soul secretly applauds her self after virtuous Acts. This makes the Flesh suffer patiently § 1. WHat Exception can be made against so impartial a Relation of Men possessed with such a mortal Detestation of Forgery made to an Age so well accommodated against Delusion by all internal and external Fortifications imaginable cannot in my shallow Reason be conjectured except it be that of Celsus and his Modern Epicurean Disciples That the Apostles themselves were deluded or which is worse infatuated For who but raving and dementate Persons would have ventured to put off Adulterate Wares to so knowing an Age But then how could they have framed the Doctrine and History of Christ in such a Decorum in so exact a Symmetry of Parts not only among themselves but to the great World as Lactantius argues Abfuit ergò ab iis fingendi voluntas astutia quià rudes fuerunt quis possit indoctus apta inter se cobaerentia fingere cùm Philosophorum doctissimi ipsi sibi repugnantia dixerint haec enim est mendaciorum natura ut coherere non possint illorum autèm traditio quià vera est quadrat undique ac sibi tota consentit ideò persuadet quià constanti ratione suffulta est Lactant de justicia lib. 5. cap. 3. The Apostles had neither Will to feign nor any crafty Design upon the World because they were plain Men and what illiterate Man can have the Art to make Fictions square to one another and hang together seeing the most learned of the Philosophers have spoke things jarring amongst themselves for this is the Nature of Untruths that they cannot be of a Piece But the Tradition of the Apostles because it is true one part falls out even with another and it agrees perfectly with it self and therefore gains upon Mens Minds because it is underpropp'd with that stedfast reason and on every side Squares with Principles of Reason Origen useth this Argument Cont. Cels. l. 3. willing him to consider if it were not the Agreeableness of the Principles of Faith with common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that prevailed most upon all candid and ingenuous Auditors of them For how can that be the Figment of deluded Fancies the issue of shatter'd Brains that 's so well shap'd as it bears a perfect Proportion to and Correspondency with whatsoever hath had the common Approbation of Mankind Being calculated 1. To the Meridian of common Sentiments to the Universal Religion of the whole World to the Testimony of every natural Soul to whose Evidence Christian Religion appeals by her Advocate Tertullian in his admirable Treatise De Testimonio Animae I call in saith he a new kind of Witness yet more known than any Writing more tost than all Learning more common than any Book that 's put forth greater than whole Man that is the All that is of Man Come into the Court Oh Soul whether thou beest Divine and Eternal as most Philosophers think and by so much the rather not capable of telling a Lye Or not Divine but Mortal as Epicurus thinks and so much the rather thou oughtest not to lye for Fear of distracting thy self at present with the Guilt of so Inhumane a Vice whether thou art received from Heaven or conceived of Earth whether thou art made up of Numbers or Atoms whether thou commences a being with the Body or art infused after the Body from whencesoever and howsoever thou makest Man a Rational Creature most capable of Sense and Science But I do not retain thee of Council for the Christian such as thou art when after thou hast been formed in the Schools and exercised in Libraries thou belchest forth that Wisdom thou hast obtained in Aristotle's Walks or the Attick Academies No I appeal to thee as thou art raw unpolish'd and void of acquired Knowledge such a one as they have that have only a bare Soul such altogether as thou comest from the Quarry from the High Way from the Looms I have need of thy Unskilfulness for when thou growest never so little crafty all men suspect thee I would have thee bring nothing with thee into this Court but what thou bringest with thy self into Man but
or Man thou cryest out Satan and namest him whom we call the Angel of Malice the Crafts-master of all Errour the Defacer of the whole World by whom Man at first was circumvented to break the Law of God whereby he became obnoxious to Death and drew all his Posterity into the same Condemnation Thou knowest therefore thy Destroyer and though Christians only and those Sects that depend upon the Mouth of God have learn'd to know the whole Story of him yet thou also hast some inkling of him for else thou wouldst not hate him § 2. The Soul conscious of Eternal Judgment Articl 4. There is one Article of our Religion wherein we expect thy Determination so much the rather because it respects thine own state and concernment We affirm that thou continuest in Being after thou hast paid back the debt of Life That thou expectest the Day of Judgment and to be sentenc'd to Eternal Torment or Happiness according as thy works have been in the Body of which that thou maist be capable we affirm that thou expectest the restoring to thee of thy pristine Substance the same Body the same Memory This Faith we introduc'd not but found in the World for this Principle of the Soul's Existence after death the Gallick Druides that most uncult Tribe of Divines retain'd as Caesar witnesseth in his lib. 6. de bello Gallico and Strabo in his 4. Book of the Gauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the same Opinion the same Strabo witnesseth the Indian Brachmans to be lib. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sentiments of the Souls Immortality Barbarism it self could not raze out of the minds of some Thracians saith Pompon Mela lib. 2. de Thracibus Alii redituras putant animas obeuntium alii etsi non redeant non extingui tamen sed ad beatiora transire And as to that of the Bodies Resurrection Tacitus lib. 5. hist. 5. speaking of the Jews saith that in hope of the Resurrection they as also the Egyptians used not to burn but to interr their Corps Corpora condere quà m cremare è more Aegyptio eadémque cura de inferis persuasio These as well as we think it not equal to pass a Doom without the Exhibition of the whole Man which in thy fore-past Life was at work either to bring forth death by sowing to the Flesh or life by sowing to the Spirit This Christian Doctrine though much more becoming than that of Pithagoras for it does not translate thee into Beasts though more full and plain than that of Plato for it restores to thee the dowry of thy Body which point the Platonicks waver'd in Non novi quam utilitatem ex ipsa capiamus â—â—orum enim nulla est commemoratio neque sensus esse posset si simus prorsus quae gratia hujus immortalitatis est habenda Athengus dipnos. 11. 22. though more acceptable than that of Epicurus for it defends thee against annihilation yet merely for the name we give it undergoes the Censure of being vain stupid and temerarious But we are not ashamed of it if thou beest of the same Opinion with us As thou declarest thy self to be when making mention of a wicked man departed this Life thou call'st him poor wretched man not so much for that he has lost the benefit of a temporal Life as for that he is inroll'd for punishment for others when they are deceased thou call'st happy and secure therein professing both the incommodity of Life and benefit of Death Those deceased whom thou imprecatest thou wishest to them heavy earth and to their ashes torment in the other World to them to whom thou bearest good will when they are dead thou wishest rest to their bones and ashes If there remain nothing for thee to be expected after death no sense of pain or joy nay if thou thy self shalt not then remain Why dost thou lye against thine own head Why dost thou tell thy self that something attends thee beyond the Grave Yea why dost thou at all fear death if thou hast nothing to fear after death If thou answer'st Not because it menaceth any thing that 's evil but because it deprives me of the benefit of Life I reply yea thou wilt give answer to thy self That sometimes Death quits thee of the intolerable inconveniences of Life and sure in this case the loss of good things is not to be feared that being recompensed with a greater good to wit 〈…〉 st from inconveniences That certainly is not to be feared that delivers us from all that is to be feared Whence come such amazing fears dreadful apprehensions sinking thoughts to attend guilty Conscience but from the innate Notion of Judgment to come Whence proceeds it that se judice nemo nocens absolvitur a guilty Soul arraigns it self That self-consciousness to the closest Villany binds the Malefactor over to the general Assize that the guilt of innocent Blood though never so secretly shed looks so gastly in the face of the Murderer rings so loud speaks so articulately in the ears of Conscience as some have conceived the very Birds of the Air nay the callow Sparrows in the Nest to reveal the matter as it befel to Bessus should be such a load such a weight upon the Soul as to make it melt in its own grease with struggling under it Mentem sudoribus urget What makes them most stubborn and contumeliously set against entertaining the thought of Eternal Judgment tremble at the voice of Thunder as if in that rumbling noise they heard the sound of the Judges Charriot-wheels and in the Lightning saw a resemblance of that fire shall go before him and consume round about him Caligula out-braved God and Tiberius slighted him yet ad omnia fulgura pallent when they heard his voice they were afraid Excellent is the Note that Tacitus makes upon those Passages in Tiberius his Epistle to the Senate Quid scribam vobis Patres conscripti aut quomodò soribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore Dii me Deeque pejùs perdant quà m perire quotidiè sentio si scio If I can tell Fathers what I may write or how I may write or what I may not write at this time let the Gods who I perceive are destroying me daily destroy me worse Adeò facinora flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant Neque frustrà Plato affirmare solitus est si recludantur trannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ità saevitia libidine malis consultis animus dilaceratur So do impious men comments Tacitus torment themselves with the guilt of their own villanies as Plato had reason to say that if the Minds of Tyrants were exposed to open view they would be seen smiting and tearing themselves for as mens Bodies are with scourges so are their souls torn with the guilt of cruelty lust and ill-advised actions That is as the same Plato de republ saith when they perceive
deaths approaches Nero hath this Character given him by Suetonius Religionum usquequaque aspernator he perfectly contemned all Religion yet his Mothers Ghost dogg'd him into an acknowledgement of Judgment to come for after his Matricide he was scar'd with dreams terrified with visions wherein sometimes he hears the Apparritors voice summoning him to appear before the divine Tribunal sometimes he thinks the Furies arrest him and hale him into close and dismal Dungeons those antipasts of approaching vengcance drive him quite off his Stoicism in his last Act put him beside the Lesson his Master Seneca had taught him he could handle his Weapon dexterously in the Artillery-garden but he cannot find his hands in the pitch'd Field 'T is one thing to bark at the Lions Skin in the Hall another thing to meet the Lion in the Wood. He cannot at his death with all his Charms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Age excita teipsum how ill do these fears become the Scholar of Seneca Caesar where art thou go too stir up thy courage Nero conjure down the terrours of death nor keep them within the Circle of his own heart but they break out in those gastly stareings of his Eyes as strike the Spectators with horrour Extantibus rigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem visentium Sueton. Nero. so true is that of St. Cyril Jerus Catech. 18. Thou maist deny it with thy lipps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thou carriest the Conscience of the Resurrection about with thee Epicurus made it his business to obliterate the Notions of the Souls Immortality and the Judgment attending us in the other World yet Cotta in Cicero de nat deor lib. 1. gives this Testimony of him Nec quenquam vidi qui magis timeret ea quae timenda esse negaret mortem dico Deos I never knew man that more fear'd what he said was not to be fear'd to wit Death and the Deity There is no Antidote strong enough to repel the thought of future Judgment from soaking into the spirits of those men that would most glad ly quit themselves of those thoughts The Atheist in heart cannot persevere to be an Atheist in Judgment he may cross the Book but the Debt is still legible he cannot make his Soul rasam tabulam not rase out of it the native Impresses of a righteous Deity he may think he has barrocado'd all the ways to his Soul and secured it from all Assaults of Fear that he has sufficiently immur'd his Judgment and made it impregnable but Judgment has a Party within will betray the Fort a self-accusing Conscience Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ità concipit intrà pectora pro facto spémque metúmque suo He may think he has extinguish'd the Fire but the Sparks of the Fiery Day are only raked up in the Embers and lie glowing on the bottom of the Hearth He may beat the thoughts of Eternal Vengeance from the Out-works and base Town the lower and bestial part of the Soul Fancy that 's only mur'd by Sense but they are so fortifyed in the Fort Royal in the white Tower of the rational Faculties as there they stand at defiance against all his Artillery as thence they make frequent Sallies and put all the Arguments wherewith they are beleaguered to the Rout thence they discharge whole Vollies of mortal Shot against the Atheist's Head if he once but dare to peep up above those Trenches under the Covert of which his Disbelief lurks To be sure the Dust that riseth under the Charriot Wheels of approaching Death blown into the most refractory A theist's Eyes will cure him of that his Purblindness of that Indisposition whereby he could not see afar off so far off as Judgment to come § 3. Articl 5. The Soul's Antipasts of the Resurrection to Eternal Life To whose Discipline we will leave him and attend to what the Soul speaks about that other part of glad Hope after Death whence comes that secret Applause she gives her self when she acts well that Exultancy of Spirit which ariseth from her reflecting upon her vertuous Actions Seneca speaks the Peasant's Sence as well as the Philosopher's when he saith Animum divina aeterna delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis distrabe hoc inestimabile bonum non èst vita tanti ut sudem ut aestuem Upon the performance of Noble and Heroick Actions the Soul contemplates those Eternal Rewards that attend them in the World and delights and enjoys her self in those Rewards not as things she hath nothing to do with but as her own peculiar Portion without which Fore-tasts of Eternal Retribution which the Divine Justice will award to Pious Actions this present Life were not worth the while our sweating and toiling here were but lost Labour exactly to the Apostle's Sense 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this Life only we had Hope we were miserable Men If the Soul did not think that the Body shall reign with her with what Equity does she put it upon suffering for her Would not the Flesh grumble to be rid by her through Brush and Brake if she did not rest in hope of sharing with the Soul in the Reward of well doing Would Scoevola's Hand if it had not laid fast hold of Eternal Life have been kept so steady in that Fire wherein he sacrificed it for his Countrey 's Service then which as my Author saith the immortal Gods never saw a more noble one laid upon their Altars nor more bespeaking the Attention of their Eyes Could Pompei have perswaded his Finger to have the Patience to be burnt to the stump in the Flame of a Candle to convince King Gentius that no Torture could rack him to confess the Senates Counsel if he had not pointed it to its future Reward With what else could Theodorus charm his Tongue to hold its Peace while he tired his Tormenters and wore out the Rack with his Patience Or Alexander's Page his Arm not to shrug while it was carbonadoing with that live Coal that fell into his Sleeve out of that Censer he held while his Master was sacrificing till the smell of his burnt Flesh exceeded that of the Incense and till Alexander had fulfill'd those Rites which he lengthen'd out on purpose to delight himself with the Prospect of that invincible Manhood in a Boy With what else do the Indian Gymnosophists obtain of their Bodies a Compliance with their Austere Discipline of going naked in Frost and Snow all their Life long of hardning them with the Frosty Rigour of Caucasus one while and another while throwing them into the Fire under all which Burdens the poor Beast never groans nor expresseth the least Disgust against its Rider But would a good Man be thus merciless to his Beast were he not perswaded with that Strippling Martyr in the Book of Maccabees 2. 7. these I had from Heaven and for his Laws I despise them and from him I hope to have them again These
certain Chaldean made that all his attempts and greatest endeavours for the purging of his Soul were frustrated by reason that a man potent in the Theargick Art envying him that felicity bound up the hands of the Divine Powers charm'd by his Conjurations so as they could not grant his Request The Romans more than once experienc'd the same thing for sometimes these Plebeian Deities lay bonds upon the Superiour as those in Rome whose sacred houses had been turn'd to private dwellings suspended and as it were entred a prohibition against Esculapius that he could not proceed in the cure of the Pestilence then raging till they had been compounded with and their houses restored Cicero in orat de Aruspicum responsis This was about the first punick War Orosius lib. 4. of which St. Austin de Civit. 3. 17. frustrà praesente Aesculapio aditum est ad Sybillinos libros After they had in vain for two years together invocated the aid of Aesculapius they betake themselves to thy Sibyls Books To which also they applyed themselves in the time of that Plague that happen'd a little before the Invasion of the Gauls Livy lib. 5. and having long tryed the inutility of craving help at the hands of their Capitoline Deities are directed to institute the Lectisternia that is to yoke the Gods two and two together Apollo with Latona Hercules with Diana and Mercury with Neptune into one Team and after they had provinder'd them well with Sacrifices and smoak'd them with Supplications not to doubt but that they would either themselves hale away the Pestilence or not pass back but let their Capitoline Jove or helping father do it Liv. lib. 5. 13. pag. 151. Their experience before that of Joves inability to cure them he giving himself to Women in his youth had slipp'd the time of learning Physick as St. Austin facetiously excuseth him de Civitat 3. 17. forced them fetch Aesculapius from Epidaure to Rome to act the part of a Doctor amongst them Apollo having refused to undertake the cure though fee'd with a promise of having a Temple erected to him Aedes Apollini pro valitudine populi vota Liv. 4. 25. and referring them to his son as Ovid Metam 15. tells the story But the Pestilence still raging after all this and whatever the Duumviri could collect out of Sibyl's Books for the pacifying of Divine Wrath and averting the Malady proving ineffectual The people apply themselves to all the Gods they could think or hear of in so much as there was to be seen in every Street peregrine and unusual Expiations whereupon the Ediles are charged to see to it that they restrain those Supplicatings of strange Gods Liv. 4. 30. The Senate was partial in this Decree for if themselves when they saw that their Jupiter Optimus Maximus their helping Father could not releive them call'd in his Grandchild Aesculapius why might not the people when they found their Cure was beyond the skill of this Doctor call in a Council to aid him for they could not impute their not-recovery to their want of will but skill seeing Aesculapius had so lately been obliged to do his utmost by their making him a free Deity of their City And Jove by the oblation of opima spolia dedicated to him by Cossus and of a golden Crown by the Dictator Liv. 4. 20. I wonder that after so many and clear experiments of their impotency those Gods did not take up that Proverb as well as we men Non omnia possumus omnes The forms of these God-terrifying Incantations are set down in Jamblicus in Mysteriis tit quomodo obserratores Daemonibus minabuntur If you will not do this that I adjure you or on the other side if you do that which I abjure you I will split the Heavens in pieces lay open the secrets of Isis divulge the secret that 's hid in the abyss stagnat Baris scatter Osiris limbs to Typhon c. And more elegantly in Lucan lib. 6. who brings in Erichtho thus threatning the slow-pac'd Gods and Goddesses whom she had invok'd miratur Erichtho Has fatis licuisse moras iratáque morti Verberat immotum vivo serpente cadaver Pérque cavas terrae quas egit carmine rimas Manibus illatrat regnique silentia rumpit Tisiphone vocisque meae secura Megaera Non agitis saevis Erebi per inane flagellis Infaelicem animam I am vos Ego nomine vero Eliciam Stygiásque canes in luce superna Destituam per busta sequar per funera custos Expellam tumulis abigam vos omnibus uruis Téque deis ad quos alio procedere vultu Ficta soles Hecate pallenti tabida forma Ostendam faciémque Erebi mutare vetabo Eloquar immenso terrae sub pondere quae te Contineant Eunaea dapes quo faedere moestum Regem noctis ames quae te contagia passam Noluerit revocare Ceres Tibi pessime mundi Arbiter immittam ruptis Titana cavernis Et subitò feriere die It cannot but move some kind of diverting if not recreating Passion in my Reader cloy'd with so much serious and philosophical Follies to hear my course Muse translate these smooth-footed Latin into these hobling English Verses Erichtho wondering how the Destinies Durst so long loyter at death chasing plies With living Serpents the dead Corps and charms Deep chincks i' th' ground through which she thus alarms With barking rage the Manes Tisiphon And thou Megaera for my words ye scorn Or whip this damn'd Soul through the Streets of Hell Or I 'll strip you of borrowed names and tell What kind of Hags ye be ye Stygian Bitches I 'll hale you into th' open Sun ye Witches And leave you there where neither tomb nor urn Shall dare conceal you Hecate can turn Her coat when she before the Gods appears And have another face than here she wears But they shall see her in her native dress Such as she is 'mongst shades pale sanguinless That face she wears in Erebus she shall show Among th' Immortals And the World shall know What cares detain thee in grim Pluto's Court Proserpina and why thou loves that lout And what it was thou catch'd there made Thy mother shuck thee off into a shade And thou unequal arbiter of the World Titan and day shall in thy face be hurl'd This was that masculine Poesie which Plato allowed in his commonwealth and out of which Porphyry in his Responds confirms his Dogma That the reputed Deities oftentimes proved less than men in the hands of the Theourgicks For he there brings in Hecate forc'd by the Hag to give Responds against her will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And least we think the evasion of Jamblicus to be of weight who limits the efficacy of these Imprecations to the infernal Deities those vagabond Fairy-elves that converse in the lowest Region whom he confesseth any toothless Hag if she mutter over them words of an harsh sound that jerk the Air though
this Story neither names Israel but Saturn whose Soul after his death assumed for its heavenly body the Planet so called nor his but his wifes the Nymph Anobretha sacrificing of her only Son after the death of his Father 3. Thirdly he relates this fact of Saturn or his Wife as an imitation of the ancient Custom of that Nation to sacrifice the Princes most beloved Son in times of eminent danger to that Deity that takes vengeance of sin for the pacifying of his wrath Morem priscis cùm itaque Saturnus rex Eus. pr. evan 1. 7. So far is Porphyry out in his alledging Abraham or Israel as the Samplar out of which the Heathen World transcrib'd that bloody Copy as his own Author makes that very fact of Abraham which he alledgeth to have been done in observance of a Custom in ure long before Abraham was 4. Porphyry for the credit of Sanchoniathon affirmeth that he gather'd his Antiquities out of the Records of the several Cities the sacred Inscriptions in the Temples and of Jerom-Baal the Priest of the God Irvo or Jao If we admit this Jerom-baal to have been Gideon whom the Scripture calls Jerub-baal which is of the same sense in the Phoenician Language only after their custom changing one b into m as in Ambubaiae Sambucus c. it will not follow that this Author was contemporary with Gideon for he might use Gideon's Records after his death and in all likelihood came to the knowledg of him and them by means of that intercourse betwixt the Israelites and the Inhabitants of Berith where Sanchoniathon lived the worship of whose God Baal-Berith the Israelites fell to after Gideon's death But that he was not elder than Gideon doth necessarily follow from hence see Dr. Stillingfleet Orig. l. 1. cap. 2. sect 3. 4. and indeed 't is manifest he was much younger than Gideon from which Chronological Concession of those that are of opinion that the Heathens sacrificed Children in imitation of Abraham I argue against that opinion thus If the story of Abraham's Fact had not till that time arrived by Oral Tradition at their next door neighbours the Phaenicians but must be fetch'd out of Hebrew Records till then unknown to the greatest Antiquary the Heathen World affords how can it be imagin'd that the report thereof should reach all over Canaan so many hundreds of years before that wherein children were made oblations so long even before Moses as he speaks thereof as of ancient use among them Even their sons and their daughters have they burn'd in the fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 31. In which particular God himself is so far from suspecting the Gentiles would or did follow Israel as he gives Israel caution not to follow the Gentiles Thou shalt not enquire after their Gods saying How did these Nations serve their Gods even so will I do likewise vers 30. which would have been to small purpose had the Gentiles in those oblations followed Abraham for the Jew might then have replyed to the Prophets rebuking him for that practise that therein he followed the Nations in nothing but wherein they followed Abraham whom those very Prophets bid them look to who were sent to rebuke them for sacrificing their sons and daughters to Molech It would have been more seasonable in that case had the case been as our Opponents imagine to have warned them not to look to Abraham but to the intentions of God to try Abraham's Love and Faith in his tempting him to offer his only Son and his Son of Promise But the Psalmist Psal. 106. 35. hath determin'd it beyond all doubt that the Israelites in sacrificing their Sons and Daughters served the Idols of Canaan and learned their works that is those abominations which the Canaanites had practised as Moses saith before Israel came among them and for which Israel should have rooted them out Nay so far were the Canaanites from learning these works of Abraham which Abraham's Posterity learn'd of them as that before Abraham's tryal the old Inhabitants of Canaan by reason of these works began to look white towards Harvest though as yet their sins were not fully ripe Gen 15. 16. yea Moses having spoken of offering sons to Molech among other of their bestialities Levit. 18. 21. as the sins that God visited upon the Canaanites vers 25. tells the Israelites ver 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all these same abominations have the men of this Land who were before you done and this Land hath been defiled upon which Text Philo Judaeus saith Barbaras quoque gentes per multas aetates litasse mactatis filiis cujus sceleris Moses eos accusat de Abrahamo pag. 243. It appears that the Gentiles for many Ages before Abraham did sacrifice children from Moses his saying The men of this Land Canaan who inhabited it before you did do all these abominations and the land was defiled 5. Had those circumjacent Nations taken up that practice from Abraham's Example what better Argument could they have used than that to induce the Jews to it and sure had the Jews upon that reason conform'd to that Gentile Rite we should have heard them plead that for their adhering to it rather than those sorry reasons they bring for their resolute contumacy and pertinacious resistance of the Prophet's motion to them to forsake it As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee we will do as we have done for then it was well with us we had plenty and peace c. how much more strenuous would this reply have been then we did well for we followed Abraham 6. If the Phoenicians had no knowledg of Abraham's fact till Sanchoniathon found it in the Jewish Records so long after Moses how could the knowledge of it reach in almost as short a time as far south as Affrica as far north as Scythia as far east as India for 't is not to be conceiv'd from whence but India or Tartary the Americans derive their Pedigree or the Inhabitants of the Caroline Islands the worship of Molech whose Images in that form wherein they are described by Diodorus Siculus in the twentieth Book of his Bibliotheca were found there by the first discoverers of that Island who also affirmed that they threw children as sacrifices into the glowing hands of that Idol who were there scalded to death by vertue of a fire within the hollow body of the Image of all which Vives received good intelligence just as he was commenting upon the 19. Chapter of the 7. Book of St. Austin de Civitate Dei which treats upon that subject As far west as Hercules Pillars that is through all the Nations of which ancient History gives us account For this custom of sacrificing men to appease the divine wrath will appear to have been in a manner universal almost if not altogether as early as that Age wherein the most critical Computers affirm Sanconiathon
thinking they were God's But the Jews are forc'd to homage them whom they knew were no Gods and therefore were holy to these their new Lords after a peculiar way of seperation and different from all the People in the World Henceforth their holy Lamps and Book of their Law must be deposited among the Gentiles in their Metropolis and perhaps in the Emperour's Palace that all Nations upon the Earth might vindicate God's severity against the Fedifrages and proclaim the Equity of his Ways after a Perusal of the Covenant betwixt God and them That the Gentiles might be lighten'd to the acknowledgment of that Lord Christ whom the Jews had rejected to whom Lamp and Law would be more useful than they had been to that blind Generation which by malicious Ignorance had put out its own Eyes § 3. But these wonders that these Utensils should escape the Fire should be singled out for Triumph and a Jewish Priest's committing all this to perpetual Memory which so clearly expresseth God's cancelling his Covenant with the Jews and his calling the whole World to be Witness of his giving them so full a discharge have nothing worthy of admiration in them in comparison of that for which principally I made the premised Allegations viz. That Judah's God should all this while hold his peace if indeed he were at that time Judah's God and had not renounc'd all Relation to those sometimes holy Things holy People nay and holy Name too For the Roman Eagle flutter'd in Triumph equally over all these That he should suffer the Actors of these Tragedies to reign in honour to depart in peace one of their own Priests urgeth this Argument Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 6. cap. 11. God was wont to avenge you on your Adversaries but Vespasian may thank the Jewish Wars for the Empire these Fountains and for instance that of Siloam which were dry to you run so plentifully to Titus as to afford Water enough for his Men for his Cattel and the flowing of the Grounds he has gain'd Therefore I believe God hath left the Temple and is fled from you and takes part with them with whom ye war I shall therefore prosecute this Argument more particularly This I say can never be sufficiently admired that Israel's quondam God should suffer the great-Instruments of their Misery to live applauded as the Delights and Darlings of Humane Kind to die bewailed with no loss sorrowful resentment of the Publick than that which men feel for and express at the loss of their own dearest and most intimate Relations and to be followed to the Funeral Pile with more Praise than Flattery her self could pour out upon living Princes Titus cognomine paterno amor deliciae humani generis Excessit quod ut palà m factum est non secus atque in domestico luctu maerentibus publicè cunctis Senatus tantas mortuo gratias egit laudésque quantas congessit nè vivo quidem unquam atque praesenti Suetonius Titus cap. 1. 11. Vespasian had no Mene Tekel writ against him for that Apparition he saw in his sleep of a pair of Ballances hanging up in the Porch of the Palace with Claudius and Nero in one and himself and Children in the other Scale was a Vision of Peace importing the Translation of the Imperial Crown out of the Julian into his the Flavian Family and the continuance of it in that Family as long as it had remain'd in the former during the Reigns of Claudius and Nero and that with such Felicity as the happy and beneficial Reigns of him and his Sons should counter-ballance the Mischiefs which the World receiv'd by the male-administration of those two last degenerate Branches of the Julian Stock By which Vision and other Portents he was so well assured of his Son's Succession as he was wont to ascertain the Senate That in spight of all treasonable Attempts to the contrary he was sure his Son or no body should reign after him Sueton. Vespasianus cap. 25. Titus indeed complain'd at his death that he had done one act for which he repented and but one Neque enim exstare ullum suum factum paenitendum excepto duntaxat uno Sueton. Titus cap. 10. So far was God from writing such bitter Bills against him that might make his Countenance fall his Joynts shake and his Knees smite against one another as he did against his Fellowblasphemer as he with hands stretched out to Heaven and a naked Breast complain'd to the God of Heaven almost in Job's Phrase I am cut off but not for my iniquity for I do not remember that ever I did any Act to be repented of except one What that Fact was he neither discovered saith mine Authour nor is it easie for any man to tell some thought it was his too much intimacy with Domitia his Brother's Wife but if that had been so that impudent Woman would have boasted of her being nought with so great and good a Man for she was a Woman not shy of keeping her own Counsel in such Cases If I may give my Conjecture I suppose it might probably be his seeking to obtain the Judaean Crown for himself a Design which his Father was jealous he had in his head and for which he incur'd hatred and blame while he served his Father in the Judaean Wars However it could not be his slaughtering and captivating the Jews his sacking their City and Temple his carrying away the holy Spoils for here were such a Multiplicity of Acts as to have confessed himself guilty in those things had been to have accused the greatest part of his Life after he came upon the the open Stage which was in a manner spent in Actions of this tendency And had God for vindicating the Glory of his sometimes-great Name charged upon his Conscience the guilt of his challenging the God of Judah he would have charged it so home as to have made him confess and give glory to God And to speak the naked Truth though the Rabbies put a blasphemous Gloss upon the words of Titus yet he did not thereby intend to affront that God who sometimes had been Judah's God but knowing that he came against Judea at the call and by the conduct of that God to dishearten them and encourage his own men he told them Their God was put to Sea that is he had forsaken the protection of them and their Land their strength was departed from them upon which account he subjoyn'd Let him come and give me Battel that is try if with all your strongest cries you can engage him to take your part who I am sure takes mine against you The words indeed sound like Nabsheca's or Nebuchadnexxar's but the difference of the times make their sence as different from theirs as Light from Darkness The God of Heaven was then God of the Jews and those Nations indivisible and therefore they in the name of their Idols defied the God of Heaven under the name of the God of Israel But
their glorified forms Apollonius had discourse with the Ghost of Achilles arising out of his grave apparel'd in a Souldiers coat and of the stature of five at first afterwards of twelve Cubits about Homer's History of the Trojan War till the Lyon-like apparition was by the crowing of a Cock frighted into his hole Idem ibid. Christ cast out Devils so did Apollonius and that of both Sexes one a Male out of a lascivious Youth another a Female which Philostratus calls Empusa for he must be feigned to make the Devils confess their names as well as Christ did that Legion wherewith the Gaderene was possessed He is said to raise a Roman Damsel from death to life Which if they were any thing but mere Fictions his emulous Rival in Philosophy Euphrates then living in Rome would without doubt have put them in against him among those Articles he prefer'd to Domitian Our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria all the Occurrences of her life Apollonius is brought upon the Stage by Philostratus lib. 5. telling a Piper his Pedigree Estate and all the Fortunes he had passed through c. Because Christ saith of himself By me Kings reign Vespasian is introduc'd begging the Empire of Apollonius and Apollonius returning him answer that he had already decreed him Emperour Christ knew what was in man and therefore this Ape must be reported to understand what the sufficiencies of all men were insomuch as his Censures past for Oracles with Vespasian who merely upon Apollonius his assuring him from a gift of seeing into men's hearts that they were wise and honest men retain'd Dion and Euphrates into his Council and most secret designs though in the sequel of the story his memory fails the Fabler for him whom Apollonius had commended to the Father Vespasian as a just and wise man he declaims against to the Son Domitian as a flattering Parasite c. Caupo est cupedinarius publicanus faenerator c. But that was after Euphrates had cryed out first and accused him as a Wizard However this is enough to spoil his Divination and to evince that he could not foresee that Euphrates would become his enemy any more than he could foreknow that Domitian would not permit him to repeat that elaborate Oration he had with so much pains pen'd and prepared Euseb. in Hiero. Clem. lib. 7 8. Had the Children held their peace the stones would have cryed Hosannah to the son of David This was it that put words into the mouth of that Elm that in an articulate and womanly slender Voice welcom'd Apollonius to among the Egyptian Gymnosophists Philostrat lib. 6. By the invocation of Christ's name after his Assension Miracles were effected That they might make Apollonius vye in this particular with the blessed Jesus there were some who affirmed they had experienc'd a Magical Virtue in his name towards miraculous Operations And lastly for I am weary of tracing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foot by foot where he is made to tread in Christ's steps As Christ ascended into Heaven so did he if Philostratus be to be believed whither he was invited and taken up by a chore of Female-angels or Virgin-nymphs his Tomb being no where to be found though Philostratus sought for it through the whole World though withal he tells us he knows nothing touching his death nor do Authors saith he agree touching his departure some saying it was at Ephesus others in the Temple of Minerva Lindia others in the Island of Crete and himself a little before lib. 7. at the Bar where he stood indicted of Witchcraft before Domitian to whom after he had proclaimed that petulant and boasting bravado thou canst not keep my body bound nor kill me Caesar for I am death-less he presently vanish'd out of humane sight § 3. Hierocles was not the only man that made those odious Comparisons neither was Apollonius the only man that was compared to our Jesus but Apuleius and others as Marcellinus tells St. Austin Apollonium siquidem suum nobis Apuleium aliósque Magicae artis homines in medium proferunt quorum majora contendunt extitisse miracula Marcel Augustino ep 4. The Pagans saith he of whom we have great store in this City set before us their Apollonius Apuleius and other persons who by the help of Magick have done greater Miracles than Christ. Insomuch as that question was then worn thread-bare and managed on their part with all subtilty and patronized by great men and Wits who moved every stone ransack'd every corner of Divine and Secular History that they might parallel Christs mighty Works and that no line in Christ's face no lineament in his whole body might pass without a parallel Upon this subject saith Celsus in Orig. l. 7. cal 76. If you have a mind to believe stories of men being made Gods and to fasten that Privilege upon any one whose life and death make them worthy of that honour had not Hercules or Aesculapius pleased you you had Orpheus who without doubt was inspired with a divine Spirit and died a Martyr to Philosophy by the hands of the enraged frows of Bacchus And if the cause of his death mislike you and truly who but a sorbid Epicure can like it for he deservedly contracted the just hatred of all Womankind by his singing the flagitious brutishness of the Gods in their unnatural Ganimedian Lusts nonnulli aiunt quòd Orpheus primus puerilem amorem induxerit mulieribus visum contumeliam fecisse illis ab haue rem interfectum c. Higini poetic astron Lyra. some say Orpheus first introduc'd the unnatural love of boys which women taking as a reproach to their Sex did therefore slay him However had not Orpheus pleased you saith Celsus you might have pitch'd upon Aristarchus who being cast into a Mortar in the midst of his pains utter'd this egregious speech the result of a truly divine spirit pound bray Aristarchus his pelt for thou canst not bray Aristarchus himself Or Epictetus who when his master was racking his Thigh smiling and without fear told him if he did not take heed he would break his Thigh and when he had broken it did I not tell thee saith he thou wouldst break my Thigh What did your God utter saith Celsus in the time of his suffering comparable to these men Ans. he prayed for his enemies and prevented the breaking his Thigh or one of his bones The same Celsus in Orig. 1. 21. Does as good as assent to the truth of the Evangelical History that gives an account of Christ's Miracles confessing that by reason thereof many believed in him and calumniating them as proceeding from Magick in which point he had been equall'd if not exceeded by many who never gain'd thereby the repute of being Gods Deum Deique Filium nemo ex talibus signis rumoribus tà mque frigidis argumentis approbat 2. 24. Xamolxis Pythagoras Rampsinitus who is said to have played at Chess with Ceres and to have brought away from
in magnificence Instructive as pointing to the bruised heel of the Womans Seed as being so chargeable and toilsome as it was not credible that any Nation should by their own free choice encumber themselvs with so burdensome a service nor possible they could be induc'd to the embracing of it by any Motives inferiour to those dreadful appearances of the divine Majesty at the promulgation of it and Menacies annext to it Add to all this their sojourning in Aegypt the Nursery of Idolatry so many hundred years Their settlement in Canaan where the worship of Devils had taken deepest root so near to Caldaea where the Primitive Tradition had been first corrupted The improvement of the Art of Navigation by Solomon Their several dispersisions into the utmost parts of the inhabited Earth c. And it will appear that as the Earth was over-spread by degrees with people and people grew to apostatize from the Catholick Religion God sent this then last Edition of the Gospel after them by the hand of Abrahams seed bringing to their remembrance the almost forgotten Promise of the Womans Seed And that therefore the Divine Grace administred to all men an occasion to seek after God whom they might have found if they would have sought him where he directed them and whom all did find who did not maliciously shut their eyes against the Light shining in Judaea in its full body as the Sun in its Orb and thence transmitting its Beams into the utmost Coasts of the World Briefly The Jews setting aside the Covenant of Peculiarity which consisted of Earthly Promises and Carnal Ordinances was only the Worlds Cock to give it notice how the time past till the Fulness of Time was come to awake its drowsie eyes to wait for break of day to profligat those painted Lyons who had usurpt the Title of the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah to give notice the Star of Jacob was not yet risen and to direct them by the voice of their Prophets when and where to look for the promised Seed In a word they were not the Catholick Church but a Nation of Priests separated for the service of the Catholick Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles worshipping the true God and waiting for Christ. 3. Celsus his Exception therefore that Christian Religion opposeth the general Religion of the World is manifestly false for there never was any Religion universally profest as that which bringeth Salvation to all save the Christian that is Faith in the promised Seed for Gentile Religions were calculated to particular Climes but this publish'd to and believed through the whole World 4. What he objects as to Sects of Christians I answer what ever Sect recedes from the Catholick Church and the common Faith ceaseth to be Christian that is whoever rend themselves from that body of Believers who in all Ages before Christ and since have held the common Way of Salvation by the blood of the Womans Seed become as to Religion Heathens and therefore the Church is not chargeable with them Article 10. The forgiveness of sins This is plainly to be read as a Point of Christ and his Apostles Doctrine and the Churches Faith in that odious Comparison of the Epicurean Sophist Celsus lib. 3. 16 17. They that are to be initiated in Pagan Mysteries are by a Cryer thus invited whosoever is of pure hands and heart whosoever is free from all impieties whosoever hath a soul not conscious to it self of any villany whosoever hath lived well and justly come hither At sacer est locus procul ite prophani c. But the Christian Preachers invite men to the Christian Faith after these forms Whosoever is simple wretched wicked prophane here is pardon for them Come ye impure and defiled Souls here is a Fountain of Purgation open for you to wash in Your Jesus you say came not to call the righteous but sinners and whither should the Physician come but to the sick as Origen well replies In the exposition of the Apostles Creed among the works of St. Cyprian but by St. Jerom ascribed to Ruffinus and by Gennadius commended as the best piece of Ruffinus and therefore judged by Erasmus to be his the Pagans object against this Article That the Christians do miserably deceive themselves in believing that sins can be forgiven that what is committed indeed can be purg'd by words whether of Promise on Gods part or Confession on the penitent's part or Absolution on the Priests part Is it possible say they that he that hath committed Murder or Adultery should not be reckon'd a Murderer or Adulterer to which it is there well answered Why should I not believe that that God who of Earth made me a Man can make me of guilty innocent that he who made me see who before was blind who made me hear who before was deaf who made me sound who was before lame can restore innocency to me when I have lost it c Article 11. The Resurrection of the Flesh. Were this Article buried in the oblivion of whole Christendom it might obtain a Resurrection even out of the grave of Pagan Writers and loose no more of its perfection than our bodies shall do at their's That fleering Philosopher Celsus while he laughs it out of countenance brings it to remembrance All that Christ taught you saith he touching the Resurrection of the body touching Eternal Life and Death he borrowed from the Books of the Jewish Prophets lib. 2. 3. But with how much absurdity do you with that earnestness as if you accounted nothing more desireable hope and wait for the Resurrection of your Body when in the mean while you throw your Bodies as vile things to all kinds of Torments lib. 8. 18. And lib. 3. cal 6. The Christians amuse the unwary Vulgar with vain and bug-bear threats of eternal judgement of the pains of the damned and with the alluring promises of future rewards And yet the same Author lib. 4. 7. confesseth that we in our discourses of the day of Judgement speak congruously to the old Philosophers And lib. 1. cal 4. the very first instance he bringeth of our concurrence with the opinions of Philosophers is that which we teach touching rewards and punishment Deogratias relates to St. Austin this Quaere propounded by a Gentile Philopher Whether the promised Resurrection would be like that of Lazarns or that of Christ not like Lazarus saith the Philosopher for he rose before his Body was consum'd but you Christians say that mens bodies shall rise many Ages after they are crumbled to dust not like Christ for he shew'd the scars in his Hands and Side and did eat after he rose again but you say that after the Resurrection men shall neither eat nor drink nor have any blemish upon their Bodies Aug. Ep. 49. Here we have not only the Resurrection but the manner of it as it is described in the Gospel attested by Pagans to bave been the known Doctrine of the Church viz. that
round about them came from the Sun in the other Hemisphere darting its Beams through some holes or clefts of the Earth for otherwise they could not possibly be sub dio in the night Yet the word most properly signifies stabulantes in agris being in their huts or rather their Field-halls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping court in the fields whence both Homer and Hesiod ascribe it as the Epithete of all Shepherds men living in the fields and though they were not fire-houses yet they might with Straw or that Hay they prepar'd to feed their Cattle with next morning make them as warm as they pleased If it be replyed how then could they either see to their Flocks or observe the shining of that glorious Light if they lay snugging in their Cabines The Text exhibites this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they watched their watchings over their flocks that is they kept watch by turns and that they might do without detriment to themselves in the coldest Season and with as much advantage to their Flocks as if they had all watch'd at once and sure what instinct teacheth Crows reason would teach them that one pair of attentive ears and eyes would as well hear or see what befel as if they were all awake who might call up the rest if he descried the approach of any strange occurrence Lastly put the Case at the worst say they had no Cabines which yet it is unlike they were without even in Summer to defend them from the days heat as well as nights cold was this any greater hardship than the Heir of that whole Land their Father Jacob endured in Laban's service Or can St. Lukes words sound harsher than those wherein Moses expresseth Jacob's complaint Gen. 31. 40. In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night As to the multitudes flocking in to John's Baptism notwithstanding the extremity of the Season The Baptist himself even with a wet finger wipes that stain off from the Churches practice which some from thence cast upon it in the observation he made thereupon that they came to his Baptism that they might flee from and escape that wrath which by the information of their Prophets they believed would fall upon those whom their Messias at his coming should find impenitent Can it then seem strange that men should run through fire and water to avoid that excision which the Axe laid to the root threatned to every Tree that did not bring forth fruit meet for Repentance to escape that Damnation of Hell that unquenchable fire which they believed was to be the portion of such as would not listen to the voyce of the Cryer And as to our Saviours submitting himself to the tolerance of Winters cold his acquainting himself with grief as soon as he came out of the Womb and his exposing his sacred Body to Jordan's chillest Streams as they were part of his Cross and Expiations for that pleasure we take in sin so they were the products of that inconquerable Love of his to Mankind a Love stronger than Death and which many Waters could not quench Cant. 8. And would doubtless be so taken if men who turn Grace into wantonness did not fear that the Example of it would force them from their Epicurism unto the most ingrateful austerities of Mortification which rather than themselves will undergo they will loose the benefit of Christ's Mediation § 6. If thou beest as nice Reader as these fine-dame-Divines I shall not know how to make my Apology before thee for this large digression however I will not hazard the bringing of thee to another qualm by pleading my excuse at large but only beg thy pardon and bring thee back from whence I diverted viz. the Testimony of Josephus in confirmation of the Verity of the Evangelical History as to its Date of Christ's Baptism to that Testimony he gives touching the time of Christ's Birth as to that other Character of it specified by the Evangelists to wit the first Taxing under Cyrenius wherein though some would make him disagree with St. Luke and Maldonat by name who will needs have that Taxing which he mentions lib. 18. c. 3. to be mistaken by Josephus for that which was made at our Saviours Birth yet that there is a fair Correspondencie betwixt him and the Evangelists in that point will appear if we consider that that which Josephus there mentions is the last under Cyrenius which he gives an account of and that that which St. Luke speaks of as coincident with our Saviour's Birth is specified by him to have been the first of those two Taxings which were made during Cyrenius his presidency over Syria The first of all the World that is the whole Roman Empire of which St. Luke speaks Tunc breviarium totius Imperii conficere Augustus in animo habebat in quo opes publicae continebantur quantum civium sociorumque in armis quot classes regna provinciae tributa vectigalia hujusmodi alia which was therefore made because Augustus had a mind to make a doomsday-book of the whole Empire wherein was set down the Revenues of the Empire what Train-bands the Citizens what the associates found what Navies Kingdoms Provinces what Tribute Customs and such like belonged to the Empire as Scaliger de emendat 6. pag. 551. and in Euseb. Chron. numb 2018. collect out of Tacitus and Suetonius The second nine years after that in the thirty seventh year after the War of Actium wherein Augustus overthrew M. Anthony Joseph antiq 18. 3. of Syria only and Judea as annexed to the Province of Syria by Augustus after the Banishment of Archelaus and confiscation of his goods for the Sale of which also at that time Cyrenius came into Judaea Of the first of these Taxings Josephus is silent and his very silence gives consent to the truth of that Circumstance related by St. Luke that it was the taxing of the whole world which therefore he omits as not falling in with his Subject the Jewish Antiquities in relation to which only he glanceth at the affairs of the Empire which peculiarly concern Judaea but passeth over those that were of common Influence upon all the Imperial Provinces as Suidas in Augusto affirms this to have been Augustus Caesar decreed to number by head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the inhabitants of the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did not only intend but perform this intent he assures us in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus sent out unto all those Regions that were subject to him Officers by whom he made the enrolings and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells how many Myriads were found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabiting the Roman Empire These places of Suidas do also confirm another Passage in St. Luke's History of this Taxing that thereby Augustus took account of Women as well as Men and of both as to their Lineage Extract and Condition all went to be taxed
from that Crown at their coming out of Aegypt three hundred years before this demand Why did you not recover them all that while Jud. 11. 26. be grounded as Civilians say upon Principles of natural Honesty Grotius de jure 2. 4. 2. If Isocrates his Plea against resigning up their right in Messina drawn from the Spartans having had the uninterrupted possession thereof from before the erection of the Persian Empire and the building of the greatest part of the Grecian Cities be grounded upon the general Sentiment of all men That Possession confirm'd by long Prescription is as good as inheritance Isocrat Archidamus pag. 287. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so valid as to dispute against it is branded by Historians as meer babling and beating the Air. Tacitus annal 6. Among whom do these novel Disputers against the Truth of Gospel-History after the Prescription of so many hundreds of years think their Allegations will be of any force but persons that have renounc'd all Principles of Reason Equity Humanity Polity and common Sence I would therefore advise them to bespeak themselves an Audience in the Sister-hood of tatling Gossips and silly Women who are not able to comprehend the weight of that sharp retort of St. Austin restat ut ipsi velint esse testes de Christo qui sibi auferunt meritum sciendi quid loquatur loquendo quod nesciunt August tom 4. pag. 162. de consensu Evang. 1. 8. It remains that we take those mens Testimony of Christ who by speaking those things which they are ignorant of deprive themselves of the benefit of knowing what to speak while I lay open the mortal Wounds which the Jew his not daring to deny the Matter of Fact hath given his Brother in iniquity the Gentile Philosopher who having so much Reason as to think it unreasonable that he who was not an Eye-witness should except against the Evidence of Eye-witnesses touching those things which Eye-witnesses and as great enemies to the Gospel as himself had not been able to make any substantial exception against was forc'd to grant the Truth of the History and had nothing left worthy of a Philosopher to object but this § 4. That the Works Christ did did not speak him to be God but only a good Man and familiar with the Gods by converse with whom he learn'd the Art or obtain'd the Power of working Miracles I use this Dis-junctive because Porphyrie held the faculty of doing Miracles may be attain'd by Art but Jamblychus will have it the free gift of God bestowed on those that are most conformable to and conversant with him exploding all Arts tending that way as Diabolical as Ficinus ex Jamblicho de mysteriis relates pag. 78 79. c. But let them dissent or agree as they please that the stupendious Works of Christ were the effects of Divine Magick and such as he could not have wrought had not God been with him was confest by the unanimous consent of all the Philosophical Opponents of the Christian Faith who all subscribed to that of Porphyrie Porphyrius dixit Christum summè religiosum immortali animâ post corpus incedere animâ sapientiae gratiâ honore affectâ dâ—â—s carâ c. Euseb. demonstr Evang. 3. 8. Who said that Christ was a very religious Person and subsisted after bodily death in an immortal soul a soul exalted to honour for the sake of that wisdom it was indowed with dear to the Gods c. Only they excepted against the Miracles as no sufficient Indications of Christ's Deity nec uâ—â—s competentibus signis tanâ—â— Majestatis indicia clarescunt quoniam larvalis illa purgatio debilium curae reddita vita defunctis haec alia si cogites Deo parva sunt August Volusian Epist. 2. It appears not by any competent signs of a Divine Majesty attending him that your Jesus was God for his casting out of Devils his curing the sick his restoring the dead to life if these and other strange things done by him be duly weighed are too mean for him to manifest his glory by whom you stile the Lord and Governour of the Universe said the Gentile Philosophers in that Conference of which Volusianus gave St. Austin an Account I will not so far anticipate my intended discourse about Christ's Miracles as here to give a full Answer to this Argument but only glance at that which St. Austin returns him It 's true indeed such things as these have been done by men Elias and Elisha raised the dead 1 Reg. 17. 22. 2 Reg. 4. 36. but whether the Heathen Magicians ever raised any from death let them inquire who will needs maintain Apuleius did so contrary to that defence himself makes against the imputation of that as a Crime To be sure in his being born of a Virgin in his raising himself from death in his Ascension into Heaven he out did all men And he that thinks these things too mean for God I cannot tell what he can expect more except he thinks Christ should have done such things as are inconsistent with his being made Man In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and all things were made by him Ought he therefore being made Man to have made another World to convince men that he was he by whom the World was made But a greater than this or one equal to this could not have been made in this World and had he either made another World out of this the making of that would have been no evidence to the Inhabitants of this for it would have been out of their sight or a less World than this in this the Sceptick would have had the same objection that it was less than became God to make seeing therefore it was not meet he should make a new World he made new things in the old World his Virgin-birth his Resurrection and Ascension are works of greater Power perhaps than making the World If here they answer that they do not believe these things what shall we do with such men as contemn the least and dis-believe the greatest of his Miracles They believe he raised the dead because that hath been done by others and that 's too mean for God his taking Flesh of a Virgin and lifting it up from death unto eternal Life above the Heavens is therefore not believed because no man ever did it and its fit for God to do To return to our Heathen Philosophers The Reason they gave why they thought those things reported of Christ in the Gospel not clear enough evidences of his Deity was because some of those amongst themselves who were reputed most holy Men had done the like things and therefore Christ being a very wise and holy Person and who convers'd intimately with God might obtain that favourable Gift at the bountiful hand of Heaven What an infinite disparity both in respect of the things done and the credibility of the stories there is betwixt the
the Illumination of Faith could not understand what Christ meant when he spake to them of his Resurrection and were ready to give up their hopes that he was he that should redeem Israel when they saw him giving up the Ghost and hanging down his Head upon the Cross as St. Thomas though he had seen Lazarus rais'd from the dead and heard it reported by credible Witnesses that Christ was risen would not believe it As Celsus Orig. cont Cels. l. 2. cal 41. rather than grant the Truth of the Christian Hypothesis denied the possibility of it As it seemed good to the holy Ghost to confirm the report of Christs Resurrection by all those Signs which the Apostles wrought after his Ascension by the name of the Holy Child Jesus while with great power they gave witness of his Resurrection Acts 4. 33. Yea so much did divine Goodness condescend to Humane imbecility as to give a fuller proof of that point so far above Reasons comprehension and much more out of the Sphere of Natural Power than the report of Eye-witnesses than the Confession of Adversaries than the Seal of those Miracles afforded by that Grace that was upon all the Publishers and fell upon all the Receivers of that Doctrine a Grace enabling them to live up to the Gospel and to bring forth those Fruits of Holiness Righteousness Temperance Meekness as sufficiently commended to the morallized part of the World that Root of Faith from whence they issued as far outstript the most glorious glittering productions of the Moral Philosophers as infinitely transcended the results of fantastick Credulty and put all other Religions to the blush at the sight of their own impotency CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity layes the Axe to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and Power § 5. Real exornations before Verbal Encomiums § 1. HEre Christian Reader I must crave thy help and beg thy aid towards the convincing the World of the Divine Original of Christian Religion which though it apparently bear the stamps of heavenly Wisdome in its Prophecies of in finite Power in its Miracles commends it self more to the Consciences of men by engaging its Fautors to a Conversation answerable to its Sacred Rules than by affording the most substantial Grounds of discoursing in its Defence by any other Arguments Religion is better maintain'd by Living than Disputing A Gospel-becoming Converse falls under the Observation and speaks to the Hearts of all men even of those who are not able to fathom the depth nor feel the ground of the most rational verbal Discourse well exprest by the Apostle of the Circumcision 1 Pet. 3. 1. Dr. Hammond annot in the Argument whereby he perswades Christian Matrons to be in subjection to their own though Gentile Husbands that if any obeyed not the Word submitted not to the Gospel upon the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power they also without the Word which the Apostles preach'd in confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ might be won by the Conversation of their Wives while they beheld their chaste Conversation that Modesly which the true fear of God Christian Religion which alone rightly Disciplines persons in that fear taught them In his motive 1 Pet. 2. 12 13. to Christian Subjects to yield obedient subjection to their Heathen Magistrates and in that point particularly to lead an honest life among the Gentiles that whereas they were evil spoken of as Jews by reason of the turbulency and frequent rebellions of their Countrymen the Gentiles might see that Christian-Jews were of another spirit than the rest of that Nation and upon that account might revere them for their good works and glorifie God the Author of a Religion that had made them so much more meek regular and quiet under the Heathen Government which was over them than the other Jews were when the Proconsuls should be sent to make enquiry of the Commotions made by the unbelieving Party of that Nation It was by this Argument that the old Laic-Confessor silenc'd convinc'd and converted that proud and subtile Philosopher who bore up himself against all the Reasonings of the Learned Teachers of the Nicence Council Crab. tom 1. pag. 249. In the name of Jesus Christ saith he O Philosopher hear the Dictates of Truth There is one God Maker of Heaven and Earth who Created all things visible and invisible by the power of his Word and confirm'd them by the Sanctity of his Spirit This Word therefore which we call the Son of God having mercy on Mankind vouchsafed to be born of a VVoman to converse with Men and die for them and will come again to give sentence upon the Lives of all men By the belief of those things we Christians are freed from Error and from that Religion wherein Men live like Beasts into a state of living like Men. Upon this the Philosopher cries out that he is a Christian and assures his Fellows he was drawn to it not upon light grounds but by that ineffable Vertue which attended the embracing of Christianity In this Argument the ancient Patrons of the Christian Cause triumph'd over all other Religions and Disciplines The Christian Churches saith Origen contr Cels. lib. 3. cal 8. compared with other Societies are really the Lights of the VVorld who is there that must not confess if he make an impartial collation of them that the worst part of the Church excells vulgar assemblies for the Church of God at Athens for instance is meek and quiet c. the Pagan Assemblies seditious turbulent c. And to that Calumny of Celsus that the Christians invited the worst of sinners Origen makes this Reply that the Christian Philosophy did dayly reform the most degenerate Natures not by converting one or two in so many Ages as Phaedo who coming Piping hot out of the Stewes into Plato's School took those impresses from his Doctrine as Plato in his Dialogues brings Phaedo in discoursing of the Immortality of the Soul Or Palemon who by attending to Philosophical Discipline became of a Ruffian so temperate as he succeeded Xenocrates in his School but great multitudes Christs Fishers of men caught them by whole shoales when these Philosophical Anglers drew them up by unites Tertullian apolog 46. outvies the greatest Philosophers with common Christians Thales one of the seven VVisemen could not satisfie Craesus when he askt him what God was but required time for the return of an answer and the more he thought upon it was further off from finding a solution when every Mechanick Christian hath found and can shew all that can be askt concerning God though Plato says the framer of the Universe is neither easie to be found out nor to be exprest If we compare them in point of Chastity we read that one part of the Attick sentence against Socrates condemn'd him of Sodomy