of what he teaches he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same now this Lobster-like-argument of his being artificially thrown forward does again naturally crawl backwards His meaning is as he has too plainly exprest in many places That if a Man go from hence and preach a New Doctrine in Africa he commits a Crime and consequently St. Jude did very ill after Christ's Resurrection to take a Journey from Jerusalem into Persia and there to take upon him to rebuke the Superstition of the Magi and to preach a New Doctrine and so was put to death deservedly The like may be said of St. Paul for his making a Mutiny and Uproar at Athens and disturbing the Worship of the great Goddess Diana of the Ephesians And in fine both he and all the Apostles committed great Crimes in presuming to preach New Doctrine amongst all Nations where Idolatry was Established and owned by publick Authority for says the same Author page 152. To maintain a Doctrine contrary to the Religion Established is a greater Fault in an authorized Preacher than in a private Person And therefore they all suffered condign Punishments and were accessary to their own cruel Deaths But now this reflects more severely upon our blessed Saviour who gave his Disciples their Commissions Matth. 28. 19. Go yee and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And which is yet more it reflects upon God the Father who sent his Son into the World for that end and purpose and also the Holy Spirit which was sent down from Heaven after our Saviour's Resurrection to inspire those Apostles with diversity of Tongues and such other miraculous Gifts as might rightly qualify them for the preaching the Gospel throughout all the Nations of the World So that this last Assertion is in effect Blasphemy against the Three Persons of the sacred Trinity Our blessed Saviour 10 Matth. 33. Says Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And in another place By your Words you shall be justified and by your Words condemned So that to deny Christ before Men is our Saviour's sense in a Crime that excludes and shuts a Man out of Heaven But this Author affirms positively page 271. That the denying of Christ before an Infidel Prince is not a Christian's Act but his Soveraign's Act and consequently no Sin And so he plainly gives the Son of God the Lye Our blessed Saviour when he sent out his Disciples 10 Matth. 15. Tells them That into whatsoever City they entred and were not received it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that City That is to say the refusing to receive and hear the Doctrine of Christ's Disciples was a greater Sin then that of Sodom But this Author tells us page 286. That those who refused so to hear and receive them did not Sin in so doing And here we see again the Arrogance and Impudence of the same Author in giving the Lye to the Lord Jesus Our Hebrew Masters do indeed teach us to read the Words and Sentences of part of the Scriptures but this politick Pedagogue would instruct us to read not only the Words and Sentences but the true Sense and Meaning of them backwards Our Saviour Christ in divers places owns his casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and sometimes these unclean Spirits owned him to be the Son of the most high God as did the Legion of Devils with which the Man was possessed in the Country of the Gadarenes 5 Mark 7. and divers others And the Pharisees the worst and most malicious of his Enemies acknowledged his casting out Devils Yet notwithstanding the composer of this Treatise had the Confidence to affirm page 354. That no Man was ever possessed with any other Spirit than that by which his Body was naturally moved And so gives the Lye not only to our Saviour but to all the Four Evangelists who have left upon Record most remarkable Instances of those Miracles In page 62 63 and 64. this Author tells us That Man by Nature is in a State of War every Man against every Man and every Man has a right to every thing over the Goods and Body of his Neighbour And yet in his next Chapter which is not above eight pages further he sets down Ten Laws of Nature which Laws of Nature are immutable and eternal and stamped upon Men's Souls and every of them tends to Peace and Quietness Love and Kindness Gratitude and doing to others as we would be willing they should do to us and these two Assertions are as contrary one to the other as Light is to Darkness however it is much more modest to give himself the Lye then to give it so often as he has done to the Saviour of the World and the second Person of the Trinity In page 88. he acquaints us That by the People assembled are transferr'd all their Right on him whom they chose their Soveraign which Soveraign can do no Injustice though at his pleasure he take away any of their Lives And yet page 152. he asserts That no Man in the institution of their Soveraign can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own Body And page 112. If an Assembly meet and agree together they may rebel and make War against their Soveraign And I affirm that no Man of Sense or Reason can be supposed to defend the Authors reputation in so notorious a Contradiction In page 285. and divers other places he affirms That Christ's Kingdom not being of this World he left the Jews to the Law of Moses and other Nations to their respective Soveraigns and yet page 106. he plainly affirms That Christ acted in this World as King of the Jews and by his Soveraign Power and Authority sent two of his Disciples to untie and bring away the She-ass and her Colt on which he was to ride into Jerusalem Page 62. He affirms That the Desires and Passions of Man are no Sin though it be an absolute Breach of the Tenth Commandment Our Saviour forbids swearing by Heaven Earth Jerusalem or a Man 's own head 5 Matth. 34 35 36. but this Author asserts page 71. That such kind of Oaths is no swearing and so makes our Saviour guilty of Lying Page 152. he says That every man is supposed to know the Law of Nature it being so plain and yet pag. 141. he avers That the Law of Nature is of all Laws the most obscure Pag. 261. he says Christ s death did not satisfy God 's justice and yet pag. 356. he acknowledges That the Passion of Christ is a full Ransom for all manner of Sins Pag. 272. he affirms That there were no true Martyrs but those who conversed with our Saviour while he was here upon Earth and that he who is no Minister can be no Martyr Now if so all other Martyrs have
watchful and diligent was that old Serpent to wait for the coming of another King whom he might incense and so bring the Isratlites under Slavery and Bondage When Moses was deputed immediately by God for their Deliverance what diabolical Artifices did he use to help the Magicians to counterfeit some of his Miracles and so to harden the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of all his Servants When the distressed Israelites were got out of that King's Dominions How ready was he upon all occasions to improve to the utmost the sullen Nature and unthankful Disposition of that People so as to provoke God in the Wilderness by their frequent Murmurings and Complaints for the space of forty Years When they had got possession of the Promised Land How quickly did he bring them acquainted with Baal and Ashtaroth and the rest of the false Gods of the Nations round about them whom Joshua had not yet extirpated And thus they continued their Rebellion and brought upon themselves many severe Judgments and were very often subject to the Will and Pleasure of their Enemies till at last a great part of them were carried away Captive to Babylon with their Wives and Children and others of them expos'd to the Sword Pestilence and Famine When our Saviour was born in Bethlehem How subtilly and maliciously did he prompt that cruel Tyrant Herod in his Rage and Anger to murther for his sake all the Male-Children in those parts from two years old and under Reflection But here I must entreat the Reader 's patience to permit me a while to make a pause For certainly had that Enemy of throughly understood the Mysteries of Man's Redemption by the coming of the blessed JESUS he had neither incensed Herod to make so cruel a Slaughter in Bethlehem or inspired the Jews with such vehement Rage and Passion to urge Pilate against his own Inclination to give Sentence for his Crucifixion which must of necessity prove so fatal to himself and his Kingdom of Darkness When the blessed Jesus was gone to Heaven and had given Commission to his Apostles to act in their several Provinces and to disperse the Gospel throughout all Nations How did the Devil animate and enrage the Heathen Idolaters and Savage Barbarians to treat them with all manner of Cruelties And it s almost incredible how many Thousands or rather Millions suffer'd Martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel during the Reign of Nero Domitian Trajan and the rest of the persecuting Emperors no less than thirty three Roman Bishops successively are said to have been put to Death with great Cruelties Now in all those Proceedings both of the Jews and Heathens against the Christians the Devil's Malice was sufficiently evident and notorious But I must needs confess that his great Master-piece of Malice and Revenge was shown in After-ages in sowing Discords and Divisions in the Church of Christ and in animating Christians against Christians of which to this very day we have sad and woful Experience I am loth to mention any Particulars for fear of giving Offence to the several and respective Parties but leave every good Man to his own Observations and Reflections and to his private Prayers to the God and Father of Mercies for Unity Peace and Concord in his holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and for the blessed Communion of all his Saints and chosen Servants during their Pilgrimage in this Valley of Tears and that he will be graciously pleas'd in his due time to purge out of his Church all manner of Sin and Wickedness which now rules and reigns amongst us What are those Follies and Vanities nay What are those gross and enormous Impieties which are not at this day to be found within the Pale of the Church and amongst those who name the Name and are in outward appearance Professors of the Gospel of Christ Jesus Here dwell Atheism Infidelity Pride and Vain-glory Dissimulation and Hypocrisy with Hatred Malice and Envy Here you you may find the Poor oppressed by Men of Might and innocent Lambs made a Prey to ravenous Wolves Here we have too often presented to our Eyes most doleful and lamentable Objects and have one Ear filled with Slanders Reproaches Calumnies Oaths Blasphemies and horrid Curses and the other with deep Sighs sorrowful Groans mournful Complaints and bitter Lamentations Here we may observe Men of almost all Ranks and Degrees instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and that one thing necessary The Salvation of their Souls build themselves stately Houses upon sandy Foundations and propose to themselves that which is never to be had in this World true Content and Happiness but still make gross Mistakes and never accomplish their Designs Not unlike Arches of greater and lesser Circles all which seem to eneline some more some less towards a straight Line but none of them can truly agree or ever be co-incident with any part of it Here we may find ambitious Men climbing and twisting themselves up by a Spiral Line to the top of Honour and suddenly falling headlong down by a Perpendicular Here likewise we may observe the Covetous Man whom the Lord abhors hoarding up Gold and Silver in his rusty Coffer that so he may lay Field to Field Arable to Pasture and Tenement to Lordship till he be left alone within a vast circumference of which his Purse was the Diameter and his contracted and shrunk-up Soul the Center and it sometimes happens that our Saviour's Item Thou Fool this night c. becomes his Doom and he leaves behind him that Wealth which he never truly enjoyed to purchase an Equipage for some dissolute and prodigal Heir to ride post to Hell A friendly Caution to those who study the Perpetual-Motion THE young Mechanick has no sooner learned the plain Operations of Arithmetick and galloped over the first six Books of Euclid had the sight of a Pendulum-Clock wrought a few strokes with his own hand at a Pump or forcing Engine and seen how a Water-wheel turns about the Lantern-wheel of a Corn-mill but the very first thing he sets upon is the Perpetual-Motion not at all doubting but in a short time to triumph over the old Rules of Staticks and Ordinances of Hydrostaticks by making one Pound weight descending six foot perpendicularly in the space of a Minute to raise up the weight of two pound to as great or greater perpendicular height in the same space of time and with the strength of a Child of 8 or 10 years old to force up 4 or 500 Tun of Water in an hours space to any given height above its own Superficies and by this means to drain or drown whole Countries To erect Corn-mills in all standing Pools with many such Projects and thereby to gain to himself immortal Fame and a princely Fortune till at last having spent his Patrimony and wasted his precious time he unfortunately meets with an Ordinance of the Almighty Maker called an Equilibrium which pronounces the poor
I have yet one question to ask of certain Persons who are rightly stiled Modern Sadduces and that is For what Reason they deny the Resurrection Or why they should at all doubt God's Omnipotence Or once imagine That He who made all things out of nothing should not be able when ever he pleases out of something to make any thing How many Emblems of the Resurrection have we frequently before our Eyes The Night lies down and the Day arises again The Day departs and the Night comes on The Year that dies in Autumn has a Resurrection in the Spring The seed of Herbs Corn and Fruit-Trees first suffer a Dissolution in the Earth some for a few Days others for a few Weeks and then by the Power of the Almighty Maker of all things have a new Body given them of the same Kind or Species If that be true which some have related of the Phoenix a thing I would rather believe than undertake to disprove since there are so many strange things to be found among the Works of the Creation It is a wonderful Type of the Resurrection In Arabia say they there is a certain Bird called a Phoenix of which there is but one at a time and that one lives 500 Years and when the time draws near that it must die it makes it self a Nest of Frankincense and Myrrh and other Spices into which when its time is fulfilled it enters and dies but its Flesh putrifying breeds a certain Worm which being nourished by the Juice of the dead Carcass brings forth a new Phoenix and when it is grown to a perfect Age it takes up the Nest in which the Bones of its Parent lie and carries it from Arabia into Egypt to a City called Heliopolis and flying in open Day in the sight of all Men lays it on the Altar of the Sun and so returns into the Country from whence it came This done the Priests make search into the Records of Time and find that it returneth at the end of 500 Years Whether this Report be true or no sure I am that nothing can be too hard for the Almighty Let us suppose in two or three Instances things that are within the reach of our apprehensions viz. First a Mariner in a Sea-fight to be shot to death and thrown over-board and afterwards the Flesh of his Body to be eaten up by a great number of small Fishes and these Fishes to be taken in Nets and eaten by hundreds of Men Women and Children of different places and abodes and some of them to be drowned in the Sea and devoured by other Fishes and some to be cast into the Earth and eaten up by Worms In the next place Let us suppose a Man to die in a wide Forest or Wilderness and part of his Carcass to be devoured by wild Beasts part by the Fowls of the Air and part by Flies and creeping Things and again those Beasts and Fowls and creeping things to die and part of them to be eaten up by other Creatures Lastly Let us suppose a Man-Child born into the World and as 't is believed the Flesh of that Infant in a few Years to be evaporated and new Flesh grown up in the room of the other and let us suppose this Body to live and change for the space of threescore or fourscore years and then be buried in the Sands as is practised in some very hot Countries and there remain a Thousand or fifteen Hundred Years till such time as it is grown perfectly dry and fit to be made use of for Mummie and this Mummie to be distributed into the hands of several hundreds of Apothecaries and each of these Apothecaries to make use of it in their physical Doses Potions or otherwise and to administer it to as many hundreds of their Patients and each of those Patients to void the same or any part of it by stool and those stools to be carried away by the Scavengers into some common place and there mingled with the Ordours of ten Thousand other Persons and from that place taken up by the Salt-Peter Men and converted into Gun-powder and that Powder shot away into the Air. Give me leave to tell those unbelieving Sadduces my life for theirs that the Almighty God and Maker of Heaven and Earth is able to recall every Particle Dust or Atom of a Human Body in any of the aforesaid Instances to its Original and proper Mass and to form that Mass into its first Original and infant Body As also to give that infant Body its full stature and perfect Dimensions and this done from a Natural and Corruptible to change it into a Spiritual and incorruptible Substance And lastly to reunite it to its own proper and immortal soul and all this in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump and the Voice of the Arch-angel calling for the Dead to arise and come to Judgment I must needs acknowledge That the Disbelief of a future Resurrection is no small encouragement to either Atheist or Libertine to go on in his sin with great presumption For if the Dead rise not our Faith is altogether vain And if this Corruptible shall never put on Incorruption nor this Mortal Immortality then go to Let us Eat Drink and be Merry for to Morrow we die There are some who satisfie themselves that God is so merciful and so just in his Judgments that he will never punish finite Sins with everlasting Punishments but such Men little think how miserably they deceive themselves while they ascribe less Power to the Almighty Maker over his Creatures than an ordinary Potter has over his Clay and earthen Vessels Besides that in the Gospel Dispensation there are propos'd to Fallen Man two things which very well counterballance one the other both as to Time and Measure namely on the one side Eternal and inexpreslible Happiness and on the other endless and unspeakable Miseries Now if the Sinner do voluntarily and with deliberation choose the last of these Volent non fit Injuria he has his choise and desire and has no reason in the World to complain of any hardship much less of any Injury done to him it being a greater Mercy to grant Eternal Life upon a bare Repentance and Believing during our earthly pilgrimage than it is a Severity to inflict eternal Torment for continuing in actual Sin for the very same term of time The Author of Leviathan will by no means admit of a Local Hell or indeed of a Local Heaven For the first of which he has no better Reason than this trusting to his own skill in Geometry and Staticks that it cannot be either in the Cavity of the Earth or any other body of the like magnitude hanging in the expanse forasmuch as in any circumscribed Bodies there cannot be included a Bottomless-Pit which in sacred Stile is sometimes called Hell Whereas if he had considered that our Antipodes tread as heavy on the superficies of the