Epicureans and Stoicks Acts 17.18 Wherefore without all controversie the first embracers of Christianity entertained it upon no other terms but manifest proof of Eye-witnesses and the Evidence of such persons as they saw very faithful and serious and as had the effect of this great power of God that raised Iesus Christ from the dead manifestly residing upon themselves whereby they were able to doe Miracles as is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 4. Now for the First Authours and Founders of this Religion how weak and contemptible they were as to worldly concernments appears plainly from hence that they were not recommended to the World either for their nobility of Birth or skill in humane Arts and Sciences nor had they any secular power to assist them nor any force of arms to either overcome others or defend themselves for all they were exposed to so great and imminent dangers perpetually Our Saviour himself was but of mean Parentage a Carpenters Son crucified betwixt two thieves as a hainous Malefactor What therefore can there be imaginable that should move his Apostles and Disciples to adhere to him so faithfully after his death and to expose themselves to all manner of jeopardies all manner of sufferings whippings imprisonments long journies tortures and death it self What should cause them to disturb their own peace so and the peace of all men if there were not some very miraculous thing at the bottom and such as was worthy to alarme all the World What message could they have brought to those several Nations they travailed to that themselves would not be ashamed of carrying if it had been only so That the Jews had crucified one Iesus the Son of Ioseph a Carpenter betwixt two thieves at Ierusalem who yet was a very good and Just man It may be so would the Gentiles say More shame for them what is that to us But this man was the promised Messiah and did very strange Miracles cast out devils healed all manner of diseases and was declared the Son of God by an audible voice from the Heavens As for the Miracles you mention would the Gentile reply we have heard strange things done by those that are called Magicians and we had no acquaintance with the party you speak of to discern whether he was so good as you pretend For mens Judgments are ordinarily partial out of affection and friendship and it is strange that if he were so good as you make him and declared from the clouds to be the Son of God that God would suffer him so ignominiously to die betwixt two Thieves on the Cross. Which is a sign that if he did any Miracles they were but from such powers as are subject to the Magistrate and through that faithfull Providence that attends the affairs of men can doe nothing when the Magician is apprehended imprisoned and condemned Truly if there had been no more then this in the Story it seems impossible that the Cause should have had such Success as it has had 5. Wherefore certainly the First Preachers of the Gospel added to all this to the admiration and astonishment of the hearers That this Iesus whom the Jews had thus crucified was by the miraculous hand of God raised out of the grave the third day That after his Resurrection he conversed with his disciples both apart and together That he was seen of above five hundred at once That he staid upon earth for fourty daies and was seen visibly afterward to ascend into Heaven Which things as they were above all expectation marvailous and did if they were true fully argue not only the Innocency but transcendent Divinity of the Person of Iesus so were they so incredible that none could believe them especially to their present peril unless from such as were Eye-witnesses of the same and could send them to many more that were Eye-witnesses and of unsuspected integrity of life or for the better compendium shewed that they were true messengers sent from God by some Signs or Miracles they did upon the spot 6. This therefore was the main of their message which was nothing but matter of Fact which themselves knew certainly to be true and seriously and earnestly declared it to the World not by any Art or Eloquence For the Apostles were but poor illiterate persons Fishermen Publicans and the like had no other weapons to win men to the Faith but by a simple though earnest and serious narration of those things they knew for certain and did avouch with that confidence that they gave up their ease livelihood and lives for a pledge of the truth thereof Which Testimonie could not possibly be false it being as I said before concerning matter of Fact namely the Resurrection of Christ wherein so many could not be deceived Nor is it imaginable how they should goe about to deceive others against their own Consciences or without sufficient knowledge in a thing that gained them nothing but perpetual Hatred and ill will Imprisonments Tortures and Death In the mean time by these poore contemptible Instruments that had neither Political power on their side but were oppressed by it nor had any Art nor Eloquence excepting only Paul who yet made use of neither and by succession of such as they had converted within a few Ages all the World in a manner swarmed with Christians of all qualities and degrees noble and ignoble learned and unlearned though invited thereto by no secular advantage but rather being perpetually exposed to misery and persecution All which things seriously considered together with the exactness and perspicuity of Prophecies concerning the Messiah cannot but seem to any indifferent judge a Demonstration for the Truth of Christian Religion no less certain then Mathematical CHAP. XIV 1. Objections of the Jews against their Messiah's being come answered 2. A pompous Evasion of the Aristotelean Atheists supposing all Miracles and Apparitions to be the Effects of the Intelligences and Heavenly bodies 3. Vaninus his restraint of the Hypothesis to one Anima Coeli 4. His intolerable pride and conceitedness 5. A Confutation of him and the Aristotelean Atheisme from the Motion of the Earth 6. That Vaninus his subterfuge is but a Sel-contradiction 7. That Christianitie's succeeding Judaisme is by the special counsel of God not by the Influence of the Starres 8. Cardanus his high folly in calculating the Nativity of our Saviour with a demonstration of the groundlesness of Vaninus his exaltation in his impious boldness of making Mahomet Moses and Christ sidereal Law-givers of like Authority 9. That the impudence and impiety of these two vain glorious Pretenders constrains the Authour more fully to lay open the frivolousness of the Principles of Astrology 1. THE Objections we were a mentioning are from two hands from the Iew or from the Atheist That from Iew is chiefly this That the condition of the times under Christ is not conformable to what is prophesied concerning the times of the Messiah There is not that
Formalist perceiving nothing of pleasure and sweetness in Holiness and Vertue in himself if he observe others much devoted thereunto that he must judge them to make use of those things for some other more pleasant enjoiment as Praise and Applause or a future Reward and that they are not delighted with the things themselves Whenas certainly a true member of Christ and one really regenerate into his Image could no more cease from pleasing himself and enjoying himself in the sense and conscience of this Divine Life and the results thereof all holy and becoming actions then the Natural man can cease from the enjoiments of the Body though he knows ere long his Body shall afford him no more enjoiments And yet I must also add That it is the next door to an Impossibility that one that is become thus Divine should not have his Heart fully fraught with the most precious hopes of future Immortality and Glory He asked life of thee and thou gavest him even a long life for ever and ever 16. I have now finished my Parallelisme betwixt the Revilements cast upon our Saviour and those that his truest Members may be obnoxious to Which pains I think I have not at all misplaced they tending only to the stopping of the mouths of carnal Censurers and the animating sincere Christians that they may not be discouraged from following so excellent an Example by the affronts and reproaches of the World but that they may know their own Innocency Safety and Freedome while they keep in the true way that is in Christ the Son of God who making us free we become free indeed that is free from the deceits of our own lusts and free from the awe and terrour of imperious and superstitious men that would obtrude their own Errours upon us with as much earnestness and make them as indispensable as the infallible Oracles of God We having therefore spoken what things we thought most requisite concerning The Example of Christ we proceed now to his Passion which is the fifth Power of the Gospel CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazen Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable blasphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadfull Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 1. AND truly this fifth Gospel-Power the Passion of Christ is of so great efficacy and concernment that our Saviour seems with more then ordinary delight to have ruminated on the wonderfull effects that it would have in the world John 12.32 And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying thereby what death he should die as the Text witnesses This shews what a powerful Engine our Saviour himself thought his Death would prove to draw all the World after him Which is a demonstration that the Mind of a Christian ought to dwell very much in the meditation of the Death and Passion of Christ. The use whereof appears in another intimation of our Saviour's though more Typical yet the Analogie is so plain that no man can miss it John 3. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so shall the Son of man be lifted up That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life This is so perfect a Representation of our Saviours Passion that I cannot but blame my self for not entring it amongst other Prophecies that I alledged for the Messiah's suffering 2. And it will still appear more plainly that it was intended a Prefiguration or Typical Prophecie of Christ if we consider that Moses was not put upon it by any natural skill as if the Effigies of this Brazen Serpent did by any power of Art or Nature heal the Israelites of their bitings of the fiery flying Serpent But it was an immediate direction of God by whose supernatural power the cure was wrought As the Authour of the Book of Wisdome expresly has noted namely That he that turned towards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he styles it the sign of Salvation was not saved by the thing that he saw but by him that is the Saviour of all For beside that the whole mystery of Telesmes is but a superstitious foolery much-a-kin to and dependent of that groundless Pretence of such wonderfull influences as the ancient Pagan Ignorance attributed to the Stars the very matter of this Serpent was inconvenient and improper for this Effect as Interpreters on the place have observed To which I might add that there is not any example of any Telesmes that were ever known to cure the diseasement after this sort that is by only looking thereunto And that those that have been made against Scorpions or other hurtfull Creatures they have chaced them out of the place or killed them upon the Spot but if any one were stung by these venomous Serpents there was a tactual application of the Remedy to him that was hurt 3. And yet I will not so much stand upon this as that the whole business of Telesmatical Preparations is superstitious and that they have no Effect by any natural Virtue or Influence This methinks I plainly discover out of their Collections that seem most pleased in the representing of these Curiosities to the eye of the world in their Writings Gaffarel especially who does with plenty of words but no reason at all endeavour to make us believe that the power of Telesmes is natural but I never knew any cause managed with more slight more loose and more frivolous arguments in my daies But out of his own mouth I shall be able to condemn him and upon these two accounts First in that according to his own Conjectures and Relations the erecting and preparing of these Telesmes is as we contend superstitious or paganically Religious and then secondly That the effects of them where they have any are plainly beyond the power of any natural cause 4. As for the first himself does profess that he is of opinion that the first Gods of the Latines which they called Averrunci or Dii Tutelares were no other then these Telesmatical Images And his reason is
Bloud as common and unholy as that of the malefactors that were crucified with him the Wrath of God being not all atoned as they say by his suffering because it is unjust that an Innocent man should be punished for those that are guilty But what Unjustice is done to him that takes upon him the debt or fault of another man willingly if he pay the debt or bear the punishment provided that he that may exact or remit either will be thus satisfied 10. But such trivial and captious intermedlers in matters of Religion that take a great deal of pains to obscure that which is plain and easie deserve more to be flighted and neglected then vouchsafed any answer For all their frivolous Subtilties and fruitless intricacies arise from this one false ground That the Soveraign Goodness of God and his kind condescensions and applications to the affections of man are to be measured by Iuridical niceties and narrow and petty Laws such as concern ordinary transactions between man and man But let these brangling Wits enjoy the fruits of their own elaborate ignorance while we considering the easie air and sense of Sacrifices in all Religions shall by this means be the better assured of the natural meaning of it in our own CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasments of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The great disservice some corrosive Wits doe to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 1. HOW General the Custome of Sacrificing was in all Nations of the World is a thing so well known that I need not insist upon it and That their Sacrifices were accounted an Appeasment of the Wrath of the Gods and Expiation for their faults is also a Truth so conspicuous that it cannot be denied Hence these Sacrifices we speak of were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Placamina Februa Piamina Much of this nature you may read in Grotius De Satisfactione Christi cap. 10. where he does not only make good by many Expressions and Examples That the Sacrifices of the ancient Heathen pacified the Anger of the Gods but also which is nearer to our purpose That the Punishment of those that were thus reconciled and purged was transferred upon the Beast that was sacrificed for the clearing whereof he alledges many citations and these two amongst the rest One out of Cato Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te Since thou thy self art guilty why Does then thy Sacrifice for thee die The other out of Plautus Men ' piaculum oportet fieri propter stultitiam tuam Ut meum tergum stultitia tuae subdas succedaneum that is to say Is it fit that I should be made a piacular Sacrifice for your foolishness that my back should bear the stripes that your folly has demerited 2. Wherefore this being the sense of the Sacrifices we speak of in all the Religions in the World it is more fit to interpret the Death of Christ who gave himself an Expiation for the sins of the World according to that sense which is usual in the mysteries of Religion then according to the entangling niceties and intricacies of secular laws 3. But as for those busie and Pragmatical spirits that by the acrimonie of their wit eat off the comely and lovely gloss of Christianity as aqua Fortis or rather aqua Stygia laid on polish'd metal what thanks shall they receive of him whom yet they pretend to be so zealous for the most winning and endearing circumstances of his exhibiting himself to the World being so soiled and blasted by their rude and foul breath that as many as they can infect with the contagion of their own Errour Christianity will be made to them but a dry withered branch whenas in it self it is an aromatick Paradise where the Senses and Affections of men are so transported with the Agreeableness of Objects that they are even enravished into Love and Obedience to him that entertains them there And nothing can entertain the Soul of man with so sweet a Sorrow and Joy as this Consideration That the Son of God should bear so dear a regard to the World as to lay down his life for them and to bear so reproachfull and painfull a Death to expiate their sins and reconcile them to his Father 4. But this is not all the Advantage he had to win the Government of the World unto himself For not only his exceeding Love to Mankind was hereby demonstrated but the cruel and execrable nature of that old Tyrant the more clearly detected For whereas the Devil who by unjust usurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest cruelty and scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane bloud and in most parts of the World as I have already shewn required the sacrificing of men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Iesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became a Sacrifice for us making himself at once one Grand and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piamen to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Historians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted be several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Further That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirm this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not implie that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 1. WE have seen how Reasonable the History of Christ's Passion is neither do I know any thing that may lessen the Credibility of it unless it be the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun Not that the Eclipse it self is so incredible but that it may seem incredible that so wonderfull so generally-conspicuous an Accident of Nature should be recorded by none but by the Evangelists themselves Learning and Civility in those times so universally flourishing and there being no want of Historians to recount such things This Objection makes a great shew at first but
many of us as were baptized into the Lord Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we might not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin 3. You see how the most urgent Exhortations of the Apostles to kill and overcome our Lusts are back'd and edged if you will with a reflexion upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour Which allusion if it were no more then that odde perverse Sect which I have so often named would make it who desire to allegorize away the whole History of Christ to a mere Fable as if it were nothing but a mere fictitious Representation of things to be morally transacted in us truly the Argument were nothing For the death of a Ram or a Goat would serve to represent the sacrificing of our sensual Lusts rather better then the death of Christ who was so innocent a person But the stress of the Argument lyes in this That a person not onely so immaculate and innocent but so holy and sacred so honourable and Divine that the Son of the living God declared so from Heaven foretold evidently by the mouths of the most infallible Prophets and that at the distance of so many Ages and undeniably demonstrated to be such by his own Miracles and by that Miracle of Miracles his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Ascension into Heaven in the eyes of his Disciples that this so noble and Divine a Person that this Son of God should in dear Compassion and Love to Mankinde give himself up not onely to a poor despicable beggarly life but be contented to be whipped and scourged and put to a death both painful and shameful with Thieves and Malefactors and this merely to atone the wrath of God and open the gates of Heaven to bewildred mankind that were wandring further and further from their primeval Happiness This is such an Argument as would melt the hardest Heart and awake the dullest Understanding into a quick and chearful apprehension of that duty that so nearly concerns him viz. to be if it were possible more resolvedly willing to die to all his sins and worldly vanities then Christ was to lay down his life to redeem him from them 4. This mighty Power of the Death of Christ is of such invincible efficacy to them that will but seriously dwell upon the Meditation thereof that no strong hold of Sin will be able to resist it no evil and inordinate affection but the consideration of this Passion will calm keep under and utterly subdue The very counting the circumstances of his Sufferings will put us out of conceit even with those Vices that we have most familiarly entertained and still all those Perturbations and Disquietnesses of Minde that the crossest accidents of the World and our own Weakness can expose us to Art thou a lover of money how canst thou abstain from blushing whilst thou remembrest that Covetousnesse betraied and sold thy Saviour for thirty pieces of Silver or refrain from communicating thy goods to the poor when Christ has been so prodigal of his bloud for thee Art thou proud how canst thou but be ashamed to exalt thy self when the onely-begotten Son of God took upon him the form of a Man yea of the lowest sort of men and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the reproachful death of the Crosse that he might teach us Humility that the same minde might be in us that was in him as the Apostle speaks Art thou neglected scorned or reviled Thy Saviour was buffetted mocked and spit upon Are thy Inferiours preferred before thee Barabbas was held a more worthy person then Iesus Are thy friends false to thee Christ was betraied by Iudas with a kisse Dost thou fall from or fall short of thy expected honours Iesus wore no earthly Crown but that of Thorns nor Scepter but a Reed nor any Robe but such as the abusive Souldiers put on him to make legs to him and mock him Art thou traduced for one as not sound in thy Religion Thy Saviour was accused as a Blasphemer What motion therefore or disturbance of Pride shall be able to disquiet thy minde if thou do but reflect on thy Saviours Sufferings 5. And for Envy Hatred and Revenge how canst thou harbour the least touch or sense of them while thou lookest upon him who out of love laid down his life for us even then when we were Enemies to him yea for those very persons that crucified him praying unto God for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if thou be transportable into vain Mirth what can better calm that giddy temper then the remembrance of his Sadnesse whose Soul was sorrowful even unto death And if the highest and most searching Afflictions attempt thee what can more strongly arm thy Patience then if thou ruminate on that bitter cup the consideration whereof put thy Saviour into such an Agony that he sweat drops of bloud that fell down to the ground And lastly if Lust and Wantonness do assault thy Soul the most present Remedy is the contemplation of thy dying Lord and Master who with his out-stretched arms on the Crosse to embrace thee presents himself a Corrival in thy strongest Affections Look upon his inclined Head not crowned with roses but wounded with thorns view his half-closed Eyes heretofore filled and beautified with lucid Spirits whose milde motions were the perpetual Interpreters of his Kindness and Compassion to the Sons of men but now overcast with the heavy cloud of Death Kisse his cold and pale Lips and receive his last breath and tell me if thou didst not hear this whisper in it Canst thou love any thing better then me who out of love do undergo this painfull and reproachfull death for thee 6. But what I have appropriated to this foolish Passion of Wantonnesse may equally take place in any inordinate affection and our Saviour may justly expostulate how unkindly how ungrateful he is dealt with when his pretended Disciples refuse to mortifie any lust whatsoever for him who gave up himself to death for them This consideration is so urgent and convictive that none that have the least spark of Ingenuity can be able to resist it And therefore whatever conceited high-flown Fools may imagine of the Cross of Christ and the meditation of his Crucifixion as a thing that may rather fit Children in Christianity then grown men I say it is the great Power of God to Salvation and so long as a man findes any sin in him he is to have recourse
and more full Interpretation of the whole Transaction 11. Some brief touches upon the Prophesies of Christ. 117 CHAP. IX 1. The Miracles of Apollonius compared with those of Christ. 2. His entertainment at a Magical banquet by Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans 3. His cure of a Dropsy and of one bitten by a mad dog 4. His freeing of the City of Ephesus from the plague 5. His casting a Devil out of a laughing Daemoniack and chasing away a whining Spectre on Mount Caucasus in a Moon-shine night 6. His freeing Menippus from his espoused Lamia 120 CHAP. X. 1. Apollonius his raising from death a young married Bride at Rome 2. His Divinations and particularly by Dreams 3. His Divinations from some external accidents in Nature 4. His Prediction of Stephanus killing Domitian from an Halo that encircled the Sun Astrology and Meteorology covers to Pagan Superstition and converse with Devils 5. A discovery thereof from this prediction of his from the Halo compared with his phrantick Ecstasies at Ephesus 6. A general Conclusion from the whole parallel of the Acts of Christ and Apollonius 122 CHAP. XI 1. A Comparison of the Temper or Spirit in Apollonius with that in Christ. 2. That Apollonius his Spirit was at the height of the Animal life but no higher 3. That Pride was the strongest chain of darkness that Apollonius was held in with a rehersal of certain Specimens thereof 4. That his whole Life was nothing else but an exercise of Pride and Vain-glory boldly swaggering himself into respect with the greatest whereever he went 5. His reception with Phraotes King of India and Iarchas head of the Brachmans 6. His intermedling with the affairs of the Roman Empire his converse with the Babylonian Magi and Aegyptian Gymnosophists and of his plausible Language and Eloquence 7. That by the sense of Honour and Respect he was hook'd in to be so active an Instrument for the Kingdome of Darkness 8. That though the Brachmans pronounced Apollonius a God yet he was no higher then the better sort of Beasts 124 CHAP. XII 1. The Contrariety of the Spirit of Christ to that of Apollonius 2. That the History of Apollonius be it true or false argues the exquisite Perfection of the life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 127 CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other indearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy â—f certain bold Enthasiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pâ—in both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Legâ—â—leious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 129 CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasements of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The disservice some corrosive Wits do to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 132 CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Hâ—storians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted by several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Farther That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirme this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not imply that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 134 BOOK V. CHAP. I. OF the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. God's upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 137 CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. The fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 139 CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can do out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her