God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
that what he did visibly or suffered in the World is circumscribed within those Weeks and therefore we may safely conclude that before the Seventy Weeks expired the Messiah was cut off that is that he was cut off above sixteen hundred years agoe to wit before the destruction of the City as plainly appears in the Text that makes the sacking of Ierusalem a consequent of his death and the number of the Weeks pitch upon what Decree you please must needs expire many years before the taking of the City and therefore the Messiah was cut off and consequently came into the World so many years agoe Here the Iews to evade so manifest a Demonstration tell us a story of one Agrippa their last King and of Mumbas his sonne whom they say Vespasian slew at Rome three years and an half before the destruction of the Temple This was he that was cut off from the Kingdome of Iudaea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was no longer his nor his Posterities This is the most specious Answer they have made yet but yet upon examination will be found excessively weak For first it is plain from Records of History and Antiquity That Agrippa the last King of the Iews lived nigh upon thirty years after the Destruction of Ierusalem And then in the second place if we should suppose their fiction to be true the last week of the Seventy will either expire many years before or run out beyond the cutting off this Agrippa if you make as you ought the Decree for building of the City the Epocha of the account and affix it to the seventh year of either Funccius his Artaxerxes or Scaliger's To all which you may adde that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put here so absolutely it cannot but be understood of the great Messiah the Jews did and do still expect their own Rabbins expounding it so while they were unprejudiced and that it is most natural to understand the same person spoken of in the whole Prophecie who is first prefigured in the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which their own Doctors also interpret of their Messiah by which if the Temple had been meant it had been rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore again an anointed Person being understood in the first verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the second and third must be the same Person and there being in the first joyned with the mention of him not only so sacred a Title as the Most Holy but also the bringing in of everlasting Righteousness the expiating of sin and fulfilling of Prophecies it is plain that so mean a person as Agrippa or any else they have or can name is unapplicable to this Prophecie of Daniel such things being there foretold as are utterly incompetible to him but such as will anon appear from other Prophecies to be singularly competible to the great Messiah the Jews expected and are the Characteristicals of his Person as we shall fully make good in its due place CHAP. VI. 1. How convincing Evidences those three Prophecies of Jacob Haggai and Daniel are That the Messiah is come 2. That it was the General Opinion of the Jews That the Messiah was to come about that time we say he did 3. Josephus his misapplication of the Prophecie of Daniel to Vespasian 4. A further confirmation out of Tacitus that the Jews about those times expected their Messiah 5. Another Testimony out of Suetonius 1. IN the mean time it is so plain and apparent from these Prophecies of Iacob and Haggai That the Messiah is already come that any one though secluded from all Commerce with these parts of Europe and knowing nothing of the face of things here if he had but onely certain information that the Iewish Politie and Temple were destroyed and could but read the above-named Prophecies he would be sure that the Messiah was come into the World as also out of this Prophecie of Daniel he might without any intelligence at all provided only he took notice of the Epocha of Decrees and how that the Weeks from any one of them would be expired many hundred years ago infallibly inferr That the Messiah was certainly come These things are so perfectly clear that it is needless to add any thing else to confirm the belief of them 2. Which yet some do by appealing to the judgement of their own Rabbins if they themselves did not conclude that their Messiah was to come about that time we say he did Nehemias a Jewish Rabbin that lived some fifty years before Christ did openly declare out of the Prophecie of Daniel that the coming of their expected Messiah could not be prolonged above fifty years as appears out of Grotius if he was not misinformed by Stoctoxus But by what he answers to Sarravius one would think that he saw the place with his own eyes Ostendit istum mihi locum olim Hagae Stoctoxus And that this was not one Rabbin's opinion but the apprehension of many of their wise men is manifest from what Iosephus has written De bello judaico lib. 7. cap. 31. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which excited them most of all to the warre was a doubtful Prophecie found in the holy Writings as if about that time some one from their Country should be Emperour of the World This the Iews took as properly belonging to them and many of the wise men were deceived in their judgements about the matter Out of which words it plainly appears that the learned of the Iews and in a manner the whole Nation was perswaded that their Messiah whom they thought would be the Prince of the known World was hard at hand In which perswasion they were so serious that they ventured their Lives Liberty Temple and City thereupon that being the greatest thing that animated them to that infortunate Warre Of their firmness in which opinion a further argument is that they were so ready to phansy this or the other their Messiah about those times For there were many looked upon for a while as such as Herod Iudas Gaulonites Ionathas Barchochab and others 3. Neither does Iosephus his note upon the Prophecie that gave the Iews this confidence he calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ambiguous Prediction derogate any thing from the clearness thereof concerning the Time But the character of his Person it seems was not so perfectly set out but that they missed the knowing of him when he was come and therefore it was necessary for Iosephus to say that the Oracle was ambiguous But it were ambiguous indeed if it were as he would make it more applicable to Vespasian then to the true Messiah For that Messiah there prophecied of was to be cut off which Vespasian was not and that before the last week whenas Vespasian besieged Ierusalem about fourty years after Besides that it is ridiculous to resolve the solemnity of the holy Oracles of the Prophets into so petty a business as in stead
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
already shewn in my interpretation of the fourth and fifth verses of the Twentieth chapter and that it was both the Doctrine of the Apostles and Practice of the Church while it was Symmetral to obey the Magistrate and live peaceably under him though he were an Heathen how much more then are they to obey them that are Christians That Superiour and Inferiour are as natural in a people as Head and Feet in an humane body and that therefore no man can decry Government but out of madness or some villainous design to enthrall others at last under the yoke of their own lawless Fury That there are Kings and Governours under the renewed state of things in the Millennium as appears Revel 21. v. 24. and that no frame of Government can be evil where Governours rule by a good law And lastly That to make any thing essentially evil or good that is in it self indifferent and left so by Christ and his Apostles is a fundamental Transgression against the Law of the New Ierusalem whose Foundation and Structure is all upon Twelve But instead of convincing them by what is true to endeavour to stop their fury by imposing upon them by false Glosses is the next way to imbolden them the more and make them contemn the authority of them that should guide them and instruct them For the prefiguration of the Apostasie of the Church and her Recovery out of it which may be done at least without changing any Temporal Powers and Superiorities is a thing so plain that it cannot be hid 4. A third Use of the Apocalypse is the Answering a very crooked Objection both from the Iew and Atheist For seeing things have been so ill for so many Ages of the Church together that the World has grown Pagan again after a manner and that the Turk has also swallowed so great a part of the Church surely there is no true Religion at all nor Providence will the Atheist say and the Iew at least that their Messiah is not yet come Idolatry having in a manner filled all the Nations that profess him But to both we may answer That nothing has hapned in all this but what was foreseen by God and predicted plainly in these Visions of the Apocalypse to say nothing of what Daniel had more generally adumbrated before Which therefore is rather an Argument for Providence then against it and a demonstration of the Messiah's faithfull vigilancie over his Church rather then of his not yet having gathered one in the world For it is plain that Christ is the Author of those holy Visions and that the great Plagues that have fallen upon the Church either by the Turk or others have been by reason of their Apostasie from the Purity of the Apostolick Faith and Practice 5. A fourth Use and that an eminent one of the Apocalypse is to be as a clear Mirrour of both the Apostasie of the Church and of the Way of her Recovery The Apostasie of the Church is intimated more generally in the number of the Name of the Beast whose Root being 25 as the Root of the Number of the Apostolick Church 12 intimates that their Apostasie consists in the general of adding to the Root and Foundation of Christian Religion supernumerary Articles of their own invention and coining being not contented with the Essentials or Fundamentals of Faith which were clearly and plainly delivered by the twelve Apostles and are easily without any dispute and contest understood to be in the holy Scriptures I intimated also before from the Root of 666 being 25 resolvable also into 5 again That their Apostatical Religion was framed chiefly to gratifie and entertain the external Senses that it began there and ended there and let the Diviner and more heavenly motions of the Mind lie asleep But yet more particularly this Apostasie is indigitated by the Square 666 as if the poison of the sixth Head of the Beast that red bloudy Dragon that is cruel Persecution and Idolatry were spred through the body of the Apostatized Church Whose chief part the Two-horned Beast must needs be who made the whole Romane Empire very lively resemble the Beast whose deadly wound he healed that is the ancient Pagan Power But enough of this it being a Theam that will be over-eagerly listned to by some and obstinately without any consideration and reason rejected by others 6. But this Apocalyptick Glass is not only for the Romanist but all the Churches of Christendome to look their faces in and to consider how much they are still engaged or how far emerged out of this Lapse and Apostasie or whether they be quite emerged out of it or no. For I must confess I do much scruple the matter and that upon account of the 1260 daies wherein the Woman is in the Wilderness and the Witnesses mourn in sackcloth Concerning the Epocha of which daies the very highest Mr. Mede pitches upon is 365 namely from the death of Iulian which will end the 1260 daies Anno 1625. But many years before this were there the same different Churches that there are now Wherefore it is a sign that the Woman was not then nor yet is out of the Wilderness but that the true Church is still hid in these divisions of Churches and that all hitherto for the outward face of things is but a wilde Desart Moreover those Divisions of Churches which were made about an hundred years ago and which immediately became the Churches of this or that Polity if those Alterations then had been into a way purely Apostolical it had been plainly the enlivening of the Witnesses and the calling of them into Heaven many years before the expiration of the 1260 days Which is a strong presumption all is not yet right and that the Witnesses are not yet alive nor the Woman yet out of the Wilderness 7. Wherefore out of a due humility and modesty suspecting our selves not to have emerged quite out of this General Apostasy of the Church into which the Spirit of God has foretold she would be lapsed for 1260 years let us see if we can find out what Remainders of this Lapse are still upon us Which I suppose we shall be the more ready to acknowledge by how much more they shall be found to symbolize with that Church whom we justly judge to be so manifest an Apostate Now I demand Is not one Fundamental miscarriage in that Church That they make things Fundamental that are not and mingle their own humane Inventions with the infallible Oracles of God and imperiously obtrude them upon the people We are very sensible our selves of this in Ceremonies And are not uncertain and useless Opinions as arrant a ceremony as Ceremonies themselves which we so kick against and fly away from like wild horses Nay I may adde also That it will be hard to wash our hands clean from that other badge of the Beast Unchristian Persecution in points of Religion and that for differences where Christ himself has
are competible to Jesus whom we worship and to him only 1. THE first mark of the Messiah was his Rejection that he should be rejected of the Jews but those places that foretel his Killing more strongly implying his Rejection we need add nothing particular thereof That the Messiah was to be slain and be a Sacrifice for sinne besides that full and copious prediction of Isaiah is clear out of Daniel who saith that after sixty nine weeks the Messiah was to be cut off and then adding afterwards that in the half of the seventieth week he should make the sacrifice to cease it is plain that his Death and ceasing of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations were in one Week and that thereupon his Death was a Sacrifice whereby those Iudaical Oblations were antiquated For it is well known that the Temple and their Oblations continued about forty years after the Passion of Christ so that it cannot be understood of the outward destruction of the Temple and Prohibition of Sacrifices and therefore it must be understood of the nulling of the Validity and Authority of them their Law of sacrificing being abrogated by that transcendent Sacrifice of the body of our blessed Saviour upon the Cross. For there is nothing else that can be imagined to cease or take away the Iudaical Sacrifices in the midst of the last Week but that To these we might adde Psalm 22. and Zachar. 12.10 but what has been alledged already is more then enough 2. Let us now rather see what has been foretold of his Resurrection from the dead And in my mind that is a very clear Prediction thereof Psalm 16. v. 8. where David being transported in his Spirit by a divine power writes higher matters then are competible to any but the true David the Messiah himself I have set the Lord alwaies before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of Ioy and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore This is so natural a description of one raised out of the Grave before he corrupt there and ascending into the presence of God in the Heavens to enjoy Eternal Life that nothing can be more express But David was never raised out of the grave himself but his flesh saw corruption Wherefore it appears that it was a Prophecie of some other viz. the Messiah of whom David was a Type 3. The Ascension of the Messiah is lively prefigured Psalm 68. The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is amongst them as in Sinai in the holy place Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led Captivity captive thou hast received gifts or men for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them If this be applied unto Christ the sense is easie especially if you take notice how the Lord was amongst them in Sinai that is there was one chief Angel whom some would have to be Christ which sustained the person of God who might have the name of Adonai as Christ also has and is styled the Angel of the Covenant Malachi 3.1 In lieu of him is here the Messiah himself attended with many Squadrons of Angels and receiving gifts of his Father to communicate to the World that God might dwell amongst them that they might be brought in to be of his Church 4. This Prophecie also plainly points at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but there are also other places that make it still more clear as Psalm 110. The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool and then vers 4. The Lord has sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The Jews themselves of old acknowledged this Psalm to be a Prophecie of the Messiah and the first and fourth verses are such that they can bear no other sense but that the Messiah was to be greater then David and to be a King Priest and Intercessour at the right hand of God for ever Also Psalm 45.6 Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the Sceptre of thy Kingdome is a right Sceptre Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of Gladness above thy fellows Him that the Psalmist speaks of here he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it cannot signifie an ordinary King or Magistrate because he saies his throne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is for ever absolutely as R. Moses Aegyptius expounds that Phrase Wherefore most justly does the Chaldee Paraphrast make this Psalm a Prophecie of the Messiah whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divinity is plainly expressed in these verses I have recited I will add one place more out of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 9. v. 6. For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdome to order and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and for ever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will doe this I do not doubt but that this Prophecie is in some sort referrable also to Hezekiah and hits upon him first but the main scope of it is the Messiah and that therein his Divinity and the Eternity of his Kingdome is set out both the Testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast the Translation of the Septuagint and the expressions in the Prophecie according to the Hebrew Text is evidence enough For they translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which exposition cannot possibly be sense if referred to Hezekiah but agrees very well with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messiah Besides the English translation Of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end is so exactly according to the Hebrew that it is plain all the expressions are not competible to Hezekiah and Grotius himself who loves to stretch the sense of every particular expression of these kind of Prophecies to the person they first aim at yet he acknowledges ingenuously that they are more fitly and more plainly applicable to the Messiah Which to any indifferent man is satisfaction enough that they were meant of him especially if he consider that the ancient Iews who may well be thought to understand the Genius of their own Prophets the
Art 3. Further Confutations of their bold presumption that their Art alwaies predicts true 4. That the punctuall Correspondence of the Event to the Prediction of the Astrologer does not prove the certainty of the Art of Astrology 5. The great Affinity of Astrology with Daemonolatry and of the secret Agency of Daemons in bringing about Predictions 6. That by reason of the secret Agency or familiar Converse of Daemons with pretended Astrologers no argument can be raised from Events for the truth of this Art 7. A Recapitulation of the whole matter argued 8. The just occasions of this Astrologicall excursion and of his shewing the ridiculous condition of those three high-flown Sticklers against Christianity Apollonius Cardan and Vaninus 1. BUt here their Hold is not so strong as their Impudence great that they will so boldly bear us in hand that by virtue of the Principles of their Art they have foretold any thing to come There are many ludicrous wayes of Divination wherein no man is in good earnest and yet the Predictions and present personall Descriptions of men sometimes fall right but no sober man will impute this to Art but to Chance It was but a fallacy of Neptune's Priest when he would have carried the Spectator into admiration of that Deity from the many Donaries hung up in his Temple by Votaries But he whom he would have thus impos'd upon was too cunning for him For he demanded straightway a Catalogue of those Votaries that had suffered Shipwrack And so do I of those Predictions that have proved false Cardan a reputed Prince in this faculty complains that scarce ten in fourty prove true And Picus a narrow searcher into the Art professes that he has found of his own experience nineteen in twenty false and that in the Prognostication of Weather where no free Agents intermeddle to interrupt or turn off the naturall influence of the Stars 2. But all the Aberrations that either themselves or others may have observed will not bring off the more devoted Admirers of Astrology to acknowledge the vanity thereof For their excuse is first That by History private information and by their own experience they are assured that the Predictions do sometimes fall punctually true to a year nay to a day and sometimes to an hour and that the circumstances of things are so particularly set out that it cannot be Chance but Art that arrives at that accuracy And then secondly That the profession of others and also their own observation does witness to them that when there is any mistake the Errour is in the Artist not in the Art For when they have examined their Astrologicall Scheme they finde the Event was there signified and that it was their own oversight to miss it But to answer to the latter first I say they cannot pretend their Observation universall and they that understand Astrology best will acknowledge there is that intanglement usually and complication of things that it requires a very long time to give due judgement according to Art concerning a Nativity And therefore I say the Representation of the Event being so doubtfull if they chance to predict right at first they easily perswade themselves that was the meaning of the Celestial Theme If they miss they will force on their way further till they finde out what is answerable to the Events which then must needs be the meaning of the Art though the Artist oversaw it nor will they urge themselves to any further accuracy of inquisition for fear they should finde it disagree again or rather out of a strong credulity that if it hit right it is surely from the true meaning and principles of their beloved Science whenas in truth their Themes have no certainty in their representation but are as a piece of changeable Stuffe or creased Pictures look this way it is this colour that way that this way a Virgin that way an Ape or like the Oracles of Apollo who was deservedly called Loxias whose crooked Answers winded so this way and that way that nothing but the Event could tell whither they pointed 3. I might adde further that the pretence of the Schemes themselves be they never so exact I say the pretence of their alwayes representing the Events aright is a most impudent and rash Presumption because as I have intimated already the Objects of their Predictions are so alterable by the interposall of free Agents which interrupt ever and anon the series of Causality in naturall inclinations Whence in reason a man can expect no certain Predictions at all from the significations of the Stars nor that any triall can be made whether there be any thing in the Art or no. And it cannot but seem to every one a very bold surmise to imagine that all that fall in one fight by the edge of the Sword or suffer shipwrack in one Storm or are swept away in one Pestilence had their Emissors and Interfectors in their Nativity answerable to the times of their Death The Artists themselves dare not avouch it and therefore bring in an unobserved caution of having recourse to Eclipses Comets and blazing-Stars to calculate the generall fortune of the place nay of their Parents and Ancestors and of their familiar Friends of which there is no news in the most famous Predictions of Astrologers and therefore these and the like considerations being left out it is a signe their divinations fell true by chance Wherefore it is a shameless piece of Imposture to impute the truth of Predictions to Art where the Rules of Art are not observed I may adde where they are so palpably by Experience confuted For so it is in Twins whose natures should be utterly the same according to their Art and if they could be born at one moment the moment of their death should be the same also And yet those undissevered Twins born in Scotland who lived till twenty eight years of their age prov'd very often dissenting brethren would wrangle and jangle and one also died before the other In answering to which instance in my judgement that ingenious Knight Sir Christopher is very shrewdly baffled 4. And now to the former I say The reasoning is not right to conclude the certainty of the Art from the punctuall correspondence of the Event to the Prediction For it is also true that the Event has been punctually contrary thereto And therefore this is as good a demonstration that it is no Art as the other that it is But it is easie to conceive that both may happen by Chance Again as for that exact Punctuality of time it is most likely to be by Chance because as I have proved above there is no way of rectifying a Nativity to that accuracy they pretend And for particular Circumstances in Horary Questions why may they not be by under-hand information or some tricks and juglings that are usuall amongst Cheats But if the Predictions of Astrologers be free from this and yet be punctuall in time
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
interpretation upon this Verse of the Prophecie that can be imagined as if the sense were That those things there foretold should come to pass after the seventy Weeks Whenas it is plain That the casting the Weeks so into parts and expresly foretelling that in this part this shall come to pass and in that that it is plain I say from hence That the main scope of the Prophecie is to tell what things will come to pass before their expiration Which we shall be the better assured of if we examine the fondness of the other Supposition and apply it to the words of the Text which are these Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy City or cut out for thy people and for thy holy City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to finish transgression c. If these things that follow in this verse be to be understood as foretold to come to pass after the seventy Weeks what is the sense of the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Questionless there can be but these two senses of it either so as the Septuagint have translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that transgression may be finished as also our English Translatours have rendered it which doubtless is the true sense or else it must signifie the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is no sense imaginable besides these two that can be pretended If the first the gross Absurdity is this That whereas there has been about three hundred Weeks for the compleating those things mentioned there in that verse and they not yet done according to the Jews opinion yet the Prophecie mentions only Seventy and those wherein they themselves confess nothing at all was to be done of them then which nothing can be imagined more wilde and ridiculous If the second I answer that the Seventy and other unprejudiced Interpreters alway turn it according to the former sense Nay that Abarbanel and Manasseh who otherwise pervert the sense of this Prophecie yet they translate it so too and yield that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until And lastly if it did so yet the sense of the Prophecie would be pittifully lame and imperfect if we compare it with the Event For the sense would be Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people until or before that the everlasting righteousness be brought in the most Holy anointed Vision and Prophecie perfected c. Which certainly supposes that within a little time after at least after less then Seventy Weeks these things should be fulfilled and yet there has thrice seventy Weeks gone over since the expiration of the first Seventy and no tidings of any such things Wherefore it is more clear then the Meridian Sun that the things there understood were to come to pass within the Seventy weeks expressly spoke of by the Prophet Daniel 3. Again from the Second verse of this Prophecie we demonstrate That the Messiah is come Because from the going out of the Commandment or Decree to rebuild the City to the Messiah is but sixty nine weeks Wherefore imagine what Decree you will the time is run out and many hundred years besides And that this Prophecie is to be understood of that great Messiah their Prince and Redeemer appears plainly enough because he is called here by Daniel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely as being his Proper Name whenas in all other places of Scripture it is an Appellative Whence it is more then conjectural that the Iews had the name of their Messiah out of this place and understood it of that Messiah we speak of But after that unhappy mistake of theirs in refusing their Messiah when he came they have forced other Interpretations though utterly unapplicable to the Text some understanding by Messiah King Cyrus others Nehemias others Iehoshua the Priest others Zerobabel none of which conceits are so much as possible For the Epocha from which they must reckon must be from some Command or Decree to rebuild the City For so the words run 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the promulgation of the Decree to restore c. That that is the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plain from Esther chap. 1. ver 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let there goe forth a royal Command or Decree Whence it is plain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as a Decree and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Promulgation of it as may be understood also from Luke 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth put the business out of all controversie that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as the Seventy often translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Command not a Foretelling or Talking of things because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not signifie concerning the restoring but to restore So that none that have any either common sense or but moderate skill in the Hebrew but will confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies From the Decree to cause to return c. From whence it is very manifest that none of those Persons which the Jews here offer can be accepted for the Messiah mentioned in this Prophecie Not Cyrus because if you will apply him to the first Decree which was his own the account is absurd at first sight For thus you must reckon from the Edict of Cyrus to the same Cyrus The other Decrees are after Cyrus and therefore the sense will be more absurd if any thing can be more The reason is much-what the same concerning Iehoshua and Zerobabel for they were the very persons that immediately executed Cyrus his Decree And for Nehemias he is a great many years too late from Cyrus his Decree and as much too near to that Decree that went out the seventh year of Artaxerxes This I speak in reference to that Evasion they seek in the parting of the number of this Prophecie into seven Weeks and sixty two Weeks as if it should be but seven Weeks from the Decree to the Messiah that is fourty nine years But besides that it is plain Chronologie will not fit their turn for this subterfuge it is further evident that if it would it will yet appear ut a Subterfuge For unless you will joine the Seven Weeks and the fifty two Weeks together it will not make good sense as any one that examines it will easily understand and that the Messiah is not to come within the first Seven Weeks appears in that he is to be cut off after the sixty two Weeks 4. Which shall be a third argument from the Third verse of the Prophecie That the Messiah is come After sixty two weeks the Messiah shall be cut off that is not until the last Week begin and before it expire For there is no question but the Seventy Weeks being thus divided into parts for the setting out the time of the coming and appearing of the Messiah even to his death
honoured as the Son of God Prayers offered unto him and in his Name and Praises sung unto him with all solemnity and devotion imaginable 3. And for the Duration of this his royal Priesthood it has continued already a faire time about one thousand six hundred years as may be infallibly gathered out of History And as appears from these ancient Prophecies of the Jews he is a Person so holy and sacred and upon whom the eyes of Providence have been in such a wonderfull manner fixed infinitely above any Person that ever was yet in the World that it is impossible that the Testimonies given of him should ever be obliterated by succession of Time nothing but an universal Conflagration being able to make an end of all the copies of the Jewish Oracles or of the Christian Gospel And therefore it is a thing beyond all Likelihood nay I may say all Possibility that this Honour and Kingdome of Christ upon Earth should ever cease till the Earth cease to have Inhabitants I do not deny but the insupportable Wickedness of the Christians their Faithlesness Ferocity and Uncleanness their accursed Hypocrisie and open Prophaneness may make this Kingdome of Christ very itinerant and to pass from one Nation to another People but it will ever be the Religion of some People and Nation or other Or if not there will at least be sincere Professors of his Name in several Nations and Kingdomes as in the persecuted estate of the Primitive Church which will certainly leaven the World again with the Christian Religion with more glory and purity then ever unless a fiery Vengeance from heaven step betwixt and Christ come again visibly so Judgement in the clouds 4. The thing therefore that I say is this That though a man should be so cautious forsooth and so crafty as that because these latter Ages have been guilty of so much Falseness and Forgery he will believe no Records of the Church at all no not so much as the Holy Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles yet he may have sufficient assurance from the Prophecies of the Old Testament which unless he will be egregiously foolish and unreasonable he cannot have any pretense to suspect as supposititious That Christianity is no Fiction but a real Truth if he will but compare the Prophecies with the Events of things as they lye before his eyes and with the free Confession of those that are open Enemies to the Christian Religion I mean the Nation of the Iews 5. For the firmer belief whereof he may also help himself something from those strinklings that are found in prophane Writers For if thou wilt be so prodigiously melancholick and suspicious as to doubt whether there ever were such a man as Christ the very History of the Heathens may assure thee thereof they mentioning these things so timely as that there could be no errour about the existence of the Person they speak of whether he ever were in the World or no. For Plinie Tacitus Lucian and Suetonius all of them flourished so near the time of the taking of the City of Ierusalem viz. Plinie about twenty Tacitus thirty Lucian and Suetonius about forty or fifty years that they could not but have certain information whether he was a fictitious Person or real from the captive Iews who would not have failed to stifle a Religion they hated so if it had been but a Figment at the bottome Plinie in his Epistle to Trajan finds the Christian professours in good earnest even to death Whose dangerous and mischievous errour he might easily have confuted if the History of Christ had been but a Romance but he found them immovable nor could he help it Which constancy of theirs he calls pervicaciam inflexibilem obstinationem a Pervicacity and inflexible Obstinacy Which is ridiculous to think can befall men in a mere Fiction within the time that search may easily discover to be false and that they should stand out to the exposing of themselves to death and torture He writes in the same Epistle that he put two maid-servants on the rack Sed nihil aliud inveni quà m superstitionem pravam immodicam But I found nothing else saith he but a perverse and immoderate Superstition And of those that fear made desist from the profession of their Religion Affirmabant hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere c. They affirmed that this was the sum of their either fault or errour that they were wont on a set day to meet together early in the morning before day-break and sing an hymne to Christ as to a God Which is a sign that betimes the Christians followed Christ not as a mere eminent Moralist that gave excellent precepts of life better then ever any did but that they held his Person truely Divine and adorable for some wonderful considerations or other 6. But this Inquisition and bloudy Persecution of the Christians began higher then Trajan's time to wit in Nero's who to smother that abominable act of his in firing the City of Rome did most salvagely punish the Christians as if they had been the Authors of it Tacit. Annal lib. 15. Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos quaesitissimis poenis affecit quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat Auctor nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat Repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat non modò per Judaeam originem ejus mali sed per Urbem etiam quò cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque Igitur primò correpti qui fatebantur deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens haud perinde in crimine incendii quà m odio humani generis convicti sunt Et pereuntibus addita ludibria ut ferarum tergis contecti laniatu canum interirent aut crucibus affixi aut flammandi atque ubi defecisset dies in usum nocturni luminis urerentur Wherefore Nero to suppress the rumour of his own vile act by suborning false witnesses got those to be accused who being hatefull for their wickedness were commonly called Christians and punished them with exquisite tortures The Author of that Sect was one Christus who in the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate the Deputy Which damnable superstition suppressed for a time broke out afresh not only in Judaea the first source of that Mischief but also in the City of Rome whither all villainous and shamefull things flow from all parts and are held in great esteem Wherefore they were first laid hold of that confessed themselves Christians afterward by their discovery a huge multitude were condemned not so much for being guilty of firing the City as that they were hated of all mankind They added also reproaches to their death clothing some of
them with the skins of beasts to be worried by dogs others were crucified and others were burnt after day-light to serve in stead of lynks or torches This Persecution was not thirty years after the Passion of Christ. I appeal now to any one if he can think it possible that these that lived so near to that time when Christ was said to be crucified that they might make exact inquiry into the matter I appeal to him if he can think it possible they could expose their lives and fortunes to the hatred and cruelty of the Heathen if they were not most certain that there was such a man that was crucified at Ierusalem and demand further he dying so ignominious a death whether it be again possible that there should not be some extraordinary thing in the Person of Christ to make them adhere to him so after his death with the common hatred of all men and hazard of their lives 7. And therefore Lucian in his Peregrinus does rightly term Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great man crucified in Palaestine For at least he spoke the opinion of Christ's followers if not his own And the doctrine of the Christians he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the marvellous wisdome of the Christians whom he affirms to renounce the Heathen Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to worship their crucified Sophist or their crucified Master and Teacher And in his Philopatris if it be his and if it be not it is not much material being it must be of some Writer coetaneous to him there are some inklings of very high matters in Christianity as of the Trinity of Life Eternal of the Galilean's Ascension into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking up the Air into the third Heaven where having learned most excellent matters he renewed us by water Which is likely to be some intimation of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven or else of Paul's being rapt up into the third Heaven though the Narration thereof be depraved And Critias in that Dialogue swears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the son that is from the Father And he and Triephon jearing Divine Providence betwixt them as being set out by the Religious as if things were written in Heaven Critias asketh Triephon if all things even the affairs of the Scythians were written there also To which Triephon answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things if so be CHRESTUS be also amongst the Nations All which passages intimate what a venerable Opinion there was spred in the World concerning Christ and that therefore there was some extraordinary worth and excellency in his Person Which Conclusion I shall make use of in its due place 8. In the mean time I shall onely add that mention made of him in Suetonius in Vita Claudii cap. 25. where he is called Chrestus as before in Lucian's Philopatris he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit He expelled the Iews out of Rome they making perpetual tumults by the instigation of Chrestus Which is the highest Record of our Religion that is to be found in prophane Writers and no marvel it reaching so near the Passion of Christ from whence our Religion commenced For the reign of Claudius began about seven years after Christ's Passion and ended within thirteen years And that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate Tacitus himself gives witness in what we have above recited But a more accurate Chronologie of these things cannot be expected but from them who are more nearly concerned viz. the Christians themselves 9. Iosephus his Testimonie had reached higher in time if we could be assured that what he seemed to write of Christ was not foisted in by some thankless fraud of unconscionable Superstitionists or short-sighted Politicians that could not see that the solidity of Christian Religion wanted not their lies and forgeries to sustain it But for my own part I think it very unlikely that Iosephus being no Christian should write at that rate concerning Christ as he does besides other reasons which might be alledged And therefore for the greater compendium I shall be content to acknowledge that what is found in his Antiquities concerning the crucified Iesus is supposititious and none of his own Which Omission I impute partly to his Prudence and partly to his Integrity For certainly he knowing the affairs of Iesus so well as he did could not in his own judgment and conscience say any thing ill of him more then that he was crucified which was no fault in him but in his unjust and cruel Murderers and simply to have nominated him in his History without saying any thing of him had been a frigid lame business and to have spoke well of him had been ungratefull both to his own Country-men the Iews and also to the Pagans Wherefore it being against his Conscience to vilifie him and revile him and his followers so as the Heathen Historians have done and against his Prudence being not convinced that he was the very Messiah to declare how excellent a person he was it remains that in all likelihood he would play the Politician so far as not to speak of him at all 10. We shall produce but one Testimony more out of Pagan Historians and that is out of Ammianus Marcellinus concerning Iulian's purpose to re-edifie the Temple of Ierusalem that the Iews might sacrifice there according to their ancient manner Which was looked upon to be done more out of envy to the Christians then in love to the Jews and in an affront to that universal and inestimable Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered upon the Cross which was to cease the Jewish Sacrifices and to put an end to the exercise of the Mosaical ceremonies Ruffinus and Sozomen declare the matter more at large but we shall contain our selves within the recitall of what Ammianus has written lib. 23. near the beginning who being an Heathen puts as fair a gloss upon the Emperour's Action as he could but the Event is plainly enough set down and such as does much confirm the Truth of Christian Religion Julianus imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare ambitiosum quondam apud Jerosolymam templum quod post multae internecina certamina obsidente Vespasiano postea Tito agrè est expugnatum instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis negotiumque maturandum Alipio dederat Antiochiensi qui olim Britannias curaverat pro Praefectis Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alipius juvaretque Provinciae Rector metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente cessavit inceptum Julian having a mind to propagate the memorie of his Reign by the greatness of his Acts purposed to rebuild with immense charges that once-stately Temple at Jerusalem which with much adoe after many a bloudy battel was taken after siege