Argument of the extremity wherewith Mithridates was opprest that he spared not so much as the Plowing Oxen but slew them to make Thongs of their Hides and strings for his warlike Engines of their entrails Appian Alex. de bellis Mithridat p. 229. But more plainly in Justin's Compendium of Trogus Pomp. l. 36. cap. in risum Minimus inter fratres Joseph fuit cujus excellens ingenium veriti fratres clam interceptum mercatoribus peregrinis vendiderunt à quibus deportatus in Aegyptum cùm Magicas artes ibi solerti ingenio percepisset brevi ipsi Regi percharus fuit Nam prodigiorum sagacissimus erat somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit nihilque divini juris humanique ei incognitum videbatur Adeò ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos providerit periissetque omnis Aegyptus fame nisi monitus ejus edicto Rex servari multos per annos fruges jussisset Tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt ut non ab homine sed a Deo responsa dari viderentur Joseph was the youngest Brother whose excellent wit his brethren being jealous of intercepted him privily and sold him to forreign Merchants who carried him into Aegypt where having through his industrious wit learn'd the Magick Art in a short time he grew greatly in favour with the King for he was quick in finding out the meaning of Prodigies and the first that taught the interpretation of Dreams and seem'd to understand whatsoever appertain'd to the Divine or Humane Law So as he foresaw a Famine many years before it fell out and all Egypt had perish'd through Famine if the King admonish'd by Joseph had not commanded provision to be laid up for many years Yea such experiments did he give of his Wisdom as his Responds seemed to proceed not from man but God For this it was that he obtain'd while he lived the honour of being proclaimed by the Kings Command Abrech that is tender Father or as St. Jerom in his Hebraick Questions and the Vulgar Latine Translate it The Saviour of the World Gen. 41. 43. preferring that before that of Aquila which Aben Ezra favours and our English follows bow the knee And after his Death was worship'd by the Israelites in the Wilderness under the form of the Golden Calf they putting more confidence in him for relieving their wants in that barren Land than in their Fathers God who so often had spread a Table for them in the Wilderness Him also did Jeroboam worship at Dan and Bethel as the God of Plenty and for the honour of his Tribe Jeroboam being of the Tribe of Ephraim the Son of Joseph Of which beside the suffrage of some Rabbies mention'd by Vossius de origin idololat these Observations may be a Confirmation 1. The Image of the Aegyptian Ox sacred to Osiris had a bushel set upon its head saith Ruffinus Eccles. Hist. l. 2. cap. 23. to denote Josephs measuring out of Corn this reason is alledged by Suidas in Serapis why some conceiv'd that Idol to represent Joseph 2. Moses in his blessing that Tribe Deut. 33. 17. saith The firstling of a Bullock is the Beauty of his countenance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifestly expressing the Embleme which the Egyptians erected in his memory not that he approved their abusing of it by Religious Worship but only commends Joseph whom God had blest with that Wisdom as procured him that Testimony of civil respect for it was no more at first than a piece of Heraldry This Coat of Arms Moses calls the Firstling of a Bullock because of the greenness of Joseph's years when he was set over the Land of Aegypt being then but 30 years old exceeding young for the Gravity of his Counsel and deportment and therefore his Emblem was a Calf or Firstling 3. Though the bewilder'd Israelites erected but one Image yet their acclamation before it was These are thy Gods oh Israel which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 32. 8. VVhy Gods but to denote that Idol to have been of the Epicene Gender and to have represented both Apis and Osiris the Ox of Memphis and Heliopolis which saith Plutarch de Iside Osyride the Aegyptian Priests affirmed to be all one and that Isis was the Soul of Osyris And why Thy Gods which brought thee up out of the land of Aegypt but to exclude the Inderites Egyptian Gods whose Interest it was to keep them in Aegyptian Bondage and to imply it was some deified Israelite towit Joseph who at his Death had prophesied their Return and whose Reliques they brought with them out of Egypt to whom they imputed their deliverance and conduct § 6. The History of Moses is more plainly comprehended in the Fables of a third Osiris or Liber whom the Poets describe in the Indian or Arabick expedition of Bacchus for that this Osiris and Liber and Dionysius are all one Nonnus testifieth in his Dionysiacωn lib. 4. and that the ancient Greeks accounted all the Tract beyond the Mediterranean India is manifest from that of Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Andromedam Perseus nigris portarat ab Indis Perseus brought away Andromeda from the black Indians now Andromeda was brought away from Joppa a City of Phoenicia saith Pliny l. 5. cap. 13 31. and chap. 9. cap. 5. Belluae cui dicebatur exposita fuisse Andromeda ossa Romae apportata ex oppido Judaeae Joppe ostendit inter reliqua miracula in Aedilitate sua M. Scaurus M. Scaurus when he was Edile did amongst other rarities make show of the bones of that Sea-monster to which Andromeda was reported to have been expos'd having caused them to be brought from Joppa a City of Judaea Having premis'd these Tropological Notes let us compare the Stories The sacred History saith that Moses was exposed in an Ark upon the Water watched by his Sister and found by Pharaoh's Daughter The Prophane tells us of Liber's Mother and Nurses being with him at the Bank of Nile Orpheus in hymmis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With thy Goddess-mother the venerable Isis wearing black with thy Maidennurses at the Egyptian River At Brasiae in Laconia they had an old Tradition that Bacchus as soon as he was born was put into an Ark and committed to the Water which after-ages to give repute to that City corrupted with the addition that the Ark was driven by Tides to their coast and Bacchus educated with them whence their City called formerly Oreatae took the name of Brasiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a Verb signifying to be cast up with the tide Pausanias Laconici In certain Verses of Orpheus the Caldean Liber is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water-born and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which misseth Moses his Name but one Vowel It is true indeed he is elsewhere stiled unutterable Queen but that proceeded from the Grecians mistake expess'd by Alexander Polyhistor that the Jews receiv'd their Laws from a Woman named Mosω they
six her eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there as things of highest State-concern in respect of that then famous Eastern Prophecy of one to arise at that time in Judea who should be King of the Universe § 4. At that time when the Erection of an Universal Monarchy was according to that Prophecy expected appeared Persons of a more Lordly Spirit amongst the Romans than any former Age had brought forth Caesar and Pompey ' s Ambition sprung from this Prophecy The then greatest Spirits courted the Jews favour and used means that they might be that oriundus in Judaea § 5. The arts which the Roman Candidates for the Universal Monarchy used to bring the World into an opinion that they were designed by Heaven to something extraordinary Julius his Dream his cloven-footed Horse his Mules his Triton his pressing to have the Title of King because the Sybils had prophesied one at that time would be King of all the World The Fathers quotations of Sybils vindicated § 6. Augustus had his Education amongst the Velitri who had a Tradition of the tendency with the Eastern Prophecy that one of that City should obtain the Kingdom of the whole World The Roman Prodigy before his Birth His Mother Atia conceives him by Apollo Her Snake-mole Nero ' s Bracelet Atias Dream of her Entrals Nigidius his Prognostication The Prediction of the Thracian Priests His Fathers Vision Cicero ' s Dream § 7. Tiberius his Omens Scribonius ' s Prediction Livias crested Chick The Altars of the conquering Legions His Dye cast into Apon ' s Well Galba ' s Mock-prophecy § 8. Titus and Vespasian ' s Motto Amor deliciae in English the desire of the Nations The Prodigy of Mars his Oak The Gypsies Prediction Dirt cast by Caligula into his Shirt The Dog bringing a Man's hand The Oracle of the God of Carmel His curing the blind and Lame c. CHAP. X. The more open Practices of soaring Spirits in grasping at the Judean Crown their hopes to obtain it and as to some of them their Conceit of possessing it § 1. Cleopatra ' s Boon begg'd of M. Antony denyed Herod ' s Eye Blood-shot with looking at the Eastern Prophecy § 2. Vespasian jealous of Titus The Eastern Monarchy the Prize contended for by both Parties in the Jewish Wars Mild Vespasian cruel to David ' s Line § 3. Domitian jealous of Davids Progeny Genealogies Metius Pomposianus his Genesis and Globe his Discourse with Christ's Kindred about Christ's Kingdom Clancular Jews brought to light Trajan puts to death Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem for being of the Royal Line § 4. Glosses upon the Eastern Prophecy under Adrian involve the Empire in Blood Jewry in Desolation Fronto taxeth benumm'd Nerva for conniving at the Jew CHAP. XI St. Paul's Apology before Nero was in Answer to some Interrogatories put to him through the Suggestion of his Adversaries touching the matter of the Eastern Prophecy Ex. Gr. Is not this Jesus whom thou preachest to be risen again from the Dead that Jesus of Nazareth whom ye call King of the Jews § 1. Tertullus his Charge against St. Paul a Ring-leader of Nazarites Lysias his Interrogatory art not thou that Alexandrian Egyptian Nero put in hopes of that Kingdom which St. Paul preach'd Christ to have obtained Poppaea Nero's Minion Disciples slink away § 2. Why St. Paul stiles Nero a Lion of the Kingdom of God The Lions Courage quails at St. Paul's Apology Nero after that trusts more to his Art than Gypsies Prophecies § 3. St. Pauls Appearance within Nero ' s Quinquennium Pallas Foelix his Brother and Advocate out of Favour in Nero ' s third Festus hastens St. Paul ' s Mission to Rome the Jews his Trial. § 4. Nero not yet a Lion in Cruelty but in opinion Judah ' s Lion St. Paul ' s Doctrine tryed to the bottom before Nero desponds An Apology for this Pilgrimage through the Holy Age its Use. CHAP. XII As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church § 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives Pliny ' s testimony of them § 2 3. They hide not their imperfections nor the Truth to please Parties or to avoid the Worlds taking offence The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge Pagan Forgeries § 5. Papal Innovation founded on lying Legends Sir Thomas Moor upon St. Austin Gregory Turonensis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars The Story of the Baptist ' s Head BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT As they could not nor would not delude others so they were not themselves deluded persons or Men of crazy Intellects but propounded to the World a Religion so every way fitted to the Dictates of Common Reason of the most Refin'd Philosophy and of pre-existent Religion as it was impossible for them to have fram'd had they not been of perfect Memory and sound Minds THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Gospel's Correspondency with Vulgar Sentiments § 1. The Testimony of the Humane Soul untaught to the Truth of the Christian Creed in the Articles touching the Unity of the Godhead his Goodness Justice Mercy The Existence of wicked Spirits § 2. The Resurrection and Future Judgment Death formidable for its Consequence to evil Men No Fence against this Fear proved by Examples § 3. In hope of future Good the Soul secretly applauds her self after virtuous Acts. This makes the Flesh suffer patiently CHAP. II. Reason nonplus'd help'd by Religion acquiesceth in her Resolutions § 1. Man's Supremacy over the Creatures the Reason of it not cognoscible by Natural Light § 2. Yet generally challenged even over Spirits whom men command to do what themselves disgust § 3. The way of Creation a Mystery Reason puzzel'd to find it out can but conjecture § 4. Divine Revelations touching both acquiesc'd in as soon as communicated Scripture-Philosophy excels the Mechanick Plato's Commendation § 5. Nothing but the God of Order's Grant can secure States from Anarchical Parity and Club-law § 6. Heathens assented to the Reasons of both assigned by Scripture CHAP. III. Natural Conscience Ecchoes to Christian Morals § 1. A Dispraise to dispraise Virtue or praise Vice The Comicks Liberty restrained § 2. How the worst of Men became to be reputed Gods § 3. Men were deified for their Virtues Vice ungodded Gods § 4. Stage-Gods hissed at The Infamy of Players The Original of Mythology CHAP. IV. Christian Religion concords with the highest Philosophical Notions § 1. Divine Knowledge coâ—â—unicated from the Church to travelling Philosophers Our Religion elder than Heathenism by Heathens confession § 2. Christian Articles implied in Pagan Philosophy's Positions Man's happiness through Communion with God and Conformity unto God § 3. This Conformity and Communion effected by God-man God manifest in
the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato's Sentences entenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John's Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato's Sentence under the Rose CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviours Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry's Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. CHAP. VI. God the Light Man's Reliever § 1. Plebean Light mistaken for the true All-healing Light Joves and Vaejoves Mythology an help at a dead lift § 2. Wisdom begotten of God Man's Helper the Fathers Darling § 3. Made Man Sibyls maintain'd as quoted by Fathers Come short of Scripture-Oracles § 4. Virgil out of Sibyl prophesied of Christ. The Sibyllines brought to the Test. Tully's weak Exceptions against the Sibyllines § 5. Sibyl's Songs of God Redeemer the Eternal Word the Creator Apollo commends Christ. Local Saviours exploded CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry's Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham's departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of the Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christs Blood § 7. Mans Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the world by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how CHAP. VIII The Gospel calculated to the Meridian of the Old Testament § 1 In its Types § 2. Its Ceremonials fall at Christs feet with their own weight The Nest of Ceremonies pull'd down That Law not practicable § 3. Moses his Morals improved by Christ by better Motives Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4. It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul's Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School CHAP. IX Gospel-History agrees with Old Testament-prophecy § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophecies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob's Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor his Pole-money to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligation void They return to Aegypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah's God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel's Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel's Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel's second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book Book III. THE ARGUMENT 3 We have as good grounds of Assurance that the matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles were done and delivered accordingly as they are therein related as we have or can have of the Truth of any other the most certain Relation in the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose Names they bear then any Man can have that he is his reputed Fathers Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks CHAP. II. The Suffrage of Adversaries to the testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples Civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny's information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximnus hated them for CHAP. III. The Substance of Christian Religion as it stands now in the Gospel is to be found in the Books of its Adversaries § 1. The Effigies of the Gospel is hung out where it is proscribed § 2. Hierocles attempting to outvie Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christs Doctrine may be traced out by the footsteps of the Hunters who pursued it CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found
obtains place § 2. The God of Israel hath his Priests amongst the Gentiles § 3. No acceptable Oblation but what Christians offer tender'd to Israels God § 4. The Gospel hath utterly abolish'd Idols made Virmin-Gods creep into holes § 5. Daphnaean Apollo choakd with the Bones of Babilas Heathen Testimony for the silencing of Oracles the Vanity of their Reasons § 6. Gross Idolatry in the Roman Pale by her own Doctors Confessions and Definitions the Legend of the Golden Calf yet not in the proper and prophetick sence CHAP. VI. Touching the Millenium Revel 20. § 1 Pagan Idol's Fall and Satans binding Synchronize Christianity grew upon the Empire by degrees § 2. Charity 's Cloak cast over the first Christian Emperours § 3. Theodosius made the first Penal Laws against Paganism § 4. Honorius made Paganism Capital then was Satan bound CHAP. VII The Millenium yet to come is a Dream of Waking Men. § 1. The Millenaries shifting of Aera's Apes of Mahometans and Papists Alsted's Boreal Empire § 2. Mr. Meed's Principles overthrow the Faith and Placits of the Ancients Christ will not come to convert but destroy the Jews Satans Binding Synchronizeth with the downfall not of Mahometanism but Gentilism § 3. America though anciently inhabited yet unknown to the ancient Church and therefore implicitly only comprehended in her Faith Hope and Charity § 4. The Millenaries impious and uncharitable Conceptions touching the Gogick-war Their Triumphant Church-Militant § 5. Christ will find more Faith in America than in this upper Hemisphere § 6. Satan's Chain shortned in the lower not lengthened in this upper Hemisphere CHAP. VIII That Satans loosing will not be till the Dawning of the day of Judgment Problematically discuss'd § 1. Elect gathered into the Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat Chancells not all Eastward but all toward that Valley § 2. The Elect secur'd Satan reenters and drives his old Demesne The wicked destroyed as Rebels actually in arms Believers tried as Citizens by the Books of Conscience and Book of Royal Law § 3. Gog. Revel 20. a greater multitude than will meet before the day of Judgment When Prophecies are to be expounded Literally when Figuratively § 4. The Ottoman Army is not this Gogick § 5. The Fire of the last Conflagration carrieth Infidels into the Abyss The Goats are cast into it after they are convict by the Covenant of Grace White Throne New Heaven and Earth Flames of Fire divided § 6. They that are in Christ rise first but Infidels are first judged The Objection from their being in termino § 7. The Jews Septimum Millenarium is the eternal Sabbath The days of a Tree Isa. 65. 28. The Text Paraphrased CHAP. IX The Force of the general Argument from Prophecy urged § 1. Prophetick Events demonstrate the Reveilers infinite science § 2. And Omnipotencie § 3. The Divine Original of the Gospel § 4. Christ Circumstantiated old Prophecies of Jerusalem's Fall § 5. When her Fall was most unlikely § 6. Precognition demonstrates Pre-existence CHAP. X. The Demonstration of Power § 1. Christians Gleanings exceed Pagans Vintage § 2. Christian stories of undoubted Pagan of dubious Credit § 3. Pagan Miracles mis-father'd § 4. Rome's Prosperity whence § 5. Wonders among Gentiles for the fulfilling of Prophecies § 6. For the punishment of Nations ripe for Excision § 7. Empires raised miraculously for the common good CHAP. XI The Deficiency of the false Characters of true Miracles § 1. Heathen Wonders unprofitable § 2. Of an impious Tendency § 3. Not above the power of Nature § 4. Moses and the Magicians Rodds into serpents § 5. The suns standing still and going back The Persian Triplasia § 6. Darkness at our Saviours Passion § 7. Christs Resurrection the Broad-seal set to the Gospel CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity lays the Ax to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and power § 5 Real Exornations before Verbal Encomiums Christian Religion 's APPEAL To the BARR of Common Reason c. The First Book It was morally impossible that the Apostolical Church should delude the World with feigned Miracles or Stories CHAP. I. The Contents The Age wherein the Apostles flourish'd was sufficiently secured against the Impostures of Empiricks by its Knowledge in Physicks Ignorance in Naturals the Mother of superstitious Credulity The Darkness at our Saviours Crucifixion compared with that at Romulus his Death Heathen Records of the Darkness of Christ's Passion Sect. 1. HOW easily how certainly would the fraud have been detected had our Saviour and his Apostles wrought their wonderful Cures and stupendous Works by the Application of Natural Causes That Age wherein they were done being an Age of the most improved Wits in Natural Science that the benign Genius of any Age had till then or hath to this day produced Pliny that great Secretary of Nature so industrious a searcher into her Mysteries as in pursuit of the knowledge of the Causes of Vesuviums Conflagration he made so near an approach to that burning Mountain while the dreadful fragor of that fierce Eruption put the most undaunted Spirits into that fright as they fled as fast and far from it as their heels would carry them as he was stifled with its Sulphureous Steam choosing rather to die in the attempt of seeking out than to live in the ignorance of Natures secrets and to throw himself into its flaming Mouth by which it vented what was in its Heart rather than not to know from what abundance of the Heart it s now opened and gaping Mouth spake This unparallel'd Example for our modern Virtuosi who think they infinitely oblige Humane kind and let them never râ—ap the fruit of their ingenuous labours who grudge them that honour by the Experiments they make at the Expence of so much sweat and with the hazzard of stopping their own breath with the Exhalations of their Furnaces This so diligent an Attender upon Natures Cabinet-council was our Saviour's Contemporary by that compute of his age which his Nephew Plinius Secundus gave to Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. Epist. 16. requesting from him an account of his Unkles death that he might in his History transmit to posterity the memory of so brave an Exploit A little before him in years and not behind him in sagacity after Natures footsteps flourish'd Mithridates King of Pontus whose name to this day is famous in Dispensatories Regum Orientis post Alexandrum Magnum maximus the greatest of all the Eastern Kings after Alexander the Great so potent as he held the Romans in play 40 years and in his ruine involved almost the whole East and North L. Florus Appianus c. having 25 Provinces under his Dominion and understanding as many Languages as well as the Natives so that he answered all Embassadors in their Mother Tongue Agellius noct Att. l. 17. c. 17. Ingentis
five years of his Reign in spite of the natural dyscrasie of that Monster and the temptations to an earlier Apostasie which an absolute Sovereignty laid before him Vid. Tacit. an 15. And who was himself as much a Philosopher in the inward of his Soul as in the outward habit of his Beard and Gown as much a Moralist in practice as contemplation and precept As the great Humanist of France the Lord Nountaigne Essayes l. 1. c. 32. hath more than Essay'd to vindicate him to have been against Dion's calumniations Xiphil è Dione Nero. pag. 519. grounded upon Tigellinus and his parties reports whom to have his enemies and slanderers was Seneca's honour Tigellinus being a person of so filthy and calumniating a tongue as Dion himself but three pages before he condemns Seneca upon the suggestions of Tigellinus commends that sarcastical Apothegm as he calls it of Pythia against him who when she was urged by him to accuse her Lady Octavia Augusta of dishonesty spate in his face and said The privities of my Lady Tigellinus are more clean than thy mouth As himself demonstrated in his discourse with Nero after he was grown the object of Tigellinus's envy for his wealth and of Nero's hatred for the freedom he used in rebuking him than whom no man better knew as he told Granius Siloanus how far Seneca's genius was averse to flattery or how much his brave spirit was elevated above love to the world or fear of death And in his conference with his Wife betwixt his condemnation and death wherein he recommended to her who was most privy to what he was at home with himself the remembrance of his vertuous life in those actions of it wherein there had been least personating as the best expedient against her immoderate sorrow for his departure And lastly as the ancient Fathers of our Church implyed in their opinion that he had familiar converse with St. Paul conceiving it scarce possible that he could in Life and Doctrine hit so right upon the sence of Evangelical precepts without some such Interpreter Then lived Thrasea that Martyr under Nero for Natural Theology whom Tacitus calls the light of the Roman world and thus prefaceth his Story At last Nero covets to extirpate vertue it self in putting Thrasea to death having no other cause of displeasure against him but his going out of the Senate as refusing to give his Vote for the condemnation of Agrippina upon the barbarous motion of her unnatural Son and his not appearing at those Funeral Solemnities wherein Divine Honours were conferr'd upon that Court Drabb Poppaea A person of that Divine presence and discourse as his friends were confident he would have thunder-struck the Senate and Nero himself if they could have perswaded him to have stooped so far from the contempt of death as to plead for his life and make his defence In which point through his belief of the Souls immortality of which he was discoursing with Demetrius the Philosopher at that instant he was of so well a composed mind as he did not so much as change countenance except it were to a more chearful aspect at the news of his condemnation Tacit. l. 15. Illic à Quaestore reperitur laetitiae propior And while his life was breathing out at the veins of both his arms he spent not his breath in effeminate lamentations but in discourses upon that endless life to which he assur'd himself he was hasting and calling the Questor who was sent to see his execution Look here saith he young man we are pouring out this offerings Jovi liberatori to God Redeemer I pray God divert the Omen but verily thou livest in such times as it 's very behoofeful to get thy mind fortified against all temporal evil by such examples of constancy as thou seest me set before thee § 2. But I go about to number the Stars in attempting to reckon up all the Philosophers then flourishing when the Christian Philosophy was first commended to the world I will therefore cease the further prosecution of that point and glance at their Dogmata the Divine Axioms they deliver'd touching Divination by Auguries and prophetical Theology where that I may avoid tedious repetitions I shall in a manner confine my self to the Collector of the opinions of others Tully who though himself an Augur not only derides Divination by Birds by Dreams by Oracles c. but evinceth the vanity of them by Chrysippus his reasons affirming in general that they are the productions of superstition which dispersed through the Nations of the world taking occasion from humane imbecillity had almost opprest all mens minds and tyrannized over them Ut verè loquamur superstitio fusa per gentes oppressit omnium ferè animos atque hominum imbecillitatem occupavit de Divinat l. 2. pag. 265. 1. In particular he explodes Divination by Dreams from several instances Of one that being to run in the Olympick Games dreamed he saw himself over-night carried in a Charriot drawn with four horses which one interprets to signifie that he should win the prize because of the horses swiftness another that he should lose it because he had seen four swift Creatures before himself Of another who dreamt he saw an Eagle That portends thou shalt win quoth one Augur for that 's the swiftest bird Thou shalt lose saith another for the Eagle pursueth all other birds and is her self pursued by none therefore she 's alwayes hindmost Quae est ista ars conjectoris eludentis ingenio an quicquam significant nisi acumen hominum ex similitudine aliqua conjecturam modò huc modò illuc ducentium Pag. 2. 64. What is this else but the Art of a Guesser wittily shifting off his want of wit What do those interpretations signifie but mens quickness of wit from some resemblance or other drawing their conjecture sometimes this way sometimes that 2. Divination by Oracles he derides as fasten'd by impostures upon thë Divine Spirits motions Id certe magis est attenti animi quà m furentis hoc scriptoris est non furentis adhibentis diligentiam non insani Pag. 251. When their being most-what given in Verse speaks them to be the result of humane industry And their ambiguity fathers them upon persons providing for saving their own credit let come what will Partim falsis partim casu veris ut fit in omni oratione saepissimè partim flexiloquis obscuris ut interpres egeat interprete ipsa sors referenda sit ad sortes partim ambiguis c. p. 252. They being sometimes false sometimes true by chance as it frequently falls out in all kind of discourse sometimes so equivocal and obscure as the Interpreter needs an Interpreter and the Question what is the meaning of the Respond is harder to answer than the question which was put to the Oracle and sometimes so ambiguous c. Such as that which Herodotus reports Apollo to have given to Craesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Craesus Halym
of men of whom he received that Mathematical Table which neither he nor they nor any body else understands abacum certè primus 〈◊〉 Saracenis rapiens regulas dedit quae à sudantibus Abacistis vix intelliguntur C. Malmesbur 2. 10. However the Devil was too cunning for him for Statuae capâ—t à Saracenis Hispaniensibus edoctus in oraculum sibi conflavit Silvester secundus but his Oracle deceived him by Equivocation promising he should not die till he read Mass in Jerusalem meaning a Church in Rome so called wherein he was singing Mass he died miserably C. Malmeâ—buriensis 2. 10. referente Seldeno de dâ—â—s Syriis in Teraphim But of all these Mathematicians none came near Benet 8. The rest rode the Devil during life but he after his death they curvetted upon that Beast in this World he in Purgatory The Prince of that bottomless Pit whereof they were the Clavigers held their Bridles while they rode in Procession but the gentle Elephant takes up this spiritual Porus upon his own back when death had dismounted him from his Papal Mule Some report saith Platina in â—en 8. that his ghost sitting upon a black Horse appeared to a certain Bishop who asking the reason of his being in that equippage is told that all the alms he had given before proved inavailable because they were given of goods got by Rapine and is therefore intreated by this Knight of Silvester ' s Order to bestow in alms in his name certain sums of money directing him to the place where he had bid them The Bishop did as he was bid dismounts from his Episcopal Throne and turns Monk One part of this Story that Benet was relieved in Purgatory by Alms is prest by the Papists as one of their best Arguments for Purgatory and the benefit of Suffrages have they any reason then to deny the rest of it Must they alledge it in defence of their Service for the Dead and may we not alledge it in condemnation of that Service as being instituted not by the Pope sitting in St. Peter's Chair but on the back of a Fiend let them forethink how they shall escape the Curse if they will buy and sell by different weights deliver out by strik'd and take in by heap'd measure How great was the Darkness when the great Lights that rule the day thus gave the Candle to one another which they had lighted at the Devil's fire But I must laquey it no longer at the side of this rank Rider Baronius calls me to attend on John 21. whom he affirms to be in the lowest Purgatory to have been unworthy of the Papal Dignity into which he entered by unworthy means and managed with Tyranny Of whom some reported saith Platina that he was a mere Laick before he was created Pope In whose time all affairs at Rome were managed by Enchanters and Necromancers if we may credit Gratian. But horror surprizeth me while I walk thus far after these Triple-crown'd Magicians those damps of the Infernal Pit threaten to stifle my spirits I will therefore withdraw my thoughts from these Sulphureous streams and retire to those Histories from whence we may take a less offensive prospect of that Cloud which from an handful at first did by degrees overspread the Western Hemisphere with such blackness of Darkness as the sight of it extorted from Alphonsus de Castro cont haereses lib. 1. cap. 4. edit Colonens this Confession That some Popes were such great Clerks as they had no skill at all in Grammar A Confession the Modern Papists are so ashamed of as they have expunged that Clause out of later Copies and gelt that Colen-edition anno 1541 of that sentence And from Matthew Paris in the Life of our William the Conquerour this That he was then esteemed a wondrous great Scholar that had but learn'd his Grammar stupori erat caeteris qui Grammaticam didicerat And from Theoderique Niem this That Pope Boniface could neither write nor read Mass hardly understanding the Propositions of Advocates in the Consistory in so much as ignorance did then bear away the prize in the Roman Court. And from Lupus Abbot of Ferrara this in his Letter to King Lewis That they were accounted troublesom who were desirous of knowledge and that illiterate Age gazed upon such as wonders And from Agobard in his Works of the Paris Edition anno 1605. pag. 128. this That God had made the Priests of that Age so vile as Gentlemen retain'd them not â—s their instructors but as Trencher-chaplains to wait at Table to lead Doggs to feed Horses c. In the midst of which great and mischievous ignorance saith Platina Bonifac. 9. circa finem an 1389. one happiness befel Italy by Chrysolitus Byzantius his bringing thither the Greek Letters which had not sounded there for 500 years before So childish in understanding was that Age wherein the Blasphemies of Mahomet and Popish Innovations for they commenc'd and took their degrees together like Twins were presented to the World so dark that night wherein those Tares were sown in so dead a sleep were the Centinels when the Cackling of these Geese about the Capitâ—l was esteemed meritorious So barbarous was was that World upon which Rome imposed her unsociable Paradoxes of the Pope's Supremacy over Bishops over Kings c. as that of Bernard Serm. in Concil Rhemensi may fitly be applied to this Subject I will set my seat in the North that is far from the Sun of knowledge far from the warmth of Vertue in the midst of Boreal storms of blustering winds of war and tumults Pliny did not with more hazardous difficulty travel in obtaining the knowledge of the burning of Vesuvius by ocular demonstration and approach to it while the flames flew about his ears than men could in that boysterous Age when this two-fac'd Antichrist appeared in obtaining the knowledge of worldly Affairs in informing themselves in the Natural History of those blazing Stars those burning Mountains which chose a time to break out and draw the Ages of the World after them when the smoak and sparks of War did every where fly about and threaten to stifle the approachers Whereas Christ's Star arose in the still Calm of Peace when without interruption of their course men might go or send to the place over which it stood from all parts of the World Never was the Air more clear from foggs more free feom winds than when the Gospel came flying in the midst of Heaven But I shall speak of the latter Branch of this Position after I have taken a view of the World's Complexion in point of Knowledge when Pagan Theology obtained footing § 5. If we trace the Original of Pagan Theology the Stories of those many Gods Incarnate those Thieves and Robbers as our Saviour calls them that came before him we shall find they had their Births in that rude and obscure time when by reason of the late Confounding of Languages the World was in the
that sweet morsel of Judeas Crown under his Tongue which he had in his hope swallowed and must regorge if St. Paul carry the day would set his wits on work to seek evasions and starting-holes in every corner of his Apology in the whole Web of whose Discourse upon that subject how glad would his own dear interest have made him could he have found one Wemb through which he might have seen the least glimmering of a possibility that those emergencies in Judaea then under contest before him were not such as St. Paul reported them to be Can we think that Christian Apologist could satisfie Nero in that point as St. Jerome in the place forecited insinuates by his in prima satisfactione which he so much desired to disbelieve till he had throughly weighed and canvas'd all St. Paul's and his Adversaries Pleas and found the Apostle to be irrefragable Briefly To sum up the whole of this Argument A man may without any violent elevation of his mind fancy Judea that Navel of the Earth to have been a Stage erected for the Actors in the midst of the Theatre of the World and the Inhabitants of the Empire sitting in a round as spectators and observing what was there acted with the greatest silence imaginable We are made saith St. Paul a theatre to men and Angels What hinders but we may interpret that Text by Daniel 10. 13. the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia and Vers. 14. Michael one of the chief Princes and Chap. 12. 1. Michael the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people and by Angels understand the Angel-presidents over Nations those Eyes of the Lord according to Mr. Mede that run through the Earth To be sure they might at that time have seen all the World sitting still and at rest yea themselves then resting from impeding withstanding opposing deteining one another in behalf of their several Jurisdictions and had leisure to sit down for company with their Pupils and fix their running Eyes upon that strange sight was a showing in Judaea upon that one Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands However this Text can imply no less than Action upon the Stage Tumultuations in Judea with silence among the Spectators Peace in all the World about and that Peace allowed the Empire without the least distraction to trie to the bottom the grounds of those Commotions and those grounds being of highest concern to the Spectators res tua tunc agitur It must needs be morally impossible that the Christian Church could by any the handsomest Legerdemain delude that Eagles Eye so fixedly pitch'd on these Occurrences and so steadily pearch'd upon that Olive-plant of an Universal Peace an attempt to cheat the Spectators in such a Juncture would have been such an Act quòd ipse Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes as he that had but half an Eye would swear to be the undertaking of scarce half-witted men I am now come to a Period of this tedious and toilsom Pilgrimage through the holy Age if I may call the Time so as well as the Place which Christ separated from all other Ages wherein to manifest himself in the flesh and divulge his Royal Law undertaken not out of curiosity to see Fashions but upon the same account which I have observed many of the Ancients to have travelled to the holy Land to inform themselves more explicitly in the Evangelical History to confirm themselves more feelingly by ocular Demonstration in the truth of that History or to delight their inamour'd Souls with the Contemplation of the places where the Blessed Jesus convers'd here he wept here he pray'd here he fasted this was the place of his Birth this of his Baptism this of his Transfiguration on this Hill he gave his Royal Law on this he foil'd the Tempter on this his sacred Feet printed their farewel-kiss to the Earth such Meditations could not but deeply affect confirm the Religious Pilgrim This put me upon enquiring whether the same Religious Use might not be made of travelling through the holy Age and this Enquiry upon making trial aiming at the informing my self as it were by ocular Inspection whether it was an Age likely to be imposed upon as our Modern Scepticks insinuate In which travel I have been forc'd to take Secular Writers for my Guides that I might frame my Journals in a Language which they whose couviction I endeavour profess themselves to understand and to take pleasure in the sound of entertaining my self with those hopes that Secular History as well as A Verse may take him whom a Sermon flies And turn delight into a sacrifice And that our great Criticks in Humanity may deign to peruse a Discourse that hath cost the Author so many weary steps and not think him immodest in this request that they would in order to their own satisfaction with him who for their sake hath travell'd over the Mountains of the Leopards that he might take and give them a prospect of that Age vouchsafe to take one view of it from Mount Sion and mark one Bulwark more it had against treacherous surprizals grounded upon the Candour and Integrity of its Assailants enough to have secur'd it had it not been intrench'd and without which all the Fortifications we have seen the remains of would be but so many Monuments of the Subtilty and Stratagems of the Conquerours It will therefore be necessary in order to a full sail Assurance of the truth of our general Proposition to turn our sail to this Wind our thoughts to this Observation CHAP. XII As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church § 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives Pliny's testimony of them § 2 3. They hide not their imperfections nor the Truth to please Parties or to avoid the Worlds taking offence The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge Pagan Forgeries § 5. Papal Innovation founded on lying Legends Sr. Thomas Moor upon St. Austin Gregory Turonensis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars The Story of the Baptist ' s Heod § 1. 1. THeir avowed Principles touching making a Lye though with an intention to serve God by it were That the Devil is the Father of it Joh. 8. 44. That whoso love or make a Lye shall be excluded Heaven and detruded into the society and torments of Devils Apocal. 22. 15. Now had Men of this Profession abused the World with false Stories in a matter of so high a concern as Religion it would have render'd them in the opinion of all men the veriest miscreants that ever liv'd would certainly have allayd that confidence they used in justifying the truth of their Reports to the faces of men
or Man thou cryest out Satan and namest him whom we call the Angel of Malice the Crafts-master of all Errour the Defacer of the whole World by whom Man at first was circumvented to break the Law of God whereby he became obnoxious to Death and drew all his Posterity into the same Condemnation Thou knowest therefore thy Destroyer and though Christians only and those Sects that depend upon the Mouth of God have learn'd to know the whole Story of him yet thou also hast some inkling of him for else thou wouldst not hate him § 2. The Soul conscious of Eternal Judgment Articl 4. There is one Article of our Religion wherein we expect thy Determination so much the rather because it respects thine own state and concernment We affirm that thou continuest in Being after thou hast paid back the debt of Life That thou expectest the Day of Judgment and to be sentenc'd to Eternal Torment or Happiness according as thy works have been in the Body of which that thou maist be capable we affirm that thou expectest the restoring to thee of thy pristine Substance the same Body the same Memory This Faith we introduc'd not but found in the World for this Principle of the Soul's Existence after death the Gallick Druides that most uncult Tribe of Divines retain'd as Caesar witnesseth in his lib. 6. de bello Gallico and Strabo in his 4. Book of the Gauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the same Opinion the same Strabo witnesseth the Indian Brachmans to be lib. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sentiments of the Souls Immortality Barbarism it self could not raze out of the minds of some Thracians saith Pompon Mela lib. 2. de Thracibus Alii redituras putant animas obeuntium alii etsi non redeant non extingui tamen sed ad beatiora transire And as to that of the Bodies Resurrection Tacitus lib. 5. hist. 5. speaking of the Jews saith that in hope of the Resurrection they as also the Egyptians used not to burn but to interr their Corps Corpora condere quà m cremare è more Aegyptio eadémque cura de inferis persuasio These as well as we think it not equal to pass a Doom without the Exhibition of the whole Man which in thy fore-past Life was at work either to bring forth death by sowing to the Flesh or life by sowing to the Spirit This Christian Doctrine though much more becoming than that of Pithagoras for it does not translate thee into Beasts though more full and plain than that of Plato for it restores to thee the dowry of thy Body which point the Platonicks waver'd in Non novi quam utilitatem ex ipsa capiamus â—â—orum enim nulla est commemoratio neque sensus esse posset si simus prorsus quae gratia hujus immortalitatis est habenda Athengus dipnos. 11. 22. though more acceptable than that of Epicurus for it defends thee against annihilation yet merely for the name we give it undergoes the Censure of being vain stupid and temerarious But we are not ashamed of it if thou beest of the same Opinion with us As thou declarest thy self to be when making mention of a wicked man departed this Life thou call'st him poor wretched man not so much for that he has lost the benefit of a temporal Life as for that he is inroll'd for punishment for others when they are deceased thou call'st happy and secure therein professing both the incommodity of Life and benefit of Death Those deceased whom thou imprecatest thou wishest to them heavy earth and to their ashes torment in the other World to them to whom thou bearest good will when they are dead thou wishest rest to their bones and ashes If there remain nothing for thee to be expected after death no sense of pain or joy nay if thou thy self shalt not then remain Why dost thou lye against thine own head Why dost thou tell thy self that something attends thee beyond the Grave Yea why dost thou at all fear death if thou hast nothing to fear after death If thou answer'st Not because it menaceth any thing that 's evil but because it deprives me of the benefit of Life I reply yea thou wilt give answer to thy self That sometimes Death quits thee of the intolerable inconveniences of Life and sure in this case the loss of good things is not to be feared that being recompensed with a greater good to wit 〈…〉 st from inconveniences That certainly is not to be feared that delivers us from all that is to be feared Whence come such amazing fears dreadful apprehensions sinking thoughts to attend guilty Conscience but from the innate Notion of Judgment to come Whence proceeds it that se judice nemo nocens absolvitur a guilty Soul arraigns it self That self-consciousness to the closest Villany binds the Malefactor over to the general Assize that the guilt of innocent Blood though never so secretly shed looks so gastly in the face of the Murderer rings so loud speaks so articulately in the ears of Conscience as some have conceived the very Birds of the Air nay the callow Sparrows in the Nest to reveal the matter as it befel to Bessus should be such a load such a weight upon the Soul as to make it melt in its own grease with struggling under it Mentem sudoribus urget What makes them most stubborn and contumeliously set against entertaining the thought of Eternal Judgment tremble at the voice of Thunder as if in that rumbling noise they heard the sound of the Judges Charriot-wheels and in the Lightning saw a resemblance of that fire shall go before him and consume round about him Caligula out-braved God and Tiberius slighted him yet ad omnia fulgura pallent when they heard his voice they were afraid Excellent is the Note that Tacitus makes upon those Passages in Tiberius his Epistle to the Senate Quid scribam vobis Patres conscripti aut quomodò soribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore Dii me Deeque pejùs perdant quà m perire quotidiè sentio si scio If I can tell Fathers what I may write or how I may write or what I may not write at this time let the Gods who I perceive are destroying me daily destroy me worse Adeò facinora flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant Neque frustrà Plato affirmare solitus est si recludantur trannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ità saevitia libidine malis consultis animus dilaceratur So do impious men comments Tacitus torment themselves with the guilt of their own villanies as Plato had reason to say that if the Minds of Tyrants were exposed to open view they would be seen smiting and tearing themselves for as mens Bodies are with scourges so are their souls torn with the guilt of cruelty lust and ill-advised actions That is as the same Plato de republ saith when they perceive
the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Son of God by whom he made the World to be in the Order and Degree of a Principle which was all I produc'd it for in this Section but my general Position laid down in the first Section of this Chapter That what the Gospel asserts in Thesi of our Jesus the Platonick School asserted in Hypothesi concerning him that was to relieve Mankind Plato's Doctrine of Purgation came so near ours saith St. Austin de vera Religione cap. 4. as many Platonicks upon that account turn'd Christian Paucis mutatis verbis sententiis aut si hoc non facerent nescio utrùm possent ad ea ipsa quae appetenda esse dixerunt cum istis faecibus viscóque revolare ex Platonis Phaedro de Legibus Timaeo With the alteration of a few words and sentences and if they had not I cannot tell how they could with the Birdlime and dregs of those their Errors which Christian Religion confuteth have flown back to that good they said was to be desired and those their sound Principles which both we and they joyntly hold The only thing they disgusted being the application of those things to Christ they stumbling at the same Stone at which the Jews stumbled the Cross of Christ and taking it in scorn that so mean a man as Jesus of Nazereth should be reputed to be the Saviour to be that Principle that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Son of God that was to enlighten every one that comes into the World out of whose fulness all our wants were to be supplied by the participation of whose Wisdom we are made wise c. For St. Austin when he saith He could not find in their Books that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was come into the World came to his own and his own received him not took upon him the Form of a servant and humbled himself to the death of the Cross. Must not be understood to deny that it was to be found or that himself had found in the Platonick Writings that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order to humane Redemption was to come into the World to assume our nature to be wounded for our Transgressions for whoever it was by one or more that man-kind was to be relieved that one or more must as we have heard the Oracle the God of Philosophers as they stiled him deliver descend from his or their supercelestial place into his Dungeon of Earth and in 〈◊〉 or their assumed body or bodies endure all the miseries of this life c. as Sect. 3. cap. 4. hath been quoted out of which sentence not only of Plato but of all that exchanged not the old Traditional Philosophy for the Kitching-Experiments of Greece whom Jamblicus compares to Ships without Balast for that they had emptyed themselves of what they had received by the old Tradition de mysteriis tit de nominibus sacris we have been all this while boulting the Bran of their conceipted Multiplicity of God-saviours by the Sierce of their more sober and considerate Doctrine poured out into the bosom of their friends sequestred from the Censure of the Vulgar before whom it was not safe to speak all they thought Difficile est negare credo si in concione quaeratur sed in hujusmodi concessu facillimum Cicero de natura deorum lib. 1. It is an hard matter I confess to deny this in the hearing of the multitude but very easie in such a select Assembly of friends and Philosophers And have thereby gain'd from them the unforc'd confession of this Evangelical Truth That man's restauration unto Communion with and Conformity to God cannot be obtained by the Incarnation of separate Spirits or blessed Souls but of God himself descending into the Dungeon of this Earth assuming our Nature and in that Nature suffering what was due to us and delivering to us the Divine Oracles Plato therefore in assigning this effect to a Multiplicity of holy Souls or Spirits coming down from Heaven in several Ages and Countreys was a popular Complyance with the vulgar Errour either out of fear to in 〈…〉 his Master Socrates his fortune or out of design to have the World believe as some of his great admirers did that himself was one of those officious Spirits or if he spake as he thought it was the froth and ebullition of that vanity of mind judicially inflicted upon such as knowing God did not worship him as God That this was his Errour and such an Errour as himself in his lucid Intervals renounc'd and was forsaken in by his own followers hath been sufficiently cleared if the weight of this point and the dissatisfaction of some most deservingly eminent Modern Divines did not make it shake upon its strongest supporters and as it were by its nods becken to us to strengthen it by Buttresses I shall therefore beg my Readers patience which I doubt not but to obtain of him if he can but construe that of the Epigrammatist Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis Sed tu Cosconi disticha longa facis Mart. while I make it yet more manifest CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviour's Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry ' s Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. § 1. POrphyry Aug de Civitat 10. 9. 10. reference from experience confesseth the inability of those reputed good Spirits or God-Saviours to whom the Heathen applyed themselves for cure to gratifie the commerce to them their most severe worshippers in their desired Soul-purgations in that they were often impeded by their Superiours and their Superiours manacled in the Conjurers bands so as they durst not effect the desired Purgations so terrified by the black Witch as the white Witch could not loose them from that fear and set them free to do that good to which their own natures inclin'd them and their most religious Votaries solicited them Whereupon St. Austin facetiously thus explains Ergo ligavit iste iste non solvit O animae praedicanda purgatio ubi plus imperat immunda invidentia quà m impetrat pura beneficentia ubi plus valet malevolus impeditor quà m beneficus purgator animae The Cacodemon it seems could bind and the good Angel could not lose Oh praise-worthy purgation of Soul where unclean Envy obtains that power which pure Bounty cannot where the malicious opposer is of more strength than the liberal purger of the Soul But however ridiculous either the opinion or grownd of it were This Doctrine the Platonicks grounded upon that complaint which a
of any longer deceiving the Nations as Virgil out of Sibyl had prophesied in his Pan etiam Arcadiâ dicat se judice victum Pan even Arcadia being judge shall confess himself conquer'd if he dares strive with me For this was that Pan whereof Plutarch from Aemilianus a man both wise and serious as that great Critick of Men characterizeth him tells this Story in his Book of the decay of Oracles That as Aemilianus was sailing for Italy a voice was heard from the Isle Paxae calling to Thamus the Master of the Vessel and commanding him when he came over against the Palodes to tell the Inhabitants that the great Pan was dead which injuction he had no sooner performed but there was heard from the Island a sad and wonderful groaning the news of this Prodigy arrives at Rome with those Passengers and quickly comes to the ears of the Emperour Tiberius who sends for Thamus and being by him assured of the Truth of the Report makes a diligent inquiry of the learned men of Rome who that Pan should be This fell out toward the latter end of Tiberius his reign For Plutarch flourished under Trajan about the 100. year of Christ Alsted Chronol 40. and Philip who tells this Story in Plutarch had then with him those to witness it who had heard Aemilianus tell it when he was an old Man and must therefore be near our Saviours Crucifixion else the Mariners would not have found Tiberius at Rome but at Capreae Whence appears how grosly his Theologues were mistaken in their determining this Pan to have been the Son of Mercury and Penelope and the reasonableness of this Conjecture That he was some Cacodemon who as the Coriphaeus of all those Thieves who came before Christ had made the World believe he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Macrobius his phrase Saturnal l. 1. c. 17. the All-heal One Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Saturn l. 1. c. 22. the Lord not of the Woods as the Poets interpreted that Title but as Macrobius expounds it of universal Nature whose influence disperfeth it self round about the World whom the Mythologists do therefore make the representation of the Universe because they could not find any person appearing in the World to whom they could apply these Titles and those descriptions which both Grecians and Aegyptians make of Pan. So that here we have the Confession of the greatest Theologues and the best cultivated Nations That their received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore Peleusiota in the Epistle above-quoted stiles them God-saviours or bealing Gods were so far from being able to cure Souls as they durst not relie upon them for the removal of the Pestilence a bodily Malady but applied themselves to a God whom they expected would in time discover himself to the World though then a stranger to all Gentiles and known only in Judea as not only Lucan before alleged but long before him Orpheus confesseth in his Hymn de Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom no man ever saw but a certain only begotten who proceeded from the ancient stock of the Chaldeans to wit that water-born Law-giver Moses as he afterward stiles him alluding I suppose to God's showing Moses his back-parts § 6. A principle wherein the Patrons of the Christian and of the Pagan Cause were so well agreed as they put the Controversie betwixt them to this issue Whether in common Reason our Jesus was like to be that one unknown universal Redeemer or some one in the Crowd of their reputed Saviours Hence Julian in his Treatise against the Galilaeans singles out Aesculapius to outvie Christ in the claim of the common Saviour who being the Son of Jove descended from Heaven to Earth in the Sun-beams for the health and welfare of Mankind And Celsus in Origen lib. 7. calum 14 15 16 17. having argued against the likelihood of the Christian Assertion That Jesus of Nazareth is that to the Gentile World unknown God who being the desire of all Nations came to redeem them from those miseries from which their received Saviours could not free them it being as he thinks unreasonable to imagine that the so very inconsiderable Nation of the Jews a people so far out of Gods special care as he did not provide for them so much as a place upon Earth wherein they might live together but permitted them to be scatter'd over the face of the whole Earth should attain to the knowledge of the true God-saviour so hard to be found out rather than the studious and most inquisitive Philosophers labours to outvie the blessed Jesus with Hercules in the power of repulsing all external adversary force called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scatter-evil as Clemens Alexand. observes in his Protreptic With Aesculapius for the Virtue of expelling bodily Diseases who for all his skill could not cure the Roman Matrons of that epidemical Abortion which befel them at the time of the War with Pirrbus Orosius l. 4. But St. Austin excuseth him for that as professing himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Obstetrix a prime Physician but no Midwife de Civitate l. 3. c. 17. And therefore Celsus providently adviseth that if we suspect the sufficiency of these Two to relieve the World of all its incumbrances we joyn to them as auxiliary Saviours Orpheus who without doubt saith he was inspired with a divine spirit and suffered death for the divine Doctrine he delivered Observe Reader that the Epicureans could not get out of their Minds nor refrain their Tongues from acknowledging that men are relieved by the Death and Doctrine of their Saviour Or Sibyl whose authority Christians so sar prize as they quote her Verses for the proof of Christs Divinity An Heathen Epicurean was the first man that derided the Christian Doctors for quoting the Sibyllines in favour of our Faith talidedecore gloriamur Or Anaxarchus and Epictetus who gave so great examples of patient and heroick suffering In this discourse as Celsus cunningly begs the Question and takes it for granted that these Saviours of his naming outweigh our Saviour whereas their is more weight in his little finger than in the loins of a thousand such like Mock-saviours So he openly confesseth that not any one of the Gentile reputed Heroes was sufficiently qualified to be the common Saviour and subscribes to what I am proving That none can be the Universal Redeemer but he that hath in himself the combination of all those salvifick Vertues which the Heathen conceiv'd to be dispers'd amongst all their Deities How much better doth our Apostle state and determine this Question 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. There are Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we for him And one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him understanding by God 's the supreme and sempiternal Deities which the Gentiles worshipp'd By Lords those half-God half-man Mediatours whom they
Child is none of theirs whom they would have divided For 1. This halving of Christ wholly destroys him whom their Prophets describe to be Mortal and Immortal a Man of Sorrows and the impassible God in one Person and to be exhibited in both Natures at one and the same Fulness of time Jacob's Prophecies of the Nation 's gathering to Shilo as their King and of the tying of a Foal the Colt of an Ass upon which this meek and lowly King was to ride in Triumph are utter'd with the same Breath and bear the same Date Gen. 49. 9. The servant of God in Isaiah who in regard his Visage was mar'd more than any man's and his form more than the Sons of Men was to be looked upon with astonishment and to be rejected of men as one smitten of God was notwithstanding to be extolled and exalted as the most High was to be so full of resplendent Majesty as Kings should shut their mouths at him Isa. chap. 52. 13. 14. The same Messiah in Daniel that within 70 Weeks is to make Reconciliation for Sin by his Death is to bring in everlasting Righteousness by his Life the same individual Person that within that Term of Years is to be cut off is Messiah the Prince and the most holy Dan. 9. 24. 25. 2. The Messiah that came at the time described by Daniel gave as full proof of his Divine Majesty as he did of his Humane Infirmity was as mafestly declared to be the Son of God by the Miracles he wrought in his own Name by his raising himself from the dead by his visible inflicting his threatned Sentence upon his Crucifiers and by his subduing the World to his Obedience as he was declared to be the Son of Man by his hungring thirsting fainting weeping sorrowing and suffering death So that he whom the Jews reject as an abject Christ hath left nothing to be done by him whom they yet look for of all those glorious and stupendious works which the Prophets assign to the Messias 3. If that Messiah that came according to Time limited by Daniel be not that very same of whose Glory and Greatness the Prophets speak when is he to come what Prophet can say how long the World must travel in expectation of him can any thing be more incredible than that the Spirit of the Messiah that was in the Prophets should so punctually foretell the time of the appearance of this Puny and Dwarff-christ as they blasphemously stile the blessed Jesus and never communicate one word to any of them touching the time of the coming of that Gyant-christ that they look for § 3. Thus having proved the Authentickness of Daniel's Prophecy and the Subject of it to be the Messias and that Messias whom it presignifies to be Prince Messias and having heard both Jew and Gentile confess that what Daniel foretells both as to Time and Thing is applicable to our Jesus and none but him I shall supercede any farther prosecution of this Argument saving what this Observation may contribute towards the strengthening of it viz. That the Terms of this Prophecy are not capable of any rational Construction but what is applicable to our Saviour and impossible to be applied to any other 1. If we understand the Decree from the going out whereof Daniel's Weeks commence to be the Decree of Darius the Son of Hystaspis for the building of the Temple the last of them will fall at our Saviour's Passion according to the Computation of Vossius grounded upon the Chronology of Josephus Vossii Chronolog sacra 2. If we conceive this Decree to have been the Decree of Cyrus the Great as Calvin Broughton Finch Piscator Allen c. imagine and reckon the years of the Persian Monarchy after a middle rate with Allen i. e. 130. years Daniel's Weeks end about the death of our Saviour Allen's Chronological Chain period 7. If with Finch we follow the Rabinical account of the Durance of the Persian Monarchy i. e. 70. years the Septimanes expire at the Fall of Jerusalem 3. If we interpret the Decree to be the Decree of Darius Nothus with Bishop Hall Constantine L' Emperour c. and assign the first seven to the time of the cessation of Temple-work betwixt the Decree of Cyrus the Great and Darius Nothus the middle of the last Week falls at our Saviours Passion saith Constantine L' Emporour Annotationes in Paraphrasim Josephi Jachiade in Danielem and that upon probable Chronological Grounds though out of the common Road. 4. If We begin the Account at the Decree of Artaxerxes Mnemon assigning the first Septimane to the time of the Cities Walls lying ruinous and follow the common Chronology from the Era's of Salmanasser the Olympiades and Rome built the last week's middle falls at our Saviour's Passion See Functius Perkins Powel Pontanus Lydiat c. 5. If with Scaliger Mede c. we interpret Daniel's seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy City to import the duration of the Second Temple which that clause does so manifestly as every Child may perceive it saith Scaliger de emend temp l. 6. pag. 608. and begin the compute at the fixth year of Darius Nothus when the second Temple was finish'd following the most commonly received Chronology we shall find saith Master Meed upon Daniel's Weeks that in all probability the Second Temple's desolation fell out precisely on the very middle of the last Week of the Seventy 6. Lastly If with Master Mede we make two Epochas in this Prophecy the first of 70 Weeks beginning and ending with the Second Temple the second of 62 Weeks and two Half-weeks that is 63 Weeks beginning at the going forth of the Commission granted to Ezra and Nehemiah and the middle of the last ending at our Saviour's Passion we shall find an admirable Correspondency betwixt the Prophecy and the Accomplishment and and that Christ's Ministry began at the last of these Weeks and continued precisely 3 years and an half vide Meed upon Daniel's Weeks § 4. The probability of which Conjecture appears 1. From the bounds here fixed as to the beginning of this Epocha The going forth of a Command or Commission to cause the Jews to return or reinhabit and to build not the Temple that part of Jerusalem whence in the former Epocha of 70 Weeks it is stiled the holy City or some few houses only but the whole Area or Street and the walls about it From such a Commission must this second Computation be reckon'd and that not only granted for then we must begin the account at Cyrus the Great who by Decree built not only the Temple but the City Isaiah 44. 28. but taking effect as the Angel explains the former in the later words the street shall be built and the wall 2. From the End or Period of this time unto Messiah the Prince that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 23. 2. Mar. 15. 32. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the
's put to no expence but what he may well disburse out of that Lordship and for the future he is in a more promising way to Happiness than any other course he can stere can bring him to Hereto assents to that of divine Plato Phaedone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these things touching the happiness of the Soul in a state of seperation which I say be true we shall do our selves a pleasure by believing them but if there remain nothing either of a man or for a man when he is dead yet however the Contemplation of these things will make my present life more comfortable To which is a kin that of Cicero Tusculan preclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt quod didicerunt se cùm tempus mortis venisset totos esse perituros quod ut it à sit nihil enim pugno quid habet ista res aut laetabile aut gloriosum They think they have obtain'd an excellent point when they have learn'd that by death they will be wholly dissolved say it were so what is there in this thing either joyous os glorious All the danger here lies on the other hand in not believing hereby we may possibly incur the pain threatned to be sure lose the reward promised but what detriment can we sustain by embracing the Gospel save of a little beastly Pleasure of Sin for a season What danger can we become obnoxious to but a little suffering for as short a season which yet will be recompenced an hundred fold even in this Life not only with the Hope of the Recompence of Reward which made the Martyrs rejoyce more when they were condemned than when absolved Magis damnati quà m absoluti gaudemus Tert. ad scapul cap. 1. Nay such were the expressions of the Märtyrs Joys under the most painful sufferings as made whole multitudes of Christians offer themselves without summons to Pagan Tribunals there to receive the sentence of Death insomuch as Tertullian urgeth Scapula to forethink what he would do with so many thousands of Men Women and Children as in Carthage profess'd the Gospel if they should offer themselves to him to be crowned with Martyrdom as the Christians in Asia had done to Arrius Antoninus Id. Ib. Sufferings I say for righteousness sake will be counterballanced not only by the Contemplation of future Glory but with the peace of Conscience and the calm quiet of a Mind not conscious to its self of any base Act or Disposition unworthy of Man And when we die suppose the Gospel should prove a Fable as that Pope unworthy of name stiled it quantum nobis profuit haec de Christo fabula yet our having observed the Rules of it will put us into a fairer capacity of Happiness in the other World than the Rules of any other Religion than our following the conduct of our bruitish Lusts and untamed Passions can in common sence be presumed to do For certainly if Man exist after death his having habituated himself to the life of Man to intellectual Pleasure on this side of it must render the Life of Reason and that 's the lowest degree of life we can be imagin'd there to live more familiar more complacential and satisfactory on that side of it If Man's proper and peculiar Felicity stand in his enjoyment of Communion with God as it must do if there be a God for to desire the possession of the very best is a Quality radically adhering to an humane Soul certainly our inuring our selves to Acquaintance with him and Conformity to him here must make way for our more clear beatifical Vision of him and Converse with him hereafter Should then our Christian Faith prove Credulity yet that Credulity will prove our Wisdom our way to Happiness and therefore is not so much to be feared in our case as the Objection implies Be it an Error 't is the happiest and most profitable Error that Mankind can possibly fall into though many men saith Origen against Celsus are set free from the slavery of their own Passions from the Colluvies and filthy slud of beastly Vices how many have got their savage Manners tamed and charmed upon occasion of hearing the Gospel preach'd which if we were wise we would with all thankfulness embrace were it but for this that it is so soveraign and compendious a Remedy of all Vice we should give it our grace and approbation to pass if not as true yet as most advantageous to humane kind lib. 1. cal 30. Et probanda si non ut vera certè ut humano generi utilissima The truth is all the hurt that the VVorld has received by Christian Religion is the turning of Beasts into Men and Men into Heroes and petty Gods and all the benefit it reaps by rejecting the Precepts of it and sipping the Circean cup of Atheism is the transmuting of Men into Lyons Tigers VVolves Hoggs Harpies Ravens and as many kinds of wilde Beasts and unclean Birds as enterd Noah's Ark Iniquity and injustice towards Man hath ever attended Impiety towards God Dionisius the Atheist after he had rob'd Jupiter of his golden Robe as being too heavy for Summer too cold for VVinter Aesculapius of his golden Beard as not becoming the Son to wear while his Father was beardless and spoil'd the Temples of what was worth taking away and made sale of his sacrilegious Booties commanded those that bought them to restore every man the things he had bought within a set day to the Temples whence they were stoln ità ad impietatem in Deos in homines adjunxit injuriam Haud unquam tulit documenta sors majora Never was more feeling Proofs given of this sad Truth than this Age hath produced nor can a clearer demonstration be made of any thing than the Primitive Times made of the Truth of the former Branch when the Discipline of Christianity bound its Professors to the keeping of the Peace to a modest meek and good behaviour of Heart Tongue and Hand towards all men under the greatest temptation to the contrary that the bloodiest Persecution could suggest though the sufferers were the more numerous party almost in every City Ex disciplina patientiae divinae agere nos satis manifestum esse vobis potest cùm tanta hominum multitudo pars penè major civitatis cujusque in silentio modestiâ agimus When Christians were not otherwise discernable from other Sects but by the badge of emendation of Manners Nec aliundè noscibiles quà m de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum Tert. ad Scap. cap. 2. Nor could be branded with any vice but that supposed one in the name of Christian. Bonus vir Cajus Seius sed malus tantùm quòd Christianus Tert. apol cap. 3. When they durst challenge the Adversaries to shew if they could among all the Christians which their Prisons were thronged with one High-way-man one Cut-purse one Robber of Temples one Cheater Tertul. apol 44. De vestris semper aestuat carcer de
their glorified forms Apollonius had discourse with the Ghost of Achilles arising out of his grave apparel'd in a Souldiers coat and of the stature of five at first afterwards of twelve Cubits about Homer's History of the Trojan War till the Lyon-like apparition was by the crowing of a Cock frighted into his hole Idem ibid. Christ cast out Devils so did Apollonius and that of both Sexes one a Male out of a lascivious Youth another a Female which Philostratus calls Empusa for he must be feigned to make the Devils confess their names as well as Christ did that Legion wherewith the Gaderene was possessed He is said to raise a Roman Damsel from death to life Which if they were any thing but mere Fictions his emulous Rival in Philosophy Euphrates then living in Rome would without doubt have put them in against him among those Articles he prefer'd to Domitian Our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria all the Occurrences of her life Apollonius is brought upon the Stage by Philostratus lib. 5. telling a Piper his Pedigree Estate and all the Fortunes he had passed through c. Because Christ saith of himself By me Kings reign Vespasian is introduc'd begging the Empire of Apollonius and Apollonius returning him answer that he had already decreed him Emperour Christ knew what was in man and therefore this Ape must be reported to understand what the sufficiencies of all men were insomuch as his Censures past for Oracles with Vespasian who merely upon Apollonius his assuring him from a gift of seeing into men's hearts that they were wise and honest men retain'd Dion and Euphrates into his Council and most secret designs though in the sequel of the story his memory fails the Fabler for him whom Apollonius had commended to the Father Vespasian as a just and wise man he declaims against to the Son Domitian as a flattering Parasite c. Caupo est cupedinarius publicanus faenerator c. But that was after Euphrates had cryed out first and accused him as a Wizard However this is enough to spoil his Divination and to evince that he could not foresee that Euphrates would become his enemy any more than he could foreknow that Domitian would not permit him to repeat that elaborate Oration he had with so much pains pen'd and prepared Euseb. in Hiero. Clem. lib. 7 8. Had the Children held their peace the stones would have cryed Hosannah to the son of David This was it that put words into the mouth of that Elm that in an articulate and womanly slender Voice welcom'd Apollonius to among the Egyptian Gymnosophists Philostrat lib. 6. By the invocation of Christ's name after his Assension Miracles were effected That they might make Apollonius vye in this particular with the blessed Jesus there were some who affirmed they had experienc'd a Magical Virtue in his name towards miraculous Operations And lastly for I am weary of tracing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foot by foot where he is made to tread in Christ's steps As Christ ascended into Heaven so did he if Philostratus be to be believed whither he was invited and taken up by a chore of Female-angels or Virgin-nymphs his Tomb being no where to be found though Philostratus sought for it through the whole World though withal he tells us he knows nothing touching his death nor do Authors saith he agree touching his departure some saying it was at Ephesus others in the Temple of Minerva Lindia others in the Island of Crete and himself a little before lib. 7. at the Bar where he stood indicted of Witchcraft before Domitian to whom after he had proclaimed that petulant and boasting bravado thou canst not keep my body bound nor kill me Caesar for I am death-less he presently vanish'd out of humane sight § 3. Hierocles was not the only man that made those odious Comparisons neither was Apollonius the only man that was compared to our Jesus but Apuleius and others as Marcellinus tells St. Austin Apollonium siquidem suum nobis Apuleium aliósque Magicae artis homines in medium proferunt quorum majora contendunt extitisse miracula Marcel Augustino ep 4. The Pagans saith he of whom we have great store in this City set before us their Apollonius Apuleius and other persons who by the help of Magick have done greater Miracles than Christ. Insomuch as that question was then worn thread-bare and managed on their part with all subtilty and patronized by great men and Wits who moved every stone ransack'd every corner of Divine and Secular History that they might parallel Christs mighty Works and that no line in Christ's face no lineament in his whole body might pass without a parallel Upon this subject saith Celsus in Orig. l. 7. cal 76. If you have a mind to believe stories of men being made Gods and to fasten that Privilege upon any one whose life and death make them worthy of that honour had not Hercules or Aesculapius pleased you you had Orpheus who without doubt was inspired with a divine Spirit and died a Martyr to Philosophy by the hands of the enraged frows of Bacchus And if the cause of his death mislike you and truly who but a sorbid Epicure can like it for he deservedly contracted the just hatred of all Womankind by his singing the flagitious brutishness of the Gods in their unnatural Ganimedian Lusts nonnulli aiunt quòd Orpheus primus puerilem amorem induxerit mulieribus visum contumeliam fecisse illis ab haue rem interfectum c. Higini poetic astron Lyra. some say Orpheus first introduc'd the unnatural love of boys which women taking as a reproach to their Sex did therefore slay him However had not Orpheus pleased you saith Celsus you might have pitch'd upon Aristarchus who being cast into a Mortar in the midst of his pains utter'd this egregious speech the result of a truly divine spirit pound bray Aristarchus his pelt for thou canst not bray Aristarchus himself Or Epictetus who when his master was racking his Thigh smiling and without fear told him if he did not take heed he would break his Thigh and when he had broken it did I not tell thee saith he thou wouldst break my Thigh What did your God utter saith Celsus in the time of his suffering comparable to these men Ans. he prayed for his enemies and prevented the breaking his Thigh or one of his bones The same Celsus in Orig. 1. 21. Does as good as assent to the truth of the Evangelical History that gives an account of Christ's Miracles confessing that by reason thereof many believed in him and calumniating them as proceeding from Magick in which point he had been equall'd if not exceeded by many who never gain'd thereby the repute of being Gods Deum Deique Filium nemo ex talibus signis rumoribus tà mque frigidis argumentis approbat 2. 24. Xamolxis Pythagoras Rampsinitus who is said to have played at Chess with Ceres and to have brought away from
Artabanus restitutus est in imperium Auditis his Caesar petiit amicitiam Artabani assentiente illo Joseph antiq 18. 6. and it was after that peace that Artabanus sent his Son Darius an Hostage to Tiberius at what time saith Josephus Herod inform'd Tiberius of the Articles of that Peace and therefore when Vitellius sent Caesar an account thereof Caesar return'd him answer that he might have spared that labour for Herod had already given him information thereof At which return of Caesar's Letters to Vitellius Josephus dates the Death of Philip. And therefore it could not be long before Caesar's death that Philip dyed by this account of Josephus to which Point of Chronology Josephus himself subscribes telling us that at Caligula the Successor of Tiberius his preferring Agrippa to the Tetrarchate of Trachonitis Philip was but newly deceas'd I leave it now to any man of common discretion to judge whether is most probable that Josephus his Numericals have been in this place corrupted or himself so fowly mistaken in a door-neighbour-Story as to Philip's Death in the twentieth of Tiberius which he makes coetaneous with Vitelius his making peace in Tiberius his Name with Artabanus after his Restauration which Tacitus dates so near the end of Tiberius his twenty second as 't is hardly imaginable how all those passages conducing to it and attending upon it could be crowded into that small remnant of his twenty second year which Tacitus saves from the Conquest and Flight of Artabanus falling out in and taking up the Summer of that year after which Artabanus when he had lurk'd and was grown squalid earning his sustenance with his bow among the Scythians was restored Tiberius inform'd of his Restauration Vitellius inform'd of Caesar's Will to make peace c. that there could be a return of so many Posts as was requisite for intelligence within that year if we reckon its end at Augustus his Death August 19. is next to impossible and yet it is certain Josephus and all other Historians who account Tiberius whose death fell on the seventeenth of the Calends of April to have reign'd twenty two years five months and thirteen days must begin and end their account there It is therefore most probable all Circumstances consider'd that Philip's Death fell in the twenty third of Tiberius and that the account stood so in Josephus before it was corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being as soon overslipt by a hasty scribe as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Briefly if Josephus his intire discourse be of more weight than two Syllables Pen cannot describe nor Heart wish a clearer Computation of the Time of Philip's Death than in here presented to wit after Artabanus his recovery of the Parthian Crown and the Pacification betwixt Tiberius and him which that it could not be effected nor so much as propounded by Tiberius at which Josephus in this Chapter begins the Story of Artabanus and therefore that 's the soonest we can possibly date the Death of Philip before the twenty third of Tiberius is most palpably demonstrable from Tacitus his placing his expulsion out of Parthia in the Summer of Tiberius his twenty second his reporting after that his residing in Hircania till he was grown so squalid as the sight of him moved pitty in his Subjects neque exuerat pudorem ut vulgum miseratione adverteret Hiero his disgusting the new making a party among the Nobles for their old King the Nobles applying themselves to Artabanus with promise to restore him his gathering of Forces Tiridates his delaying to give him Battle till the Roman Legions came in The Parthians stealing away from Tiridates c. To which if we add what Tosephus subjoyns hereto Tiberius his receiving information of all this his sending to Vitellius to offer peace to Artabanus upon condition he would send his Son and other Hostages to him Vitellius his Transactions with Artabanus and concluding a peace with him c. He that can think all this could be done betwixt the latter end of Summer and the 19. of August when Tiberius his twenty second ended may by that time he has given his Brain another turn imagine that Rome was built in a day CHAP. VI. The Date of Christ's Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christ's Birth The Priestly courses the character of it which from their first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these Courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christ's Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answer'd § 6. The Taxing of all the World ill-confounded with that of Syria § 1. ANd now neither St. Luke nor Josephus need be beholding to Scaliger for endeavouring if not to make them friends yet to prevent their being so far at odds by his interpreting Josephus to speak of Philip's Death in the thirty seventh incompleat year of his Government an Article of Agreement which this Text of Josephus will not subscribe to after that he had presided over Trachonitis thirty seven years for we may allow Philip to have been Tetrarch thirty seven and to have been well gone in his thirty eight year at the pacification in the twenty third of Tiberius and yet allow to Christ's Birth time enough before Herod's Death to do all that in which sacred Scriptures reports him to have done Thus Christ was thirty compleat in Tiberius his fifteenth December 25. his thirty seventh year compleat therefore falls in the twenty second of Tiberius December 25. and his thirty eighth current from thence overtakes Tiberius his twenty third the 19. of August following at what time Philip's Government had been going in its thirty eighth year but from the middle of March. If we therefore will take the Universal Churches word for this that our Saviour was born December 25. by so much sooner did Christ's thirty eighth commence than the thirty eighth of Philip's Government as Christmas preceds the middle of March. So that this does not only reconcile Secular and Sacred History but afford us a place where we may fix our feet and stand our ground in the defence of the Churches practice against all those opposers who employ their wit in removing old Land-marks And therefore for vindication of the Churches celebrating Christ's Nativity on the 25. of December I shall improve this occasion in laying down these propositions Propos. 1. Whatever the Gospel reports touching the Occurrences betwixt our Saviour's Birth and Herod's Death might in all reason fall out in as small a parcel of time as intervenes betwixt Christmas and mid March next ensuing at which time of the year to wit at
the Alexandrian among whom the fresh memory of Jesus and his Fore-runner the Baptist a person of blessed memory with both him and them must needs lead them to confer upon the Stories of them and to compare Notes With Titus we find him at Antioch where the Name of Christian by which he commemorates Christ's Followers was first imposed upon Christians taken up as the learned Junius thinks by themselves to distinguish them from such as called themselves Galileans and Nazarites as if they embraced the Gospel but of whom for their Judaizing the Church was ashamed and wiped their names out of her Calendar At Jericho at Bethany and all Judaean Towns where Christ convers'd from the Inhabitants and inspection of which places he either saw those manifest tracks or received that full satisfaction of what he reports of Christ's miraculous Works as makes him thus positively assert the Truth of those Matters For where else among whom else could he gain that certain knowledge that he himself requires in an Historian and professeth himself to have had of those things he records both in his Books of Antiquities and the Wars He that promiseth to others saith he the Tradition of Facts really done must himself first have a perfect understanding of those things either because he was present at the doing of them or understood them by those that saw them done which Rule I have strictly observed in both my Treatises Josep contrà Appion l. 1. He could not be a Spectator of the Works of the Effects of them he might upon those persons upon whom they were wrought in those places where Monuments of them remain'd but where could he have better information by Eye-witnesses than the Inhabitants of those Countries and Villages where Christ manifested his Glory and Josephus so long convers'd Of the Truth of such information that he was undoubtedly assured will be yet more evident if we observe how narrowly he was watch'd by those two men of an evil-Eye towards him and his History Appion a learned Gentile Philosopher and Justus so zealous a Jew as Agrippa became his Advocate to the Emperour against the accusations of the Decapolitanes presenting him as the sole Author of his Countries Apostacy from its Allegeance and born and living in that part of Galilee where our Saviour chiefly convers'd How glad would either of these have been to have taken Josepus tardy in so considerable a point of his History and how easily might they have catch'd him tripping here if he had not look'd so well to his feet as to deliver nothing concerning our Saviour but what he was certain of and could make good against all cavils How comes it to pass that those critical Adversaries who scarce leave one Story in either of his Treatises untouch'd against which they could make any plausible Exception have not a word to say against this but because the Evidence of its Truth was so apparent as there was no contradicting of it Nay would not these pick-quarrels have found fault if not with the falsity yet at least with the presumption of this Passage if they had not been convinc'd that he went not upon presumptions but undoubted Grounds Photias de Justo Tiberiadensi writes that in Emulation of Josephus he wrote the History of the Jews from the time of Moses unto the death of Agrippa the seventh King of the Herodian Race and last of the Jews who began his Reign under Claudius augmented his Kingdom under Nero and more under Vespasian and dyed in the third year of Trajan to whom Justus dedicated his History I report this quotation at large as well to certifie a mistake of my own touching Josephus his Appeal to Agrippa for the Truth of his Judaick Wars it being this Agrippa and not as I then supposed he whom Caligula preferr'd for that was he of whom the Text of St. Luke speaks who dyed in the fourth of Claudius of worms while Josephus was in his Nonage as also to shew that this Justus had time enough betwixt Josephus his finishing his History under Domitian and his finishing his own under Trajan to examine and find fault in it and that if he could have detected Josephus of falsity in this his Story of Christ the Heathen World and this persecuting Emperour who hated Christians to death would have been sure to have heard of it by Justus Never did any Secular Historian pass a more severe scrutiny than Josephus did and in no part of it more than this of Christ and the Baptist. To proceed therefore in his Testimony § 4. 1. By the Characters he stamps upon Christ's mighty Works he manifestly distinguisheth them from all others and points them out to be those very individual ones which are recorded in the Gospel 1. In that he makes Christ the Maker of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Former of them by his own power a word more properly attributed by the Christian Church in our common Creed unto God to express his creating Heaven and Earth without pre-existent Matter or co-existent Helpers than that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Philosophers as Justin Martyr observes in his Protrepticks ad gentes the Christian VVord expressing the Christian Sence of that Article est enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui ex nihilo aliquid facit and Plato's word expressing the Philosophers sence of the Original of the VVorld to wit that of Matter eternally pre-existing was made the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the well order'd Frame of the Universe the confused Chaos was brought into shape by the Ministry of co-eternal petty Gods the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief worker drawing the Model and over-seeing the VVork Or if the Sirname of Martyr fright our dainty Scepticks from reading that Author Sir Philip Sidney that Prince of Romancers in his commendation of the Art of Poetry will inform him what the proper importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is According to which Josephus his applying it to Christ implies that he thought those strange Effects wrought by Christ not to have been educ'd out of the active Potentiality of the Matter upon which or means by which he operated but to have been the immediate Emanations of Christ's Power as the Fountain cause and hereby he discriminates Christ's Miracles not only from the Effects of natural Magick produc'd out of natural Causes though latent to us Owls yet naked and barefac'd to those Spirits that have their name from Intelligence but from those which were wrought by Moses by the Prophets or Apostles those being effected by another Power in another name than their own but what Jesus of Nazareth did he did as having power in himself not as a subordinate Agent but principal That which never man pretended to but he that which never was ascribed to any man but him and yet ascribed to him by such as did not write Christian. He describes Christian Miracles according to the Gospel rule 2. In his affirming these Works to
not many Examples of this inhumane Piety but because I would not let this part of my Discourse pass without the honourable mention of his Name who hath taken such Herculean pains upon this Subject to whose Labours I refer my Reader for fuller satisfaction if he require any after he hath heard Tertullian's Judgment Apolog. 8. à vobis ostendam fieri partim in aperto partim in occulto per quod forsitan de nobis credidistis to wit That the commonness of humane Sacrifices through the Pagan World induc'd them to believe that Calumny raised against the Christians That in their Coventicles they sacrificed a Ghild whose blood they mingled with crums of Bread and so did eat it A Calumny raised upon their mistake of the Christians Commemorative Sacrifice the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. A thing so abhorrent to Nature as no man could deem it possible for another man to grow so inhumane except he who was himself grown so inhumane And therefore saith he of all things our sacrificing Children should not be objected to us as a crime by the Heathens who themselves did immolate Infants to Saturn openly and without controul till Tiberius being Proconsul of Africk nail'd the Priests themselves to those Crosses upon which they used to crucifie Children and now secretly notwithstanding the Imperial Edicts against it Yea in the most religious City inhabited by the Off-spring of pious Aeneas there is a certain Jove whom they appease with the shedding of humane Blood even at this day and that in the most publick place and greatest concourse the Theater In your painting the Christian God as delighting in humane Blood you shape him after the Prototype which you have conceived in your mind of your own Jupiter whom you fancy to be the true Son of his Father Saturn because he resembles him in Severity and will not be appeased but with the Blood of that Nature which gave the offence O Jovem Christianum solum patris filium de crudeliaate And therefore you have no reason to accuse Christians as the only men that represent God as not appeasable but by Christ's making an Oblation of his own Blood for the sins of the World a Sacrifice far more like to be acepted as a Propitiation than those Victims you offer of men condemned to the Beasts and therefore polluted with their own guilt or of innocent Babes who are merely passive and offered against their own Will or of decrepit Persons though willing for since old Age pusheth them forward what merit can their be in chusing to go out at this door where in their passage to their Grave they shall not meet with those Incumbrances of extreme old Age which singly are worse than an hundred deaths or of those who in the prime and flower of their Age do offer themselves Victimes for the benefit of Man-kind since a few more years will put them beyond their choice and bring them under a necessity of dying whereas that Blood which we affirm to have been shed for the sins of the World was the Blood of a spotless Lamb offer'd by Christ himself he was Priest as well as Sacrifice and laid down his Life for no man could take it from him against his will c. § 3. Touching the second branch of this argument That this custom of propitiating the Deity with the oblation of Human blood was not in imitation of Abraham but the corruption of the old Tradition c. though I find great names muster'd against this Assertion yet when I consider that they march under the conduct of the Jewish Rabbins who are ambitious of having the whole World in debt to them this Army of Lions grows less formidable as being led on and headed by such sheepish Captains as R. Salomon Jarchi who upon Jeremy 7. 31. bringeth in God speaking concerning Molech after this manner When I spake to Abraham to sacrifice his Son it entred not into my heart that he should sacrifice him but to make known his righteousness having first fancied that the Heathen in defence of their practice objected the Example of Abraham A thing which no more enter'd into the Pagan's heart than it did into God's to have Isaac sacrificed nor was ever objected to the Jews of which this I conceive is proof sufficient That neither Philo Judaeus nor Josephus nor his Adversary Appion make the least mention of the Heathens imitating Abraham or pleading their imitation of him in their own defence A Calumny from which those great Patrons of Judaism would certainly have quitted their Religion had it then been objected when they wrote of that Oblation Josephus Jud. antiq lib. 1. cap. 14. most copiously and Philo de profugis allegorically neither can it stand with reason that Appion who scraped up whatsoever he could find in Books or invent of his own Brain against the Jewish Religion should omit so material and plausible a Plea if the World had then thought of it The first clear intimation of Abraham's offering his Son that is met with in Pagan Writers is in Porphyry as he is quoted by Eusebius praeparat Evangel 1. 7. where speaking of Saturn he saith the Phaenicians called him Israel and that he had an only Son called Irud which in the Phoenician Language signifies an only Son of the Nimph Anobret whom his father being in some great calamity sacrificed upon an Altar purposely made If I may call that clear which the two eyes of Learning Grotius in dent 18. 10. and Vosstus de idol 1. 18. cannot see how at all it concerns Abraham but that the transscriber of Eusebius meeting with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of Saturn among the Phoenicians as appears by St. Jerom. Phoenicibus Il. qui Hoebraeis El. Jerom. Epist 136. ad Marcellum and by Sanchoniathon himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanchoniathon apud Eusebium prep Evang. 1. 7. El. which self same they call Saturn This note Vossius had from Grotius atque ad hanc conjecturam quam certissimam arbitror in familiari sermone mihi praeire memini divinum virum Hugonem Grotium Vossius Ibid and withal this conjecture that the Immolations mentioned by Sanchoniathon was by Saturn's Wives procuration The Transcriber I say of Eusebius ignorant of this Phoenician use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposed it to be a contraction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to take it in its full strength according to the ordinary reading and the common application of that Name to Abraham of whom came Israel I cannot see how it implies the Heathens deriving their sacrificing of children from Abraham For 1. This was not pleaded by Porphyry against the Jew but Christian nor against the Christian till he had cryed shame of the Heathen World for its barbarous Immolations of innocents for the palliation of the filthiness whereof that indefatigable enemy of the Christian name brings in this story 2. Porphyry's Author Sanchoniathon from whom he hath
this Story neither names Israel but Saturn whose Soul after his death assumed for its heavenly body the Planet so called nor his but his wifes the Nymph Anobretha sacrificing of her only Son after the death of his Father 3. Thirdly he relates this fact of Saturn or his Wife as an imitation of the ancient Custom of that Nation to sacrifice the Princes most beloved Son in times of eminent danger to that Deity that takes vengeance of sin for the pacifying of his wrath Morem priscis cùm itaque Saturnus rex Eus. pr. evan 1. 7. So far is Porphyry out in his alledging Abraham or Israel as the Samplar out of which the Heathen World transcrib'd that bloody Copy as his own Author makes that very fact of Abraham which he alledgeth to have been done in observance of a Custom in ure long before Abraham was 4. Porphyry for the credit of Sanchoniathon affirmeth that he gather'd his Antiquities out of the Records of the several Cities the sacred Inscriptions in the Temples and of Jerom-Baal the Priest of the God Irvo or Jao If we admit this Jerom-baal to have been Gideon whom the Scripture calls Jerub-baal which is of the same sense in the Phoenician Language only after their custom changing one b into m as in Ambubaiae Sambucus c. it will not follow that this Author was contemporary with Gideon for he might use Gideon's Records after his death and in all likelihood came to the knowledg of him and them by means of that intercourse betwixt the Israelites and the Inhabitants of Berith where Sanchoniathon lived the worship of whose God Baal-Berith the Israelites fell to after Gideon's death But that he was not elder than Gideon doth necessarily follow from hence see Dr. Stillingfleet Orig. l. 1. cap. 2. sect 3. 4. and indeed 't is manifest he was much younger than Gideon from which Chronological Concession of those that are of opinion that the Heathens sacrificed Children in imitation of Abraham I argue against that opinion thus If the story of Abraham's Fact had not till that time arrived by Oral Tradition at their next door neighbours the Phaenicians but must be fetch'd out of Hebrew Records till then unknown to the greatest Antiquary the Heathen World affords how can it be imagin'd that the report thereof should reach all over Canaan so many hundreds of years before that wherein children were made oblations so long even before Moses as he speaks thereof as of ancient use among them Even their sons and their daughters have they burn'd in the fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 31. In which particular God himself is so far from suspecting the Gentiles would or did follow Israel as he gives Israel caution not to follow the Gentiles Thou shalt not enquire after their Gods saying How did these Nations serve their Gods even so will I do likewise vers 30. which would have been to small purpose had the Gentiles in those oblations followed Abraham for the Jew might then have replyed to the Prophets rebuking him for that practise that therein he followed the Nations in nothing but wherein they followed Abraham whom those very Prophets bid them look to who were sent to rebuke them for sacrificing their sons and daughters to Molech It would have been more seasonable in that case had the case been as our Opponents imagine to have warned them not to look to Abraham but to the intentions of God to try Abraham's Love and Faith in his tempting him to offer his only Son and his Son of Promise But the Psalmist Psal. 106. 35. hath determin'd it beyond all doubt that the Israelites in sacrificing their Sons and Daughters served the Idols of Canaan and learned their works that is those abominations which the Canaanites had practised as Moses saith before Israel came among them and for which Israel should have rooted them out Nay so far were the Canaanites from learning these works of Abraham which Abraham's Posterity learn'd of them as that before Abraham's tryal the old Inhabitants of Canaan by reason of these works began to look white towards Harvest though as yet their sins were not fully ripe Gen 15. 16. yea Moses having spoken of offering sons to Molech among other of their bestialities Levit. 18. 21. as the sins that God visited upon the Canaanites vers 25. tells the Israelites ver 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all these same abominations have the men of this Land who were before you done and this Land hath been defiled upon which Text Philo Judaeus saith Barbaras quoque gentes per multas aetates litasse mactatis filiis cujus sceleris Moses eos accusat de Abrahamo pag. 243. It appears that the Gentiles for many Ages before Abraham did sacrifice children from Moses his saying The men of this Land Canaan who inhabited it before you did do all these abominations and the land was defiled 5. Had those circumjacent Nations taken up that practice from Abraham's Example what better Argument could they have used than that to induce the Jews to it and sure had the Jews upon that reason conform'd to that Gentile Rite we should have heard them plead that for their adhering to it rather than those sorry reasons they bring for their resolute contumacy and pertinacious resistance of the Prophet's motion to them to forsake it As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee we will do as we have done for then it was well with us we had plenty and peace c. how much more strenuous would this reply have been then we did well for we followed Abraham 6. If the Phoenicians had no knowledg of Abraham's fact till Sanchoniathon found it in the Jewish Records so long after Moses how could the knowledge of it reach in almost as short a time as far south as Affrica as far north as Scythia as far east as India for 't is not to be conceiv'd from whence but India or Tartary the Americans derive their Pedigree or the Inhabitants of the Caroline Islands the worship of Molech whose Images in that form wherein they are described by Diodorus Siculus in the twentieth Book of his Bibliotheca were found there by the first discoverers of that Island who also affirmed that they threw children as sacrifices into the glowing hands of that Idol who were there scalded to death by vertue of a fire within the hollow body of the Image of all which Vives received good intelligence just as he was commenting upon the 19. Chapter of the 7. Book of St. Austin de Civitate Dei which treats upon that subject As far west as Hercules Pillars that is through all the Nations of which ancient History gives us account For this custom of sacrificing men to appease the divine wrath will appear to have been in a manner universal almost if not altogether as early as that Age wherein the most critical Computers affirm Sanconiathon