Glories and all the Patriarches from whom the Jews descended had been in Egypt in ripe Age where our Saviour came not but in his Infancie As for his Miracles the Testimonie of Moses and other Prophets whose divine Authoritie is acknowledged by the Jew shall evince them wrought by The Einger of God In the mean time the estate of the Jews since Their death sufficiently known to all the world and foretold by Them shall manifest against the Atheist that They all wrote by The Spirit of God CAP. XXII That all the Heathens Objections against or doubts concerning the Jews Estate are prevented or resolved by Jewish Writers 1 OUt of that which hath been hitherto Premised this Conclusion stands firm supported both by forrain Writers observation and these Jews own confession That They were a People Remarkable for their unusual Prosperitie and Calamity I am fully persaded it would have given full Satisfaction to any â—ngenuous Roman or later Heathen That This was a People Beloved of God had they known as much as we do that all they could Object in contempt of the Jews or their Religion had been conceived before by the Aslyrian and Babylonian but Falsified in the Event fully answered by Judaical Writers and plainly foretold by their Prophets lest such Events as occasioned others to contemn them might have proved Temptations to the Godly amongst this people as if they had been Forsaken of their God The dayes had been wherein the Babylonians had taken themselves for men and their Idols for gods as good as Rome had any and these Jews for as Base a People as the world yielded They had gathered captivitie as the sand mocked the Kings and made a sâ—orn of the Princes deriding every strong Hold and hence as the Prophet foresaw they were as ready as the Romans to take courage in transgressing and doing wickedly imputing this their power unto their God But the Prophet is not herewith dismayed nor tempted to think his Gods power was lesse then theirs albeit to shew himself a true Patriot of Israel he complains of their Intolerable Presumption which in due time he well foresees should be abated Art not thou of old my Lord my God mine Holy One We shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Judgement and O God thou hast established them for correction Thou art of pure eyes and canst not behold wickedness wherefore doest thou look upon The Transgressours and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then He and makest men as the â—ishes of the sea and as the creeping things that have no Ruler over them They take up all with the Angle they catch it in their Net and gather it in their Yarn whereof they rejoyce and are glad Therefore they sacrifice unto their Net and burn incense unto their Yarn because by them their portion is Fat and their meat plenteous Shall they therefore stretch out their Net and not spare continually to slay the Nations No he knew their time was limited and other Nations as Jeremiah saith When his Time was come were to serve themselves of Him though God at that time had exposed the Princes of Judah to his violence for their Violent Oppression of their Brethren as Habakkuk expressely notes in the beginning of his fore-mentioned Prophecie These Jews before the Event did prove the contrarie were as incredulous they should be brought into Captivitie by the Babylonian or such foolish Idolaters as the Romans were of their great prosperitie under David or Solomon And for to beat down this proud Humour in them the Prophet Ezekiel foretels That for their Extream Crueltie the Lord would punish them by the Most wicked of the Heathen Make a chain for the Land is full of the judgement of Bloud and the City is full of Cruelty Wherefore I will bring the Most Wicked of the Heathen and they shall possesse their houses I will also make the Pompe of the Mighty to cease and their Holy Places shall be desiled When Descruction commeth they shall seek peace and shall not have it Calamity shall come upon Calamity and Rumor shall be upon Rumor then shall they seek a Vision of the Prophet but the Law shall perish from the Priest and Counsel from the Ancient And lest any should marvail why God would so use his Chosen People he gives the reason in the words immediately following Because he was a God of Justice The King shall mourn and the Princes shall be clothed with desolation and the hands of the people in the land shall be troubled I will do unto them according to their ways and according to their judgments will I judge them and they shall know That I am The Lord. 2 More particularly both Tullies Objection concerning their Overthrow and Conquest is directly answered Strabo and Seneca's doubt concerning their thriving in Captivitie fully resolved and Tacitus false Imputations of their increase sufficiently cleared by the Psalmist They were stained with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people and he abhorred his own inheritance and he gave them into the hand of the Heathen and they that hated them were Lords over them Their enemies also oppressed them and they were humbled under their hand Many a time did he deliver them but they provoked him by their counsels therefore they were brought down by their iniquities Had Tully read thus much he might have been fully satisfied that it was not love or hate of his Immortal gods which made the Romans Conquerors the Jews Captives But it was their Love to Sin onely Hateful to their God which brought them in subjection unto the Romans and made Caesar whom Tully and other Romans hated Lord over them as they had been over the Jews And if Strabo Seneca Tacitus or others that either envied or marvelled at these Jews prosperity had read what follows in the same Psalm they had rested better satisfied with the reason that the Psalmist there gives then with such as Blundering Politicians guesse at For although they had been brought down by their iniquity yet their God who had given them into their Enemies Hand saw when they were in Affliction and heard their Crie And he remembred his Covenant towards them and repented according to the multitude of his Mercies and gave them Favour in the sight of all them that led them away Captives The Psalmist had better understanding of Gods dealing with these People then Tully and Strabo had and in Confidence of Gods Mercies which they had often tasted he concludes with this Prayer Save us O Lord our God and gather us 〈◊〉 among the 〈◊〉 thâ—… we may praisâ—… by Holy Name and glory in thy 〈◊〉 Though this Godly Pâ—almist saw this People in greater distresse then they were in Tullâ—… time yet he attributes not their Captivity and oppreâ—… 〈◊〉 any want of Good-will in their
Lord their God and yet did all their works to be seen of men They had often taught their Auditours to honour father and mother and learnedly discoursed upon the equity of this precept in general yet could upon private respects dispense with it in sundry particulars They said well in the former and did ill in the latter And albeit they justified their practise by tradition of the elders as the Pontificians do theirs when they absolve subjects from the bond of duty to their civil or children to their naturall parents that they may be more serviceable to the Church their mother yet their sayings in these Apologies were but accessary to their doings not comprehended under that universal affirmative All whatsoever they bid you observe and do but under the negative After their works do not for they were more desirous to be honoured as Rabbies and Fathers of the Congregation then to honour the parents of their flesh albeit they usually taught others so to do save onely when their treasury might be enriched or their own honour enlarged by dispensations which the people easily might have discerned for contrary as well to the Law of God and nature as to these dispensators own doctrine when themselves were not parties 9 From the restraint of this universal precept we may easily limit that speech of our Saviour unto Saint Peter which Bellarmin labours to make more then most universal because the surest ground in their supposals of the Popes transcendent Authority I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. 19. By these keyes saith Bellarmin is understood a power of loosing not onely sins but all â—ber bonds or impediments without whose removall there is no possibility of entrance into the Kingdom of heaven for the promise is generall nor is it said whomsoever but Whatsoever thou loosest c. giving us hereby to understand that Peter â—â—d bis successors may loose all knots or difficulties of what kind soever if of lawes by dispensing with them if of sins by remitting them if of controversies or opinions by unfolding them Thus far would this cunning Sophister improve the universal Whatsoever above it ordinary and ancient value in Scripture phrase further then the condition of the partie to whom the promise was made being Christs servant not his equall will suffer For what greater Prerogative could Christ himself challenge then such as Bellarmine for the present Popes sake would make Saint Peters The Universal note in this place as the like before â—includes onely an abundant assurance of the power â—…thed a full and irrevocable ratification of the Keyes right use such a shutting as none can open such an opening as none can shut as often as sentence is either way given upon sufficient and just occasions The proper saâ—ject thâ—â— limits the universall form of this more then princely prerogative is the denâ—… confession of Christ either in open speech in perpetuall actions or resolution as shall be by Gods assistance made evident against Romish assertions without derogation from the royalty of Priest-hood which within these Territories is much more dreadfull and soveraigne then worldlings will acknowledge untill they be made feel the full stroke of the spiritual sword in these our dayes for the most part born in vain 10 Whatsoever reasons else they can from any other places of Scripture pretend for absolute infallibilitie in the High Priests or Church representative under the Law fall of their own accord these fundamentall ones being overthrown But before I proceed to evince the Jewish supreme tribunall most grosly erroneous de facto I must request the ingenious Readers as many as understand Latin and can have accesse unto these great Doctor writings to be eye-witnesses with us or if it please them publick Notaries of their retchlesse impieties Of which unlesse authentick notice be now taken and propagated to posterity by evident testimonies beyond exception this impudent generation in future ages when these abominations growold and more stirred in begin so to stink that for the Churches temporall health the books of modern Jesuites must be purged will surely deny that ever any of their grand Divines were so mad with incestuous love of their whorish mother as to seek her maintenance by such shamelesse grosse notorious palpable written blasphemies as ungracious Judas would rather have choaked with an halter in their birth then have granted them entrance into the world through his throat He in comparison of these Antichristian Traitors ingenuously confessed his foul offence in betraying innocent bloud But even the flower of Romish Doctors Bishops and Cardinals are not ashamed to justifie him in betraying and the Scribes and Pharisees in solemnly condemning our Saviour For if the one sort did not erre in judgement the other did not amisse in executing what they enjoyned yet by that very Consistorie of Priests and Elders brought in by Bellarmin as chief supporters of the Churches infallibilitie was the life of the world censured to death for an Heretick or refractarious Schismatick and the Talmuâ—… taking that Consistories authority but for such as the Jesuites supposed conclude directly from principles common to the Synagogue and the Roman Church that he deserved no lesse because he would not subscribe unto their sentence nor recant his opinions 11 Again if we understand that other place The Scribes and pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you that observe and do universally as most Papists do and Hart out of his transmarinal Gate hismâ— would gladly have maintained it any Jew might thus aâ—â— me The Sâ—… sees solemnly bid Judas and others to observe our Saviour as a â—… and charged the people to seck his bloud therefore they were in â—… and upon pain of damnation bound so to do Do I amplifie one word or wrong them a joâ— in these collections I appeal unto their own Writers Let Melcbur Canus inferiour to none in that Church for learning and for a Papist a man of singular ingenuitie be judge betwixt us If from his words as much as I have said do not most directly follow let me die the death for this supposed slander Against the absolute infallibilitie of Councels or Synods maintained by him in his fifth Book our Writers as he frames their Argument thus objects The Priests and Pharasees called Councels whose solemne sentences were impious because they condemned the Son of God for such in like sort may the Romish Prelacie give sentence contrary unto Christ Unto this Objection saith Canuâ— the answer is easie Let us hear it The practises of the Priests were indeed against our Saviour but the sentence of man otherwise most wicked was not onely most true but withall most profitable to the Common-weal Yea Saint John the Evangelist tels us it was a divine Oracle
are set Free by the Son of God The eleventh Book in Adversarijs Conteining a Treatise upon the Articles of Christs comming to judgement The Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting The twelfth of the Catholick Church part whereof is Printed and mentioned above Besides a great number of Treatises and Sermons respective Appendices to the Books aforesaid So many as would fill a Page with a Particular Catalogue For the Publishing whereof in due Time and manner and suiting with this Volume The Worthy persons whom the Author made Supervisors of his Will will be conscientious and Prudent Accountants to the Church of Christ And some others Pious and Learned men of that University Chearfull Assistants thereto But here if the Reader be of my Temper Secretum peto I must lead him aside a little to Condole the losse the Great loss of one most Considerable piece Finished and Alas for the Day lost some yeers ago It was The Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood I am bold to say Reader Write this a Prodigie And to render it the more Prodigious take notice that it was lost in the Authors Life Time as his ingenious Amanuensis Mr. B. told me inquiring after it above 9 yeers ago What shall be said or thought of This Surely The World was not worthy of such a Blessing It sentenced it self unworthy thereof by the stupid totall neglect of what he Preached at Court and Printed at Oxon in the Yeer 1637. about The Signes of the Times a Subject neer of Kin to that Treatise The longing impatient desire of Retreiving this Treatise makes me not blush to transform this Preface into a kind of Proclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather into a most humble and earnest Supplication unto the Person that hath this Treatise in keeping if yet it be kept from the Malice of the Destroyer That he will please to bring it in unto the Stationer for whom this Book is Printed upon assurance to receive it again or for it twelve or twenty Copies or a sum of Money Aequivalent if it be Printed For it is the desire and designe of more and more able men then my self to Collect and Publish This Authors Works as Compleat as possibly may be The Earnest whereof is Given in this First Volume with this further Account The Quarto Impression was scarce and dear and ill Printed The weighty and many Quotations of Authors so exceeding falsly figured and disfigured too that it cost so much Time and great Turning sometimes to finde out One single place as none can believe that hath not tried the like nor could all the Authors be found in London This the Famous Library of Oxon and the chearfull Candor of a learned Friend there supplied I am hopefull that the Authors Sence is not altered in the least measure for the least sin in that kind is sacriledge I am sure I was so scrupulously carefull of changing as that I have omitted what I thought necessary correction For example in the Epistle to the Reader line 12. I think I ought to have changed the word Conscience into Conscious or lesse conscience into more conscientious unlesse you will say Conscience there signifies Guilt So Page the 12. Line 3. after And yet These two words They persecuted should be inserted as I conjecture unlesse the comparison betwixt the Roman and Turkish Emperours Subjects make them needlesse So in the 250 page in the Margin surely it ought to have been R. P. but it was R. B. in the old Copie and in the search of Parsons Resolutions not finding absolute evidence that he was the party meant I let R. B. stand Yet have I added now and then a Citation or Note in the Margin As where the Great Businesse of Charles Martell is Related page 110. I have cited divers Authours whom the Reader may consult for his own better satisfaction To conclude There is a saying and men may think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the pecuniary profit be to the Tradesman If my heart deceive me not as divers Nutus Dei did invite the beginning and many remarkable momenta providentiae did encourage the Progresse in a Time of greatest trouble for outward estate so the Glory of God Almighty the Benefit of his Church and Children the doing of some small Thing in a Time of Cashierment that may tend to the discharge of a most unprofitable servants account at the last Day is the gain aimed at And if our Pr Brethren Sons of the same Fathers with us that cast us out viewing well the second and third Books and being here advertised That twenty of those men whom they have put from the Stations wherein God had set them in the Church of England as Factors for the Church of Rome have contributed each man their Symbolum to this Impression will by this be brought to see their mistake and taking this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confess themselves deceived and unwittingly made Proctors for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and transported in this particular became partial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be an Accession above expectation The Good Lord lay not this sin to their Charge but reconcile them to their former selves and be Reconciled both to them and us in Christ and prosper the work both dispatched and intended to his Glory and the good of his Church for our Lord Jesus's sake The Prayer of the most unworthy One of all his servants B. O. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 483. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both the Ark and his Habitation But if he say I have no delight in Thee Let him do to me as seemeth good unto Him Good is the Word of the Lord. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple Let the Word of God dwell in you plenteously Search the Scriptures Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation In which are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the Other Scriptures to their own destruction Remember them which are the Guides or have the Rule over you The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth He that heareth you heareth me Lo I am with you alway even to the End of the World THE LIFE and DEATH of the Venerable Dr. JACKSON Dean of PETERBROUGH and President of Corpus-Christi Colledge in OXFORD Written by a late Fellow of the same Colledge BEing earnestly desired by an intimate and Powerful Friend to deliver some Character of that Reverend and Learned Doctor Jackson late President of our Colledge I might very well excuse my self from my unworthiness to undertake so weighty a Task I must seriously confess it was not so much the Importunity of that
or some neer adjoyning Thus he expected Oracles should either come in use again in Greece or else burst out in some more convement Soyl. The Atheists of this Age our English home-bred ones at least have altogether as great reason to deny the decay or drying up of Rivers and Lakes as to suspect the frequency of Oracles or other events in times past for neither they no◠their fathers have had any more experience of the one then of the other Plutarchs testimony amongst many others is Authentick for the use and decay of Oracles but neither his Authority nor the reasons which he brings can give satisfaction to any man that seeks the true cause of their defect He refers it indeed in a generality to the Gods not that they wanted good will to mankinde still but that the matter did decay which their ministers the demoniacal Spirits did work upon as you heard before We may upon sure grounds with confidence affirm That even this decay of matter which he dreams of had it conferred ought to the use of Oracles was from God And he as the Psalmist speaks that turneth the floods into a wildernesse and drieth up the water Springs and maketh a fruitful land barren for the iniquity of them that dwell therein did also bring not onely the Oracle of Delphi so much frequented amongst the Grecians but all other kindes of divinations used amongst his own people in the old World to desolation and by powring out his Spirit more plenteously upon the barren hearts of us Heathen hath filled the Barbarous Nations of Europe with better store of Rivers of comfort then the Ancient Israel his own inheritance had ever known Or if we desire a more immediate cause of these Oracles defect amongst the Heathens the time was come that the strong mans house was to be entred his goods spoiled and himself bound now the Prince of this world was to be cast out 2 Plutarchs relation of his demoniacal Spirits mourning for great Pans death about this time is so strange that it might perhaps seem a Tale unlesse the truth of the common bruit had been so constantly avouched by ear-witnesses unto Tiberius that it made him call a convocation of Wise men as Herod did at our Saviours birth to resolve him who this great Pan late deceased should be Thamous the Egyptian Master unknown by that name to his Passengers until he answered to it at the third call of an uncouth voice uttered Sine Authore from the land requesting him to proclaim the news of great Pans death as he passed by Palodes was resolved to have let all passe as a Fancy or idle Message if the wind and tide should grant him passage by the place appointed but the wind failing him on a sudden at his coming thither he thought it but a little losse of breath to cry out aloud unto the shoar as he had been requested Great Pan is dead The words as Plutarch relates were scarce out of his mouth before they were answered with a huge noise as it had been of a multitude sighing and groaning at this wonderment If these Spirits had been by nature mortal as this Philosopher thinks the death of their chief Captain could not have seemed so strange but that a far greater then the greatest of them by whose power the first of them had his being should die to redeem his enemies from their thraldom might well seem a matter of wonderment and sorrow unto them The circumstance of the time will not permit me to doubt but that under the known name of Pan was intimated the great Shepheard of our souls that had then layd down his life for his flock not the fained son of Mercury and Penelope as the Wisemen foolishly resolved Tiberius Albeit even this base and counterfeit resolution of these Heathens coyning bears a lively image for the exact proportion of the divine truth Charactred out unto us in Scripture For it shall appear by sufficient testimonies in their due time and place to be produced that sundry general confused or Enigmatical traditions of our Saviours Conception Birth and Pastoral office had been spread abroad amongst the Nations Hence instead of Him they frame a Pan the God of Shepherds in stead of the Holy Spirit by whom he was to be conceived they have a Mercury their false Gods fained Messenger and Interpreter for Pans father instead of the Blessed Virgin who was to bear our Saviour they have a Penelope for their young Gods Mother The affinity of quality and offices in all the parties here paralleld made this transfiguration of divine Truth easie unto the Heathen and the manner of it cannot seem improbable to us if we consider the wonted vanity of their imaginations in transforming the glory of the Immortal God into the similitude of earthly things most dislike to it in nature and quality Thus admitting Plutarchs story to be most true it no way proves his intended conclusion that the wild goatish Pan was mortal but the Scriptures set forth unto us the true cause why both he and all the rest of that hellish crue should at that time howl and mourn seeing by the Great Shephe ds Death they were become Dead in Law no more to breath in Oracles but quite to be deprived of all such strange motions as they had seduced the ignorant World with before All the antick tricks of Faunus the Satyrs and such like creatures were now put down God had resolved to make a translation of his Church and for this cause the Devils were enforced to dissolve their old Chappels and seek a new form of their Liturgie or Service Whilest the Israelites were commanded to consult with Gods Priests Prophets or other Oracles before they undertook any difficult war or matters of moment Satan had his Priests and Oracles as much frequented by Heathen Princes upon the like occasions So Strabo witnesseth That the Ancient Heathen in their chief consultations of State did rely more upon Oracles then humane policy If Moses were forty dayes in the Mount to receive Laws from Gods own mouth Minos will be Jupiters Auditor in his Den or Cave for the same purpose In emulation of Shiloh or Kiriath-jearim whilest the Ark of God remained there the Heathens had Dodona and for Jerusalem they had Delphi garnished with rich donatives of forrain Princes as well as Grecians so magnified also by Grecian Writers as 〈◊〉 it had been the intended Parallel of the holy City Insomuch that Plutarch thinks the story commonly received of that Oracles original to be lesse probable because it ascribes the invention of it to Chance and not to the Divine Provivence or Favour of the Gods when as it had been such a direction unto Greece in undertaking wars in building Cities and in time of Pestilence and Famine Whether these effects in Ancient times had been alwayes from the information of Devils as I said before I will not dispute That this Oracle
the Turks by Adoption Heires of the same promise So truly doth the Scripture tell us the truth of all antiquitie and the true causes of Nations encrease but of this elsewhere To conclude this story of Noah 6 The former Argument drawn from the suddain increase and propagation of men the scarcitie of Arts Civil Discipline and Inventions with other Experiments better known to them then us enforced certain of the Ancient Philosophers to hold a perpetual Vicissitude some of General some of Particular Deluges whereby the works of Antiquitie once come to perfection had been and continually should be defaced either generally throughout the World or in sundry Countries according to the extent of the Inundation This Opinion might seem more safe because not eaâ—â—e to be disproved in that Old World in which the wisest living besides the people of God had no distinct Knowledge of any thing that had happened 100 year before his own Birth much lesse what mutations should follow after his death but unto us their Prognostication is like unto some late Prophecies of Dooms-day confuted by a world of witnesses even by the continuance of every thing after that time which by their prophecies should have imposed a fatal end to all things We may truly use the Mockers words to these mockers of truth Since the old Philosophers died all things continue alike Seed-time and Harvest have been still distinct nor hath there been any Floud to destroy either the Whole Earth or any entire Nation thereof For Assurance of which promise the Almightie hath set his Bow in the Cloud whose Natural Causes though the Philosophers can in some sort assign and shew the manner how diversities of colours arise in it yet the Ancient Poets saw more then either they themselves have left exprest or later Philosophers sought to conceive when they feigned Iris to be Thaumantis Filia the Daughter or as we of this age would say the Mother of Wonderment the Messenger of the great God Jupiter and his Goddesse Juno The occasions of this Fiction had they been well acquainted with them might have informed Philosophers that the Rain-bow had some better use then a bare Speculation how it was made some Final besides the Material and Efficient Cause unto whose search the Admirable Form or composition of it did incite men naturally And the Ancient Philosophers who were for the most part Poets and endued with more lively notions of the First and Supreme Cause of all things did usually assign a Final Cause commonly Supernatural of such effects as proceeded from Efficient and Material Natural Causes As the Pythagoreans thought the Thunder whose matter form and efficient they well knew was made to terrifie such as were in Hell not erring in the general that it had some such like use though mistaken in the particulars whom it was made to terrifie Natural Philosophie gives us the Material and sensible Efficient Causes the Scripture onely the true and Supernatural End which leads us to the Immortal Invisible and Principal Efficient Cause of all natural effects even of Nature it self And Aristotle acknowledgeth the motions or dispositions of the Matter to depend upon the End or Final Cause albeit he gives no Final cause at all of main principal much lesse the Supreme or Principal Final cause of all natural effects but confounds the Form with the End against his own principles and contrary to the Analogie between Nature and Art which is the ground of all his Discourse about the Matter Form and Efficient For the Artificial Form is not the End of the Artists work but rather incites the Spectator to view and admire his Skill from which his gain or fame may redound And these one or both are the Principal end of all his labours so is the Glory of the First and Supreme Efficient Cause the Principal and utmost End of all the works of Nature and Nature itself if I may so speak the Art or Skill of the First and Supernatural Cause But as Aristotles Philosophie is imperfect because it leades us not either unto the First Cause or Last End of all things so it is fully sufficient to confute such Divines as think there were Rainbows before the Floud Which opinion hath no pretence of Scripture to enforce it and grounds in nature it can have none unlesse they will avouch this evident untruth That every disposition of the Air or every Cloud is fitly disposed to bring forth the Rain-bow And if other Natural Causes with their motions and dispositions depend upon the Final such as acknowledge the truth of Scripture have no reason to think that either the Clouds or Air had that peculiar disposition which is required unto the production of the Rain-bow before the Floud when this wonderful Effect could have no such use or end as it hath had ever since For it was ordained as the Scripture tels us to be a Sign or witnesse of Gods Covenant with the New World a Messenger to secure mankind from destruction by Deluges Now if it had appeared before the Sight of it after the floud could have been but a silly comfort to Noahs Timorcus Posteritie whose mistrust lest the the like inundation should happen again was greater then could be taken away by any ordinary or usual Sign if we may believe such Testimonies of Antiquitie as we have no reason to suspect I omit the discussion of their Opinion who think the Rain-bow doth naturally argue such a temper of the air as is unapt for the present to conceive any Excessive Moisture Either from these reasons in nature then well known or from the Tenour of Gods forementioned Covenant communicated to the Ancient Heathen people by Tradition doth Jupiter in Homer make Iris the messenger of his Peremptorie command unto Neptune to desist from aiding the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From Jove I come a messenger to him that Neptune hight His pleasure is that thou henceforth ne come in field or fight But hence to Heaven or to wide Sea address thy speedy flight 7 The true Mythologie of which Fiction I should from the circumstance of the Storie conjecture to be this The swelling of waters and abundance of moisture did advantage the Grecians and annoy the Trojans for whom fair weather was best as having greatest use at that time of service by Horse For this reason is Neptune by Iris commanded to get him into the Sea which â—s as much as to say the Over-flow of waters and abundance of moisture was now to be asswaged and Apollo on the other side sent to encourage Hector and his Trojans The meaning is that Jupiter would now have fair and drie weather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go to prepare the Troops of Horse for they must do the deed And charge thine enemies at
are such warnings usually sent immediately g upon the principal 〈◊〉 act but rather after continuance in the like And the vicinitie of this h places name which was a second witnesse of Crassus sins might have put him in minde of his former misdeeds in Jerusalem with whose sacred treasure he had dealt just so as Plutarch saith he did with the treasurie of that Goddesse of â—…rapolis Which makes me supect that Plutarch did mistake the storie For as Josephus tels us he took away the two thousand Talents which Pompey left untoucht and eight thousand besides But such was the Heathens prejudice of the Jews that the least injurie offered to their Idol-Gods was more then the most grievous sacriledge that could be devised against the God of Israel The worst that could be done against his Temple was in many of their opinions but as reprochful words which can bear no Action because not easily appliable to any determinate person with many of them it was all one Non esse Does non apparere represented in some visible shape or image Thus Polybius otherwise an ingenuous writer imputes the cause of Antiochus Epiphanes suddain and fearful death unto his intended pillage of the Goddesse Artemis Temple when as this misereant was guilâ—e of that actual crime before for ransacking the Temple of Jerusalem See Joseph Antiq. l. 12. c. 13. But as the plenarie cause of Crassus miserable and shameful death was his shamelesly miserable and Sacrilegious Mind in geral so in the means or manner of His end the Almighty would have his particular offences against his Priest and Temple to be most Fminent and Conspicuous Fleazar the high Priest seeing him wholly bent to make a golden Harvest of the Parthian expedition feared lest he should rake all the sacred Treasure into his cossers For preventing of which misehief he presents him with a Golden Beam whereon the Hangings of the Temple hung hoping thereby to redeem the rest of the sacred Treasure but he having gotten this into his hands which otherwise he could not have found being covered with wood contrarie to his Oath most agreeable to his Humour seazed upon all the residue Yet gold which he thus greedily sought as to his seeming the onely sure Nerve of war by the Almighties disposition became the indissoluble chain of his dismal Fates As love to it had made him perjure himself to circumvent Gods Priest so did it expose him to circumvention by a Perjured Villain who having found out his appetite prepared a sit Bait for his Bane For by feeding this greedy thirst of gold he insinuated himself into the societie of his Secrets which he disclosed unto the Parthian Had Crassus wits naturally been â—o dull or had he usually shewed himself so grosse and sottish as he proved in this expedition he had never born any place amongst the Remans much less had they ever permitted him to manage any for rain Wars But 〈◊〉 partly from his prodigious Stupiditie uncapable of any warning by so many Ominous Signs and tokens as did stupisie his whole Armie besides partly from his more then brutish Facilitie in taking an uncouth way as if he had been a tame beast before the drover until he came to the very Stand where his enemies stood with their bowes bent and their arrows of death made readie upon the string for his destruction all the Roman writers agree that He was lead awry by Sinister Fates Now if they had but once read what God he was that had blinded Absalom to disclaim Achitophels good counsel and ratisie Hushais plot for his Overthrow 2 Sam. 17. they would easily have granted that the same God and no other had infatuated Crassus heart to renounce Cassius and other grave experienced Roman Warriors wholsome advise and betake himself wholly to the Barbarous Fugitive Augarus directions suborned by the Parthian to betray him 4 But Cassius much wiser then his General in this one particular of mistrusting Forainers was afterwards as far over-seen in the main chance and overtaken with that sin which had caused Crassus blindnesse First polluted with like Sacriledge and cruel oppression of these Jews then with his own bloud shed by his servant at his commandment upon as grosse an over-sight as Crassus had committed So shall they all sooner or later be Infatuate that robbe God of His Honour and put their trust in Wrong and Violence And thus till this time did they perish all as many as bare ill will to Sion for Hierusalems Hour was not yet come because the Day-spring had not visited her from on High The glorie of her Temple was not as yet revealed unto whom after Her children had offered greater disgrace then the Romans had done to their Temple the Staff of her wonted Stay begins to break the bonds of her former peace untwine and onely one part of her double Fates remain if then she fall she riseth not again she hath no inclination left but to destruction The burthen of the Fathers sins and the yoke of captivitie due thereto grows heavier and heavier in the descent upon posteritie without all hope of recoverie much lesse of revenge upon such as offer her greatest violence but rather happy shall that man be thought and highest earthly honour shall be the wages of his service that rewards her children as they had served their Lord and Saviour But these times were not come in Crassus or Cassius dayes in which some Reliques of her Ancient Hopes remained to see the rods and scourges of her correction consume and wither after once the Almighty had taken off his punishing Hand And if unto these Three above mentioned we adde the like destinie of Antonie and Scipio and the ill successe of the other Romans who had ought to do with these Jews before our Saviours time we may conclude that although the Romans were then Lords of the earth yet This People whom they held as Base retained the priviledge of Gods Royal Priests Although the souls of all flesh were the Lords who for this cause revenged the oppressed in every Nation yet Israel onely as the Prophet speaks was as A Thing Hallowed unto the Lord His First Fruits all such as devoured them did offend evil should come upon them although inflicted by their own or their servants hands at their appointment Lastly if we call to mind the former distinction of Ages and the divers manner of Gods dealing with them before and after the Baby Ionish Captivitie the contraction or Abridgment of their large Priviledges in the long succession of times foretold by Ancient and acknowledged by their own later Writers we cannot mistrust the Amplitude of their Fundamental Charter or their Historical Narrations of what the Lord had done of old unto Jabin Sisera and Sâ—…herib would we allowing some different condition of times compare theirs with Pompeys and his Complices unusual Fates Gods Power was more immediately manifested in the one his
had been That Monarch of the World which according to the common received Opinion throughout the East was at this time to arise in Jewry So doth the God of this World still blind the eyes of the worldly-wise with Fair Shews or earthly shadows of Heavenly Things that they cannot or care not to look into the Body or Substance of Divine Mysteries for whose representation onely those are given otherwise uncapable of any cause either in Nature Reason or Policy Vespasian the Emperour indeed was the Second Type or shadow of the Messiah That great Monarch and Prince of Peace whose endlesse Kingdom shall put down all Wars for ever For seeing by the Fall of these Jews as Saint Paul saith Salvation is come unto the Gentiles it pleased the Wisdom of our GOD to have their Destruction Solemnized with the self-same Signs that His birth had been which brought forth Life unto the World For immediately after their Fatal Overthrow by Titus Janus had his Temple shut and Peace a Temple erected by Vespasian Thus Divine Suggestions Effect no more in most mens thoughts then diurnal Intention of mind doth in hard Students broken sleeps which usually set the Soul a working seldom finding any distinct Representation of what she seeks though contenting her self oft-times for that Season with some pleasant Phantasm as much different from the true nature of that she hunts after as the clouds which Ixion imbraced were from Juno Vespasians Secret Instinct in this devotion did aim no doubt as it was directed by all Signs of the Time at the true Prince of Peace but was choaked and stifled in the Issue or Passage and his intent blinded in the Apprehension by the palpable and grosse conceipts of Romish Idolatry wherein he had been nuzled as mens In-bred desire of true Happinesse is usually taken up and blind-folded by such pleasant sensible Objects as they most accustom themselves unto And yet God knows whether this vertuous Emperours last Hopes were inwardly rooted in Pride and Presumption of heart or rightly conceived there were onely brought forth amisse As if a man should first apprehend the state of Blessednesse or Regeneration in a dream the Representation of it would be grosse though the Apprehension sound Quite contrary to his Sons disposition when he himself apprehends death coming upon him which the Physitians and Astronomers could not perswade him to beware of he solaced himself with this saying Now shall I be a God his inward Hopes of a Celestial state after this life might for ought that any man knows be true and sound and the representation onely tainted with the Romans grosse Conceipt 6 But whatever became of Him in that other World His Entrance into this His Continuance herein and Departure hence were in all the worlds sight of unusual and Extraordinary Observation The disposition of the Times by the most irreligious amongst the Romans were referred to Fates or divine Powers who had not graced the Birth Life and Death or long flourishing Raign of Augustus with half so many Tokens of their Presence on Earth or Providence over Humane Affairs What Effect or issue can the Roman assign answerable unto them Rome could not invite the nations to come and see whether any prosperity were like hers for hers had been far greater and of longer continuance then now under Vespasian who was suddenly called away by a Comet from Heaven and Augustus his Sepulchre opening of its own accord to welcome him to his grave Whereat then did all these Signs point They should have been as a New Star to lead the wise men of the West unto Hierusalem now crying out of the dust unto the careless Roman Have ye no regard all ye that passe by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath It was not Titus and Vespasian that had afflicted her they were but His Deputies that was Lord of Sion who had Decreed what they Effected For this cause did neither the Father nor the Son take the name of Judaicus albeit the Difficulty of the War begun by the Father and the Famousnesse of the Victory atchieved by the Son according to the custom of the Romans observed by them in their Triumphs and other Solemnities did solicit them hereunto For what victory gotten by any Roman was like unto this either for the multitude of the Slain or the Captives Nothing in this kind could seem strange unto the Politician if it had proceeded from Tacitus pen. But Satan it seems by Gods permission hath called in that part of Tacitus as a Book too dangerous for his Scholars to read lest giving Credence unto it they might Believe him lesse and Christians more in any other points and yet praised be the Name of Our Gracious God who envies no man the truth and hath left us abundant Records of this Story all answerable to his Sacred Word and Prophecies of old concerning Hierusalem From that part of Tacitus which is left we may gather how consonant his Conclusions would have been unto that Faithful and most Ingenious Historian Josephus with whom he Jumps in these particulars That this people were of Bodies Healthful and able their City exceeding strong every way well provided against long siege Which Assertion would have ministred Suspition to such as measure all Stories by rules of Policy unlesse some Roman writer had avouched it seeing Pompey had razed the City-wals and Sosius had taken it by force in Augustus time since continuing in Subiection unto the Romans until the last and Fatal Rebellion But Tacitus tels us that these Jews made their benefit of Claudius his covetousnesse and purchased licence to fortisie the City in time of peace against war during which it grew more populous then before by the reliques of other ruinated Cities resorting unto it And albeit he differ from Josephus in the number of the besieged yet he acknowledgeth Six Hundred Thousand of all sorts the Women as resolute as the Men Armour and munition enough for as many as could and yet more in this People that durst use and manage them then could be expected in such a number Their Seditious and Factious their stubborn and desperate mindes against God and man and their own souls neglective of fearful Signs from Heaven and other prodigious Tokens foretelling their Desolation are Pathetically described by the same Writer The preparations likewise on Titus his part we may gather from him to be as great as any Roman ever used His army at the first approach to the City thought scorn to expect the help of Famine to make the Besieged yield and yet after one or two Assaults made to little purpose enforced to desist until all the Engines of Batterie either of Ancient or Modern Invention were ready And all these circumstances we have fully set down in this fragment of Tacitus which is left 7
that his stroke should be a little broken Out of such Fathers as lived in the Ages following it is evident the Calamities of these times had been such as did threaten the worlds end many reliques of that grievous disease wherewith the world was sick almost unto death remained until Saint Cyprians time But as Jerusalems Plagues did Prognosticate the Storms of Gods Wrath which were shortly after to be showred upon the Nations so these Cast-away Jews prefigure the Heathnish Temper of whom that saying of our Saviour holds as true They are like unto children sitting in the market place and crying one to another and saying we have piped unto you and ye have not danced we have mourned unto you and ye have not wept In our Saviours time God invited them with Peace and Plenty which they foolishly attribute to their gods or their own Policy after his Death he threatens them with the former Calamities all which they falsely ascribe as the Superstitious in like cases usually do to the Alteration of Religion and the decay of Idolship Would God the temper of this present Age were not much worse then either the Jews or Gentiles was not such as did threaten the Final Destruction of the World from which Faith hath utterly perished But of this Argument as far as befits Christian Sobriety to enquire by Gods Assistance in its proper place Thus much in this place I have added to perswade the Reader that For ought any man knows or for any precedent Sign can be expected it may This Night sound to Judgement Watch we therefore and pray continually that we may be Counted Worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and that we may stand before The Son of Man 9 Thus much of the Prophecies concerning Hierusalems Destruction and the Signs of those Times Ere we return to survey the Jews estate since it shall not be amisse to Note how upon the Expiration of their Interest in Gods promises confirmed unto their father Isaac the Seed of Ismael began to enter upon the other Moiety of his Promise made to Abraham CAP. XXV That the Saracens are the true Sons of Ismael Of their Conditions and Manners Answerable to Moses Prophecy 1 THat the sons of Isaac and Ismael for more then 3000 years after their Fathers Death in Countries almost as many Miles distant from their Original Seat whither scarce any other Asiaticks come should Kithe each other with as little Scruple as if they were Full Cousin Germanes to me hath seemed an Argument That the Lord had appointed Both for Continual Signs unto the Nations the more whiles I consider with what Difficulty of Search Variety of Conjectures and Uncertainty of Resolution the best Antiquaries amongst the Natural Inhabitants of those Countries assign either their first Planters there or the Regions whence they came 2 But howsoever such as we call Saracens are best known to the modern Jews of Spain by the name of Ismaelites yet in these later dayes disposed to quarrel with former Ages some begin to Suspect others to Contradict the Common received Opinion as well concerning the Saracens natural descent from Hagar and Ismael as their pretended Original from Sarah Abrahams lawful Wife Unto which bold Assertion or needlesse Scruple though utterly devoid of all Ground either of Reason or Authority we are thus far beholden it hath occasioned us to seek the Ground of the contrary out of Antiquity as well Secular as Ecclesiastick Whose pregnant Consonancy with the Sacred Oracles is Pertinent to this Present Necessary for Subsequent Discourse in it self neither unpleasant nor unprofitable to the Judicious Christian Reader 3 Of Abrahams Base Seed some in Scripture are denominate from their Mother known by the name of Hagarens Others from her Son their father are called Ismaelites some take their names from his Sons as Kedar Duma Naphish Jetur c. Not any people in Scripture to my remembrance take their name from Nebaioth his eldest Son Which addes probability to their Opinion who think such as the Heathen called Naâ—athaei were in Scriptures tearmed Ismaelites as sole Heirs to their first Progenitors Name Their seat was in the best part of Arabia Petraea near unto the Midianites as is probable from the Story of Joseph who in one place is said to be sold unto the Ismaelites in another to the Midianites these being near Neighbours as it seems and Copartners in Traffick As the Nabathaeans are not mentioned in Scripture so neither do I find the name of Ismael in any Ancient Heathen Writer All of them I think being of Strabo his mind who Book 16. professeth That he omits the Ancient name of the Arabians partly because in his time they were out of Use partly for the Harshnesse of their Pronunciation unto which Exception the name of Ismael was most obnoxious 4 The Seat of such as the Scripture cals Hagarens was in the Desert Arabia betwixt Gilead and Euphrates as we may gather from 1 Chron. 5. 9 1â— This people were called by the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agraei a name more consonant to their name in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Latin Hagareni rightly placed by Ptolomey in the Desert Arabia and by Strabo Book 16. in that very place which the Scripture makes the Eastern Bounds of Ismaels Posterity their Metropolis or chief City in later times was Atra or Atrae and the Inhabitants thereof Atreni unlesse both Dion and Herodian either mistook or have been mistaken to have written Atreni for Agreni But to omit the particular denomination of Ismaels Seed they were best known to Ancient Heathens from the manner of their habitation in Tents and Scenitae Arabes was a name General and I think Equivalent to his Race unlesse perhaps the Midianites or Idumaeans might share with them in this Name as they were partakers of their Quality which is not so to be appropriated unto either as if they had neither House or Town for the Tents of Kedar are most famous in Scripture yet saith the Prophet Let the Wildernesse and the Cities thereof lift up their voice the Towns that Kedar doth inhabit Isaiah 42. 11. Nor did he mean as many Tents as would make a Town for even in Moses time they had their places of defence as appears Gen. 25. 16. These be the sons of Ismael and these be their Names by their Towns and by their Castles twelve Princes of their Nations or rather twelve Heads of so many several Houses Tribes or Clans which kind of Regiment they continued till four hundred years after Christ And the Heathen Writers both Greek and Latin better expresse Moses words in the fore-cited place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then sundry Modern Interpreters do who call them Dukes or Princes being to the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Latins Phylarchi Arabum or to the later Writers Saracenorum albeit some Latin Writers call them
Dominions not as Enemies or Rebels of the Empire but as Noxious Creatures to Humane Society with Revenge suting to their former Outrages Partly for the Cyprians better Security in time to come partly in Memory of their former Misery and these Jews Infamy It is publickly inacted that no Jew though driven by Tempest thither should presume to set foot within their Coast upon pain of present execution as already condemned by his very Appearance on that Soil which had been tainted with the deadly Venom of his Country-men 2 But lest Posterity little respective of Jewish Affairs through negligence of the Roman Writers should forget or from the inconsiderate frailty of Humane Nature lesse observe these two most grievous Persecutions of the Jews then was behoveful for Testification of Moses or Christs Prophecies and Confirmation of Christian Faith In Adrians time like Traitors that had fainted upon the rack before their full Confession taken they are recovered to greater Torture And lest the Nations in that or Ages following should not acknowledge them to have been such a Mighty People as the sacred Story makes them they are made a Spectacle to the world again to shew their Natural Strength by their grievous lingring pains in dying This was that which Moses had said Deut. 28. 59. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed great plagues and of long continuance sore diseases and of long durance Yet their Destruction now aâ— at both times alwayes before was from their own Procurement For Adrian causing new Aelia built by him where Hierusalem stood to be inhabited by others Christians as well as Jews and permitting the use of their Country-religion to all the Jews began first to Repine while Adrian was near afterwards to Mutiny upon his departure out of these Eastern Provinces 3 The Fresh memory of their former Desolation made their strength seem little and the Apprehension of their weaknesse made the Romans Care for preventing new dangers lesse then otherwise it might and in reason should have been But as men Environed with Darknesse have great advantage of such as stand in the Light and presumption of good-casting in the beginning bring such as intend the after-game well to better possibility of winning the stake so these Jews partly through the Romans Confidence of their strength partly by their own Secrecy in meeting security of harbour in Caves and Dens purposely digged in the earth and diligent providing necessaries for war from little and contemptible beginnings gather such strength and resolution that they can be content to set the Whole Stock upon it offering Battel unto the choicest Warriours of the Empire to Julius Severus that noble General himself called to this Service such was the danger out of this Island of Britain And albeit the Romans in the end had the Victory without Controversie yet would they not have wished many Triumphs at the same price This peoples last conflict with death and destruction now seizing upon them may witnesse to the world that they had been a principal part of it now so generally and deeply affected with their last pangs For as this judicious and unpartial writer saith The whole world in a manner was shaken with this commotion of the Jews Dion 69. Book 4 But as the Preacher observeth that riches are oftentimes reserved to the owners for their evil So these Jews Extraordinary strength was given them for like Destruction The greater danger their Mutiny had occasioned to the Empire the greater was the Emperours Severity in punishing their Rebellion past the greater his care to prevent the like in time to come In battels and skirmishes were slain of this people 580000. besides an infinite number consumed with famin and diseases during the time of this lingring war protracted of purpose by the Romans not willing to trie it out in open field with such a forlorn desperate multitude Now as Moses had expresly foretold and Dion living not long after this time Emphatically notes They were left Few in number their land laid waste fifty of their strongest Munitions utterly razed 985 of their chief and most populous Towns sackt and consumed by fire 5 This Mighty Destruction of these Jews and general Desolation of their Country by Romans and their Tributaries of these Western Countries a people strange and perhaps unheard of to their Ancestors are Everlasting Monuments of the truth of Moses his Prophecy Deut. 28. 49. The Lord shall bring a nation upon thee from far even from the end of the world flying swift as an Eagle a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand a nation of a fierce countenance which will not regard the person of the old nor have compassion of the young The same shall eat the fruit of thy cattel and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed and he shall leave thee neither wheat wine or oyl neither the increase of thy kine nor the flocks of thy sheep until he have brought thee to naught And he shall besiege thee in all thy Cities until thy high and strong wals fall down wherein thou trustest in all the land and he shall besiege thee in all thy cities throughout thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee Thus at length Judah as well as Israel hath ceased to be a Nation not without Manifest Signs foreshewing their Fatal Expiration Solomons Sepulchre which they held in greatest Honor a little before this War did fall asunder of its own accord as if it would have signified unto them that Gods covenant made with Solomon for Judah's peace and restauration was now utterly void and finally Cancelled by its Rupture and Fall Wolves and Hyena's did howl throughout their Streets and devour this People in the Fields these are the Lords Messengers of Woe and vengeance to this ungratious seed whose Fathers had kild and stoned his Prophets sent unto them for their good Yet is not the wrath of the Lord ceased but his hand is stretched out against them still For Adrian after this strange Desolation by publick Decree ratified with the Senates consent prohibits any Jew to come within the view of Jury This he did onely in a Politick respect lest the sight of their native Soyl might inspire this People with some fresh desperate Resolutions but herein made though unwittingly Gods Angel to keep by his powerful sword this wicked Progeny of those rebellious and Ungratious Husband-men that had kild their Lords First-born out of that Pardise which he had set them to dresse and keep The same mighty Lord having now as it were Disparked the place which he had walled and fenced about and graced with many Charters of greatest Priviledges doth by his Arm stretched out against them still scatter the Reliques of this Rascal Herd throughout all the Nations under heaven So as this Remnant left by Adrian and their race have been as the Game which Gods judgements have held in perpetual
contrite heart for their disobedience past but rather adding thirst to drunkenness Blesse themselves when they hear the words of that Curse promising peace unto themselves though they walk on according to the stubbornness of their Forefathers hearts Their own desires they will not break But Christian Children they can be well content to Sacrifice kill and mangle throughout all ages wheresoever they come as their often practises in England France and Germany witnesse and the Jews of Lincoln executed at London for this crime did confesse to be a solemn practise as oft as they could conveniently come by their prey Thus out of the mouthes of Infants and Children will God have his praise erected still Their Bloud hath sealed and their Cries proclaimed the truth of our Saviours words that these Jews are of their Father the Devil and the lusts of their Father they will do John 8. 44. He was a murtherer from the beginning and alwayes delighted much in such Sacrifices as were most displeasing unto God 5 If Christian Sobrietie did not teach us to acknowledge Gods judgements alwayes just although the manner of his Justice can not be apprehended much lesse exemplified to ordinary capacities by the wisest of the Sons of men the consideration of these Jews perpetual temper would half perswade us that the souls of such as had either procured consented unto or approved our Saviours and his Apostles death had been Sent from Hell by course into the bodies of these Jews here scattered in these Western parts as so many Messengers from the dead to shew the malignant heat of those Everlasting flames by their unquenchable thirst of innocent bloud But neither doth Scripture warrant nor natural Reason enforce such suppositions either for acquitting Gods Severity upon this people from injustice or His Goodness from suspition of being the Author of their villainous minds though he be the sole Creatour as well of theirs as their godly forefathers souls For these their wicked posterities plagues are just because their souls which he hath made will not receive correction by their own or their fathers plagues continually inflicted upon them since our Saviours death but still as it were Hunt out Gods judgements which lie perpetually in wait for them by treading in their Ungratious predecessours steps In one word Though the God of their Fathers have made their souls yet they make Pride of heart Inveterate custome Examples of their progenitors Their God For us Christians let us admire the wisdom of our gracious God that so disposeth our enemies mischievous minds unto our good rather then enquire how their villanies can stand with his justice This their unsatiable desire of Crucifying them unto whom the Kingdom of heaven belongs doth confirm our Faith in that Main Article of their Fathers crucifying The Lord of Glory And no doubt but God in his All-seeing wisdom hath permitted the like hellish temper to remain in all Generations of these Jews that the former most Horrible and otherwise almost Incredible Act with the Actors Devilish Malice might be more lively and sensibly represented to all posterities which had not seen or known them by Experience And Gods Judgements upon these Modern Jews for their Forefathers sins hereby may appear most just in that they make them their won by Imitation plainly testifying to the world that They would do as their Forefathers had done if the same Tragedie of Christs Passion were to be acted our again yea in as much as they practize the like upon his living members They are guilty as wel as their Forefathers of His Death 6 Generally the outward carriage and inward temper of these modern Jews are such as all that have any Experience of them may perceive the Excellent qualities of their worthy Progenitours and the extraordinary Prerogatives whence they are fallen as sensibly and undoubtedly as we can know by the Lees or corrupt remainder of any Liquor what the vertue and strength thereof was in its Prime The present Depression of this People below all others amongst whom they live rightly taken doth give us the true Excesse of their Exaltation in former times above the Nations as perfectly as the Elevation of the Pole which we see doth give us the degrees of the others Occultation Finally if we compare the Estate of such as lived in Tullies times with these Modern Jews estate lately mentioned the great prosperitie of their Ancestors under Joshuah Judges David and Solomon may be gathered from these differences as exactly and as clearly as the third proportionable number out of two others already known This is that Golden Rule whose practise I would commend to all young Students For from the known differences of their Estate from time to time we may be led unto the perfect knowledge of Gods Power and Providence of his Mercy and Bounty to such as love him of his Judgements upon such as Hate him and transgresse his Laws Finally nothing in Scripture can seem Incredible if men would consider the wonderful exaltation and depression of this People 7 This admirable difference between the true Israelites of old and these Modern perfidious Jews is most lively represented unto us in that Parable of divers Figs which Jeremiah saw Jerem. 24. 1 2. The Lord shewed me and behold two baskets of Figs were set before the Temple of the Lord one basket very good Figs like the Figs that are first ripe and the other very naughty Figs which could not be eaten they were so evil No man I hope will challenge me for extending this Text beyond its literal sense One part of which by the Prophets own exposition is to be understood of such as were led captive by Nebuchadnezzar signified by the good figs the other of Zedechiah with the residue of Hierusalem and them that dwelt in the Land of Egypt represented by the bad figs. My Prophet indeed applies it only unto them of his own time of whom I confesse it was Literally meant but not only of them but more principally more fully and directly of the Jews about or since our Saviours time and his Apostles or their followers The parable with the consequence thereof is true of both in as much as both are particulars contained under that general division which Moses had made of Blessings and Cursings to befall this people in divers measures according to their constancy in good or stubbornnesse in evil Unto this General Prediction the Prophets do still frame their prophecies as Corollaries or Appendices and so must they be applied by us not only to the present times wherein they wrote but to the times of the Messiah in which both Moses his general and the Prophets particular prophecies were more fully accomplished then in any age before That which Jeremy in the third Verse of that same Chapter said of the Figs. was true of this people in all Ages The good amongst them were very good the naughty alwayes very naughty but the difference greater
so great let him tell his flock for whose Souls he must answer that they must do Thus and Thus if they will be saved they can be diligent perhaps to hear him and say he spake exceeding well i. e. Very ill of others as they conjecture but not of them or their Adherents If for his good Lessons in the Pulpit he have good words returned at Table he seeth the best fruits of his labour For if one of his Flock shall have an advantage against his Neighbour or have picked a Quarrel with his Lease or let a Gentleman be disposed to put off his Tenants or inhance their Rents to their utter undoing let any gengle or mean have but good hope to make his own great Gain by some others Losse Here if we trie him and charge him upon his Allegiance unto Christ to remit his Hold to let go all Advantage and be good unto his Fellow-servant or poor Brother these are matters the Minister must meddle no more with than an other man the Law can determine whether he do Right or Wrong and this Case belongs properly unto the Lawyer As if the Power of Gods Spirit or Authority of his Ministers did consist onely in Words and required no other Obedience than a formal speculative Assent unto their general Doctrine not a full Resignation of mens Wills or heartie Submission of Affections unto such Rules as they shall prescribe for the preservation of a good and upright Conscience in particular Actions or entercourse of Humane Affairs Or if one of a thousand will be so good as to grant that he is to Obey the Precepts of Christ before the Customes of our Common-Law or other Civil Courts yet even the best of such when it comes to Points of private Commoditie will dispense with his Pastor and replie I would do as you admonish me if I saw any expresse Command for it in Gods Word or any evident Necessity that should bind me to renounce that Right which Law doth give me but for ought I can perceive I may prosecute my Right in this present Case with a safe Conscience and you do not know all particular Circumstances which belong unto this matter if you did or were in my Case I am perswaded you would be of my Mind This although it be the onely shelter under which the Infidelitie of later Ages takes its rest the onely Dormitory wherein Hypocrisie sleeps profoundly and never dreams of further Danger yet is it a most sillie Excuse and shamelesse Apologie in the judgement of any that knows or knowing rightly esteems the Principles of Christianitie For suppose thou see no Evidence that Christ hath commanded thee to confesse his Name in this particular doth the law lay any necessity upon thee to make thee prosecute thy supposed Right If it did charge thee upon pain of Death so to do thou hast some pretence to Obey it albeit thou shouldest fear him more that could Condemn thee and the Interpreters of it to everlasting Death but the Law doth leave it to thy Choise whether thou wilt use the Benefit of it or no and thy Pastour upon penaltie of incurring Christs displeasure commands thee that thou use it not Thou repliest Thou seest no Evidence that Christ Commands thee But dost thou absolutely and infallibly know that he doth not call thee at this time to trie thy Obedience in this Particular If thou canst out of sincerity of Heart and Evidence of Truth fullie inform thy Conscience in this Negative so the End of thy proceedings be good thou maist be the bolder to disclaim thy Pastours Summons If thou canst not how wilt thou answer thy Judge when thou shalt appear before him why thou out of the Stubbornnesse of thy Heart didst more respect thy private Gain than his heaviest displeasure For suppose thy hope of Gain were great as it is usually to such as thou art more great than certain yet cannot the greatnesse and certaintie of it countervail the least danger of incurring His Wrath nor could the certaintie of worldly Gain counterpoise much lesse oversway the least surmise or probabilitie of incurring thy Souls destruction unlesse thy Mind had been set more on Gold than upon thy God more enclined to private Commoditie and Self-love than unto Christ thy Redeemer Or shall thy answer stand for good in his sight when thou shalt say unto his Messenger It is more then I know that Christ Commands me Then should the damned be justified at the Day of Judgement when they shall truly replie they knew not that ever Christ did supplicate unto them sub forma panperis Most of them we may safely swear had lesse Probabilities to Believe this in their life time than thou hast now to perswade thee of this particular although thy Pastours Authoritie and frequent Admonitions were set aside which make thee so much the more Inexcusable For thou mightest have known by him that God had Commanded thee as much unlesse thy bad Desires had made thee Blind But neither shall theirs or thy Ignorance herein help For Ignorance which is bred of bad Desires corrupt Affections or greedy Appetites brings forth hardnesse of Heart and Infidelity so that seeing thou shalt not see and hearing thou shalt not hear nor understand the Warnings for thy Peace because thou hast formerlie shut thine ears at thy Pastors Admonitions or Raged at his just Reproof And the Law of God binds thy Soul upon greater penaltie and better hopes than all Laws in the World besides could bind thy Bodie even upon of everlasting Life and penaltie of everlasting Death to lay aside all Selfe-love all worldlie Desire for the finding out of the true sense and meaning of it as well as to Obey it when thou knowest it And when any point of Doctrine or Practise either in general or particular is commended to thee by thy Pastour Gods Word doth bind thee to search with all Sobrietie and Modestie the Truth and force of all Motives Inducements or Probabilities which he shall suggest unto thee all private respect laid aside lest thou become a partiall Judge of evil thoughts and if thou canst not find better Resolution it binds thee to relie upon his Authoritie And even in this again Gods Word so perfect a Rule is it doth rule thy thoughts to discern the Fidelitie Sinceritie or Authoritie of thy Teacher Unto such as approve themselves as Saint Paul did to every mans Conscience in the sight of God or to such as make not a Merchandize of the Word of God but speak in Christ as of sinceritie and as of God in the sight of God Christian People are bound to yeeld greater Obedience Generallie unto such as in their Lives expresse those Characters of faithfull Dispensers set down by Saint Paul and other Pen-men of Gods Word everie Auditor is bound to yeeld greater Obedience than unto others in Points wherein he hath no other Motives to Believe beside his Pastors Authority For this is a dictate of
how great soever his Authority was the Pope can have have no pretence to be his successor therein For the edification of the people committed to him by our Saviour was to be finished before Ierusalems destruction since which time Israel hath been perpetually scattered amongst the Nations without a shepherd to gather them And when it shall please the Lord as it is probable it will to reduce them to his fold their Ruler shall be of their own people strangers shall have no more dominion over them 3 Had the Pope derived his right from Saint Thomas Rartholomew or other Apostle which have no writings extant this might have yeelded some surmises not so easie to be disproved that Romish traditions did contain the summe at least of all these Apostles unwritten Doctrine if from Saint Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and first planter of faith amongst the Romans as much commended by him as any other of his children in Christ the improbabilitie had been much lesse then now it is in Peters case that the Bishop of Rome if any should have succeeded him But when that people began to grow out of love with the truth fashioning themselves unto this present world the disease whereof Saint Paul forewarned them it was Sathans policie to present unto them longing after such a Monarchical state as their Heathenish Predecessours had such shews of Peters Supremacie and residencie at Rome as by the Divine permission had either crept into some of the Ancients religious cogitations or else in time of darknesse have been shufled by the Predecessors of these cheating mates late discovered into their writings as sit baits to entice them unto this derivation of that absolute power from Peter to their greater condemnation and our good For God no doubt in his providence ordered this their blindnesse to illuminate us as he did the fall of the Jews to confirm the Gentiles in faith seeing of all the Apostles Peters prerogatives as hath been shewed were most evidently personal all to determin with himself unto which observation his own writings also give testimony Even a little before he was to leave the world where he most manifested his earnest desire of preserving his flock found in faith after his death he gives no intimation as shall be shewed more at large hereafter of any Successor unto whom they were to repair His present Epistle he foresaw would be more availeable to this purpose then any Tradition from him I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though that he have knowledge and he established 〈◊〉 present truth For I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to â—… you up by pretting vnto in remembrance seeing I know that the time is at hand that I must lay down this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewea me I will endeavour therefore alwayes that ye also may be able to have remembrance of those things after my departing 4 As for peculiar direction of later times whence perpetual infallibilitie must be derived it cannot be gathered from his writings that he knew so much as his brother Paul did Albeit in this point these two great pillars of Christs Church more famous then all their fellow Apostles besides for present efficacie of their personal ministerie come far behind the Disciple whom Jesus loved whose written Ambassage was in a peculiar sence to tarry till Christs last coming unto judgement as he himself did unto Christ first coming to destroy Jerusalem and forewarn the Nations Besides the Doctrine of common salvation necessarie for all to know plentifully set down in this Disciples Epistle his Revelations contain infallible directions peculiar to every age And as in some one gift or other every Apostle almost exceeds his fellowes so if amongst all any one was to have this prerogative of being the ordinary Pastor or to have ordinary succeslours as Aaron though inferiour to Moses in personal prerogatives during his life had after his death this doubtlesse was Saint John who ascribes that unto the diligent Expositors hearers or Readers of his Books which the Romanist appropriates to such as relie upon the visible Churches determinations never questioning whether it be that Babylon which Saint John deciphers or no Blessed is he saith Saint John that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophesie and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand Blessed they are that read it with fear and reverence or so affected as this Disciple was for unto such the Lord will by means ordinary by sober observation of the event reveal his secret intent as he did it unto him by the extraordinary gift of Prophesie for the testimoâ— of Jesus is the spirit of Prophesie Revel 19. 10. 5 It is evident the Spirit of God intended to shew Iohn and Iohn to shew the faithfull all the Eclipses that should befall the Church until the worlds end His prophesies since his death were so to instruct the world of all principal events present or to come as Histories do of matters forepast Now as he in our times wherein God inspires not men with Moses spirit is accounted the best Antiquary that is most conversant and best seen in the faithfull Records of time not he that can take upon him to divine as Moses did of the worlds state in former Ages so since the gift of prophesie ceased he is to be esteemed the most infallible teacher the safest guide to conduct others against the forces of hell chiefly heresies or doctrines of Devils that can best interpret him who first descried them and in his life time forewarned the Churches of Asia planted by Saint Paul and watered by him of the abominations that threatned shortly to overspread them and after them the whole visible Church until these later times Doth the Pope then professe more skill in Saint Iohns Revelations then any other If he do let him make proof of his Profession by the evidence of his Expositions But from this Apostle he pretends none at all and we demand but any tolerable proof of succession from S. Peter 6 A supreme oecumenical Head say the Parasites to the Sea Apostolique is as necessary now as in Saint Peters time therefore he must jure civino have a Successour But neither doth Scripture or Reason admit any such Head as they have moulded in their brains either then or now As hath been abundantly proved and their own instances brought to illustrate the probabilitie of such a device contradict them For admit that Christ and earthly Princes stood in like need of Deputie-Governours in their absence would the King of Spain were he to go on Pilgrimage unto his Kingdom of Jerusalem leave but one Deputie over all the Dominions of Spain and Portugal the West Indies Sicilie Naples and Millain Or leaving but one would indue him with such absolute power over all his Subjects in these
for after a long and various deliberation used by the Councel Caiaphas who now sate as chief being the High-Priest pronounced that sentence where unto almost all at the least the major part agreed It is expedient that one die for the people and that the whole nation perish not upon which speech the Evangelist forthwith addes This he spake not of himself but being High-Priest for that yeer he prophesied Whence it follows faith Canus that our Prelates lives and actions may perhaps be contrary to our Lord Jesus but their judicial decrees or sentences such as are confirmed by the Pope who must be president in their Councels as Caiaphas was shall prove true and profitable unto Christians as instituted by God for the peoples good yea they shall proceed from the Holy Ghost for the reason which we have learned of the Evangelist to wit because such as give them are Prelates of Christs Church And this is all I have to say unto the second Argument 12 It is easie indeed for them thus to answer to whom it is most easie and most usual to blaspheme That the Popes aswell as Caiapha's prophecies may in the Event prove true and profitable to Christs Church we do not doubt because unto such as love God or are beloved of him all things even Sathans malice that had suborned Caiâ—phas and his brethren against Christ and his members turn to the best But he that had taken this High-Priest whilest he uttered this sentence for an infallible Prophet of the Lord had been bound in conscience to have done so to our Saviour at his as the people did to Baals Priests at Elias's instigation If our adversaries will permit us to interpret the Trent Councels Decrees as the faithfull of those times did Caâ—aâ—bus prophecie we will subscribe unto them without delay It is expedient we grant and profitable with all unto the Church that there should be such Decrees whereby the faith of others might be tried But as it was not lawfull for the people to imbrue their hands in Christs bloud though the greatest benefit that ever befell the world was by his death so neither is it safe to admit the Trent Canons though a wonderfull blessing of God they should be set forth because they so clearly testifie the truth of his word concerning Antichrist Canus said more in this then was needfull according to his supposed principles in his answer to the next argument But God who ruled the mouth of Caiâ—phas and made him speak the truth when he intended nothing lesse dâ—â— also direct Canusâ—s pen to vent what upon better consideration he would have concealed Yet herein he wrote but out of the abundance of his own and most of his fellows hearts who hold that the Priests and 〈◊〉 â—â—re onely in a matter of Fact not in any point of Faith when they 〈◊〉 Christ For conclusion of this consider with me Christian Reader how great cause we have to thank our gracious God that the sâ—â—t of 〈◊〉 or â—abble of Predicants were not founded in our Saviours daveâ— for thâ—… doubâ—â—e the Devil had picked a traitor out of that crue whose impudenâ— sophistical Apologies for open Blasphemie and unrelenting perseverance 〈◊〉 traitâ—rous plots might have outfaced the world that the delivering of Chriâ—… into his enemies hands had been no â—uch sin as Jâ—… testified it waâ—… his pâ—nitent speech and desperate end CAP. XIV What it would disadvantage the Romish Churâ—h to â—eny the infallâ—…lity of the Synagngue THat any visible company of men before our Saviour Christs time dâ—… challenge such absoluâ—e authority over mens faith as the Pore doth would be very hard for them to prove and no question but the high-Pâ—… and â—…ers amongst the Jews did oftentimes challenge more then they had If the Rom mist should say that they had no such infallible authority in deciding all controversies as their Church now challengeth the assertion would be as improbable in it self as incongruous to their positions For unto any indifferent man such Infalliâ—ilitie in the Watch-Tower of Sion mâ—… quisite during the time of the Law then since thâ— promulgation of the Gospel â—e it granted the points to be expresly believed of the anâ— ent people were but few yet even such of them as were most necessary to salvation were more enigmatically and mystically set down then any in the new Testament aâ—e and the measure of Gods Spirit upon every sort of men the vulgar especially in thâ—se times much lesse For this câ—use God raised uâ— Prophets to instruct them whose authority though it was not such as the Roman Church now challengeth but given to supply the ignorance and negligence of the Church representative in those dayes yet much greater thâ—n is ordinarily required in the light of the Gospel by which as the doctrine of salvation is become most conspicuous in it self so is the illumination â—… Gods Spirit more plentifull then before it had been And since the Prophets have been so clearly expounded by the Apostles and the harmony of the two Testaments so distinctly heard the ordinary Testâ—… of â—esuâ—â—… 〈◊〉 to the spirit of Propheâ—ie Allowing then these infinite ods on our pâ—rts that enjoy the labours of former ages with the ordinary preaching of the Gospel an infallible oecumenical authority is much 〈◊〉 needfull now then it was in the Law 2 Or if our adversaries will be so wayward as to deny the like infallibility to have been requisite in the ancient Jewish Church they shall hereby thwart evidently themselves disanull their chief title and utterly disclaim the main plea hitherto used for their own infallibilitie Foâ—… them do uâ—ge Gods promises made unto that Church to prove aâ—… of 〈◊〉 a like authority in theirs And if these promises made to the Jews admit any distinction condition or limitation whereby tâ—… absolute infallibilitie as they suppose it may be impaired then may all the promises made or supposed to be made unto their Church admit the same or like But besides the weakning of their title by debarring themselves of this plea drawn from the example of the ancient Jewish Church no man that reads their writings can be ignorant that all their chief and principal arguments wherewith they carry away most simple souls and importune such as almost neither fear God nor man to give sentence for them and their Church against us are drawn from these or the like Topicks unlesse God had ordained one supreme Judge or infallible Authority that might decide all controversies in matters of faith viva vâ—ce he had not sufficiently provided for his Church yea which were most absurd he had left it in worse estate then civil Estates are for ordinary matters for they besides their written Laws have Judges to determine all cases or controversies arising And seeing that Monarchical Government is of all others the best and in any wise mans judgement most available for avoiding all dissention and keeping the unity of
recenti spiritu evect a deinsenescente eo destituta aut etiam ponderesuo victa in latitudinem vanescebat candida interdum interdum sordida maculosa prout terrant cineremuè sustulerat Magnum id propriusque noscendum ut Eruditissimo Viro visum est It was told Him That there Appeared a Cloud for Bignesse and Shape never the like seen Up the Gets and goes to an Advantage whence he might the Better see that Strange Sight A Cloud Rose as yet the Beholders knew not from what Mountain afterwards it was found to be Vesuvius much Resembling a Pine-tree For it seemed to have as it were a Long Trunk and Boughs spreading out above Sometime it appeared White other-while Duskie and Dapled or stained and spotted according to the blended proportions of Earth and Ashes He thought it a strange Sight indeed and worthy his Adventuring nearer to View it c. That the Sun was turned into Darknesse that with this Smoak was mixed Fire may appear from the same Authors Words a little after Jam dies alibi illic nox omnibus noctibus nigrior densiorque quam tamen Faces multae variaque lumina solvebant Plin. Ep. 1. 6. Ep. 16. This which occasioned Wonderment to the Heathen was no doubt a sufficient Warning to all Godly Christians to betake themselves to their Prayers to expect the confirmation of their Faith by their mighty deliverance from those dangers wherein innumerable Heathens utterly perished which made the hearts of all man-kind besides to fail This corporal preservation of the Elect from fear or danger whilest Cast-awayes perished and trouble raged among the Nations was that Redemption which our Saviour speaks of And when these things begin to come to passe then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh For this was a sure Type or pledge of their and our Everlasting Redemption And before the bursting out of that Fire and the erection of those Pillars of Smoak before mentioned God as our Saviour foretold had sent his Angels to gather his Elect together either to places free from those general Calamities or miraculously to preserve them in the midst of them For to deny or suspect the truth of Dions relations I have no reason and yet what other Cause to assign of those Giants Apparitions in Vesuvius and the Towns about it immediately before that danger I know not but only that which our Saviour had given And He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the Four winds and from the one end of the Heaven to the other Thus Dion Ita verores acta Viri multi magniomnem naturam Humanam excedentes quales exprimuntur Gigantes partim in ipsomonte partim in agro circumjacente ac in oppidis interdiu noctuque terram obire at que acra permeare visebantur Posthaec consecuta est maxima siccitas ac repentè ita graves terrae motus facti c. L. 66. The like Gathering of the Elect Ecclesiastick Writers mention in the Siege of Jerusalem and Jewish wars the Godly sit at ease and in peace whilst the Obstinate and Seditious were overwhelm'd with Calamity upon Calamity And yet all the Calamities which accompanied Jerusalems Destruction did in greater measure afflict the Heathens within few years after It was destroyed Above other places Gods plagues hanted the Roman Court that all the world might take notice of our Saviours Prophecies And the Romans albeit they knew not who had given the Advice resolved yet to practise as our Saviour advised Let him saith our Saviour that is upon the house top not come down into the house neither enter therein to fetch any thing out of his house And let him that is in the field not turn back again unto the things which he left behind him to take his clothes So Pliny testifies that in the times above mention'd albeit the Pumice stones did flie about mens ears in the open fields yet they held it more safe during the Earthquake to be abroad then within doors arming their heads with Pillows and Bolsters against the blows they expected In commune consultant intratecta subsistant an in aperto vagentur nam â—…bris vastisque tremoribus tecta nutabant quasi emota sedibus suis nunc huc nunâ— illuc aâ—ire aut referri videbantur Sub dio rursus quanquam levium exesorumque pumicum casus metuebatur quod tamen malorum collatio elezit Cervicalia capitibus imposita linteis constringunt Id munimentum adversus incidentia fuit Plin. Ep. 〈◊〉 6. Ep. 16. This was the beginning of that Great and terrible Day of the Lord foretold by the Prophet wherewith the world was for a long time shaken by Fits as it were by a deadly Fever as may appear from the like calamities in Trajans times related by Dion Our Saviour himself expounds the Prophets words not of One Day but Dayes for there shall be in Those Dayes such tribulation as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created neither shall be So terrible were these dayes that as our Saviour in the next word addeth except the Lord had made an end of them they had quickly made an end of all man-kind Even at that time the world by the Ordinary Course of Gods Justice should have been destroyed but He spared it at the instant prayers of his Chosen as he would have saved Sodom after Judgement was gone out had there been but a few such Faithful men in it as in the fore mentioned times the world had many So merciful is our God so loving unto all the works of his hands that his Son cannot come to Judgement so long as he shall find faith upon the earth Whosoever saith the Prophet shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved yea he shall save others as our Blessed Saviour more fully foretels what the Prophet saw but in part Except that The Lord had shortned those dayes no flesh should be saved but for the Elects sake which he hath chosen He hath shortned those dayes Other Prophesies there be of those times which seem to intimate a final destruction of all Flesh without delay and so no doubt the Prophets themselves conceived of the world as Jonah did of Nineve which he looked should instantly have perished upon the Expiration of the time he had foretold Wrath they had seen go out from the Lord of force enough to have dissolved the Frame of Nature but could not usually foresee either the Number of the Faithful or the dispositions of mens hearts upon their Summons but This Great Prophet who onely foresaw all things not onely foretels the Calamities or Judgements due unto the world but withall foresees the Number of the Elect their inclination to hearty prayers and Repentance by which he knew the fierce Wrath of God whose representation the Prophet saw should be diverted from the world