dispencing of it as to several other heads of it While Celsus will needs make the Royal Law useless and needless as to the most part of it There is nothing saith he in the Christian Discipline new or worthy of commendation but is common to it and the Philosophers who before Christ have taught that there is to be expected Rewards of Virtue and Mulcts for Sin in the other World Orig. contr Cel. 1. 4. Christ tell us saith he we ought not to worship Gods made with hands that the Father is to be worship'd in Spirit Why we Philosophers account not Images of the Gods to be Deities we know that the Workmanship of wicked Artificers and villanous men as many times they are that grave these Images cannot be Gods we have learn'd of Heraclitus that they who adore liveless Statues do as simply as they that talk to Walls of the Persians that the Deity is not comprehended within any Structure made with hands and of Zeno Citiensis in his Book of the Common-wealth that he need not build Chappels that prepares the Temple of his own Soul for the entertainment of God Those very Laws which the Madaurencian Philosophers blamed as destructive to humane Societies Celsus mentions with Commendation as far more ancient than Christ. They have also saith he these Laws Thou must not repel injuries If any man smite thee on thy cheek turn the other to him this is an old Dictate long since utter'd by Socrates when he was disputing with Crito and mention'd by Plato in his Timaeus Orig. contr Cel. 7. 17. upon the same account he mentions the commendations which Christ gives to Humility Purity of Heart Pacateness of Spirit c. as better expressed by Plato in his Books of Laws advising him that would be happy to pursue Righteousness with an humble pure and pacate Mind Id lib. 5. cal 8. And the Caution that Christ gives against Covetousness Celsus in the same place affirmeth to have been derived from Plato whose saying that it is impossible for any man to be very rich and very good he parallels to that of Christ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The mortiferousness of these Waters is to be cured by casting in that cruze of Salt which I have already exhibited and brought to hand in the second Book where I shewed that whatsoever points of abstruse knowledge occurr in the Schools they are beholding to the Temple for and are but Beams of that Light which Christ or his Spirit in the Prophets communicated to the World the last of which Prophets Writings are near as old as the first of Gentile Philosophers It were endless to enumerate the ecchoes of Christs Law which those Rocks that oppose it so articulately reverberate as a steadily listning Ear may take in the beginning middle and end of every Evangelical Precept from those mock-sounds in Heathen Authors I shall not therefore enlarge this Section with more Instances but conclude it with this Observation That the Adversaries in making reply to our urging them with the excellencie of Christs Law would not have taken that course as puts them upon such self-contradictory Salvoes if they durst for very shame the contrary was so palpable have denied them to be Christs Briefly we find in the Pagan Writers what they took to be Christ's Law and that which they opposed as such is the very same with that that the Gospel presents as such not one Egg is more like another than that Bracelet of Pearls which our Saviour fitted to the necks of his Disciples is to that which these impure Swine trample under their feet CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found as asserted by the Church in those Writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilat c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. § 1. 3. THe sum of the Christian Faith taught by Christ and his Apostles is intirely and in every branch of it recorded as such in the Authors that disputed against it For order and brevities sake I shall here instance in the several Articles of it comprised in that most admirable Compendium of it the Apostles Creed which as it has been taken for such by all Christians so it has been opposed as such by all Adversaries Article 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth That this Article as it is now profest by the Church and laid down in the New Testament was from the beginning held forth as a point of that Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles Preach'd and therefore not wrongfather'd upon them is manifest from those quotations out of Pagan Authors who affronted it upon that very account and only Reason because it was Christ's Doctrine Celsus from the practice of the Ophiani Hereticks who worship'd the Serpent as bestowing upon our first Parents the knowledge of good and evil a gift which God envied them as they blasphemously speak objects that Christians contrary to that faith which they profess worship another God than the Creator of all things to wit the Serpent Or. Con. Cels. 5. 16. As Celsus doth here confess that that Doctrine which our Bible exhibites touching Gods prohibiting Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge and the Serpents prevailing with Adam to eat of that Tree and the opening of Adam's eyes thereupon to discern good and evil and the Serpents infinuating to Adam that God envied him that knowledge c. was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles so his charging upon the Church that impious Practice of these Heriticks misgrounded upon the Churches Faith and which the Church exprest her abhorrencie of was no more equal dealing than that which the Romanists measure out to the British and other Protestant Churches when they lay to her charge the practices of such as are at as great a distance from Communion with her as with them You Christians saith Celsus profess you believe in and worship God the Creator of this Universe but since Plato saith it is hard to find out and know that God and impossible to communicate the knowledge of him to another is it like that you of all other men should attain to the knowledge of this God being fast bound in chains of ignorance so as you cannot see what is pure Idem 7. 14. Compare what the Christians teach with what the Philosophers guess concerning God and the controversie which of us have attained to a more perfect knowledge of God will easily be determined That God created man after his own Image was the Doctrine of Christ and the Primitive Church appears from Celsus his arguing that if the Christans
received by uninterrupted Tradition though they neither could retrieve all Principles of that Nature nor through want of the rest always rightly apply those they had received And it seems a wonder to me that so many who would be counted men in understanding should be so affected with his Systems which he himself if my memory fail me not in his Preface to his Natural Philosophy affirmeth he could make no man understand or relish so well as one woman who though she was a person of honour and of as great a capacity as any as all of that Sex yet sure she was not a competent Judge of such Speculations had they been truly Masculine She might perhaps have judged of a Poem upon the presumption of Sapphos Dexterity of an Oration and have not gone beyond those bounds to which that Sex reached in the persons of Amaesia Affrania Hortensia she might perhaps have found by enquiring of her Cooks or Scullions that his Kitchin-experiments were true and by her own Discretion see some of them subvert some of the Conclusions of the old Philosophy as one fool may spy more faults than an hundred wise men can mend But that they were a Foundation firm enough for his Conclusions that she and only she should discern is an affront to our whole Sex if indeed his Philosophy be calculated to the sublimest Principles of the most Masculine and Strenuous Wits and not Female and Vulgar Capacities who are easily imposed upon by the fallacy of non causa pro causa Though It must be acknowledged to the praise of that excellent Lady that her Philosophical Genius so far transcended the common standard of her Sex as to make credible that Story which Socrates relates of the Alexandrian Hypatia the Daughter of Theon the Philosopher who excell'd all the Sophisters of her time and either preceded or succeeded Platinus in Plato's School Lib. 7. 15. Socrat. Scholast hist. But I have dwelt too long upon these Minim Deities were it not that from their introduction we may learn to what Vanity of mind divine Justice gives those men up that desire not the knowledge of the Almighty and how aptly the Prophet speaks when he saith they should creep into the holes of the earth For at the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness this whole brood of Vermine disappear'd these Hodmadods crept into their shells these Worms into their holes these never stood one fight with our Lord of Hosts their Adorers never struck one stroke in their defence as they did for their celestial Gods the Host of Heaven which they worship'd the Gods of the greater and lesser Nations But all in vain For those strong men that kept the house are all turn'd out of possession by the blessed Jesus and spoil'd of all their Ensigns of divine honour Jove of his Thunder-bolt Christs still voyce drowning the noise of his Thunder Apollo of his Bow and Arrows Christ's Arrows proving more sharp in the sides of Python the Serpent than his Mars of his Faulchion Christ's two-edged Sword proving the better mettled Blade Minerva of her Spear being not able with her Target to defend her self against the Artillery of the Cross Mercury of his Caduceus by the more sweet Charms of the Apostles The Lion of the Tribe of Judah uncas'd Hercules and pull'd off his Lions Skin over his ears As that Light of Light appeared in the East and gradually shone to the West the World ceas'd to fear those Hobgoblins that had affrighted her in the dark men learn'd to look upon the Sun without the Ceremonies of Adoration without kissing the hand or bending the knee As the Bread that came down from Heaven hath been broken to the several Nations of the Earth they gave over baking Cakes to the Queen of Heaven As the Gospel introduc'd the fear of the One blessed God she shak'd off the fear of false Gods broke down their Altars demolish'd their Temples contemn'd their Oracles and stampt their Images to powder As the God that made Heaven reveil'd himself by the Preaching of the Gospel the Gods that did not make Heaven and Earth have been abolish't from off the Earth from under Heaven The Romans Celebration of the Funeral of that Coblers Crow two years after our Saviours Passion Gilbert Genebrand in his Chronic. conceives to have been a presage that now the Gospel was begun to be publish'd the black Crow that is Satan was shortly to expire at Rome where had been his chief seat and babling as he is quoted by Vossius Atrium mali spiritûs infractum imperium obrutum quasi sepultum iri Vos de Idol 3. 89. This was but short warning however all on a suddain as in a Pannick Fear the whole Army of Celestial Terrestrial and Infernal black and white Daemons take themselves to their heels and quit their ancient seats as soon as the Lord of Hosts appears pitching his Tent amongst men and Tabernacling in Humane Flesh. So that now a Child may lead those Lions at whose voice the World trembled before God utter'd his voyce none frequent those Fountains Caves Groves Oaks for Counsel at the lips of whose Oracles formerly the whole World hung for advice in all Matters of weight thither men repaired there they enquired about planting of Colonies building of Cities about Peace and War c. Plutarch conviv mor. tom 1. p. 377. But they have all lost their Tongues since God spake to us by his Son Jove's Fountain of Castalion and that otherof Colophon saith Clem. Alexand. adhaetat are commanded silence and all other Prophetick Springs have lost their divining tast whose proud streams swell'd of old with the honour of being reputed the seats of Sacred Oracles One of those silenc'd Oracles that of the Daphnean Apollo in the Suburbs of Antioch Julian would have cured of his dumbness and he attempted the like elsewhere Am. Marcol Julianus 22. 12. Multorum curiosior Julianus novam consilii viam aggressus est venas fatidicas Castalionis recludere cogitans fontis quem obstruxisse Caesar dicitur Hadrianus mole saxorum ingenti veritus rè ut ipse praecipientibus aquis capessendam Rempublicam comperit etiam alii similia docerentur ac statim circum humata corpora statuit exindè transferri eo ritu quo Athenienses insulam purgaverant Delon Julian his curiosity in the matter of Religion in order to the Defence of Paganisme against the Christian Faith which he had renounc'd put him upon this new Project thinking to open the Veines of the Castalion Fountain which the Emperour Hadrian is reported to have obstructed with a huge heap of stones fearing least as he was invited to undertake the Empire by the Oracle of that Spring others also might be taught the like he forthwith commands the Corps that were there inter'd should be removed thence after the same rite as the Athenians purged the Island of Delos What success he had here or in other places that Historian doth not relate which
as asserted by the Church in those writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The Holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. CHAP. V. The Truth of the Gospel-History attested by Secular Writers § 1. Old Antagonists did not persist in the denial of any point of Gospel-History save that of Christs Resurrection and the manner of their denying it proves the Truth of it § 2. Josephus his Story of John Baptist accords with Gospel-History § 3. His Text in testimony of Jesus vindicated from the Exceptions of Vossius c. § 4. Josephus his date of Christs and the Baptists Story falls in with Gospel-Chronology § 5. The Stories of Herod Herodias Aretus Artabanus Philip Lysanias in Josephus Tacitus Suetonius timed to Sacred Chronology § 6. The Twin-Priesthood of Annas and Caiphas at Christs Baptism and Passion cleared § 7. The Date of Philip the Tetrarch his Death CHAP. VI. The Date of Christs Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and Baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christs Birth The Priestly Courses the Character of it which from the first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christs Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answered § 6. The taxing of all the world ill-confounded with that of Syria CHAP. VII Josephus his Suffrage to the Evangelists in the Substance of their History of Christ. § 1. He appropriates the Compellation Christ to our Jesus speaks of the Churches growth in a Gospel-stile § 2. Describes Christs Disciples by Evangelical Characters gives the Evangelists Reasons why others did not embrace the Gospel § 3. He peremptorily asserts Christs Miracles how he came to a certain information thereof Appion and Justus would have found it out if he had proceeded here upon presumptions and uncertainties § 4. He describes Christs Miracles after the Evangelical Model § 5. And affirms them to have been such as the Prophets had foretold The Touch-stone of Canonical History § 6. He asserts Christs Resurrection with all its Circumstances CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians Debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He Dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James Martyred in the third a Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Style Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owle § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great died of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symptoms of Agrippa's Disease § 6. A Digression touching St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1. Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphal yet true Julian's Prohibition of the use of secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers CHAP. X. The Adversaries forced upon very great Disadvantages to their own Cause by reason that they could not for very shame resist the Evidences brought in defence of Sacred History § 1. Christ accused of working by the Prince of Devils that Accusation withdrawn in open Court and this Plea put in against him that he made himself a King and therefore was an Enemy to Caesar § 2. Pety Exceptions rebound upon the heads of their Framers § 3. The Modern Sceptick's half-reasons too young to grapple with old Prescription § 4. Christs Works Gods Seal to his Mission § 5. The present Age as able to judge of the Nature of those Works as that was wherein they were done § 6. Atheistical Exceptions against particular points of Religion an Hydra's head yet they all stand upon one neck and may be cut off at one blow by proving the Divine Original of Religion BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT 4. The Divine Original of Sacred Writ is as demonstrable as the being of a God from the Infinity of Wisdom express'd in its Prophecies and of Power in its miracles THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Being of a Deity Demonstrated § 1. The Existence of a Deity demonstrable from the frame of the world the composition of humane bodies § 2. The Garden of the Earth did not fall by chance into so curious and well order'd knots The ingenuity of Birds sings the Wisdom of their Maker c. § 4. The Heavens declare the glory of God CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stamp'd thereon no less manifest Prints of infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torments God might permit the Devil to communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfill'd CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fulfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing vertue the second Temples Dowry CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
that sweet morsel of Judeas Crown under his Tongue which he had in his hope swallowed and must regorge if St. Paul carry the day would set his wits on work to seek evasions and starting-holes in every corner of his Apology in the whole Web of whose Discourse upon that subject how glad would his own dear interest have made him could he have found one Wemb through which he might have seen the least glimmering of a possibility that those emergencies in Judaea then under contest before him were not such as St. Paul reported them to be Can we think that Christian Apologist could satisfie Nero in that point as St. Jerome in the place forecited insinuates by his in prima satisfactione which he so much desired to disbelieve till he had throughly weighed and canvas'd all St. Paul's and his Adversaries Pleas and found the Apostle to be irrefragable Briefly To sum up the whole of this Argument A man may without any violent elevation of his mind fancy Judea that Navel of the Earth to have been a Stage erected for the Actors in the midst of the Theatre of the World and the Inhabitants of the Empire sitting in a round as spectators and observing what was there acted with the greatest silence imaginable We are made saith St. Paul a theatre to men and Angels What hinders but we may interpret that Text by Daniel 10. 13. the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia and Vers. 14. Michael one of the chief Princes and Chap. 12. 1. Michael the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people and by Angels understand the Angel-presidents over Nations those Eyes of the Lord according to Mr. Mede that run through the Earth To be sure they might at that time have seen all the World sitting still and at rest yea themselves then resting from impeding withstanding opposing deteining one another in behalf of their several Jurisdictions and had leisure to sit down for company with their Pupils and fix their running Eyes upon that strange sight was a showing in Judaea upon that one Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands However this Text can imply no less than Action upon the Stage Tumultuations in Judea with silence among the Spectators Peace in all the World about and that Peace allowed the Empire without the least distraction to trie to the bottom the grounds of those Commotions and those grounds being of highest concern to the Spectators res tua tunc agitur It must needs be morally impossible that the Christian Church could by any the handsomest Legerdemain delude that Eagles Eye so fixedly pitch'd on these Occurrences and so steadily pearch'd upon that Olive-plant of an Universal Peace an attempt to cheat the Spectators in such a Juncture would have been such an Act quòd ipse Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes as he that had but half an Eye would swear to be the undertaking of scarce half-witted men I am now come to a Period of this tedious and toilsom Pilgrimage through the holy Age if I may call the Time so as well as the Place which Christ separated from all other Ages wherein to manifest himself in the flesh and divulge his Royal Law undertaken not out of curiosity to see Fashions but upon the same account which I have observed many of the Ancients to have travelled to the holy Land to inform themselves more explicitly in the Evangelical History to confirm themselves more feelingly by ocular Demonstration in the truth of that History or to delight their inamour'd Souls with the Contemplation of the places where the Blessed Jesus convers'd here he wept here he pray'd here he fasted this was the place of his Birth this of his Baptism this of his Transfiguration on this Hill he gave his Royal Law on this he foil'd the Tempter on this his sacred Feet printed their farewel-kiss to the Earth such Meditations could not but deeply affect confirm the Religious Pilgrim This put me upon enquiring whether the same Religious Use might not be made of travelling through the holy Age and this Enquiry upon making trial aiming at the informing my self as it were by ocular Inspection whether it was an Age likely to be imposed upon as our Modern Scepticks insinuate In which travel I have been forc'd to take Secular Writers for my Guides that I might frame my Journals in a Language which they whose couviction I endeavour profess themselves to understand and to take pleasure in the sound of entertaining my self with those hopes that Secular History as well as A Verse may take him whom a Sermon flies And turn delight into a sacrifice And that our great Criticks in Humanity may deign to peruse a Discourse that hath cost the Author so many weary steps and not think him immodest in this request that they would in order to their own satisfaction with him who for their sake hath travell'd over the Mountains of the Leopards that he might take and give them a prospect of that Age vouchsafe to take one view of it from Mount Sion and mark one Bulwark more it had against treacherous surprizals grounded upon the Candour and Integrity of its Assailants enough to have secur'd it had it not been intrench'd and without which all the Fortifications we have seen the remains of would be but so many Monuments of the Subtilty and Stratagems of the Conquerours It will therefore be necessary in order to a full sail Assurance of the truth of our general Proposition to turn our sail to this Wind our thoughts to this Observation CHAP. XII As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church § 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives Pliny's testimony of them § 2 3. They hide not their imperfections nor the Truth to please Parties or to avoid the Worlds taking offence The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge Pagan Forgeries § 5. Papal Innovation founded on lying Legends Sr. Thomas Moor upon St. Austin Gregory Turonensis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars The Story of the Baptist ' s Heod § 1. 1. THeir avowed Principles touching making a Lye though with an intention to serve God by it were That the Devil is the Father of it Joh. 8. 44. That whoso love or make a Lye shall be excluded Heaven and detruded into the society and torments of Devils Apocal. 22. 15. Now had Men of this Profession abused the World with false Stories in a matter of so high a concern as Religion it would have render'd them in the opinion of all men the veriest miscreants that ever liv'd would certainly have allayd that confidence they used in justifying the truth of their Reports to the faces of men
mirum cùm Daemones c. Mar. 1. 24. Some of their Philosophers as Porphyry writes enquired of their Gods what they could say concerning Christ and that they were forc'd in their Oracles to commend Christ which is not at all to be thought strange seing we read St. Marc. 1. 24. That the Devils confest him to be the Son of God But let us hear Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This King God in the Apostle's phrase the only Potentate and Creator of all things the Earth the Heaven and Sea revere before whom hellish darkness and Demons tremble And therefore Sibyl chides the Grecians for their extreme vanity Lactant. de falsa Relig. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greece why dost thou put thy trust in provincial Presidents who are but men Why dost thâ—â— bring vain oblations to dead men Why dost thou sacrifice to Idols Who injected this folly into thy mind that thou should do these things and neglect the person of the great God This was that Grecian folly which as I said at my entrance upon my discourse upon Plato's reporting his own and those Barbarians Opinion from whom he learn'd his Philosophy Grecizing Moses intermixt the true Tradition with making it speak the Language of his own Country wherein he was not only forsaken by his own School but exploded by the adherents to the Sibylline Books out of which these last-quoted Verses give so express a Reproof of that and so full Proof of the contrary Doctrine that men are to expect salvation and in order to the obtaining of it to put their trust not in many but one Saviour who is the Person of the great God as I shall burden my Reader with no more Allegations nor any further discourse upon that point but proceed to another Hypothesis of the Ethnick Theologues concurring with the Fundamentals of the Gospel and exprest in that forecited passage in Plato viz. CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry ' s Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham ' s departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christ's Blood § 7. Man's Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the World by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how § 1. A Relique of the old Tradition delivered in Paradise and wrapp'd up in those clauses The Serpent shall bruise the heel of the Womans Seed and he shall break the Serpents head the first implying Christ's Passion and the latter his undeceiving the World by delivering true Oracles to the World which had been cheated by the Devil 's false ones Of the first Member of this Tradition we find reserves in the Sibylline Books quoted by Lactantius de vera Rel. lib. 4. cap. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall become miserable contemptible without form that he may give hope afford help to miserable men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall fall into the hands of sinners and infidels who shall with impure hands box him about the ears and spitefully spit upon him and he shall give his most innocent back to scourges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they smite him upon the cheek he shall hold his peace so as Men shall not take him for the Word oe understand why he came to wit to make the dead hear his voice and he shall wear a Crown of thorns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall give him Gall to eat and Vinegar to drink these are the Commons which that inhospitable Generation will allow him By which misusages his face shall be so marred as his own shall hide their faces from him as seeing nothing in him that was desirable that could speak him to be The desire of the Nations for thus sings another Sibyl of the Land of Judea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool that thou art thou canst not know thy own God through the vizour of that contempt thou casts upon him These Responds eccho so distinctly to the Voices of the Prophets and so exactly sute the History of the Gospel as had they all proceeded from one mouth they could not have made a more perfect Harmony That the Writings of the Philosophers are Repositories of the same Doctrine hath been already evidenc'd out of Plato who affirms that it is the Opinion of those Barbarians of whom he learn'd his Philosophy as also of the Brachmans Odrysenans Getes Egyptians Arabians Chaldeans and all that inhabit Palestine That those blessed Souls who leave their supercelestial place and vouchsafe for the relief of Mankind to assume humane Bodies do in order to that undergo all the miseries of this Life To which Isocrates gives his Vote in the name of the greatest part of the World telling us in his Euagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That most of those that were reputed Semidei half-God half-man and those the most famous were reported to have undergone the greatest calamities and that in pursuit of achievements which were more full of danger to themselves than of Immediate profit to others Isocrat Hel. laudatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he giveth instance Orat. ad Philippum in Hercules whom notwithstanding with the same breath he affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have had more Wisdom than Fortitude Now how it could stand with his Wisdom to imploy his Fortitude in those dangerous and painful labours which brought so much hardship upon himself and no profit to others can hardly be resolv'd except he undertook those labours otherwise in vain as Expiations and spent his sweat and blood as Libations as Propitiations to appease the incensed Deity not for his own but his Countries sins for The God-begotten saith Isocrates Busirid laudat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are free from sin and have all Vertues in their perfection By this oblation of himself for others Hercules his labours were beneficial to the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he procured to himself the Surname of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandr Protrept The driver away of evil
Covenant to Abraham and his Seed in respect of which former Bargain contracted with the Father of the Faithful he could not salvâ side without suffering his Faithfulness to fail without impairing his Truth as well as in respect of his great name King of Saints cast off the Carnal Seed wholly from being his Kingdom till he had taken his Spiritual Seed into their room And indeed God's punishing of his Rebels with total Rejection before he had erected his Kingdom of Grace in the midst of his Enemies the Gentiles would have been the punishing of himself with the forfeiture of his Visible Kingdom of Grace and the stripping of himself into the bare Kingdom of his Providence So far would God have been from encreasing his wealth by their price as he would have made a losing Bargain and bankrupt himself of a peculiar People if he had cast off Judah before the accession of the Gentiles to his Scepter of Grace which did not happen till their flocking in to Christ's Standard As is manifest from their Prophets speaking of this gathering of the Gentiles to Shilo even to the last of them as of a thing de futuro He shall lift up an ensign to the Gentiles Isa. 11. 12. Thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Isa. 55. 5. My name shall be great among the Gentiles Mal. 1. 11. So that at the Expiration of Old Testament Prophecy this gathering was yet to come It was yet in the shell of the Promise And since Malachy there hath not been any gathering of Gentile Nations to the God of Israel to make his name great in all the Earth saving that of the Christian Flock to that Shepherd whom the God of Israel is not asham'd to call his Fellow his Equal and of whom the Prophets have foretold that he should bring forth judgment to the Gentiles Hitherto therefore that Plea was prevalent We are thy people save us thou never barest rule over them If thou destroy this people What will become of thy great name what will become of thy Promise to Abraham of thy Kingdom of Grace For God was obliged by the Interest of his Glory and by his Promise to the Patriarchs not to remove the Scepter from Judah till Shilo come and the Gentiles were gather'd to him But when Shilo was come the Baptist forewarns Abraham's Children not to trust any longer to that Plea as their security against approaching vengeance Think not to say when you are consulting how to escape wrath to come we are Abraham's children That Plea is now growing out of date For God is able to raise up children to Abraham and a People to himself of stones that is out of the obdurate Gentile World men as hard as Stones and hitherto in respect of Gods Covenant with Abraham and pre-ingagement as uncapable as Stones of becoming the People of the God of Israel in your room of becoming as you are now the Kingdom of God or as Ireneus Advers her lib. 4. cap. 16. renders it of them that worship Stones as the Gentiles did it being usual in the holy Dialect to call Nations by the name of the Idols which they worship as Bell boweth down c. This God was ever able to do in respect of his absolute Power but that Power being as to the exercise of it bounded by his Will for it were Impotency in God to do what he will not and his Will declared to Abraham he became Debter to his own Faithfulness and Truth so far as he had not a Moral Power to do it that is could not do it without impeachment of his Truth before this Fulness of Time came wherein God is to raise up a new Seed to Abraham and to call them a people that were no people to make Japhet dwell in the tents of Sem ejecio scilicet Israele St. Jerom in Gen. 9. 27. i. e. to take the place of Israel to graft the wild Olive Branches upon the Root and Father of the Faithful implied as Isidore Pelusiota well observes in the following words Now is the axe lib 1. epist. 64. Eulampio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit of this acute and evangelical Decision that every Tree that brings not forth good Fruit be hewen down laid to the root of the tree not a Mattock to dig the Roots up to make the Covenant with Abraham touching his Seed void but an Axe to cut off witherd Branches after the Gentiles that were grafted in had taken root By which Axe or two-edged Sword as the Apostle stiles it Heb. 4. Is cut in pieces that double Dilemma whereby the carnal Jew deceived himself and thought to intangle God 1. If we be rejected who have Abraham to our Father God breaks the Covenant he made with him And 2. Leaves himself destitute of a People we being his peculiar People and the only Nation in the World over whom he is King The Reply which the Apostles gave to this first Objection was That the prime Article of God's Covenant with Abraham was That he should be a father of many nations that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed and therefore should he not take the Gentiles into his Kingdom now that one Seed that is Christ was come he would have broke Covenant with Abraham As to the Jews he sent Jesus Christ first to bless them but seeing they refused to be blessed upon those Terms of Faith upon which God blessed Abraham thereby declaring themselves to be the Devil's Children quarrelling with that Covenant as the Devil did with that which God made with Adam and not Abraham's who without Hesitancy tergiversation or making his own terms with God simply and unreservedly submitted to God's and seeing the Gentiles accepted of them thereby becoming the Children of faithful Abraham It was not consistent with God's Promise to Abraham to leave him childless as they so far as lay in their power had made him much less would it stand with his Oath that he would bless them that blessed him and curse them that cursed him not to bless those Heathens with the adoption of Sons and reception into Abraham's Family who blessed Abraham with a spiritual Seed and acknowledged themselves his Children by becoming of his Faith and treading in his Steps and that in favour of that fleshly Seed which would have left him no Seed of the Promise no Seed of his Faith but have brought upon him if they might have had their will the Curse of Sterility in that juncture of Time wherein God had promised to multiply it as the Stars of Heaven and to make him a Father of many Nations Act. 13. 46. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you Jews but seeing you put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of everlasting life loe we turn to the Gentiles for so hath the Lord commanded us saying I have set thee
manifest Argument of the Pagans assenting to the Truth of Gospel-history of their acknowledging Christ to have done those wonders the Gospel reports of him Else what needed this waste of like Narratives VVhy did the Aegiptian Sorcerers make shew that they could turn a Rod into a Serpent if they had not seen Moses his Rod first turned the Truth always goes before the counterfeit VVhile I lead my Reader that I may give him a prospect of this Truth into those places which are most infested with pestilential Airs to secure himself from the malignity thereof let him take this Antidote made up of these cautionary ingredients 1. As to Matters of Fact there is as wide a difference betwixt our and their reports in point of the credibility of the evidence as is betwixt the Fables of Tom. Thumb the Tales of Robin Hood and the most authentick Chronicles Ours being of things done before many VVitnesses in the open Sun their 's in a corner and for which we have nothing but the bare word of him that did them or his that reports them Diocles his Author Philostratus grounds all his whole stories upon the report of Demaris the Disciple and Servant of Apollonius most of which happened before Demaris saw Apollonius his face and many of which were done behind Demaris his back in his absence from his Master So that all depend originally upon Apollonius his own Testimony of himself 2. As to the Pagans exceptions against the Articles of the Christian Faith they proceed upon these Fallacies 1. Upon their misunderstanding some words which we use in a peculiar sence or they wrest from their common sence 2. Upon their confounding the divine Oeconomy the distinction of the two Natures in the person of our Saviour concluding he is not God from such things as he did or suffered on purpose that he might declare himself Man 3. And for their Cavils against our Christian Morals they are raised 1. From their not distinguishing betwixt God's changing of his Methods of Providence to us and his changing of his own mind in himself Or 2. From their mis-applying to the external Court those Laws Christ intended for the Court of Conscience What falls not under these I shall solve as I meet with them if I think them worth answering In the Interim having thus secur'd my Reader from mortal danger I shall venture to give him a sight of Christ in the High Priest's Hall before Pilat's Judgment-seat in the crowd of those that cried crucifie him Vopiscus in his Aurelian hath this Story When Aurelian found the Gates of Thiana shut against him he said in a rage that he would not leave a dog alive in that Town but the Town being taken when his Souldiers thinking to gratifie his fury ask'd him if they should depopulate that place he bid them kill all the Dogs they found there but not a man save Heraclommon who betrayed his native place and therefore would never be true to him This alteration of the Emperour's mind saith Vopiscus is reported by some grave men and recorded in some Books of the Ulpian Library to have been occasion'd by Apollonius Thyanaeus his Ghost's appearing to him and saying Aureliane si vis vincere nihil est quod de civium meorum nece cogites Aureliane si vis imperare à cruore innocentium abstine Aureliane si vis vincere clementer age who was there amongst men more holy more venerable more august more divine than this Apollonius he raised the dead to life he did and said many things beyond humane Power upon the account whereof he was worshipped as a God c. But as such things would never have been invented of him if they had not seen such things done first by Christ So Vopiscus hath no Author for all the strange stories of Apollonius but Philostratus I shall therefore wave reflecting upon him till I have shewed how § 2. Hierocles out of the History of Philostratus attempts to compare Apollonius to our Saviour in the point of Miraculous Works and stupendious Occurrencies Upon the account of this conceited resemblance Alexander Severus had his Image together with Christ's in his Chappel amongst the Images of the chief Gods Lampridius The Angel Gabriel appears to the Mother of our Lord to his a Fantasm that called himself the Egyptian Proteus Angels sung at Christ's Birth at his a Flock of Swans Philostrat de vita Apol. lib. 1. Christ was not brought up in the Schools of the Prophets yet attain'd that height of Knowledg as he understood more than all the Doctors knew what was in the hearts of men Apollonius as Philostratus reports from Damaris told Damaris at their first congress that without artificial instruction in the knowledg of Tongues and Sciences he was naturally endowed with a presention of things could understand all Languages the voices of Birds so as he would ordinarily discourse with them yea the secret thoughts and conceits of men Appollonius understood a Sparrow that came to inform a Flock of Sparrows that at the Gate an Ass was fallen down under his burden and had spilt the sack of Wheat Porphiry triumphs in this story and would prove its likelihood by two others Tiresias and Melampus who understood the voices of Beasts in 3 de abstinen but Lucian in his Alexander affirms this Apollonius to have been an arrant Cheater saith Vossius de orig idolat lib. 3. cap. 44. Christ made an escape through the throng of his enemies unseen unobserved by them Apollonius could convey himself out of prison out of the closest chains Christ was transfigured before the Apostles Damaris observ'd Apollonius frequently to have assumed a form more august than humane to have been elevated two cubits above the Earth and to have hung as a glorified body in the Air by an art he had learn'd of the Indian Brachmans Philostratus lib. 1. 3. Christ fed many thousands with five Loaves and at another time four thousand with seven Loaves Apollonius was present when the Indian Brachmans entertain'd King Jarchus with a Banquet upon the ground where the earth ex tempore brought forth grassy Beds for the Guests to sit down on where they were served by four brazen Statues in stead of Cup-bearers with Wine and Water flowing from four three-footed stools as so many living Fountains Idem Ibidem Christ foresaw the Earthquakes Pestilences c. that forerun the destruction of Jerusalem Apollonius foretold the Pestilence that Ephesus was afflicted with Philost lib. 4. of which being accused unto Domitian as proceeding from his practising of prohibited Arts he excused it by this Apology for himself that he using a more fine and sober diet than other men his spirits were thereby so refined as he could perceive the corruption of the Air long before others felt the mortal effects of it Philost lib. 7. But could he sent at that distance that Daniel or our Saviour set the Roman Eagles Moses and Elias confer'd with Christ in the Mount in
2. c. 5. but this new God of Constantine was too hard for all Licinius his old Gods insomuch as being disappointed of their aid he exauctorated them and run about seeking other Gods to relieve him Id. Ib. c. 15. Touching Christ's Title the Son of God attributed to him by Christians Celsus his Jew lib. 1. cal 26. thus expostulates with the blessed Jesus Seeing thou sayest that every man is the Son of God by Providence or Creation and that Persons so and so qualified are his Children by Favour or Grace wherein dost thou excel all other men who givest out thy self to be his Son after a more excellent way Resp. He was begotten of the Substance of his Father we are born again of the will of God The blasphemous Familists and Quakers may here learn into whose Tents they are removed And in the same Book cal 33. thus he descants upon Gods calling his Son into and out of Aegypt What need was there that when thou wast an Infant thou shouldst be carried into Aegypt to escape the fury of Herod's Sword for fear of death cannot fall upon God Was it in obedience to thy Father who sent his Angel to call thee thither Why could not that great God whom thou calls Father with as little trouble have secured thy life at thy own home in thy native Country as he put himself and his Angels to in sending first one to call thee into a strange Land and then another to recal thee into thy own This was done that the Scripture might be fulfill'd Out of Aegypt I have called my Son that the Reality of his Humane Nature might be evidenc'd that his glorious Deity might be demonstrated by the Angels attending upon him as the only begotten of the Father Upon Herods murthering the Innocents he descants lib. 4. cal 27. ridiculum cùm Herodes irabundus occidit infantulos Could not he whom thou calls Father have secur'd thee from Herod He brings in in his first Book the Jew calumniating Christ to have learned Magick in Aegypt by the improvement whereof after his returnâ— into Judaea he attempted to make men believe he was King Messias cal 20. and in the 28 cal he repeats the whole story of the Wisemens coming to worship Christ of their telling Herod the King of Israel was born of Herod's slaying the Bethlehemitish Insants c. And thus casts his scoffs cal 23. upon the voice that came from Heaven at Christs Baptism Thou sayest the form of a Dove lighted upon thee and a voice then came from Heaven saying This is my Son What VVitness is there of this worthy of credit who beside thy self and thy Companions saw this Vision heard this Voyce The mighty VVorks wrought by our Saviour were so many Witnesses that he was the Son of God and that God was with them in all they said and writ And why doth not Celsus make the like Exception against the reports of his healing the Sick casting out Devils and raising the dead c. but because those Miracles were wrought in the sight and hearing of multitudes uninterested And yet even here John the Baptist saw and heard all whom not to have been Christs Disciple but to have been murdered by the command of Herod not for following Christ but reproving Herod Josephus testifieth who also affirmeth that multitudes flocked to John's Baptism and the sacred History tells us that Jesus was baptized when all the People were baptized Luk. 3. 22. and that he came to John to be baptized of him while John was exhorting those multitudes that came out of Jerusalem Judaea and about Jordan Mat. 3. 5. 13. § 3. Article 3. Who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Celsus in Orig. 4. cal 1 2 3 c. thus states the Controversie betwixt the Christian and Jew touching the coming of the Son of God down from Heaven for us men and our salvation as the Nicen Creed prefaceth this Article The Christians say there is already descended the Jews say there is to descend from heaven a certain God or Son of God who is the Justifier and Saviour of mortal men A Conceipt saith he so absurd and unbeseeming the Deity as it needs no other Confutation but its bare men tioning Resp. Celsus here verifies that of the Apostles the Gospel is foolishness to the Greeks but to them that believe the Power and Wisdom of God and yet this Hypothesis that God would descend into this dungeon of the Earth for the salvation of Mankind was held by the Platonicks 〈◊〉 hath been proved But hear we how Celsus cavils against it For what new thing could come into Gods Mind that he should now at last descend to us Did he come to know how the affairs of mâ—nstood here on earth Did not he know all things without coming to see or if there had been any thing amiss could not he have rectified it by his Divine Power without sending his Son what pity it is that Celsus was not of Gods Council to be born amongst us he must of necessity desert his own habitation above if he descend to us The Porphyrian Scepticks in St. Austin Epist. 2. speaks in the same tenour Mundi Dominus Rector tamdiu à sedibus suis abest atque ad unum corpusculum totius mundi cura transfertur The Lord of the Universe was so long absent from his own seat and the care of the whole World is transferr'd to the body of one Woman Novit ubique totus esse nullo contineri loco novic venire non recedendo ubi erat novit abire non deserendo quà venerat God is altogether every where and contain'd in no place he can come without forsaking the place where he was he can depart without deserting the place from whence he came But Celsus proceeds Did God or the Son of God therefore come down from Heaven and dwell among us that he might make himself known to the World that had been ignorant of him before as Princes go on Progress to shew their Magnificence to their Subjects in the Country Did God then now at last after so many Ages laps'd think of justifying men whose Salvation he neglected for so long a time before St. Austin Epist. 49. quest 2 da. proves that pious persons before Christs coming were saved by Christ whose Grace was at no time wanting to any Nation and that the varying of the Mode of Worship according as the divine VVisdom thinks expedient for mens salvation does not make a various Religion But hear we Celsus confirming the Tradition of this point of Christian Faith while he objects against the Doctrine delivered If the Christians be in earnest when they say they believe that God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son into the World to save it what other arguments than what are drawn from that Love need be urged to constrain men to love God and live unto him and therefore Christ did foolishly in
their own Prophets foretold they would make to that Question Listen in their Synagogues if thou canst hear the blessed Jesus named except it be in execrations spie if thou canst see the Symbol of his precious Death except it be in their barbarous representation thereof by some Crucified Christian Infant Observe if there be any Signs of their relenting for Murdering that holy and just One of their bitter mourning over their Fathers sin in choosing a Murderer before the Innocent Lamb of God If thou discernest one tear to trickle down from their eye while 't is fixt upon him except it flow from their spightful envy to see him exalted adored and worshipt of all people but themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidor Pelus l. 4. ep 74. They are preserv'd alive that they may be vexed at the heart by beholding the glory of Christ shining every where Or be in revenge of that vengeance upon them by which Christ has paid himself for the Travel of his soul for that unthankful Nation and vindicated the honour of his Deity in the opinion of all men but themselves by which they that would not receive instruction are made an instruction to others and they who would not by all the plainest Demonstrations which Christ or his Apostle did lay before them be convinc'd are become a Demonstration to convince the World that that Jesus whom they slew and hanged upon a Tree is the very Christ For as their Fathers by condemning him so the Children of that stock of Abraham by persisting in their denial of him not knowing him nor the voyces of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day have been and are still fulfilling those Prophets as to this Point of their Prediction that that People should reject their own Messias Act. 13. 27. § 2. A second Branch of Prophecy whose Fruit hangs yet upon it whose Effect is still permanent to be seen felt and handled is that touching Gods Rejection of the Jews for their rejecting of his Son Of the truth of which that Nation is a manifest proof and stands as a Pillar of Salt to season all Ages with the belief of the Supernaturalness of those Revelations wherein that event was foretold And of the warrantableness of the Churches Application o◠them to the Blessed Jesus whereupon Celsus having excepted against that Opinion of the Christians That the Jews had moved Gods displeasure against them for their Crucifying and disowning Christ Origen replies What Is not the dispersion of their Nation the ruine of their Temple City c. sufficient indications of Gods rejecting that people I dare say they shall never be restored Origen contra Celsum l. 3. cal 10. I hope the English Atheist is not so much a French Gentleman as to take it in Dudgeon that I lay some grains of this Salt on his Trencher or rather advise him to help himself to some now that it stands at his Elbow for I fancy him yet in Belgium taking out the first Lesson touching the Jews disowning of Christ And now that he is amongst those Keepers of our Rolls those bearers of our Books let him search whether those Prophecies which foretell that upon that Nations refusing to accept their own Messias their Fathers God should wholly disown them be the inventions of Christians the pious frauds of our Church or the Responds of their own Prophets Ask a Jew of whom that Prophet of theirs whom for honours sake they call Angel Jeremy speaks chap. 6. I will bring evil upon this people because they have rejected the word of the Lord because they said we will not walk in the good way wherein they were promised to find rest for their souls because they would not hear the sound of the Trumpet that sound which the Gentiles would hear Hearken therefore hear ye Nations hear O earth I will bring evil upon this people reprobate Silver shall men call them because God hath rejected them Can the most obstinately blinded Jew shut his Eye so close as he shall not here see the glimmerings of those unwelcome Truths 1. That this is an Evil the Effects whereof should be so palpable as all Nations should so manifestly see the Marks of Gods rejecting them as the name whereby they should in common speech be called is reprobate Silver a refuse Nation a People cast off of God a name which God was angry with the Heathen for fastning upon them in the saddest dereliction of that people formerly That 2. The word for their rejecting whereof they were rejected of God The good old way for their refusing to walk wherein they were left out of the road of Mercy can be none other but that eternal Word who proclaimed himself to be the Way and offered Soul-rest to them would come to him is manifest For 1. This is absolutely and without compare the good old Way the saving Word that was chalk'd out that was Preach'd to Abraham before he was Circumcised 400 years before the good old Way of Moses was known Nay preach'd by Noah that Preacher of Righteousness by Faith many Generations before Abraham and by God himself in Paradise tendering Life through Faith in the Blood of the Womans Seed which was the only thing saving in all the After-dispensations of that Covenant of Grace 2. This is the only Word and Way which the Jews totally rejected the Word spoken by Moses and the Prophets their Fathers in some part for some time neglected but never totally renounc'd it and the Modern Jew does too tenaciously stick to the Letter of that Word and the external Form of that Way 3. The only Sound of the Trumpet which the Gentiles hearken to in order to their finding rest to their Souls is that sound of the Apostles which from Jerusalem is gone into all the Earth and to the uttermost parts of the World the sound of that Trumpet whereby Christ is Proclaimed the Word of God the everlasting Way of Salvation § 3. Ask a Jew whether the same Prophet chap. 16 and 17. threaten not a more dreadful Judgment then impending over that Nations head than the Northern Captivity to wit a dissipation into Strange lands that neither they nor their Fathers knew whereas Chaldaea and all the Nations into which they were carried Captive before their Crucifying the Lord of Life were their door Neighbours with whom they had Commerce where God would shew them no favour as he had done in all other Captivities but take away his peace from them even loving kindness and mercy where they should be hunted from every Mountain and Hill and Hole wherein not only all the Treasures of Gods Mountain in the Field the riches of that Covenant of Grace sometimes deposited with that faithless and fruitless People should be given as a spoile to the Gentiles But the holy Mountain her self discontinue from that heritage which God had given her and he burnt up and made desolate by a fire that should be kindled in Gods anger and burn
the expiration of the thousand years in which Christ should Reign as sole Lord upon the Earth so as he should not deceive the Nations any more that is as he had done till the end of those years and then he should be loosed for a little space and go out and deceive the Nations and draw them into a desperate engagement against the holy City and the Camp of the Saints Expositors do macerate themselves and perplex the Church with disputes about the sence of this Text. But they are most at a loss in placing the Aera of the commencement of these 1000 years and that rightly stated will give light to all the rest I therefore begin there and date it at the Empires submitting it self to the Sceptre of Christ when he gave the World as the Empire was then reputed to be that terrible shake as made it cast its old Gods When at the rising of his Majesty so gloriously as the Emperour acknowledged it the Imperial Laws were made to serve Christ which till then had been against him for awe of which the Idols were hid in the holes of the Rocks even by such as did not believe as they had been broken before by them that were believers as St. Austin well applies that distinction Isa. 2. Donec projicerentur à credentibus Idola à non credentibus absconderentur August de consensu Evang. 1. 28. And since which time Satan hath been wholly restrained from prevailing with the Nations either to erect new Gods or to restore the old Though I am not very solicitous to assign the precise point of time when the Kingdoms of this World so became the Kingdom of God and of his Christ as Satan was ejected out of his as he and his Angels the Daemon-Gods and the Creatures whom he had perswaded the World to worship before the Creator were cast out both these growing up by such degrees both as to place and thing as 't is far easier to see the effects than observe the steps they made while they were in motion toward that existence Herbam crevisse apparet crescentem non cernimus We must not deny the Grass to be grown at Midsummer because we cannot tell in what minute of the Spring it began to put forth or saw it not growing yet these Particulars are beyond dispute 1. That Pagan Idolatry kept possession even of those Provinces of the Empire whose Local Governours were Christians before the Conversion of the Emperour of which we have a clear Instance in Paphos where though the Governour thereof Sergius Paulus was converted to the Faith early in the days of the Gospel yet we find the Temple of Venus there long after that for Titus Vespasian visited it and had fortunate Responds thence touching the Jewish Wars and his own Affairs Tacit. Hist. 2. Sergius might as the Jaylor as the Centurion purge his own Family but the reforming of his Province was no more in his power saving what his Example and the exemplariness of his Family contributed thereto than the Jaylor had to reform his Prisoners or the Centurion had to reform his Band. 2. That after the Conversion of the Empire every particular Province thereof was not actually brought under the obedience of Christ but those earliest which were nearest the Imperial Seat and most under their observation and obnoxious to the due execution of its Laws for Christ. Thence we find the Gandavi not converted nor their Altars of Mercury demolished until the Reign of Heraclius anno 612. Nor Flanders submitting to Christs Sceptre till anno 648. Nor Germany scarce attempted by the Preaching of the Gospel till Gallus and Columbinus communicated it anno 688. Nor Westphalia till that anno 690. Abbus and Niger converted it to the Faith Nor Frisia till Pippin having subdued their Pagan Duke anno 696. Wilibrod Bishop of York planted the Gospel there Nor Holland or Saxony till about the year 670. they were brought under Christs Yoak by the Preaching of Swibert Winefred and Aderbert English Bishops Nor Denmark till King Herald their first Christian King anno 826. Nor Hungary till Geiffa anno 1010. received it from Henry the 2d as the condition of his marrying the Emperours Sister Gisela that himself and his subjects should be baptized Nor Pomerania till anno 1106. Nor the Vandals till anno 1125. Nor the Prusians till anno 1164. nor the Rugians till Jeremare anno 1168. became both their Prince and Priest Nor Livonia till anno 1186. nor Tartary till 1249. nor Lithuania till 1387. Asted chron Convers. 3. The Incroachments which Christianity it self made upon the Emperors was by degrees It prevail'd upon Tiberius his conscience so far as he forbad the prohibition of it but not as to put him upon the practice of it It obtain'd of Philip Arabs who began his Empire anno 244 so far as he made Profession of it but did not enjoyne it to his Subjects It obtain'd of Severus to permit his Mother Mammea to profess it even in the Imperial Court and Origen to Preach it in the Royal Family but himself did not embrace it Constantius the Father of Great Constantine though the Gospel prevail'd not with him so far as to make him a Christian yet he was so much a favourer of Christians as to give them a Toleration in his Dition who fled from the rage of his three bloody persecuting Colleagues and to retain those as his Domestick Servants in the Palace who stood firmest to the Profession of the Christian Faith rejecting such as he found contrary to their better perswasion conforming to the Pagan Worship to please him saying they that would not be true to their God would dissemble with their emperour Euseb. de vita Constantini lib. 1. cap. 9 10. And toward the close of his Life renounc'd the Politheism of the Gentiles and betook himself to the service of the one only God so as his Court bare some resemblance of a Church there being in it the Ministers of the Lord dayly officiating for him and praying with him Id. Ib. cap. 11. It gain'd so much Authority over Constantine the Great as he not only profest it but commanded his Subjects to practise it but yet the Ethnick Worship was still publickly allowed Christianos optavit esse omnes coegit neminem titulus decret Eus. de vita Con. lib. 2. cap. 55. Constantine order'd as that which was manifestly behooveful for the Tranquillity of the Empire in that time that every one should have liberty to chuse and worship what God pleased him best Eus. Ec. Hist. 10. 5. And not only in 〈◊〉 but his Successors Reign to Gratian Paganism was allowed in the Senate-house where the Pagan Senators the Christians looking on the Ashes from the Altar the Smoak from the Sacrifice choaking them took their Oath at the Altar before their giving their Vote To which purpose after Gratian had demolisht it the Pagans moved Valentinian to restore it at the publick charge as being of
the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato's Sentences entenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John's Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato's Sentence under the Rose CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviours Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry's Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. CHAP. VI. God the Light Man's Reliever § 1. Plebean Light mistaken for the true All-healing Light Joves and Vaejoves Mythology an help at a dead lift § 2. Wisdom begotten of God Man's Helper the Fathers Darling § 3. Made Man Sibyls maintain'd as quoted by Fathers Come short of Scripture-Oracles § 4. Virgil out of Sibyl prophesied of Christ. The Sibyllines brought to the Test. Tully's weak Exceptions against the Sibyllines § 5. Sibyl's Songs of God Redeemer the Eternal Word the Creator Apollo commends Christ. Local Saviours exploded CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry's Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham's departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of the Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christs Blood § 7. Mans Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the world by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how CHAP. VIII The Gospel calculated to the Meridian of the Old Testament § 1 In its Types § 2. Its Ceremonials fall at Christs feet with their own weight The Nest of Ceremonies pull'd down That Law not practicable § 3. Moses his Morals improved by Christ by better Motives Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4. It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul's Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School CHAP. IX Gospel-History agrees with Old Testament-prophecy § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophecies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob's Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor his Pole-money to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligation void They return to Aegypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah's God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel's Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel's Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel's second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book Book III. THE ARGUMENT 3 We have as good grounds of Assurance that the matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles were done and delivered accordingly as they are therein related as we have or can have of the Truth of any other the most certain Relation in the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose Names they bear then any Man can have that he is his reputed Fathers Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks CHAP. II. The Suffrage of Adversaries to the testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples Civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny's information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximnus hated them for CHAP. III. The Substance of Christian Religion as it stands now in the Gospel is to be found in the Books of its Adversaries § 1. The Effigies of the Gospel is hung out where it is proscribed § 2. Hierocles attempting to outvie Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christs Doctrine may be traced out by the footsteps of the Hunters who pursued it CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found