wherein Zachary serv'd wherein he receiv'd the Promise of a Son in such a time of the year as thence may be demonstratively evinc'd the Time of Christ's Nativity to have been at that season wherein the Church celebrates the memorials of it To which Calculation I find the account drawn from Solomon's Dedication of the Temple to agree so perfectly as encourageth me to assert without all hesitance that the Courses of the Priests during that long Vacation of the exercise of their Function were reckon'd by Zorobabel much more in that short interruption under Antiochus by Judas Maccabeus at their restoring them to the actual serving in their proper Courses as vertually fulfill'd as the years of the Reigns of exil'd Princes are put into the account at their Restauration as if they had actually during the time of their Banishment exercised the Royal Function So that from the fall of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the 1. Course the Course of Joiarib there had so many weeks passed unto the 3. of Adar when at the Dedication of the Second Temple the Priests were set in their Divisions as the same division was then appointed to serve whose Course it would have been to serve had the Service not been interrupted for otherwise their putting in Order would have been a putting them out of Order and an injury to those Families whose turn by the Series of intervening years according to David's Order fell out before theirs who first served at that Dedication by the appointment of Zorobabel And indeed what use can be made of St. Luke's mentioning the eighth Course in our Calculations of the Time therein pointed at if it was not the eighth course from the first Institution § 4. This will be both more intelligible and apparent if we compute the Courses themselves In order whereto though I plough with Scaliger's Heifer I shall not let her run wild over the ancient bounds but accustom her to bear the Churches yoak and inure her to tread out the good Corn of Catholick Verity I shall first premise these two infallible dictates of that great Oracle of Chronology 1. The compleat Cycle or Period of Time wherein the twenty four Courses of Priests appointed by David and set to serve in the Temple by Solomon return to the same day and hour wherein they first waited is 224 years 2. There is a less but incompleat Cycle of these Hieratical Courses containing fifty Revolutions and concluding at the end of twenty three years after their first Institution or Revolution of the great Cycle with the overplus of ninteen hours Secondly and these common Chronological Notes 1. From the Dedication of the Second Temple in the sixth of Darius Nothus Adar the third about our February 19. to the Fall of that Temple are 490 years Euseb. Chron. Daniel's seventy Weeks Chap. 9. 24. 2. From our Saviour's Birth to the Fall of Jerusalem are seventy one years Scaliger append Phlegon quoted by Origen tractat in St. Matt. 29. reckons from the fifteenth of Tiberius to Titus his desolating Jerusalem forty years this falls in with Scaliger if we understand him to mean as his words plainly import after the expiring of Tiberius his fifteenth and we cannot pitch upon an Author better vers'd in the Roman Annals than he was Upon these Principles I proceed thus to collect the Time of Zacharie's Service from the Courses of the Priests intervening betwixt that and the Dedication of the Second Temple In the 490 years that that Temple stood there are two compleat Hieratical Cycles ending Anno 448 And there remains years to Temples Fall  42 Deduct this 42 out of Christ's at Temple Fall  71 And there remains 29 which denotes the year of Christ when the second great Hieratical Cycle ended and the third began Out of this  29 Deduct a smaller Cycle of fifty Revolutions in the space of years  23 And the remainder from that sum Years  6 Denotes the year of Christ when the Courses began on the same day they did at first with the overplus of ninteen hours Thus in Christs 6 the 1 course began Feb. 19 5 January 19 4 December 19 3 November 19 2 October 19 1 September 19 The first course therefore the year of Christ's Conception began August 19 From whence if we reckon to the eighth week we come to the its beginning falls October 7 eighth Course that of Abias find its end October 14 At what time Zacharias having fulfill'd his Weeks Ministration return'd home and his Wife conceiv'd precisely five months and three Weeks before the Annunciation With the like Certainty and Perspicuity may the same Date of Zacharias his Ministration be collected if we compute the courses from Solomon's dedication From the Dedication of first on Adar 29 Mart. 30. Scaliger to fall of the Second Temple Josephus accounts 1130 y. 7 m. 15 d. From which deduct the year of Christ at the fall 71 There remains 1059 y. 7 m. 15 d. In which 1059 there are Cycli Hieratici 4 Whose Period 896 taken out of 1059 There remains the year before Christs Birth when those four Cycles ended and the fifth began 0163 Divide these 163 by 23 the space of the lesser Hieratical Cycle the Quotient is 7 Denoting seven of these Cycles to have run out their course in that Period and the remainder 2 Pointing to the second year before Christ when the Courses began again where they began at first viz. at Solomon's Dedication of the Temple within five days which the 19 overplus hours in each Revolution make up in the whole seven Cycles The first Course therefore the second year before Christ began April 4. and the same Course the year preceding Christ's Birth commenc'd Mart. 4. Whos 's first Revolution of twenty four Weeks ended August 19. where the second Revolution began and therefore the eighth Course in that Revolution the Course of Abias began at the end of the seven weeks thence to wit Octob. 7. and ended Octob. 14. the very same day we have found it fall by computing the courses from the Dedication of the Second Temple An admirable Correspondence and such as must satisfie all persons who have so much ingenuity as to enter upon such kind of disquisitions with that caution which the Philosopher presented to the Candidates for admission into his School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Way-marks set the way-faring man though an Idiot cannot err in fixing the Date of Christ's Conception the 25 of March and of his Birth the 25 of December And if Zacharies Wife Elizabeth conceiv'd in the week after her Husband's return from his serving in the Course of Abias which ended Octob. 14. precisely five month 's and three weeks before the Angel was sent to the Blessed Virgin at what time Elizabeth was going in her sixth month who sees not upon what substantial grounds the Church proceeded in her fixing the Baptist's Birth upon the 24 of June there being in that space
the holiness of that Society whereof they are no Members nor the Efficacy of that Religion they either never came under the power of or have rejected the yoak of what must it be presum'd that the Sun shines not that its beams warm not because those men see not its Light are not refresh'd and vegetated with its Warmth who either shut their eyes or remove into a Clime it never visits Dr. Hammond An. in Heb. 4. 2. But the word that was heard did not profit those who were not by Faith joyned to them that obeyed it Shall we condemn the Seed because it thrives not to maturity of Fruit in the ground of a dishonest heart where either the fowles of the Air pick it up or it wants depth of earth or is choak'd with Thorns and Weeds Shall we question whether Christ be risen because men whose affections are so strongly set upon the earth as they cannot elevate them towards Heaven are not risen with him when we see such palpable Effects and Demonstrations of it in his raising those to a newness of Life who do not resist grieve or quench his Spirit but with an humble teachableness follow its conduct in that way of holiness his Word hath chalk'd out before us In order to our perseverance in this way and confirmation in our assurance that it will infallibly lead us to Peace here and eternal Glory hereafter I have undertaken this vindication of the Christian Faith against the prejudices which our modern either Scepticks or Atheists have taken up against it which as they took their rise from the Scandals which have been cast upon Religion by the woful miscarriages of men professing it in guile and hypocrisie so they must fall before a Spirit of Grace and Glory resting upon the embracers of it in Truth and Sincerity and shining out upon the World in their so peaceable humble meek and every way Christian deportment and men seeing their good works may glorifie their Father who is in Heaven and revere that Discipline as proceeding from that Father of Lights by whose influence the wildness of common Nature is abated and its vertuous Seeds so improved as to bring forth Fruit chearing the heart both of God and Man To which if thou beest instigated Christian Reader to aspire by the perusal of this Discourse and so become one of Christs Witnesses by sealing to the Truth of the Gospel by a Life answerable to its most holy just and yet easie Precepts thou wilt lay up for thy self a good Foundation for time to come and contribute towards the conviction of the Adversaries of the Christian Faith by an Argument so familiar as it incurrs into every mans sense and so strenuous as the most stubborn Atheist will not be able to resist it but be forc'd to confess the unreasonableness of his own Exceptions against a Religion that brings forth such Divine Effects Would we all study thus to adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things such real exornations would render Religion more venerable in the eyes of the VVorld than all verbal Encomiums those whom the close fist of the most Logical Arguings cannot force the commanding beck of that open-handed Eloquence would allure to a silent admiring of that sacred Fountain whence they see such healing VVaters flow That this my Request to my Readers may take effect I shall back it with that Request to God which my Dear Mother the Holy Church of England hath put into her Childrens mouth More especially we pray for the good estate of the Catholick Church that it may be so guided and govern'd by thy good Spirit that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of Truth and hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life And this we beg for Jesus Christ his Sake To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without end Amen FINIS To their old Cells and Altars the whole crew Of Guardian Gods Troy falling bid adieu While impious Caesar and his Godded rout Spurn Phoebus Tripos with insulting foot The learned Varro useth to expend So many hours in reading as we deem A winged minutes scantling can scarce lend It self unto his pen yet that doth seem To trust more notions to his sweating Page Than quickest eye can run o're in an Age. To my dark Cabin in the Stygean strand Dismiss me or if that be too much ease Send me to Phlegethon where I may stand Rather than here chin-high in fiery seas Haled from Styx to Thebes my ancient seat Had I my choice hard choice I would retreat If Heaven the fire and Earth the dam of things Had been from Ever whence is 't no Poet sings Of Wars more old than Troy of Floods than Noah Of Rapes than Jove and thousand wonders moe Had men nor hands to act nor hands to write During the seculum Prae-Adamite Had Nile for ages numberless no Reed Nor Bees Wax nor Trees Bark nor Hills a breed of Sheep nor Sheep a Skin nor Goose a Quill Nor Polypus his native Ink distil Or Man the Goose of all not wit to learn To make a Pen much less to guide a Stern Or build a Ship or break a Horse or bring The Oxe to th' yoke the Hawk to lure or string The warbling Lute or count the Stars by name Or other Arts whose birth we know by fame Whose growth we see come on with age We owe to thee great Caesar Triumphs many More Temples built and Temples that lay waste Repair'd more Cities Gods and Shews than any But most that thou hast taught Rome to be chaste Whom we invoke for Gods 't is Jove's decree Were Men of Bounty once and Gallantry But now with highest Deities attend On our affairs and us toth ' Gods commend The Father Word and Spirit God alone That Cotternal Three in one Thy will Theodames for Hecate Forc'd by thy charms dares not say nay Your Charms from me against my will commands These Responds I have said now loose my bands Judea worshippeth alone The God elsewhere unknown Him Pan men call Because he succours all They lay on tepid Altars Babes not born Of Mothers Wombs but from their Bellies torn Issa Bills sweeter than a Dove Issa's more blith than Mal or Siss No Pearls equal Issa's love What Issa's this Publius his Bitch Thus against Hercules vext the field to lose From wounded Hydra heads more fierce arose Who outstript all the Sophs in this Essay Quenching their Star-light with his Solar Ray.
lib. 1. cap. 10. 11. But to spare the labour of multiplying Instances that place of Plato I mention'd at the beginning of this discourse is abundantly sufficient where those blessed spirits that descended to take care of Mankind are said to have given them Laws neither that of Origen against Celsus lib. 5. cap. 1. whom he charges in his affirming that never any God or Son of God came down from Heaven to reveal divine Counsels to oppose the Vulgar and received Opinion of Philosophers and proves that charge by many clear instances one of which we have Act. 14. 12. when St. Paul had by a word speaking presently and perfectly cured the man that was born lame the Lystrians conceived him to be Mercury appearing in humane form because he was the chief speaker clearly expressing this to be their Opinion that the healing God was to be the great Gods Messenger and to restore men's discomposed Minds as well as Limbs by his word the very Office which the Prophets assigned to the Messias and the Apostles and Evangelists applyed to Christ A prophet shal the Lord raise unto you of your brethren like unto me as touching his humane but infinitely superiour to me in respect of his divine Nature And that 's the scope of that so much abused Text all thy children shall be taught of God Isa. 54. 13. if Christ be better at expounding Scripture than our new illuminates Who when the Jews excepted against his affirming himself to come down from Heaven because they knew his Father and Mother supposing him to be the Son of Joseph as they said Joh. 6. ver 42. gives them this reply That no man could come to him that is as one that came down from Heaven and whom they were bound to hear under pain of extermination except the Father drew him ver 44. not as a log by main force of hand but as a man by strength of Argument by teaching him the meaning of that Text in the Prophet and they shall all be taught of God ver 45. which cannot be understood of the person of the Father for no man hath seen the father but the son ver 46. Nor of the Spirits teaching for that the Church had from the beginning thou gavest them thy good spirit Nehem. 9. 10. But of the Person of the Son who was in the Fullness of Time to assume Flesh and dwell among us and teach not only Jews but Gentiles what they must do to be saved So as in the last revelation of the divine Will God will no longer deal by proxy but himself in the Person of the Son will speak face to face which you might have learn'd in Hypothesi had you diligently weighed that Text of Isa. and though I in respect of my humane Nature am the son of Mary and as you suppose of Joseph whom you know yet at my Baptism you might have learn'd that I had another Generation for then my Father bare witness by a voice from Heaven that I was the son of God and at my transfiguration having avouched me to be his well beloved Son he gave command that I should be receiv'd as that Prophet whom all are to hear every man therefore that hath heard and learn'd this of my Father concerning me that I am that great Prophet that was to come into the World like to my Brethren as to my Manhood but equal to the Father touching my Godhead will certainly come to me and learn of me as to those whom my Father by these clear convictions and furthermore by that Seal he hath set to my Commission to teach in those Miracles I work does not draw into a full perswasion 't is impossible that they while they are under that obstinacy should come unto me Hence it is that our Saviour so much presseth and layeth so much stress upon the believing that he was he that should come to tell men all things hence St. Paul begins his Epistle to the Hebrews with the proof of this that Jesus of Nazareth was that divine Person the express Image of the Fathers person by whom according to the Prophecies that went before God hath spoak in the last that is the Evangelical Age. § 8. Humane Laws we say are Nets which small fish escape through and great ones break but Christ's Law is so framed his Gospel net so knit as the Vulgar fry stick in it by the Finns and Gills of common Sentiments And the greatest disputers are intangled in it by strugling It takes the poor of this World by the compliance with their innate Notions and the wise in their own craftiness By it Learning was pos'd Philosophy was set Sophisters taken in a Fisher's net Plato and Aristotle were at a loss And wheel'd about again to spell Christ's Cross. As our great British Divine and Divine Poet sings in his Church tit Providence in which Poem as he hath given us an abstract of Church-history so I fear there is a more discerning spirit of Prophecy expressed therein than in all our modern golden Dreams and Comments upon Daniel and the Revelation these Predictions being but guessings at if not perversions of the sence of dark Texts his the applications of as clear menaces as any are in the whole Bible and these too commented upon by the constant method of Providence in the World which usually so shapes its rewards and Punishments to mens demerits as for our knowing what will betide our selves we need not consult ambiguous Oracles but such plain sanctions of the royal Law as have been made good upon and befallen other Churches for examples to us for if we will not be diverted from following Egypt and Greece's steps we must arrive at their dismal end if we by our debaucheries of mind or life put the Gospel from us and draw upon our selves strong delusions a Revelation-Criticism will not secure the one to us nor us from the other But to return from this Digression The constitution of Christian Religion is such as it finds all that is of man left in man a party for it in the Market and all true Philosophy a party for it in the Schools of Philosophers saith Clem. Alexandr Strom. l. 1. pag. 94. whether of the Barbarians or Grecians I mean not the Stoick Platonick Epicurean Aristotelian but whatsoever any Sect rightly taught whatsoever they taught Pious or Just is but a Branch of eternal Truth pluck'd from the Tree of Life the ever-being Word An observation grounded upon these Prophecies I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches of it and build it as in the days of old build the old wasts raise up the former desolations the foundations of many generations Amos 9. 11. Isa. 61. 4. Isa. 58. 12. and this to the end that the residue of men that is the Gentiles might seek the Lord Act. 15. 16. as St. James expounds the Prophets which inforceth us to interpret those Prophecies not of Persons only but
brought them out of Egypt which Covenant they brake and promising to erect a new Priest-hood not after the order of Aaron but Melchisedech From both which common places the Apostle argues strenuously Heb. 8. and 7. when he saith the new he maketh void the old where the Priesthood is changed there must of necessity be a change of the Law The Old Testament points out him that is to be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech as to come of the Tribe not of Levi but Judah which Topick the Apostle pursues and applies to the blessed Jesus who according to the Prophecies that went before of him sprang of the Root of Jesse came from the loins of David and was the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah of which Tribe none by the Law were to be made Priests but of the Tribe of Levi and that therefore the Levitical Law was prescribed against in the Prediction of Jacob and in the preheminence of this Melchisedokian Preist before the Aaronical hinted by Melchisedech's Blessing and receiving Tithes of Abraham while Levi was yet in his Loyns almost four hundred years before that Law which assigned Levi to the Priest-hood And lest this Law which assigned Levi to that Office might be interpreted as vacating Melchisedech's the Apostle observes that long after Aaron had been made a Priest and that without an Oath that Kingly High Priest after the order of Melchisedek was made a Priest by Oath Hebr. 7. 17. 18. In the Old Testament Malac. 1. 11. God expresseth his dislike of Levitical Sacrifices and Ordinances in comparison of another Sacrifice and Service that was to be exhibited A point acknowledged by the Jewish Rabbies who upon these Texts have these reflections Psal. 69. Laudabo nomen dei placebit deo super vitulum novellum cornua producentem ungulas This is the new worship that shall be given to God in diebus Christi saith Aben Ezra A worship will please God better than the Oxe which Adam sacrificed Qui perfectus erat de terra creatus a perfect Oxe answerable to one three years old the day he was created having hoofs and horns saith R. Solom Than that three years old Oxe of the Peace-offering or so large as he can push with his horns or so great and comely as he makes men contend about him saith R. David all center here that the most choice Legal Sacrifices are not comparable to that spiritual Worship which should be introduc'd in the days of the Messias Without relation to which legal observances were not good nor such as by which they should live Ezeck 20. 25. God protesting he never spake to their Fathers touching Sacrifices and Oblations abstracted from that end of the Law Jerem. 7. 22. and chiding them for treading his Courts for making many and fervent Prayers for offering Incense for bringing their Oblations and burnt Offerings without having an eye to the spiritual part of worship and to Christ the Life and Spirit of all acceptable Worship Isa. 1. Of which imperfection and faultiness of the first Covenant the Apostle takes notice as that which made way for the second Heb. 8. 7. In the Old Testament God promiseth that under the Kingdom of Messias he would take Priests and Levites out of all Nations Isa. 66. 21. that strangers should be Israel's Pastors Plough-men and Labourers in the Vine-yard Isa. 61. 5. What must then become of the Law prohibiting any but the sons of Aaron to approach the Priest's Office to minister in the Sanctuary Levi must lose his Plough when Messias makes Gentiles put their hands to his and therefore there is much more of ingenuity and correspondency to their own Prophets than in modern Jews in that story of the Jerusalem Gomarists told by R. Judab of a certain Jew who being at Plough and hearing an Arabian telling him that Messiah was born presently loosed his Oxen and sold his Plough and Gears Lightfoot Harm pag. 9. Lastly for to instance in all the Topicks of this tendency would put me upon transcribing the greatest part of the Prophets and the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Old Testament we are told That Jerusalem it self the Temple the place elected by God for Legal Worship should become a perpetual desolation within a few years after the coming of Christ That Rook's Nest as they had made it should be pulled down Dan. 9. 26. and then sure the whole brood of those callow and imperfect Rudiments annex'd to it laid in it must fall to the ground That a time would come when the true Jove would shake that his lap wherein his grand Seer the Eagle-eyed Moses had laid the Eggs of his Ceremonial Laws Haggai 2. 6. I will shake not the earth only but the heavens that is as St. Paul Heb. 12. 27. expounds that Text not only the Vanity of the Gentiles but the Jewish Religion though of Divine Institution so far as it is to be shak'd Or which comes all to one The heaven that is the heavenly Sanctuary the Temple God's Court the place of his Residence where he dwelt between the Cherubims That Sion would be ploughed up Micah 3. 12. Sion shall be ploughed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the Lord's house as the high places of the Forrest This the Chaldees alledg in behalf of Jeremy Jer. 26. 10. and the Rabbies observe the accomplishment of it then when Turnus Rufus ploughed up the place of the Temple Dr. Lightfoot Vespacian 2. paragr 1. and what must become then of the whole Crop of the Temple-Ceremonies which had been there sowen and of the Eggs there deposited That Jerusalem the dish wherein Levitical services were to be served up should be turned up-side-down and wiped as a man wipes a Dish 2. King 21. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall be turned upside down upon the face thereof What can that portend but the spilling of the Cates So that to a considerate Spectatour it cannot but be matter of highest admiration to see that blinded Nation groping for the door when the house is fallen flat to the ground and like a company of dispersed Ants whose hill is digged up carrying their Eggs in their mouths above this sixteen hundred years not knowing where to lay them but expecting still their old Ant-hill should grow up again out of the dust wherein it has lain all that while not considering that by this time their Eggs must needs be grown addle Alas what a spirit of slumber hath divine Vengeance powred upon them seeing they still persist in denying that Holy and Just One after Moses hath so peremptorily and palpably denyed them after God hath pull'd them from him and hedged up their way to his Law by an absolute impossibility of observing it The Temple wherein the greatest and most eminent part of that Law was only performable being by his irresistible hand demolish'd and kept from being again erected in spight of all the attempts of
place were about to depart bating the Heathenishness of the Phrase Tacitus his deos expounds the migrentus of Josephus he rightly conceiving that voice to have proceeded from that host of Angels the Cherubins who pitch their Tents over the Mercy-seat betwixt whom the Shepherd of Isrâ—el dwelt while he kept his Court in that sacred Palace but in the Gentile Idiom miscalling them Gods who were only his Courtiers and therefore foreknowing that their King was about breaking up his Court there they prepare to depart with him For what should they whose Office is always to stand before and behold the face of God do there when he withdrew his Face from the Ark of the Covenant and that was no longer to be the Ark of his Presence By all this it is apparent that the Prophecy of Jacob concerning the departure of the Scepter from Judah after that the Messias should be exhibited and the Gentiles be gather'd to him received its accomplishment at the demolishing of God's House the place of his residence amongst the Jews while it stood and that therefore the Apostles were well advised in the account they give us of such Circumstances as relate hereunto An account which so perfectly suits the mind of the Prophecy as to the time prefixed that our fixing it there hath the evidence of Reason the Suffrages of Jew Gentile and a Voice from the Oracle to warrant and confirm it § 7. If yet the Sceptick will cavil that not the Apostles but the Statists of after times who made a political use of their Simplicity accommodated the Evangelical History and the Occurrences of the Christian Age to this Prophecy I can stop his mouth with these two Animadversions upon this surmise 1. This Application was made as appears by the Testimonies alledged out of Tertullian and Clemens Alexandrinus before any of the Politicians own'd the Gospel while the Statists of the World did with all their might endeavour the suppression of the Christian Religion as conceiving it to be insociable destructive to Political Communities and repugnant to Maximes of Government 2. The Evangelists and Apostles themselves before Tertullian or any other furnish'd with Humane Learning had commented upon the Apostolical Writings did in the plain Text of Scripture apply the accomplishment of this Prophecy and assign the departure of the divine Scepter from the Jewish Nation to that Period of Time when the Gentiles being gather'd to Christ the fall of Jerusalem should happen St. Matthew chap. 24. reports from our Saviours Lips amongst the Signs of his coming to destroy the Jewish State and the Place of God's Residence among them a thing to be fulfilled within one Generation and therefore not applicable intentionally to the day of general Judgment this for one vers 14. that the Gospel of the Kingdom should before that be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come And this for another vres 15. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place that is as it is explain'd ver 28. the Roman Ensigns the eagles let fly upon their Prey that Nation then ripe for Rejection or as St. Luke more clearly and without a Trope lays down this Sign Chap. 21. 20. When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh Immediately after the Tribulation of which days of Siege the Jewish State is to be dissolved Which Catastrophe of their Polity Christ in St. Matthew ver 29. expresseth in such Prophetical Phrases as the Old Testament Prophets constantly used in their Descriptions of the Ruine of Kingdoms and Republicks Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken that is that heavenly Polity establsh'd among the Jews shall wholly be dissolved When the Gospel shall be preach'd in the Gentile World or as St. Paul explains this Text 1 Timothy 3. 16. when Christ shall be preach'd to the Gentiles and believed on in the world then shall Jerusalem be destroyed and immediately after that the Scepter departs from Judah then shall Israel after the Flesh cease to be God's Dominion and whosoever of them after that shall boast of the Covenant of Peculiarity will upon trial be found Liars not Jews the Portion of God but the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. they having left the Blessing of that name to another People of God gather'd to their Messias out of all Nations and called by a new name Christians reserve the sound of it only for a Curse to themselves Is. 65. 15 16. Could the Apostles in their assigning the time and other Circumstances of the Dissolution of the Jewish State have thus comported with old Jacob's Prophecy thereof had they been such silly Animals as the Atheist pretends and not persons of the deepest Reach and solidest Judgments Let the whole Tribe of them who deride the Apostles for their Simplicity put all their Heads together and call in a Legion of Demons to be of their Council they may study till they split their dura mater and spill those few Brains they have before they shall be able to make so solid and irrefragable an Application of this Propecy to the time of any other Shilo and the gathering of Gentiles to him as the Apostles have made to the time of the Gentiles gathering unto Christ. 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 § 1. THat Prophecy of Daniel chap. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the holy City to finish transgression c. doth so precisely calculate the Time of the Messias coming and so exactly in every Circumstance sutes our Saviour as it cannot with any shew of Probability be applied to any other nor be denyed to have received its Accomplishment in him From which Text the Primitive Church made such clear Demonstration to the Gentiles of the Divinity of the Old and to the Jews of the Divinity of the New as Porphiry was forc'd to betake himself to this Reply to the Christians Arguments That these Prophecies father'd upon Daniel were writ long after his death about the time of Antiochus by some Jew and are not Prophecies of things to come but Naratives of things past Jerom prefat in Danielem Of which Surmise Eusebius Appollonius and other Champions of the Christian Cause shewed
denyed that God was first to be represented by Images made like man they overthrew their own Doctrine that man was made after the similitude of Cod. Id. Ib. cal 19. The Son is the only express Image of the Fathers Person and therefore we worship him by that Image only Nay he argueth for the worshipping of Angels and Daemons from what Opinions Christians hold touching the Creation you profess saith he that all Creatures are governed and order'd by the appointment of God that Angels Devils Men and all Creatures have assigned them powers allotted by him such as he thinks meet to confer upon them why then may not we worship them as Creatures endowed with power to help or hurt us as the Princes Favourites Id. lib. 7. cal 20. as if we could not honour them as Gods friends without imparting to them their Masters due divine honour He gives still further and clearer evidence of the delivery of this Article of our Christian Faith while he indulgeth himself the liberty to deride that Truth which was once delivered to the Saints The Jews saith he in a corner of the VVorld Palestine conspiring together invented the Fable of Gods forming Man and breathing into him the breath of Life of VVoman brought out of his side of man's receiving a Precept from God and preferring the Serpents Precept above Gods of Gods casting Adam iuto a sleep and taking Eve out of Adam's rib c. Orig. Contr. Celsum lib. 4. cal 15. It is easier to call this Sacred History a Fable than to prove it one This same Epicurean Hog thus grunts out Calumnies against the Circumstances of Gods making Heaven and Earth lib. 6. 23. 24. c. God said let there be light Did the Maker of all things borrow Light to work by as we light our Candle at our Neighbours God did not borrow but made Light not for himself to see by but to illustrate his Creatures Can any thing be more ridiculous than to assign certain days to the Creation of the World in the first whereof God perfected one kind of being in the second another in the third another c. and in the sixth and last Man The Matter of visible and invisible things God created in a moment and in the same moment educ'd the invisible World out of that Matter But that he should for instance create a Natural Day which was his first days work consisting of twenty four hours in less than twenty four hours implies a Contradiction and that day being the first and pattern of all the rest that is consisting the first half of it of night and the other of day it was impossible but that Darkness must be upon the face of the Deep one twelve hours and Light in the upper Hemisphere other twelve hours Or that he should to instance in the fourth days work make Sun and Moon and set them in the Firmament of Heaven and make them successively make a day and night in less time than twenty four hours does equally imply a Contradiction And for the rest they being more gross bodily substances educ'd out of the first Matter it implies a Contradiction that they should move in an instant to those forms the Divine Power first bestow'd upon them and it was most congruous seeing they could not be made but in some time to perfect them also in such a proportion of time by his own free choice as the nature of the things themselves required which were made the first and fourth day Besides the Light created on the first day which must necessarily move sphaerically or it could not have made a natural day might be instrumental towards the producing those powers which God by his Fiat gave the Matter into effect and then before the earth was all over-spread with Grass and Cattle and the Sea with Fish c. that Light must shine upon them from one end of the Heaven to the other which could not be done in less space than twenty four hours And that God should rest on the seventh day as if like a lazie Artificer he had been tyred and must then keep holiday Could there be days before the Sun was made whose Motion measures Time that lucid Cloud created the first day had a circular Motion and thereby measured time till on the fourth day God made the Sun Vide Zanch. de operibus Dei par 1. l. 1. c. 2. There is nothing saith he in the whole History of Gods making the World according to the Christian Hypothesis but what is incompetent to the Divine Nature but their credulity proceeds from their believing that God made Man after his own Image an opinion as absurd as any of the rest for he is not at all like us but incomprehensible innominable wherein he contradicts not only his own late recited opinion but his own Sect for Apuleius the Epicurean in Tull. de Natura deorum lib. 1. shapes God in all points even of bodily Members like to Man And manifestly wrests Moses who discourseth of the Creation in such borrowed Terms as are most familiar in vulgar use and introduceth God resting not out of lassitude but in complacencie with the Goodness and Beauty of his Work and that for our imitation that we might rest in contemplation of that eternal Wisdom in which he made them neither did God in that rest cease from work altogether but from Creating-work § 2. Article 2. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. If the Christians saith Celsus worship'd no other but God the Father Maker of Heaven and Earth they might without blame contemn all our Gods but who can endure that they should despise those whom the whole World in a manner do worship for Deities and in the mean time cry up Christ for God who we all know was but born the other day Christ as to his Man-hood was born in the fulness of Time assigned by the Prophets as he was God his Generation was from Eternity Nay that they should not worship the Father but together with this Author of their Religion whom they call the Son of God Orig. con Cel. 8. cal 3. 4. The Christians worship the Father through the Son and whosoever expects acceptance with the Father but through the Son worships an Idol a God of his own framing They avoid our Altars Statues Temples sacred Rites that they may keep untainted that Faith they have plighted to Christ they will not with 〈◊〉 worship the one God the common God of all Nations that they may among themselves worship Christ as God Id. Ib. cal 6. To which Pliny gives his suffrage in the place fore-quoted The Christians sing Psalms to one Christ whom they repute to be God And Licinius in his Speech to his Soldiers encouraging them to the engagement against Constantine with this Argument that he had cast off the Gods of his Father and Country and put his trust in a new and strange God one Jesus of Nazareth Euseh de vita Constant. l.
propounds as his main Principle to wit that God hath conceal'd the time of Christ's Nativity as he did the Body of Moses to prevent our observation of it and so dim-sighted was the industrious Beroaldus at noon-day who though he confesses Chronic. l. 4. c. 2. that the ignorance of the day of Christ's Birth proceeds from meer supine sloath in not sifting those means of its discovery which God hath propounded to us and if we could tell when or how long Zacharie's Course begun and continued the Question would quickly be determin'd yet waves that enquiry as a fruitless undertaking chusing rather to pin that Character of time assigned by St. Luke upon Herod's sleeve as denoting only his Reign to which it cannot possibly have the least relation than to fasten it upon the Baptists Conception where St. Luke so manifestly fixeth it as he must be blind that sees not the drift of the Evangelist in this and the other forementioned marks of time to be the leading us by the hand to the investigation of the Baptists and by it our Saviours Birth I will therefore follow the Conduct of Gods Spirit and this Holy Angel in pursute after the knowledge of that acceptable day which God would not have the Church either ignorant or unmindful of 2. These several twenty four courses of Priests by the Computation whereof the Holy Ghost directs us to the Time of Christs Conception and Birth by comparing them with the Baptists served their week about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph antiq l. 7. cap. 1. David appointed one Course to attend upon the service of God eight days from Sabbath to Sabbath eight inclusively for they began at the Morning-sacrifice of the first and went out at the Morning-sacrifice of the next Sabbath after that the High Priest entring with the Course which succeeded had blessed that Course which had serv'd Joseph B. Jud. 6. 6. the High Priest went into the Temple with the other Priests not every day but only every Sabbath-day and the Calends of every Month and the aniversary Feasts And that the High Priest dismiss'd the Course that served the preceding week at the going out of their weekly service the Book of the Jewish Liturgy affirmeth Sabbato autem adjiciebant benedictionem unam ephemeriae illi quae exibat ex ministerio Libro Liturgarum Judaic On the Sabbath they added one benediction upon that Course that then went out of their ministration The compleat days therefore of the Function of one Course were seven days of all 168 days that is seven times twenty four so that they returned to the same day whereon they officiated at the first Institution of these divisions at the end of 487 Courses which they fulfill'd precisely in the space of 224 years But more of this anon 3. This order lasted unto the time of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judaic antiq l. 7. c. 1. and was so precisely observed to the very last while the Second Temple stood that in the year of its fall the solem fast on the seventeenth day of Tamuz whereon the Jews to that day afflicted their souls in commemoration of Moses his breaking the Tables of the Law Judaic comput in Scal. de emend l. 7. pag. 651. was omitted by reason that the Family to which that weeks Course appertain'd was absent from Jerusalem because of the close siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Bel. Jud. 7. 4. Titus had heard that on that day the daily Sacrifice ceas'd to be offered to God through want of persons to officiate and that for that cause the Jews were exceedingly afflicted Insomuch as they celebrate to this day the sad commemoration of that accident on the seventeenth of Tamuz which is our fifteenth of July Scaliger emend fragm as render'd thereby unfortunate as it had been of old by the breaking of the Tables Observe here that rather than they would break the Order of the Courses by permitting even in that case of extream necessity any other Division to officiate than that whose lot it was to attend that week they will omit the service it self on one of the most solemn Fasts they had in the whole year When notwithstanding they were so zealous of this as nothing else but meer force could procure them to wave the daily sacrifice of the continuance whereof they were more sollicitous than of their own safety Hence when the Temple was besieged by Sosius all the request they made to him was that he would permit Beasts for the daily Sacrifice to be brought in Joseph antiq 14. c. ult of which Dion also a Gentile Historian makes mention lib. 49. when Pompey besieged Jerusalem he with greatest wonder observ'd that they intermitted nothing of their Religion in the midst of arms but as if they had enjoy'd the greatest peace did offer their daily Sacrifices and Victims and while his Soldiers were upon the slaughter of the Citizens and put them daily to the Sword even before the Altar they abstain'd not from that Divine Service which by their Law they were to celebrate day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay the Priests when they saw the Soldiers rushing into the Temple with drawn swords did undauntedly persevere in fulfilling their Divine Courses and were themselves sacrificed to the Roman revenge in the very instant when they were offering Victims to God and burning Incense preferring the discharge of their Office before their Lives Josep Bel. Judaic l. 1. c. 5. Yet how zealous soever they were of maintaining the daily Service they were more zealous of observing the Order of the Priests and Levites Courses For at this time when the daily Oblation ceas'd there were Priests enough in the Temple Josephus in the place above quoted writeth that when Titus sent him to John the Captain of the Templars upon occasion of his hearing that the daily Sacrifice was interrupted many Priests by name Joseph and Jesus taking that opportunity made their escape out of the Temple to Titus and therefore it was not simply for lack of Priests but Priests of that Course whose Lot it was then to officiate that the Divine Service ceas'd whence appears the invalidity of Scaliger's Herculean Argument for the abruption of the Priests Courses when the daily Oblation was taken away by Antiochus for they placed more Religion in keeping their Courses than in performing the Service and therefore might possibly stand in procinctu according to their Lots when they were prohibited by main force to offer sacrifice waiting for the removal of that force Whatever therefore befel the daily sacrifice Josephus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affirming that the Courses set by David were not interrupted unto his time is proof sufficient that the Priests Courses kept their course But since it is questioned by some whether in the several Apostacies during the first Temple those Courses were canonically observed And determin'd by Scaliger that during the persecution under Antiochus they were
2. To which he gives his suffrage as to the growth and wonderful increase of the Christian Religion both among Jews and Gentiles Josephus his Text And to this day the Christian people which of him are so called cease not to increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tribe of Christians is not in its wane but increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Jews and many out of gentilism some copies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infinite numbers became his Disciples He lived to see that Grain of Mustard-seed the Kingdom of Heaven the least of all Societies planted by Christ in a Corner of the VVorld Judaea grown up to a Tree that spread its Branches all over the VVorld that little Leven hid in the three Measures of Meal Judaeans Grecians and Barbarians levening the whole Lump That light which arose in the East shining unto the West and spreading its Beams all over the VVorld that Grain of VVheat which fell into the earth and dyed there bearing great increase according to the Prophecies of Christ related in the Gospel and the accomplishment of those Prophecies related in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles VVhat is there more said by St. Luke when he tell us souls were added to the Church daily that the word of God grew and increased mightily that multitudes both of Greeks and Jews believed by St. Paul when he writes that the Gospel brought forth fruit in all the world was made known in all places c. than Josephus here attesteth manifestly implying it did not only increase at first but ceased not to increase under the persecutions raised by Nero and Domitian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this very day the Tribe of Christians decreaseth not now Josephus concluded these Books of Jewish Antiquities in the latter end of Domitian after that by him and Nero all the means for the suppressing it had been used which humane VVit could invent or Power use In praesentem usque diem quae incidit in decimum tertium annum principatùs Domitiani Autiq. l. 20. c. 9. In spite of all which it grew as our Saviour had fore-told and St. Luke and St. Paul frequently report If they shed Christian blood it manured the VVorld and made it more fertile of Christians if they burnt them not single Phaenixes but whole Nests of them arose out of their Ashes The more the Olive was beaten the more fruitful it grew The Story of St. Steven's Martyrdom is seconded with that of Paul's Conversion St. Paul's Chains made the Gospel more famous c. Insomuch as in Tertullian's time the greatest part almost of every City were Christians which he mentions as an argument of the loyalty of Christians in his Apologie to Scapula President of Africa Ex disciplina patientiae divinae agere nos satis manifestum esse vobis potest cùm tantà hominum multitudo pars pene major civitatis cujusqueâ—in silentio modestiâ agimus singuli forte magis noti quam omnes In all which expressions of the Christian Faith bearing up against all winds what is said more than both Suetonius and Tacitus in places already alleadged and Josephus in this place testifies the truth of § 2. VVhat other reasons of the Prevalency of Christianity notwithstanding all attempts made against it are given in the Gospel than what Josephus lays down in the Text. 1. The nature of Christ's Doctrine and the qualification of them that received it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Teacher of them that willingly received the Truth wherein Josephus bears witness to the truth of these points so often inculcated by the Evangelists that the generality of Common People reputed Christ as they did the Baptist a Preacher sent from God a Teacher of the Truth insomuch as for fear of the people who held them Prophets the Pharisees durst neither deny John's Baptism to be from Heaven nor cause Jesus to be apprehended but on the night and in the absence of the people lest they should have raised a tumult That the reason why they gladly heard both him and his Fore-runner but did not practically conform to their Doctrine was because though their Judgements were convinc'd that they taught Truth and injoyn'd nothing but what was holy just and good yet their Affections being over-born with carnal interest some were kept from giving up themselves to the observance of his Law by Envy Act. 13. 45. some by Covetousness Luke 16. 14. some by Ambition and seeking praise of men John 12. 42. And that they who by the preventing Grace of God were better disposed and qualified for the reception of the Truth when it should be reveiled to them became Christ's followers were peculiarly evangelized effectually wrought on by the preaching of the Gospel where this seed fell on a good and honest heart it took root and brought forth fruit St. Matt. 13. where God had open'd the door of the heart by the preventing Grace of an humble teachableness of a sincere desire to know and do Gods Will there this King of Glory came in and was entertain'd If any man will do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sincerely desire to do the Will of God he shall know of the doctrine that I preach whether it be of God Joh. 7. 17. that is acknowledge it for divine as it is These were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitted for the Kingdom of God Luke 9. 62. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disposed for eternal life Act. 13. 1. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meet for worthy of becoming Christ's Disciples Act. 13. 46. This point of Evangelical Doctrine is well exprest by St. Austin in that Socratical Sentence he minds Longinus the Pagan of Epist. 20. quibus satis persuasum est ut nihil mallent se esse quam viros bonos his reliqua facilis est doctrina to them who are sufficiently perswaded to desire nothing more than to be good men the remainder of Christian Doctrine is easie But it were endless to quote all Texts looking this way for I believe a Tythe of the Gospel beats upon these three Ponts last specified and therefore how much of it does Josephus bear witness to and comment upon in this succinct Sentence Christ was a Teacher of had for Followers and Disciples such as willingly received the Truth VVhich how it could fall from his pen and not soak into his heart to make it compliant with Christ and his heavenly Doctrine can hardly be resolv'd if not by this observation That he and such like admirably moralized persons who came thus near the Kingdom of Heaven as to think thus honourably of the Christian Religion had the same opinion of it as the Romanists have of those they call special Religions among themselves profess'd by several Orders of Fryars the Rules and Grounds whereof they look upon as Evangelical Counsels of perfection advantageous to those that will put themselves to the trouble of such heroick acts of Self-denyal and Mortification in order to
Jerusalem who in their Letter to their Brethren in Aegypt 2 Mac. 1. 18. give them an account at large how by the appointment of Jeremy the sacred Fire was hid by some Religious Priests in a Pit and by Nehemiah's Order search being made for it by the posterity of those Priests they found thick Water or Naphthar therein which being laid upon the Sacrifices kindled as soon as the Sun-beams beat thereon and consumed the sacrifices the Memorial whereof they pray the Jews of Aegypt that they would as they of Iudaea had done celebrate Contrary to the plain inference of Nehemiah's Nehem. 10 34. putting it among the Articles of that Covenant he made all the Jews seal to That they would make provision for the perpetual keeping of the Fire upon the Altar according to the appointment of the Law Levit. 9. 24. 10. 1. 3. Which pious act of his he concludes his Book with and presents it to God as a Sacrifice of a sweet odour Nehem. 13. ult And for the Wood-offering at times appointed and for the first-fruits remember me O my God for good All which from the beginning to the end would have been no better than the taking of Gods Name in vain had that Fire which consumed the first acceptable Sacrifice which they offered after their Return been no more then ordinary Fire for then they might without any offence to God have kindled it anew every time they sacrificed Contrary to what follows from Gods accepting those Sacrifices which by Nehemiah's order were offered which upon that consideration God discriminates from those were offered before the Temple was built professing they were unclean because they touched the unclean that is had strange Fire put to them Hag. 2. 12. That no burnt Sacrifice was acceptable to God but what was consumed by holy Fire was a Maxim so universally receiv'd in the Church as Moses expresseth Gods fire coming down upon Abels and not upon Cain's Sacrifice by God 's having respect to Abels and not Cain's and therefore Theodosion Translates that Text Gen. 4. 4 Inflammavit Deus in Abel ejus sacrificium at in Cain ejus sacrificium non inflammavit Deus God sent Fire down upon Abels Sacrifice c. For no other way can be conceiv'd how Cain could know Gods acceptance of his Brother's and rejection of his own but this visible Sign as St. Jerom observes in locum Hence our English Translators parallel Gen. 4. 4. with Lev. 9. 24. 1 Reg. 18. 38. 2 Chron. 7. 1. where 't is said the fire came down from the Lord upon the Sacrifice at the Dedication of the Altar at Elijah's Prayer and at the Dedication of the Temple So that the Sons of Aarons offering with strange fire Lev. 10. 1. seems to be imputed to their being at that time stark Drunk vers 9. 10. which occasion'd that prohibition to the Priests from drinking Wine when they went into the Sanctuary If therefore they had not holy Fire to Sanctifie the Altar the Altar could not Sanctifie the Sacrifice but both remain'd prophane as they had been before the affirming of which is manifestly contrary to those many and plain Promises that in the Second Temple Their Sacrifices should come up with acceptance upon Gods Altar And lastly contrary to as good Authority as Secular Records afford that the Memorial of that holy Fire was Celebrated as long as the Temple stood in the yearly Festival called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the 22d day of Abib say Johasin and the Modern Jewish Calendar but in truth on the 14. of Lous as Josephus calculates So well seen are the modern Jews in their own Antiquities and yet their blind conjectures are by some short-reason'd Theologues embrac'd as Oracles de Bel Jud. 2. 17 When that Festival came which they call Xulophoria on which day the custome was for every one to bring in Wood for the Temple that the Fire on the Altar might never want fuel for they never let it go out but kept it perpetually burning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels would not permit the adverse party to celebrate that Religious Service and on the day following to wit the 15. of Lous they assaulted the Castle of Antonia This was in the latter end of Nero's 11 year as Scaliger observes to whom for further satisfaction I refer the Reader de emend temp l. 7. an in Comp. Jud. p. c. 49. § 3. No less vain will the Caballistical Assertion touching the absence of Urim and Thummim under the Second Temple appear to him that has but dipp'd his lips fonte Caballino in the Pegasean Spring of mere Humane Learning and by gargling his Palate with that Water has so far rectified it as 't is able to discern of Tastes and to distinguish betwixt the insipid Flegme of frothie and the savoury juice of substantial Authors among which last the often-quoted and never sufficiently praised Josephus gives as full an evidence against the Caballists as can be desired in his Jud. ant 3. 9. where speaking of the two Sardonichs upon the High Priests Shoulders how that that upon the right shoulder as often as the Priest was to Sacrifice sent forth such a sparkling light beyond his own Nature as they that were at a great distance might see it certainly saith he deserves admiration with all men except those that seek by their contempt of Religion to gain a repute of being wise but that is much more admirable which I am now about to say to wit that God was wont to pronounce victory by twelve precious stones which the High Priest wore upon his Breast-plate For before the Army march'd such a Brightness shone from them as gave light to all the people that God was present and would be an aid to them that invocated him Wherefore the Greeks so many of them as do not abhorr our Religion having had such certain experiments of this Miracle as could not be gainsaid call'd the Breast-plate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Oracle But both the Sardonix on the high Priest shoulder and the Gemms on his Breast-plate have ceased to send forth their brightness two hundred years ago God being displeased with our Nation for their contempt and violation of his Law of which I shall speak elsewhere Thus far Josephus whom I make conscience of following rather than the whole College of conjecturing Caballists while he plays the part of an Historian and therefore collect from this Text that the Urim and Thummim continued under the Second Temple almost 300 years and to within little more than one hundred of our Saviours Birth for Josephus wrote his Jewish Antiquities in the latter end of the Reign of Domitian Though I may without impeachment to his credit suspend my assent to his Conclusions when he acts the Divine as he doth in assigning the reason of the Dimness of these precious Stones to be that Nations contempt of Gods Law which I think may better be ascribed to what he did
obtains place § 2. The God of Israel hath his Priests amongst the Gentiles § 3. No acceptable Oblation but what Christians offer tender'd to Israels God § 4. The Gospel hath utterly abolish'd Idols made Virmin-Gods creep into holes § 5. Daphnaean Apollo choak'd with the Bones of Babilas Heathen Testimony for the silencing of Oracles the Vanity of their Reasons § 6. Gross Idolatry in the Roman Pale by her own Doctors Confessions and Definitions the Legend of the Golden Calf yet not in the proper and prophetick sence § 1. A Third point of Prophecy the accomplishment whereof is permanent and now in being to the beholding of which I refer the Atheist for Conviction that the Author of our Scriptures hath an infinitely perfect fore-comprehension of Contingencies Is that wherein it is fore-told That this by them rejected Messiah of the Jews was to be called The God of the whole Earth That this Christ this Son of God against whom the Jews took Counsel the Bond of whose Covenant they brake asunder the Cords of whose Royal Laws they cast from them was to receive of his Father The Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession Psal. 2. was to Reign from Sea to Sea and to fill The whole Earth with his Majesty Psal. 71. That to this Shilo after the Departure of the Scepter from Judah The Gentiles should be gathered Gen. 49. That this Branch out of the Root of Jesse wherein the Jews saw no form nor comliness is to reign over the Centiles Isa. 21. in whom the Gentiles are to trust Isa. 42. to whom the Nations are to come saying Our Fathers have inherited vanity Jer. 16. That in the days of this Kings Son All the ends of the earth shall remember themselves and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before him Ps. 22. That to him Princes should come out of Aegypt Aethiopia should soon with the first stretch out her hands unto God That his Dominion shall be so far extended as all Kings should worship him all Nations do him homage Psal. 68. 31 That it was too small a thing that he should raise up the Tribes of Jacob and that therefore God would give him for a Light to Lighten the Gentiles and to be his Salvation to the ends of the earth Is. 49. 6. That at what time the Lord of Hosts should refuse to accept an offering at the hands of the Jews and take no pleasure in them or their Legal services his Name should be dreadful among the Heathen great among the Gentiles and that in every place from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof The God of Israel should have Incense offered to his Name and a pure offering Mal. 1. 10. and 14. Let the Atheist consult his Reason and then try if he can conceive how that God who spake by the Prophets so many things touching the Messias which are all come to pass and verified in the blessed Jesus could possibly be ignorant of or falsifie in the main in the Subject it self of all those Prophesies the Person of the Messias Or that he who foresaw the Rejection of the Jews would not provide himself of another People But I will not put him to the expence of what he hath not in the purchase of Faith His own Senses where ever he comes will inform him of the accomplishment of these Predictions what part soever of the old World he travels through he may hear the Name of the God of Israel celebrated he may see the Trophyes of Christs Victories standing there hear the Confession of all men with one mouth that the God of Abraham is the God that made Heaven and Earth with which rebound the Mahometan Moscos the Christian Churches the Jewish Synagogues for Pagan Temples he will find none where the Gospel has been Let him ask where he comes at the hearing of what Doctrine it was that their Gentile Progenitours came in to the acknowledgment of the God of Israel confessing that their Fathers had inherited Vanity had made lyes their Refuge I am perswaded the Mahometan will have so much Ingenuity as to confess that their Religion found all those parts of the World whither it hath come worshipping the God of Israel and therefore that was not the Light God set up to the Gentiles to bring them in to guide them to the one true God of Israel that theirs found the world inheriting the Christian Religion which Mahomet himself will not call a Vanity but for the time its Virtue lasted that is till he put forth his Alcharon confesseth to have been a saving and the only saving Religion as being the Appointment of God himself by the hand and Ministry of his Beloved Son Jesus Christ the greatest Prophet that ever was till Mahomet by Mahomets own Confession And the Jew may easily be confuted if he shall have the simplicity to say that that is a Prophecy of the Repentance of their Forefathers when they forsook the Idolatries of the Nations they were mixed with for 't is the Gentiles are to come and say Our Fathers inherited Vanity and the truth is the repenting Jews could not in verity make this Confession for though they for some time took long Leases of the Idolatry of the Heathens yet those Idolatries never obtain'd that Prescription as to become their Inheritance as they did in the Heathen World where long time out of mind from Father to Son no other Gods but Idols were worship'd Or if he should have the face to deny that it was the Preaching of the Gospel which prevail'd with the Nations of the World to come in to Israel's God confessing that the Religions of their Forefathers were all Vanity For before the Preaching of the Gospel 't is manifest that all Nations walked in their own way and in the name of their own Gods and the Jew was so far from introducing the Worship of their sometimes God into the Roman Capitol as they had much adoe to keep that Monster of all Roman Gods Caligula from receiving Divine honours in the Temple of Jerusalem and could not prevent the erecting of his Statue in their Temple at Alexandria nor the Adoration of it in the Presence-Chamber of the God of Israel Besides let them say by which of their Rabbies India by which Aethiopia by which Spain by which Eritain the utmost Coasts of Europe Asia Affrica were converted from Idols to the One living God as we can shew by what Apostles and Apostolical Persons the World was by piece-meal brought under the Obedience of God and of his Christ. § 2. Let him next observe if Israels God have that service perform'd to him which by his Prophets he had declared he would only accept when he should be called the God of all the Earth any where but in the Christian Church If since his rejection of the Levitical Priesthood which then virtually commenc'd when Christ as a Priest
excluded themselves from the Protection of the best of Kings and cooped up themselves to be a prey to the worst of Tyrants for as ours then so the Jewish Matrons now spared neither their tender Limbs nor fine Cloaths nor richest Jewels but as they expended their Treasures in hiring Labourers so they themselves did not disdain to serve the Workmen by carrying Baskets of Rubbish till both Masons and Servitours were forc'd from their work by Balls of Fire issuing from the trembling and gaping Earth by which they that were not kill'd had their Garments or Bodies inured with the Sign of the Cross by which Marks of God's displeasure many of them were so far convinc'd that no other Religion was acceptable to God but the Christian as they with one voyce invocate the help of Christ and were by Baptism initiated in the Christian Faith The substance of this Story I have elsewhere alledged out of Ammianus Marcellinus one of Julian's Captains And Nazianzen affirms that when he wrote this Oration these Prints and Marks upon their Cloaths were still to be seen Is 't then I say imaginable in reason that ever since the disannulling of the Mosaical Service of Legal Sacrifices God has been no where worship'd in a way of his own institution Or is it possible to point out any People upon Earth save the Christian Church that worship him in that way which God himself foretold he would erect at the vacateing of the old § 4. The fourth and last instance I shall give of Prophecies touching meer Contingencies that have been so palpably fulfill'd as the Effect of the accomplishment is now existing is of those which foretold That after Israel had cast off their Messiah and their God cast off them and taken the Gentiles to be his People Those Gentiles as they came into Christ should cast a way all their former Idol-Gods so as never again to return to them Of which Tenour are those Texts Isa. 2. 18. 20 21. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day and the Idols shall he utterly abolish and they shall go into the holes of the Rocks and into the Caves of the Earth for fear of the Lord and for the Glory of his Majesty when he ariseth terribly to shake the earth In that day shall a man cast his Idols of Silver and Gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the batts This day is that when all Nations shall flow unto the Mountain of the Lords House c. ver 1. The same Prophecy is repeated Is. 31. 7. and the Effect of it dated when the Lord the Shepherd of Israel shall rise up against the multitude of Shepherds called forth against him the whole Crew of Idols erected by the Gentile world to affront the Majesty of Heaven and make no more of them than a Lyon doth of unarmed Shepherds who would scare him away with their voyce when he comes to take their Flock from them and when those Flocks shall be turned unto that God from whom the Children of Israel have deeply revolted In that day shall every man cast away his Idols c. And Isa. 45. and 46. Chapters When all the ends of the Earth shall look unto God when to him every Knee shall bow every Tongue shall swear c. Then Bel boweth down Nebo stoopeth their Idols were upon the Beasts your carriages were heavy laden they are a burden to the weary Beasts they stoop they bow down together they could not deliver the burden but themselves are gone into Captivity That is the Heathen Great Pontiffs and Philosophers shall not be able to maintain the Cause of those false Gods whom by office and inducement of State they are bound to support but shall fall down under the weight of that Vanity and Impiety the Gospel shall charge them with and throw off their load and themselves become Christs Captives so mighty were the Weapons of the Apostles Warfare to cast down those vain Imaginations that had exalted themselves against the knowledge of the true God and to bring into obedience to Christ the strongest holds that Satan by his Deputies held in the Heathen World And Zech. 13. 2. In that day when a Fountain should be open'd to those Inhabitants of Jerusalem to that House of David that should mourn every Family apart over him whom they had pierced which cannot be meant of the Jews after the Flesh for it was the Gentiles that pierced Christ it was the Roman Soldiers that platted the Crown of Thorns and set it upon Christs Head that Nailed his Hands and Feet to the Cross that peirced his Side with a Spear to which external peircing of Christs Body and not to that Sword which the unthankful Jew ran through his Soul the Evangelist applies this Text John 19. 37. The Spirit of Grace and Supplication is not promised to the breakers of his Heart but Bones the Gentiles Heart that broke his Bones shall be broken when the spirit convinceth them of that sin but the Jews generally lost under Judicial blindness in that day I say that the spiritual Judah shall repent and be baptized St. Jerom expounds this Fountain to be Christian Baptism that Laver of Regeneration It shall come to pass saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land c. and cause the unclean spirits to pass out of the Land Was ever any thing foretold with more plainness and perspicuity most of those Oracles and a great many more which for brevity sake I omit are as transparent as if they had been writ with a Sun-beam in this copious variety of expressions there is not one ambiguous Word not one dark Syllable a Child may run and read these Visions Would then such eminent Persons as their Prophets were in their several Generations have run the hazard of having their Memories traduc'd in after-ages by such plain speaking having no imaginable Secular Temptation to it but against it had they not been beyond all possibility of mistake assured of the Infallibility of that Spirit by which they were moved Now the same Degree of Assurance which they had à priori from the Cause we may have à posteriori from the Effect they could not by that more then Scientifical Vision of those things in the Divine Mind that essential Cognition that simple Contact and Feeling of God's Will Tactus quidam divinitatis notitiâ melior essentialis cognitio divinorum contactus quidam essentialis simplex Jamblicus de cognit divinorum be more certain that this would be than we may that it is come to pass by observing the Event For never were any Predictions more manifestly fulfill'd than these not one title of them is faln to the Earth There is not now nor has not been in any part of the World since Christian Religion was planted in it the least Relique of those numberless Pagan Gods it swarmed with before that
call upon us to stand astonish'd and so much more as we cannot conceive any other Reason thereof but the Divine Will yet for men to frame to themselves an Image of Divine Justice inconsistent with that Mercy which God hath proclaim'd he hath treasured up in his Christ for all Nations to be manifest in its due and appointed time and in defence of their own foolish imaginations to plead Gods secret Counsel against his reveiled Purpose is to add the sin of Sacrilegious Impiety to that of barbarous inhumanity § 4. Thirdly In both which the Placits of the Millenaries touching the Gogick War are so deeply immerst as I wonder how such conceits could find place in the pious head of Mr. Meed as those are which he lays down rol 2. pag. 714. where propounding to himself this Question from what quarter of the World from what kind of men that huge Army was to come that should incompass the holy City he resolves it must be raised in America and consist of the Inhabitants of that Hemisphere that 's opposite to ours And next enquiring into the Cause of that their invading our World into the Arguments whereby Satan should ensnare them into this engagement he determines it can be for no other reason but that they may mend their Quarters possess themselves of a more fertile Soile and live and die here in this upper Hemisphere where they may enjoy a Resurrection which perhaps they think is a priviledge appropriated to this World of ours For this it is that they shall invade the holy City that is this upper half of the Earth the sole Seat of Righteousness and for their making this invasion in pursuit of these ends God shall rise up against them as so many Gyants fighting against Heaven and in an instant destroy them by Fire from Heaven Volum 2. book 3. p. 712. Let us examine these Responds of the greatest Oracle of the most refined Learning that ever opened its mouth in defense of the Millenaries Cause 1. Say that World be now as horrid as Germany or Gallia was in Caesars time may not the Cultivation thereof for more than a thousand years render it as fertile and delectable then as our World is now The old Serpent must be grown into his dotage if he can after a thousand years musing in his Den study out no better an Argument than that Topick affords to engage the Americans to invade this upper World 2. How can it be a manifestation of the righteous Judgment of God to destroy the Americans for that Crime which the Christian Hemisphere is a thousand times more deeply immerst in the guilt of than they who have suffer'd those things by us while we have been harasing those Countries as were enough to prejudice them for ever against the reception of that Religion whose professors are so unjust and barbarously cruel were it not that the Almightiness of Prophetick Truth will carry on the purpose of God against all the blocks that can be laid in their way to Christ by man Josephus scarce any where more bewrayes the spirit of a Pharisee than in lib. 12. cap. 13. of his Antiquities where he censures Polybius for saying Antiochus Epiphanes came to a miserable end for attempting to plunder Diana's Temple for saith he the intention of Sacrilege which he did not actually commit seems not to have been a thing worthy of such a punishment yet in the sequel of his discourse he recovers himself and speaks like a man of Reason If Polybius think that to have been a sufficient cause of his ruine with how much more probability may it be affirm'd that the vengeance of Heaven overtook him for that Sacrilege which he not only intended but perpetrated upon the Temple of Jerusalem with how much more reason may I argue against this cause of the Americans overthrow assigned by this learned man Must they perish for but designing an encroachment upon us who have made so many unjust encroachments upon them Must their thoughts of retaliation of repaying the inhabitants of this upper Plane that measure they have been meeting to them be punish'd by the Righteous Judge of all the Earth that respects not persons with so severe and suddain a destruction 3. How much less can the inflicting of so dreadful a vengeance upon them be imputed to their seeking a place of burial amongst us where they may lye down in hope of a Resurrection as conceiving in this part of the World to be that Elizium beyond God knows what Hills where the Souls of righteous men rest in joy as Dr. Heylin reports of them in his America can any thing be more strange or abhorrent to Christian ears than that either Satan should tempt them to or God punish them for such an undertaking 4. As it is an Article of Faith that the Church is Catholick that is at once in all its members in point of necessary Doctrine they all and every one in all ages and places holding the same form of sound words And successively in respect of Place as well as Time And therefore to assert the exclusion of any place much more one half of the Earthly Globe finally out of that Church bids defiance to the Christian Faith So 't is the confession of all that this Church shall be militant here on Earth as to the state of every particular Member who have remains of corruption within them to grapple with and as to the general state of the whole being incombred in all places with the bad neighbourhood of such visibly wicked ones as either maliciously excind themselves by separation or are justly for their contumacy cast out of her Communion such as make up the Devil's Chappel where-ever God hath his Church From whence will necessarily flow these inferences 1. That to put such an Interpretation upon dark and prophetick Texts as makes them present the Church on Earth in a state so triumphant as leaves her neither spawn of Corruption within nor the Seed of the Serpent without for the exercise of her Repentance Faith Hope Charity Patience is a giving of the lye to those numerous plain and open-fac'd Texts whose uncontroverted sence and words not capable of perversion inform us the direct contrary That the Net of the Gospel gathers good and bad which shall not be sever'd one from the other till the last day That the Tares grow with the Wheat till the end of the World That is the Local and visible Church shall have a mixture of formal Members in it that are not of it Insomuch as when Christ was personally present with the College of the Apostles they were not all clean that Church of his own gathering had a simpering Judas who could cry Hail Master and Kiss his Lord while he betray'd him And as all the visible Members are not good so the best and sincerest Member is not all good Venus hath her Mole the Moon her spots the best Christian his infirmities there is not a