the satisfying of his lusts but out of Reasons of State that he might by those Subagitations of their Wives bolt out the secrets of their Husbands with whose Heifers he ploughed that he might read their Riddles Augustus saith Dion made so much use of Woman-kind when he was fifty years old as the Senate thought to gratifie him with a License to have to do with whomsoever he pleased Dion lib. 44. I am apt to think Julius might grind in so many Mills upon the like Design as having Cato's concurrence who in open Senate charged Julius and his Allies with endeavours to insinuate themselves into places of greatest Trust and Command by the Panderage of Marriages Per nuptiarum lenocinia hujusmodi mulieres this was Cato's sence of Caesar's matching his Julia to Pompey and his marrying Calpurnia Plutarch C. Caesar. And his Collegue Bibulus preferr'd this Complaint against him That it was the Kingdom he courted in making love to the Queen of Bithinia Bithinicam Reginam fuisse cordi nunc Regnum Sueton Julius 49. Caesar was but a kind of a Lay-smock-simonist So that for all him we are yet to seek for one Instance in all History of a noted Wanton that has not been a notorious Fool. But to return from this Deviation to which the proving of the Medium I here urge It was a Lascivious ergò a Sottish Age hath drawn me John 12 or 13. for the Popish Writers are not agreed under what number to place him Joan the She-pope is the Davus here turbat omnia was a Pig of the same Litter if the learned Council of Lateran were not mistaken for the Fathers there assembled prefer to Otho the Great these Articles against him Luitprand lib. 2. cap. 7. That he ordained Deacons in a Stable That he made Boys but ten years old Bishops That in playing at Dice he invocated the Devil That he made a Brothel-house of the Lateran Palace lay with Stephana his Father's Concubine and drank the Devil's Health And when in answer to this Charge he sent out his Bulls to bellow Anathema's against them they made bold to return this Reply You write by the suggestion of empty-headed Councellors Childish Threats we despise your threatned Excommunication and throw it back upon your self Judas the Traitor when he would kill the Lord of Life whom did he bind but himself whom he strangled in an unhappy Rope Pope Lando this John's Predecessor was so inconsiderable a person and his Life so obscure saith Platina as many Historians make no reckoning of him at all but leave his Name and Story out of the Catalogue of Popes and does thus express the degeneracy of that time Not only were those famous Lights which in the days of yore render'd Italy illustrious extinct but the very Nurseries where so excellent roots shot forth were altogether laid waste and â—uin'd Pope Sergius 3. is complemented by the same Author in the Style of a rude and unlearned man and the Reader desired to observe how the Popes of this Age were degenerate from their forefathers For these throwing the service of God behind their backs like raging Tyrants exercised enmities upon one another and having none to bridle and keep them in greedily pursued their own lusts So devoid of Understanding were those Brutes as they needed Bit and Bridle and therefore the Council of Rhemes held in this Century did prudently in superseding their purpose of sending to the Pope for Advice in a difficult point when they heard it averr'd in open Court that scarce a man in Romo could read the Christ-cross-row Romae jam nullum ferè esse qui literas didicerit B. Hall hon 〈…〉 of mar lib. 1. Sect. 23. § 4. The 11. Century was invelop'd with so thick a Cloud as the very Light that was in it was gross Darkness teeming with sixteen Popes immediatly succeeding one another from Gerebert or Silvester 2. to Hildebrand or Gregory 7. inclusively who lighted their Candle at the Devil's flame exceeding Jannes and Jambres in Jugglery and rising by the black Art in the Smoke of the bottomless Pit to the Papal Throne if Cardinal Benno have not belyed them Nauclerus vol. 2. generat 31. extends the line of this sacred auri sacra fames Succession to that length as he joyns to these 28 Popes succeeding Silvester that were his Disciples in Necromancy and committed those Villanies as it would make a man's hair stand on end to hear Bellarmine himself Chronologia Cent. 11. confesseth that in this Century there was more Sanctity under the Robe than under the Gown that we are less beholding to the Popes of this Age for preserving a Succession of Religion than to Secular Princes which had gone wholly to wrack for all St. Peter ' s Successors if it had not been supported by the Piety of Christ's Vice-gerents the Emperour Henry and his Wife Chunagand Romanus Emperour of Constantinople Câ—ute King of Denmark and England Stephen King of Hungary and his Son St. Emeric St. Robert the French King Ferdinand the Great King of Castile and his Wife Sanatia For all those greater Lights that God made to rule the Day the Church had been benighted if it had not been for these lesser Lights these Secular Princes If the Earth had not helpt the woman and God given her the Eagles Wings of both Empires East and West and provided a place for her in the Courts of Secular Princes When Satan had set up his Throne in St. Peter's Palace the Dragon there Rampant had destroyed her he that then would look for the holy Church of Rome must have looked beyond the Court of Rome for there sate Hell's Plenipotentiary if Platina be to be trusted Silvester 2. anno 998. who contracted with the Devil for the Papacy at the price of Body and Soul whereof he was to give livery and seisure at his death Platina Silvest 2. Pontificatum postremò majore conatu adjuvante Diabolo consecutus est hac tamen lege ut post mortem totus illius esset cujus fraudibus tantam dignitatem adeptus est Oâ—â—phrius in Platinam seeks to evade the Dint of common Fame touching Silvester by this evasion That he was a great Mathematician and the ignorance of that Age so great too as the Vulgar reputed them Witches who had any thing in them above the pitch of common Learning but himself misdoubts the validity of this to elude the clear and concurrent Testimonies of so many grave and sober Authors Truly I could heartily wish for the sake of the Christian name that his Argument had been cogent in that branch of it wherein he would defend Sivester against the Charge of Sorceries for the very medium he useth will serve my present turn and demonstrates what a thick Mist of barbarous Ignorance covered the face of that Age which esteemed them black Swans who exceeded the common size of Geese And him a great Clerk who was but the Scholar of the Saracens the most stupid kind
vestris semper metalla suspirant de vestris semper bestiae suginantur nemo illic Christianus nisi planè tantum Christianus aut si aliud non jam Christianus Malefactors condemned to perpetual imprisonment to the Mines and to the Beasts are of your own the Pagan Religion among such there is not one Christian or if there be he is there for no other Crime but only that of being a Christian for if he be an Offender in any other point he is no longer a Christian. A seditious a factious a traitorous Christian was then a non-ens that could no where be found When they could maintain that nunquam vel Nigriani vel Albiniani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani Tert. ad scap c. 2. No Christian had been a Traytor to his Prince When the worst effect of Christian Faith appear'd to be that it procur'd the Husband a chaste Wife the Father an obedient Son the Master a faithful Servant Vt domi habeat uxorem jam pudicam maritus non jam zelotipus filium subjectum pater famulum fidelem dominus Tert. apol cap. 3. Of the same importance is that of Rab. David Chimchi in Ps. 1. 3. 4. Mundus documentum à viro bono recipit per umbram viarum fructum operum ejus non sic impii nullum commodum per eos venit sed damnum velut gluma per ventum in occulos hominum pulsa vel super hortos domos cadit Vicars Decupla The World receiveth good Instruction from a good man grown good by meditating in Gods Law by the Tract of his Ways by the Fruit of his Works But as for the ungodly it is not so there is no benefit to be reapt of them but incommodity they are like the Chaff which the Wind scatters and beats into mens eyes to afflict them or into Gardens and Houses to annoy to foul and disfigure humane Society § 3. Reply 2. Though humane Testimony in Religious Matters be the feeblest of all Arguments to prove or disprove the Truth of Doctrine delivered or the goodness of things done yet it is of as much validity to evince the delivery of Doctrine the Doing of such Things in this case as in any other we must not indeed so much as admit it into the Juries Chamber much less into the Judges Seat to give sentence what is de jure but yet it must be allowed even in the Lords Courts a place among the Witnesses to declare what it knows de facto to give in evidence whether the Action under debate was done or not whether an Action be legal or criminal is the Judges Office to declare but whether the Actions which are brought before him were done or no is the Witnesses Office to discover If the question be What Doctrine was delivered hy Christ Moses Mahomet what Orations were writ by Tully what Poems by Homer humane Testimony and undoubted Tradition must umpire this but if it be what-like Doctrine Orations Poems those are Reason regulated by the Maximes of every such Art or Science whose subject is under debate must cast the scales and determine that Controversie Reason I say may and must be exercised about Religion in discerning the true from the false we must not chuse our Religion as men draw lots unseen nor as Children in that Libian Province where women were promiscuously and in common frequented drew Fathers each of them taking him for Father to whom in a great assembly chance or instinct directed their first steps Herodot He that 's a Christian but perchance may perchance be no better than no Christian the blessed Jesus is well content that Merchants who deal with him should see his Ware before they buy Indeed that God should endow our Souls with Reason and make us differ from Brutes only that we might rule them and not our selves in what highliest concerns us that he should put a golden Mattock into our hands on purpose that we should digg Dung hills and not rather for hid Treasure that he should communicate to us a Ray of the invisible World only that we may contemplate the visible and employ that Light that Candle of the Lord in the search of things only on this side of Eternity hath not the least congruity with that Decorum observ'd by him in all his Works which are fram'd in Number Weight and Order And those Morning Stars which the Divine Goodness hath fixed in the Orb of our body are from the height of their Native Heaven faln into the lowest Abyss of Reptile-spiritedness if they be content with and submit to such drudgery such Gally-slavework and not exert their noblest Powers upon the noblest Objects in the study of God and the way to the eternal Possession of him In which Case though we make it Reasons duty to judge of the Religion which is true yet we set not Reason above the true but only the Unreasonableness of the false The King of France set not Joan of Acres that holy Maid of France as the Primitive Rebel-covenanters stiled that their Enthusiastick Sister as a Judge over himself nor our King Henry the Eighth of glorious memory the Cardinal and his guests over himself when they put them to it to judge which of those Gallants was the of King France which of these Guisers was the King of England Reason may without the least suspition of usurping the Office of a Divider or the Authority of a Judge over him determine which is the King in a crowd of Guisers provided that when she has discover'd him she give him the Chair of State I mean Reason in her Debates about the true Religion after she hath by Principles of common Sence discover'd it to be of divine Revelation from those manifest Impresses of its sacred Original it brings with it into the World must be regulated by Maximes of that now acknowledged heavenly Science We allow her to walk round about Sion to mark well the Bull-warks and count her Towers but in judging of their Strength or Comeliness she must not walk by the exotick and forreign Rules of inferiour Sciences but by the Domestick Principles of that Architectonick Art the Municipal Laws of that holy State while she sojourns in the City of God she must conform to the Customs thereof That may be a good Reason in one Science that 's a grand Solecism in another The Asses adjudging the Palm to the Cuckow from the Nightingal was therefore absurd because it was not grounded upon Principles of Musick the Art wherein they strove for preheminency had he past the same Sentence upon the same reason he did that in case of contest betwixt two publick Criers the Determination would have been grave substantial and becoming a wiser Animal But to return from this Digression Humane Testimony as to Matters of Fact touching Religion is of as much validity as in any other Subject For although the Actions relate to Religion they are not reported under that consideration but barely
observ'd manifest Testimonies of the Divine presence in the constitution of Monarchies because it was impossible they could be erected or continued by Humane strength and were to that end appointed by God that they might be keepers of humane Society the Umpirers of Difference among the Nations of the World the preservers of the Laws Judgments and Peace c. The truth is it is a Miracle of it self that wheresoevet the Order of ruling and obeying hath once been received it remains for ever that some or other form of Government should be embraced all the World over That some Forms should last so many Ages in some certain Countries as the Regal among the Assyrians Aegyptians Francks c. This would not be if God had not a peculiar care of them and gave manifest tokens of that his care by his wonderful erecting of them by mean persons in respect of such undertakings such as Cyrus Alexander Julius Caesar made famous by nothing but Gods signal owning of them in his giving them success beyond their own expectation and the natural accomplishments of Unity Power and Policy and by his furbishing and setting a new gloss upon the splendour of his own Creature when at any time through length of time it was grown obsolete and in some places fixing a standing badge of an honourable discrimination of them from others upon the persons of the chief Governours as that wonderful gift of healing otherwise incurable Maladies by a touch intail'd upon our Kings Instances of that other way of Gods setting occasional Remarks upon his own great Ordinance when it grows into contempt occur every where in History God choosing rather to work Miracles and permit the Devil for the present to carry away the honour of them than to let the Grandeur fall of that Order which he had set in the World He the God of Order as St. Paul calls him that supreme God who rules the World to whom there is nothing upon earth more acceptable than Councils and Societies of men rightly associate Cicero som. Scipion. whose Providence is as much seen in the erecting of Empires as in framing the World Itaque praesens disputatio Romae magnam suspiciendamque conciliabit dignitatem si de ea id quod de terra mari caelo siderihus solet fieri disquirimus fortunam ne an providentiam authorem habeat Plut. de for Ro. God erected the Roman Empire saith Plutarch de for Rom. Ut omnibus hominibus conâ—ceret vestam re vera sacram beneficam ac stabile retinaculum elementum sempiternum quod rebus fluctuantibus atque sublabentibus anchora esset ut cum Democrito loquar Alexander's Empire being faln into pieces the fragments of it like the first Qualities in the Chaos never ceas'd clashing and putting the World into combustions and continual changings while each of his Successors sought to be that which not any one of them was Lord Paramount like the Cyclops in Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A confused rout where none minded nothing that no body said till the Majesty of Empire becken'd to them to keep silence till Rome having attain'd to a Consistency and constringing in it self as well the neighbouring as foraign and transmarine Kingdoms the great affairs of the World obtain'd a firm basis whereon to lean and rest and were laid to sleep in the bosom of that Empire For the erecting of the Roman Empire Polib l. 1. It was a wonder to see how Fortune made all the Affairs of the whole World lead one way and incline to that one point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrews had a Proverb Nisi potestas publica esset alter alterum virum deglutiret Chrysâ—stom de statuis 6. If it were not for Governours we should lead a more wild life than wild Beasts not only biting but devouring one another Livii l. 26. Respublica incolumis privatas res salvas facile praestat publica prodeundo tua nequicquam serves It is not at all strange then that that God whose Philanthropie is so apparent should for the maintenance of this common good do such strange things as made the Gentiles conclude the persons of Princes to be Sacred regium nomen gentes quae sub regibus sunt pro deo colunt Q. Curtius Artabanus Persa apud Plutar. in Themistocl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among our many and good Laws this is the best That we reverence and honour the King as the Image of God who preserves all things in safety Though Gods using a standing Miracle to convince us hereof who have the Example of the blessed Jesus and the Injunctions of his holy Apostles to revere our Supream Governours seems to be an upbraiding us with that Proverb The King of England is King of Devils and speaks them to be right Devils incarnate to have their Intellects blinded with malice who when the divine Clemency doth thus superâ—rogate in affording us means of knowledge yet cannot will not see the Majesty of the Lord visibly sitting upon his own Ordinance Yet how the Rabble of Gentiles who had not Reason enough to see every mans private weal was imbark'd in the publick nor Religion enough to teach them that the powers that are are ordain'd of God those waves of the Sea should be kept in order and within their own bounds is hardly conceivable If he that rules the raging of the Sea and the madness of the people had not set them bounds beyond which they must not pass had not rayled in the Mount the Majesty of Supream Authority so as to make it unapproachable by the Thunder and Lightning the stupendious manifestations of Divine Power exerted for the common behoof of Mankind to beget and uphold in the vulgar an awe and reverence of that Order under which they were Marshal'd And therefore whatever miraculous events of that tendency fell out in the Age of Paganism were not the operations of Pagan Gods among whom there was not one but he was a profest enemy to Mankind but of Israels God the Creator and Conserver of the Universe and upon that account are to be taken into the Christians bill of miracles CHAP. XI The Deficiency of false the Characters of true Miracles § 1. Heathen Wonders unprofitable § 2. Of an impious Tendency § 3. Not above the power of Nature § 4. Moses and the Magicians Rods into Serpents § 5. The Suns standingstill and going back The Persian Triplesia § 6. Darkness at our Saviours Passion § 7. Christs Resurrection the Broad-seal set to the Gospel § 1. ANd for the rest of the reputed Miracles that come not within the compass of these Rules that will not come over to us as 1. being such as the Pagan Gods Genius was against 2. Or such as the God of Israel rewarded the Morality of Heathens with 3. Or such as he foretold he would do in Heathen Nations for the Discipline of his own people 4. Or such as he wrought for the punishment of those