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
Senate as having been detained at home till his Wife was brought a Bed of Augustus enquiring the Hour and Calculating his Nativity affirmed with much Vehemency Dominum terrarum orbi natum Sueton. ibid that a Child born that hour would become Lord of the Universe Nigidius in Calculating the time of King Messiah's Birth shot not so wide of the Mark set by Daniel as many of our commentators do who have the Accomplishment of his Prophecy to give them aim Vide Meed Daniels Weeks A like Prediction Octavius received from the Thracian Priests of whom he asked the Fortune of his Son and was confirmed in the Beleif of it when the Day following his Son or the Devil in his shape appeared to him in a Form more August than that of a Mortal with a Scepter a Thunder-bolt and other of Jove's Accoutrements as if he had been his express Image I shall shut up the Legend of Augustus with the Dreams of Cicero an Enemy both to Dreams and Monarchy yet he the first time he took Notice of Augustus but then a Youth affirmed he had the Night before seen such a Boy as that standing at the Gate of the Capitol to whom Jupiter gave a Whip And of Quintus Catulus who saw Jove deliver to him the Seal of the Common-wealth take him into his Bosom present him to the Noble Youths as the Umpirer of all Controversies and lifting his own hand up to his Mouth after Augustus had kissed it Manifest Transcripts of those Texts wherein the Messiah is presented as one whom we must hear whom we must kiss as one in the bosom of the Father and to whom is committed the Key of the House of David c. wherewith if those Persons had not been preoccupated and either read or heard them in the Day it could never have come into Mens Minds in the Night to dream at this rate Neither can there be a better Reason given why the Romans should feign fancy and fasten such things as these upon their Emperours than that they might by these Lures draw the Eyes of the World to expect the fulfilling of the Eastern Prophecy in these Persons § 7. But of the same Mint came those Presages which were coyned concerning Tiberius Such as that of the famous Mathematician Scribonius who while Tiberius was yet a Child promised great things of him and amongst others this that he should be a King without Kingly Ensigns or Badges of Royalty Suetonius Tiberius 8. imputes the later part of this Prediction to the Author 's not being acquainted with the Grandeur of the Caesars but in reason it should be father'd upon his acquaintance with the Oriental Prophecy which presents the King of Kings his coming without external Pomp. And that of Livia who casting many Figures to find out whether she was with Child of a Boy or Girl among the rest took an Egge from under an Hen which in her own and Maids bosome she hatch'd till there came forth a cristed Bird a young Cock that must teach the old ones to crow up Tiberius to be that white one that Darling of Fortune to whom the Fates had decreed the universal Crown A Crown which the East held in her hand for him of which he received an assurance when the sacred Fire kindled of its own accord upon the Altars at Philippi dedicated to the memory of the conquering Legions as he passed by them in his Eastern Expedition into Syria Suetonius ibid. The likeliest piece of Leger-de-main the Serpent could possibly play to fascinate that Region into a belief that he was their promised King among whom answering by Fire had formerly been reputed a final Determination of the Contest betwixt God and Baal and in whose Records Fire is frequently mention'd as a Precursor to the Exhibition of their Messias To this that story is akin of the appearance of Fire issuing out of his Tunick while he lay at Rhodes an Omen far before the Eagles liting upon the top of his House and not inferiour to the lucky chance he had at Passage for the umpiring of that grand Question then in the World which of the Pretenders was the true Heir to the Universal Crown saving that those flashes were transient but the Golden Die which he cast into Apon's Well by the advice of Gerious Oracle was in the days of Suetonius as himself testifies to be seen in the bottom of the Water presenting uppermost the highest number What needed all this ado to render these persons in the repute of the World fit to wear the Diadem as being more than men but that the World had learn'd by the Eastern Prophecy that he whose due it was was to be God-man or in the Roman Phrase Chara Deum soboles what need was there to draw the Lions Skin upon these Emperours but to make them look like the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to make the Pagan Emperour that mock Christ the eldest Son of Perdition be taken for the Christ the King of Kings Let me here observe the policy of this Vafrous wit Tiberius to secure the Judaean Crown from the surprisal of others but especially of the Jews themselves after the History of our Saviour was come to light for Josephus hints that Stratagem as laid after Christs passion from whom and Suetonius his Tiberius 36. we learn that Tiberius notwithstanding the love he pretended to that Nation commended upon that account by Philo practised to weaken the Strength and abate the courage of the Jews by distributing their Youth under pretence of training them up in Martial Discipline into Provinces far distant from Judaea and colder Climates four Thousand of which for instance were sent into Sardis why this pretence but to cloak his drift from the Jews Eyes whose Favour he thought was necessary in order to his being born King of the Jews when time serv'd and why must that Nations strength be thus weaken'd by dispersing their Youth through the Provinces but to prevent their snatching at the Eastern Monarchy Galba for to produce the Arts which every Emperour used of this tendency would be an abuse of my Readers Patience was invited by Vindex to the accepting of the Empire in words as fully expressing the Eastern Prophecy as the Tongue of man can utter Ut humano generi assertorem ducemque se accommodaret Sueton. Galba 9. that he would lend himself to Man-kind as its Saviour and Leader And encouraged to undertake it by an Oracle as like that of God's touching his Christ as if they both had come out of the same Mouth but that the Drivel of the Serpent bewrays its Original in altering the Scene in putting Spain in the room of Jury The sence of the Oracle saith Suetonius was this That one was to arise out of Spain who was to be Prince and Lord over all Observe by the way the Roman Sence of Oriundus of which before for Galba came not out of Spain as a Native but that being his Province there
deaths approaches Nero hath this Character given him by Suetonius Religionum usquequaque aspernator he perfectly contemned all Religion yet his Mothers Ghost dogg'd him into an acknowledgement of Judgment to come for after his Matricide he was scar'd with dreams terrified with visions wherein sometimes he hears the Apparritors voice summoning him to appear before the divine Tribunal sometimes he thinks the Furies arrest him and hale him into close and dismal Dungeons those antipasts of approaching vengcance drive him quite off his Stoicism in his last Act put him beside the Lesson his Master Seneca had taught him he could handle his Weapon dexterously in the Artillery-garden but he cannot find his hands in the pitch'd Field 'T is one thing to bark at the Lions Skin in the Hall another thing to meet the Lion in the Wood. He cannot at his death with all his Charms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Age excita teipsum how ill do these fears become the Scholar of Seneca Caesar where art thou go too stir up thy courage Nero conjure down the terrours of death nor keep them within the Circle of his own heart but they break out in those gastly stareings of his Eyes as strike the Spectators with horrour Extantibus rigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem visentium Sueton. Nero. so true is that of St. Cyril Jerus Catech. 18. Thou maist deny it with thy lipps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thou carriest the Conscience of the Resurrection about with thee Epicurus made it his business to obliterate the Notions of the Souls Immortality and the Judgment attending us in the other World yet Cotta in Cicero de nat deor lib. 1. gives this Testimony of him Nec quenquam vidi qui magis timeret ea quae timenda esse negaret mortem dico Deos I never knew man that more fear'd what he said was not to be fear'd to wit Death and the Deity There is no Antidote strong enough to repel the thought of future Judgment from soaking into the spirits of those men that would most glad ly quit themselves of those thoughts The Atheist in heart cannot persevere to be an Atheist in Judgment he may cross the Book but the Debt is still legible he cannot make his Soul rasam tabulam not rase out of it the native Impresses of a righteous Deity he may think he has barrocado'd all the ways to his Soul and secured it from all Assaults of Fear that he has sufficiently immur'd his Judgment and made it impregnable but Judgment has a Party within will betray the Fort a self-accusing Conscience Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ità concipit intrà pectora pro facto spémque metúmque suo He may think he has extinguish'd the Fire but the Sparks of the Fiery Day are only raked up in the Embers and lie glowing on the bottom of the Hearth He may beat the thoughts of Eternal Vengeance from the Out-works and base Town the lower and bestial part of the Soul Fancy that 's only mur'd by Sense but they are so fortifyed in the Fort Royal in the white Tower of the rational Faculties as there they stand at defiance against all his Artillery as thence they make frequent Sallies and put all the Arguments wherewith they are beleaguered to the Rout thence they discharge whole Vollies of mortal Shot against the Atheist's Head if he once but dare to peep up above those Trenches under the Covert of which his Disbelief lurks To be sure the Dust that riseth under the Charriot Wheels of approaching Death blown into the most refractory A theist's Eyes will cure him of that his Purblindness of that Indisposition whereby he could not see afar off so far off as Judgment to come § 3. Articl 5. The Soul's Antipasts of the Resurrection to Eternal Life To whose Discipline we will leave him and attend to what the Soul speaks about that other part of glad Hope after Death whence comes that secret Applause she gives her self when she acts well that Exultancy of Spirit which ariseth from her reflecting upon her vertuous Actions Seneca speaks the Peasant's Sence as well as the Philosopher's when he saith Animum divina aeterna delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis distrabe hoc inestimabile bonum non èst vita tanti ut sudem ut aestuem Upon the performance of Noble and Heroick Actions the Soul contemplates those Eternal Rewards that attend them in the World and delights and enjoys her self in those Rewards not as things she hath nothing to do with but as her own peculiar Portion without which Fore-tasts of Eternal Retribution which the Divine Justice will award to Pious Actions this present Life were not worth the while our sweating and toiling here were but lost Labour exactly to the Apostle's Sense 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this Life only we had Hope we were miserable Men If the Soul did not think that the Body shall reign with her with what Equity does she put it upon suffering for her Would not the Flesh grumble to be rid by her through Brush and Brake if she did not rest in hope of sharing with the Soul in the Reward of well doing Would Scoevola's Hand if it had not laid fast hold of Eternal Life have been kept so steady in that Fire wherein he sacrificed it for his Countrey 's Service then which as my Author saith the immortal Gods never saw a more noble one laid upon their Altars nor more bespeaking the Attention of their Eyes Could Pompei have perswaded his Finger to have the Patience to be burnt to the stump in the Flame of a Candle to convince King Gentius that no Torture could rack him to confess the Senates Counsel if he had not pointed it to its future Reward With what else could Theodorus charm his Tongue to hold its Peace while he tired his Tormenters and wore out the Rack with his Patience Or Alexander's Page his Arm not to shrug while it was carbonadoing with that live Coal that fell into his Sleeve out of that Censer he held while his Master was sacrificing till the smell of his burnt Flesh exceeded that of the Incense and till Alexander had fulfill'd those Rites which he lengthen'd out on purpose to delight himself with the Prospect of that invincible Manhood in a Boy With what else do the Indian Gymnosophists obtain of their Bodies a Compliance with their Austere Discipline of going naked in Frost and Snow all their Life long of hardning them with the Frosty Rigour of Caucasus one while and another while throwing them into the Fire under all which Burdens the poor Beast never groans nor expresseth the least Disgust against its Rider But would a good Man be thus merciless to his Beast were he not perswaded with that Strippling Martyr in the Book of Maccabees 2. 7. these I had from Heaven and for his Laws I despise them and from him I hope to have them again These
interrupted in the Second Temple upon which Principle he proceeds to invalidate the Ancient and Catholick Opinion that our Saviours Birth was on the 25. of December So that nothing need be said more in reply to his reasoning and vindication of the Church than to shew his mistake in that point which he so peremtorily asserts and the groundlessness of his and other learned mens questioning upon that account the cessation of the Priests Courses I shall prove from sacred Testimony that no such cessation fell out either under the First or Second Temple nor till the year of the last Temples Fall and the last part of that year when God was departed from the Temple as Josephus himself testifieth to his Country-men's faces Bel. Jud. 6. 11. leaving upon Record to the Censure of all Ages this Sentence upon Jerusalem Jam enim Dei locus non eras thou hadst then ceas'd to be Gods habitation Bel. Jud. 6. 1. 1. Not under the First Temple as is manifest from that mournful Song of the Jews thus render'd by Scaliger Die Nona mensis hora vespertini temporis Cum essem in vigilia mea vigilia Joiarib Introiit hostis wherein speaking of the Desolation of the First Temple they introduce the Priest whose Course it was then to wait thus lamenting On the ninth day of the month at the hours of the Evening-sacrifice when I was in my Course the Course of Joiarib to whom fell the first lost 1 Chron. 24. 7. the enemy enter'd c. which could not have been his Course if the Order of serving had been computed either from Hezechias or Josias his setting the Priests in order But falls out exactly to be his lot if we reckon from Solomon's Dedication as that never to be sufficiently praised Keeper of the Clock of Time hath demonstrated in his Fragments annext to his Emendation And that there was no cessation of these Courses under the First Temple may be irrefragably evidenc'd from that plain Text Ezech. 44. 15. The Priests that kept the charge of my Sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me after their Idols they shall come near to me to minister and they shall stand before me to offer And they are rebuk'd by that Prophet that did not keep Gods charge by course in their own person whether in compliance with the Court-interest under idolatrous Kings or in scorn of those meaner Offices to which their lot assign'd them for the several services was distributed by lot weekly amongst the Priests of every Course at their entrance upon their service whence it is said of Zacharias that his lot was to burn incense subrogated others in their room just as our Pulpit-Pearchers either in compliance with the Rabble of their brainless Proselytes or out of scorn after the promotion to a Lecturer's place to stoop so low as the Desk used to procure the Minister of the Parish to read the Divine Service to the Walls but yet with so much more impious contempt as the offering of the daily Sacrifice excell'd the kindling of a fire or sweeping away the ashes of the Altar the Common-Prayer being that very daily Incense and pure Oblation which God promised should be offer'd in all places under the Gospel and as far surpassing the best Pulpit-exercises both in point of preaching the pure Gospel and praying according to the Will of God as the most rational Service surpasseth the Sacrifice of Fools This irreligious shifting of the charge of God's holy things to others God taxeth and menaceth the Jewish Priests for Vers. 8. Ye have not kept the charge of my holy things but have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for your selves 2. Not under the Second Temple as appears from Gods Promse to the Priests who had kept his charge under the First that they should stand before him in their Courses under the Second Temple Ezcch. 44. 15. 16. They shall keep my charge which as it is every whit as good a medium for the probat of a Non-cessation under the Second as the pre-alledged Text which Scaliger urgeth to that purpose is for the proof of a Non-cessation under the First Temple so it might seem strange how it could escape the observation of that Eagles-eye but that we see it usully thus fall out when men approach sacred ground with their shooes on their feet address themselves to sacred Scripture prepossess'd with their own Conclusions and do not strip themselves of all private preconceptions when they come to enquire for Truth at that sacred Oracle But to proceed the Non-cessation of these Courses during either Temple is clearly asserted by God himself in his Promise to Zadok whom Solomon advanced at the deposition of Abiathar to fulfill Gods threatning to Elie's house 1 Reg. 2. 27. and of whom Samuel carried from God to Elie this Message 1 Sam. 2. 35. I will raise me up a faithful Priest and he shall walk before mine anoynted for ever Which Promise never receiv'd accomplishment in any other sence but this to wit that the Priesthood in that Line should keep their Stations or Courses continually till the rejection of the whole Nation For in all other points the Priestly Office had been interrupted they did not walk before God or his anoynted perpetually in their offering of Sacrifices or actual performance of their charge of holy things but only in their standing in their Courses ready to perform their several charges when the impediments were removed they stood in their weekly lots perpetually waiting for times of refreshing and break of day in the darkest nights of interruption of actual services which befel them during the standing of both Temples And this is farther evident from the deep silence of the Jewish Records as to any interruption of their Courses till the year that Jerusalem was desolated by Titus of which we should certainly have heard as well as of that last and final Catastrophe thereof had such an accident befaln them They who kept a Fast for the extinction of the holy Lamp through want of Oyl by the neglect of the Priest whose Lot it was to supply it in the Reign of Ahaz on the 18. of Ab. in Commemoration of the Israelites ceasing to present their First-born in the Temple under Jeroboam the 23. of Sirvan in memory of Gedoliah's slaughter the 3. of Tisri of the bickerings betwixt the Schools of Shammai and Hillel and more contingencies of far less concern lib. angariarum would sure have celebrated the day whereon so sad an accident had happened in the afflicting of their Souls but more of this anon 3. The only Scruple then remaining is what became of these Courses in the interval betwixt the two Temples during the Babylonish Captivity It is commonly taken for granted that they then ceas'd and if they did it will not prejudice my account for if we begin at Zorobabel's restoring of the Hierarchical Courses the Lot will fall orderly upon the Course of Abias
but Christs Miracles were all healing his very cursing the fruitless Fig-tree was advantagious to the owner whose ground was hereby cleared of that that did but cumber it and takeup the room of a more fruitful Plant there was Nihil nocens aut noxium sed opiferum sed salutare sed auxiliaribus plenum bonis potestatis munificae liberalitate donatum Arnobius contra gentes l. 1. In Christs miraculous acts no harmful no burtful ingredients all was healthful helpful full of relieving goods and flowing from the largess of courteous Power And the Apostolical Rod though it had its Prickles to let out impostum'd matter budded Almonds and brought forth fruit for the healing of the Nations being never inflicted but in order to the saving of the Soul by bringing down the Body towards which if it was not available upon the persons on whose backs it was laid it was always of use towards the bettering of others The Deputy gain'd spiritual by Elimas his miraculous loss of corporeal Eye-sight the Church learn'd to beware of Sacrilege by the exemplary punishment of Annanias and Saphira and if Hymeneus and Alexander by being delivered to Satan did not learn not to blaspheme the Prints of the strokes of that Apostolical Rod could not but deterr others Not one of all theirs or their Masters mighty Works was labour in vain but accomodated to Humane use to common Good to the benefit of Mankind even in their natural operations and immediate products § 2. 2. How much more advantagious were they to the VVorld in respect of their ultimate tendency and designed end viz. to convince men of the Truth and Divine Original of a Doctrine so every way suited to the procurement of all sorts of Happiness to Humane kind a Doctrine which if observ'd would restore those golden Times which preceded Astraeas Flight from the corrupt Earth would have turn'd Devils into Men and Men into Angels so as Ideot-Christians that are true to their Religion are so far free from all Lust Rapine Injustice c. as they live at the rate of most perfect Priests and exhibit in their Manners that Gravity Purity Probity and Simplicity as is not to be found amongst the wisest of any other Sect as Origen tells Celsus lib. 7. cal 14. and evidently declare the Author of so pious and just a Religion to be the holy God to all who have not lost all sense It being impossible that an enemy to Mankind should promote the embracing of a Doctrine so beneficial either by revealing it or confirming its Authority by the Seal of Miracles Origen lib. 1. cont Celsum But the design of all Pagan Miracles was to bring into credit a Doctrine of another tendency to countenance such brutish Immortalities as Humane Nature under the greatest degree of Debauchery it can possibly degenerate into would certainly have abominated if they had not been commended to the VVorld by its Devil gods and urged upon men by lying VVonders Austin de Civit. l. 4. cap. 26. Gods Ape the old Serpent scarce ever counterfeited his hand more dexterously than in his practising upon T. Latinus in order to his sorcing him to acquaint the Senate that it was the Divine pleasure to have the Scenical Games renewed the story is mentioned by Cicero de divinat 1. out of Fabius Gellius and Caelius by Livy Val. Maximus Agellius and Macrobius viz. That the Games in the first Day of their Celebration being profaned by the execution of a Malefactor the Gods forsooth being displeased to have the delight they look in beholding those Games interrupted by so sad a Spectaticle this Titus was warn'd in his sleep to go and tell the Senate that they must begin anew their Celebration he not daring the day after to communicate this Dream as he was appointed is the next night more severely charged which he neglecting the performance of that day looseth his son by a suddain death and being the third night threatned with suffering a more grievous punishment in case he would not obey the Vision and still not daring to tell the Senate he himself fell into a sharp and horrible sickness and then by the advice of his friends carried in his bed to the Senate he acquaints them with the whole business upon which he is presently restored to health and walks home on foot as sound as a Roach the Senate astonisht with so great a Miracle forthwith decrees the instauration of the Sports Who in his right wits saith St. Austin may not here see persons in vassalage to malignant Daemons compel'd by force to exhibit to such Gods such things as in right Reason may be judged dishonest For in these Games which those Gods compell'd the Senate to restore are repeated those flagitious Crimes which the Poets father upon them such as the veriest Wretch would blush to have laid to his charge the Scenical Actors of those turpitudes of the Gods sparing neither filthy words nor actions Herod Commod upbraiding them with a strange kind of lasciviousness with the most foul and sordid Actions imaginable and by those upbraidings and representations insinuating to the World the laudableness of the most dishonest Vice as having the Gods for their Fautors and cancelling at once all the Precepts of the Moral Philosophers which if they had not been retunded by this basilick Argument by counter-ballancing their Reasons with Divine Authority might have bid fair for the civilizing of the World and the ridding it of Barbarism and Devillism Magis intuentur quid Jupiter fecerit quam quid docuerit Plato August dc civitat lib. 2. 7. Exemplo suo velut divinam authoritatem praebere sceleribus Austin de Civ 2 25. They designed hereby to give the face of Divine Authority to the most impious kind of Villanies To the no less impious though less frequent secular Games were the Romans invited by a like Satanical Sign and lying Wonder wrought upon the Children of Valesius Sabinus Vives in Aug. de civit 3. 18. who as he was offering Prayers and Vows for his three Children dangerously sick even unto Death heard a voice that assured him his Children should recover if he would carry them up Tyber at a full water vnto Tarentum and refresh them with what they desired warm water fetcht from the Altar of Father Dis and Proserpina Valesins thinking that the Oracle meant the City Tarentum though that was a great distance from his Habitation and had no passage to it by Tyber in obsequiousness to the Oracle Ships himself and his Children and Sailes as far as Campus Martius There to ease the tediousness of Navigation he brings his Children on shore and desirous to kindle a fire asketh the Pilot where he might fetch fire from Tarentum replies the Pilot a place hard by where you see the Shepherds fires shining he over-joy'd at the hearing of that name conceives that must be the Tarentum to which the Divine voice directed him commands the Vessel to stear thither and while he
hasts to the City to buy an Altar orders his men to dig a place where he might erect it they digging twenty foot deep find there an old Altar with this Inscription To Dis and Proserpina The Father returning from the City sacrificeth upon that Altar to those Infernal Deities and three nights together answering the number of his late sick but now recovered Children makes Funeral Banquets to the Gods with Songs and Dances With what strange obscenities those Games were celebrated is more obvious than that it needs be related It is sufficient to evince the Diabolicalness of those seeming Miracles and therefore only seeming that they manifestly tended towards the erecting of the Worship of infernal Fiends to the robbing the one Supreme God of that honour that 's his peculiar due and to the introducing of most barbarous Immoralities into the VVorld And therefore being Seals set to a Law directly thwarting that Law of God writ on the hearts of all men if they had more exactly counterfeited the Scal of Heaven than they did may easily be deprehended to be nothing else but feigned Miracles § 3. This should have at least awaken'd the VVorld to a more scrupulous inspection and prying into them and to have weighed them with those Selâ—s which were set to the contrary Doctrine In comparison with which they would have been found if not lighter than vanity yet at least wanting many grains weight of real Miracles that is productions by the God of Nature above the power of Nature and beside its ordinary Course I insert this last clause into the description of a Miracle to distinguish it from the Effects of ordinary Providence which though they proceed from infinite Power yet are not Miracles but issue from the natural order of Conversion Mutation and Mutability of Bodies The water saith St. Austin de Trinit lib. 3. is poured ordinarily upon the earth but when at the Prayer of Elias after so long a serenity when there was no appearance of a cloud it was made to fall this was the immediate effusion of Divine Power God ordinarily makes the voyce of his Thunder to be heard and sends out the Lightning from the bright Cloud but when on Mount Sinai after an unusual manner those thundering voyces were sent forth which did not make a confused din but articulately sounded forth the VVill of God this was miraculous who draws moisture by the root of the Vine to the Clusters and by degrees ripens the Grapes but God who giveth the increase while Man Plants and VVaters But when at our Lord's beck VVater was turn'd into VVine by an unusual celerity he must be a fool with a witness who denies that to be a witness of a divine Power in him who commanded and it was done Earth is the common Matter for the bringing forth and nourishing of all Plants and of all Bodies of Animals and who produceth these things from the Earth but he that said to the earth bring forth But when of a suddain he turn'd the same Matter out of Moses his Rod into a Serpent and back again out of that Serpent into a Rod immediately and in an instant he wrought a Miracle the things indeed were changable but this change of them was unusual Who but God cloaths the Shrubbs with Leaves and Blossoms But when the Rod of Aaron blossom'd the divinity did after a sort discourse with doubting Humanity Who is he that giveth life to every living thing that 's born but he that gave life to that Serpent of Aaron for an hour Who restored to Bodies when they were dead their Souls but he that animates flesh in the Mothers Womb which is born to die of the same common Matter which subsists in the Elements God produceth in time or ex tempore a Ram or a Dove who are of the same fleshy vigour at their coming in and going out of the World whether they were made in an instant or by degrees they are not of different constitutions only that which was produced ex tempore appeared after an unusual manner but when those Creatures are brought forth by a kind of continued Flux of sliding and remaining things passing out of secret into open light and out of light into obscurity in the usual road they are called natural which same Creatures when they are thrust in upon us for our admonition by an unusual mutability are called Wonders 2. And yet it is not every unusual Conflux of those primordial seminal Causes towards the production of a thing into being that makes a Miracle for as St. Austin observes upon the story of the Aegyptian Magicians Ex. 7. de Trin. 3. cap. 8. there are certain seminal Causes hid in corporeal things through all the Elements of the World which Daemons may pick out more easily than the cunningest Gold-finer can single parings of Gold out of heaps of Sand into one Mass and make up into strange Effects and of them produce new Species of things in a trice Omnis spiritus ales est momento ubique sunt volocitas divinitus creditus quia substantia ignoratur Terapol 22. But it is farther requisite as I have exprest in the first Clause of the Description that it be a production beside the Order of whole created Nature such as cannot be educ'd out of the active Powers implanted in the Elements nor their natural passive Powers whereby they are made receptible of any form by natural Motion Aquinas sum 1. quest 115. 2. Praeter virtutes activas naturales potentias passivas quae ordinantur ad hujusmodi virtutes activas But out of a bare obediential Possibility or Non-resistency of the Creature whereby it throws it self at Gods feet and becomes pliable in the hand of Omnipotencie to embrace any shape he is pleas'd to mould it into by an act of Power equivalent to that of creating and educing forms out of the first Abyss of inform Matter Alensis sum 2. quest 42. art 5. memb 5. ad opera miraculosa possibilitas tantùm secundùm obedientiam creaturae de quo Deus potest facere quod vult est possibilitas passiva Briefly and plainly proper Miracles exceed Nature in a threefold degree 1. As to the Substance of the Fact such are the Glorification of the Body the Retrogradation of the Sun c. 2. As to the Subject wherein it is wrought such are the restoring Life to the Dead giving Sight to the blind c. Nature can cause Life but not in a dead Body can give Sight but not to one that 's blind for there cannot be a natural recess from a total Privation to an Habit. 3. As to the Manner and Order of working such is the restoring of Lame the healing of Sick the multiplying of Bread Oyl c in an unusual course on a suddain without applying natural Causes c. To the first of these Degrees the Pagan VVorld never so much as pretended To the second none ever attain'd who pretended to act in